Kerala +2 Islamic History cheat sheet

Jahiliyya denotes the pre-Islamic era of ignorance; key features were tribal loyalty (asabiyya), polytheism at the Ka'ba, and raiding culture.

The Quraysh of Mecca controlled the Ka'ba pilgrimage trade; the Year of the Elephant (c. 570 CE) refers to Abraha's failed attack on Mecca.

Muhammad was born c. 570 CE, orphaned early, raised by his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib then uncle Abu Talib; married Khadija c. 595 CE.

First revelation c. 610 CE in the Cave of Hira; the Hijra to Medina occurred in 622 CE, the start of the Islamic calendar.

Hijra date 622 CE; Constitution of Medina established a pact among Muhajirun, Ansar, and Jewish tribes of Medina.

Key battles: Badr (624 CE), Uhud (625 CE), Khandaq/Trench (627 CE), conquest of Mecca (630 CE), Farewell Pilgrimage (632 CE).

The Prophet died in 632 CE at Medina; the Qur'an was revealed over roughly 23 years, and the Treaty of Hudaybiyya (628 CE) is a model of diplomacy.

Abu Bakr (632-634 CE): suppressed Ridda apostasy wars, ordered Qur'anic collection, initiated campaigns into Syria and Iraq.

Umar ibn al-Khattab (634-644 CE): conquests of Syria, Egypt, and Persia; established the Hijri calendar and the diwan (register of stipends).

Uthman ibn Affan (644-656 CE): standardized the Qur'anic codex (Uthmanic mushaf); faced opposition and was assassinated in 656 CE.

Ali ibn Abi Talib (656-661 CE): capital moved to Kufa; Battles of the Camel (656) and Siffin (657) against Mu'awiya; arbitration dispute led to Kharijite split.

The First Fitna (656-661 CE) ended with Hasan's abdication and Mu'awiya's founding of the Umayyad dynasty in 661 CE.

Conquest dynamics: Byzantine and Sasanian exhaustion, Arab tribal mobility, treaties (dhimma) with conquered peoples, and garrison cities (amsar) like Kufa and Basra.

Umayyad capital: Damascus; Mu'awiya I (661-680) founded the dynasty; Abd al-Malik (685-705) introduced Arabic coinage and administration.

Key Umayyad events: Battle of Karbala (680 CE), Second Fitna, conquest of Spain (711 CE), and the Berber revolt; dynasty fell in 750 CE.

Abbasid Revolution (750 CE) backed by Khurasani forces; capital Baghdad founded 762 CE by al-Mansur; the Barmakid vizierate rose and fell in 803 CE.

Abbasid high culture under Harun al-Rashid (786-809) and al-Ma'mun (813-833); the mihna (inquisition) over the createdness of the Qur'an occurred 833-848 CE.

Fragmentation: Tahirids, Samanids, Fatimids (909 CE), Buyids (945 CE), and Seljuks (1055 CE) reduced caliphal power; Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258 CE.

Abbasid administration used the diwan system, wazir (vizier), barid (postal-intelligence service), and a professional standing army of Turkish mamluks.

Four Sunni schools of law (madhahib): Hanafi (Abu Hanifa), Maliki (Malik ibn Anas), Shafi'i (al-Shafi'i), Hanbali (Ahmad ibn Hanbal).

Sources of law: Qur'an, Sunna, ijma (consensus), and qiyas (analogical reasoning); al-Shafi'i systematized this fourfold framework in the Risala.

Shi'i jurisprudence relies on the Qur'an, Sunna, reason (aql), and consensus, with authority vested in the Imams; Jafari school is the main Shi'i madhhab.

Theological schools: Mu'tazila (reason and five principles), Ash'ariyya (Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari), Maturidiyya, and Athari traditionalism.

Key debates: free will vs. predestination (qadar), createdness of the Qur'an, imamate, and the status of the grave sinner (Kharijite, Murji'ite positions).

Ijtihad (independent reasoning) vs. taqlid (imitation); the 'closure of the gates of ijtihad' thesis is contested by modern scholars.

Maqasid al-shari'a (objectives of law) elaborated by al-Ghazali and later al-Shatibi: religion, life, intellect, lineage, and property.

Bayt al-Hikma (House of Wisdom) in Baghdad under al-Ma'mun supported translation of Greek, Persian, and Indian works.

Translation movement (8th-10th c.) rendered Euclid, Ptolemy, Galen, and Aristotle into Arabic, often via Syriac intermediaries.

Notable scientists: al-Khwarizmi (algebra, algorithm), Ibn Sina (Canon of Medicine), Ibn al-Haytham (optics), al-Biruni (comparative Indology).

Institutions: mosque, madrasa (Nizamiyya of Baghdad, 1067 CE), waqf (endowment), bimaristan (hospital), and the hisba (market inspection) office.

Sufism developed as Islamic mysticism; al-Ghazali reconciled Sufism with Sunni orthodoxy in the Ihya Ulum al-Din.

Architecture markers: hypostyle mosques, minarets, muqarnas, and calligraphy as ornament; aniconism shaped decorative arts.

Arab traders brought Islam to the Malabar coast before large-scale conquest; Muhammad ibn Qasim conquered Sindh in 711-712 CE.

Ghaznavid raids under Mahmud of Ghazni (c. 1000 CE) and the Ghurid conquests (1192 CE) preceded the Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526 CE).

Delhi Sultanate dynasties in order: Mamluk (Slave), Khalji, Tughlaq, Sayyid, Lodi; the Sayyid and Lodi periods saw Timur's invasion (1398 CE).

Mughal Empire (1526-1857 CE): Babur at Panipat (1526); Akbar's sulh-i kul (universal tolerance) and Din-i Ilahi (1582); Aurangzeb's Fatawa-i Alamgiri.

Reform and revival: Shah Waliullah (d. 1762) advocated hadith study and reform; Sayyid Ahmad Barelwi and the Tariqa-i Muhammadiyya movement.

Modern movements: Aligarh Movement (Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, 1875), Deoband (1866), Nadwat al-Ulama (1894), Ahl-i Hadith, and Barelwi schools.

Malabar's Islam is traditionally traced to Malik ibn Dinar and the Qasi (Qadi) tradition, with the Juma Masjid at Kodungallur dated to the 7th century CE.

The Zamorin of Calicut and the Mappila (Moplah) Muslim community dominated Indian Ocean spice trade, especially pepper.

Arab and Persian merchants settled at ports like Calicut, Cochin, Quilon, and Cannanore; matrilineal inheritance (marumakkathayam) shaped Mappila family structure.

Mappila literature: Mappila Pattu (ballads), Arabi-Malayalam script and language, and scholars like Zainuddin Makhdum (Tuhfat al-Mujahidin).

The Portuguese arrival (1498, Vasco da Gama) and the Kunjali Marakkars' naval resistance marked the 16th-century conflict on the Malabar coast.

Mappila revolts (19th-20th c.) against landlords and British rule; the Malabar Rebellion of 1921 is a major historical episode.

Modern Kerala Muslim institutions: Samastha Kerala Jamiyyat al-Ulama (1926), Kerala Muslim Aikya Sangham, and the Mujahid (Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen) reform movement.

Wahhabiyya (Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, 18th c.) allied with the Saudi state; emphasizes tawhid and rejection of perceived bid'a.

Salafiyya movement (Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Muhammad Abduh, Rashid Rida) advocated reform through return to early Islamic sources and reason.

Modernism: Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan and the Aligarh Movement; Muhammad Iqbal's reconstruction of Islamic thought; Ali Shariati in Iran.

Political Islam: Hasan al-Banna and the Muslim Brotherhood (1928); Sayyid Qutb's writings; Mawdudi and the Jamaat-i Islami (1941).

Pan-Islamic and anti-colonial figures: Sultan Abdul Hamid II's pan-Islamism; the Khilafat Movement (1919-1924) in India.

Contemporary trends: Islamic feminism, neo-traditionalism, wasatiyya (moderation), and the impact of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the Gulf migration.

Primary sources: Qur'an, hadith collections, sira (Ibn Ishaq/Ibn Hisham), maghazi, tabaqat (Ibn Sa'd), and ta'rikh works (al-Tabari, al-Ya'qubi).

Hadith criticism (ilm al-rijal) evaluates chains (isnad) and texts (matn); Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim are the most authoritative Sunni collections.

Early Islamic historiography was oral and isnad-based; al-Tabari's History (Ta'rikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk) compiles multiple chains without full adjudication.

Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddima introduced asabiyya and cyclical dynastic theory, often called a precursor of sociology.

Source criticism must distinguish chronicle reports from documents, coins (numismatics), inscriptions, and archaeology.

Orientalist and revisionist scholarship (e.g., Wansbrough, Crone-Cook) challenged traditional narratives, prompting debate on source reliability.