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Chapter 9

The beginning of this chapter was really interesting because learning about Hassan and how he was Christian and Muslim that was very interesting to me, I had no idea you could do that. One of the most interesting things about his chapter was how the religion was started. It not only was the religion it was an empire at the same time. Unlike other religions they had the man power to go to war with other regions. They grew simultaneously as a religion and as an empire. It was the largest and most influential third wave civilization. Islamic civilization challenged and provoked Christendom, transformed by African cultures, and took root in India, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia. The spread continued to the modern era by 2013 1.6 billion people followed it which was 23% of the population. Now if that doesn't tell you something I do not know what will..

Another thing that was intriguing was how it changed how the people lived. they went rom being nomadic Arabs (Bedouins)  to a settled civilization. The Bedouins lived in independent clans which had a lot of conflict which each other with led to bloody feuds. Muhammad was from the Quraysh family had a powerful, overwhelming religious experience that left him convinced he was Allahs messenger to the Arabs. He wrote the Quran for 25 years which to this day is what muslims regard as the very words of God and the core of their faith. The Quran denounced the the prevailing social practices of an increasingly prosperous Mecca: the hoarding of wealth, the exploatations of the the poor, corrupt business, the abuse of women, and the neglect of widows and orphans. At first he only had a small following but once his message got to his own tribe the Quraysh they condemned him and said he was disloyal. So Muhammad went to the Town of Yathrib which no became the center of this new religion and civilization.

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