The Arabian Peninsula was a changing land in the early seventh century. With the foundation of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad (c. 570-632 CE) began to consolidate his rule in the Hijaz region around his center of power in Madinah. With the young Islamic rule gaining momentum, it seemed as if there would be no stopping it from gaining more power and spreading, that is until Muhammad's death in 632 CE. With his passing, we see the tribes once ruled by Muhammad and the Banu Quraysh try to break off and return to their own rule now that there was no leader for the community of believers (umma). Despite some initial scramble, it was Abu Bakr (r. 632-34 CE) who was named the first Caliph, or Deputy of God, and began to lead the Islamic community. Though …show more content…
Muhammad made it clear in his final sermon that no prophet would come after him, nor any new faith after Islam.5 If there was to be no prophet after Muhammad then where would religious leadership come from? Would someone stepping into power be seen as blasphemy against God's word through Muhammad? The community quickly began to crack, and new challenges faced Islam including leadership and other political entities. Muhammad never made clear who would be his successor, though many argue he named his cousin and adopted son Ali ibn Abi Talib (D. 661 CE).6 While this would become a topic of religious division in the Islamic community years later, it did not play as large a role initially. There are many other traditions that try and point to who Muhammad selected to succeed him, all of which are inconsistent from one another.7 These examples show that perhaps Muhammad did not have a real plan for succession before his death in 662, and the community had to think on its …show more content…
There was first the Muhajirun, who were the Quraysh who fled Mecca with Muhammad on the hijrah. There were also those in Madinah who assisted them known as the Ansar.8 It was believed that the Ansar were close to picking their own chief to rule them, and to have the Quraysh do the same.9 While the Ansar were discussing this, Abu Bakr was at Muhammad's home helping prepare the Prophet for burial. When Abu Bakr was sent for and arrived at this meeting, he rose to speak on behalf of the Quraysh asking the Ansar to choose between Umar ibn al-Khattab and Abu Ubayda. However before this could be done they both chose to swear allegiance to Abu Bakr saying, “we shall not accept this authority above you, for you are the worthiest of the Emigrants and the second of the two who were in the cave and the deputy [khalifa] of the Prophet of God in prayer, and prayer is the noblest part of the religion of the Muslims.”10 This selection set in motion a system of selecting the caliph from the Banu Quraysh based on merit as a “good Muslim,” a trend that would carry on for many
The political structure of the Arabian and Byzantine empires greatly differed from each other. The Arabian empire was ruled over by a Caliphate. The Caliphate was the successor to the great prophet Muhammad. Politically, the Caliphate sometimes caused trouble for the stability of the empire. With multiple groups such as the Umayyad and the Abbasid believing the were in charge of the Caliphate led to conflicts and violence. An example of conflict would be towards the end of the Abbasid empire when the death of Harun al-Rashid brought several full scale revolutions. Another example would be at the beginning of Abbasid empire when they went as far as too kill off all of the remaining Umayyad leaders to sustain full control with little to no interference. Politically, the Arab/Muslim empire stretched from India and the Middle East into the Africa, the Mediterranean, and Iberia. They also had a large influence in Southeast Asia. When they conquered these areas, there was no forced conversion. On the other hand, they did enforce a higher tax for non-Muslims which prompted people to convert. Only later were there violently forced conversions. A testimony to this would be when the Muslims invaded India and did not touch the Buddhist or Hindus already there. They even respected the Hindu leadership and allowed them to continue. The Muslim empire was successful in other parts of the world due to tolerance, and continued to operate in the face of power struggles.
Ibn Munqidh, Usama. "From Memoirs." McNeill, William and Marilyn Robinson Waldman. The Islamic World. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1973. 184-206.
The first man, named Abu Bakr, many people believed he was a good candidate because he was an old friend and was one of the first ones to convert to Islam. Yet others believed that Ali Talib was the best choice because he was a cousin and a son-in-law to the prophet. The disputes between the two groups of people would lead to a split; the followers of Abu Bark became the Sunnis and the followers of Ali became the Shia. In the end, the majority of people decided to choose Abu Bark and he became Islam’s first caliph. Abu Bark was Muhammad’s caliph for only two years until he died; even though it was a short period of time, he accomplished big things.
The first article discussed the begging of Islamic religion that was founded by Prophet Mohammed who left a huge struggle among his people for whom should succeed the highest position of Islam. The author mention that Mohammed’s daughter Fatima disagreed against Abu Bakr as being the new leader of Islam. Fatima felt that her husband Ali Bin Abitalib who is also Mohammed’s cousin and father of his grandchildren should place the leadership after Prophet Mohammed.
After the death of the Prophet Muhammad, the death of Islam was very possible. The Arab conquests were remembered merely as one of the history’s more improbable “might-have-beens”. It may easily have been the end, if not for the decisive action taken by the early Muslim leadership, notably by the first two caliphs (or successors of the Prophet). Like Muhammad
The Abbasids was the third of the Islamic Caliphates who followed the Prophet Mohammed (P.B.H). Their dynasty descended from Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib; the prophet’s youngest uncle. They moved the capital of Muslim’s empire from Damascus, Syria, to Baghdad, Iraq. The Abbasids ruled for two centuries from 750-1258. The Abbasids defeated the Umayyad’s in a battle of the Zab, near the Great Zab, with the leadership of Abu al-'Abbas as-Saffah. This occurred because the Abbasids were supported by the Persians. And that’s how they took over the Calipha. Abu al-'Abbas as-Saffah, brother of Abdullah, proclaimed afterwards the Caliph. The Abbasids believed that they are rightful for the calipha more than the Umayyads. They first centered their government in Kufa, but by the help of Caliph Al-Mansur, it was founded in Baghdad as it’s much more closer to Persia. This resulted in a growing reliance on the Persian bureaucrats. The Abbasids renowned themselves from the Umayyads by confronting their moral personality and administration in overall. They appealed to...
Islam is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion alongside Judaism and Christianity. It is currently the second largest religion in the world today. Its beliefs come from the Qur'an which literally means "the recitation" which is believed to be a literal transcription of the word of God. Its main prophet is named Muhammad who began Islam by speaking with the angel Gabriel in a cave during his meditation and then acting as an instrument of God to help write the Qur’an. Muhammad then spread Islam to the scattered tribes of Arabia by becoming the leader of Yathrib and using his wonderful leadership abilities to then grow his influence over virtually all of Arabia. Muhammad is known by Muslims to be the seal of the profits because no profits after Muhammad should be considered legitimate. Muhammad also left behind the Hadith or “tradition” which is a collection of writings compiled of reports of Muhammad’s actions as leader of Yathrib. These reports are used as a more specific code of ethics in day to day life and from these reports the 5 Pillars of Islam are derived (Smith 160). Although Islam shares many similarities to Judaism and Christianity it is often viewed in the US with hate derived from preconceived notions following the attack on September 11th 2001. This paper seeks to provide an overview of Islam’s history as well as its two major sects and 5 main pillars to remove preconceived notions and provide a glance into the minds of the Islamic people.
The Muslim Empire began to expand vastly under the Umayyads, with the empire becoming so large many people were converting to Islam religion. The Umayyads were the second of the four major caliphates after the death of Muhammad. The Empire used many different ways to spread the Islamic civilization consisting of war, classes, and appeal. The Islamic civilization spread so strongly because of the way it allured the common man.
Throughout his life, the Prophet Muhammad proved to be exceptionally adept at uniting diverse groups, negotiating a series of alliances and loyalty arrangements that spanned religious, tribal, ethnic, and familial lines (Berggren 2009). Among other things, this ability enabled Muhammad to forge a shared identity and found a nascent Islamic state from a diverse and even heterogeneous community (Rahman 1982; Ernst 2003, pp. 87-93). This diversity proved to be both a source of strength and conflict for Islam, and following the death of Muhammad early Islamic communities engaged in extensive debates not only about the nature of his teachings or how to carry his legacy forward, but also about the terms that should be used to define his authority. Although this debate produced a colorful array of movements within the tapestry of early Islamic civilization, this essay offers a critical examination of two particularly distinct perspectives on the nature of prophetic authority: namely, those articulated
The decline of the Abbasids was not a steady of rapid series of events. There were numerous revivals of the Caliphate in which certain strong Caliphs gained more control and influence over the Islamic world than their predecessors had had. However at no point after the death of Harun al-Rahid (reigned 786-809) was the Caliphate ever as powerful. This period is regarded as the Golden Age of the Abbasid Caliphate and was followed immediately by civil war between his sons. Harun’s two sons were called Al-Amin and Al-Mamun. Al-Amin was the elder and was nominated as the heir to the Caliphate. However Al-Mamun, who was the effective governor of the eastern provinces was ambitious. He was spurred towards seizing the Caliphate for himself by his prominent advisor Al-Fadl. In 810 he declared himself an Iman causing his brother to disinherit and dispatch a great army to snuff out his ever increasing dominance of the Caliphate east of Baghdad. It seemed likely that Al-Mamun would be defeated, his army numbered around 4,000 men but faced 40,000. However he was fortunate in his commander, called Tahir bin Husain, who won him a spectacular victory at Rayy in 811. Tahir proceeded to siege Baghdad in 812. In that year Al-Amin was captured and forced to hand over the office of Caliph to al-Mamun. Al-Amin was executed after trying to escape Baghdad after it had been captured.
The prophet Muhammad had a significant impact on the rise and spread of the religion Islam. According to World Civilizations, Muhammad “began receiving revelations transmitted from Allah,” and later these revelations became holy scripts in the Quran. Muhammad started off with very few followers but as the faith of Allah started to spread, he gained more followers and he became a threat to Mecca’s rulers. As mentioned in World Civilization, “in 622 Muhammad left Mecca for Medina where his skilled leadership brought new followers.” In Medina, Muhammad became the religious authority in the area and he used this power to conquer Mecca, a holy place for Islamic believers. By the time of his death, he was able to have created a religious empire that controlled all of the Arabian Peninsula.
After ‘The Year of Sorrow’ in which both Muhammad’s uncle- Abu Talib and wife- Kadijah died Muhammad is warned by the angel Gabriel that the situation is getting too dangerous for him in Mecca. “Muhammad knew the faith must find expression in a community which would insure its external force and the opportunity to prevail against opposition” (Cragg). It is at this point that Muhammad is invited to become a leader in Medina (622ce).
The Fatimid’s had been rumored to be tolerant, compassionate and focused on unifying Islam; however, it has been proved that this was not always the case. Orientalists have acknowledged their contribution towards the advancement of Islam and claim that the Christian and Jewish communities excelled during this time; but it did not come without its deceptions and deviations from Islamic norms and rules. This historiography will explore whether the Fatimids were actually the tolerant Muslims whose actions, belief systems and practices evidenced the growth of Islam and tolerance of other religions, or if they were merely politi...
During Muhammad’s time, he united many areas in Arabia and was able to establish a religious communi...
After the death of the Prophet Muhammad (S), Abu Bakr had to take charge over the distraught people. He told them not to worship Prophet Muhammad (S), because he is dead, and to worship Allah (SWT), because he is alive. Hazrat Abu Bakr was the first Kalipha. At the election at the Saqifa Bani Sa’dah, he was elected.