The Rightly guided Caliphs
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 Caliphate
Umayyad
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.
Abbasids
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.
North Africa And Spain
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.
After the Mangol Invasion
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.
Ottoman Empire
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.
Persia
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.
India
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.
Malaysia And Indonesia
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.
Africa
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.
Islam in the United States
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.
Aftermath of the Colonial Period
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.
Arab
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.
India
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.
Far East
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.
Africa
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.
National States
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.
Revival and Reassertation of Islam
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.
Reform Organizations
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.
Education and Science in the Islamic World
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.
Influence of Islamic Science and Learning Upon the West
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.
Conclusion
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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