There were, however, some positive accomplishments in this period, such as the Hijaz Railway. Ishaq ibn Hunayn and Thabit ibn Qurrah, for example, prepared a critical edition of Euclid's Elements, while other scholars translated a commentary on Euclid originally written by a mathematician and inventor from Egypt, and still others translated at least eleven major works by Archimedes, including a treatise on the construction of a water clock. Photo: In the ceremony of sa'y they reenact the search for water by Hagar, wife of the patriarch Abraham. Thereunto we give them the pact of Allah and the protection of His Prophet, the caliphs and the believers. It made it possible to put books within the reach of everyone. He is the Most High, the All-Glorious. As a result the city was dominated by powerful merchant families among whom the men of Quraysh were preeminent. It is really good article for all people whether they are Muslims or Non Muslims. 'Abd al-Malik established a system of postal routes to expedite his communications throughout the far flung empire. More importantly, traditional values are still deeply cherished and promoted. By mid-century they had taken Russia, Central Europe, northern Iran, and the Caucuses, and in 1258, under Hulagu Khan, they invaded Baghdad and put an end to the remnants of the once-glorious 'Abbasid Empire. Due to overwhelming content, each of these hubs can be considered a home page of its own. Until the Inquisition, furthermore, conditions in Spain were not intolerable. Islam, in Arabic, means "submission" - submission to the will of God. With the advent of the Umayyads, how ever, secular concerns and the problems inherent in the administration of what, by then, was a large empire began to dominate the attention of the caliphs, often at the expense of religious concerns - a development that disturbed many devout Muslims. On the contrary, the Muslims permitted Christians and Jews to practice their own faith and numerous conversions to Islam were the result of exposure to a faith that was simple and inspiring. We feature each theme with a beautiful image. The next Ottoman leader was Bayazid I, who besieged Constantinople and routed the armies dispatched by an alarmed Europe to raise the siege. Within four years after the death of the Prophet the Muslim state had extended its sway over all of Syria and had, at a famous battle fought during a sandstorm near the River Yarmuk, blunted the power of the Byzantines - whose ruler Heraclius had shortly before disdainfully rejected the letter from the unknown Prophet of Arabia. Despite the great body of tradition and law, however the practice of Islam is essentially personal - a direct relationship between individuals and God. An Introduction to Islam. Photo: Cursive script on a section of gold-embroidered kiswah, the black cloth covering of the Ka'bah, which is renewed each year at the time of the pilgrimage. Islam, they say, was revealed through a long line of prophets inspired by God. Called the Five Pillars of Islam, they are: the profession of faith (shahadah), devotional worship or prayer (salah), the religious tax (zakah), fasting (sawm), and the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj). In the modern era, … Consequently, the Holy Text could only be collected as a single corpus - "between the two covers" - after the death of Muhammad. The vizier was much more than an advisor; indeed, when the caliph was weak, a capable vizier became the most powerful man in the empire. This created a mix of cultures, especially in Africa, and the mawali demographic. It is largely owing to the existence of these traditional methods of recitation that the text of the Quran was preserved without error. Earlier, before the Hijrah, the city had sent envoys to Mecca asking Muhammad to mediate a dispute between two powerful tribes. At the start of the Islamic era two types of script seem to have been in use - both derived from different forms of the Nabataean, alphabet. If you hold fast to this you will never go astray.". From the earliest days it has always been recited aloud or, more accurately, chanted. Here, you will find quick shortcuts to major topics & hubs under IslamiCity. Much of the emigration, however, came later. His reign is now the most famous in the annals of the 'Abbasids - partly because of the fictional role given him in The Thousand and One Nights (portions of which probably date from his reign), but also because his reign and those of his immediate successors marked the high point of the 'Abbasid period. This work proposed that the ideal city be founded on moral and religious principles from which would flow the physical infrastructure. At the dawn of the fourteenth century, Ghazan Khan Mahmud officially adopted Islam as the religion of the state, and for a time peace descended on the eastern portion of the Mongol empire. For one thing, it was a tacit recognition of the end of an era. Islam has given us education with knowledge which has no limits. Photo: The shrine of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, built in an area revered by Muslims, Christians and Jews alike covers the rock from which Muhammad is believed to have ascended to heaven with the Angel Gabriel. In describing the fate of Islam in Spain, Irving suggested that the Muslims were then swiftly and thoroughly wiped out. Although the Muslims used force when they met resistance they did not compel their enemies to accept Islam. In the history of the Middle Ages, this was far more important than ephemeral conquests. By the eleventh century, however, a small pocket of Christian resistance had begun to grow, and under Alfonso VI Christian forces retook Toledo. Abu Bakr recognized the danger and entrusted the task of gathering the revelations to Zayd ibn Thabit, who as the chief scribe of the Prophet was the person to whom Muhammad frequently dictated the revelations in his lifetime. Because of administrative paralysis, local governors became increasingly independent and, eventually, revolts broke out. Medina is located around 220 miles to Mecca’s north. These were the Mamluks, soldier-slaves from the Turkish steppe area north of the Black and Caspian Seas with a later infusion of Circassians from the region of the Caucuses Mountains. Photo: Pool in the Patio de los Arrayanes reflects the grandeur of the incomparable Alhambra. Not everyone accepted God's message transmitted through Muhammad. One reason is that the cursive nature of the Arabic script and certain of its other peculiarities made its adaptation to printing difficult and delayed the introduction of the printing press, so that the Arab world continued for some centuries after the time of Gutenberg to rely on handwriting for the production of books (especially the Quran) and of legal and other documents. The volunteers - a mixed assemblage of kings, nobles, mercenaries, and adventurers - had to cross thousands of miles of unfamiliar and hostile country and conquer lands of whose strength they had no conception. During the second Mongol invasion, Tamerlane had met and very nearly annihilated another rising power: the Ottomans. The first pillar, the profession of faith, is the repetition of the statement, "There is no god but God; Muhammad is the Messenger of God" - in Arabic the euphonious "La ilaha illa Allah; Muhammadun rasul Allah." Because the religious, political, and military achievements of the Islamic period loom so large in the history of the world, the extraordinary cultural, scientific, technological, and commercial achievements are frequently obscured or overlooked. Because Islamic rule unified much of the Eastern world, thus abolishing many boundaries, trade was freer, safer, and more extensive than it had been since the time of Alexander the Great. Those who are ill, or on an arduous journey, for example, may fast the prescribed number of days at another time; those for whom fasting is impossible may forego it if they give stipulated alms to the needy. This policy was to prove successful everywhere. Temporary reforms under various sultans, and the still formidable, if weakened, military prowess of the Ottomans helped maintain their empire. In addition to their military abilities the Turks seem to have been endowed with a special talent for organization. Photo: From top - Modern Arabic (western); Early Arabic (western); Arabic Letters (used as numerals); Modern Arabic (eastern); Early Arabic (eastern); Early Devanagari (Indian); Later Devanagari. The art of calligraphy is still very much alive in the Arab world and wherever the Arabic alphabet is used. After the prophet Muhammad’s death in … Geographical unity, however, was but one factor. According to one account, he entered the city alone and clad in a simple cloak, astounding a populace accustomed to the sumptuous garb and court ceremonials of the Byzantines and Persians. Now he was being treated by his former enemies as a leader in his own right. Ironically, they also put an end to the centuries-old rivalry between the Arabs and Byzantines. Yet these advances were, in fact, of enduring significance to mankind as a whole. One of the Umayyad caliphs who attained greatness was 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz, a man very different from his predecessors. It’s believed that before the rise of Islam most Middle Eastern residents subscribed to a set of religions based on the existence of a variety of gods. The surahs revealed at Mecca - at the beginning of Muhammad's mission - tend to be short and to stress, in highly moving language, the eternal themes of the unity of God, the necessity of faith, the punishment of those who stray from the right path, and the Last Judgment, when all man's actions and beliefs will be judged. Chapter Three: The Middle East and the Impact of Imperialism. }. He was noted for his justice, social ideals, administration, and statesmanship. Click on these beautiful images & start exploring the theme/value behind it. In the thirteenth century still another threat to the Muslim world appeared in the land beyond the Oxus: the Mongols. Most Arab countries, for example, have embraced the concept of the sovereign nation-state and Western patterns of political administration: parliaments, political parties, and constitutions. The immediate net result of the treaty, in fact, was a general increase in tension in the Middle East which manifested itself in an apparent increase in Israeli intransigence in the occupied territories and the isolation of Egypt from the rest of the Arab world, including those countries on which it has been most heavily dependent for economic and political backing and which were opposed to the separate treaty because it failed to achieve a permanent and comprehensive peace. Photo: This eighth century manuscript from Mecca or Medina is one of the two oldest known existing copies of the Quran. In the tenth century he proposed a plan to dam the Nile. Photo: The mosque of Bibi Khanum named for Tamerlane's favorite wife, was once the most imposing building of Samarkand. Important books were written on soil analysis, water, and what kinds of crops were suited to what soil. We created it for only one thing in mind; to create a peaceful corner that features just inspiring and uplifting material, focused around Universal Values to be reflect upon -- at a time never needed more desperately than now. Section 107, and such (and all) material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. And in Egypt, which 'Amr ibn al-'As took from the Byzantines after a daring march across the Sinai Peninsula, the Coptic Christians not only welcomed the Arabs, but enthusiastically assisted them. The fourth pillar is fasting during Ramadan, the ninth month of the Muslim year. The Indian way had the advantage of using much smaller clusters of symbols and greatly simplifying written computations. About the year 590, Muhammad, then in his twenties, entered the service of a widow named Khadijah as a merchant actively engaged with trading caravans to the north. Islam in Middle Eastern Societies The Muslim populations of the Middle East make up only 44% of the total world Muslim population of the world (see “Muslim-Majority Countries of the Middle East” chart). Topics menu will always be here, always within reach. The earliest inscription that has been found that is identifiably Arabic is one in Sinai that dates from about A.D. 300. In fact, it seems quite possible that the Arab scholars used their own numerals but manipulated them in the Indian way. These struggles were later romanticized and distorted in a wave of books and films on, for example, Gordon of Khartoum and the French Foreign Legion. Finally, in the early seventeenth century, most of the survivors were forcibly expelled. Islam in history: ideas, people, and events in the Middle East User Review - Not Available - Book Verdict. The inimitability of the Quran has crystallized in the Muslim view of i'jaz or "impossibility," which holds that the style of the Quran, being divine, cannot be imitated: any attempt to do so is doomed to failure. His son Hasan was proclaimed caliph at Kufa but soon afterward deferred to Muiawiyah, who had already been proclaimed caliph in Jerusalem in the previous year and who now was recognized and accepted as caliph in all the Muslim territories - thus inaugurating the Umayyad dynasty which would rule for the next ninety years. By defeating Egypt, then still part of the Ottoman Empire, Napoleon exposed the inner weaknesses, both military and administrative, of the sultans, shattered the myth of Ottoman power, and inaugurated more than 150 years of direct political intervention by the West. Thereafter Medina was entirely in the hands of the Muslims. Thus the number 323 was expressed like this: The Egyptians actually wrote them from right to left, but they are set down above from left to right to call g attention to the similarities of the systems. The belief in the unity of God was paramount in Islam; from this all else followed. The caliphate, they say, must remain within the family of the Prophet - with 'Ali the first valid caliph. In their sweep through the Islamic world the Mongols killed or deported numerous scholars and scientists and destroyed libraries with their irreplaceable works. At their peak they ruled North Africa, the Red Sea coast, Yemen, Palestine, and parts of Syria. Keep it up. Most important of all, he introduced Arabic as the language of administration, replacing Greek and Pahlavi. Examples of more or less standard types of script such as these do not by any means exhaust the number of styles. Assembling an army of three thousand men, they met the Muslims at Uhud, a ridge outside Medina. The path of those whom Thou hast favored; not the path of those who earn Thine anger nor of those who go astray. Photo: A forest of eight hundred and fifty pillars connected by Moorish arches lines the great mosque of Cordoba. It is also customary for pilgrims to return to Mina between the eleventh and thirteenth days and cast their remaining pebbles at the three pillars there and then, in Mecca, make a farewell circling of the Ka'bah. It was by no means theoretical speculation; many of the dams, reservoirs, and aqueducts constructed at this time throughout the Islamic world still survive. Under the Samanids, the Persian language, written in the Arabic alphabet, first reached the level of a literary language and poets like Rudaki, Daqiqi, and Firdausi flourished. The term “Middle East” is used here in a restricted sense with a special emphasis on the Levant (Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria). The tughra later came to be used both in Turkey and by rulers of t the Arab countries as a kind of royal insignia or emblem, on coins and stamps and wherever a coat of arms or royal monogram would be used by European governments. Other translations included a book On mathematical theory by Nichomachus of Gerasa, and works by mathematicians like Theodosius of Tripoli, Apollonius Pergacus, Theon, and Menelaus, all basic to the great age of Islamic mathematical speculation that followed. Who is there that can intercede with Him Photo: Purity of line characterizes the late twelfth century Kutubiyah Mosque of the Berbers in Marrakesh. But at the beginning, when its institutions were responsive to the needs of the people and the state, the Ottoman Empire was a model of administrative efficiency. Descended from a tribal chief named Seljuk, whose homeland lay beyond the Oxus River near the Aral Sea, the Seljuks not only developed a highly effective fighting force but also, through their close contacts with Persian court life in Khorasan and Transoxania, attracted a body of able administrators. Photo: The Mamluks, originally a class of soldier slaves, seized power in Egypt in the thirteenth century and stood fast against the Mongols. Photo: Crowds at the small town of Mina cast pebbles at pillars that symbolize evil. The province of Ifriqiyah - North Africa west of Libya and east of Morocco - had fallen away from 'Abbasid control during the reign of Harun al-Rashid, and under al-Mamun other provinces soon broke loose also. Except such as He wills; Called Banu Musa - "the sons of Musa" - these three men, Muhammad, Ahmad, and al-Hasan, devoted their lives and fortunes to the quest for knowledge. In recent years, most Arab countries have also adopted the modern industrial economy as a national goal and introduced modern techniques of agriculture and modern methods of transport and mass communications, and invested vast sums in education. Europe's worldwide nineteenth-century search for raw materials, markets, military bases, and colonies eventually touched most of what had been the Arab empire. The religious tax, the third pillar, is zakah in Arabic, a word that in the Prophet's lifetime came to suggest an obligatory religious tax. The opposition, however, merely served to sharpen Muhammad's sense of mission and his understanding of exactly how Islam differed from paganism. From 821 onward Tahir and his descendants ruled Khorasan as an independent state, with the tacit consent of the 'Abbasids. In Syria, for example, many Christians who had been involved in bitter theological disputes with Byzantine authorities- and persecuted for it- welcomed the coming of Islam as an end to tyranny. The creation of the office of the vizier was only one of the innovations the 'Abbasids brought to statecraft. The historical evolution and incorporation of prior messages into Islam are clearly stated in the Qur'an. Photo: The mosque at Kyustendi in Bulgaria was founded during Ottoman rule. Guide us in the straight path, In the meantime the Crusaders - or Franks, the Arabs called them - had extended their reach to the borders of Egypt, where the Fatimids had fallen after two hundred years. Ordained in the Quran, the fast is an exacting act of deeply personal worship in which Muslims seek a richer perception of God and in which, as one writer puts it, Muslims assert that "man has larger needs than bread.". 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