Article 2 in this series
Before we can evaluate something, we have to first understand it. Much of what we read or see in the media about Islam is either very selectively presented or simply wrong. The primary goal of these articles is help you understand some of Islam’s basic tenets and their development. Along the way we will also look at some of the significant difference between Islam and Christianity, and their implications. My objective is not to tell you what to think, but instead to provide you with information and sources you can use to make up your own mind. I am simply going to present the facts, and places where you can find more information if you want it. Where possible the information in these articles will come directly from original sources. These are the best places to use if you truly want to learn about something.
What is Islam?
Islam is usually presented solely as a religion, but is it that simple? Yes, it is a religion, but we will see that it is also much more. Islam is not only a religion, but also both politics and governance. It is law. The military aspects of society are also included within its tenets, as are civics and culture. In short, all within society is Islam. Everything from when and how you worship to the way one should get dressed is all prescribed for you within Islam. These differences often make it difficult for Muslims to understand Jews/Christians and vice versa. Our frames of reference not only differ but are contradictory.
Historical Context
These first articles focus on history. This one the time leading up to Muhammad’s birth. But before we start that discussion, there is something very important you need to hear and understand. The subject of these articles is Islam, and not Muslims. Muslims are people, and we all share the same God-given nature. Yes, you will find bad Muslims and good Muslims, just like you will find bad Christians and good Christians. We each have the gift of free will to make our own choices. It is our choices and actions that define who we are. When we talk about Islam we must remember that we are talking about its ideas and tenets, not people. As we are called to do, we will present the truth and present it in love.
The Time Leading Up to Muhammad’s Birth
Muhammad was born about 570, over five hundred years after Christ’s crucifixion. Some significant events that occurred in between these times include:
- It’s been almost 250 years since Constantine’s conversion, making Christianity the Roman Empire’s official religion. Christianity now has an imperial role as well as a religious one.
- The Roman Empire split into East and West. There is a schism too, within Christianity between East and West, although the rift has temporarily been healed after the fifth ecumenical council in 553. There is a Pope in Rome and a Bishop in Constantinople.
- It’s been about 140 years since Augustine in Hippo’s death, as the invading Vandal fleet lay off-shore.
- The monastic movement is well underway, a development that will be critical to later history.
- Nestorian monks travelled east to India, China, and eventually the Mongol court.
- It has been almost 150 years since Attila and the Huns sacked Rome.
- Few people speak Greek in the West any longer, and many documents are being translated into Latin.
- The Roman and Persian Empires have been fighting each other for over five hundred years, with most of the conflict occurring within the area we know as the Middle East.
A Map of the World
Europe
If one were to look at a map of the known world at the beginning of the sixth century, it could be divided into four quadrants. In the northwest quadrant were the remains of the Roman Empire, along with the Lombard, Frankish, Visigoth, and Saxon kingdoms in Europe and around the Mediterranean Sea. Alboin is King of Italy at the birth of Muhammad, and Justin II is the Emperor in the East. This quadrant is largely Christian.
Persia
In the northeast quadrant is the Persian Empire which stretches from modern Syria through Iraq and Iran toward modern India. Chosroes I is King of Persia. The Silk Road connecting China and India with Europe runs through Persia. The teachings of Zoroaster are prevalent among the ruling and military classes within Persia, but its society was very accepting of other religions. Persia also had significant populations of Nestorian, Jews, Monophysite (Jacobite), and Gnostics. Byzantine and Persia have fought many wars.
Persia conquered the Holy Land in 614 under Chosroes II, including Jerusalem, and removed the ‘True Cross’ to Ctesiphon during Muhammad’s life. Heraclius (Byzantine) reconquered Jerusalem in 628 and took back lands in Egypt, Syria, and Armenia. Both sides employed Arab tribes to defend their frontiers from the other. The Byzantines used the Ghassinids, who were largely Monophysite. While the Persians employed the Lakhmids, who were primarily Nestorian. The two tribes believed each other were heretics, and were natural enemies.
Abyssinia
The Kingdom of Abyssinia is to the southwest and corresponds to the areas of modern Ethiopia, Eritrea, and portions of the Sudan. At this time it also held parts of modern Yemen and southern Saudi Arabia. The Yemen contained important seaports on the trade route between India and Europe, and possessed its own architecture, culture, and legal system. The Negus ruled Abyssinia, and is primarily Monophysite. Egypt is also in this quadrant, and primarily Christian.
The Arabian Peninsula
The last quadrant in the southeast is often labeled the ‘Empty Quadrant’ on maps from this time and consists of the Arabian Peninsula. It is very unlike the other parts of the known world described above. There is no central source of authority in the Arabian Peninsula. Instead authority’s basis is tribal. We’ll talk more about this peninsula’s people later. This part of the world does not possess the wealth of Byzantine, the power of Persia, or the commerce and architecture of Yemen. Rome, Persia, and Abyssinia had each in turn attempted to conquer the Arabian Peninsula and each failed.
Tribal Culture
While the lands in the other three quadrants were largely monotheistic, this quadrant was mostly pagan. However, there were Christian and Jewish tribes, and these lived together with the pagan ones at this time. The pagan tribes built shrines to worship their gods. Each shrine was controlled by a devout family. Some of these sites became significant enough to be established as a haram. A haram was a sacred place where overt conflict was forbidden. It was a sanctuary. These places served as a neutral ground for negotiations between feuding tribes, and a site for conducting trade fairs. This worked because the tribes believed that violating the sanctuary would bring about divine punishment.
The family in charge of a haram acquired substantial political power. The head of the family in charge of a haram was called a mansib and often served as a mediator in tribal disputes. They could also deny tribes access to a haram. Even more powerful were the Kahins. These were Shamans. They often presented their sacred formulas as poetry, and poetry was a major art form in Arabia at this time. Traditions were kept orally. The Arabic language did not yet possess the pointing and diacritical marks found today.
Muhammad’s Tribe
Tradition has it Muhammad belonged to the Quraysh tribe. His family was in charge of the haram of Mecca. This haram (the Kaaba) was perhaps the most significant sacred site in all of Arabia. It is said that the Kaaba contained about 360 idols; these included all of the gods of all of the tribes in Arabia. One of Muhammad’s uncles was the mansib of this haram. There was an annual trade fair in Mecca that was attended by all parts of Arabia each year. Poetry contests were often held and the highest honor was to have a poem inscribed and placed within the Kaaba.
Most people on the Arabian Peninsula lived in a narrow strip of land no wider than 200 miles along the Red Sea called the Hijaz. No major trade route ran through Mecca. The trade routes through the Hijaz connected Syria and Egypt in the north with Abyssinia in the south. There was a large historically Jewish kingdom in southern Arabia in what is now Yemen.
Religion’s Influence
Islam added nothing new to religion from a theological perspective; instead it borrowed from all those it encountered. What was new was Islam’s marrying monotheism with the Bedouin culture. We’ll close this article by briefly looking at a few tenets for each of the religions mentioned so far. In the next article we’ll pick up this content by looking at some of the specific borrowings from each of these religions, and some relevant aspects of Bedouin culture.
The Roman Empire were primarily Roman Catholic in the west and Orthodox in the east. No more will be said about the two as their tenets are generally known.
As mentioned earlier, Persia was multi-religious and included each of the following groups. Most of these groups also existed outside of Persia:
Zoroastrian (Mazdaism)
Zoroastrianism is monotheistic, but it does not believe in the God of Abraham. Instead they believed in a deity called Ahura Mazda, who governs the universe through his holy spirit. There is an evil counterpart (Ahriman), who will in the end be overcome. Some parallels exist with Christian beliefs and include: six periods of creation, man descending from a single couple (Mashya and Mashyana), rebirth of the world, the coming of a Messiah, the existence of a perfect kingdom, the resurrection of the dead, and everlasting life. Zoroaster was Ahura Mazda’s prophet. Traditions exist that Zoroaster was a contemporary of Cyrus the Great, may have met and influenced Pythagoras, and may have been known as Ezekiel to the Jews (although this last is doubtful).
There was a significant following of Zoroastrianism among Persia’s aristocracy, military, and commoners. Christians and Jews were predominant among the peasants and urban populations. Zoroastrianism was referred to as Madjus in the Qur’an, and on a par with Christianity and Judaism as a People of the Book.
Nestorian
This sect asserted Christ’s humanity through Mary’s being the Mother of Christ rather than the Mother of God. Nestorius was an Orthodox Church bishop. His views resulted in the Third Ecumenical Counsel at Ephesus. The Counsel deposed Nestorius as bishop. Byzantine forbid the sect, but Persia did not. It was the largest non-Zoroastrian population in Persia, and found in Babylonia, Khuzistan (Iran), the eastern Arabian coast, Afghanistan, and China.
Judaism
Judaism was the second largest non-Zoroastrian group in Persia. Jews lived primarily between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and were the largest population in this area. There were also large populations in Syria and Iraq to the Zagros Mountains. Large populations also resided outside Persia in Palestine, Egypt, and along the North African coasts.
Monophysite (Jacobite)
This sect believed that Christ had only one nature—divine. The orthodox Chalcidian view was Christ had two natures: human and divine. Byzantine also considered the Jacobite beliefs heresy, and they were the third largest non-Zoroastrian group within Persia. Jacobite had sizable communities in Mesopotamia from Armenia to Syria, and along the Tigris River (Assyria). They also had sizable populations within Egypt and Abyssinia. The Eastern Monophysite Primate’s seat was in Tagrit, now Iraq, along the Tigris River.
Gnosticism
Gnosticism was a pagan response to monotheism. In general it expressed a dualistic mysticism claiming the need for a special/secret knowledge. It found a refuge within Persia and also had a significant presence in both Syria and Egypt. The Persian sects did not believe in Moses, Jesus, or Muhammad. Instead John the Baptist was central to this sect’s beliefs. Their focus was on the ‘Knowledge of Life’. The Egyptian and Syrian sect combined paganism with Plato’s philosophy. The works of these sects included the Secret Book of John and the Gospels of Thomas and Judas.
Egyptian gnostic thought grew from writings emanating in Alexandria. References to gnosticism first appeared in the writings of Irenaeus in about 180 AD and Clement of Alexandria a short time later. The basic line of gnostic thought included: (1) creation by an inferior godling, (2) this creation was corrupt, (3) it was this malicious godling who prevented man from attaining his true perfection, and (4) Jesus was a teacher who revealed secret knowledge that would free us from the godling’s constraints.
Pagan
While there were some Jewish and Christian Arabs, tradition has it most were pagan. Many appear to have acknowledged a creator god called ‘Allah’, but he was not generally worshipped. The primary pagan gods of the Arabs were:
- Hubal – God of the moon. Along with the sun goddess, they had three daughters.
- Al-Lat – A solar divinity
- Al-Huzza –Worship of the planet Venus
- Manat – A goddess of fate, the Evening Star
Muhammad spoke against the three daughter goddesses, but stopped short of saying anything negative about Hubal. Tradition has it Hubal’s idol in Mecca was located within the Kaaba, next to the Black Stone, and it is believed that the two were connected.
