( The tribal background, ummah , Caliphal state)

At the beginning of the seventh century an event of great historical significance took place in the Arabian peninsula (roughly corresponding to modern Saudi Arabia).The people who inhabited this region lived an isolated existence, away from the settled societies of West Asia. Nomadic tribal communities, who are generally called ‘beduin’, lived in this inhospitable land. In the seventh century Arabia became the centre of a new religious movement—Islam.

Arabia is a peninsula of large dimensions. It is surrounded by the Red Sea in the west, the Arabian Sea in the south and the Persian Gulf in the east. Most of the peninsula is either desert or dry grassland (steppe) receiving very little regular rainfall and droughts were frequent. Coastal areas had more frequent rainfall.

There are no permanent rivers in Arabia. However, the land is dotted with a number of oases formed by springs or wells.

Tribal background (the beduins,Qurayshs)

For centuries the inhabitants of central, northern and western Arabia had led a nomadic existence. The domestication and introduction of the camel (sometime after c. 2000 BCE) had facilitated the evolution of specialized pastoral nomadism based on camel-rearing. The camel pastoralists, known as beduin (from bdu or nomad), moved from oasis to oasis with their animals and over a period of time acquired an intimate knowledge of the harsh environment.

The beduin knew exactly where they could find some subsistence for themselves and their animals (mainly camels, but occasionally a few horses), and for how long they could stay in a particular place.

The beduin were constantly on the move. Their social organization was based on the independent tribe (qabila), each tribe recognizing a common ancestor (real or imaginary). Beduin tribes were usually units of small size and were divided into clans or extended families. As clans grew larger they moved away to form independent units of their own. This prevented the tribes from becoming too unwieldy. The arid environment just could not support large concentrations of population. The beduin lifestyle became typical of Arabia. There were very few communities which led a settled existence. The beduins raided areas which carried out some cultivation of vegetables, fruits and dates. The beduin combined pastoralism with raids against neighbouring beduin tribes and settled communities to augment their resources. A form of tribute, called khuwwa, might also be realized by the beduin from the agriculturists in return for protection and an assurance to desist from plunder.In this way the camel pastoralists exercised a degree of control over the settled people. They were certainly the most prominent inhabitants of the region. Camel nomadic pastoralism was the dominant feature of the pre-Islamic social formation of Arabia.

The beduin tribes and the people of the peninsula as a whole referred to themselves generally as arah. The ancient Greeks had used the term Sarakenoi (Latin Saraceni, English Saracens) to designate them. Till very recently Saracen and Arab were used synonymously in western literature. The language spoken by them was a form of Semitic which was a variation of Aramaic.

It would be wrong to assume that the Arabs lived in complete isolation from the outside world. There were several points of contact in the north (with Syria and Palestine); in the north-east (with Iraq); in the south (with Yemen); and across the Red Sea (with Ethiopia).

A number of southern beduin tribes had at this time come together in a confederacy led by the Kinda tribe. The chiefs of Kinda were allied to the ruler of Yemen to whom they paid tribute

During the sixth century a slow and gradual change was taking place within Arabia. Some of the tribes took to trade as their main occupation and gave up nomadic pastoralism. The shift to trade was most pronounced in the arid Hijaz area. With the dislocation of the Persian gulf-Iraq route and Yemen becoming a transit point ,the Hijaz route acquired greater significance. For the tribes or clans which had adopted trade as their primary occupation this was an excellent opportunity.

It is in this historical situation that Mecca, a settlement of traders in Hijaz, rose to prominence in the sixth century. The settlement was located at an oasis and was famous because it was a place of pilgrimage. The main shrine was the Kaba containing idols venerated by local tribes.

Sometime towards the end of the fifth century Mecca came under the control of a person named Qusayy who belonged to the Quraysh tribe. This tribe consisted of numerous clans which were engaged in trade and it soon became the leading tribe of the settlement. They entered into alliances with some neighbouring tribes like the Thaqif.

Initially the Quraysh were split into two broad divisions, those who lived on the outskirts (Quraysh az-Zawahir) and the more privileged who dwelt in the heart of the settlement (Quraysh az-Bataih). A few families and clans became prosperous through trade and this led to a process of social differentiation. Class distinctions began to appear among the Quraysh.Some form of authority was needed to contain the conflicts between the clans. Clan councils formed by heads of families were the basis of political organization. Tensions and conflicts generated by the breakdown of tribal society gave rise to a group with limited political authority. At the end of the sixth century and the beginning of the seventh century there were intense factional conflicts within this group. The factions were divided along clan lines and their disputes were partly for gaining a larger share of the trade of Mecca. It was in this historical situation that Muhammad began preaching his religious message in the opening decades of the seventh century.

Prophet Muhammad (Rise of Islam)

The first accounts of Prophet Muhammad’s life which have come down to us were written more than a century after his death. The generally agreed date for his birth is c. 570. He belonged to the Hashim clan of the Quraysh tribe. Muhammad’s father, Abudllah, was a person of limited means. Muhammad lost both his parents when he was still very small. He was brought up under the care of his paternal uncle, Abu Talib. Muhammad married Khadija who was older than him and was a successful businesswoman.

In 610 Muhammad had an intense spiritual experience which is supposed to mark the beginning of his Prophet hood. A series of revelations, believed to be divinely inspired, were made to him. These became the basis of Muhammad’s religious mission. He said that he was the messenger, or Prophet, of the Supreme Being—Allah. Allah’s message was being communicated to human beings through Muhammad. Khadija was among the first to believe in Muhammad’s Prophethood. Within a few years Muhammad had a small group of Meccan followers who had accepted his religious ideas. They came to be known as muslim (plural muslimun), i.e. those who had submitted (to Allah). The religion itself was denoted by the term Islam, implying submission, derived from the same root as the word muslim.

The umma consisted of the entire Muslim community and the term probably came into being from the time Muhammad started preaching. The followers of Islam were part of the umma.

The overriding principle of Muhammad’s religion was uncompromising monotheism. He taught that there was only one God, namely Allah. The worship of idols was firmly prohibited and Muhammad sought to replace the diverse religions of the Arabs with Islam. There was a strong emphasis on the unity and equality of all those who had accepted Allah and the Prophet.

However Muhammmad’s preaching was not received with instant agreement it faced stiff opposition from Meccans who had completely different belief system and were ardent idol worshippers. Also the death of his wife and his uncle worsened his situation. The situation became more and more unfavorable and eventually Muhammad decided to shift from Mecca to Yathrib, which was about 200 miles north of Mecca. Yathrib later acquired the name Medina (Medina literally means ‘the city’). Muhammad and his followers immigrated to Medina in 622. This emigration from Mecca to Medina is referred to in Arabic as hijrat. Subsequently the beginning of the Islamic era was reckoned from this year.

Muhammad had been assured of support by the people of Medina. He soon acquired some authority at Medina when he emerged as an arbitrator in tribal disputes. This status helped him to spread his message.

The earliest Meccan converts who had accompanied the Prophet to Madina were known as the muhajirun (’emigrants’)/ while the supporters from Medina were called ansar (‘helpers’). These divisions played a role in later political disputes.

Muhammad laid the foundations of a new political structure in Medina. He was no longer just a religious leader, but the head of a nascent state centered on Medina. He was looked upon as lawgiver and began to lay down rules for governance. His followers (the male adults among them) constituted the armed forces of the Umma.

Once the framework of an administrative system and an army had been created, and ties had been forged with beduin tribes, Muhammad was in a position to carry on an armed struggle against the Quraysh of Mecca who opposed his ideas vehemently.

The Kaba in Mecca became the most sacred sanctuary of Islam. All tribal idols and other objects of worship were removed from Kaba. The Islamic symbol which was located in Kaba was a black stone traditionally associated with Abraham. Muslims were enjoined to always pray in the direction of Kaba and the pilgrimage to Kaba (haj) was established as the preeminent religious ritual of the faith.

Muhammad passed away in 632. At the time of Muhammad’s death the overwhelming majority of beduin tribes (especially in Hijaz and Najd) had acknowledged his leadership. Initially the state was not territorially well-defined.

(W.M. Watt and Patricia Crones arguments on the rise of islam)

W.M. Watt’s ‘Meccan trade hypothesis’ sees the rise of Islam as a response to the transformation which was taking place due to trade and the adoption of a sedentary lifestyle by some tribes. It was at Mecca that the most striking changes occurred. The expansion of Meccan commerce eroded traditional ties and introduced tensions in society. The wealth which profits from trade, or earnings from pilgrims, brought into Mecca did not benefit everyone uniformly. This led to conflicts at various levels. The relatively simple tribal organization of the Quraysh did not have any mechanism to cope with the new situation. Similar processes were at work elsewhere too, especially among tribes which had been drawn into the network of commercial exchanges. Muhammad’s message of unity was an answer to this social ferment and Islam provided the tribes with a scheme for state formation.

On the other hand Patricia Crone has tried to demonstrate that Meccan trade was not on a scale large enough to undermine traditional society. The trade was essentially in commodities of small value and was incapable of generating wealth enough to create such wide disparities in the society. The Meccans were initially opposed to Islam ‘because they preferred their traditional way of life’. Further, for the beduin tribes, raids and plunder were a useful way of augmenting their scanty resources. The new faith appealed to them as it helped to ‘legitimize conquest’. In more general terms Crone characterizes early Islam as a ‘nativist movement’, i.e. a movement born out a deep attachment to the Arabian way of life in opposition to the penetration of foreign influences.

Following the death of Muhammad a poilitical vaccum was created and the question of who should have religious and political authority after Muhammad was to become increasingly contentious with the passage of time, leading to fierce conflicts which were to divide the believers.

Within the Umma, broadly speaking there were three groups which claimed the right to succeed to the prophet. There were firstly, the Meccan muhajirun or ’emigrants’, who were the earliest followers of Muhammad and the ansar or ‘helpers’ who had given critical support to the cause of Muhammad after the hijrat of 622. The second group was that of the ‘legitimists’ or Alids who argued that succession should take place within the family of Muhammad. Since the Prophet had no surviving direct male heir, this implied that Muhammad’s paternal cousin, Ali, should succeed. He was the son of Muhammad’s uncle and an additional qualification of Ali was that he was one of the muhajirun. Finally, there were the aristocracy of the Quraysh, particularly the Umayyads. In the early seventh century this was not the leading clan of the tribe. The most powerful clan was that of the Umayya.

The Caliphal state

Upon the death of Muhammad one of his senior most companions, Abu Bakr, was chosen successor or khalifa. Khalifa literally means successor, which here implied ‘successor of Muhammad’. For the next few centuries khalifa became the main title for the religious leader of the Muslims or the Umma and the head of the state founded by Muhammad. ‘Caliph’ is the anglicized form of the word

The succession of Abu Bakr as the first caliph (632-34) was fairly smooth. Abu Bakr was widely respected as being one of the closest aides of the Prophet. He was also the father-in-law of Muhammad (Muhammad had married Abu Bakr’s daughter Aisha after the death of Khadija). When Abu Bakr took over, the newly formed state was in danger of disintegration as many of the beduin tribes broke away from Medina. Some of the powerful tribal chiefs in Medina declared themselves as prophets and gathered followers. Abu Bakr had to wage a series of campaigns to re-establish control over these tribes.

Abu Bakr died within two years of his becoming caliph (634). He was succeeded by Umar, whom he had nominated as his successor. Umar was caliph from 634 to 644. He had also been one of the earliest Meccan followers of Muhammad. Umar was the real builder of the Arab empire. The unification of Arabia was completed under him and large-scale territorial expansion outside Arabia commenced. Umar was killed in 644 by a person who had a personal grievance against him.

Umar had appointed a board of six selectors to nominate a successor after him. The selectors were not to name anyone from among themselves as the caliph. Usman, another early Meccan convert to Islam, was named successor to Umar. Usman became the third caliph (644-56). Usman was one of the muhajirun but he belonged to the Umayyad clan. Usman made himself unpopular by allowing members of the Umayyad clan to occupy all major official positions. Although the conquest of Iran was completed under Usman, the initial pace of expansion slowed down after c. 650. This added to the growing dissatisfaction with Usman’s rule. The murder of Usman marks the end of one phase of the formation of the Arab empire. All this while, Medina had remained the capital.

Till the time of Abu Bakr the Islamic state had been confined to Arabia. Umar and Usman had built a vast empire extending from the Nile to the margins of Central Asia. Umar had emphasized the military authority of the caliph by taking on the title of amir al muminin (commander of the faithful) or the military commander. This reinforced his religious and political authority. In other words political, military and religious power was initially combined in one person—the caliph.

Umayyads and Abbasids

Ali was assasinated by a Kharji in a mosque at Kufa. After his death, Muawiya made himself the next caliph in 661 and founded the Umayyad dynasty which lasted till 750. The conquest of large territories destroyed the Caliphate based in Medina and replaced with an authoritarian polity. The Umayyads implemented a series of political measures which consolidated their leadership within the Umma. The first Umayyad caliph Muawiya moved his capital to Damascus and adopted the court ceremonies and administrative institutions of the Byzantine empire. He also introduced hereditary succession and persuaded the leading Muslims to accept his son as his heir. Between 661 and 750 all caliphs were from the Umayyad clan. This is known as the period of the Umayyad caliphate. In Muslim historiography a clear distinction is made between the first four caliphs and the Umayyad and later caliphates. Abu Bakr, Umar, Usman and Ali are generally referred to as the ‘pious caliphs’ or rashidun (i.e. ‘rightly guided’ caliphs).These innovations were adopted by the caliphs who followed him and allowed the Umayyads to retain power for 90 years and the Abbasids for 2 centures.

The Umayyad state was now an imperial power no longer based directly on Islam but on state craft and the loyalty of Syrian troops. There were Christian advisers in the administration as well as Zorastrian scribes and bureaucrats. However, Islam continued to provide legitimacy to there rule. The Umayyads always appealed for unity and suppressed rebellions in the name of Islam. They also retained their Arab social identity. During the reign of Abd-al-malik (685 to 705) and his successors, both the Arab and Islamic identities were strongly emphasized.

(Abbasids)

For their success in centralizing the Musllim polity the Umayyads paid a heavy price. A well-organised movement called ,Dawa, brought down the Umayyads and replaced them with another family of Meccan origin, the Abbasids in 750. The Abbasids portrayed the Ummayad regime as evil and promised a restoration of the original Islam of the Prophet. The revolution led not only to a change of dynasty but changes in the political structure and culture of Islam. The Abbasid uprising broke out in the distant region of Khurasan. Khurasan had a mixed Arab-Iranian population which could be mobilized for various reasons. The Arab soldiers here were mostly from Iran and resented the dominance of the Syrians. The civilian Arabs of Khurasan disliked the Umayyad regime for having made promises of tax concessions and privileges which were never fulfilled. As for the Iranian Muslims (Mawali) they were exposed to the scorn of the race-conscious Arabs and were eager to join any campaign to oust the Umayyads.

The Abbasid descendants of Abbas, the Prophet’s uncle, mustered the support of the various dissident groups and legitimized their bid for power by promising that the Messiah from the family of the Prophet would liberate them from the oppressive Umayyad regime. Their army was led by an Iranian slave Abu Muslim who defeated the last Umayyad Khalif Marwan in the battle at the river Zab.

Under Abbasid rule, Arab influence declined while the importance of Iranian culture increased. The Abbasids established their capital at Baghdad near the ruins of the ancient Iranian metropolis Ctesiphon. The army and bureaucracy were recognized on a non-tribal basis to ensure greater participation by Iraq and Khurasan. The Abbasid rulers strengthened the religious status and functions of the Caliphate and patronized Islamic institutions and scholars. But they were forced by the needs of government and empire to retain the centralized nature of the state. They maintained the magnificent imperial architecture and elaborate court ceremonials of the Umayyads. The regime which took pride in having brought down the monarchy found itself compelled to establish it again.

The Abbasid state became weaker from the 9^th century because Baghdad’s control over the distant provinces declined and because of the conflict between pro-Arab and pro-Iranian fractions in the army and bureaucracy. In 810 a civil was broke out between the supporters of Amin and Mamun, sons of the caliph Harun-al-rashid which deepened the factionalism and created a new power block of Turkish slave officers (mamluk). Shiism once again competed with Sunni orthodoxy for power. A number of minor dynasties arose such as the Tahirids and Samanids in Khurasan and Transoxiana, and the Tulunids in Egypt and Syria. Abaasid power was soon limited to central Iraq and western Iran. That too was lost in 945 when a Shiite clan from the Caspian region of Iran captured Baghdad. The Buyid rulers assumed titles like Shahanshah but not that of a caliph. They kept the Abbasid Khalif as the symbolic head of their Sunni subjects. The decision not to abolish the Caliphate was a shrewd one because another Shiite dynasty the Fatimids had ambitions to rule the Islamic world. The Fatimids belonged to the Ismaili subsect of Shiism and claimed to be descendants of Fatima, the Prophet’s daughter, and hence the rightful rulers of Islam. From their base in north Africa they conquered Egypt in 969 and established the Fatimidcaliphate.