1. Which of the following events took place during the
Umayyad caliphate?
a. Crusader conquest
of Jerusalem
b. Conquest of Spain
c. Establishment of
the Delhi sultanate
d. Foundation of
Baghdad
The answer is b. Muslims conquered Spain in the period
711–718, during the Umayyad caliphate.
2. Which of the following statements best describes Mecca in
the sixth century C.E.?
a. It was a
pilgrimage and trading center.
b. It was an
agricultural village.
c. It was a major
trade center, thanks to its position on a major long-distance trade route.
d. It was a small
kingdom.
The answer is a. Mecca was home to the Kaaba, Arabia’s most
important religious shrine; it attracted many pilgrims and the trade that came
with pilgrims.
3. Who was the founding prophet of Islam?
a. Ali
b. Abu Bakr
c. Abraham
d. Muhammad
The answer is d. Muhammad ibn Abdullah (570-632 C.E.) was
the founding prophet of Islam.
4. What does “Muslim” mean?
a. “Chosen people”
b. “One who submits”
c. “People of God”
d. “The godly”
The answer is b. Muslim literally means “one who submits,”
that is, to the will of God.
5. Which of the following is one of the five requirements
for Muslims known as the Pillars of Islam?
a. To fight for the
faith
b. To actively spread
the faith to others
c. To give to the
poor
d. To abstain from
eating meat
The answer is c. Support of the poor and needy is a
requirement of all Muslims and is one of the pillars of Islam.
6. What event marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar?
a. The emigration of
Muhammad and his followers to Medina
b. Muhammad’s first
sermon
c. Muhammad’s first
revelation
d. The death of
Muhammad and beginning of the caliphate
The answer is a. The 622 flight of Muhammad and his
followers to Medina, called the hijra, transformed the small Muslim community
and marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar.
7. In which of the following ways is Islam different from
Christianity?
a. It never developed
religious doctrines.
b. It is
monotheistic.
c. It did not
recognize the authority of a state.
d. It never developed
a professional clergy.
The answer is d. In strong contrast to Christianity, Islam
never developed a professional clergy with the role of mediating between God
and humankind.
8. This battle of the year 751 had lasting consequences
since it stopped China’s westward expansion.
a. Battle of Tours
b. Battle of Yarmuk
c. Battle of Talas
River
d. Battle of
Dorylaeum
The answer is c. In 751, the Muslims crushingly defeated a
Chinese army at Talus River, stopping China’s westward expansion and making the
conversion of Central Asia’s Turkic-speaking peoples possible.
9. What is the meaning of the word “umma”?
a. Struggle
b. Journey
c. A path to water
d. Community
The answer is d. The Muslim community, or umma, was first
formed when Muhammad and his early followers migrated to Medina.
10. What was the early attitude of Islam toward Jews and
Christians?
a. They recognized
both as “peoples of the book” and treated them honorably in return for a
special tax.
b. They recognized
Judaism as a parent religion, but saw Christianity as a threat because of the
nearby Byzantine Empire.
c. They recognized
the Christian roots of their own religion, but dismissed Judaism as archaic.
d. Believing their
religion to be superior, early Muslims tried to force their Jewish and
Christian subjects to convert to Islam.
The answer is a. Most early Muslims simply referred to
themselves as “believers” and did not distinguish between themselves, Jews, and
Christians, but the state required payment of a special tax since Jews and
Christians did not perform military service.
11. What is “social conversion”?
a. Adoption of the
language of a conquering people by its new subjects
b. Acceptance of
another religion as a move to another social group
c. Move from one
social class to another
d. Mass conversion of
a whole society thanks to a charismatic preacher
The answer is b. Social conversion is conversion to another
religion not because of deeply held conviction but because it is socially
expedient to do so; many subjects of the early Muslim Empire originally
converted in this way.
12. Which of the following encouraged many subjects of the
early Muslim Empire to convert to Islam?
a. Only Muslims were
allowed to own land.
b. Christian and
Jewish priests and teachers had fled, leaving their communities with no
religious instruction.
c. Conversion aided
social mobility.
d. Members of other
religions were persecuted.
The answer is c. Many people converted to Islam because they
wanted to hold government positions, and conversion aided their social
mobility.
13. The people of this country mostly converted to Islam in
the period 750–900, but without adopting Arabic language or culture.
a. Iraq
b. Afghanistan
c. Egypt
d. Persia
The answer is d. Most Persians adopted Islam, but retained
their language, Farsi, and Persian culture.
14. What is The Book of Kings?
a. A Persian epic
b. The chronicle of
the Islamic conquests
c. An Egyptian
classic
d. A great collection
of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry
The answer is a. The Persian author Ferdowsi completed his
enormous epic The Book of Kings (Shahnama) in 1010; it confirmed pre-Muslim
Persian identity.
15. What was the main source of administrative practices and
court practices in the Islamic world?
a. Arabic tradition
b. Persian tradition
c. Byzantine tradition
d. Turkish tradition
The answer is b. Administration and court practices are only
two of the areas of pervasive Persian influence on the Islamic world.
16. Who was Ali?
a. The first caliph
b. The founder of the
Abbasid caliphate
c. The first Sufi
d. Muhammad’s cousin
and the fourth caliph
The answer is d. Ali was Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law
and the fourth caliph. The Shia faction of Islam believes that only a
descendant of Ali can be the true caliph.
17. Which of the following was true of early Sunni Muslims?
a. They believed that
Muslims should serve only God, not a political leader.
b. They believed that
the only proper leader of the Muslim community was somebody related to the
prophet Muhammad.
c. They believed that
political leaders should be selected by the Islamic community.
d. They believed that
caliphs should be primarily religious, rather than political, leaders.
The answer is c. Sunni Muslims accepted the rule of the
caliphs as political leaders chosen by the Islamic community, unlike their Shia
adversaries.
18. A Shia religious authority, with religious authority to
interpret revelation and law infallibly, is known as
a. imam.
b. ulama.
c. caliph.
d. sharia.
The answer is a. Imams are the religious authorities of Shia
Islam, believed to hold special religious authority that allows them to
interpret both revelation and law infallibly.
19. This branch of Islam believes that its defeated leaders
are in hiding and will come back at some time in the future.
a. Sunni
b. Sufi
c. Nestorian
d. Shia
The answer is d. Shia Muslims, after losing a series of
rebellions, developed the belief that their leaders are not really dead but
only in hiding, from where they will return in the fullness of time.
20. This city became the capital of the new Abbasid
caliphate in the mid-eighth century.
a. Damascus
b. Baghdad
c. Mecca
d. Istanbul
The answer is b. The new Abbasid caliphate built Baghdad to
serve as their new capital.
21. What brought the Abbasid caliphate to an end?
a. Turkish conquest
b. Umayyad rebellion
and takeover
c. Mongol conquest
d. Division of the
caliphate into independent sultanates
The answer is c. The Mongols ended the Abbasid caliphate by
conquest in 1258, long after the caliphs had lost most real power.
22. A Muslim mystic is known as
a. an imam.
b. ulama.
c. a mullah.
d. a sufi.
The answer is d. Sufis are Muslim mystics; they renounced
the material world and sought direct experience of the divine through
meditation and other religious exercises.
23. Which of the following statements is true of women in
early Islam?
a. They were accepted
as equals before God, but faced increasing social restrictions over time.
b. Women were given
full equal rights to men in early Islam.
c. Islam from the
beginning took away rights that women had had in Arabic society.
d. Islam did not
affect the position of women in Arabic society.
The answer is a. Islam has always accepted women and men as
equal before God, and early Muslims gave considerable rights to women. But
contact with middle eastern cultures led to increasingly negative views of
women and social restrictions on them.
24. Which Islamic people established the Sultanate of Delhi
in 1206?
a. The Persians
b. The Arabs
c. The Turks
d. The Iraqis
The answer is c. Turkic-speaking peoples of Central Asia
began a series of conquests of parts of India in c. 1000; the most stable state
they created was the Sultanate of Delhi, founded in 1206.
25. Sufis played a major role in the conversion of which
Islamic land?
a. Iraq
b. Egypt
c. West Africa
d. India
The answer is d. Sufis were especially appealing to Indians,
because India had a long tradition of “god-filled men.”
26. Which of the following statements is true of Anatolia in
the period 1000–1500?
a. Most of the
population converted to Islam and adopted the Turkish language.
b. Most of the
population converted to Islam and adopted Arabic culture, including language.
c. Relatively little
of the native population converted despite centuries of Turkish rule.
d. Most of the
population converted to Islam but remained Greek in culture.
The answer is a. By 1500, the population of Anatolia was 90
percent Muslim and largely Turkic-speaking.
27. Which of the following statements is true of Anatolia
after the Turkish conquest?
a. Most of the
civilian population suffered relatively little harm and was able to spring back
quickly.
b. Turkish
authorities were careful to respect the rights and property of their Christian
subjects.
c. Turkish
authorities offered material rewards in return for conversion.
d. Turkish
authorities discouraged conversion, believing Islam to be the religion of their
own superior race.
The answer is c. The Turks of Anatolia strongly encouraged
conversion by welcoming converts and rewarding them.
28. Which of the following statements best describes the
spread of Islam in West Africa?
a. It was spread by
North African conquerors.
b. It was a voluntary
process, spread by merchants.
c. The king of Mali
converted and forced his subjects to do the same.
d. Wandering Sufis
spread Islam as missionaries.
The answer is b. Muslim merchants carried Islam with them to
West Africa, where it spread voluntarily.
29. What was al-Andalus?
a. Muslim-ruled Spain
b. Anatolia
c. Muslim-ruled North
Africa
d. Christian-ruled
northern Spain
The answer is a. Muslims conquered southern and central
Spain in the eighth century and called it al-Andalus, the “land of the
Vandals.”
30. What happened to the Muslims of Spain when the Christian
reconquest was completed in 1492?
a. They were accepted
as equal citizens in the new Spain of Ferdinand and Isabella.
b. They all went into
exile immediately.
c. They were granted
freedom of worship but had to suffer restrictions on the practice of their
faith, before being expelled in the early seventeenth century.
d. At first they
suffered legal disabilities, but in time they were accepted as full citizens of
Spain.
The answer is c. At first, the Spanish Muslims after 1492
were allowed to practice their faith, although they were not allowed to issue
the calls to prayer or to convert Christians; they were expelled in the early
seventeenth century.
Are there going to be more chapter practice questions like these? For the next remaining chapters?
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