Deck 10: Islamic Civilization and Byzantium, 600-1300 C.E

Question 1

In eighth-century Iran, local Persian military lords and Arab settlers revolted, expecting a "rightly guided" leader or _______ to arrive and establish a realm of justice on earth.

A) Imam
B) Mahdi
C) Hadith
D) Umma

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Turkish military slaves from the Russian steppes and dominant in the armies of Saladin´s successors, the ____________ established their own regime in agriculturally rich Egypt from 1250 to 1517.

A) Mongols
B) Ilkhanids
C) Seljuks
D) Mamluks

Answer 2

D

Question 3

_________ is a minority faith among Muslims, making up about 10% of the total, although they are in the majority in contemporary Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon.

A) Sunnism
B) Shiism
C) Sufism
D) Tariqism

Answer 3

B

Question 4

____________ is defined as the removal and destruction of all religious images from churches and monasteries.

A) Iconoclasm
B) Aniconism
C) Iconodulism
D) Iconolatry

Question 5

A system for collecting taxes and rents from the population in which the state grants the right of collection to private individuals is referred to as ____________.

A) carucage
B) taillage
C) tithing
D) tax farming

Question 6

Between 1096 and 1099, European Crusaders returned Nicaea to Byzantium and captured _________.

A) Aleppo
B) Jerusalem
C) Cairo
D) Baghdad

Question 7

After the __________ were pushed back to Iraq and Iran and converted to Islam, the Mamluks were able to terminate the Crusader Kingdom in 1291 with the conquest of Acre.

A) Seljuks
B) Marinids
C) Mongols
D) Fatimids

Question 8

Which of the following statements is false?

A) In the visual arts, Arabs and early Muslims continued to create paintings and sculptures in the hybrid style that had become common in the Mediterranean and Middle East during the 300s.
B) The Umayyad and early Abbasid caliphs loved frescoes with hunting, drinking, and dancing scenes.
C) Islamic law does not prohibit painting and sculpture, unlike Byzantine iconoclasm.
D) The rulers of Granada in the 1400s enjoyed scenes of courtly love in their royal chambers.

Question 9

The ___________ is the best preserved example of an Islamic palace in the world.

A) Topkapi Palace
B) Taj Mahal
C) Hagia Sophia
D) Alhambra

Question 10

The entirety of the Islamic moral and legal code, completed by the mid-900s, is known as the ________.

A) Quran
B) Sunna
C) Sharia
D) Hadith

Question 11

_______ is the paradigmatic "path" of Muhammad's traditions which, if trodden by believers, will lead to salvation.

A) Imam
B) Umma
C) Jihad
D) Sunna

Question 12

The Eastern Roman Empire would ultimately survive under the name of ____________.

A) Constantinople
B) Istanbul
C) Byzantium
D) Sigeion

Question 13

_________ is a mystical and meditative devotion to faith, expressed in the form of prayer, ecstasy, chanting, or dancing.

A) Ismailism
B) Alawism
C) Sufism
D) Ibadism

Question 14

The first signs of a religious orientation within the Arab Empire occurred during the reign of ___________, the third Umayyad ruler.

A) Muhammad al-Shaybani
B) Abd al-Malik
C) Muhammad II
D) Saladin

Question 15

Under siege by the _______________, the old Eastern Roman Empire had retreated to Anatolia and parts of the Balkans.

A) Berbers
B) Nasrids and Almohads
C) Almoravids
D) Umayyads and Abbasids

Question 16

_________ was the Kurdish-descended successor of the Fatimids in Egypt nearly ended the Crusader Kingdom in 1187.

A) Al-Aziz Tariq
B) Al-Afdal
C) Salah al-Din
D) Al-Malik Hattin

Question 17

Which of the following is not one of the five religious duties which identify a Muslim?

A) Profession of faith
B) Prayer
C) Repentance
D) Fasting

Question 18

Scholars surmise that the _____________________ set off the spread of the Black Death in the mid-fourteenth century.

A) Umayyad conquest of Iberia.
B) Mongol invasion of Vietnam
C) fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks
D) Muslim invasion of Egypt

Question 19

In contrast to western art, both Byzantine Christians and Muslims retained the ________ for rulers, even applying it to ordinary humans.

A) Crown
B) Scepter
C) Halo
D) Beard

Question 20

At the top of the Mamluk ruling class was the ______, who controlled the annual purchases of slaves and commanded the largest cavalry regiment

A) imam
B) mullah
C) sultan
D) raja

Question 21

To simplify the central administration of the Byzantine Empire, Heraclius replaced Latin with Greek as the language of the bureaucracy and the multiple Latin titles of the emperor with the single Greek title of "king" or _______.

A) Augustus
B) Basileus
C) Caesar
D) Imperator

Question 22

The founder of the western Christian Carolingian Empire, ___________, beat back Muslim forces at the Battle of Tours and Poitiers in 732/3.

A) Charlemagne
B) Clovis I
C) Charles Martel
D) Gregory of Tours

Question 23

Local Persian military lords and Arab settlers rose up against the Umayyads under the banner of a "rightly guided" leader (____, or Messiah) in 750.

A) Mahdi
B) Imam
C) Ulama
D) Caliph

Question 24

Parallel to the compilation of the Quran, traditions (______) about Muhammad's life were gathered and put into the form of encyclopedic collections as well as biographies.

A) Umma
B) Sharia
C) Dhimma
D) Ahadith

Question 25

The five-times daily prayer of Muslims requires all of the following except:

A) The performance of a sequence of bodily motions and prayers.
B) The performance of the Friday noon prayer in the congregational mosque.
C) The consumption of a communal meal.
D) The washing of hands and feet for ritual cleanliness.

Question 26

Alms-giving is a small donation or tax given to the poor, generally in the amount of ____ percent.

A) 10
B) 25
C) 2.5
D) 7.5

Question 27

A compromise between religion and state became codified in Abbasid society, with caliphs executing the laws and the ulama responsible for:

A) Leading soldiers into battle.
B) The implementation of Sharia in the judicial system.
C) Passing pieces of legislation that were passed to the Grand Mufti for review.
D) Managing protocol at the caliph's court.

Question 28

The tradition of Husayn's martyrdom near _______ in Iraq at the hands of the Sunni Umayyads is central for all Shiites and is commemorated during one of the months of the Muslim calendar.

A) Tikrit
B) Erbil
C) Falluja
D) Karbala

Question 29

Apart from the conquest of Byzantine Sicily by a dynasty in Tunisia, the only active jihad activities in the 10th century were the campaigns of the Turkish palace guards __________.

A) Against the Hindus in India
B) Against the Mamluks in Egypt
C) Against Byzantium
D) On the border with the Kievan Rus at Chechnya

Question 30

In the 7th and 8th centuries, provincial life in Anatolia became increasingly _________.

A) Poor for its Christian inhabitants.
B) Prosperous, given the importation of agricultural innovations from Umayyad Damascus.
C) Precarious, given the raiding parties of Byzantine "themes" or mercenary troops.
D) Pacified, with Muslim forces in retreat and consolidating their forces in Northwest Africa.

Question 31

Pressured by popular demand, the Byzantine emperor in 842, like the Abbasid caliph a few years later, ________.

A) Ordered the destruction of all graven images and human figures in houses of worship.
B) Pledged only to recruit soldiers that were adherents of other religions.
C) Resigned all of his titles and went into retirement.
D) Ended his control over religion and law in his domains.

Question 32

When Vladimir I converted to Christianity in 988, he received a Byzantine princess in marriage but was also asked to:

A) Contribute to an armed force that would attack the Catholic church in Rome in 1000.
B) Send an embassy to the king of Georgia to persuade him to convert to Christianity also.
C) Contribute 6000 Kievan troops against internal rebels in the Byzantine Empire.
D) Select a Russian to be appointed as the Patriarch of the Orthodox church in Constantinople.

Question 33

The Battle of Manzikert (1071) was:

A) A miserable failure for Byzantine forces, even though they were numerically superior to the Seljuks.
B) The Seljuks' final victory in Anatolia, and the Byzantines quickly recovered from the blow.
C) Considered unimportant in Western Europe and its legacy quickly forgotten.
D) The cause for the abandonment of the Crusader kingdoms in the Middle East.

Question 34

The Catholic Pope in Rome and the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated each other in _________.

A) 1204
B) 1054
C) 325
D) 1453

Question 35

A large civilian bureaucracy could be found in ________, composed of Muslim, Coptic Christian, and Jewish scribes and accountants, staffing the three main ministries.

A) Damascus
B) Baghdad
C) Constantinople
D) Cairo

Question 36

By 1200, Sunni authorities had:

A) Declared a jihad on Sufis.
B) Attempted to purge Sufism of the jahiliyyah elements contained within it.
C) Dissolved their theological schools in favor of Sufism.
D) Adapted Sufism to popular practice in the form of congregational brotherhoods in lodges.

Question 37

Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), a philosopher of history and a political theorist, _________.

A) Found philosophy and speculative theology incompatible with religion.
B) Made a public renunciation of Islam and converted to Judaism.
C) Considered philosophy the discipline of logical concepts and religion its equivalent in images.
D) Created the decimal system of "Arabic" numerals.

Question 38

Illustrations in the medical literature translated from Greek and Syriac into Arabic, dating to the 1110s, _________.

A) Never incorporate drawings of bodies, as a violation of the prohibition against "graven images".
B) Were based on dissection of cadavers made available by Umayyad caliphs.
C) Show great similarities with Byzantine icons.
D) Were submitted to imams for approval.

Question 39

The Academy of Florence (in Italy) invited Byzantine _________ scholars to help in the recovery of the texts of this philosopher.

A) Aristotle
B) Avicenna
C) Epicurus
D) Plato

Question 40

As a result of his bold stance against the Mongols, Ibn Taymiyya ______.

A) Was imprisoned by the Mamluks and died in jail.
B) Was named caliph in Cairo.
C) Converted the Mongol king Ghazan to Sufism.
D) Stayed in Mongol territory and taught Arabic literature and theology to its inhabitants.

Question 41

Heraclius (r. 610-641) was able to save the Roman Empire and beat back the Sasanids due to his:

A) Forced conversions of many inhabitants of the Levant to Christianity
B) Maneuvering Khosrow II onto the Sasanid throne
C) Incorporation of the stirrup in his cavalry units
D) Borrowing huge sums of money to fund an army

Question 42

A "Muslim" would come to be defined as a believer who _________ the will of God (Allah).

A) Submits to
B) Rebels against
C) Drinks in
D) Ascends to

Question 43

Abd al-Malik may have built the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem because he saw himself as the true "________" (Caliph) vis-à-vis the Byzantine basileus.

A) Angel of Allah
B) Warrior of Allah
C) Son of Allah
D) Representative of Allah

Question 44

Throughout the Muslim world, autonomous dynasties recognized the Abbasid caliphs in _______, but for all practical purposes they were independent.

A) Damascus
B) Baghdad
C) Medina
D) Jerusalem

Question 45

________ came to be identified as the paradigmatic "path" of Muhammad's traditions which, if trodden by believers, would lead to salvation.

A) Shia
B) Dhimma
C) Sunna
D) Haditha

Question 46

After overcoming armed resistance, Muhammad founded the "umma" (__________) of Muslims, who believed that in one God having Muhammad as his Prophet.

A) Community
B) Church
C) Empire
D) Nation-State

Question 47

The Arabic word ________ literally meant the "struggle for the path of God (fi sabil Allah)", and this could range from a personal struggle for faith to war in the name of Islam.

A) Mahdi
B) Amir
C) Jihad
D) Hijra

Question 48

The combined body of the legal verses of the Quran, the prophetic Sunna, and the legal commentaries of the 800s and 900s came to be called ___________.

A) Mihna
B) Sharia
C) Dar al-hikma
D) Madrasa

Question 49

Shiites are the minority of today's Muslims, comprising about 10 percent of the total population, but they make up the majority in contemporary _____, Iraq, and Lebanon.

A) Egypt
B) Afghanistan
C) Indonesia
D) Iran

Question 50

One of the most important religious disputes to wrack the Byzantine Empire was the iconoclasm controversy, which concerned:

A) The removal of all religious images from churches and monasteries
B) The demotion of the emperor from a semi-divine status to a human being
C) The precise nature of Jesus Christ
D) Whether the language of church administration would be Greek or Latin

Question 51

In 971 the Byzantines crushed the _________ and reintegrated their realm into the empire.

A) Venetians
B) Ottoman Turks
C) Bulgars
D) Abbasid caliphs

Question 52

In 988, Grand Prince __________ of Kiev (r. 980-1015) decreed the conversion of his subjects to Christianity.

A) Ivan IV
B) Mikhail II
C) Nicholas I
D) Vladimir I

Question 53

In 1055-1059, Seljuk rulers ended the Buwayhid regime in Baghdad and assumed power under the title "sultan" (from the Arabic for "______").

A) Power
B) Holy
C) Temporary
D) Intelligence

Question 54

When the young, energetic emperor Alexius I Comnenus sent an embassy to ________ in 1095, he found a sympathetic ear.

A) Constantinople
B) Paris
C) Antioch
D) Rome

Question 55

Saladin [Salah ad-Din], the _______ successor of the Fatimids in Egypt and Seljukids in Syria, nearly ended the crusader kingdom in 1187.

A) Turkish
B) Kurdish
C) Moroccan
D) Mamluk

Question 56

________ Islam, or Sufism, was an outgrowth of meditative thought and practices developed from the Christian, Zoroastrian, and Greek philosophical heritages interacting within the Muslim world.

A) Scientific
B) Literary
C) Mystical
D) Intellectual

Question 57

Among the surviving Arabic palaces, the best preserved is the Alhambra of __________ (ca. 1350-1450), with its exquisite honeycomb-style decorations.

A) Granada
B) Damascus
C) Cairo
D) Baghdad

Question 58

The most popular collection of short stories was the Maqamat, about an impersonator telling tall stories to gullible listeners, collecting money for his tales, and ________.

A) Living another night at the Sultan's pleasure.
B) Performing a Sufi dance to illustrate the concepts raised in the tales.
C) Taking down notes on those who did not laugh, in order to inform the Sultan.
D) Traveling from city to city in ever-new disguises.

Question 59

In contrast to western art, both Byzantine Christians and Muslims retained the ________ for rulers, even applying it to ordinary humans.

A) Crown
B) Scepter
C) Halo
D) Beard

Question 60

Among a group of delegates, only Ibn Taymiyya had the courage to stand before the _________ ruler and accuse him of being an infidel, lecturing him sternly on his Muslim duties of adherence to Islamic law and peace.

A) Byzantine
B) Mongol
C) Chinese
D) Mamluk