Unit 2: Islam
The image of militancy, in the eyes of many Muslims, is a distortion by the Western media. There are solid grounds for this view. In an age of sound-bites and newspaper agendas driven by tabloid headlines, the lives and values of peace-loving majorities are inevitably obscured by the attention seeking acts of the noisy minorities. The news media act like a distorting mirror at a fairground, exaggerating the militancy of the few while minimizing the quietism or indifference of the many.
Malise Ruthven: Islam. A very short introduction.
Mecca before Muhammad (end of the 6th century)
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The city of Mecca is today the capital of Arabia, but in the 6th century it was a merchant city in the middle of the desert. Thousands of merchants came to Mecca to do business.
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There were also many tribes that converged in Mecca, each with its own customs and religions.
Most of the Bedouins (nomadic Arabs) believed in various gods or fetishes, that is, they were polytheists.
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In the center of the city was the Kaaba (cube in Arabic), a place where everyone could go to pray to their particular gods. Merchants used to gather around the Kaaba to make business too.
A relic called 'The Black Stone' was placed in the Kaaba. According to Arab tradition, this stone had fallen from the sky and came from paradise.
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Today, around the Kaaba, there is a huge mosque that is a place of pilgrimage for all the Muslims of the world.
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The figure of Muhammad
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Muhammad (570-632) was a merchant from Mecca who worked for a rich widow, Khadija, and eventually married her. He was a very devout man who used to meditate and pray at Mount Hira, near Mecca. According to Islamic doctrine, in the year 610 he had a revelation from the archangel Gabriel, who ordered him to preach the word of God. Muhammad then became the definitive prophet and the founder of Islam, an Arabic word that means "submission to the will of Allah."
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The 'Hegira'
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At first, Muhammad failed to convince many people. In Mecca people of many different religions lived and he demanded that only one god be worshiped (Allah) and that all the idols of the Ka'bah should be destroyed. In addition, Mecca was a city of merchants and people who came from everywhere to do business there. These merchants thought that if all religions were banned except Islam, many people would stop going to Mecca and the economy would suffer.
In the year 622, Muhammad and his few followers went to Yathrib, today Medina, where his sermons received a much greater reception. This exile in Medina is known as 'Hegira' and marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar.
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Return to Mecca
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In 630, he became a powerful leader and, leading a large army, conquered Mecca and began conquering the rest of Arabia. He died in 632.
The Koran is the sacred book of the Muslims, just as the Bible is that of the Christians. The Sunnah is the Islamic tradition based on the life and teachings of Muhammad and is also very important in Islam.
The expansion of Islam
After Muhammad's death in 632, a dispute began to discern who should be the leader of Islam (caliph). The candidates were his friends or relatives.
There are three phases in the expansion of Islam that coincide with the great Islamic dynasties.
1) Caliphate Rashid or Orthodox (632-661): The first successor of Muhammad was his friend and father-in-law Abu Bakr. The election did not happen without problems: a broad band of Muslims wanted the caliph to be Ali, Muhammad's son-in-law. This produced the first great schism within the Community of Believers (Ummah). The followers of the Abu Bakr are called Sunni, while the followers of Ali are called Shiites. Although Ali was, years later, the fourth caliph, the confrontation between Sunnis and Shiites continues today.
Despite internal conflicts (some caliphs died killed), the Rashid caliphate managed to extend his empire to Syria, Palestine, Egypt and North Africa, Mesopotamia and Persia.
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2) Umayyad Caliphate (661-750): The post of caliph became hereditary and they gave stability to the empire. They made Damascus, in Syria, their capital and achieved the maximum expansion of the Arab empire, which extended from the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Indus valley in the east.
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3) Abbasid Caliphate (750-1055): After another civil war, the Abbasids defeated the Umayyads and became the new caliphs. They moved the capital to Baghdad, today in Iraq, and, after the conquest of Crete and Sicily, their expansion stopped. The Turks, although they were also Muslims, conquered Baghdad in 1055 and controlled the Abbasids, although they remained officially Caliphs until 1258, when Baghdad was taken over by the Mongols.
Evolution of the Islamic Empire through the Rashidun, Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates year by year
GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION
CALIPH
Religious and political leader. He was considered to be 'The shadow of God on Earth'
VIZIER
Prime minister
EMIR or WALI
Governor of the provinces
KADI
Supreme judge
SOCIAL
STRUCTURE
1) Aristocrats: owners of latifundia and of large booties of war. They occupied important positions in the government.
2) Peasants, artisans and merchants.
They were called Mawali. Some of them became very powerful.
They were called Dhimmis, They could maintain their customs and practice their religion, but they had to pay some taxes for not being Muslim, like the Yizia.
Economy
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The economy was based on two areas: agriculture and trade.
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1) Agriculture: The Arabs introduced new crops in conquered lands: orange, lemon, durum wheat, saffron, rice, etc. In addition, they introduced new cultivation techniques, such as the waterwheel, the irrigation canal, the cistern or the terrace farming crops.
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2) Trade: It was based mainly on luxury manufactured products: leather, clothing, carpets, fabrics, silk, spices and slaves.
They traded with practically all the known world, and established new trade routes through Asia, Europe and Africa. They also used routes that already existed, such as the Silk Road.
Waterwheel
Irrigation Canal
Cistern
Terrace farming crops
Land and sea trading routes
The Muslim City
Friday mosque: there were many small mosques for everyday prayers, but this one was the biggest and most important one, since it was mandatory for all men to go to the mosque on Fridays.
Alcazaba: Fortified enclosure, within a walled population, to shelter the garrison.
Marketplace: located near the Friday mosque, it was the place for the main economic activity in the city: buying and selling goods and food.
Jewish quarter: The Jews had their own neighborhood within the city. Although they did business with the Muslims, they did not usually mix very much.
Wall: The main part of the city was surrounded by a defensive wall.
Granery: Place where wheat and other things were stored. They also traded here with those goods.
Suburbs: neighborhoods outside the walls, where other activities such as tinting were concentrated.
Aerial view of old medina in Fes, Morocco.
The Muslim house
Islamic Art
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Islamic art, although of great beauty, has little originality. The explanation lies in the fact that, as they expanded rapidly throughout Europe, Asia and Africa during the seventh and eighth century, they did not develop their own art, but copied those artistic aspects that they liked most from the conquered countries.
The representation of the human figure or of animals is, although there are exceptions, prohibited in Islamic art, for it is considered that who represents a human or animal is sinning because they are trying to imitate the work of God. Therefore, its main contributions are located in architecture and calligraphy. These two concepts are presented together many times. The works of jewelry and crafts are also relevant.
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1) Architecture: In Islam, ostentation of wealth and luxury is considered bad taste, therefore, the exteriors of palaces, mosques and houses are sober, while in the interiors is where the decoration is concentrated.
The most important architectural elements are:
-Arabesque: vegetal forms that decorate walls, ceilings, capitals, etc.
-Geometric decoration: also appears on any surface, especially shaping the lattices.
-Muqarnas (stalactite work): It is presented hanging from ceilings and arches.
-Arches: there are many types of arch: horseshoe (inspired by Visigothic art), swollen (pointed horseshoe), lobed, mixtilinear (combination of geometric shapes), angrelado (with muqarnas), etc.
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2) Calligraphy: That decorates walls, ceilings, capitals, etc. There are different styles of calligraphy: diwani, muhaqqaq, naski, etc.
3) Crafts: Objects of varied use were produced with exquisite carvings.
Arabesque at Umayyad mosque, Damascus
Geometric decoration in a ceiling
Angrelado arch with muqarnas at Alhambra, Granade.
Muqarnas dome at Alhambra,
Granade
Mixtilinear arch at Alfajería,
Zaragoza
Geminate horseshoe arches at Cordoba's mosque
Lobbed arch at Alfajería,
Zaragoza
Keel arches at Mosque of Isfahan, Iran. This sort of mosques are known as Iwan Mosques, because these big gates, influenced by Persian palaces, are known as Iwan.
Balcony of Daraxa, with muqarnas, geomerical decoration, tiles and tumid arches at Alhambra, Granade
Dome over pendentives at the Blue Mosque, Istanbul
Artistic Caligraphy
From left to right: Zoomorphic caligraphy (bird shape), page from the Koran in old Kufic script, and verses from the Koran in geometric Kufic script.
Caligraphic decoration at Alhambra, Granada, Spain.
The mosque
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It is the Islamic temple and, therefore, the most important building. The main mosque model is a replica of the house of Muhammad in Medina.
The qibla wall: Qibla means "the direction towards the Kaaba", and this wall is at the back of the mosque. It is oriented towards the Kaaba, and in that direction the Muslims should pray
The mihrab: is a niche in the quibla wall in which the Koran is deposited.
The fountain of ablutions: It is the place where Muslims wash themselves before praying. Inside the mosque everyone has to go barefoot.
The prayer hall: it is a roofed room where the Muslims pray and listen to the recitation of the Koran.
The minaret: tower from where the muezzin calls to prayer.
Jerusalem, Israel
You can see the Kaaba in the center of the courtyard
It is one of the best examples of a hypostyle mosque, as the prayer hall is lined with columns
Jerusalem, Israel
The Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453. They were so impressed by seeing Hagia Sophia that they decided to turn it into a mosque and build subsequent mosques in the city in the same style. This type is known as a central-dome mosque, since the space is distributed around the large central dome.
In other countries, mosques have adopted characteristics of the architecture of the area.
Describe your image
Describe your image
Voluntary work: Similarities and differences between Sunni and Shia. Click here.