Project Passport
Objective: to consider the peculiarities of economic and cultural development of the countries of the East during the Middle Ages.
Objectives:
1) To identify the most developed civilizations in the East during the Middle Ages.
2) To study the economy and culture of the East during the Middle Ages.
3) Explore the religion of the East as a common culture.
4) Summarize information about life in the Middle Ages in the East.
5) Develop a project product on the topic.
Subject: History.
Type of project: Informational.
Project timeline 2019-2020 school year.
Introduction
Relevance of the research topic. The ancient East has a special significance for the modern world, and above all, for the development of natural scientific thought. If we turn to the history of this process, we can unequivocally conclude that the society of the East has made an invaluable contribution to history.
The medieval East left an invaluable creative legacy. The study of this topic is relevant because it allows us to evaluate the significant contribution made by thinkers of China, Japan, India, the Arab East in the progress of world civilization. This allows to reveal the principle of continuity in science, which was transferred from the East to the West and vice versa, leading ultimately to the progress of human civilization.
The historical development of the Ancient East is the history of the emergence, formation and long development of the first civilizations, which are characterized by a certain historical and cultural unity and which appeared after the collapse of the primitive community. Civilization has naturally replaced the tribal system and marked a new level of human history. It itself is a complex historical phenomenon
In Europe, the Middle Ages is synonymous with “feudalism,” a period between antiquity and capitalist relations. And there was no antiquity in the East. Eastern civilization developed unevenly: periods of prosperity alternated with periods of decline. That is why it is difficult to strictly define the boundaries of the Middle Ages in the East. The Middle Ages are conventionally divided into three main periods: the Early Middle Ages (late 5th to mid-11th centuries). High or Classical Middle Ages (mid-11th to late 15th centuries). Late Middle Ages or Early Modern period (16th through 17th centuries).
Main part
1.The Eastern countries of the Middle Ages
The transition to the Middle Ages in the East in some cases was realized on the basis of already existing political formations (e.g. Byzantine, Sasanian Iran, Kushani-Huptian India), in others it was accompanied by social upheaval, as it was in China, and almost everywhere the processes were accelerated by the participation of “barbarian” nomadic tribes. Such hitherto unknown peoples as Arabs, Seljuk Turks, and Mongols emerged and rose in the historical arena during this period. New religions were born, and civilizations emerged on their basis.
The countries of the East in the Middle Ages were linked with Europe. Byzantium remained the bearer of the traditions of Greco-Roman culture. The Arab conquest of Spain and the Crusader campaigns in the East contributed to the interaction of cultures. The formation of medieval societies in the East was characterized by the establishment of feudal relations, as in Europe. The different results of development in the East and the West by the end of the 20th century were conditioned by a lesser degree of its dynamism.
Factors which determine the “lagging” of Eastern societies:
1.Preservation of primitive communal and slave-holding relations, which were dissolving very slowly along with the feudal order;
2. the stability of communal forms of dwelling, which restrained the differentiation of the peasantry;
3. predominance of state property and power over private land tenure and private power of feudal lords;
4.Undivided power of feudal lords over the city, weakening anti-feudal aspirations of townspeople.
1.1 India
The medieval political structure of India was characterized by constant instability of power in both the north and south of the country. The dynasties and states that emerged were short-lived and frankly weak. After a certain period of time, they disintegrated into separate regions and principalities, which continued a fierce struggle for spheres of influence. Political changes did not affect the internal structure of society: it was still dominated by the state, which had the right to dispose of all the country’s resources and collect taxes centrally.
The socio-economic development of India in the Middle Ages was characterized by the growth of feudal possessions. The richest among the feudal possessions, along with the rulers, were the Hindu temples and monasteries. In the Middle Ages, the Hindu temples and monasteries were the most wealthy among the feudal lords, along with the rulers, and the Hindu temples and monasteries were the most wealthy. However, at that time the Indian community was still relatively independent, large in size, and had autonomous self-government. A full-fledged commune inherited his field.
New towns emerged near the palaces of feudal lords, where craftsmen serving the needs of the court and the landowner’s army settled. The development of urban life was promoted by the intensification of inter-city exchange and the emergence of caste-based groups of artisans.
In the beginning of the 13th century a large Muslim state – the Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526) – was established in the north of India. The political and administrative organization of the state is typically Islamic. Sunni Islam becomes the state religion, and Persian becomes the official language.
The turning point in the history of the Delhi Sultanate was the invasion of Northern India in 1398 by the troops of the Central Asian ruler Timur (Tamerlane). During the period of the Delhi Sultanate the penetration of Europeans into India began. In 1498 under the command of Vasco da Gama the Portuguese reached the coast of Western India for the first time.
In 1526 India entered a stage of well-developed feudal relations which flourished in parallel with the strengthening of the central government. The main financial department of the empire (divan), which was obliged to supervise the use of all the available lands, increased in importance. One third of the harvest was declared to be the share of the state. The state land fund received all conquered territories. From it “jagirs” – conditional military grants, which continued to be considered state property, were distributed.
Thus, medieval India represented a synthesis of diverse socio-political foundations, religious traditions and ethnic cultures. By the end of the epoch it had melted into a land of fabulous splendor that beckoned Europeans with its wealth, exoticism, and mystery. Within it, however, processes similar to those inherent in the European New Age were beginning. A domestic market was forming, international relations were developing, and social contradictions were deepening. But for India, a typical Asian power, the oppressive state was a strong deterrent to capitalization. With its weakening, the country became easy prey to European colonizers, whose activities interrupted the natural course of historical development.
1.2 China
Most historians believe that with the fall of the Han Empire at the turn of the II-III centuries in China there is a change of eras: the ancient period of the country’s history ends and the Middle Ages begins. The political changes in third- and sixth-century China are closely linked with shifts in ethnic development. Although foreigners penetrated into China before, but it was the 4th century when mass invasions took place, comparable with the Great Migration of Peoples in Europe. The tribes that came from the central parts of Asia settled not only in the northern and western fringes, but also in the Central Plain, mixing with the native Chinese population. In the south the assimilation processes of the non-Chinese population proceeded faster and less dramatically, leaving significant spaces uncolonized. This was reflected in the mutual isolation of the parties, and two main dialects of the Chinese language developed in the language.
The process of ethnic consolidation of the Chinese influenced political changes. The bureaucratic apparatus grew. The highest government agency was the Department of Offices, which headed the six leading executive organs of the country: the Chins, Taxes, Rituals, Military, Judicial, and Public Works. Along with them were established the Imperial Secretariat and the Imperial Chancellery. The power of the head of state, officially called the Son of Heaven and Emperor, was hereditary and legally unlimited.
China’s economy in the seventh and twelfth centuries was based on agrarian production. The land tenure system included the state land fund with imperial estates, large and medium-sized private land ownership, small peasant land ownership and the estates of state landowners. The development of trade was facilitated by the introduction of yardsticks of measures and weights and the issue of copper coins of a set weight at the end of the 6th century. Tax revenues from trade became a tangible item of state income.
Chinese medieval society was divided along the lines of aristocrats and non-aristocrats, servants and commoners, free and dependent. The influence of aristocratic clans peaked in the 7th-8th centuries. But by the beginning of the 11th century, the power of the aristocracy weakened and it began to merge with the official bureaucracy.
There were three religious doctrines in medieval China: Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. Over time, the persecution of Buddhism intensified and neo-Confucianism emerged, claiming to be the only ideology that justified social hierarchy and related it to the notion of individual duty.
In 1280. China was completely under the power of the Mongols. With the accession to the throne of Kublai Khan (1215-1294) the rate was transferred to Beijing. In 1271 all the possessions of the great khan were declared a Yuan empire on the Chinese model. Mongol domination in the main part of China lasted more than a century and is marked by Chinese sources as the most difficult time for the country.
During the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) Mongol rule was finally ended and the foundations were laid for an economic and political system that conformed to traditional Chinese notions of an ideal state. Neo-Confucianism dominated religion during the Ming period. Since the late 14th century, the authorities sought to restrict Buddhism and Taoism, which led to the expansion of religious sectarianism. Other features of the religious life of the country were the Chineseization of local Muslims and the spread of local cults among the people.
The peak of the power of the Ming Empire was in the first third of the fifteenth century, but by the end of the century negative phenomena began to grow. The sixteenth to the first half of the seventeenth century was characterized by a protracted crisis, which acquired a comprehensive character by the end of the era. Beginning with changes in the economy and social structure, the crisis manifested itself most visibly in the field of domestic politics.
The turning point in the history of Ming China is associated with the powerful peasant revolt of 1628-1644, led by Li Zichen. In 1644 his troops occupied Beijing and he himself declared himself emperor.
Thus, the history of medieval China is a kaleidoscope of events: frequent changes of ruling dynasties, long periods of domination by invaders, who, as a rule, came from the north and soon dissolved among the local population, having adopted not only the language and way of life, but also the classic Chinese model of governing the country. No other state in the medieval East was able to achieve the level of government and society that China did. The political isolation of the country and the ideological conviction among the ruling elite that the Middle Empire was the chosen one, with all other powers of the world as its natural vassals, played no small role in this.
In the sixteenth century, Europeans began to enter the country. As in India, the first place belonged to the Portuguese. Beginning in the second half of the 17th century, the Dutch and the English flooded into the country and helped the Manchus to conquer China.
1.3 Japan
The history of medieval Japan can be divided into two periods: the Nara and Heian period (7th century – first half of the 12th century) and the Shogunate period (end of the 12th century – middle of the 19th century).
During the first stage, Japan developed as a classical Oriental state. Many institutions were deliberately transferred here from neighboring, more powerful at the time, China. Initially, Japan took much from the highly developed civilization of China. It was from there that Buddhism, which merged with local Shintoism to become the predominant religion of the Japanese, and Confucianism, and with it the Chinese ideas of a centralized state, came to the Japanese islands via Korea. An important acquisition was the written language. By adopting Chinese hieroglyphic writing, the Japanese adapted it to their own language, and for many centuries it was considered a sign of literacy to know and, moreover, to write poetry in Chinese, the prestige of which can be compared with the status of Latin in the history of Western Europe.
The Japanese emperor, like the Chinese emperor, concentrated in his hands the supreme secular and religious power. The peasant commoners toiled directly for the benefit of the state treasury, which had discretion over these funds. The political system of Japan was characterized by the centralization of power, the supreme ownership of land by the state (represented by the emperor) with direct communal land tenure.
However, already at this time the formation of feudal relations took place. In the XI-XII centuries a new form of land tenure – the feudal estate – was finally established. In 1192 the emperor lost secular power, ceding it to the shogun. The feudal order was finally established in the country. The lowest economic unit was the community. The estate of feudal lords was generally divided into large princes and their vassals – ordinary samurai. There was also a stratum of influential samurai, the closest to the shogun, who had great privileges. Later on, the structure of Japanese society was characterized by a division into four main classes: merchants, artisans, peasants and nobles. However, on the whole, Japan followed the path of the development of proprietary institutions, being a peculiar exception to the traditional scheme of development of Eastern societies. The reasons for this lie in the specific geographical conditions and historical development of the country. The state here was immediately formed from the communal-patrimonial system, bypassing the slave-owning stage; geographical conditions did not require constant tension of forces to maintain the economy (irrigation), on the contrary, fragmentation of the territory by mountain ranges and rivers into valleys facilitated isolation and allocation of the individual economy.
In 1192 the supreme ruler of Japan with the title “shogun” became Minamoto – the head of an influential aristocratic house. Minamoto’s shogunate lasted until 1335, a time when cities, crafts, and trade flourished. As a rule, towns grew up around monasteries and stables of major aristocrats. When the shogun came to power, the agrarian system of the country changed. Japan took the form of a military-feudal state with the cult of the samurai warrior, who was judged not only by his mastery of the sword, but also by his loyalty to his lord, his readiness for self-sacrifice, and his ability to endure pain. The Japanese swords, made by a skilled artisan caste, were so exquisite that they became a mystical cult.
During the Ashikaga period (1336-1568), marked by rampant anarchy, personal and local feudal ties began to play a predominant role. Shoguns of the Ashikaga family never ruled the entire country, and sometimes their authority was nominal. The political fragmentation set the task of unifying the country on the agenda. This mission was accomplished by three outstanding political figures of the country: Oda Nobunaga (1534- 1582), Toetomi Hideyeshi (1536-1598), and Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616).
Thus, the historical path of Japan in the Middle Ages was no less tense and dramatic than that of neighboring China, with which the island state periodically maintained cultural and economic contacts, borrowing from a more mature and experienced neighbor samples of political and socio-economic structure. However, the search for a national path of development led to the formation of a distinctive culture, regime, and social system. The distinctive feature of the Japanese way of development became relatively high dynamism of all processes, high social mobility with not so obvious forms of social antagonism, the ability of the nation to perceive and creatively process achievements of other cultures and civilizations.
1.4 The Arab Caliphate
In the territory of the Arabian Peninsula already in the II millennium B.C. lived Arab tribes, which belonged to the Semitic group of peoples. In the V-VI centuries AD the Arab tribes dominated the Arabian Peninsula. Part of the population of this peninsula lived in cities and oases, engaged in crafts and trade. Another part was nomadic in the deserts and steppes, engaged in cattle breeding.
Mecca became the religious center of Western Arabia. Here was located the ancient pre-Islamic temple of Kaaba. This temple is associated with a sacred stone that fell to the ground and was worshipped since ancient times, and with the cult of Allah (from the Arab. ilah – master), the god of the Kureish tribe.
In the 6th century A.D., the importance of trade in Arabia declined as trade routes moved to Iran. The population, having lost income from caravan trade, was forced to seek livelihood in agriculture. But there was little land suitable for farming. They had to be conquered. This required strength and, consequently, the unification of fragmented tribes, in addition to worshipping different gods.
The idea of one God was preached by the adherents of the Hanif sect, one of whom was Mohammed (c. 570-632 or 633), who became the founder of the new religion for Arabs -islam. At the first stage of its development, the new religious ideology of Islam was not supported by the majority of Mohammed’s tribesmen. But in 630 Mecca’s nobility had to submit to the new religion, the more so because Mohammed proclaimed the Kaaba the sacred place of all Moslems.
Guided by the search for a way out of the crisis by conquering foreign lands and the ideology of Islam, Muhammad’s successors began a series of conquest campaigns. They conquered Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia and Persia. As early as 638, they conquered Jerusalem. By the end of the seventh century the Arabs ruled the Middle East, Persia, the Caucasus, Egypt and Tunisia. In VIII century Central Asia, Afghanistan, Western India and North-West Africa were conquered. In 711, Arab armies under the leadership of Tariq sailed from Africa to the Iberian Peninsula (the name Gibraltar – Mount Tariq came from the name of Tariq). Having quickly conquered the Iberian lands, they rushed into Gaul. However, in 732 at the Battle of Poitiers they were defeated by the Frankish king Charles Mordell. By the middle of the 9th century Arabs had conquered Sicily, Sardinia, the southern parts of Italy and the island of Crete. At this point the Arab conquests stopped, but there was a long war with the Byzantine Empire. The Arabs besieged Constantinople twice.
The unification of many formerly fragmented and warring states into one state contributed to the development of economic and cultural communication between the peoples of Asia, Africa and Europe. Handicrafts, trade and cities grew. Culture rapidly developed within the Arab Caliphate, absorbing the Greco-Roman, Iranian and Indian heritage. Through the Arabs, Europe became acquainted with the cultural achievements of the eastern peoples, especially the achievements in the exact sciences – mathematics, astronomy, geography, etc.
In 750. The Abbassid dynasty began its reign. The Abbasid caliphate fought continuous wars with Byzantium. In 1258, after the defeat of the Mongol army and capture of Baghdad by them, the state of Abbasids ceased to exist. The last Arab state in the Iberian Peninsula – the Emirate of Granada – existed till 1492. With its fall the history of the Arab Caliphate as a state ended.
2. Religion in the East
It is not difficult to imagine what a great role religion played in such societies. First of all, it sanctioned and sanctified political power, contributed to the deification of the ruler, turning him into a divine symbol, binding the unity of a given community. In addition, closely related to the conservative tradition, religion has always been the guardian of the stability of the social structure, as well as the mechanism and sanctification of its norms.
In other words, religion was a cementing basis for the state and society, but the effectiveness of this basis and the strength of its protective power depended largely on religion itself. It is known that different religious systems have not strengthened the traditional social structure or the existing political power to the same extent. Where the religious system weakly supported the state, power and with it society died more easily, as seen in the ancient Near Eastern empires, whether Persian, Assyrian or otherwise. Where it functioned optimally, the result was different, although even here there could be significant differences.
In India Buddhism did not fully satisfy the ruling circles. It gave rise to a great variety of religious sects that continued to oppose caste-based privileges and preached the ideas of religious and partly economic equality. In contrast to Buddhism there was a gradual reform and restoration of the ancient Brahmanist religion, from which Hinduism emerged. Hinduism had no ecclesiastical hierarchy and no ecclesiastical apparatus. Every Brahman by birthright became the spiritual master of the faithful, who, under fear of the wrath of the gods, were enjoined to obey him. Hinduism gradually supplanted Buddhism, which spread mainly outside India.
Confucianism, which became the ideology of the patriarchal monarchy, dominated China during the period of early feudalism. Confucianism justified the hierarchical and patriarchal “five relationships”: between the ruler and officials, parents and children, husband and wife, older and younger brothers, between friends. There was no special Confucian priesthood in China. The rules for performing rites were usually taught to the son by his father. Sometimes the rites were performed by special officials, “professors of ceremonies,” who were in public service but did not form a special estate. Confucianism upheld the cult of the emperor and his ancestors, but believed that the emperor should rule the country through Confucian-educated officials. For them there was a difficult state examination. Only after passing it could they obtain public office.
In Japan the most ancient religion (Shintoism, or “the way of the local gods”) began to be squeezed by Buddhism in the middle of the sixth century. Emperors (memo) began to support Buddhism (“Butsu religion,” as the Japanese called it), which turned into a strictly centralized state religion. Buddhist monasteries became major feudal landowners. The monks, priests of Buddhism, were called bozu, which transformed into the word “bonza. Under the influence of Buddhism, Shinto began to build temples and make images of the gods. The two religions gradually converged, striving to adapt to changing socio-economic conditions and be useful to those in power.
In the 6th century in the Arabian Peninsula there were several pre-feudal states independent from one another. Elders of clans and tribal nobles had many animals, especially camels. The process of feudalization took place in the areas where agriculture was developed. This process embraced the city-states, in particular Mecca. On this ground a religious and political movement, the caliphate, arose. This movement was directed against tribal cults for the creation of a common religion with one deity. The caliphate movement was directed against the tribal nobility, which had power in the hands of the Arab pre-feudal states. It arose in those centers of Arabia where the feudal system had acquired greater development and importance – in Yemen and the city of Yathrib, and also embraced Mecca, where Muhammad was one of its representatives.
The nobility of Mecca opposed Muhammad, and in 622 he was forced to flee to Medina, where he found support from the local nobility, which was dissatisfied with the competition from the nobility of Mecca.
A few years later the Arab population of Medina became part of the Muslim community led by Muhammad. He served not only as ruler of Medina, but also as a military leader.
The essence of the new religion was the recognition of Allah as the one deity and Muhammad as his prophet. It was recommended to pray every day, to give a fortieth part of one’s income to the poor, and to fast. Muslims are to take part in holy war against infidels. The previous division of the population into clans and tribes, from which almost every state formation began, was undermined.
Muhammad proclaimed the need for a new order that excluded inter-tribal discord. All Arabs, regardless of their tribal origin, were to form a single nation. Their head was to be a prophet sent by God on earth. The only conditions for joining this community were recognition of the new religion and strict observance of its injunctions.
Mohammed rather quickly gathered a considerable number of adherents and by 630 was able to settle in Mecca, whose inhabitants by that time had been imbued with his faith and doctrine. The new religion was called Islam (peace with God, submission to the will of Allah) and fairly quickly spread across the peninsula and beyond. In their dealings with representatives of other religions – Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians – Mohammed’s followers remained tolerant. In the early centuries of the spread of Islam, the Umayyad and Abbasid coins minted a saying from the Koran (Sura 9:33 and Sura 61:9) about the prophet Mohammed, whose name means “the gift of God.” “Mohammed is the messenger of God, whom God sent with instruction in the right way and with the true faith to exalt it above all faiths, even though the polytheists were displeased with it.”
The new ideas found zealous supporters among the poor. They embraced Islam because they had long lost faith in the power of the tribal gods who had not protected them from calamity and ruin.
Initially, the movement was a popular movement, which discouraged the rich, but it did not last long. The actions of the adherents of Islam convinced the nobility that the new religion did not threaten their indigenous interests. Soon the tribal and merchant upper classes joined the Muslim ruling elite.
By this time (20-30 years of VII century) the organizational structure of the Muslim religious community headed by Muhammed was finished. Military detachments created by the community fought for the unification of the country under the banner of Islam. The activities of this military-religious organization gradually acquired a political character.
3. About the project product
I chose a product in the form of an album because this type of work is more revealing of the topic. My product is made in “Microsoft Word 2010”. To create this scrapbook I had to think about how it will be designed and use Internet resources to find illustrations.
My product is designed to look at the medieval culture of the East. It presents traditional attire, architecture, arts and crafts, and daily life of the medieval East.
This album can be used in a history class related to the topic or used to study the culture of the East in the Middle Ages.
Conclusion
Feudal relations developed in the East during the Middle Ages. There were large landholdings (state and private), rent relations which bound the large landowner to the main producers of surplus product – peasants, who were in one way or another in dependence, based mainly on extra-economic coercion.
It should be noted also the special political organization of the feudal society of the East with its amorphous state structure and centrifugal tendencies.
The Arab conquests had a great influence on the development of socio-political life of peoples. Thanks to the spread of the world religion – Islam – and the Arabic language, which was used not only in prayers, but also in solving secular problems, the life of peoples in vast territories – from West Africa to the borders of China – became more uniform.
The feudalism of the medieval East cannot be understood without taking into account its specific features, which were associated with a persistent multiformity, with a profound influence of tradition. The domination of socio-economic and socio-political traditional structures determined the extremely slow character of the evolution of medieval countries of the East.
It should be noted that in the Middle Ages none of the countries under consideration reached the European level of late feudalism, in the bosom of which the formation of capitalist relations began. In comparison with medieval European countries, the development of industry, commodity-money and market relations lagged behind. The slow character of development determined the stable multi-economic structure of many medieval Oriental societies, the long coexistence of patriarchal-clan, clan, slave, semi-feudal and other ways of life.
Feudal relations in the countries of the East were intertwined and coexisted for a long time even with the primitive communal ways. Slavery in the East, which never played a significant role in social production, continued to exist in the Middle Ages.
The rural community played a great role. The enclosed subsistence economy allowed it to preserve the vestiges of the primitive communal system in the relations between its members and in the organization of community management. State property (in its narrow sense) included land tenure of the monarch and the state treasury. In a broader sense, it also included land grants from the state fund to persons involved in the government.
The state protected its land property in every way and restrained the development of private property.
The situation of medieval eastern cities was also different. The low level of the social division of labor in the countries of the East was expressed in the fact that the cities here did not become an organizing and guiding force of social progress. They lived at the expense of rent-tax redistribution, because the surplus product, concentrated in the hands of certain social groups, did not become capital. The handicraft products went not to the market, but to meet the needs of the ruling circles.
The rural community hindered the development of two-way trade between the city and the countryside, and at the same time the formation of the urban class. This determined the orders that existed in the eastern cities. Artisans were under the strict control of the state apparatus, were constrained by legal, religious prescriptions, class and caste restrictions. The legal status of townspeople did not differ from that of villagers. Unlike the European eastern cities, they did not become a mainstay of the central government in its fight against the state fragmentation.
Glossary
1 Antiquity is the term for Greco-Roman antiquity. The term was adopted in early eighteenth-century French in Belgium and denoted a special kind of art.
2. Feudal relations are those in which all land and power belong to large landowners-feudal lords who exploit dependent peasants.
3. The community is a traditional form of social organization. The primitive (clan) community is characterized by collective labor and consumption.
4. Subsistence – Difficulty, and sometimes impossibility to satisfy those or other state and social needs with the help of money
5. Ethnic development – the development of the people, their culture and customs. Ethnos – A people.
6. Imperial Secretariat – In medieval China, the central administrative body of the empire during Mongol rule.
7. Imperial Chancellery – that institution was primarily responsible for the liaison of the Reich Chancellor with the empire and the state apparatus.
8. Neo-Confucianism – as a philosophy, a current of social and political thought, as an updated and modified form of ancient Confucianism played a huge role in the history of medieval China.
9. Chineseness – the process of spreading Chinese culture or some aspects of it among non-Chinese nationalities.
10. Cult – veneration, worship. A cult is divided into: Religious cult – religious veneration of some gods and objects (sacred images, sculptures); including ritualism and ceremonialism.
11. Buddhism – religious and philosophical teaching (dharma) on spiritual awakening (bodhi) that emerged in the middle of the 1st millennium BC in ancient India.
12. Samurai is the military-feudal class of petty nobles and princes in feudal medieval Japan.
13. Internecine is an internal conflict, a war between some social groups or individuals in a state (predominantly feudal), also a long-standing dispute or struggle between social groups of people.
14. The tribe of the Kureysh Alaha is the ruling clan (tribe) of ancient Mecca, the guardians of the Kaaba. The Prophet Muhammad, all the righteous caliphs, the Umayyad family, and the vast majority of the key figures of early Islam are descended from them.
15. Hinduism is one of the Indian religions, often described as a set of religious traditions and philosophical schools that originated on the Indian subcontinent and share common features.
16. Jew – an ethno-religious group [5] that includes those who were born to a Jewish mother and those who converted to Judaism.
17. Zoroastrians – one of the oldest religions, originating in the revelation of the prophet Spitama Zarathustra.
18. Polytheists are to equate Allah with His creatures, ascribing to them such rights and qualities as are unique to Him. The danger of this sin is that Allah does not forgive it without repentance and destroys all the good works of the polytheist.
