Nomadic-pastoralist peoples have had a dramatic impact on world history on several occasions. Generally speaking, their impact has been destructive and short-lived. The Arab conquests, from 632 onwards, of the Middle East and North Africa brought about certain consequences. Alone among other nomad warriors, the Arabs brought with them a dominant religion, Islam, and this in its train contributed a written language of high culture and, later, of administration. Arabic had become a language of religion and government, as well as the spoken vernacular of almost the entire population from the Zagros Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. There are few events that have affected world history as profoundly as the battles and expeditions between 632 and 720, and everyone lives with those consequences at the present day. 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 internal view of Muslim historians was that God supported the Islamic faith and aided in its spread. The external, especially European, view was that the Muslim concept of jihad, or struggle, was the key element. Today, few historians emphasize religious zeal alone but rather point to a combination of the Arab’s military advantages and the political weaknesses of their opponents. Equally important are the military strength and tactics of the Arabs. For example, rather than scattering as landlords of peasant farmers over conquered lands, Arab soldiers remained together in garrison cities, where their Arab ethnicity, tribal organization, religion, and military success set them
The spread of the Islamic faith throughout the eastern world occurred due to the presence of Muslim cities. Iba Jubayr, a Spanish Muslim traveler and geographer, loves the city of Damascus as the type of paradise on earth (Doc 1). Among many Muslim cities, Damascus is a center of the Islamic faith and greatly contributed to the spreading of the Islamic faith. The Umayyad Caliphate based the Islam core in Damascus and the city’s power reached its highest point. Though Iba Jubayr provides a sufficient observation upon Damascus, his opinions were hidden due to his occupation. Being a traveler and geographer, Iba Jubayr was exposed to many various environments, some harsher than others. As a result, Jubayr’s opinion may have been wrong because a city that is nice such as Damascus can easily be viewed as a paradise on earth when compared to an extremely poor and suffering city. Even though Jubayr’s opinion is incorrect, Damascus is still an important element in the spreading of
Ansary, Mir Tamim. Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World through Islamic Eyes. New York: PublicAffairs, 2009. Print.
The Muslim empire expanded vastly from 622 CE to 750 CE. This empire could be compared to the Holy Roman Empire, one of the greatest in the world. There are three main reasons to explain how the Muslim empire reached its height; battling for land, signing peace treaties, and granting stipends. Every Muslim who were in the military fought against other civilizations for land. After that, they made an agreement, or a peace treaty, to the people of the land they conquered. The Muslims would also give gifts called stipends to conquered people who helped the Islam’s. The next paragraph will be explaining how Muslims fought for land and how that was important.
While some of the enormous discrepancies between Babur’s Islam and James Scurry’s Islam can be ascribed to differences in age and role, the strongest cause of such dissimilarities is a very similar political instability. Admittedly, Babur’s position as conqueror and Scurry’s status as prisoner are the obvious differences that inform their vastly different experiences. Although centuries lay between Babur’s victories and Scurry’s capture, both times were dominated by insecurity and warfare. Local rulers in both eras turned to Islam as a justifying cornerstone of their regimes, and as a tool and rallying cry against their enemies. It is this particular guise of Islam, as political instrument, that ultimately gives us Babur’s privileged piety and Scurry’s painful conversion.
The conception of the Islamic civilization drew much attention in Arabia. In 600 C.E., the rise of this new empire helped its people improve in all studies of sciences and culture. The ability to spread teachings and customs throughout an entire area could not be easily obtained, therefore they used extended force and violence to take control of lands. In 610 C.E, when Muhammed was met by the angel Gabriel and accustomed his beliefs to those of God, the devotion of Muhammed's followers increased at a rapid rate. Following the death of Muhammed in 632 C.E., the civilization expanded very rapidly through momentous success both by converting nonbelievers to Islam and military conquests of opponents. It is noted that during the expansion of the
Today, the modern world has been greatly influenced by Muslims. Muslims are very intelligent people and created and invented many achievements. In ninth century Arabia, Muslims contributed: Intellectual, Cultural, and Economic advancements that have impacted the world long term.
Hilāl, ʻAlī Al-Dīn. Islamic Resurgence in the Arab World. New York, NY: Praeger, 1982. Print.
Crusades. The. This increased contact created a direct cultural diffusion that would hurt the Muslims in time. These Crusaders would learn the local language and learn words such as Alchemy, Algebra and Zenith that had never been created in the Languages spoken by the crusaders. Also, from being in the Middle East for so long, crusaders learned of new sciences created by the Muslims such as Chemistry and Astronomy.
The failure of defensive development in Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, and Persia had a large and long-lasting effect on the Muslim world. The original goal of the reforms was to end European intervention, revive the weakening empires, and to be on equal standing with Europe. Yet, all three empires over-utilized the wealth and knowledge of Europe, leading to their ultimate demise. The empires wished to impose reforms in the military, economics, education, and law which the region had not experienced previously. This resulted in backlash, violence, and division within the empires eventually leading to bankruptcy, ironically, to those which they wished to separate themselves.
The Islamic tradition, as reflected in Naguib Mahfouz’s Zaabalawi, has over the course of history had an incredible impact on Arab culture. In Mahfouz’s time, Islamic practices combined with their political relevance proved a source of both great power and woe in Middle Eastern countries. As alluded to in Zaabalawi, Mahfouz asserts the fact that not all Muslims attain religious fulfillment through this common tradition, and other methods outside the scope of Islam may be necessary in true spiritual understanding.
In the other hand, a prosperous religion now known as Islam began its conquest in the Middle East reaching North Africa. There the Islamic empire gathers strength converting large number of native tribesman called “Berbers”. The Berbers started advancing their physical skills while an Islamic leader known as Tariq Bin Ziad set his eye on the vulnerable Visgothic Spain aiming to send the message of Islam abroad it. In 711, ferocious Tariq Bin Ziad and his fierce warriors reached Sothern Spain facing Visigoths King for the battle of Guadalete. The Muslim empire conquered the Christians, thus bestowing the Muslims a new land.
“Islamization was a process not an event and it still continues as Islam seeks deeper roots and greater influence.” (Ricklefs et al., 2010)
Since its first introduction and application to archaeology in the late-nineteenth and early- twentieth century during the classic evolutionary ideology era where it was heavily utilized to establish the human origin of prehistoric artifacts (Shelley 1999), analogy has always held a central role in archaeological thought. While in archaeological thought it functions on the base of broad and generalized comparisons that are documented across many cultural traditions; in anthropological practice as a whole, analogy is the reasoning based on the notion that if two things are comparable in some values then they must be comparable in other values. It refers to the structure which describes and attempts to explain the cultural processes Although ethno-archaeology has been under severe criticism since the late-1980s it can nevertheless be useful to archaeologists. Hole’s 1979 work is a success story of ethnoarchaeology whereby his usage of ethnography on the Baharvand—Iranian pastoral nomadic group—shows the beneficial aspects of using ethno-archaeology. His work had aimed to help explain the issues of distinguishing nomads archaeologically, and consequently allow the assessment of the role carried out by the pastoral nomads in the Near Eastern prehistory.
Fear, instilled into our brains through violence and driven by a leader with a purpose. The rise of Islam is driven by fear, whether it be the fear of damnation through the divine or by the violence others bestow upon us. Gordon says, “History has shown repeatedly that ideas can provide powerful motivation for extraordinary deeds.” (11) Muslims are masters of using this fear/violence to make their religion dominant; Muhammad’s use of violence to spread the Muslim religion, how Muslim diplomacy leads to violence, and how it shaped our modern day views on the Muslim religion for the worse. In this paper, I want to show why the use of fear along with Muslim violence made Islam grow and expand at such a rapid rate.
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 his reign as caliph was short, we find it had a great impact on the early development of Islam. Through close examination of his relationship with Muhammad and his actions as caliph, this work will claim that Muhammad greatly influenced Abu Bakr's decision making as a leader and how Islam began to be shaped.