World of Islam
From the oasis cities of Makkah and
Madinah in the Arabian desert, the message of Islam went forth with
electrifying speed. Within half a century of the Prophet's death, Islam had
spread to three continents. Islam is not, as some imagine in the West, a
religion of the sword nor did it spread primarily by means of war. It was only
within Arabia, where a crude form of idolatry was rampant, that Islam was
propagated by warring against those tribes which did not accept the message of
God--whereas Christians and Jews were not forced to convert. Outside of Arabia
also the vast lands conquered by the Arab armies in a short period became
Muslim not by force of the sword but by the appeal of the new religion. It was
faith in One God and emphasis upon His Mercy that brought vast numbers of
people into the fold of Islam. The new religion did not coerce people to
convert. Many continued to remain Jews and Christians and to this day important
communities of the followers of these faiths are found in Muslim lands.
Moreover, the spread of Islam was
not limited to its miraculous early expansion outside of Arabia. During later
centuries the Turks embraced Islam peacefully as did a large number of the
people of the Indian subcontinent and the Malay-speaking world. In Africa also,
Islam has spread during the past two centuries even under the mighty power of
European colonial rulers. Today Islam continues to grow not only in Africa but
also in Europe and America where Muslims now comprise a notable minority.
Islam was destined to become a world
religion and to create a civilization which stretched from one end of the globe
to the other. Already during the early Muslim caliphates, first the Arabs, then
the Persians and later the Turks set about to create classical Islamic
civilization. Later, in the 13th century, both Africa and India became great
centers of Islamic civilization and soon thereafter Muslim kingdoms were
established in the Malay-Indonesian world while Chinese Muslims flourished
throughout China.
Islam is a religion for all people
from whatever race or background they might be. That is why Islamic
civilization is based on a unity which stands completely against any racial or
ethnic discrimination. Such major racial and ethnic groups as the Arabs,
Persians, Turks, Africans, Indians, Chinese and Malays in addition to numerous
smaller units embraced Islam and contributed to the building of Islamic
civilization. Moreover, Islam was not opposed to learning from the earlier
civilizations and incorporating their science, learning, and culture into its
own world view, as long as they did not oppose the principles of Islam. Each
ethnic and racial group which embraced Islam made its contribution to the one
Islamic civilization to which everyone belonged. The sense of brotherhood and
sisterhood was so much emphasized that it overcame all local attachments to a
particular tribe, race, or language--all of which became subservient to the
universal brotherhood and sisterhood of Islam.
The global civilization thus created
by Islam permitted people of diverse ethnic backgrounds to work together in
cultivating various arts and sciences. Although the civilization was profoundly
Islamic, even non-Muslim "people of the book" participated in the
intellectual activity whose fruits belonged to everyone. The scientific climate
was reminiscent of the present situation in America where scientists and men
and women of learning from all over the world are active in the advancement of
knowledge which belongs to everyone.
The global civilization created by
Islam also succeeded in activating the mind and thought of the people who
entered its fold. As a result of Islam, the nomadic Arabs became torch-bearers
of science and learning. The Persians who had created a great civilization
before the rise of Islam nevertheless produced much more science and learning
in the Islamic period than before. The same can be said of the Turks and other
peoples who embraced Islam. The religion of Islam was itself responsible not
only for the creation of a world civilization in which people of many different
ethnic backgrounds participated, but it played a central role in developing
intellectual and cultural life on a scale not seen before. For some eight
hundred years Arabic remained the major intellectual and scientific language of
the world. During the centuries following the rise of Islam, Muslim dynasties
ruling in various parts of the Islamic world bore witness to the flowering of
Islamic culture and thought. In fact this tradition of intellectual activity
was eclipsed only at the beginning of modern times as a result of the weakening
of faith among Muslims combined with external domination. And today this
activity has begun anew in many parts of the Islamic world now that the Muslims
have regained their political independence.
Upon the death of the Prophet, Abu
Bakr, the friend of the Prophet and the first adult male to embrace Islam,
became caliph. Abu Bakr ruled for two years to be succeeded by 'Umar who was
caliph for a decade and during whose rule Islam spread extensively east and
west conquering the Persian empire, Syria and Egypt. It was 'Umar who marched
on foot at the end of the Muslim army into Jerusalem and ordered the protection
of Christian sites. 'Umar also established the first public treasury and a
sophisticated financial administration. He established many of the basic
practices of Islamic government.
'Umar was succeeded by 'Uthman who
ruled for some twelve years during which time the Islamic expansion continued.
He is also known as the caliph who had the definitive text of the Noble Quran
copied and sent to the four corners of the Islamic world. He was in turn
succeeded by 'Ali who is known to this day for his eloquent sermons and
letters, and also for his bravery. With his death the rule of the "rightly
guided" caliphs, who hold a special place of respect in the hearts of
Muslims, came to an end.
The Umayyad caliphate established in
661 was to last for about a century. During this time Damascus became the
capital of an Islamic world which stretched from the western borders of China
to southern France. Not only did the Islamic conquests continue during this
period through North Africa to Spain and France in the West and to Sind,
Central Asia and Transoxiana in the East, but the basic social and legal
institutions of the newly founded Islamic world were established.
The Abbasids, who succeeded the
Umayyads, shifted the capital to Baghdad which soon developed into an
incomparable center of learning and culture as well as the administrative and
political heart of a vast world.
They ruled for over 500 years but
gradually their power waned and they remained only symbolic rulers bestowing
legitimacy upon various sultans and princes who wielded actual military power.
The Abbasid caliphate was finally abolished when Hulagu, the Mongol ruler,
captured Baghdad in 1258, destroying much of the city including its
incomparable libraries.
While the Abbasids ruled in Baghdad,
a number of powerful dynasties such as the Fatimids, Ayyubids and Mamluks held
power in Egypt, Syria and Palestine. The most important event in this area as
far as the relation between Islam and the Western world was concerned was the
series of Crusades declared by the Pope and espoused by various European kings.
The purpose, although political, was outwardly to recapture the Holy Land and
especially Jerusalem for Christianity. Although there was at the beginning some
success and local European rule was set up in parts of Syria and Palestine,
Muslims finally prevailed and in 1187 Saladin, the great Muslim leader,
recaptured Jerusalem and defeated the Crusaders.
When the Abbasids captured Damascus,
one of the Umayyad princes escaped and made the long journey from there to
Spain to found Umayyad rule there, thus beginning the golden age of Islam in
Spain. Cordoba was established as the capital and soon became Europe's greatest
city not only in population but from the point of view of its cultural and
intellectual life. The Umayyads ruled over two centuries until they weakened
and were replaced by local rulers.
Meanwhile in North Africa, various
local dynasties held sway until two powerful Berber dynasties succeeded in
uniting much of North Africa and also Spain in the 12th and 13th centuries.
After them this area was ruled once again by local dynasties such as the
Sharifids of Morocco who still rule in that country. As for Spain itself,
Muslim power continued to wane until the last Muslim dynasty was defeated in
Granada in 1492 thus bringing nearly eight hundred years of Muslim rule in
Spain to an end.
The Mongols devastated the eastern
lands of Islam and ruled from the Sinai Desert to India for a century. But they
soon converted to Islam and became known as the Il-Khanids. They were in turn
succeeded by Timur and his descendents who made Samarqand their capital and
ruled from 1369 to 1500. The sudden rise of Timur delayed the formation and
expansion of the Ottoman empire but soon the Ottomans became the dominant power
in the Islamic world.
From humble origins the Turks rose
to dominate over the whole of Anatolia and even parts of Europe. In 1453 Mehmet
the Conqueror captured Constantinople and put an end to the Byzantine empire.
The Ottomans conquered much of eastem Europe and nearly the whole of the Arab
world, only Morocco and Mauritania in the West and Yemen, Hadramaut and parts
of the Arabian peninsula remaining beyond their control. They reached their
zenith of power with Suleyman the Magnificent whose armies reached Hungary and
Austria. From the 17th century onward with the rise of Westem European powers
and later Russia, the power of the Ottomans began to wane. But they
nevertheless remained a force to be reckoned with until the First World War
when they were defeated by the Westem nations. Soon thereafter Kamal Ataturk
gained power in Turkey and abolished the six centuries of rule of the Ottomans
in 1924.
While the Ottomans were concerned
mostly with the westem front of their empire, to the east in Persia a new
dynasty called the Safavids came to power in 1502. The Safavids established a
powerful state of their own which flourished for over two centuries and became
known for the flowering of the arts. Their capital, Isfahan, became one of the
most beautiful cities with its blue tiled mosques and exquisite houses. The
Afghan invasion of 1736 put an end to Safavid rule and prepared the
independence of Afghanistan which occured fommally in the 19th century. Persia
itself fell into tummoil until Nader Shah, the last Oriental conqueror,
reunited the country and even conquered India. But the rule of the dynasty
established by him was short-lived. The Zand dynasty soon took over to be overthrown
by the Qajars in 1779 who made Tehran their capital and ruled until 1921 when
they were in turn replaced by the Pahlavis.
As for India, Islam entered into the
land east of the Indus River peacefully. Gradually Muslims gained political
power beginning in the early 13th century. But this period which marked the
expansion of both Islam and Islamic culture came to an end with the conquest of
much of India in 1526 by Babur, one of the Timurid princes. He established the
powerful Mogul empire which produced such famous rulers as Akbar, Jahangir, and
Shah Jahan and which lasted, despite the gradual rise of British power in
India, until 1857 when it was officially abolished.
Farther east in the Malay world,
Islam began to spread in the 12th century in northem Sumatra and soon Muslim
kingdoms were establishd in Java, Sumatra and mainland Malaysia. Despite the
colonization of the Malay world, Islam spread in that area covering present day
Indonesia, Malaysia, the southern Phililppines and southern Thailand, and is
still continuing in islands farther east.
As far as Africa is concemed, Islam
entered into East Africa at the very beginning of the Islamic period but
remained confined to the coast for some time, only the Sudan and Somaliland
becoming gradually both Arabized and Islamized. West Africa felt the presence
of Islam through North African traders who travelled with their camel caravans
south of the Sahara. By the 14th century there were already Muslim sultanates
in such areas as Mali, and Timbuctu in West Africa and Harar in East Africa had
become seats of Islamic leaming.
Gradually Islam penetrated both
inland and southward. There also appeared major charismatic figures who
inspired intense resistance against European domination. The process of the
Islamization of Africa did not cease during the colonial period and continues
even today with the result that most Africans are now Muslims carrying on a
tradition which has had practically as long a history in certain areas of
sub-Saharan Africa as Islam itself.
It is almost impossible to
generalize about American Muslims: converts, immigrants, factory workers,
doctors; all are making their own contribution to America's future. This
complex community is unified by a common faith, underpinned by a countrywide
network of a thousand mosques.
Muslims were early arrivals in North
America. By the eighteenth century there were many thousands of them, working
as slaves on plantations. These early communities, cut off from their heritage
and families, inevitably lost their Islamic identity as time went by. Today
many Afro-American Muslims play an important role in the Islamic community.
The nineteenth century, however, saw
the beginnings of an influx of Arab Muslims, most of whom settled in the major
industrial centers where they worshipped in hired rooms. The early twentieth
century witnessed the arrival of several hundred thousand Muslims from Eastem
Europe: the first Albanian mosque was opened in Maine in 1915; others soon
followed, and a group of Polish Muslims opened a mosque in Brooklyn in 1928.
In 1947 the Washington Islamic
Center was founded during the term of President Truman, and several nationwide
organizations were set up in the fifties. The same period saw the establishment
of other communities whose lives were in many ways modelled after Islam. More
recently, numerous members of these groups have entered the fold of Muslim
orthodoxy. Today there are about five million Muslims in America.
At the height of European colonial
expansion in the 19th century, most of the Islamic world was under colonial
rule with the exception of a few regions such as the heart of the Ottoman
empire, Persia, Afghanistan, Yemen and certain parts of Arabia. But even these
areas were under foreign influence or, in the case of the Ottomans, under
constant threat. After the First World War with the breakup of the Ottoman
empire, a number of Arab states such as Iraq became independent, others like
Jordan were created as a new entity and yet others like Palestine, Syria and
Lebanon were either mandated or turned into French colonies. As for Arabia, it
was at this time that Saudi Arabia became finally consolidated. As for other
parts of the Islamic world, Egypt which had been ruled by the descendents of
Muhammad Ali since the l9th century became more independent as a result of the
fall of the Ottomans, Turkey was turned into a secular republic by Ataturk, and
the Pahlavi dynasty began a new chapter in Persia where its name reverted to
its eastern traditional form of Iran. But most of the rest of the Islamic world
remained under colonial rule.
It was only after the Second World
War and the dismemberment of the British, French, Dutch and Spanish empires
that the rest of the Islamic world gained its independence. In the Arab world,
Syria and Lebanon became independent at the end of the war as did Libya and the
shaykdoms around the Gulf and the Arabian Sea by the 1960's. The North African
countries of Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria had to fight a difficult and, in the
case of Algeria, long and protracted war to gain their freedom which did not
come until a decade later for Tunisia and Morocco and two decades later for
Algeria. Only Palestine did not become independent but was partitioned in 1948
with the establishment of the state of Israel.
In India Muslims participated in the
freedom movement against British rule along with Hindus and when independence
finally came in 1947, they were able to create their own homeland, Pakistan,
which came into being for the sake of Islam and became the most populated
Muslim state although many Muslims remained in India. In 1971, however, the two
parts of the state broke up, East Pakistan becoming Bengladesh.
Farther east still, the Indonesians
finally gained their independence from the Dutch and the Malays theirs from
Britain. At first Singapore was part of Malaysia but it separated in 1963 to
become an independent state. Small colonies still persisted in the area and
continued to seek their independence, the kingdom of Brunei becoming
independent as recently as 1984.
In Africa also major countries with
large or majority Muslim populations such as Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania
began to gain their independence in the 1950's and 1960's with the result that
by the end of the decade of the 60's most parts of the Islamic world were
formed into independent national states. There were, however, exceptions. The
Muslim states in the Soviet Union failed to gain their autonomy or
independence. The same holds true for Sinkiang (called Eastem Turkestan by
Muslim geographers) while in Eritrea and the southern Philippines Muslim
independence movements still continue.
While the world of Islam has entered
into the modern world in the form of national states, continuous attempts are
made to create closer cooperation within the Islamic world as a whole and to
bring about greater unity. This is seen not only in the meetings of the Muslim
heads of state and the establishment of the OIC (Organization of Islamic
Countries) with its own secretariat, but also in the creation of institutions
dealing with the whole of the Islamic world. Among the most important of these
is the Muslim World League (Rabitat al-alam al-Islami ) with its headquarters
in Makkah. Saudi Arabia has in fact played a pivotal role in the creation and
maintenance of such organizations.
Muslims did not wish to gain only
their political independence. They also wished to assert their own religious
and cultural identity. From the 18th century onward Muslim reformers appeared
upon the scene who sought to reassert the teachings of Islam and to reform
society on the basis of Islamic teachings. One of the first among this group
was Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, who hailed from the Arabian peninsula and died
there in 1792. This reformer was supported by Muhammad ibn al-Sa'ud, the
founder of the first Saudi state. With this support Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab
was able to spread his teachings not only in Arabia but even beyond its borders
to other Islamic lands where his reforms continue to wield influence to this
day.
In the 19th century lslamic assertion
took several different forms ranging from the Mahdi movement of the Sudan and
the Sanusiyyah in North Africa which fought wars against European colonizers,
to educational movements such as that of Aligarh in India aiming to reeducate
Muslims. In Egypt which, because of al-Azhar University, remains to this day
central to Islamic learning, a number of reformers appear, each addressing some
aspect of Islamic thought. Some were concerned more with law, others economics,
and yet others the challenges posed by Western civilization with its powerful
science and technology. These included Jamal al-Din al-Afghani who hailed
originally from Persia but settled in Cairo and who was the great champion of
Pan-Islamism, that is the movement to unite the Islamic world politically as
well as religiously. His student, Muhammad 'Abduh, who became the rector of
al-Azhar. was also very influential in Islamic theology and thought. Also of
considerable influence was his Syrian student, Rashid Rida, who held a position
closer to that of 'Abd al-Wahhab and stood for the strict application of the
Shari'ah. Among the most famous of these thinkers is Muhammad Iqbal, the
outstanding poet and philosopher who is considered as the father of Pakistan.
Moreover, as Western influence began
to penetrate more deeply into the fiber of Islamic society, organizations
gradually grew up whose goal was to reform society in practice along Islamic
lines and prevent its secularization. These included the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan
al-muslimin) founded in Egypt and with branches in many Muslim countries, and
the Jama'at-i Islami of Pakistan founded by the influential Mawlana Mawdudi.
These organizations have been usually peaceful and have sought to reestablish
an Islamic order through education. During the last two decades, however, as a
result of the frustration of many Muslims in the face of pressures coming from
a secularized outside world, some have sought to reject the negative aspects of
Western thought and culture and to return to an Islamic society based
completely on the application of the Shari 'ah. Today in every Muslim country
there are strong movements to preserve and propagate Islamic teachings. In
countries such as Saudi Arabia Islamic Law is already being applied and in fact
is the reason for the prosperity, development and stability of the country. In
other countries where Islamic Law is not being applied, however, most of the
effort of Islamic movements is spent in making possible the full application of
the Shari'ah so that the nation can enjoy prosperity along with the fulfillment
of the faith of its people. In any case the widespread desire for Muslims to
have the religious law of Islam applied and to reassert their religious values
and their own identity must not be equated with exceptional violent eruptions
which do exist but which are usually treated sensationally and taken out of
proportion by the mass media in the West.
In seeking to live successfully in
the modern world, in independence and according to Islamic principles, Muslim
countries have been emphasizing a great deal the significance of the role of
education and the importance of mastering Western science and technology.
Already in the 19th century, certain Muslim countries such as Egypt, Ottoman
Turkey and Persia established institutions of higher learning where the modem
sciences and especially medicine were taught. During this century educational
institutions at all levels have proliferated throughout the Islamic world.
Nearly every science ranging from mathematics to biology as well as various
fields of modern technology are taught in these institutions and some notable
scientists have been produced by the Islamic world, men and women who have
often combined education in these institutions with training in the West.
In various parts of the Islamic
world there is, however, a sense that educational institutions must be expanded
and also have their standards improved to the level of the best institutions in
the world in various fields of leaming especially science and technology. At
the same time there is an awareness that the educational system must be based
totally on Islamic principles and the influence of alien cultural and ethical
values and norms, to the extent that they are negative, be diminished. To
remedy this problem a number of international Islamic educational conferences
have been held, the first one in Makkah in 1977, and the foremost thinkers of
the Islamic world have been brought together to study and ponder over the
question of the relation between Islam and modern science. This is an ongoing
process which is at the center of attention in many parts of the Islamic world
and which indicates the significance of educational questions in the Islamic
world today.
The oldest university in the world
which is still functioning is the eleven hundred-year-old Islamic university of
Fez, Morocco, known as the Qarawiyyin. This old tradition of Islamic learning
influenced the West greatly through Spain. In this land where Muslims,
Christians and Jews lived for the most part peacefully for many centuries,
translations began to be made in the 11th century mostly in Toledo of Islamic
works into Latin often through the intermediary of Jewish scholars most of whom
knew Arabic and often wrote in Arabic. As a result of these translations,
Islamic thought and through it much of Greek thought became known to the West
and Western schools of learning began to flourish. Even the Islamic educational
system was emulated in Europe and to this day the term chair in a university
reflects the Arabic kursi (literally seat) upon which a teacher would sit to
teach his students in the madrasah (school of higher learning). As European
civillization grew and reached the high Middle Ages, there was hardly a field
of learning or form of art, whether it was literature or architecture, where
there was not some influence of Islam present. Islamic learning became in this
way part and parcel of Western civilization even if with the advent of the
Renaissance, the West not only turned against its own medieval past but also
sought to forget the long relation it had had with the Islamic world, one which
was based on intellectual respect despite religious opposition.
The
Islamic world remains today a vast land stretching from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, with an important presence in Europe and America, animated by the
teachings of Islam and seeking to assert its own identity. Despite the presence
of nationalism and various secular ideologies in their midst, Muslims wish to
live in the modern world but without simply imitating blindly the ways followed
by the West. The Islamic world wishes to live at peace with the West as well as
the East but at the same time not to be dominated by them. It wishes to devote
its resources and energies to building a better life for its people on the
basis of the teachings of Islam and not to squander its resources in either
internal or external conflicts. It seeks finally to create better understanding
with the West and to be better understood by the West. The destinies of the
Islamic world and the West cannot be totally separated and therefore it is only
in understanding each other better that they can serve their own people more
successfully and also contribute to a better life for the whole of humanity.
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