Chapters 7-12

The reading was about the birth of all the major religions durning the classical era. Muhammad was then introduced as the one who actually had a lot of influences with the Muslim religion. In Arabia Christianity and Judaism was what was being practiced. I personally have not looked into other religions, so chapter 7 gave me insight as to how similar Muslims, Jews and Christians had in common. Although Muslims read from the Quran, a lot of what Christians accustoms such as "following God", were alike. Although Allah is what Muslims pray to, it still is similar in the sense that he is a being who is idolized by cultures and societies. Because of Muhammad practices Islam became to spread rapidly through Arabia. I also learned surprisedly in India, the religion " was never able to claim more then 20-25% of the population"(318). As the Byzantine Empire weakened,it allowed places such as Anatolia to also adopt the customs of Islam. Because the people of Anatolia were already following Christianity, the transition to Islam was a lot easier then the transition for Arabia. The great thing about the Silk, Sea and Sand roads, was it allowed religions and cultures to able to learn and network with one another which led to better influences for the people of Africa, Arabia, China Central and Southeast Asia. I found that in Islam, they believed, "no person could stand between the believer and Allah"(324). Unlike Islam, in Christianity there are pastors, priest and missionaries. I found this to be very interesting because in a sense, its like Muslims only guide is the Quran.