islamic culture chapter 3

8/17/2019 islamic culture chapter 3

1/29

+The Great Arid Zone: Arabia


2/29

+ Arabia: a harsh landscape


3/29

+ Arabia’s inhabitants were necessarily

mostly nomadic

Pastoralists surviving on their trusty ‘desert ship’ (the camel)


4/29

+Or semi-nomadic, spending time

near markets to exchange goods:


5/29

+Unless they could find and take

over one of these:


6/29

+One such oasis was Yathrib (renamed

Madina … but more on that later)


7/29

+Survival?

A basic form of social organisation that existed pre-modern

states

Based on kinship/descent, whether real or imagined

Provided social status, security, identity, belonging, solidarity

Came in different shapes and sizes, with sub-groups and

alliances


8/29

+The Tribe: bonded individuals

together to survive


9/29

+ And to give them an identity


10/29

+ Arabia was full of tribes


11/29

+Tribal Society

Could not be egalitarian as it forced individuals into specificroles and status in order to ensure survival (harsh society for aharsh reality)

Solidarity came in the form of tribal codes which had to berespected (to avert continuous internecine fighting)

One such law was lex talionis (retaliation against any member ofan enemy tribe for injury caused to any member of one’s tribe)

Survival in a harsh environment required: courage, resilience, a

certain fatalism

But generosity always helped! Especially when needed most (bya stranger, a loner, a visitor)…hospitality (became proverbialamong these Arabs)


12/29

+Where else could help come from?

Nature was harsh: but perhaps it could be entreated?

A bond develops between man and his stark environment

ANIMISM: the belief that spirits inhabit not only the human world,but the animal, as well as the plant and the inaminate landscape

(rocks, rivers, valleys, mountains)… (OED contains:

ghoulish/genie/afrit)

TRIBAL GODS: each tribe perhaps associated with a particular

god, giving that tribe an identity

POLYTHEISM: this was the Near East and a long tradition of

Semitic gods and goddesses would have filtered down into

Arabia, as local paganisms

HENOTHEISM: at least in Mecca, acknowledged by the Qur’an


13/29

+Religion

The major traditions of the Near East were known in Arabia:

Jews inhabited the oases in and around Yathrib to the north of the

Hijaz

Christianity was the largest and fastest growing tradition in theNear Eastern region (thanks to the Christian Byzantine Empire

based in Constantinople)

RḤMNN? A non-Judaeo-Christian form of monotheism?

Some early accounts associating Abraham with one of the most

important harams in Arabia: the Mecca sanctuary around the

Ka’ba

Certain sites acquired a sacred character ( haram) and the tribe

which was the guardian claimed that social status


14/29

+The tribe which controlled this

haram were the QurayshThe Prophet Muhammad belonged to one of the

clans of this tribe


15/29

+ A cultural identity had come to form

around the Arabic language

Tribes laid down their arms at certain times of the year (thesacred months, cf. Q.)

They performed some sort of circumambulation (tawaf ) of the

Ka’ba

They traded at the local market fairs (Ukaz, Dhu’l-Majaz andMajanna) and enjoyed recitals of poetry

The Poet was greatly admired and an exchange point between

the various tribes

The Arabic language had developed a poetic high-register andthe master of this language had the facility to conjure up other

worlds, to inspire, to praise and to lampoon

Mecca becomes a cultural focal point in Arabia


16/29

+The catalyst in this cultural and social

transformation was a man and a text

And a ‘scripture’ that was revealed to him in Arabic, urging a

radical moral transformation by challenging all of the

existing tribal beliefs:

Challenge to kinship bonds Challenge to religious beliefs about this world

Challenge to the social hierarchy

Challenge to the financial system

Challenge to the ethics and morality of society

Challenge even to their dietary habits and calendars

The very fabric of Arabian tribal society was in question

Muhammad b. Abd Allah of the Meccan tribe of

Quryash


17/29

+Muhammad b. Abd Allah:

biographical sketch

born 570 into a clan of the Quraysh (Banu Hashim; other clanswere Banu Umayya, Banu Abbas, Banu Abd Manaf)

Orphaned: father dies in Palestine on the way back from trade

journey to Syria

Mother dies when 6. Under the care of his grandfather, then uncleAbu Talib

On one trip to Bostra (Syria) a Christian monk recognises

something unique about the boy

At 25 he marries a wealthy widower, a businesswoman Khadija (15years older)


18/29

+The Revelations

Experiences powerful visions and begins to retreat to a cave outside Mecca aroundthe age of 40

In 610 he hears a command: ‘Recite!’ Understood by Muslim tradition as thearchangel Gabriel. The Revelations begin.

His revelations are confirmed by Khadija and her first cousin, Waraqa b. Nawfal, a

hanif who had converted to Christianity

After two years of secret preaching, he goes public: God is One, He will call you toaccount for your deeds on a Day of Judgement that will follow an apocalyptic endof the world (Paradise and Fire)

Meccan ridicule followed by Qurayshi persecution

Muhammad’s followers escape to Abyssinia: Christian King the Negus gives themrefuge (Qur ’anic Christology)

622= 1 Anno Hijrae (emigration) to Yathrib to the north of Mecca

O G d lit thi


19/29

+One God: one reality, one thing

alone matters

To a society which believed in multiple gods or no gods, the

idea of a single all-powerful God permeated all reality. There

was only one way to be: God-conscious!

And a society which paid scant attention to the idea of life

after death, this was an epic challenge:

Courage, generosity, nobility, hospitality, virtue, wealth, treatment

of others, morality…everything was transformed by this teaching

An Afterlife: transforming the meaning and purpose

of this life


20/29

+The Prophet’s Message was a guidance

through this life into the next

This new community of believers grew to take over the entire Arabian peninsula in aspace of 22 years, centred in Medina.

Upon the conquest of Mecca, the Prophet performs the pilgrimage ( hajj) and addresseshis followers in the famous farewell sermon enjoining them to the following:

Life is sacrosanct

Property should not be violated

Trusts must be honoured

Women to be given rights

Usury is an abomination

God will reckon with you one Day


21/29

+Islam: a new identity (first only for

the Arabs of Arabia)

Islam carried elements of Judaeo-Christianity (and the Quran

stated clearly that it was a continuation of previous

messages): the stories of the Prophets in the Qur’an (almost

all are recognisable from the Biblical tradition)

As well as elements of the Arabian landscape: Islam was the

original Abrahamic religion, and the Ka’ba became Islam’s

transformed cultic centre


22/29

+ An Arabic Scripture


23/29

+Within 60 years, this new

community had built this:

NOT IN ARABIA though


24/29

+ And minted these:


25/29

+Can you tell a church from a

mosque?


26/29

+Or a mosque from a church?


27/29

+So which is this? You might need to

look inside to know:


28/29

+The beginning of the story was:

(everybody else)


29/29

+The end of the story is:

i i i 22

Documents

islamic culture chapter 3