Guided Reading for The Western Traditions.
Find the answer to each of these questions as it is given in the textbook before moving on to the next question.
Some answers, drawn from the textbook alone, will be rather simplistic. They can, and should, be elaborated upon as your knowledge of the subject grows.
It is part of the Guided Reading assignments that student should ASK as well as answer questions.
- Who was Rabiy‘ah al-‘Adawiyah?
- What was Rabi‘ah perhaps the first to introduce into Islamic mysticism?
- What did the mystic al-Hallaj preach, as expressed in the verses quoted?
- Who was the most important Sufi master of the thirteenth century?
- What did Ibn 'Arabi believe about all religions?
- What is the Mathnavi?
- What is a Shaykh?
- To whom does a Sufi chain of initiation go back?
- In what way do the shayks of Sufi orders resemble Catholics saints? In what way are they unlike them?
- What are the two practices said to be particularly characteristic of Sufi devotional practice?
- Why are the “whirling dervishes” called the “Mevlevi” order?
- What did Sufism provide for women? Why was this?
- What does Islam have in common with Christianity?
- Who were the Sasanians (or Sassanids) and under whose control did they come?
- When did North Africa come under Muslim control?
- What happened with the shift of the Muslim capital from Damascus to Baghdad?
- In what and how have religious scholars and Sufi masters recently played a crucial role?
- When did the Arabs conquer the Iberian Peninsula?
- When was the period of Arab Spain? (*)
- What is the relation of the Swahili language to Arabic?
- When and from where did the Khoja Isma‘ilis migrate to Africa?