Download Background to A Study of Islam and the Koran

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• distant, withdrawn creator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.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Believe in Allah and His Prophet
Recite the prescribed prayers
Give alms (Zakah)
Observe the fast of Ramadan
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