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Golden Age Of Islam

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Anywhere you went in the Islamic World during the Golden Age of Islam, you would always feel the cosmopolitanism of the people and rulers. The Golden Age of Islam began in 750 as Islam spread throughout the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere. Islam is a monotheistic Abrahamic religion, meaning the religion believed in one God and those who believed in Islam were part of Abraham's family. The religion revolves around the teachings of Muhammad, who was the founder of Islam. The land which the Muslims controlled during the Golden Age of Islam was called the Dar al'Islam, which is Arabic for the "Islamic World". During the Golden Age there was a great increase in economic prosperity and great religious, literary and scientific development in the …show more content…
In the Islamic World, Jews and Christians governed themselves in matters of family law and religious practices (6,29). They could participate freely in economic, literary and official life in Al-Andalus, or Muslim Spain, and collected special tax for the Muslim authorities (6,29). However, while people enjoyed religious freedom, Islam still played a significant role in influencing the way people lived in Dar al'Islam. In many Muslim cities, mosques were built where people would gather to pray (6,7). Major cities also had shrines such as the Ka'aba in Mecca, the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, Abraham's Tomb in Hebron, the Tomb of Muhammad in Medina and the Tomb of Ali in Iraq (6,7). In the city, other religious and public buildings would stand nearby, such as courts, hostels for travelers and pilgrims and hospitals for the sick (6,7). This shows how much Islam influenced the lifestyle of these people. However, Islam did not cover up the local culture of the cities. For example, the Great Mosque of Cordoba in Spain (6,22) has many aspects common to the western world, whereas the Mosque of Ibn Tulun in Cairo (6,16) has more Middle Eastern characteristics. This shows that while they were places of Muslim prayer, the Islamic people were still willing to let people from each region incorporate elements of their local …show more content…
For example, Sini, or Muslim Chinese, calligraphy consisted of writings of the Islamic texts, but the texts were written with a horsehair brush and resembles Chinese calligraphy (5,16). Another example of this is a composite tile from Turkey. The tile has a sphinx in the middle, which does not conform with the standard tradition of Muslim artists not depicting animals and people in art (5,21). This shows that the Islamic people were cosmopolitan as they were willing to let people express Islamic art in the way they would like to by incorporating local artistic

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