Transcript 1. Pre-islamic Arabia

Islam
Origins
Origins overview
• Pre-Islamic Arabia as the cultural
and historical context for the
development of Islam
• The Prophet Muhammad
• The development of Islam under
the leadership of the Four Rightly
Guided Caliphs
Pre-Islamic Arabia
The harsh climate
• of the Arabian
peninsula,
• combined with a
desert and mountain
terrain,
• limited agriculture and
rendered the interior
regions difficult to
access.
Arabian society and religion
• Refected the tribal realities of the
Peninsula.
• Bedouin tribes travelled from one
area to another in search of water
and pasture for their flocks of sheep
and camels
Bedouin
• Is the term for the
nomadic Arabs of
the desert
• Principal sources
of livelihood were
herding, trade and
raiding
Intertribal warfare
• Was a long established activity
• However it was governed by clear
guidelines and rules
• For example raiding was illegal during
the four sacred months of pilgrimage
The population subsisted
• on a combination of oasis
gardening and herding, with some
portion of the population being
nomadic or seminomadic.
Social organisation
• and identity for peoples of Arabia
were based on membership in an
extended family.
Social organisation
• A tribe, consisting of a cluster of
several clans (groupings of several
related families)
• was led by a shaykh (chief) who was
selected by consensus of heads of
leading clans or families
Social organisation
• These elders formed an advisory
council,
• within which the shaykh exercised his
leadership and authority as the first
among equals.
Arabia - location
Asia to the north-east
Europe to the
north-west
Africa to the
west
Indian sub-continent
to the East
Crossroads of the known world
Location of Arabia
Arabian
Peninsula
Desert
Since they lived in
• such a harsh environment
• the people of Arabia needed to trade
with their wealth neighbours
Neighbouring regions
of Arabia
Tigris River
Mediterranean
Sea
Euphrates River
Dead Sea
Nile
River
Red Sea
Arabian Peninsula
And the fertile crescent linked
Arabia with the rest of the world
The people of Arabia
• were well-positioned to profit from
trade with the surrounding regions
• the exports of frankincense and myrrh
brought wealth to the area
The camel was the only animal
• that could cross large tracts of barren
land with any reliability.
• The increased trans-Arabian trade led
to the rise of cities that could service
the trains of camels moving across
the desert.
The most prosperous cities
• were relatively close to markets in the
Mediterranean region,
• but small caravan cities developed
within the Arabian Peninsula as well.
The most important city
within the peninsula
• was Makkah (Mecca), which also
owed its prosperity to certain shrines
in the area visited by Arabs from all
over the peninsula.
In the long term
• it was the ideas and
people that travelled
with the camel
caravans that were
the most important
aspect of trade with
the rest of the world.
Arabia –
pre-Islamic
trade routes
Present day Arabia
Pre-Islamic Arabia
In the sixth
century AD,
north of the
Arabian
Peninsula two
great powers
were locked
in a seesaw
power
struggle.
The Christian
Byzantine kingdom
• successors of the
Roman Empire was
to the Northwest
and controlled the
Mediterranean Sea,
North Africa and the
lands of Palestine.
In the northeast
• lay the Zoroastrian
Persian kingdom.
• Both the Byzantine
and Persian
kingdoms had client
Arab tribes allied to
their cause of trade
and conquest.
The Arabian Peninsula
• became a land of refuge for those
seeking escape from both of these
empires.
• Heretic Christian sects like
the Nestorians, and Jewish
tribes escaping the
oppressive Byzantines found refuge in
the protective deserts and cities of the
Peninsula.
The religion of Arabia
• Reflected its tribal
nature and social
structures.
• Each city had gods and goddess.
• Some Arabs held religious beliefs that
recognized a number of gods as well as
a number of rituals for worshiping them.
Gods and goddesses
• Served as protectors of individual
tribes,
• And their spirits were associated with
sacred objects
• Trees, stones, springs and wells.
The most important beliefs
• involved the sense that certain places
and times of year were sacred and
must be respected.
• At those times and in those places,
warfare, in particular, was forbidden,
and various rituals were required.
• Foremost of these was the pilgrimage,
and the best known pilgrimage site
was Makkah.
Once a year
• the tribes and cities of Arabia would
meet in the city of Mecca during an
event known as the Hajj.
• In Mecca, the Ka’ba (Cube), a large
cube shaped building housed 360
idols from all the tribes of Arabia.
• The Ka’ba was the
centre of Arabian
religious life.
Here all the warring tribes
• would put aside their differences as
they circled the Ka’ba.
• From the Ka’ba they would proceed
to the other shrines outside of Mecca
during this five day
religious event.
The Hajj
• was a tradition that
Arabs of the
peninsula
remembered going
back hundreds of
years.
While these deities
• were primary objects of worship,
• beyond this tribal polytheism was a
shared belief in Allah.
• Allah, the supreme high god
• Was the creator and sustainer of life,
• But remote from everyday concerns
and so was not the object of cult or
ritual
The value system
• Or ethical code of Arabia was based
firmly in the tribal experience.
• The preservation of tribal and family
order was most important.
• With this came fatalism that saw no
meaning beyond this life.
Justice was guaranteed
• and administered by the
threat of group
vengeance.
• Arabian religion had little
sense of a universal
moral purpose or an
individual or communal
responsibility.