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Powerpoint presentation
Islamic Sacred Writings, including the Qur’an, the Hadith, and a number of Sufi texts
Martin Lings’s Muhammad is a biography based on the earliest available Islamic sources. Many recent studies of Muhammad from widely different points of view are in print. Karen Armstrong’s Muhammad is sympathetic toward Islam’s founder; Srdja Trifkovic’s Sword of the Prophet is much more critical.
Objective histories of Islam are difficult to come by (as are histories of Christianity). Karen Armstrong’s Islam: A Short History presents a favorable treatment, whereas Robert Spencer’s Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) is hostile.

Early Islam – Quiz

After generations of dramatic conquests, Muslim expansion was checked in the East at _________ in 718 and in the West at _________ in 732.
Arabs won a major victory over Byzantine forces at the Battle of ________ in 636.
Following the death of Ali in 661, the Islamic world split into _________ and ________ factions.
Identify the Five Pillars of Islam.
Muhammad saw himself as the last in a line of prophets which included __________ and __________.
Muhammad’s flight from Mecca to Medina in 622 is known as the _________.
Muhammad’s teachings are collectively known as the _________.
True/False: Before Muhammad’s lifetime, Arabs were a polytheistic people.

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