The Rise of Islam

• Topic orientation: To discuss the emergence and spread of Islam and its impact on the
shaping of political authority in West Asia.

• Objectives:
to review the nature of religion, state and society in the central Islamic land during
after the Prophet Muhammad.
• to introduce the complex socio-political formations of the Arabian world as the central
Islamic landscape; The Arabian Peninsula is the place where Islam was born in Mecca.
• To situate the state of the religions and society in the peninsular before the rise of
Islam.
• This would be followed by a discussion on the life, messages and tribal reforms
activities of Prophet Muhammad and rise of Islam as a way of life and polity.
• Topic orientation:
• After exploring the sixth century geographical and political background,
we will discuss the initial problems and conflicts faced by Muhammad
and his followers to restructure the tribal society and polity. The
migration of the prophet from Mecca to Medina (hijrat) was the most
important event (622 A.D. the beginning of Islamic calendar). In 630 with
the after defeating the exiting tribal ruling elites of Mecca, Prophet
Muhammad firmly established Islam as a political system and way of life.
• Subsequently, topic 2 will discuss the rule of successors of Muhammad
(first four Caliphs). We will also explore the spread of Islam beyond
Arabia, capture of parts of Byzantine empire and Sassnids in Iran by the
Islamic state. A brief account of the rule of Umayyads and Abbasids will
also be provided. The Islamic state and society have been discussed
along with the discussion on caliphate till the Abbasid rule.
Major themes:
• Topic 1) The context for the Rise of Islam: Social and Geographical
context of Arabian Desert Peninsula. Religious Pluralism in the west
Asian region.
• Topic 2) Prophet Mohammad and tribal reforms: Muhammad and
Early Islam; Socio-cultural context of Islamic Doctrines.
• Topic 3) Islamic expansion and the emergence of Caliphates.
The Rise of Islam- Traditional chronology
• 570 CE Birth of Prophet Muhammad
• 610 CE Muhammad’s call to be the Seal of the Prophets on Mount
Hira, and the beginning of Revelation of the Qur’an
• 622 CE Prophet’s Hijrah from Makkah (Mecca) to Madina (Medina),
whose importance is commemorated
• by the Islamic calendar, which counts years from this point (A.H.)
• 630 CE Muhammad’s conquest of Mecca, and rededication of the
Ka’ba to monotheistic worship.
• 632 CE Death of Muhammad
• 632-661 CE Period of the “Rightly Guided Caliphs” (Abu Bakr, Umar,
Uthman, Ali),
• when the Umma (Islamic community) was led by the Companions of
the Prophet.
• This period is marked by Muslims consolidating their power in Arabia,
and the conquests of Syria, Palestine,
• Egypt, Iraq, Persia—all of which would come to constitute the heart of
the Islamic Empire.
• 661-750 CE Muawiyah, founder of the Umayyad dynasty, becomes the
caliph and moves the capital from Mecca to Damascus.
• 669 CE The Muslim conquest reaches Morocco in North Africa
• 672 CE Muslims under Muawiyah capture the island of Rhodes 711 CE
• With the conquest of Egypt, Spain and North Africa, the Persian
empire
• and most of the old Roman world came under the Islamic rule.
• Muslims began the conquest of Sindh in Afghanistan.
• 750 CE Fall of the Umayyads and the rise of the Abbasid Dynasty,
which conquered the Umayyads and ruled from
• Baghdad until the Mongol conquest in 1258 CE;
• 968-1171 CE The Fatimids, a “Sevener” Shi’ite Dynasty, founds the city
of Cairo and rules Egypt.
• 1099 CE The Crusaders take Jerusalem
• 1187 CE Saladin (the most famous of the Ayyubids, the dynasty that
toppled the Fatimids in Egypt in 1169 CE)
• retakes Jerusalem at Battle of Hattin
• 1258 CE The Mongol conquest causes the fall of the Abbasid Dynasty
• 1492 CE End of the Period of the Islamic rule of Spain.
Arabian-Islamic History: A Brief Outline
• Transformation from Arab tribes to a powerful state/empire
• Socio-cultural geography of the Arabian Peninsula: Predominantly
desert and the tribes who inhabited this area were nomadic.
• They travelled from place to place-from oasis to oasis.
• Politically fragmented (not unified as a political unit)
• The Arabian Peninsula is commonly perceived as a monotonous desert.
• The sixth century scenery of the region was of diversified topography
of sand dunes, lush desert oasis, and rocky areas.
• The population was likewise diversified. It included desert farmers,
artisans, merchants, and warriors organized in either nomadic tribes or
sedentary or settled kingdoms.
• Overall, we can distinguish between the northern part of Arabia, that
were more tribal and nomadic, and the south which tended to be
organized in centralized and sedentary political units.
• The most prominent cultural feature of the Arabs in the sixth century
was oral culture.
• Although writing was used, its use was for everyday and routine
purposes, whereas memorization was the means to preserve cultural
assets.
• This feature explains the high status of tribal poets. The poems they
composed and memorized were the archives of their communities.
Nomadism as a way of life
• Desert nomadism.
• In the early historic period, the Arabian Peninsula was occupied by
nomadic people; camel nomads.
• Why camel? Camel can adjust with the desert climate. Camel was a
source of milk and used for transportation purpose.
• Economy: Raiding was a major economic activity of the camel
nomads.
• For stronger political units they became useful carriers of trade and
an excellent source for soldiers.
• With their camels, the Bedouin became an independent political
force, difficult to be controlled by settled populations.
Raid and redistribution of wealth
• The camel nomads raided and exacted tribute from settled colonies.
• Bedouins living in proximity of strong empires became useful carriers
of trade and an excellent source for soldiers.
• The camel nomads called themselves Arabs, a designation that they
maintained, even after they had settled.
• The nomadic lifestyle shaped values of solidarity and hospitality on
the one hand and fierce competition, commercial and military, on the
other hand.
Religion :
• Religion occupied an important part of daily life.
• The majority of the Arabs were polytheist pagans who worshipped
stones, trees, and other material expressions of divinity.
• They attributed different divine forms with specific responsibilities.
• Together, all the divinities regulated the world from food to health,
from plentiful rain to military success.
• It seems, therefore, that religion for the polytheist Arabs had a
practical aspect.
• The idols provided for the daily necessities of existence.
• Theoretical introspection on the hereafter didn't occupy the Arabs
much.
• Pre-Islamic Arabia was familiar with monotheism. Outside the
Arabian Peninsula, Christianity mainly, but also Judaism, prevailed
among the peoples living further north in the Middle East or across
the Horn of Africa.
Social Organization of the Arabs:
• Nomadic social organizations.
• Families were interconnected for general economic purposes to form
clans.
• Clans were the basic social and economic unit and also for political
purposes.
• Clan or tribe was the identity of its members. The tribe was the only
unit of communal organization until Muhammad unified the tribal
groups.
• The nomadic tribalism was the way of organising their human groups
for defense and economic purposes.
• Their basic economic activity was trading, hording or raiding the
preserves of other tribes or settled population.
Paganism versus monotheism:
• Within Arabia, pagan Arabs lived with or very close to believers in
monotheism and were exposed to this type of belief and ritual practice.
• One example is Yathrib, a place that will later become a significant site for
Muhammad and his followers.
• The population of Yathrib in the sixth century included three large Arab
Jewish tribes and two Arab tribes who had recently migrated from Yemen.
• Moreover, a small number of Arabs within the Arabian Peninsula rejected
paganism.
• These were the hunafa, in singular hanif, who adopted a pure form of
monotheism and didn't belong to a formal existing religion.
• Therefore, the pre-Islamic Arabs were familiar with the idea of a belief in
one abstract god. And to this reality, Muhammad was born.
Religious Pluralism:
• The post 4th century CE after the 4th century was a crucial phase in the religious
formations in the west Asian regions.
• The period from the fourth to the eight century in the context of west Asia can
be called the ‘age of religion’.
• Two major religions flourished in the region after the 4th century:
• The emergence of the centralized Sassanian empire facilitated the
consolidation of the Zoroastrian church in Iran.
• The Sassanian Empire with its capital at Ctesiphon, in the bank of river Tigris
began to emerge as the centre of the Zoroastrianism. It is important to notice
that the Sassanid was the last pre-islamic Persian Empire
• (The Sassanian empire was consisted of the modern-day Iran, Afghanistan,
Iraq, Parts of Syria, and Parts of Turkey). In the Sassanian empire too, there
was a close alliance between the state and the religion; Zoroastrian.
• It is important to notice that the Sassanid was the last pre-islamic
Persian Empire
• (The Sassanian empire was consisted of the modern-day Iran,
Afghanistan, Iraq, Parts of Syria, and Parts of Turkey).
• In the Sassanian empire too, there was a close alliance between the
state and the religion; Zoroastrian.
• The second major development was the emergence of the Byzantine
Empire with Christianity as the state religion.
• A third force was Ethiopia which became a Christian state.
Historical sources to study the Pre-Islamic Past:
• We know about the pre-Islamic past of the Arabs from several literary sources.
• These are Arabic poetry, Muslim tradition, and chronicles that circulated among
other peoples in the Middle East, for instance, Greeks, Armenians, and Jews.
• Each source was created for a different purpose. Arab poetry, for instance,
served for entertainment, but also to immortalize figures, deeds, and events
from the past.
• Muslim tradition on its part unfolds Islamic religious history and explains from a
religious point of view
• the advent of Islam since Adam and Eve. Hence the Islamic term for pre-Islamic
period, Jahiliyya.
• It is much more than a chronological term. It means a period of moral and
religious ignorance and is in fact an ethical position.
• The traditional Islamic Historiography treat the Islam as a miracle, a
dramatic break from the past and the emergence of mankind from an
age of darkness and ignorance.
• However, a student of history should notice that the new religion of
Islam adopted elements of Christian, Jewish, and tribal religious
beliefs and practices.
• The new religion adopted: a) the Hebrew prophetic traditions and
believes in the final judgment and life after death, and b)
monotheism.
• These three religions share a similar sense of history based on the
Abrahamic tradition. Moreover, these religious traditions saw history
as a struggle for justice.