Augsburg Fortress Canada

Chapter 4

An Overview of Islamic History

Chapter Summary

Expansion of the Islamic Empire after the death of Muhammad – intellectual encounters in Damascus and Baghdad – Cairo as a centre of Islamic learning – Islam comes to Spain – many intellectual advances by Muslims – the Golden Age of Islamic Spain – Greek thought returns to Europe – the Christian Reconquista in Spain – Jewish–Muslim relations – Israel/Palestine in the 20th century – the Crusades – Saladdin and Francis of Assisi – expansion of Islam in the non-Arab world – modern period.

After Muhammad's death, the Islamic Empire grew rapidly with many local dynasties such as the Abbasids (750–1258; 1261–1517), the Umayyads (756–1031) and the Fatimids (909–1171). In the last 500 years, more geographically limited empires developed: the Ottomans (1280–1924), the Mughals (1526–1858), the Safavids (1501–1765) and the Alawids (1631 onwards). Most were colonized by European empire.

After the death of the Prophet in 632, tribes once united under his leadership began to separate (ridda). The first caliphs used military force to bring them again to unity, expanding Islam's sphere of influence. Abu Bakr formulated the rules of Islamic military engagement; negotiations were always preferred. Nevertheless, Islamic Empire advanced with stunning speed. By 637, Muslims ruled Palestine and Iraq; by 641, they ruled Egypt and Syria. North Africa had been won by 714.

The spread of Muslim rule did not mean that everyone converted to Islam. Populations that were ahl al-Kitab (People of the Book, a status extended to Zoroastrians in Iran), enjoyed religious protection, though not absolute religious freedom. They did not serve in the military, but instead paid the jizya, a special tax on dhimmis. The special concern for protected religious expressions is demonstrated by Caliph Umar's conduct in Jerusalem. As Islamic empire expanded, Muslims came into contact with sophisticated Jewish and Christian thinkers (who served as administrators). This dialogue facilitated engagement between Islam and Greek thought and the refining of Islamic theology (ilm al-kalam).

When the Umayyads relocated their capital to Damascus (661–750), the intellectual heritage of the declining West was translated into Arabic and brought into Islamic thought. Syriac translations of Greek texts were then translated into Arabic. The work of translation was accelerated when the Abbasids established the Bayt al-Hikma (House of Wisdom) in Baghdad. Many of the scholars there were Christians and Jews. In Cairo, al-Azhar University was founded in 978. After the Iberian peninsula was brought under Islamic rule, Cordoba was established as a center of learning.

The Golden Age of Islamic Spain (al-Andulus) saw many advances in scholarship. Thinkers included Ibn Rushd (Averroes), al-Farabi, and Ibn Sina (Avisenna). Additionally, medical advances were achieved by Ibn Sina, Ibn al-Nafis and Ibn al-Haytham. The foundations were laid for modern mathematics, geography and astronomy. Although dhimmis, Christians and Jews worked closely with Muslims. The common language was Arabic, and Aristotalianism provided a shared philosophical system. The benefits of this dialogue and mutual influence included a renewal of Christian thought through Thomas Aquinas. The Islamic Empire in Spain broke up under pressure from the Christian reconquista which, among other things, resulted in a new stage of Jewish-Muslim relations.

Even while Spain harbored relatively calm interfaith relations, Christians and Muslims were battling each other in the Holy Land. A difficult point of Muslim-Christian relations, the history of the Crusades is most often told from one or the other perspective. Eastern and Western Christianity had experienced the Great Schism in 1054, and Pope Urban II called the First Crusade in 1095. Muslims were a common enemy against which all Christians could unite. After slaughtering Jews across Europe, the Crusaders arrived in Jerusalem on July 15, 1099. More slaughter ensued, leaving a lasting image of Western Christians in the minds of Eastern Christians, Muslims and Jews.

The violence of the crusades was promoted by many Christian leaders. Salah al-Din (Saladdin) and Francis of Assisi provide counterexamples to this violent spirit. Nevertheless, the Crusades persist in the memory of Muslims worldwide. When the term "crusade" is used by Christians, the memory is enkindled. The early Arab Muslim conquests established what is today the Arab world. But today, only about 15% of Muslims are Arabs. This expansion beyond the Arab world resulted from trade in Africa and into China.

The modern era has seen the fragmentation of Islamic empires. The Ottoman Empire finally ended in 1918, after it sided with Germany in WWI. In response, Ataturk disbanded the Caliphate in 1924 and forcibly secularized Turkey. Much of the Muslim world was colonized by European powers. The colonial enterprise enriched European powers, but left much of the Muslim world demoralized. This period brought about a regression in Islamic thought, which saw the rise of some intellectual revivalists. In addition to individual revivalists, modern Islam has seen the development of reform movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood as an effort to regain political power through theocratic authority.

Among the great intellectual revivalists of the colonial period were men like Ahmad Sirhindi (d. 1624) and Shah Waliullah (d. 1762) in India, Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (d. 1897), who taught Islamic unity in Iran, Egypt, India and Turkey, Abd al-Kader (d. 1883) in Algeria, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab (d. 1792) in Arabia, and Muhammad Abduh (d. 1905) in Egypt. They sought to awaken Muslims to their heritage and revive intellectual thought in Islamic studies.

In the twentieth century the struggle for independence from colonialism and the reinvigoration of Islamic learning led to reform movements in Egypt, such as the Ikhwan al-Muslimin, or the Muslim Brotherhood, with which the names of Hasan al-Banna (d. 1949) and Sayyid Qutb (d. 1966) are associated. They sought to reinterpret Islam on the basis of a pure understanding of the Qur'an and Hadith, and thus to gain political power for a reformed Islamic State. Their efforts were paralleled in India and later Pakistan by Maududi (d. 1978) who sought to transform the young Pakistan into what he called a 'theodemocracy'. In Turkey, Said Nursi (d. 1960) founded the Nurculuk Movement as a spiritual force against secularism. The legacy of the colonial period has a considerable effect up to the present as will be touched on at greater length in the last chapter. The twentieth century saw Muslims lose territories in the Balkans, Central Asia, Kashmir, Palestine and parts of Greece and China.

Key Names, Terms, and Concepts

Questions for Discussion and Reflection

  1. Explain dhimmi status.
  2. Describe the situation leading up to the calling of the First Crusade.
  3. What factors contributed to the burst of knowledge and academic creativity in the Golden Age of Spain. How did Aristotle contribute to the relationship between Christians, Muslims and Jews?
  4. How did Francis of Assisi's experience of the Crusades affect his understanding of Christianity?
  5. Many westerners assume that Islam is a violent religion whose empire spread at the tip of a sword. In what ways might this chapter help nuance that perception?
  6. The era known as the "Dark Ages" in western culture coincides with the Golden Age of Islamic Spain. How might this awareness of interdependence inform our Christian study of Islam?

For Further Reading

Books

  1. Antony Black, The History of Islamic Political Thought: From the Prophet to the Present (New York: Routledge, 2001).
  2. Thomas F. Glick, Vivian B. Mann and Jerrilynn D. Dodds, eds., Convivencia: Jews, Muslims, and Christians in Medieval Spain (New York: George Braziller, 1992).
  3. Maria Rosa Menocal, The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain (New York: Little, Brown, 2002).
  4. Carole Hillenbrand, The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives (New York: Routledge, 2000).
  5. Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A History, second ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005).
  6. Richard E. Rubenstein, Aristotle's Children: How Christians, Muslims, and Jews Rediscovered Ancient Wisdom and Illuminated the Dark Ages (New York: Harcourt, 2003)

Web sites

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