THE MUSLIM EMPIRE
(Napisao: gosp. Marko Mareliæ - S. Francisco - USA)ARABIA BEFORE MAHOMET
THE ARAB PEOPLE
The Persian Emperor Chosroes, while engaged in war with the Byzantines, received a letter from an unknown Arab informing him of the existence of a new prophet, whose message, accepted by millions to whom Christianity made no appeal, was to change the world hardly less profoundly than Christianity's own founder. And even before Heraclius was dead he already knew that his long and exhausting was with Persia had been fruitless; for the prophet of Mecca and his followers were surely to enter into his heritage.
The peninsula of Arabia had hitherto played little part in history. A small area in the north had been a Roman province; but the great desert lands of the south had supported only the Bedouin, nomad tribesmen who wandered from oasis to oasis with their flocks, warlike, hospitable, illiterate but with a remarkable natural shrewdness and understanding, fiercely loyal to their tribes, families, and chiefs (sheiks), but quick to take offense and as quick to avenge a slight as an injury. The sheiks were independent chieftains, owing homage to no man, and their country was without political organization of any kind; the few families who made up a tribe were part of no larger unit.
Along the coasts of Arabia, however, the land was more fertile, and a few cities had grown up. Jidda was the seaport, Mecca and Yathrib were trading cities, with their bazaars selling the products of the country - meat, dates, nuts, palm oil, and other foodstuffs, luxuries imported by sea and caravan as well as made by local industry. And from these cities set out camel caravans to the north, south, and through the desert to the east, manned by shrewd Arab traders and Jewish merchants. The cities, like the Bedouin tribesmen, were dominated by local families. One of the greatest of these was the Kuraish, which dominated Mecca, the chief commercial and religious center of the country. Though often warring among themselves, the Kuraish, with their many collateral branches, could be relied upon to unite when family interests were threatened.
Probably such a people as this would never have been united by political means; no king had yet arisen among them, as in the other states with a similar early society. Loyalty from such a people could not be commanded or enforced. But what could and did unite them and make of them one of the greatest fighting forces the world has yet seen was a new and dynamic religion whose early successes, often against overwhelming odds, must have seemed to doubters proof indeed of its divine origin.
RELIGION BEFORE ISLAM
Before the days of Mahomet, Mecca was already a religious center. A stone, believed to have fallen from heaven (a meteorite?) around which a temple, the Kaaba, had been built, was the chief object of veneration. Arabs from distant lands came to pay homage to it, to the financial advantage of the trading community. Idols and other sacred objects were worshiped. Both in the holy city of Mecca and elsewhere there seem to have been many varieties of sacrifice offered both to deities and to deified forces of nature. But, as far as we can tell, no synthesis of beliefs or religious practices existed which would justify our calling it in any way a religion. And this was surprising since Judaism and even Christianity were known to the Arabs from traders and wandering missionaries, who must have been astonished at their lack of interest when they had so little positive religion of their own. And yet, as we shall see, the religious spirit was there, quietly waiting for the words of inspiration that would kindle it. This task was the lifework of Mahomet.
MAHOMET AND ISLAM
RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE OF MAHOMET
Mahomet (the name is spelled in even more different ways than Shakespeare's) was born in Mecca in 570 of one of the poorer and less influential branches of the leading Kuraish family. His childhood was spent in the shadow of poverty, it would appear. But when he was twenty-five he began to work for a widow Khadija, older then he, a business woman of ability and in comfortable circumstances, whom he later married. By her he had his only child, Fatima. From this time on Mahomet prospered as a trader, leading his wife's caravans, once as far as Syria, and until the age of forty gave no indication that he would later preach a new religion. But it seems clear that he must have pondered long on what he knew of the other religions of the Near East and often must have thought of the religious backwardness of his native land. And it is said that for a month each year he went into the desert, and there his thoughts became clearer, and he prepared himself so that at last, when the revelation came to him, he was ready. The revelation was that there was only one God, Allah, and that he, Mahomet, had been chosen to be God's prophet. Islam therefore stands firmly on the revelations to Mahomet, as Judaism stands upon the revelations to Moses. It is consequently a religion that calls for faith, with all the dynamism that such a religion entails. And although Islam contains much from the older religions, commingled with observations growing out of the customs of the desert tribes, it should not be regarded as a religion that was simply tailored by the keen intellect of Mahomet to fit the circumstances of his country. Students of history should avoid such an easy assumption, which is sometimes made when we speak of syncretistic religions, or those which draw their chief elements from several others of the day.
RELATION TO OTHER RELIGIONS
The fundamental belief in Islam (Arabic for "submission") is monotheism of the strict Judaic kind. For the Muslim (also Anglicized as Moslem), there is no Trinity of Persons in God. Mahomet did not claim to be a god, but a prophet of God. There had been, in his belief, other prophets before him, among whom he numbered Moses and Jesus Christ; but he himself was to be the last, revealing the whole truth as it had been partially revealed to his predecessors. There was thus no reason for despising these earlier religions or for denying their teachings; but they were not complete, and not fully understood. Islam therefore does not wish to exterminate the other religions; those who converted to Islam showed that they were a chosen people insofar as they had been able to accept the higher revelation, and for this reason in a Muslim country would be entitled to special privileges. Those who preferred to keep their second-class religions could do so, but they must then expect to be treated as second-class citizens in a religious state. As "people of the Book", believers in other religions were permitted to keep their Books. Only those who had no Book and no religion were to be converted by force. This attitude always remained the religious policy of Islam which was reflected in its political policies. A holy war (jehad) could only be proclaimed against heathen, or when Islam was forced to defend itself against other religions when attacked by it. A holy war, enjoined upon the faithful only in certain well-defined circumstances, could never be arbitrary, or for the sake of simple conquest; the true religion must be endangered first by the enemy.
THE KORAN - HADITH, ULEMA
Mahomet from the time he began his mission received many revelations from, as he proclaimed, the angel Gabriel. These were given to the people orally, but collected after his death in the sacred book of Islam - the Koran. Each revelation (or sura) is separate, and the compilers assembled them only in the order of length. There is thus no logical, chronological, or other order in the Koran, and if read consecutively by an unsympathetic critic, it appears to be a medley of unrelated teachings, most of them concerned with everyday life and behavior. This appearance of confusion is the natural result of the fact that Mahomet did not trust to his own judgment to answer the innumerable questions put to him in his earlier years. When asked for an authoritative answer, he meditated in the desert until the answer came. This was then a new revelation later to be incorporated in the Koran. It may be added that throughout the book the language is beautiful, the words are chosen with masterly care, and the whole betrays a poetic imagination which makes it not unworthy to stand beside the Hebrew Scriptures. And it has never been difficult for any believing Muslim to accept it as inspired, in spite of occasional contradictions between various instructions to the faithful, which are explained as a progressive understanding of his mission by the Prophet, who, after all, was not divine but partook of some of the frailties of mortals.
The Koran contained all the positive teaching given by Mahomet in his lifetime; but, as with Christianity, not all points of Islamic theology had been cleared up by the Prophet himself. And since the Koran was also a guide to ethics and ordinary worldly activity, it early became necessary to have authoritative rulings on knotty points of doctrine. Moreover, Mahomet had also given oral instructions to his disciples which were not direct revelations like the suras in the Koran but were almost equally authoritative. Thus were added to the teachings of the holy book itself the Hadith, or traditions, which derived directly from the Prophet; and a number of learned men, the ulema, became recognized as the interpreters of the sacred text and the Hadith. These ulema still exist today with the same tasks in orthodox Muslim communities, even though there is no priesthood.
ORGANIZATION AND DOCTRINES OF ISLAM - SIMPLICITY, APPEAL TO JEWS
In Islam there has never been any recognized priesthood. Each community may have an imam, who leads the prayers while there is also a muezzin who summons the faithful at sundown to turn toward Mecca and pray. The prayers are regularly prescribed, as are also fast days; and a whole month - Ramadan - is set aside during which no Muslim may break his fast between sunrise and sundown. In addition, there are moral duties to be performed, such as giving alms to the poor, showing hospitality to strangers; and there are injunctions against pride and worldliness and taking advantage of the difficult position of one's neighbor. There are laws of ritual cleanliness to be observed, following the general pattern of the Jewish codes: the pig is unclean, and there are ritual washings to be performed. No wine or strong drink must be taken, and there must be no images or idols of any kind, since these will divert the faithful from the strictest monotheism, persuading them to believe that other beings beside Allah have godlike attributes. The articles of belief are few and equally simple. There is a resurrection of the body and Paradise for the righteous, and an unending suffering in Gehenna for the wicked; both places are eloquently described in the Koran. There are also angels of God and evil beings, emissaries of the Devil.
Thus the religion is essentially simple. It does away with the complexity of Christianity, with its Trinity and doctrine of the Redemption, and concentrates on the few essentials which proved acceptable to the simple people to whom these were preached. The simple elements of Jewish ritual were alone retained, while the whole of Jewish legalism was abandoned. And the ancient desert morality at its best - such virtues as simplicity, straightforwardness, hospitality to friends and even enemies - was enshrined now as moral law, binding on the faithful, so that little change was needed from what was already practiced. The religion, there can be little doubt, was intended to appeal to Jews and well as to the heathen, and much of early Hebrew legend is incorporated in the Koran as fact. Although in the process of time many Jews within this culture were indeed converted, on the whole Islam did not succeed in weaning them from their Law. In early times there were many wars against Jewish communities, but the communities were not destroyed; and within a Muslim state Judaism was tolerated in the same way as Christianity. And Mahomet, who always regarded Jerusalem as a holy city, and indeed chose it himself as the place from which he ascended to Heaven, ultimately did not adopt it as the chief, but only the second, holy city in Islam, the place of supreme honor being reserved to his birthplace Mecca.
PROGRESS OF THE RELIGION IN THE TIME OF MAHOMET
OPPOSITION IN MECCA
Mahomet's first convert appears to have been his wife. But progress was very slow in the early years of his mission when its appeal was exclusively religious. He was unable to obtain the support of his own Kuraish family, who were apparently afraid for the future of the lucrative tourist trade to Mecca, since there was as yet no suggestion that Mecca would continue to be a holy city. Naturally Mahomet's uncompromising monotheism offended all those who had a vested interest in the old religion; and there are always difficulties in the way of accepting as a prophet a man one has known all one's life. It was not surprising then that most of the earliest converts were gained in a city other then his birthplace, the city of Yathrib. Mahomet then made up his mind to leave his birthplace for Yathrib, and his followers began by political intrigue to prepare for him there a position of honor. When all was ready, he left Mecca, having been preceded by all his Meccan converts, and was given command of the whole city, the name of which was shortly afterward changed to Medina, the "City of the Prophet." This migration was the famous Hegira of 622, from which year the Muslim Era is counted.
CHRONOLOGICAL CHART
Islam in the time of Mahomet Birth of Mahomet 570 "Flight" of Mahomet to Medina from Mecca 622 Organization of the commonwealth of Islam in Medina 622-630 Return to Mecca of Mahomet 630 Death of Mahomet 632.
Expansion of Islam Caliphate of Abu Bekr 632-634 Caliphate of Omar 634-644 Conquest of Syria 634-641 Conquest of Persia 635-641 Conquest of Egypt 639-644 Conquest of slow subjugation of North Africa 643-711 Ommeyad caliphate founded by Moawiya 661 Blockade of Constantinople 673-678 Peace with Constantinople 678 Civil wars between rival sects and dynasties 680-699 Conquest of Transoxania and part of Turkestan 705-712 Conquest of Punjab 708-715 Conquest of Spain 711-715 Invasions of southern France 715-732 Battle of "Tours" 732 Conquest of Georgia 727-733 End of the Ommeyad caliphate 750 Abbasid caliphate 750-1258 Independent Ommeyad dynasty under Abdu-r-Rahman in Spain 755 Caliphate of Harun-al-Rashid 785-809 Ommeyad caliphate in Spain (Cordova) 756-1031 Fatimid dynasty of Egypt 968-1171 Capture of Bagdad by Seljuk Turks 1055 Capture and sack of Bagdad by Mongols, execution of last Abbasid caliph 1258
PROGRESS IN MEDINA
The date is truly an epochal one, since from this time Islam began to forge ahead as a religious and political movement. The support of the Bedouins of the desert was enlisted, while the Jews in Medina whom Mahomet had been hoping to gain as converts finally refused to join him and were rewarded with confiscation of their property for the benefit of the faithful. In addition, Mecca was now an idolatrous enemy, a fit target for a holy war, in which the Bedouins engaged with enthusiasm, since one of their most pleasurable and profitable occupations was the raiding of caravans. The Meccans tried to defend themselves, but were beaten on several occasions by the growing army of Muslims. Finally Mahomet judged the time ripe for the forcible conversion of the people of his birthplace. He gathered an army of about ten thousand men and marched on the city.
VICTORIOUS RETURN TO MECCA - CONVERSION OF ARABIA
The Kuraish looked at this vast army, far larger than anything they could hope to muster, and decided it was better to make terms and follow the Prophet to victory than to resist him. Mahomet entered Mecca in triumph, destroyed the idols and all remnants of the old religion, but maintained the sacred Kaaba and the stone from heaven, which remained for Islam the most holy place of pilgrimage. Thus the commercial interests of the Meccans and the religious imperatives of Islam were both respected.
Meanwhile, the religion had also been spreading. The Bedouins accepted it without murmur, and the people of Mecca and Medina and the other Arabian cities at least outwardly conformed. It now became allied with Arab expansionism, and its future was assured by its early successes. Mahomet himself died two years later in 632, when Arabia itself was only half converted, and without making clear provisions for a successor. There was no central government for Arabia; and at this point few could have predicted the astonishing career that awaited the new religion under the leadership of the successors of the Prophet. In fact, there never was a stable central government for Arabia as the Bedouins cherished their independence too closely. But after a series of minor wars a loose overlordship of Medina was accepted, and the Bedouins were perfectly willing to follow the military leadership of the faithful in their attacks upon foreign countries.
EXPANSION OF ISLAM
THE SUCCESSION TO THE PROPHET - ALI, MOAWIYA, MOOEYADS, ABBASIDS
At the time of Mahomet's death in 632 little thought seems to have been given as to how Islam was to be propagated and by whom. Mahomet himself had always acted as the absolute and infallible leader, and his followers had been able to rely upon his revelations. Now there were to be no more revelations, and it was not yet known whether his spiritual mantle would fall upon his family or upon his disciples. And to this day there is still a major schism in Islam on this very point. Mahomet's daughter Fatima had married his own cousin. Clearly this man was the nearest male heir in the immediate family. But Ali, the cousin, was overshadowed as a warrior by many of the other followers, and it did not seem probable that he could give the leadership required. So the followers passed him over and chose the elderly Father-in-law of the Prophet, Abu Bekr, who survived only two years from 632 to 634. The second leader (called caliph, a religious and political title) was the great warrior Omar who ruled for ten years and added Syria and Persia to the growing empire. The next to be chosen belonged to the Ommeyad family, one of the most important of the Meccan families, whose leaders had been faithful to Mahomet from the first. But while all these caliphs reigned, opposition had been gathering around the person on Ali, the son-in-law and cousin of Mahomet, who wished to keep the caliphate in the family of the founder and keep intact the Koran as the only inspired book, without the Hadith or traditions.
On the murder of the Ommeyad caliph by supporters of Ali, war broke out between the latter and Ommeyad family with its new head, Moawiya; and though Ali was proclaimed caliph he was murdered not long afterward. Moawiya then became caliph in 661. The followers of Ali became a dissident sect within Islam, the Shiites, which remained the leading group in Persia and later in Egypt. Other descendents of Ali and Mahomet from time to time set themselves up as independent caliphs, and the next great dynasty of the Abbasids was predominately Shiite in contrast to the orthodox Muslims called Sunni. The Shiites still persist today, especially in Persia and Afghanistan.
The dynasty of the Ommeyads (661-750_ removed the capital of the religion and empire to Damascus in Syria, and it was during the caliphates that Islam expanded farthest. In 750 the descendents of Abbas, a cousin of Mahomet, overthrew the Syrian Ommeyads and established the Abbasid dynasty with the new capital at Bagdad in Mesopotamia. This dynasty, which officially ruled until 1258, saw the Oriental courts of such potentates as Harun-al-Rashid and Al-Mamum, which fell heir to the ancient traditions of Persia, and Persian influence was predominately throughout. For the last few centuries of the Abbasid rule in Bagdad the caliph was the prisoner of his Turkish mercenaries, who overran his territories and ruled in his name. These were the Seljuk Turks, whose conquest of Jerusalem led to the Crusades.
Compiled by Marko Marelich
Retired Mechanical Engineer
San Francisco, California
September 10, 2005