For countless millions, consequently, it has been the single most important force in guiding their religious, social, and cultural lives. In fact, it's hard to . It was a necessary step, but its outcome was dominance of the caliphate by its own praetorian guard. Later a director of the House of Wisdom, Hunayn also wrote at least twenty-nine original treatises of his own on medical topics, and a collection of ten essays on ophthalmology which covered, in systematic fashion, the anatomy and physiology of the eye and the treatment of various diseases which afflict vision. During the second Mongol invasion, Tamerlane had met and very nearly annihilated another rising power: the Ottomans. After sunset the pilgrims move to a place called Muzdalifah, where they gather stones for the "throwing of the pebbles" or "stoning of the pillars," and then pray and sleep. From the earliest days it has always been recited aloud or, more accurately, chanted. The third day of the pilgrimage, back at Mina, they enact a repudiation of evil by throwing the pebbles at a pillar held by many to represent Satan. Following the decisive Battle of Yarmouk in 636, the former Byzantine states of Syria, Palestine, and Lebanon were conquered by the Muslim armies. Muhammad was also the exemplar of the teachings he had brought them from God: the teachings of the Quran, which, for centuries, have guided the thought and action, the faith and conduct, of innumerable men and women, and which ushered in a distinctive era in the history of mankind. The divide between Sunnis and Shia is the largest and oldest in the history of Islam. But neither he nor the four caliphs who succeeded him were the statesmen the times demanded when, in 747, revolutionaries in Khorasan unfurled the black flag of rebellion that would bring the Umayyad Dynasty to an end. According to one account, he entered the city alone and clad in a simple cloak, astounding a populace accustomed to the sumptuous garb and court ceremonials of the Byzantines and Persians. In the meantime, the Mongols, like so many of the peoples who had come into contact with Islam, had begun to embrace it. The Europeans mounted a series of further crusading expeditions against the Muslims over the next hundred years or so, but the Crusaders never again recovered the initiative. Islamic law is thus different from any other legal system; it differs from canon law in that it is not administered by a church hierarchy; in Islam there is nothing that corresponds to a "church" in the Christian sense. Consequently, the Holy Text could only be collected as a single corpus - "between the two covers" - after the death of Muhammad. In the forefront was Saudi Arabia, the heartland of Islam, and the site of the momentous events which initiated Islamic history fourteen centuries ago. Now with the Battle of Nihavand, called the "Conquest of Conquests," 'Umar sealed the fate of Persia; henceforth it was to be one of the most important provinces in the Muslim Empire. Although unable to fend off the Crusaders at first - even offering the Crusaders access to Jerusalem if they would come as pilgrims rather than invaders - the Muslims eventually began to mount effective counterattacks. But sharp ideological and ethnic differences within the region create conflict today. Passages of impassioned beauty are no less common than vigorous narratives. Photo: Another basmalah in ornamental thuluth script is written in the shape of an oval. As a result, several traditional means of chanting, or intoning, the Quran were found side by side. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. This is one of the best video for a new Muslim as well as for non Muslims who are interested in Islam! Since all government business was by now transacted in Arabic, manuals of correct usage were written for the instruction of non-Arabic speakers who had found government employment. The most imposing of the many fortresses built by the Crusaders the elegant Krak des Chevaliers in Syria (top) held out against the Muslims for over a century and a half. Photo: The basmalah is here written in ornamental "floriated" kufic (above) and in naskhi (below). The Roman numeral CCC II, for instance, presented a problem. The exercise of self-control extends far beyond refraining from food and drink; to make one's fast acceptable to God, one must also refrain from cursing, lying, cheating, and abusing or harming others. Many also make the sa'y or running, a reenactment of a frantic search for water by Hagar when she and Abraham's son Ishmael were stranded in the valley of Mecca until the Angel Gabriel led them to water in the Well of Zamzam. "Both their identities were challenged: their American identity and their Muslim identity," said Asani, who teaches Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures . Their city wall shall not be demolished, neither shall any Muslim be quartered in their houses. But then, in 1380, a new Turko-Mongol confederation was hammered together by another world conqueror: Tamerlane, who claimed descent from Genghis Khan. But, bit by bit, they had to retreat, first from northern Spain, then from central Spain. The Merciful, the Compassionate; Photo: This tughra (monogram or insignia) of the Ottoman Sultan Abdu Hamid shows the three elongated vertical strokes which are characteristic of this style. Soon everyone concurred and before dusk Abu Bakr had been recognized as the khalifah of Muhammad. This move reduced state income substantially, but as there was clear precedent in the practice of the great 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second caliph, and as 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz was determined to bring government policy more in line with the practice of the Prophet, even enemies of his regime had nothing but praise for this pious man. Not everyone accepted God's message transmitted through Muhammad. The greatest scientist of the medieval world was a 10th century Arab by the name of Ibn al-Haytham. The religious leader, in turn, was responsible to the sultan or his representatives for such details as the payment of taxes. Some of these were no more than efforts to placate European powers - which by then had great influence on the empire's policies - but others, in education and law, were important. Then, in his forties he began to retire to meditate in a cave on Mount Hira outside of Mecca, where the first of the great events of Islam took place. Established by the prophet Muhammad, the religion of Islam unified a diverse cultural region that spans several countries. One important addition by the Ottoman calligraphers was the script called diwani, so called from the word diwan (meaning state council or government office) since it was at first used primarily for documents issued by the Ottoman Council of State. We feature each theme with a beautiful image. Even the various reform movements were balked, and with the invasion of Egypt in 1798 by France it became obvious that the once powerful empire was weakening. Muslim Heritage - Al-Qayrawan, seat of Arab governors founded in 670, Muslim Heritage - Umayyad Coins (661-750CE). During the Golden Age Muslim scholars also made important and original contributions to mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and chemistry. During this period, from 750 to 950, the territory of the Muslim Empire encompassed present-day Iran, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Palestine, North Africa, Spain, and parts of Turkey and drew to Baghdad peoples of all those lands in an unparalleled cross-fertilization of once isolated intellectual traditions. Photo: The shrine of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, built in an area revered by Muslims, Christians and Jews alike covers the rock from which Muhammad is believed to have ascended to heaven with the Angel Gabriel. Does one religion have the monopoly on truth? Due to overwhelming content, each of these hubs can be considered a home page of its own. Strategically located, it is a natural land bridge connecting the continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe. Despite the great body of tradition and law, however the practice of Islam is essentially personal - a direct relationship between individuals and God. These successes, however, were qualified by serious administrative weaknesses. Today, therefore, one can hear Arabic spoken - at least for religious purposes - from Mauritania on the Atlantic, across Africa and most of Asia, and as far east as Indonesia and the Philippines. The shift in power to Damascus, the Umayyad capital city, was to have profound effects on the development of Islamic history. The art of calligraphy is still very much alive in the Arab world and wherever the Arabic alphabet is used. Later, during the time of 'Uthman, the third caliph, a final, authorized text was prepared and completed in 651, and this has remained the text in use ever since. In 1147, the Almoravids were in turn defeated by another coalition of Berber tribes, the Almohads. 'Umar adopted this attitude in administrative matters as well. They were able to draw on and fuse together the mathematical developments of both Greece and India. Trade flourished and the Middle East experienced an economic and cultural renaissance. This, together with a series of brilliant sultans - culminating in the redoubtable Suleiman the Magnificent - established the foundations of an empire that at its height was comparable to that of the Romans. It enshrines the duty of social responsibility by which well-to-do Muslims must concern themselves about those less fortunate. Muslims regard the Quran as untranslatable; the language in which it was revealed - Arabic - is inseparable from its message and Muslims everywhere, no matter what their native tongue, must learn Arabic to read the Sacred Book and to perform their worship. This is a great article i ever seen Ma.Shaa.Allah. the Everlasting; Photo: A colonnade of lofty arches surrounds the courtyard at the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, after Mecca the second holiest city of Islam. Islamic Expansion in the Time of Muhammad and the First Four Caliphs. From Baghdad's large urban population, for example, came craftsmen of every conceivable sort: metalworkers, leatherworkers, bookbinders, papermakers, jewelers, weavers, druggists, bakers, and many more. Photo: A mosque in Washington, D.C., a landmark for millions of Muslims in North America. Even where Arabic did not become the national language, it became the language of religion wherever Islam became established, since the Quran is written in Arabic, the Profession of Faith is to be spoken in . The creation of the office of the vizier was only one of the innovations the 'Abbasids brought to statecraft. Your post is really great and I really appreciate your work. By introducing modern Western ideas these fostered the growth of Arab nationalism, contributed to the revival of Arabic literature, and provided a powerful impulse toward modernization. The coming of Islam saw a general decline in the status of . In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Psychologists warn that addressing the mental scars caused by the earthquakes should be an urgent priority and that the most severe mental health consequences might not be fully apparent so soon . In the meantime the Crusaders - or Franks, the Arabs called them - had extended their reach to the borders of Egypt, where the Fatimids had fallen after two hundred years. Unlike Western legal systems, the shari'ah makes no distinction between religious and civil matters; it is the codification of God's Law, and it concerns itself with every aspect of social, political, economic, and religious life. Arabia before the Muslim Conquests. It affected the way people lived including their government trade and education. In 1220 they took Samarkand and Bukhara. Worse than that, . But the Arab military adventures do not seem to have been intended as a religious war of conversion. By the thirteenth century their once extensive domains were reduced to a few scattered kingdoms deep in the mountains of Andalusia - where, for some two hundred years longer, they would not only survive but flourish. The Mamluks had been recruited by the Ayyubids and then, like the Turkish mercenaries of the 'Abbasid caliphs, had usurped power from their enfeebled masters. These campaigns, known as the apostasy or ridda wars, effectively consolidated Arabia into a single country under Muslim control within two years. Although there are imams, who lead prayers and deliver sermons, there are no priests or ministers. }. On the death of Mahmud, his sons continued his efforts with a series of reforms called the tanzimat. The place had to be shown even if the sign which showed it indicated a unitary value of "nothing." Simply put, Islam may have sped the conquests, but it also showed much greater staying power. How did your family react when you left Islam? But in Mecca the persecution worsened. The last ten days of Ramadan are particularly sacred because they include the anniversary of the night on which Muhammad received his first revelation from God - "the Night of Power" - and the appearance, on the final day, of the thin edge of the new moon announcing the end of Ramadan. Written in noble language, this Holy Text has done more than move multitudes to tears and ecstasy; it has also, for almost fourteen hundred years, illuminated the lives of Muslims with its eloquent message of uncompromising monotheism, human dignity, righteous living, individual responsibility, and social justice. The caliphate, they say, must remain within the family of the Prophet - with 'Ali the first valid caliph. By defeating Egypt, then still part of the Ottoman Empire, Napoleon exposed the inner weaknesses, both military and administrative, of the sultans, shattered the myth of Ottoman power, and inaugurated more than 150 years of direct political intervention by the West. In fact, the Hijrah was not a flight but a carefully planned migration which marks not only a break in history - the beginning of the Islamic era- but also, for Muhammad and the Muslims, a new way of life. Examples of more or less standard types of script such as these do not by any means exhaust the number of styles. During the early twentieth century too, a group called the Young Turks forced the restoration of the constitution (which had been suspended by Abdul-Hamid), eventually deposed the sultan, and again attempted to modernize the Ottoman state. On January 2, 1492 - the year they sent Columbus to America - Ferdinand and Isabella hoisted the banner of Christian Spain above the Alhambra and Boabdil, the last Muslim king, rode weeping into exile with the bitter envoi from his aged mother, "Weep like a woman for the city you would not defend like a man!". The early rise of Islam (632-700) The Muslim community spread through the Middle East through conquest, and the resulting growth of the Muslim state provided the ground in which the recently . 'Uthman also, through his cousin Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, the governor of Syria, established an Arab navy which fought a series of important engagements with the Byzantines. Everything under IslamiCity is categorized under the major hubs you see in this panel. Islam, major world religion promulgated by the Prophet Muhammad in Arabia in the 7th century ce. After the death of his grandfather, Muhammad was raised by his uncle, Abu Talib. As societies become larger and more complex, its people become more likely to join monotheistic religions. In describing the fate of Islam in Spain, Irving suggested that the Muslims were then swiftly and thoroughly wiped out. I was born in Iran but we moved to Europe when I was a baby or toddler and I never had anything to do with religion. The important office of wazir or vizier, chief counselor, may well have developed from Sassanid models. In the next decades, raiding parties continually made forays into France and in 732 reached as far as the Loire Valley, only 170 miles from Paris. During this period the Mongols built mosques and schools and patronized scholarship of all sorts. Photo: This eighth century manuscript from Mecca or Medina is one of the two oldest known existing copies of the Quran. Politically and economically, the Mongol invasions were disastrous. It extends over 2,000 miles from the Black Sea in the north to the Arabian Sea in the south, and about 1,000 miles from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to the mountains of Iran. Forty-five years later, they are expected to make up more than three-in-ten of the world's people . Photo: A youth in the pilgrim's simple robe reading the Quran. This new way of writing numbers was economical but not flawless. 'Abd al-Malik established a system of postal routes to expedite his communications throughout the far flung empire. Indeed, the Quran is the cornerstone on which the edifice of Islamic civilization has been built. The early state began in Medina and gradually gained Mecca, Hunayn, Tabouk, and a large majority of the populated regions of the Arabian Peninsula. Within four years after the death of the Prophet the Muslim state had extended its sway over all of Syria and had, at a famous battle fought during a sandstorm near the River Yarmuk, blunted the power of the Byzantines - whose ruler Heraclius had shortly before disdainfully rejected the letter from the unknown Prophet of Arabia. The majority of Muslims support the elective principle which led to the choice of Abu Bakr as the first caliph. Expansion in the shape of an oval the Muslims were then swiftly and thoroughly wiped.... Eighth century manuscript from Mecca or Medina is one of the medieval world was 10th. Days it has been the single most important force in guiding their,. Religion of Islam unified a diverse cultural region that spans several countries Umayyad. By which well-to-do Muslims must concern themselves about those less fortunate a system of postal routes to expedite communications. Important and original contributions to mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and cultural.! 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