Background to

A Study of Islam

and the Koran

Geo-Political Setting

• Rome and Byzantine Empires

– 326 CE: Council of Nicea

– 330 CE: Founding of Nova Roma (Constantinople)

– 380 CE: Theodosius I declares Christianity official

religion of the Empire

– 395 CE: Empire split in half following death of

Theodosius I

– 451 CE: Council of Chalcedon

– 476 CE: Fall of the Western (Roman) Empire –

Odovacar

– 533-554: Justinian‟s generals reconquer North

Africa and Italy

Geo-Political Setting

Byzantium circa 565 CE

Geo-Political Setting

• Sassanid Empire

– 2nd Persian Empire; 226 – 651 CE

– Refuge for Greek philosophy

– Influences Islamic architecture, literature, art (1001

Nights)

– Zoroastrianism – official state religion

• Nestorian Christianity (Edict of Toleration, 483 CE)

• Judaism

– Warfare with Roman/Byzantine Empires

– Extensive trade and cultural contact with China,

southeast Asia, India, Rome, and Byzantium

Geo-Political Setting

Geo-Political Setting

600 CE

Pre-Islamic Arabia

Pre-Islamic Arabia

• Over 1 million square miles

– Desert and marginally habitable steppe

• Pastoral-nomadic life and trade

• Yemen to southern Palestine

– Hejaz (cradle of Islam)

• Arabs are Semites

– Language grouping

• Shem, son of Noah

• modern theory: Arabian origin of Semitic

peoples

Pre-Islamic Arabia

• Traditional roots

– Southern and Northern

– Yemen aboriginal; Hejaz assimilated

• Hejaz descendants of Adnān, descendant of Ishmael

• Time before Islam known as al-Jāhilīya

– barbaric ignorance

• Life

– Camel and sheep raising; hunting; escort and raiding of caravans; mercenaries against Sassanids

Pre-Islamic Arabia

• Culture

– Tribe and Clan loyalty

• Family – clan – tribe

• Hamish clan, Quraysh tribe

• Bloodfeuds

– Personal Honor

• Courage, loyalty and generosity; raiding and

hospitality

• Role of women

Pre-Islamic Arabia

• Culture

– Poetry

• Artistic expression; shamanistic religion

• Poet - shā·ir – “one who knows”

• Special power of a poet‟s words

– Curses and insults against opponents

– Protection and boasts for friends

• Native Religion

– Veneration of spirits and places they lived (Stones, wells, trees, sacred precincts of tribal origins)

– Sacrificial shrines

Pre-Islamic Arabia

• Native Religion (cont.)

– Male and female dieties

• 3 daughters of Allah

– Ka‟ba at Mecca home to deity Hubal

– Allah, high God of Quraysh tribe and Mecca

• distant, withdrawn creator

• Monotheism

– Jews numerous in Yemen and Medina

– Christian, Zoroastrian, Jewish Mecca

– Native Arabian monotheists (hanīfs)

The Mecca of Muhammad

• Society of Mecca (c. 550 CE)

– location on trade route between southern

Arabia and Egypt/Syria

– site of lucrative religious ritual

– the Ka‟ba, the Black Stone

• by tradition, Ka‟ba stretches back to Abraham

and Ishmael

• Mecca ruled by the Quraysh tribe

– by tradition descendants of Abraham and

Ishmael

The Mecca of Muhammad

• Factions of the

Quraysh tribe

– Hashim, merchant

and philanthropist

– Hashim‟s nephew

Umayya

• Hashim dies, succeeded

by his son or younger

brother, Abd al-Muttalib,

whose son Abdallah is

father of...

The Prophet Muhammad

• circa 569 - 632

• at 25, marries widow merchant Khadija, age 40

• 610, first revelation from angel Gabriel during Ramadan at Mt. Hira– Command to “Recite!”

– Q 96:1-5

• 610-621– first converts; Khadija, Ali, Zaid and Abu Bakr

(first among the “Six Companions”)

– proclaims self prophet of Allah and declares Ka‟ba worship is idolatry, raising Umayyid opposition

The Prophet Muhammad

• 622 - 630: Medina Years

– sets rituals of prayer and involved with practical problems of theocratic rule and judgment

– raids on caravans in conflict with Abu Sufyan (Umayyad) leader of Mecca

– Conflict with Jewish tribes

• equal treatment, freedom of religion

• banishment, confiscation of property

• death or conversion

• Conquest of Mecca: 628-630

• Submission of Arabia: 630-632

The Qur‟an

• Writing of The Qur‟an

– Muhammad dictates revelations; written on

parchment, leather, palm-leaves, bones for deposit

– 633, Caliph Abu Bakr orders Muhammad‟s chief

amanuensis, Zaid ibn Thabit, to “search out the

Qur‟an and bring it together”

– -651, Caliph Othman commissions Zaid to revise the

original manuscript to end confusion

– suras ordered by length (roughly historically reverse

order)

Islam

• Nature of Islam

– Allah is source of life, growth , and all blessings

– Allah is a God of Power, Justice and Mercy

– Allah is omniscient

– religion of faith, not works

• Simplicity of “Creed”

– “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is His

Prophet.”

– Acceptance of Qur‟an and all its teachings

• heaven and hell; angels and demons

• resurrection of body and soul; divine predestination

• Last Judgment

Islam

• Five Pillars of Moslem practice

I. Believe in Allah and His Prophet

II. Recite the prescribed prayers

III. Give alms (Zakah)

IV. Observe the fast of Ramadan

V. Make the pilgrimage to Mecca (Haj).

• Acceptance of The Hadith

– traditions, deeds, and sayings of Muhammad

• deeds and sayings called Sunna

• Basis for interpretation of Qur‟an in new circumstances

– several different approved collections

• associated with “Four Legal Schools”

The Medinan Caliphate

• The Problem of Succession• Abu Bakr (leader of prayers- companion and fourth

convert) and Companions

• Ali (cousin and adopted son of Muhammad, husband of

Fatima, second convert) and Abbas (uncle of Ali and the

Prophet)

• The Medinan Caliphate (=successor/representative)

• Abu Bakr (r. 632-634)

• „Umar (Omar ibn al-Khattab) (r. 634-644)

• „Uthman (Ummayyad clan) (r. 644-656)

• Ali (r. 656-661)

• The Sunni-Shiite split

The Great Islamic Dynasties

• Ummayad Caliphate (661-750 CE)• Capital to Damascus, Caliph of God, Hereditary

Succession

• Extension of Boundaries, Orderly and Liberal Government

• Hereditary Lottery: Incompetence, Extravagance and

Surrender of Administration

• Abbassid Caliphate (750 - 1058 CE)• Restoration of Hamishite line; capital to Anbar, then

Baghdad

• Administration of Persians, Establishment of Vizierate

• Inauguration of the Golden Age of Islamic Culture and

Science

• Ransoming of Constantinople; Independence of Spain,

Tunisia and Egypt

Expansion of Islam

Expansion of Islam