Islam: Empire of Faith
What is Islam? Who is Muhammad? This is the first of 3 part documentary narrated by Ben Kingsley about Islam and attempts to answer these questions. This part deals with the life of the Prophet Muhammad, his early life, his encounter with God Almighty and the birth of the Islam.
Islam would become the revitalizing force of a barbaric Arabia, returning people to God and bringing back the monotheistic message of Christianity and Judaism in its most powerful way. Islam Women were given rights over there husbands, racism was annihilated and the rich were made equal to the poor.
Part 1
This part relates the golden age of Islam. A time of great learning when Europe was steeped in the Dark Ages. The building of great works of architecture, reading, writing, mathematics, medicine, and astronomy. Even before the printing press Muslims would have hundreds of scribes writing all at once so they would learn and reproduce the writings.
Part 2
This portion deals with the growing Ottoman Empire, which would control the bridge between 3 continents: Africa, Europe and Asia. This empire would begin at the close of the Crusades until World War I, from the 1300s to 1923. They would rule the entire Middle East and make there way into Europe. Before there was the state of Israel, there was great peace in the Holy Land regulated by the Ottomans.
Part 3
Prince Charles, Heir to the British Monarchy in a recent public speech at Oxford University stated:
“If there is much misunderstanding in the West about the nature of Islam, there is also much ignorance about the debt our own culture and civilisation owe to the Islamic world. It is a failure, which stems, I think, from the straight-jacket of history, which we have inherited. The medieval Islamic world, from central Asia to the shores of the Atlantic, was a world where scholars and men of learning flourished. But because we have tended to see Islam as the enemy of the West, as an alien culture, society, and system of belief, we have tended to ignore or erase its great relevance to our own history.”
Mohammed, peace be upon him, is mercy from Allah.
enlightening…makes me wonder History as we have read is so biased…middle ages were thought to us as the darkness through out the world…history is so powerful…6th century Arabia to the Ottoman Empire is certainly not the dark ages…its the foundation of the modern history or may we say the European History.
hmmmmm its sad that the Europe continued to the modern history, but the country’s that Islam originated from went backward in history……. its is a big wonder. please who care about who did what, just look at today’s reality and judge for your self! The Islamic world is crushing on its self! because there is no place for reform in it. it is stick in the pass. Why there are no refugees in Islamic world?????
Does having refugees mean that you are a modern country??? History is as important as the present, because lessons are learned from history and not present. I am a muslime and I sadly disagree with you that the Islamic word isn’t as powerful as it used to be. That is all the cause that the leaders of the Islamic world aren’t working based on the Kur’an.
Right…we owe it all to the Islam.
While it is true that there was and exchange of Knowlege (which, by the way, means they got things from us to…), the actual amount of Knowlege is not that great, nor did it have great significance for Europe.
What really influenced Europe ,in regards to the Ottoman Empire, was their striving for dominence, their conquests. In other words: War.
Well thank you so much for all that war Islam. Thank you so much for conquering formerly christian Nations and turning them into partialy islamic countries. And an special thank you for the violence in those countries between the different religious groups now present in those countries.
Oh yeah, it’s sooo nice to have Islam as a neighbour.
btw. Nowadays it’s very disputet if the “Dark Ages” where really that dark in Europe, we just assumed that because we don’t have that much writing from that time. ;)
Oh and don’t lecture me that i’m so ignorant and how i should read the koran. I don’t judge people by their religious books but by their actions. And sadly those speak a very clear language in the case of most religions.
why they not include history of old innocent woman named umm qirfa
http://www.wikiislam.com/wiki/The_Story_of_Umm_Qirfa
until i read this story i cant imagine it , she just an old woman , why she must died like that
all that the documentary meant is that this part of the history is never told…or is conveniently forgotten or erased…today history that is easily available is the western history written by them, i was flabbergasted to know the glory of the islamic world, even muslim names in the western history(science) are westernised so that we dont get to know that they were muslims. it looks like a conspiracy, a propaganda and it has worked coz there are many muslims who are absolutely unaware of their powerful past…
as far as wars are considered, dont forget the Crusades started much before the Jihads,which makes it a counter war or a war in defence, legitimate even by the Geneva convention;0
also i think all these debates are meaningless that which religion led to how many wars, i think war is natural to man, it is the role of the religion to bring peace and thats exactly what judaism, christianity and islam are here for…so much so that islam actually means peace…and if you believe in reforms than please pick the most reformed religion and that is undoubtedly islam, the last and final.
i have no intention to hurt or offend anyone but one should never hesitate to speak the truth
jazakAllah
Though many of the historical facts are quite adequately portrayed,some inadequacies have somehow found their way to the text.In the conquest of Mecca,to cite but one example,not one single drop of blood was shed(the Koran:48/24).The text and the accompanying comments lead to believe that it was a bloody encounter.
@Somethin
Conquest, dominence, war?
Have you even watch the documentary? If so, did you understand something? By saying conquering the christian nations you mean more like that muslim nations are the one who brough war to christians when they was having wars for power among themselves? I mean, come on, if it really was religion maters for the christians they would have united themselves as the muslims did and defended themselves for that part. If you have noticed too, its not like the muslims was trying to conquer the world for dominence and power but to have a one big nation of muslims. If you just focused more on the good side of what muslims would you have noticed
that they even build a moske and a church in a same building in SPAIN (which was christian country in the first place) and didnt even have the whole civilation put slavery or unjustice, but no, they learned them knowledge, build up the cities more beutiful and toke care of it like it was one of their own countries.
By the way, its very awefull to judge a whole religion by propaganda and media view when you have no idea how actually on how the religion really works.
I live in europe and I have everything here (Im very greatefull), more than I would have in my country (Palestine/ or what you call Israel today) but I would never hesistate to move over there (If I get a chance) since the people and their style of living is more living in those dead countries (no offend, just a judgement from a young man who’ve lived on both sides of the world).
Im sorry if I offended you somehow, I just didnt like the way you talked about a religion you seem dont have a clue about.
I really enjoyed it, the western media makes Muslims look like a bunch of barbarians. I loved the videos
@puppetandmuppets
Here, I found you a explanation of lies you spread to others: http://bit.ly/9R2Uf0
Dont be overly concerned with the relationship between Islam and Christianity when discussing conflicts between the middle east and the western world. Both holy books (The Koran and The Bible) are equally atrocious when taken literally. The problem is that currently one of the books is taken literally while the other isnt.
Both sides have been instigators in past conflicts and religion has always been the excuse. But if you look at any conflict you can always find the true political reason for it.
@ Somethin
No one is saying europe owes it all to Islam but they definitely owe a great deal.
Your assumption that the dark ages weren’t really that dark because there wasn’t a lot of writing is completely ludicrous. Essentially, you’re saying that there was never a dark age BECAUSE 95% of the population was completely illiterate and the 5% who were literate devoted all of their academic efforts to nothing but religious writing. But I guess in your infinitely more cultured euro-centric world mass illiteracy = cultural flourishing?
Anyhow, look at the history of muslim spain. The muslims came in and conquered; this is true. But they made Jews and Christians pay a tax because they weren’t Muslims. I’d say that’s infinitely more liberal than re conquering spain and killing or forcing conversion or forcing the exodus of anyone who isn’t Christian. Oh and those who did convert? Well it was OBVIOUS they were infidels at heart so they had to be hounded by the Inquisition for the rest of their natural lives…pretty peaceful.
However, as I’ve said before religious history and the history of religious violence is all a you killed my brother so I’m gonna kill your father and now you’ll kill my sister and on and on and on. Give it up. I just had to knock you off your pompous *** high horse in making my point about christian vs. muslim spain.
I am a secular humanist.
I view all religion as mental illness.
What has been accomplished by 5 billion prayers a day?
My answer is absolutly nothing!
Unless of course all 5 billion prayers are for starvation, pestilence, famine, drough, floods, earthquakes, death and distruction in which case prayer works 100%.