Part 2: The electrifying spread of Islam during its early phase was stunning. I am quite sure that I read recently that the port city of Canton in China already had a Mosque within the lifetime of the Prophet Mohamed himself, and within 50 years of his death, significant Muslim communities existed on three continents. Within a century after his death, a great Islamic dynasty stretched from the Atlantic Ocean in the West all the way into the depths of Central Asia to the East. In terms of world history it was, to say the least, stunning.
Likened to having "spread like wildfire," I had always attributed this remarkable early spread of Islam to the revolutionary nature of the religion, which addressed grave social issues in a way that no other religion prior had. From a modern perspective Islam appears strikingly conservative, but in fact at its start it was revolutionary in its focus on bettering the lives of women and creating a kind of brotherhood of "People of the Book." In many places, we have descriptions of native inhabitants literally flinging open the city gates to let the incoming Muslim armies in. Why? Because they wanted to be liberated.
Indeed, the approaching Arab army was no more foreign to most of the natives of these places at the time than the people who were running the show there already. We are talking about the so-called decadent final days of the Byzantine and Sassanid Empires (and the Visigoths in Iberian Spain/Portugal).
It will be remembered that it was the Umayyad Revolution in Persia which led to the overthrow of the Sassanian dynasty and eventual exile of our Prince Pirooz.
Richard Foltz, in his book, (see Part 1) discusses some other practical reasons as well for the fast spread of early Islam, which I had never really considered before. First, no other religion-- not even Judaism-- favored business and trade as that of Islam. The Prophet Mohamed was himself a very successful businessman, after all. Inherent to the religion is a system of laws that govern fair trade and taxation-- and in a nutshell, it was financially advantageous to become a Muslim if you were doing business with the Muslim world. Not to get ahead of the story, but during the first Islamic Umayyad dynasty, so many Central Asians converted to Islam (to gain the major tax breaks the conversation allowed) that the Umayyad government, growing concerned that their government coffers were getting low, demanded more of a commitment to conversion-- in the form of circumcision!
For obvious reasons this led to revolutionary tendencies in local populations. Reformers and revolutionaries leveled two complaints against the Umayyads rulers in Damascus. One: they were living as decadently as the Byzantines whom they had displaced (Byzantine-style debauchery!). And two: that their form of Islamic rule had always remained too pro-Arab (not establishing the brotherhood of Islam/Protected Peoples of the Book as advertised) These gripes led to the eventual ousting of the Umayyads and establishment of the Abassid dynasty.
Interestingly, while the Abbassid revolution spread to all corners of the Muslim world of the time-- there was one large exception: the Iberian Peninsula. In a previous post, I wrote that:
Hattori sees three places which can be held up as points in history where we saw true "two way" intercultural dialog practiced on a large and institutionalized scale. Those places were, the Silk Road, Cordova Spain (al Andalus) and Byzantium.
Cordova Spain is an interesting case. I am listening to a BBC In Our Time program (first aired in 2002) on the topic of Muslim Spain which is fascinating. The question being explored is this: Was this respect between religions that underpinned the stupendous cultural flowering of Islamic Spain fact or are we somehow idealizing the reality?
Starting the show, one of the experts tells us straight off (contrary to what they wiki article says) that the Berber invasion of Christian Visigoth Spain was done with absolutely no authority from Damascus! The ragtag army from North Africa just up and decided to invade the infidels! When the Islamic government back in Damascus heard of it they were displeased and called for the leader of the Berbers to come to Damascus at once.
The revolution, however, was already a done deed.
But how on earth did a small calvary of Berber soldiers overthrow the Arian Christian Visagoths (who after all were the people who had overthrown the Roman Empire)? Well, in a story that we hear again and again, the population basically welcomed them in with open arms. The Visagoths had imposed a feudal system on to the people who were suffering under their rule. One of the first things the Islamic army did was give the land back to the people who were actually working it and BBC expert and Christian theologian Martin Palmer tells us that this is the reason the Muslims were able to remain in power in Spain for an amazing 700 years. In addition to revolutionary theology there were very favorable tax breaks as well.
Tax breaks and revolution--
More than any other reason, however, was one of the characteristics of Muslim conquest was that local leaders were for the most part kept in place. So, that the Abassid dynasty centered in Baghdad was virtually run by Persians, so too in Iberian Spain local leaders were kept in power to run things. In general, that is because Arab populations of the time did not have organized social structures that could conveniently be put in place in the conquered lands.
More than the peasants, the Visigoths had alienated the Jewish population beyond repair. Having been reduced to almost slave status, the Jews were forbidden to practice their religion or to engage in trade of any kind (which reduced them to a state of servitude). So, when the Muslim army arrived, the Jewish population thought of them almost like a Messianic symbol. Working together, the Berber army would invade a city, only to turn the city over to the Jews so that they could continue their march West.
French philosophers (and your occasional Japanese) again and again urge us not to forget the pivotal role of the Abyssids in Baghdad (with great Persian influence)-- as well as the Muslim philosophers and scholars of al-Andalus-- had on the Renaissance that occurred in Europe not long after. From the East, the Arabs received the technical achievements of the Chinese and Indians, and from the West, they took the body of Western Classical culture. They then dedicated themselves to preserving and expanding this body of knowledge. It was philosophers like Averroes and Avicenna who kept the light of philosophy and mathematics, physics and medicine burning brightly in what was a great cauldron of intellectual activity centered around Baghdad.
It wasn't just the Muslim philosophers in Baghdad, however, that carried the great torch of science and philosophy during Europe's dark Ages, but there was a simultaneous cultural flowering going on in Muslim Spain under the Umayyads. This cultural flowering occurred both in the Islamic communities as well as the Jewish communities (as this period is known as the Golden Age of Jewish Culture in Spain.
In fact, for some reasons, the work accomplished by these Islamic and Jewish scholars filtered back into Europe by way of Iberia into France. In their discussion of this characterization of Moorish Spain as a Golden Age, it become apparent that rather than debating with each per se, the Muslim and Jewish philosophers were rather exploring ways to rectify religious thought (revelation/faith) with the rationalism (reason/discovery) of the Ancient Greeks. And it was this that would have such a profound impact on Europe, eventually giving rise to the Renaissance.
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So, was Cordova unique? I highly recommend you listen to the BBC Radio Program (linked above) to find out!
In addition there is
BBC Radio In Our Time
Averroes
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20061005.shtml
And, on relationship between religion (Judaism) and Philosophy (Aristotelean thought) see Wiki article on Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed
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