Though not one of the five pillars, there is one other concept central to the Islamic belief system: jihad (jee-HAHD), or "holy war." Muslims were expected to defend the faith against persecution or blasphemy, and if necessary to go to war for Islam. Obviously this aided in the spread of Muslim influence following Muhammad's death.
Islam was from the beginning intended both as a religious and a secular system, and eventually a whole system of law developed around it. Muslims were forbidden to loan money for interest, to eat pork, or to drink alcohol. Islamic law also gave women more rights than they had enjoyed under pre-Islamic society. The status of women in Islam has been a subject of particular significance, as some Muslim scholars interpreted Muhammad's teachings to mean that women should have few rights. Yet women played an important role in the foundation of Islam, and though men remained dominant under Muslim law, the Koran offered women a number of new legal protections.
No longer could men take as many wives as they wanted, for instance: now they could have only four, and they had to be able to provide financially for those four. Also significant was the fact that the bridal gift or dowry—that is, the money or holdings the groom received at marriage from the bride's family—now became the bride's property. If the husband divorced her, she got to keep the goods. Divorce remained much easier for a man than for a woman, but a man could no longer divorce his wife in anger and take her back the next day; once divorced, he had to wait three months before remarrying her. And whereas pre-Muslim Arabian society punished women more harshly than men for adultery, the Koranic penalty was the same for both participants: "flog each of them with a hundred stripes."
The Muslim emphasis on giving alms made Islam popular among the poor; so too did its teaching that all men were equal under Allah. Islam viewed other religions with toleration and gave Jews and Christians in captured territories special status. However, those who adhered to a faith other than Islam were not allowed to engage in religious activity outside their churches or synagogues, or to build new houses of worship. Furthermore, non-Muslims had to pay a special tax; to people who did not already feel strongly about their faith, this offered another incentive to convert.
Islamic empires
The first wave of conquest (632-661)
Muhammad never clearly named a caliph (KAL-uhf), or successor; thus the first four caliphs—the term became a title for the spiritual and political leader of Islam—were men connected to the prophet through wives he married after Khadijah's death. His favorite wife was Aisha (ah-EE-shah; 614-678),
World History
