IslamLecture1 2&3

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Week One: The Pre-Islamic Past and the Rise of the Islam to 632 A.D.

Why did it seem unlikely that the Arabian Peninsula would produce a new and dominant religion in the 7 th century?
Why did the world’s major religions crystallize in the century before the rise of Islam?
Why did the Arab conquests endure – not so much the physical domination but the cultural power of the new order?

Lecture 1

Prehistory: Civilization is very young.
- The earliest hominid fossils 4 million B.C.
- First Human fossil 100,000 B.C.
- Oldest anatomically correct fossil 90,000 B.C.
- Burials 60,000 B.C.
Pastoralism and the Agricultural Revolution
- Earliest food production 8,000 BC
- Earliest Civilization 4,000 B.C.
  - alphabets, central govs & elaborate religious rituals
- Wheel 3,000 B.C.
- 2400 BC, larger empires formed under dominant monarchs, unified peoples
  - Hydraulic societies
  - common laws
  - trade and commerce – Max Weber says it is important. Montgomery Watt argued it for Islam and Mecca .
  - shared culture and religion.
  - Gilgamesh from this period
The Ancient Near East
- Egypt : Herodotus said it was the “Gift of the Nile .”
  - Potential agricultural wealth, irrigation, a predictable river
  - Reliable communications, transport and military control
  - Self-contained, no big neighbors
  - Pharaoh’s – godkings
  - Land of a single people
  - The continuity of Egyptian culture
    - Is this why Egypt is most stable Mid East nation today?
  - Language: Hamitic, related to Semitic language
Mesopotamia ( Iraq ): the land between the rivers
- Competition for control of resources
  - Rivers fast, steep, and unfriendly, difficult to navigate
  - Less unifying environment, no single state, numerous small states (i.e. rivalries
  - City states, local gods, temples and priests
  - No one language, no one religion, no uniform cultural memory
  - But lots of trade, which had a decisive impact on religious developments.
    - discuraged cultural and religious parochialism
    - deities no longer limited to one city or tribe. They grew to have broad appeal.
    - Social inequalities became more conspicuous and brought injustices into sharper focus.
- Ethnicity, a land of several peoples
  - Sumerians: possibly from Iranian highlands, Language unrelated to Semitic
  - Akkadians: 24 th c. BC, Semitic people led by King Sargon, overrun Sumer and absorbed Sumerians
  - Amorites: in Babylon then overrun Akkadians but retain civ. and language.
  - Barbarian conquerors: from Eurasia , 1700 BC, chariots and horses. Aryans and Hittites who brought iron weapons
Syria : history’s battlefield – torn between Iraq and Egypt

Rainfed agriculture, incoherent area, marginal productivity
Communication by overland trade routes
Civilization based on trade between larger states, innovative (i.e. Alphabet)
Many religions, languages, and brutal rivalries

Peoples: no single state, population in mountains and on coastline
- Canaanites: Semitic people of Palestine-Syrian region
- Philistines from Aegean , Peoples of the Sea, attack Palestine , at same time as Hebrews are beginning to define themselves.
- Hebrews: Israelites, are emerging from Canaanites. 1900BC?
  - They speak Hebrew, dialect of Canaanite
  - Hebrews unite in kingdom for 50 years
    - Kingdom is divided after Solomon in 922 BC. two states
      - north became Samaritans ( Samaria ),
      - southern kingdom centered around Jerusalem ( Judea ): later became known as Jews
- Aramaeans spread their culture in Syrian inland and Aramaean becomes lingua franca of Middle East
Syria is rarely independent: Usually ruled by Egyptians or Mesopotamians, later by Greeks, Romans, and Persians.
The Fertile Crescent is a “vortex that pulls inward and fuses what lies around it.”

The pre-Islamic Middle East
- The emergence of multinational empires: Surviving religions today were tied to political power and empires.
  - Egypt ruled from Egypt to Oxus (550-331 BC)
  - Greeks, Alexander 331BC
  - Roman Empire : 1 st Century BC conquered Anatolia , and Middle East
    - It became the champion of Christianity in 4 th century.
  - Persian Empires, always important. Sasanian empire (234 AD – 634AD)
    - Champion of Zoroastrianism, but would lose to Muslims
- The Middle East not at the center with the exception of early Christianity
  - Caught in the middle between rival giants
  - Culturally provincial, no strong allegiance
  - Changing sides, looking out for number one
The discovery of monotheism
- Religion had already become increasingly abstract – Greek Platonism, Persian Zoroastrianism
- With the emergence of large unifying empires, religions moved toward one god. There appeal was that they were universal religions. They associated faith with a truth, which applied to all the world and not just one people.
  - Polytheism recognizes that there are many paths to truth or salvation.
Jews were first, religion was restricted to themselves, but

Many polytheists found it attractive and either converted or were influenced by its sense of law and powerful universal worldview. Many Jews stressed the “light unto nations” aspect in their attempt to proselytize.
- Many Christians rejected Jewish rites such as circumcision, preferring a ritual purification bath instead.
Hebrew prophets in Israel , dispersed from Palestine by Romans in 1 st and 2 nd centuries A.D. but there were already many colonies.
Jewish communities continued to flourish throughout the M.E.
- Egypt was said to have a million Jews in 200AD. But Jewish colonies existed in Greece , Asia minor , throughout the Levant , and into Persia
- Jewish kingdoms or principalities emerged in various times and places
  - In Armenia , Chalcis , cappadocia, Iturea, Abilene in the 1 st c. -among the Mimyarites in southern Arabia during the 6 th c.; or among the Khazars of Central Asia in the 8 th.

Christians second: who universalized the concept, but in the process of converting the civilized world lost the central thread of monotheism?
- Christianity: Grew rapidly during Roman times and became state religion of Byzantines in late 4 th c. beginning with Constantine in 300 and consolidating with Justinian in 6 th c.
  - Council of Chalcedon 451 defined Christ as having two natures: “Christ was both perfect God and perfect man, made known to us in two natures.
  - The Roman Empire in the East sought to strike a compromise between:
    - This angered those who came to be known as Monophysites, who insisted on the full mystical union of God and man in a single nature in the person of Christ.
    - Monophysites believed Christ had only one nature - Copts in Egypt , Armenians in Anatolia , Ethiopians, and certain groups in Syria
    - Nestorians: in East maintained a sharp division between the two natures and spoke of the word of God dwelling from conception in the man Jesus.
  - Constantinople also insisted on being regarded as the first city of the region, adding a political dimension to the theological divisions.
    - Rival networks of priests and bishops sprung up throughout Syria and Egypt to challenge the hegemony of Constantinople . By 7 th c. persecution of sects was rife, causing many to look to the Muslims for help.
  - Many argue these theological division weakened the region, leaving the door open to Muslim invaders when they came.
Zoroastrianism: a distinctive faith emerged in late antiquity.
- It was the religion most closely linked to the Persian empire .
- Zoroaster, Iranian prophet preached doctrine of supreme God – Ahura Mazda - locked in struggle with forces of evil. Dualistic.

Based on Avestan texts and commentaries.
When Muslims destroyed the Persian Empire in 7 th c., the religion would also almost disappear.

Manichaeism was second religion or Iran and battled with Zoastrianism.
- It was the most universalistic of all the religions, hinting at Islamic universalism. (see p. 31 in Berkey)

Islam: radically monotheist. Arabs are priviledged
Monotheist tradition – what makes it different?
- Belief in one God
- Prophets, scriptures, angels and devils
- Moral universe – communal accountability in contrast to polytheism (i.e. the epic of Gilgamesh)
- History is sacred with a beginning and an end – not cyclical like Indian rel.
- God’s will must be followed
  - Day of Judgment – reward and punishment
  - Eternal destiny in next life
- Supported by state patronage
Lecture 2 Arab Society on the cusp of Islam
Though Islam would respond to the needs of a changing tribal society, its origins were also outside Arabia
- Why Islam?
- Middle Eastern Politics: Sasanian and Byzantine empires at war from 540 on
  - Ctesiphon , capital of Persians on Tigris , Constantinople , capital of Byzantines, in Europe
  - Arab kingdoms: Ghassanids, Lakhmids and Yemen
  - Monotheist influences: Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism
- Arabian politics: reflected tribal realities: Arabia 1/3 size of U.S.
- Polytheism,
  - ka`ba, central shrine, housed 360 idols of tribal deities
  - pilgrimage
- The desert and the sown
- Bedouin tribalism
  - Family, clan, tribe, confederation
  - Leadership: Shaykh, consensus of peers, advisory council (shura)
  - Maruwwa, the virtues of tribal solidarity: bravery, loyalty, hospitality, patience and family honor
    - Law: vendetta and retaliation versus “umma”
- Islam and Muhammad are products of Mecca – an urban center
  - Traditional tribal society breaking down in city
    - Reflected in Muhammad’s appeal to care for poor, orphans, women, etc.
  - Commerce and traditional religion in the Hijaz
  Muhammad in Mecca

Meccan prophethood 610-622,

Revelation – retreated to cave on Mt. Hira – Gabriel
Quran, “the recitation” - word of God
- Collection of 114 suras – chapters – revealed over 22 years
  - First memorized – written on palm leaves, stones, etc.
  - Collected by 1 st Caliph, Abu Bakr
  - Definitive Quran established by 2 nd Caliph, Umar
Seal of prophets – reformer
God is one – “tawhid”
Shahada – ‘There is no God but God, and Muhammad is the messanger of God’
Allah – same Judeo-Christian God – Islam not new
Jahiliyya vs Islam

Lecture 3
Medina 622-632: The Quranic mandate took form in Medina under the Prophet. The Medinan community formed a total framework for state, society, and culture. It epitomized the Quranic mandate for Muslims as individuals and as a community “to transform the world itself through action in the world.” This aspiration and ideal has constituted the challenge for the Islamic community throughout history. It inspired Muhammad to transform a local sheikdom into a transtribal state. From its beginnings, Islam existed and spread as a community-state; it was both a faith and a political order.
- Hijra, 622
- Badr: Muslim victory over Mekkans, 624
- Uhud: Muslim defeat by Mekkans, 625
- Al-Hudaybiyya: truce b/n Muhammad and Mekkans. Pledge of loyalty under Tree
- Muslim conquest of Mekka, 630
- Death of Prophet, 632
New order
- Umma, New community
- The constitution of Medina
  - Kindness to relatives still a cardinal religious obligation:
    - “And give to the close kin his due, to the indigent, and the wayfarer. That is best for those who seek the Countenance of God and they will be the prosperous.” 17:26
  - But kindness to faithful takes precedence
    - “O you who believe, do not take your fathers and your brothers as friends if they prefer infidelity to the faith. Those of you who take them as friends, they are the wrongdoers. If your fathers, your sons, your spouses, your clan (`ashira), if riches you have acquired, or a trade whose decline you fear, and dwellings which please you, are dearer to you than God, His Messenger, and striving in His path, then wait until God will bring about His order. God does not guide the people who offend” ( 9:23 -4)
    - The faithful must not deviate from honesty even for kin
      - “O you who believe, stand firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even though it be against yourselves, your parents, or close kin, whether rich or poor, for God is closes to them both. Do not follow passion in place of justice.” (4: 135)
    - Muhajirun (Emigrants) are better than those who remained in Mecca , and they are allies of the Medinan Helpers (ansar)
      - “Surely, those who believed and have emigrated and have fought with their property and their persons in the path of God, and those who sheltered and aided [them], they are the allies (awliya’) of each other. As for those who believed but did not emigrate, you have no ties of alliance whatsoever with them until they emigrate; but if they ask for your aid in religion, it is your duty to aid them, except against a people with whom you have a compact. And God sees whatever you do. The infidels are allies of each other. Unless you do this [aid other Muslims], there would be temptation [to apostatize] on earth and much corruption. Those who believed and have emigrated and fought in the path of God and those who sheltered and aided them [them], they are the faithful truly. For them, there will be forgiveness and generous sustenance.” (8: 72-4)
- Early Islamic worldview provides model for the formation of a state and for protest and revolution : World is divided between believers, or friends of God, and unbelievers (kafirs) and hypocrites, who are the allies of evil, the followers of Satan:
  - “God is the Protector of the believers; He brings them forth from darkness to the light. And the unbelievers – their protectors are the idols, that bring them forth from the light into the shadows; those are the inhabitants of the Fire, theirin dwelling forever.” (2:257-59)
- Hijra and Jihad
  - Faced with persecution, Muslims had two choices
    - Hijra: believers were expected to leave godless society and establish a community of believers under God and His Prophet
    - Jihad: Muslims exhorted to struggle against the forces of evil and unbelief.
      - “So let them fight in the way of God who sell the present life for the world to come; and whosoever fights in the way of God and is slain, or conquers, we shall bring him a mighty wage.” (4:74)
- Women
  - Muhammad’s marriages as source of Western criticism: sensualist
  - How do we understand Muhammad’s marriages and attitude to women
    - Quran permits four wives
    - Married to Khadija to age of 50.
    - 11 marriages, most for political reasons or were widows of fallen companions
    - Aisha only virgin
    - Polygyny widespread in Middle East
      - Judaism permitted polygamy in old testament and up to Middle Ages
    - Islam improved status of all women – wives, daughters, mothers, widows, and orphans
    - No sin to enjoy sex in marriage in Islam
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Lecture 1

Prehistory: Civilization is very young.

Lecture 3