Mohammedan World, The - Beginnings And Growth (1963)

it is morning in the ancient city of Baghdad above the city Rises the dome of a mosque from the mosque comes to Mohammad and call to prayer [Music] at the sound of the car muhammadans kneel to pray they are some of the million summons who live in many lands that form the world today that world includes countries that stretch from Morocco to Pakistan and Indonesia centers of this world are a group of ancient in famous cities here we'll find muhammadans in downtown Cairo amidst the traffic of busy streets in old Jerusalem are narrow historic byway in Damascus ancient capital of the world and in Istanbul and broad modern avenues will find muhammadans in Syria riding along ancient trails in Iraq harvesting grain in the field and in North Africa living in the deserts and all these people are of the same religious faith a faith that goes back 1,300 years to desert dwellers in Arabia the time is about 570 ad in the desert town of Mecca Muhammad was born and there he first preached tribes of desert nomads were among the first to accept Muhammad's teachings perhaps the simple life of the desert brothers with its code of honor and friendship helped the new religion to spread for the faith emphasized the spirit of kindness equality and brotherhood but it was also a fighting faith soon after Muhammad's death his followers conquered Arabia and then with fiery zeal carried the faith into lands beyond Arabia into Syria into Palestine Egypt Persia Spain and a portion of India by the year 750 a vast Empire had been created held together by a religious faith basis of the faith was the Quran a collection of muhammed sayings and teachings for more than 1300 years Muhammad's words have been taught from the Quran there is only one God Allah and Muhammad is His Prophet the idea of only one God was similar to the earlier Hebrew and Christian concept of God the new religion that Muhammad preached spread rapidly among the masses of the East and wherever it spread mosques were built as places of worship this one in Jerusalem is said to mark the place from which Muhammad ascended to heaven the sign of the Crescent is the symbol of the faith a faith which competed with the earlier faith of Christianity the symbol of the Cross and the symbol of a crescent collided wherever the two met in Palestine in Constantinople and in Spain in Spain the Muhammad in occupation centered in such cities as Seville Cordova and Granada these cities became centers of the or Moorish culture in Spain palaces such as the Alhambra in Granada our lasting examples of the Muslim way of life a graceful cultured way of living that influenced European civilization and eventually our own after the conquest of Spain or Hamilton's and Christians clashed in Palestine the Holy life from 1096 to 1291 military expeditions of Christians the Crusades went from Europe to the Holy Land the ancient city of Jerusalem to both Christians and Muhammadans was conquered and reconquered as the Moors fought to expel the into the faith based on Muhammad's words fight for others cause against those who fight you and so war was made as Crusaders and Moors joined in the struggle for the Near East Julie some armies have it establish themselves in the Holy Land there they built great feudal castles this one in Syria is one of the great landmarks of the Crusades in the Near East such strongholds were centers of European life in the Empire the cities of Damascus Mosul and Baghdad were the cultural centres of that Empire ancient Baghdad was the romantic city of the Arabian Nights the city from which according to the story Sinbad the sailor set out on his voyage of attention the story of Sinbad was among the romantic stories that have come to us from Mohammad in literature this literature was part of a Muslim culture which the Crusaders carried to Europe when they returned home we can still find Muhammad an influence in our language our word Damus comes from Damascus the city was this kind of cloth was made our word coffee is an Arabic word weight our name for this common spice our word muslin comes from 'soul the city once famous for its fine cotton cloth from Mosul Damascus and other cities came products for which the Muslim world was famous beautifully woven carpets were eagerly bought by the Western world famous - were Muhammad and weapons such as the keen swords of Damascus steel these products and others were carried by camels to lands reaching from Spain to India on their travels the Muhammadans also introduced many ideas of agriculture they planted date palms in Mediterranean country and that were among the fruits they introduced into Europe oranges and other citrus fruits were all produced other contributions of all habitant farmers included methods of irrigation many plant products and methods of farming and improved strains of livestock probably the Arabian horse is the most famous livestock contribution of the world a decorated saddle is an example of another kind of contribution the art of tooling leather toward leather and silver engraving are among the many decorative arts in which the Muhammadans excelled they developed abstract designs in which the words of the Quran are often included and the Quran themselves are often examples of decorative arts in making their books the Muslims used paper a contribution which they brought from China and passed on to the Western world from Hindu India Arab scholars borrowed concepts of mathematics including the idea of the zero we call our numerals Arabic numerals and our word algebra is an Arabic word in chemistry Arab scientists made many contributions and gave us such words as benzene alcohol and alkali these contributions and many more are part of the culture of the world in Constantinople that world development today in Istanbul as the city is now called we can still see something of a splendor of a world as in the past the city is still the bridge between Europe and Asia between the Western world and the world within the city is the palace where the Sultan's ruled for five century we can get some idea of the power and splendour of assault and rulers when we see the mosques they built Suleiman the Magnificent's who built this mosque ruled in the 15th century when the glory of the Muslim world was at its height Mogis tothis ophea historic landmark of to come it was later converted by them has greatly influenced the world in which we live [Music] [Music]