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Volume 10, Number 1

August 2001

Many people in Israel hoped for a savior - a person who would come and save them. Many Jewish people thought that when the messiah came, he would lead the Jews against their Roman conquerors and make them free.

Into this world was born Jesus of Nazareth. Many people believe that Jesus was the Messiah the Jewish people were waiting for. These people are called Christians because Jesus was also called the Christ (which means something like “the chosen one”).

A cross is an important symbol of Christianity. Christians celebrate the birthday of Jesus on the day called Christmas. Christians believe that on the third day after Jesus died, he rose from the dead; Christians celebrate his rising from the dead as Easter.

Islam

 A long time after Jesus lived - in fact, more than five hundred years later - a man named Muhammad was born in the land called Arabia. Followers of Islam are called Muslims (sometimes spelled Moslems).

Muhammad was a respected merchant in his hometown of Mecca. Many people called him al-Amin, which means, “the trustworthy”. Because he was a merchant, Muhammad traveled a lot to buy and sell his goods. In his travel he met different people. Some of them were followers of Judaism and Christianity. From these Jews and Christians, Muhammad learned about the idea of one God. 

And from the Christians he learned about the teachings of Jesus. Here is the story the Muslims tell about how their religion began. Muhammad liked to go off to sit alone in a quiet cave, where he could think about things that were worrying him. One day, when he was forty years old, he went to the cave and there he had a vision. Muhammad saw an angel, Muslims believe that God spoke to Muhammad through the angel. The angel told Muhammad to tell everyone in Arabia that there was only one God, whose name is Allah. “Allah” is the Arabic word for the English word “God”. So, you see, Muslims worship the same God that the Jewish people and Christians worship.  The star and Crescent have become an important symbol of Islam.  

The Growth of Islam

In the early Middle Ages, while most of Europe was emerging from the Dark Ages, the highly cultured civilization of Islam was beginning to reach maturity.  The Muslims had divided themselves into different religious groups, just as the Christians had split between Rome and Constantinople. Two main groups were called Sunni (SOON ey) and Shiite (SHE iyt). Although the writings of Greek and Roman civilization were nearly forgotten in Europe, many were kept alive by Muslim scholars. Islamic study of mathematics and medicine flourished. During this period Europeans were isolated  from the rest of the world. In, contrast, adventurous

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