Study guide #3

Please note: What you see here is my best guess for the lectures on

Monday 3-11 and Wednesday 3-13.

The Manichaean tradition

Mani - biographical information

What are its origins?

Name some characteristics of Manichaeanism

Explain the dualist theological system and beliefs.

Who is Jesus in this tradition?

Differences between the Elect and the Hearers

Beliefs about apocalypse

Historical details of the spread of Manichaeanism (when, where, how)

Islam

What does Islam mean?

Who is Allah?

What does Muslim mean?

Biographical information about Muhammad

Mecca

Ka'bah

Medina

AH

How does Islam view the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures, New

Testament, and Jesus?

Messengers

Islamic view of the Trinity and divinity of Jesus

Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael

Dome of the Rock

AUTHORITATIVE WRITINGS:

… Qur'an, What does recent criticism have to say about the origins

of the Qur'an? See the Atlantic Monthly reading on line.

… Sunnah - what are the three parts?

… Hadith and Isnad

… Tafsir

Shahadah

5 Pillars of Islam

Hajj

Jihad

Caliph

Battle of Yarmuck (date, significance)

When did the Sunni and Shi'i split and why? Which group is more

numerous today? What are some differences between them?

When was the end of Islamic unity as a political entity? What effects

does this have on Islam?

Imam

Be able to list major differences in belief between these groups:

… Kaysaniyah

… Zaydis

… Sevener or Isma'ili Shi'ism

… Druze

… Twelver or Imani Shi'ism

… Alawis

Orthodoxy or orthopraxy?

Faqih

Shari'ah

What are the four sources of authority in the interpretation of Islamic law?

Ijtihad

Mufti

Postponers and Mu'tazilah: What did they disagree about? Whose

explanations became more widely accepted?

Islamic philosophy vs theology

Where does Aristotle fit in?

What is the relationship between reason and the Qur'an?

al-Kindi

Ibn Rushd

Islamic mysticism and ascetic practices.

What are some of the Sufi writers we covered in Kessler? Review these readings.

Sufism

Rab'iah

Bayazid

Brotherhoods

Sheik

theosophical Sufism

Ibn Arabi

Rumi

Islamic art and architecture

Ba'hai

Where and when did this religion being? Within what religious tradition?

The Bab

Baha'u'llah

Important characteristics of the Ba'hai faith

Basic teachings

Mandeans

Where and when did they emerge? Out of what religious tradition?

Major beliefs? What kind of belief system is this? What does "Mandean" mean?

How is baptism practiced in this tradition?

Yezidis

Where and when did they emerge? Out of what religious tradition?

What are their beliefs about their origins?

Sheikh

Emir

Malak Ta'us

Sheikh 'Adi

metempsychosis