Chapter 11-13

Chapter 11-13:

I find it interesting that Muhammad, who was frustrated with the current religious problems and religions, spent some time in the hills and miraculously heard the words of Allah... It raises a few questions in my mind. The World of Islam grew rapidly and still occupies a very large area. I enjoyed reading about the Sufi’s who did not believe in warfare but rather represented Islam’s mystical dimension. It’s amazing how Anatolia eventually offered converts material rewards and opportunities in the public office but the exact opposite eventually happened in Spain. What I do like about Islam is that they believe no person can be between a believer and Allah and this is a massive improvement on the Catholic system.

The nomadic tribes such as the Mongols seemed to treat the women with much more respect and were often involved as political advisors. This was very different to the Chinese or Muslim people. I found it quite entertaining that Khan’s soul stayed around for 700 years after his death as the soul exists for as long as the banner is attached to the end of a spear at the grave site. They definitely did master the environments that were thought to be unsuitable for agriculture. I liked the fact that the new lands that the Mongols had conquered, they didn’t enforce any specific religion of their own on the people and the people were able to maintain whatever they believed in.

The Mongols must have been quite intelligent as the different encounters show with the Chinese, Russians and Persians. They fulfilled very different roles in each.

The hunting and gathering, herding and agricultural village societies stuck around for a really long time especially in America, Australia and Africa. Many of these groups were actually still prominent in the 1800’s.