The Origins of Islam

From Muhammad to the Abbasid Dynasty

Muhammad had his infamous vision in the month of Ramadan, 610 A.D. The Mecca into which he was born was undergoing dramatic tensions and was ripe for change. His tribe, the Quraysh, had rapidly gained wealth through trading with the surrounding people. In the stampede for wealth, local traditions were being challenged. There was perpetual violence and war as tribes fought among themselves. The Arabs seemed a lost people, “exiled forever from the civilized world and ignored by God Himself.” As contact with the Persian and Byzantine empires increased, the people were becoming aware of the more sophisticated religions of Judaism and Christianity. This feeling of having had no prophet, no revealed scripture, and no single High God, only increased the frustration of cultures caught in the dissolution of their inherited traditions.

The vision Muhammad on the night of 17 Ramadan would change this scene forever. Overpowered by these visions, he began pouring forth the speech that would become the Quran (recitation). For two years he kept quite about his visions, only sharing them with his wife and her cousin, a Christian. Both thought these visions were from God. He began preaching openly in 612 and gained converts. Among them was his young cousin Ali, his friend Abu Bakr, “and the young merchant Uthman ibn Affan from the powerful Umayyad family.” Most of his preaching focused on the emerging economic inequalities around Mecca; it was wrong, he insisted, on building a private fortune rather than helping out the poor.

The people who followed Muhammad were called islam, meaning surrender, because of their submission to God’s demand that human beings “behave to one another with justice, equity and compassion.” Such attitudes were to be expressed in the ritual prayers Muslims were required to make three times a day (later changed to five.) They were also required to give a portion of their wealth to the poor and to fast during the month of Ramadan, the month Muhammad had his vision. (Islamic calendar is lunar, so Ramadan moves through the seasons.) But above all the ritual and requirements, the purpose of Islam was to establish social justice on earth; their first duty was to build “a community characterized to practical compassion, in which there was a fair distribution of wealth. This was far more important than any doctrinal teaching about God.” This Islamic community was called the ummah and is instructive on understanding the political nature of the religion.

For 21 years Muhammad continued to receive the revelations that would be the Quran. Interestingly, the Quran insisted that it was simply a “reminder” of truths that everyone already knew. It continued a series of revelations that had been going on for thousands of years. Muhammad, the Quran claimed, had not come to negate other religions, but his message “is that same as that of Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, or Jesus.” In fact, the Quran warns not to argue with the “people of the book.” (Surah 29:46) Thus it “did not put forward any philosophical arguments for monotheism; its approach was practical, and , as such, it appealed to the pragmatic Arabs. The old religion, the Quran claimed, was simply not working. There was spiritual malaise, chronic and destructive warfare, and an injustice that violated the best Arab traditions and tribal codes. The way forward lay in a single God and a unified ummah, which was governed by justice and equity.”

5 duties, or Pillars, are essential in Islam:

1) profession of faith—“There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet

2) Prayers--The second duty is that of five daily prayers toward Mecca
3) Almsgiving--The third cardinal duty of a Muslim is to pay zakat.
4) Fasting—During month of Ramadan
5) Pilgrimage to Kabba

Growth of Islam.

As it grew in Mecca, they faced hostility from the merchants and traditionalists. It became impossible for Muhammad to realize the ummah in Mecca, so he went to Medina.

In Medina, Islam grew. It clashed with the Jews, who believed the era of prophesy was over. Moreover, some of the Quran’s stories about prophets like Noah and Moses differed from the Old Testament. Tension grew. In 624 he told his followers not to pray toward Jerusalem, but rather to face the Kabba at Mecca. As he gathered warriors to return to Mecca, he learned that the Jews were plotting his assassination. In response, his men massacred the Jewish men in Medina and sold their women and children into slavery.

In 630, Muhammad made the hajj, or the return to Mecca, with 10,000 men. He entered the city and destroyed the gods in the Kabba. He died two years later, after which nearly all the tribes around Mecca joined the ummah. Muhammad had united the warring tribes of Arabia in to one people with one god.

By far the most important issue after Muhammad’s death was succession. Who would be the prophet’s successor, or the caliph? Muhammad left no instructions as to how the leader of the ummah would be chosen.

The Rashidun (the “rightly guided” caliphs)

Abu Bakr

The first person to be in control was Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s father-in-law and close friend. He died after only two years and on his deathbed chose Umar I to be the next caliph.

Umar I

Under Umar I Islam experienced its first great period of expansion. It entered into Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Iraq. In 644 Umar was stabbed to death in the Mosque of Medina by a Persian prisoner of war. After his death Uthman ibn Affan was elected by several Meccan electors.

Uthman ibn Affan

Uthman was Muhammad’s son-in-law and one of his first converts after Muhammad’s visions. Although an old man, he carried on the territorial expansion of Islam. He made many of his people angry, however, because he favored the wealthy aristocrats of Mecca. He also issued an “official” version of the Quran and ordered all others to be burned. This made him unpopular with some people. In 656 angry Muslim troops from Egypt and Iraq caught up with Uthman in Medina and murdered him.

Ali

These troops, along with the population of Medina, recognized Ali, the closest male relative of Muhammad, as the Caliph. This decision was contested, and a five-year civil war broke out within the ummah.

In 657 Ali was killed by some of his followers who felt he betrayed them. Some Muslims thought that Ali should have been the caliph because he was Muhammad’s closest living male relative.

The Umayyad (661-750)

(oo my ad)

This family set up a dynasty and began to rule. When Ali’s son challenged them, they murdered him too. The followers of Ali, the Shiites, broke away in protest of the Umayyad and claimed that only descendants of Ali could be caliph.

Divisions in Islam

Shiites

The Shiites rejected the rule of the first three Rashiduns. They believe that only descendants of Ali and his wife (Muhammad’s daughter) have the right to rule. These descendants are sinless, infallible and alone have the divine right to rule the ummah. They called these descendants imams. The last died in 880 and Shiites to this day await his return when they think a just and perfect society will be set up on earth.

Sunnites

They accepted all of the Rashidun. They believed in God’s complete control over human fate and events; there is no free will. They believed the caliph should be from the tribe of Muhammad; he should be elected by a counsel of elders; he should seek to speak Allah’s work and the religion of Islam by any means, including violence and war. Unlike the Shiites waiting for the return of imam, the Sunnites are active in establishing the ummah, or today, an Islamic state.

The Umayyad dynasty made Damascus (in Syria) the capital of their empire. During their rule the Dome of the Rock was completed in Jerusalem—a monument to the staying power of Islam in the holy city. Soon the Umayyad became very prejudice against any non-Arabic people. They emphasized Arab culture against Persian and Byzantium culture. They made a distinction between Arab Muslims, who they favored, and the mawali—non-Arab Muslims—who they held to be second rate Muslims. Arabic became the official language of the empire and the most prestigious posts and jobs were reserved for Arabs. A coalition of Shiites and non-Arabic groups formed and protested that the Muslim faith was more important than the Arabic race. In 750 these groups overthrew the last Umayyad caliph.

The Abbassid Dynasty (750-1258)

(uh BAS ihd)

The first Abbassid caliph murdered all remaining members of the Umayyad family. The second murdered all Shii leaders he thought dangerous to his rule. Other caliphs moved the capital to Iraq, eventually to the city of Baghdad. This dynasty soon resembled an absolute monarch, isolated from his common subjects, surrounded by pomp and majesty (coming into his presence, people had to kiss the ground), and took on the title “The Shadow of God on Earth.” Islam reached its zenith of economic and political success just as it least resembled the religion started by Muhammad. Baghdad was transformed into a vast center of learning and culture. There, advances were made in science, algebra (we still use Arabic numerals), medicine and philosophy.

“The triumph of a new dynasty reflected a series of fundamental changes within the Islamic world. The increased size of Muslim civilization brought growing regional identities and made it difficult to hold the empire together. The Abbasid victory led to increased bureaucratic expansion, absolutism, and luxurious living. The Abbasids championed conversion and transformed the character of the previous Arab-dominated Islamic community. Once in power the Abbasids turned against the Shi'i and other allies to support a less tolerant Sunni Islam. At their new capital, Baghdad, the rulers accepted Persian ruling concepts, elevating themselves to a different status than the earlier Muslim leaders. A growing bureaucracy worked under the direction of the wazir, or chief administrator. The great extent of the empire hindered efficiency, but the regime worked well for more than a century. The constant presence of the royal executioner symbolized the absolute power of the rulers over their subjects.

Under the Abbasids new converts, both Arabs and othes, were fully integrated into the Muslim community. The old distinction between mawali and older believers disappeared. Most conversions occurred peacefully. Many individuals sincerely accepted appealing ethical Islamic beliefs. Others perhaps reacted to the advantages of avoiding special taxes, and to the opportunities for advancement open to believers in education, administration, and commerce. Persians, for example, soon became the real source of power in the imperial system.

The rise of the mawali was accompanied by the growth in wealth and status of merchant and landlord classes. Urban expansion was liked to a revival of the Afro-Eurasian trading network declining with the fall of the Han and Roman empires. Muslim merchants rnoved goods from the western Mediterranean to the South China Sea.

Urban prosperity led to increased artisan handicraft production in both government and private workshops. The most skilled artisans formed guild-like organizations to negotiate wages and working conditions, and to provide support services. Slaves performed unskilled labor and served caliphs and high officials. Some slaves held powerful positions and gained freedom. Most unskilled slaves, many of them Africans, worked under terrible conditions. A rural, landed elite, the ayan, emerged. The majority of peasants occupied land as tenants and had to give most of their harvest to the owners.

The Arabs before Islam were without writing and knew little of the outside world. They were very receptive to the accomplishments of the many civilizations falling to Muslim armies. Under the Abbasids Islamic artistic contribution first lay in mosque and palace construction. Islamic learning flourished in religious, legal, and philosophical discourse, with special focus on the sciences and mathematics. Scholars recovered and preserved the works of earlier civilizations. Greek writings were saved and later passed on to the Christian world. Muslims also introduced Indian numbers into the Mediterranean world.

By the 9th century Abbasid power had waned before the rise of regional states and the incursions of non-Muslim peoples. The Turks converted to Islam and became a major component of the Muslim world. The Arabs had created a basis for the first global civilization, incorporating many linguistic and ethnic groups into one culture. They created Islam, one of the great universal religions. Religion and politics initially had been joined, but the Umayyads and Abbasids used religious legitimacy to govern their vast empires. In both religion and politics they absorbed precedents from earlier civilizations. Muslims did the same in the arts and sciences, later fashioning their own innovative thinking which influenced other societies in Europe, Africa, and Asia.”*

During the time of this dynasty, the Crusades we launched to take Jerusalem back from the Muslims. They won, temporarily, but were driven back out by perhaps the most famous Muslim leader of all time, Saladin.

This dynasty finally ended in 1258 when the Mongols (the grandson of Genghis Khan) invaded Iraq, destroyed Baghdad, and killed the last of the Abbassid caliphs.

Map of Islam after fall of the Abbassid Empire.

Written by Mr. Henderson

Source, Islam: A Short History by Karen Armstrong

*Portion in parenthesis quoted from: http://occawlonline.pearsoned.com/bookbind/pubbooks/stearns_awl/chapter98/deluxe.html