HST 372 Spring 2005
Exam/Essay #1
Due in class [or before via email] Tuesday March 1
Answer 2 of the following:
  1. What, in early Islamic society - Umayyads or Muhammad's Medina/Mecca - was influenced by or came from Rome/Byzantium and/or Persia?
  2. Discuss some topic/issue across at least 3 of the following:  Rome in the East, Persia, Muhammad's Medina, Ummayad State [for example, position of Jews and Christians, the military system, legal system, urban life, etc.].
  3. What were the major issues confronting the early Muslim community which resulted in one of the three early civil wars [fitnas] - i.e. Mu'awiya vs. the family of Ali, the Sufyanids vs. the Marwanids, the Umayyads vs. the Abbasid partisans.
  4. What are the major problems that modern historians face in trying to reconstruct the life of Muhammad and his legacies?