Chapter 8
Chapter 8 of 1001 Questions and Answers on General History. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. 1001 Questions and Answers on General History by Benjamin Hathaway Saracen Empire 1. What marked the seventh century? The rise of Muhammad and the spread of the Saracen Empire.
2. Who was Muhammad? An Arabian reformer who taught a new religion. 3. What was its substance? There is but one God, and Muhammad is his prophet. 4. What did he succeed in doing? He subdued the scattered tribes of Arabia, destroyed their idols, and united the people in a nation. 5. What were his successors called? The Caliphs. 6. What did they conquer? Jerusalem, Egypt, and Spain.
7. What was the extent of the Arab dominion a century after Muhammad's death? It extended from the Indus to the Pyrenees. No empire of antiquity had such an extent. 8. How was the empire divided? Between the Omaides, descendants of Omar, who reigned at Cordova, and the Abbasides, descendants of the prophet's uncle, who located their capital at Baghdad. 9. What caliph has come down to us in fiction? Harun al-Rashid, the hero of the Arabian knights. 10. What magnificent Moorish ruins are in Spain? The mosque of Cordova, and the palace of the Alhambra. 11. What do we know of the learning of the Arabs? One Europe was enveloped in ignorance. The Saracen Empire had colleges to which students resorted from all parts of the world. The Arabs pushed their experiments into almost every line of study.
12. How long did the Moorish kingdom last in Spain? Until the year of the discovery of America, when it was destroyed by Ferdinand and Isabella. 13. What European people are today Mohammedans? The Turks. 14. What is the sacred book of the Mohammedans? The Quran.
