| 1. Why did Islam spread so easily through the Middle East? | |
| What were the major tenets of Islam? | |
| Why was the faith so readily accepted by the peoples living in Mecca and Medina? |
| 2. The Umayyads played a major role in the expansion of Islam. | |
| What did they accomplish? | |
| Why were they so important for the spread of the Islamic faith? | |
3. The Golden Age of Islam, during the reign of the Abbasids, was one of the greatest periods of creativity and discovery in all of Islamic history. |
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What were the major accomplishments of the Golden Age |
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| How did the Abbasids contribute to the glory of the time? | |
| 4. The rise and spread of the Mongols was devastating to the Middle East and Europe. | |
| What impact did the Mongols have? | |
| Why were they an important element in the development of the Middle East? | |
5. Authority in the Islamic World |
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| What were the origins of authority for the Islamic world? |
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| How did the various elements of authority (the Qur’an, the shari’a, caliphs, sultans, etc) work with each other? | |