CHAPTER 8:

THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD

SHTRAKHMANISM

You can use religion in almost any essay in AP.

-SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND CULTURAL

Religion has caused political, cultural, and economic problems and divisions, orstratification, for thousands of years (AP word: to stratify: to divide). In fact, Religion has started more wars than land, gold, and power combined.

At the same time, many of these religions and belief systems provided a bond among the people and an ethical code to live by. Some of the best sense of community comes from Churches, Temples, Mosques, Hindu temples or Buddhist meditation Centers. As new belief systems and cultural traditions started to emerge, and they all said that they are in possession of ‘universal truths’. Well, they can’t ALL be right, can they?!

In many cases, these religions just supported the old social systems, like PATRIARCHY, but in some cases, like Christianity and Buddhism, women were allowed to become nuns. Also, many people chose the monastic life and in the case of Buddhists and Catholics, celibacy as well. (Catholic priests can’t marry but some Christian ones can)

And in many cases, these religions CHANGED a bit when they got to a new place. Japanese Buddhism is different from Chinese Buddhism which is different from Indian Buddhism, Russian Christianity isn’t the same as Catholicism, and Islam in Asia or Indonesia is not the same as in Saudi Arabia.

We have a few old beliefs and a few new beliefs. In fact, some new beliefs were just extensions of or ran parallel to, the old codified, or written, core religions/beliefs. (AP word: codified: means ‘written down’)

And of course, many leaders said they were divine:

  1. The Pharaohs
  2. Mandate of Heaven in China
  3. The Brahmins in India
  4. Me

MISCELLANEOUS RELIGIONS

  1. ANIMISM:Believing that animals, plants, mountains and rivers are all sacred and full of spirits. In Japan, this is called Shintoism! In SHINTOISM, one of the most sacred landmarks is Mount Fuji in Tokyo.
  1. ZOROASTRIANISM:

-The world’s first state-run monotheistic religionwas started by the Persians.

-Remember, their god was Ahura Mazda (I drive a Honda)

  1. DAOISM OR TAOISM (CHINA) IN ADDITION TO CONFUCIANISM
  • Started by Lao Tzu in China
  • ‘Dao’ means energy. Also spelled ‘Tao’
  • Based on the core belief of a balance between humans and nature.
  • They seem separate but eventually Taoism and Confucianism will work together in Chinese cities and towns.
  • Daoism may have changed Chinese culture a little bit but it will NEVER change the Chinese political system. Chinese bureaucracy will ALWAYS be based on Confucianism and will ALWAYS remain centralized and highly bureaucratic, kind of like my classroom.
  • Based on the Yin and Yang

GREEK PHILOSOPHY

Don’t forget that Greek philosophy is based on reason, logic and empirical observation,not religion

PART 1: JUDAISM

READ THIS:

The association of monotheism with Judaism was further developedwith the codification of the Hebrew Scriptures, which also reflected theinfluence of Mesopotamian cultural and legal traditions. The Assyrian,Babylonian, and Roman empires conquered various Jewish states atdifferent points in time. These conquests contributed to the growth of Jewish diasporic communities around the Mediterranean and Middle East.

DID U UNDERSTAND IT? NOW READ MY TRANSLATION:

  • Judaism is the first MAJOR monotheistic religion (one God)
  • The language of the Jews is Hebrew. It is written from right to left just like theArabic language of the Middle East. In fact, Jews and Arabs are all cousins, basically. Actually, the Jews got their legal principle,“an eye for an eye” from the MesopotamianCode of Hammurabi of the Middle East region as well.

**And of course, Israel, the Jews’ original homeland, is in the Middle East as well.

  • Anyway, the most ancient Hebrew Scriptures, or books, are known as the Old Testament. The Bible is the New Testament cuz Jesus was Jewish.
  • First comes the codification (translation) of the ancient Hebrew scriptures, called the Torah, and then comes the Bible. Gotta translate it first!

**Did you know that an authentic Torah costs about $30,000 and is not allowed to touch the floor! Also, Saturday is the holy day, not Sunday, and in a Kosher Jewish diet you can’t eat pork or shellfish like lobster or shrimp (Yum!)

  • Unfortunately for Jewish women, girls are NOT allowed to touch or read the Torah!!!!!

Judaism’s treatment of women:

  1. Just like in Hinduism many Jewish marriages are arranged. The parents pick the girl and make sure that both the boy and the girl are Jewish. My friend’s mom made his girlfriend convert before she gave him ‘permission’ to marry her. I couldn’t believe it! He totally capitulated.
  1. Women ARE NOT allowed to read the Torah or be a Rabbi. In Catholicism women cannot be Priests or the Pope but in Christianity they can.
  1. Boys havea Bar Mitzvah and become a man at age 13. Girls have a Bat Mitzvah and become a woman at age 12.** Have any of YOU ever been to a Bar Mitzvah? (My Bar Mitzvah video you will NEVER see!)

***IMPORTANT AP STUFF*****

UNFORTUNATELY, THE JEWS WERE CONSTANTLY BEING THROWN TO THE WIND

  • First, in the Middle East, they were conquered by the Assyrians, and then by the Babylonians
  • Then, when they came back to Israel, the Roman Empire took over all of North Africa and the Middle East.

**Remember, the Roman Empire would let you practice whatever religion you wanted as long as you celebrated the Roman Gods on Roman holidays as well

***Eventually, however, the Jews got tired of praying to false Gods (Polytheism). When that happened, the Romans came in and crushed all of the Jewish temples. The Jews were then kicked out of Israel and they have been trying to get back ever since.

  • This is known as the Jewish DIASPORA!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • Diaspora means “spread around the world”, and “kicked out of your homeland”
  • That’s why my mom comes from Russia, my dad from Poland, my grandmother from Israel, and now we live in America!

RELIGION #2: CHRISTIANITY

-Based on the teachings and divinity of Jesus of Nazareth and his disciples

-Also based on Judaism (Jesus was a Jew!)and the Old Testament

-Also, the word ‘AMEN’ means ‘so be it’ in Hebrew.

-Christians rejected Greco-Roman influences cuzBOTH Greece and Rome were polytheistic .

-After Constantine,Christianity eventually spread throughout the whole Roman Empire

-First spread by missionaries like monks and nuns

A missionary is someone who walks around ‘spreading the word’ of Jesus. My friend was a missionary in Tijuana, and we have many students in Plantation High School who are missionaries during the summer.

A monk and a nun are obviously people who devote themselves completely to their religions.

-Christianity was then THEN SPREAD BY MERCHANTS AND BUSINESSMENTHROUGH ALL OF AFRO-EURASIA (AFRICA, EUROPE-AND ASIA)cuz, hey, you gotta make a living! (DON’T 4GET that these religions CHANGE a bit when they get somewhere new (like Latin America for example)

THINKING QUESTION: What do you think about the following quote from Jesus? “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to get into heaven.”______

JESUS’S DISCIPLES (FOLLOWERS)

-PAUL: THE FIRST CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY, SPREADING CHRIST’S TEACHING THROUGHOUT THE ROMAN EMPIRE

-PETER: THE 1ST POPE

-POPE JOHN PAUL II: THE POPE FROM POLAND in the 90’s, HE WAS JUST MADE A SAINT IN 2012.

-POPE FRANCIS: THE CURRENT POPE. HE IS FROM ARGENTINA AND IS A REALLY COOL DUDE

-THE VATICAN: HOME OF THE POPE, IT IS IN ROME BUT IS CONSIDERED THE SMALLEST INDEPENDENT COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.

RELIGION #3: HINDUISM

  • STARTED AS ANCIENT VEDIC RELIGIONS

Vedic was the first Indian religion. It is what the Brahmin priests at the top of the Indian caste system practiced.Vedic then turned into Hinduism after the year ‘0’.

  • WRITTEN IN SANSKRIT SCRIPTURES

Sanskrit is one of the oldest languages on Earth. All of Buddhism is written in Sanskrit as well. The word ‘YOGA’is Sanskrit for…..I’m not telling you!

  • CASTE SYSTEM: SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ROLES which we have already studied.

-Hinduism was part of this because in Hinduism they say it’s your ‘KARMA’to be born where you’re born

-Again, its rulers persistusing religion to justify their money and power.That is, Hindu Priests would say that you deserve to be born an ‘untouchable’ so don’t get upset or revolt.

HERE ARE THE MAIN GODS (BUT REALLY, THEY’RE ALL ONE, OR BRAHMA, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS……ENERGY1!!!!!!!!)

  1. BRAHMA-THE CREATOR
  2. SHIVA-THE DESTROYER
  3. VISHNU-THE PRESERVER
  4. KALI-THE GOD OF DEATH
  5. SHTRAKHMAN- GOD OF HOMEWORK AND COURAGE

These GODS kind of contributed to the Indian caste System in social and political terms by making believe it was your Karma to be born the way u were.

BY the way, every summer, from June to September, southern Indian towns get pummeled with torrential rains and winds known as THE MONSOONS. These rains sometimes bring 2-3 to 4 feet of water in just a month or so. Some people thought these rains were caused by the Gods, but now we know they are caused by Giants. (P.S. Don’t visit southern India in the summer)

RELIGION #4: BUDDHISM

New belief systems and cultural traditions emerged and spread, often asserting universal truths, like Buddhism. Buddha means ‘awake’ in Sanskrit!

  1. Enlightenment: When your mind and the universe become ONE. This is when you can get rid of both desire and suffering.
  2. The Buddha’s teachings are in books called THE SUTRAS.
  3. Again, comes out of India and Southwest Asia, and comes after the Vedic religions and Hinduism
  4. In fact, the Hindu priests were so rich and crooked that many people wanted to become Buddhist as a result.

(This is kind of like what happened with Jesus and the Jews. )

Here’s the story of the Buddha. You don’t need to know it for the AP test but I’ll explain it to you anyway.

The Buddha was actually a prince from India named Siddartha Gautama. The area where he was born is now the country of Nepal, not India. Even though he was a prince, Siddartha was very unhappy and left the palace, his wife and child, to meditate by himself in the forest for 6 years. When he came out his mind had reached Enlightenment, which means that he realized the true nature of the universe, which is that his mind and the universe were one. After that point, he is said to have reached nirvana, and started teaching to whoever decided to come by. His teachings are named the Sutras.BUDDHA MEANS ‘AWAKE’ IN SANSKRIT

  • Just like Christianity, Buddhism was first spread by monks, nuns and other missionaries.
  • Then, it was spread by merchants (businessmen) as well
  • Don’t 4get that Buddhism goes from India-China, China-Japan, Japan-Korea, Korea-Vietnam. Eventually, in the 20th century, it will even come to America.

**Remember, it will be King Asoka of India who spreads Buddhism into China. King Asoka would build little houses all over India and Asia for monks and nuns to sleep in.

RELIGION #5: ISLAM

AP DEFINITION OF ISLAM:

-Islam is based on the revelations of the prophet Muhammad, and developed in the Arabian Peninsula. (Saudi Arabia and Yemen)

-The beliefs and practices of Islam reflected interactions among Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians with the local Arabian peoples. (Muslims accept Jesus and Abraham as Prophets so Christians and Jews were part of the fun).

**Remember, any time you’re talking about the Middle East, you’re talking about Jews, Christians and Muslims.

-Muslim rule expanded to many parts of Afro-Eurasia due to military expansion (WAR!!!!!) and then Islam subsequently expanded through the activities of merchants and missionaries (juts like Christianity and Buddhism). So first comes war, then comes money, and then come the missionaries.

When we studied India we found that women are treated really badly in some parts of the country. Well, with Muslim countries we have the same thing.

WOMEN IN ISLAM:

  1. In the beginning, Islam liberated many women.

-It allowed women to own property and get divorces.

-It also banned female infanticide (which is: the killing of babies if they’re born as a girl. This still happens today. Can you think of why)

  1. Eventually, however, Islam became a very patriarchal religion

-In many places men were allowed to have 4 wives. I have only 3.

-Women started to have to wear veils covering their faces and bodies. This is a Middle Eastern tradition that Islam incorporated. The Koran, Old Testament and New Testament all basically say the same thing about clothes: You should dress modestly! What this means you have to determine for urself.

WOMEN IN ISLAM (SIMILAR TO INDIA AND CHINA IN BAD TREATMENT)

  1. Girls are sometimes sold at a very young age just like in India.
  2. In Afghanistan girls couldn’t go to school or learn how to read and write when the Taliban and Osama bin Laden were in charge.

3. In Saudi Arabia, women can’t drive.

- They also can’t leave the house without a male relative

- They also can’t vote!

4. In Yemen,just south of Saudi Arabia, a woman is only considered ½ a person in court or as a witness

  1. In some places in India and Pakistan, you need 4 witnesses to prove a rape! And in many of those places, the rape victim is shunned by her parents for bringing ‘dishonor’ down on the family. That means the victim is blamed!

ISLAMIC VOCABULARY TERMS

  1. MUHAMMAD: GOD’S #1 PROPHET. BORN IN 570 AND DIED IN 632
  2. ALLAH MEANS GOD

FUN FACT: MUHAMMAD IS THE MOST POPULAR NAME IN THE WORLD (150,000,000 boys…and one girl)

  1. MOSQUE:MUSLIM TEMPLE
  2. QUR’AN (KORAN): ISLAM’S HOLY BOOK
  3. MECCA: BIRTHPLACE OF MUHAMMAD IN THE ARABIAN PENINSULA: MODERN DAY SAUDI ARABIA. SAUDI ARABIA IS MOSTLY DESERT AND WAS ALWAYS FILLED WITH CAMELS USING NOMADS

** One of the BIGGEST problems that Muslims face is the fight between Sunni and Shia Muslims.

SHIA MUSLIMS: “THE PARTY OF ALI”

  1. BELIEVE RULERS HAVE TO BE BLOOD RELATIVES OF MUHAMMAD OR HIS COUSIN ALI.

SUNNI MUSLIMS: BELIEVE THAT REGULAR PEOPLE CAN BE RULERS (CALIPHS).

  1. ALI: MUHAMMAD’S COUSIN.
  2. KHADIJA: MUHAMMAD’S WIFE
  3. AISHA :MUHAMMAD’S 2ND WIFE (either 9 or 11 years old depending upon the translation) Don’t 4get that in India in 2016, 50% of ALL marriages have Child Brides.
  4. ABU BAKR:AISHA’S DAD AND THE FIRST CALIPH (THE FIRST RULER AFTER MUHAMMAD DIED)

When Muhammad died, in the 7th century, he made his cousin Ali the next dude in charge. 4 years later, however, someone assassinated him, and Abu Bakr (the father-in-law) took over.

Shia’s believe that ONLYblood relatives of Mohammad, like Ali, can be kings. Shia is known as “the party of Ali”.

Sunnis believe that anyone can be ruler as long as they are chosen. They don’t have to be related.

MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES THAT ARE EITHER SUNNI OR SHIA

SHIASUNNI

IRANSAUDI ARABIA

IRAQPAKISTAN

AFGHANISTAN

TURKEY

ISLAM PART 2: ISLAMIC EMPIRES

(700-1200)

LOOK AT HOW BIG THE ISLAMIC EMPIRES WERE:

TURKEY

THE MIDDLE EAST

CENTRAL ASIA

NORTHERN INDIA

EGYPT

NORTH AFRICA

THE SAHARAD DESERT

EAST AFRICA (ETHIOPIA)

EVEN ½ OF SPAIN.

ISLAMIC EMPIRE #1: UMAYYAD CALIPHATE (BAGHDAD, IRAQ) 660-750

ISLAMIC EMPIRE #2: ABBASSID CALIPHATE (DAMSCAS, SYRIA) 750-1250 [DESTROYED BY THE NOMAD MONGOLS]

THE ISLAMIC EMPIRES WERE CALLED THE CALIPHATES. ‘CALIPH’ MEANS ‘RULER’ IN ARABIC. SHTRAKHMAN MEANS ‘THE STUPENDOUS ONE’ IN HEBREW.

SLAVERY

  • Slavery was ok, but not people of the book (Muslims, Jews, Christians or Zoroastrians)
  • Prisoners of war were could become slaves too but if they became Muslim they were usually freed. Guess what? They became Muslim!!!!!!!!! Duh! Wouldn’t you

ISLAMIC ART

  • It is illegal to show either Muhammad or Allah in Islamic art. Therefore, all of the art in Muslim countries is colorful and geometric. Look a few pieces up before class.
  • Also, Islamic architecture is very distinct. So are Islamic mosques. Very beautiful and ornate. Look them up as well.This way, if u see a picture of one on the ap test, you’ll be able to recognize it immediately.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM.

Ok, one of the keys to running an empire is giving everyone RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. If you don’t do this, you die. The Roman Empire didn’t give religious freedom to Jews or Christians and looked at what happened to them.

Well, the Islamic Caliphates kind of gave everyone religious freedom, and kind of didn’t. Let’s look at how

  1. If you were Jewish or Christian (monotheistic), they left you alone. If not, you could be made into a slave.
  2. Also, if you weren’t Muslim they gave your job to someone else and you could never get rich.
  3. They also taxed you pretty heavily if you weren’t Islamic.
  4. Guess what! A lot of people CONVERTED to Islam

All you had to say was