Term Papers on ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION

Term Paper Title	ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION
# of Words	4973
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	19.89

ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION

To Understand the events that led to the birth and rise of what became an Empire in a very short time, it is necessary to understand the events that preceded the period of the “prophet”.

The people of what would have become the Islamic world can be divided into  four linguistic families that derive from a common source.

These four families can be classified as :

            1-Semitic

            2-Hamitic

            3-Indo European

            4-Altaic

The first two, Semitic and Hamitic derive from the so called Afro-asiatic.; This form derived form Northwestern Africa, utilized approx. 8,000 years ago. Subsequently divided into the two above: Hamitic, which became spoken in north Africa and assumed the characteristics of the known Coptic language. The second, Semitic[1] was and is spoken in Arabia and Persia.

            Three surviving semitic languages are::

                                                                        -Hebrew

                                                                        -Arab

                                                                        -Aramaic.

The earliest Semitic speakers appeared in Mesopotamia around 3,000-2,000 B.C. These speakers were the Sumerian civilization, or better said  the one’s that started everything in regards to writing, art forms, city states, etc…

The Sumerians we’re taken over by the Akkadians. The Akkadians adopted the Sumeric writing system. The Akkadian Empire was destroyed by Alexander the Great in 330 BC. This was then followed by waves of other semitic invaders.

            The centers for the other semitic languages were: Syria, Phoenicia, Israel, Palestine, parts of Asia Minor and Jordan. These modern day countries are part of the Canaanite sub-grouping. Closely related to these languages is Aramaic, which is still spoken today in some minorities.

Other languages that derived from this group are North Arabic and South Arabic.  N. Arabic  is today’s classical Arabic.  S. Arabic  was spoken in Yemen and survives today only in a couple of Dialects even though it had produced a large literature that unfortunately hasn’t survived except for on some writings or monuments. Also Ethiopian is related to S. Arabic.

            The Semitic Languages have produced a number of common origins. All the people of the areas described above adopted a common language form in order to communicate. Prior to Arabic, which became the common language of these areas in the Middle Ages, the spoken tongue was Aramaic.

            .  The languages deriving from Indo-European which expanded over a greater stretch of land thanks to the populations of the “Horse Culture” can be divided into more groups: Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, Albanian, Greek, Iranian and Old Persian which was the the one official language of the Akkadian Empire. After the conquest of Alexander the Great Old Persian became Middle Persian.

            Middle Persian was the official language of the Great Sasanid Empire until the year 651, year in which the Arabs conquered the Empire.

            The last Group of languages falls under the category of the Altaic[2] languages:

-Turkik

-Mongol

-Manchu Tungu

-Korean

-Japanese

Arabia:  Was very distant from Mesopotamia which was the center of civilization and culture in ancient times. At these times it must be remembered that people moved as fast as their feet, a horse or camel could take them. This is to say that there was very little contact between Arabia and Mesopotamia.

            On the eve of the rise of Islam there were two super powers: The Sasans, and the Byzantines which were the remnant of the great Roman Empire. The Arabs would conquer much of what was the Byzantine Empire; they would completely absorb the Sasanide Empire.

The Sasans were the  major power to the east on the rise of the Muslim Empire.

Who were the Sasans?:

Th...

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