History of islam
Islamic tradition views Muhammad (c. 570 – June 8, 632) as the seal of the prophets and sent by God to the rest of mankind.[211][46] During the last 22 years of his life, beginning at age 40 in 610 CE, according to the earliest surviving biographies, Muhammad reported receiving revelations that he believed to be from God, conveyed to him through the archangel Gabriel while he was meditating in a cave.[46][46]Muhammad's companions memorized and recorded the content of these revelations, known as the Quran.[212]
During this time, Muhammad in Mecca preached to the people, imploring them to abandon polytheism and to worship one God. Although some converted to Islam, the leading Meccan authorities persecuted Muhammad and his followers. This resulted in the Migration to Abyssinia of some Muslims (to the Aksumite Empire). Many early converts to Islam were the poor, foreigners and former slaves like Bilal ibn Rabah al-Habashi who was black. The Meccan élite felt that Muhammad was destabilising their social order by preaching about one God and about racial equality, and that in the process he gave ideas to the poor and to their slaves.[213][214][215][216]
After 12 years of the persecution of Muslims by the Meccans and the Meccan boycott of the Hashemites, Muhammad's relatives, Muhammad and the Muslims performed the Hijra ("emigration") to the city of Medina (formerly known as Yathrib) in 622. There, with the Medinan converts (Ansar) and the Meccan migrants (Muhajirun), Muhammad in Medina established his political and religious authority. The Constitution of Medina was formulated, instituting a number of rights and responsibilities for the Muslim, Jewish, Christian and pagan communities of Medina, bringing them within the fold of one community—the Ummah.[217][218]
The Constitution established:
- the security of the community
- religious freedoms
- the role of Medina as a sacred place (barring all violence and weapons)
- the security of women
- stable tribal relations within Medina
- a tax system for supporting the community in time of conflict
- parameters for exogenous political alliances
- a system for granting protection of individuals
- a judicial system for resolving disputes where non-Muslims could also use their own laws and have their own judges.[219][220][221]
All the tribes signed the agreement to defend Medina from all external threats and to live in harmony amongst themselves. Within a few years, two battles took place against the Meccan forces: first, the Battle of Badr in 624—a Muslim victory, and then a year later, when the Meccans returned to Medina, the Battle of Uhud, which ended inconclusively.
The Arab tribes in the rest of Arabia then formed a confederation and during the Battle of the Trench(March–April 627) besieged Medina, intent on finishing off Islam. In 628, the Treaty of Hudaybiyyahwas signed between Mecca and the Muslims and was broken by Mecca two years later. After the signing of the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah many more people converted to Islam. At the same time, Meccan trade routes were cut off as Muhammad brought surrounding desert tribes under his control.[222] By 629 Muhammad was victorious in the nearly bloodless conquest of Mecca, and by the time of his death in 632 (at the age of 62) he had united the tribes of Arabia into a single religious polity.[223]
The earliest three generations of Muslims are known as the Salaf, with the companions of Muhammad being known as the Sahaba. Many of them, such as the largest narrator of hadith Abu Hureyrah, recorded and compiled what would constitute the sunnah.
Caliphate and civil strife (632–750)
With Muhammad's death in 632, disagreement broke out over who would succeed him as leader of the Muslim community. Abu Bakr, a companion and close friend of Muhammad, was made the first caliph.[46] Under Abu Bakr, Muslims put down a rebellion by Arab tribes in an episode known as the Ridda wars, or "Wars of Apostasy".[224] The Quran was compiled into a single volume at this time.
Abu Bakr's death in 634 about two years after he was elected which resulted in the succession of Umar ibn al-Khattab as the caliph,[46] followed by Uthman ibn al-Affan, Ali ibn Abi Talib and Hasan ibn Ali. The first four caliphs are known in Sunni Islam as al-khulafā' ar-rāshidūn ("Rightly Guided Caliphs").[225] Under the caliphs, the territory under Muslim rule expanded deeply into parts of the Persian and Byzantine territories.[226]
When Umar was assassinated by Persians in 644, the election of Uthman as successor was met with increasing opposition. The standard copies of the Quran were also distributed throughout the Islamic State. In 656, Uthman was also killed, and Aliassumed the position of caliph. This led to the first civil war (the "First Fitna") over who should be caliph. Ali was assassinated by Kharijites in 661. To avoid further fighting, the new caliph Hasan ibn Alisigned a peace treaty, abdicating to Mu'awiyah, beginning the Umayyad dynasty, in return that he not name his own successor.[227] These disputes over religious and political leadership would give rise to schism in the Muslim community. The majority accepted the legitimacy of the first four leaders and became known as Sunnis. A minority disagreed, and believed that only Ali and some of his descendants should rule; they became known as the Shia.[228]Mu'awiyah appointed his son, Yazid I, as successor and after Mu'awiyah's death in 680, the "Second Fitna" broke out, where Husayn ibn Ali was killed at the Battle of Karbala, a significant event in Shia Islam. Sunni Islam and Shia Islam thus differ in some respects.[229]
The Umayyad dynasty conquered the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Narbonnese Gaul and Sindh.[230]Local populations of Jews and indigenous Christians, persecuted as religious minorities and taxed heavily to finance the Byzantine–Sassanid Wars, often aided Muslims to take over their lands from the Byzantines and Persians, resulting in exceptionally speedy conquests.[231][232]
The generation after the death of Muhammad but contemporaries of his companions are known as the Tabi'un, followed by the Tabi‘ al-Tabi‘in. The Caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz set up the influential committee, "The Seven Fuqaha of Medina",[233][234]headed by Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr.[235]Malik ibn Anas wrote one of the earliest books on Islamic jurisprudence, the Muwatta,[236] as a consensus of the opinion of those jurists.[237][238][239]
The descendants of Muhammad's uncle Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib rallied discontented non-Arab converts (mawali), poor Arabs, and some Shi'a against the Umayyads and overthrew them, inaugurating the Abbasid dynasty in 750.[240]
The first Muslim states independent of a unified Islamic state emerged from the Berber Revolt (739/740-743).
Classical era (750–1258)
The eye, according to Hunain ibn Ishaq from a manuscript dated circa 1200
Al-Shafi'i codified a method to determine the reliability of hadith.[241] During the early Abbasid era, the major Sunni hadith collections were compiled by scholars such as Bukhari and Muslim while major Shia hadith collections by scholars such as Al-Kulayni and Ibn Babawayh were also compiled. The Ja'fari jurisprudence was formed from the teachings of Ja'far al-Sadiq while the four Sunni Madh'habs, the Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki and Shafi'i, were established around the teachings of Abū Ḥanīfa, Ahmad bin Hanbal, Malik ibn Anas and al-Shafi'irespectively. In the 9th century, al-Shafi'i provided a theoretical basis for Islamic law and introduced its first methods by a synthesis between proto-rationalism of Iraqian jurisprudence and the pragmatic approach of the Hejaz traditions, in his book ar-Risālah.[242] However, Islamic law was not codified until 1869.[243] In the 9th century Al-Tabaricompleted the first commentary of the Quran, that became one of the most cited commentaries in Sunni Islam, the Tafsir al-Tabari. During its expansion through the Samanid Empire, Islam was shaped by the ethno-cultural and religious pluralism by the Sogdians, paving the way for a Persianized rather than Arabized understanding of Islam.[244]
Some Muslims began to question the piety of indulgence in a worldly life and emphasised poverty, humility and avoidance of sin based on renunciation of bodily desires. Ascetics such as Hasan al-Basriwould inspire a movement that would evolve into Tasawwuf (Sufism).[245]
By the end of the 9th century, the Ismaili spread in Iran, whereupon the city Multan became target by activistic Sunni politics.[246] In 930, the Ismaili group known as the Qarmatians unsuccessfully rebelled against the Abbassids, sacked Mecca and stole the Black Stone, which was eventually retrieved.[247]
Caliphs such as Mamun al Rashid and Al-Mu'tasimmade the mutazilite philosophy an official creed and imposed it upon Muslims to follow. Mu'tazila was a Greek influenced school[citation needed] of Sunni scholastic theology called kalam, which refers to dialectic.[248] Many orthodox Muslims[who?] rejected mutazilite doctrines and condemned their idea of the creation of the Quran. In inquisitions, ibn Hanbal refused to conform[citation needed] and was tortured and sent to an unlit Baghdad prison cell for nearly thirty months.[249] Other branches of kalam were the Ash'ari school founded by Al-Ash'ari and Maturidi founded by Abu Mansur al-Maturidi.
With the expansion of the Abbaside Caliphate into the Sasanian Empire, Islam adapted many Hellenisticand Persian concepts, imported by thinkers of Iranian or Turkic origin.[250][251] Philosophers such as Al-Farabi and Avicenna sought to incorporate Greek principles into Islamic theology, while others like Al-Ghazali argued against such syncretism and ultimately prevailed.[252] Avicenna pioneered the science of experimental medicine,[253] and was the first physician to conduct clinical trials.[254] His two most notable works, The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine, were used as standard medicinal texts in the Islamic world and later in Europe. Amongst his contributions are the discovery of the contagious nature of infectious diseases,[253] and the introduction of clinical pharmacology.[255] In mathematics, the mathematician Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi gave his name to the concept of the algorithm, while the term algebra is derived from al-jabr.[256] The Persian poet Ferdowsi wrote his epic poem Shahnameh. Rumi wrote some of the finest Persian poetry and is still one of the best selling poets in America.[257][258] Legal institutions introduced include the trust and charitable trust(Waqf).[259][260]
This era is sometimes called the "Islamic Golden Age".[261] Public hospitals established during this time (called Bimaristan hospitals), are considered "the first hospitals" in the modern sense of the word,[262][263] and issued the first medical diplomas to license doctors.[264][265] The Guinness World Records recognizes the University of Al Karaouine, founded in 859, as the world's oldest degree-granting university.[266] The doctorate is argued to date back to the licenses to teach in Islamic law schools.[267] Standards of experimental and quantification techniques, as well as the tradition of citation,[268] were introduced. An important pioneer in this, Ibn al-Haytham is regarded as the father of the modern scientific method and often referred to as the "world's first true scientist".[269][270][271][272]The government paid scientists the equivalent salary of professional athletes today.[268] It is argued that the data used by Copernicus for his heliocentricconclusions was gathered and that Al-Jahizproposed a theory of natural selection.[273][274]
While the Abbasid Caliphate suffered a decline since the reign of Al-Wathiq (842–847) and Al-Mu'tadid(892–902),[275] the Mongol Empire put an end to the Abbassid dynasty in 1258.[276] During its decline, the Abbasid Caliphate disintegrated into minor states and dynasties, such as the Tulunid and the Ghaznavid dynasty. The Ghaznavid dynasty was an Islamic dynasty established by Turkic slave-soldiers from another Islamic empire, the Samanid Empire.[277]
Two Turkish tribes, the Karahanids and the Seljuks, converted to Islam during the 10th century, who are later subdued by the Ottomans, who share the same origin and language. It is important to note, that the following Islamic reign by the Ottomans was strongly influenced by a symbiosis between Ottoman rulersand Sufism since the beginning. According to Ottoman historiography, the legitimation of a ruler is attributed to Sheikh Edebali. Accordingly, he interpretated a dream of Osman Gazi as God's legitimation of his reign.[278] The Mevlevi Order and the Bektashi Order had close relation to the sultans.[279] The Seljuks played an important role for the revival of Sunnism, then Shia increased its influences. The Seljuk militar leader Alp Arslanfinancially supported sciences and literature and established the Nezamiyeh university in Baghdad.[280]
During this time, the Delhi Sultanate took over northern parts of the Indian subcontinent. Religious missions converted Volga Bulgaria to Islam. Many Muslims also went to China to trade, virtually dominating the import and export industry of the Song dynasty.[281]
Pre-Modern era (1258–18th century)
Abdülmecid II was the last Caliph of Islam from the Ottoman dynasty.
Islam spread with Muslim trade networks, Sufi orders activity and conquests of the Gunpowder Empires that extended into Sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia and the Malay archipelago.[282][283]Under the Ottoman Empire, Islam spread to Southeast Europe.[284] Throughout this expanse, Islam blended with local cultures everywhere, as illustrated when the prophet Mohammed showed up in Hindu epics and folklore.[285] Conversion to Islam, however, was not a sudden abandonment of old religious practices; rather, it was typically a matter of "assimilating Islamic rituals, cosmologies, and literatures into... local religious systems."[286] The Muslims in China who were descended from earlier immigration began to assimilate by adopting Chinese names and culture while Nanjing became an important center of Islamic study.[287][288]
The Turks incorporated elements of Turkish Shamanism into their new religion and became part of a new Islamic interpretation,[289] although Shamanistic influences already occurred during the Battle of Talas (752). Strikingly, Shamans were never mentioned by Muslim Heresiographers.[290] One major change was the status of woman. Unlike Arabic traditions, the Turkic traditions hold woman in higher regard in society.[289] Turks preserved this status of woman even after conversion to Islam. Further, the Turks must have found striking similarities between the Sufi rituals and Shaman practises.[289] However, the influence of Turkish belief was not limited to Sufism, but also to Muslims who subscribed an orthodox version of Islam in Anatolia, Central-Asia and Balkans.[289] As a result, many (formerly) Shaman traditions were considered as genuine Islamic by average Muslims.[289] Many shamanistic beliefs, such as the belief in sacred nature, trees and animals, and foreign nature spirits, even remained today.[291]
The majority and oldest group among Shia at that time, the Zaydis, named after the great grandson of Ali, the scholar Zayd ibn Ali, used the Hanafi jurisprudence, as did most Sunnis.[292][293][294] The Shia Safavid dynasty rose to power in 1501 and later conquered all of Iran.[295] The ensuing mandatory conversion of Iran to Twelver Shia Islam for the largely Sunni population also ensured the final dominance of the Twelver sect within Shiism over the Zaidi and Ismaili sects.[296] Nader Shah, who overthrew the Safavids, attempted to improve relations with Sunnis by propagating the integration of Shiism by calling it the Jaafari Madh'hab.[297]
In the Indian Subcontinent, during the rule of Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji in Bengal, the Indian Islamic missionaries achieved their greatest success in terms of dawah and number of converts to Islam.[298][299] The Delhi Sultanate, founded by Qutb-ud-din Aybak, emerged as India's first Islamic power, well noted for being one of the few states to repel an attack by the Mongols[300] and enthroning one of the few female rulers in Islamic history, Razia Sultana.[301] The wealthy Islamic Bengal Sultanatewas subsequently founded, a major global trading nation in the world, described by the Europeans to be the "richest country to trade with".[302] The Mughal Empire was founded by Babur, a direct descendant of Tamerlane and Genghis Khan. The empire was briefly interrupted by the Suri Empirefounded by Sher Shah Suri, who re-initiated the rupee currency system.[303] The Mughals gained power during the reign of Akbar the Great and Jahangir. The reign of Shah Jahan observed the height of Indo-Islamic architecture, with notable monuments such as Taj Mahal and Jama Masjid, Delhi, while the reign of his son Aurangzeb saw the compilation of the Fatwa Alamgiri (most well organised fiqh manuscript) and witnessed the peak of the Islamic rule in India. Mughal India surpassed Qing China to become the world's largest economy, worth 25% of world GDP,[304][305][306][307] the Bengal Subah signalling the proto-industrializationand showing signs of the Industrial revolution.[308]After Mughal India's collapse, Tipu Sultan's Kingdom of Mysore based in South India, which witnessed partial establishment of sharia based economic and military policies i.e. Fathul Mujahidin, replaced Bengal ruled by the Nawabs of Bengal as South Asia's foremost economic territory.[309][310] After the British Raj, the Nizams of Hyderabad remained as the major Muslim princely state until the Annexation of Hyderabad by the modern Republic of India.[311]
In Islamic scholasticism, Ibn Taymiyya (1263–1328) worried about the integrity of Islam and tried to establish a theological doctrine to purify Islam from its alleged alterings.[312] Unlike his contemporary scholarship, who relied on traditions and historical narratives from early Islam, Ibn Taymiyya's methodology was a mixture of selective use of hadith and a literal understanding of the Quran.[312][313] He rejected most philosophical approaches of Islam and proposed a clear, simple and dogmatic theology instead.[312] Another major characteristic of his theological approach emphazises the significance of a Theocratic state: While the prevailing opinion held that religious wisdom was necessary for a state, Ibn Taymiyya regarded political power as necessary for religious excellence.[312] He further rejected many hadiths circulating among Muslims during his time and relied only on Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim repeatedly to foil Asharite doctrine.[313][314] Feeling threatened by the Crusaders as well as by the Mongols, Ibn Taymiyya stated it would be obligated to Muslims to join a physical jihad against unbelievers. This not only including the invaders, but also the hereticsamong the Muslims, including Shias, Asharites and "philosophers", who were blamed by Ibn Taimiya for the deterioration of Islam.[315] Nevertheless, his writings only played a marginal role during his lifetime. He was repeatedly accused of blasphemy by anthropomorphizing God and his disciple Ibn Kathir distanced himself from his mentor and negated the anthropomorphizations,[316] but simultaneously adhered to anti-rationalistic and hadith oriented methodology of his former mentor.[317] This probably influenced his exegesis on his Tafsir, which discounted much of the exegetical tradition since then.[318][319] However, the writings of Ibn Taimiyya became important sources for Wahhabism and 21st century Salafi theology[315][312][313] just like Tafsir Ibn Kathirbecame highly rewarded in modern Salafism.[320]
Modern era (18th – 20th centuries)
The Muslim world was generally in political decline starting the 1800s, especially relative to the non-Muslim European powers. This decline was evident culturally; while Taqi al-Din founded an observatory in Istanbul and the Jai Singh Observatory was built in the 18th century, there was not a single Muslim-majority country with a major observatory by the twentieth century.[321] The Reconquista, launched against Muslim principalities in Iberia, succeeded in 1492. By the 19th century the British Empire had formally ended the Mughal dynasty in India.[322] In the 19th century, the Deobandi and Barelwimovements were initiated.
During the 18th century Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab founded a military movement opposing the Ottoman Sultanate as an illegitimate rule, advising his fellows to return to the principles of Islam based on the theology of Ahmad ibn Hanbal.[323][324] He was deeply influenced by the works of Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Qayyim and condemned many traditional Islamic practises, such as visiting the grave of Muhammad or Saints, as sin.[324] During the 18th century, he formed an alliance with the Saud family, who founded the Wahhabi sect. This revival movement allegedly seeks to uphold monotheism and purify Islam of what they see as later innovations. Their ideology led to the desecration of shrines around the world, including that of Muhammad and his companions in Mecca and Medina.[325][326] Many Arab nationalists, such as Rashid Rida, regarded the Khalifat as an Arabic right taken away by the Turks. Therefore, they rebelled against the Ottoman Sultanate, until the Ottoman Empire disintegrated after World War I and the Caliphate was abolished in 1924.[327] Concurrently Ibn Saud conquered Mekka, the "heartland of Islam", to impose Wahhabism as part of Islamic culture.[328]
At the end of the 19th century, Muslim luminaries such as Muhammad Abduh, Rashid Rida and Jamal al-Din al-Afghani sought to reconcile Islam with social and intellectual ideas of the Age of Enlightenment by purging Islam from alleged alterations and adhering to the basic tenets held during the Rashidun era.[329] Due to their adherence to the Salafs they called themselves Salafiyya.[330][329] However, they differ from the Salafi movement flourishing in the second half of the 20th century, which is rooted in the Wahhabi movement. Instead, they are also often called Islamic modernists. They rejected the Sunni schools of law and allowed Ijtihad.[330]
The Barelwi movement,founded in India, emphasises the primacy of Islamic law over adherence to Sufi practices and personal devotion to the prophet Muhammad.[331] It grew from the writings of Ahmed Raza Khan, Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi, Shah Ahmad Noorani and Mohammad Abdul Ghafoor Hazarvi in the backdrop of an intellectual and moral decline of Muslims in British India.[332] The movement was a mass movement, defending popular Sufism and reforming its practices, grew in response to the Deobandi movement.[333] The movement is famous for the celebration of Mawlid and today, is spread across the globe with followers also in Pakistan, South Africa, United States, and United Kingdomamong other countries.[334]
Postmodern times (20th century–present)
The flag of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
Contact with industrialized nations brought Muslim populations to new areas through economic migration. Many Muslims migrated as indentured servants, from mostly India and Indonesia, to the Caribbean, forming the largest Muslim populations by percentage in the Americas.[335] The resulting urbanization and increase in trade in sub-Saharan Africa brought Muslims to settle in new areas and spread their faith, likely doubling its Muslim population between 1869 and 1914.[336] Muslim immigrants began arriving, many as guest workersand largely from former colonies, in several Western European nations since the 1960s.
There are more and more new Muslim intellectuals who increasingly separate perennial Islamic beliefs from archaic cultural traditions.[337] Liberal Islam is a movement that attempts to reconcile religious tradition with modern norms of secular governance and human rights. Its supporters say that there are multiple ways to read Islam's sacred texts, and they stress the need to leave room for "independent thought on religious matters".[338] Women's issues receive significant weight in the modern discourse on Islam.[339]
Secular powers such as the Chinese Red Guardsclosed many mosques and destroyed Qurans,[340]and Communist Albania became the first country to ban the practice of every religion.[341] About half a million Muslims were killed in Cambodia by communists who, it is argued, viewed them as their primary enemy and wished to exterminate them since they stood out and worshipped their own god.[342] In Turkey, the military carried out coups to oust Islamist governments, and headscarves were banned in official buildings, as also happened in Tunisia.[343][344]
Jamal-al-Din al-Afghani, along with his acolyte Muhammad Abduh, have been credited as forerunners of the Islamic revival.[345] Abul A'la Maududi helped influence modern political Islam.[346] Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood advocate Islam as a comprehensive political solution, often in spite of being banned.[347]In Iran, revolution replaced a secular regime with an Islamic state. In Turkey, the Islamist AK Party has democratically been in power for about a decade, while Islamist parties did well in elections following the Arab Spring.[348] The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), consisting of Muslim-majority countries, was established in 1969 after the burning of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.[349]
Religiosity appears to be deepening worldwide.[350][351][352] In many places, the prevalence of the hijab is growing increasingly common[353] and the percentage of Muslims favoring Sharia has increased.[354] With religious guidance increasingly available electronically, Muslims are able to access views that are strict enough for them rather than rely on state clerics who are often seen as stooges.[351]
It is estimated that, by 2050, the number of Muslims will nearly equal the number of Christians around the world, "driven primarily by differences in fertility rates and the size of youth populations among the world's major religions, as well as by people switching faiths."[355] Perhaps as a sign of these changes, most experts agree that Islam is growing faster than any other faith in East and West Africa.[356][357]
