Key Terms
- Abrahamic faiths
- the religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which all trace their origins through a common ancestor, the prophet Abraham
- caliph
- an Islamic title designating a spiritual and secular leader
- caliphate
- an area under the control of a Muslim ruler called a caliph
- hadith
- the words and actions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his immediate successors that, along with the Quran, form the fundamental basis for Islamic law
- hajj
- the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca
- hijra
- an Arabic term meaning “emigration” that describes a defining moment for early Muslims as they fled Mecca for Medina in 622 CE
- imam
- the religious leader of Shia Muslims
- Islamization
- the religious and cultural conversion of those living under Islamic rule
- mawali
- non-Arab converts to Islam in the early Islamic period who had to be adopted by an Arab tribe as part of the conversion process
- Quran
- the holy scripture of Islam, which Muslims believe was given to humanity by God through Muhammad
- Rashidun
- a term meaning “rightly guided” that describes the first four caliphs after Muhammad’s death: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali
- Shia
- one of the two umbrella sects of Islam, whose members believe leadership of the Muslim community should reside in the family of Muhammad only through his son-in-law Ali
- Sunni
- the larger of the two umbrella sects of Islam, whose adherents did not require leadership of the community to come specifically from the descendants of Muhammad through Ali
- ulama
- a class of religious clerics and scholars who act as the primary interpreters of Islamic law
- ummah
- the community of Muslims