Download October 2, 2012 Mediaeval History Lecture 7 As Muhammad

Mediaeval History Lecture 7


















October 2, 2012
As Muhammad preached his message in Mecca, some were attracted to it,
and some weren’t.
Specifically, the poor were attracted to his message, because (like Jesus
before him) Muhammad emphasized the importance of charity – of the rich
giving to the poor.
The wealthier citizens of Mecca disliked Muhammad, because his message
threatened the pagan tourist industry centred around the Ka’ba, and it
stressed the importance of sharing one’s wealth.
The most influential people of Mecca’s society came to see Muhammad as a
dangerous social radical and were actively opposed to his message.
His early followers were heavily persecuted in Mecca, and many fled
northward to the town of Medina.
Muhammad, however, refused to flee Mecca because he claimed he had not
received instruction from God to do so.
During this period of persecution in Mecca, Muhammad had several close
relatives, and his first wife, die.
September 24, 622 AD. God told Muhammad to leave Mecca. This date (the
Hijra) is now considered an important Muslim holiday and is “year one” of
the Islamic calendar.
Muhammad was welcomed in Medina, and quickly gained more converts
there.
Muhammad garnered a combination of political and spiritual leadership
among the people, as he assumed more power within the local government.
Muhammad’s message was largely about creating a just society.
Generally, “submission to Allah” was in reality “submission to Muhammad”,
because Muhammad claimed to be the prophet (essentially the mouthpiece)
of God.
He was never officially a political leader, but was recognized as being the
most important/ influential leader in Medina.
The laws he proclaimed demonstrate the fusion od religion and politics.
“Ummah”: community of believers.
He made it law that people must pray 5 times a day, and must give to the
poor.
Muhammad continued to receive visions throughout his life – visions which
helped him adapt his belief system to new political situations.
He received two crucial visions that would change his message in important
ways:
o One was about the people in Medina who did not follow Islam,
specifically a group of Jews. Muhammad had previously tried to
protect the rights of non-believers, assuming that people would
naturally come to see Islam as the one true religion. When people
failed to convert, Muhammad became frustrated. He supposedly had a














revelation from God that Allah was the same God as the one of
Judaism and Chistianity. Muhammad claimed that the Jews were
wrong not to recognize him as the latest (and greatest) prophet. He
proclaimed that Jews and Christians would not go to heaven unless
they converted to Islam.
o The Second vision had to do with people who persecuted the Ummah
and Muhammad. The revelation said that God permitted those who
were wronged to fight back.
Muhammad sent a force of 1000 men to attack a trade caravan leaving Mecca
(resulting in what would be known as Battle of Badr.)
Muhammad’s troops were outnumbered but her rallied his men by yelling
that anyone killed in battle would go to heaven for certain, and Muhammad’s
troops won the battle.
In this, the ummah seemed to prove itself superior in might to unbelievers.
In 630 AD, Muhammad rallied 10 000 men to march on Mecca to defeat the
“unbelievers”.
The Meccans, rather than fight, agreed to let Muhammad enter the city in
return for their lives.
Muhammad entered the city as something of a conqueror. He goes first to the
Ka’ba, and declares it a holy site for Islam.
Muhammad moved his “headquarters” to Mecca and set his military sights on
the surrounding tribes.
Islam is gradually becoming a “kingdom”, as it becomes both a spiritual and
political community.
Created a unified group out of disparate tribes, as a community based on the
common belief in Islam.
Before he died, Muhammad established the “5 Pillars of Islam”:
o There is only one God and Muhammad is his messenger.
o You must pray 5 times a day.
o You must fast during the daylight hours of the holy month.
o You must give charity to the needy.
o You must perform the Hajj, a pilgrimage to the Ka’ba in Mecca once in
your lifetime (if you can afford it.)
Followers were also asked to work towards the expansion of the Ummah, as
well as expansion of individual “depth of belief.”
o Jihad: External struggle of Islam against non-believers.
o Greater Jihad: Struggle within oneself to become a better muslim.
632 AD, Muhammad dies, which creates a problem as to who’s going to
succeed him as a leader.
Muhammad had claimed to be the last prophet, and he never put any
measures in place to establish succession.
Two candidates emerged:
o Abu Bakr: An old friend of Muhammad, and also his father-in-law. He
had some very powerful support among the influential clans in
Medina.



















o Ali: Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law (he was married to Fatima,
Muhammad’s only surviving child.) Fatima, being a woman, couldn’t
herself take leadership, but Ali and Fatima’s children would be
descendants of Muhammad’s bloodline, (claimed bloodlines as
legitimate cause for leadership.
Abu Bakr, however, claimed that blood ties were not necessary to assume
leadership.
Abu succeeded in organizing an army of followers, which gradually
conquered the surrounding tribes. Islam grew in this way through military
might.
Abu Bakr was established as “Caliph”, which meant “representative of the
message of the prophet of God.”
First enemies to be faced outside of Arabia were the Byzantine Empire and
the Persian Empire. Both empires, however, were exhausted after fighting
between each other for hundreds of years.
Muslim armies were able to capture what would be modern-day Syria.
636 AD Abu Bakr dies. He had established succession to his son-in-law, Umar,
who became the second Caliph.
Umar continues to expand Muslim territory, capturing Jerusalem from the
Byzantines in 637 AD.
Islamic armies then turn their attention Northeast to the Persian Empire, and
managed to defeat the Persian army near Baghdad.
By 642 AD, Umar had conquered all of Egypt.
By 644 AD, the armies of Islam had captured more territory in less time than
Alexander the Great had in his day.
Umar was eventually assassinated, but managed to establish a successor
before he died – an old friend of Muhammad from the Bann Umayyad clan,
named Uthman ibn Affan.
Islamic armies continued onwards, conquering Libya, and becoming a major
navel power in the Mediterranean, where previously the Byzantine Empire
had control.
Islamic armies conquered Cypress, and continued to press east.
In 650 AD, the Persian Empire collapsed.
However, the expansion of the Islamic empire created problems of
unification. Many of the people in the empire were not happy to have been
conquered, and there were rampant rebellions across the empire.
A solution was needed that would unite the people of the Islamic empire
under a common identity.
Muhammad, in his lifetime, never wrote anything down. But Uthman decided
Islam need one unifying scripture.
He had his religious leaders produce a written book of Muhammad’s visions
and teachings: the Qur’an.
Revolt, however, continued to break out across the empire. In 655, Uthman
was murdered.



















Ali (husband of Fatima) was still vying for the position of Caliph, and had
garnered just enough support to become Caliph.
But he didn’t have universal support across the empire, and many didn’t
recognize his leadership as legitimate. This led to what was essentially a civil
war.
661 AD, Ali was assassinated, to be succeeded by another leader from the
Umayyad clan, Muawiyah.
He had enough support to firmly establish himself, but there were still a
small but significant minority of people who insisted that Ali’s descendants
had the legitimate claim to Muslim leadership.
This resulted in an Islamic split between Sunni Muslims (supporters of
Muawiyah) and Shi’ites (supporters of Ali and Fatima’s descendants.
Shi’ites believed that Ali and Fatima’s descendants were sinless and
possessed knowledge not contained in the Qur’an.
Damascus was established as the Islamic capital under the Umayyad
caliphates.
The empire’s next goal was to conquer Constantinople. A series of attacks
were launched but all were defeated by the Byzantine forces.
In 720 AD. and Arab fleet assaulted Constantinople but suffered a crushing
defeat.
Muslim armies continued to push further west along the coast of Africa,
reaching the southern Spanish coast by 711 Ad, where they attacks and
defeated the Visigoth armies. The entirety of modern-day Spain and Portugal
eventually cam under Islamic control.
732 AD. – 100 years after Muhammad’s death, Muslim armies clashed with a
Frank army led by Frank King Charles Martel.
The French defeated the Muslim army in Torres, effectively halting the
Muslim expansion into France.
This defeat, coupled with the defeat in Constantinople, constituted the extent
of Muslim expansion on Europe.
There would thereafter remain a delicate balance between the three empires
in Europe: Muslim, Byzantine, and Western Christianity.
There occurred a “golden age” in the Muslim Empire.
A new Caliphat group known as the Abbasids took control and set up their
capital in Baghdad. Baghdad became the centre of vast commercial networks
and became a very prosperous city.
Abbasids strengthened their political power by bringing in leaders from
different places, all united under the Arabic language. (Arabic was the
language of the Qur’an).
They developed a complex bureaucratic government and infrastructure, all
supported by tax revenue from across the Islamic empire.
There was a flowering of literature, music and culture. A centre for wisdom
was founded in the city, to which scholars were brought in from across
Europe, and manuscripts were collected and translated.



They studied the great mathematicians of India, developed Arabic numerals,
and appropriated the number “0” from the Indians - perpetuated and
revolutionized mathematics.
Muslims and Christians traded and mixed intellectually. Western intellectual
culture derives from the Abbasids.
North-western Christians were considered rather barbaric and uncivilized by
Eastern cultures.