GROWTH OF ISLAM --- Episode 5

      WHAT IMPACT ON THE ECONOMY DID ISLAM HAVE??

    The impact of the expansion of Islam on the economy of western Europe has been the subject of enormous controversy among historians. There can be little doubt about the impact of Islam on the political and intellectual development  of early medieval Europe : it was negligible in both cases. The impact was negligible not because western Europe had nothing to learn from Islamic civilization ; on the contrary, both in government, in which the Arabic countries had absorbed the Roman-Byzantine traditions of bureaucracy, and in philosophy and science, the western Europeans could have benefited greatly from Arabic instruction. But during the early Middle Ages there were no Moslems living under Latin-Christian rule, and, because the western peoples looked upon the Moslems as perverse and pernicious heretics, they closed their eyes to the benefits they could derive from association with the Arabic peoples. 

   The Latin-Christian peoples deprived themselves of the benefits of Moslem civilization through their self-imposed political and cultural isolation. Only at the end of the tenth century did the hatred [imagine that : Christians hating] that the Christians felt fot Mohammed's teachings begin to take second place to the obvious advantages that could be gained through study at Cordoba.  THE GREATEST LATIN SCHOLAR OF THE AGE , THE FRENCHMAN GERBERT OF AURILLAC , WHO EVENTUALLY BECAME POPE, WENT TO MOSLEM SPAIN TO STUDY PHILOSOPHY AND MATHEMATICS.  The education received from Arabic teachers made him so intellectually superior to his Christian contemporaries that for many centuries Gerbert was regarded as the possessor of mysterious powers of sorcery and black magic. It was not until after 1100 that the iron curtain between Latin Europe and Moslem Spain was effectively breached. The result was the importation of the Aristotelian corpus from Spain and Sicily into western Europe, inaugurating an intellectual revolution. 

  The economic effects of the expansion of Islam are by no means so clear, and the question of the effect of the emergence of the new power bloc in the Mediterranean in the seventh and eighth centuries on the economic relations between the East and the West is still debated. This controversy was the result of the last work of the influential Belgian economic historian, Henri Pirenne, entitled Mohammed and Charlemagne and published posthumously in 1936. Pirenne was a rarity ---an able and learned scholar who was also am original thinker, and the master of a vivacious and persuasive literary style. 
   What was Pirenne's thesis ? Briefly, it was that the expansion of Islam brought about the economic disintegration of the Mediterranean world. The advance of Islam produced the finl separation of East from West and the end of the Mediterranean unity that, Pirenne claimed, had continued to exist all through the period of the Germanic invasions. Africa and Spain, which had always been part of the Latin world, belonged henceforth to a culture centered in Baghdad. "The western Mediterranean became a Moslem lake ; the west was blockaded and forced to live upon its own resources.  Fr the first time in history, the axis of life shifted northward from the Mediterranean." Cut off from Mediterranean life, western Europe reverted to a natural [that is, rural] economy and developed the new institutions of the feudal state and manorial society. The attractions of this clear, incisive, and cosmic thesis are obvious, and Pirenne was able to advance it with a considerable show of evidence. But several scholars writing after 1950 contended that the Mohammed and Charlemagne thesis is a gross exaggeration and oversimplification of the course of early medieval civilization. 
   Two distinct aspects of Pirenne's thesis must be sustained if his interpretation is to remain valid : first, that the Germanic invasions were not a turning point in economic history and second, that the expansion of Islam was the cataclysmic turning point. 
   Pirenne contended that in spite of the germanic invasions, the economic unity of the Mediterranean world was preserved in the fifth and sixth centuries and Merovingian France remained part of Mediterranean civilization. This view depends on a misreading, intentional or otherwise, of the picture of Merovingian society provided by Gregory of Tours. According to Gregory, there had not been a complete break with Mediterranean trade and culture, but there had been a marked decline of Mediterranean influence. In the economy of the sixth--century Gaul, trade and monetary transactions were not important ; Morovingian France was dependent to a large degree on landed wealth alone. The cities depicted in Gregory of Tours' history were political and episcopal centers, not commercial centers. The Roman curiales class had disappeared ; the trade with the eastern countries was carried on by easterners --- Syrians and Jews. Merovingian France, compared with Byzantium, was already an underdeveloped area in which agriculture was the basis of the economy and in which commerce was of little importance. This picture of the Merovingian economy, furthermore, has been substantiated by archaeological evidence. Obviously then, the economic decline of France and the disintegration of the economic unity of the Mediterranean world were well under way before Mohammed. 

GROWTH OF ISLAM --- Episode 4

                ISLAM CEASED SPREADING IN THE 700s 

   The caliph's position as the religious leader of Islam became a purely nominal one. By the end of the ninth century three distinct traditions and groups had emerged within the Moslem religious community, which by and large still prevail. First of all, there was the orthodox position , which had an overwhelming superiority in the size of its following. The orthodox position depended strictly on the Koranic revelation ; the Traditions of the Prophet, which were additional doctrinal pronouncements attributed to Mohammed and a vast complex of religious, moral, and social law derived from the Koran and the semicanonical Traditions. The caliph was supposed to be the defender of orthodoxy, but this task was actually assumed by a group of religious teachers whose attitude and professional status closely resembled that of the Talmudic Jewish rabbis, who, indeed, they may have originally emulated. There was no overriding central authority in the Moslem religious fellowship ; there was no pope in Islam. In each Moslem country the orthodox teachers banded together to proclaim the truths of revelation and religious law, and the extent of their power and influence depended largely on whether they could obtain the support of the state. Until the eleventh century the Arabic princes were frequently much more liberal and secular in their attitudes than were the leaders of the orthodoxy, and hence the latter, while they had great influence, generally lacked the power to persecute those who dissented from their doctrines and precepts. 
   The two other traditions in medieval Islamic religion were the MESSIANIC and the MYSTICAL. The Messianic form of Islamic thought involved the belief in a continuing revelation expressed by new prophets who claimed to be descendants of Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed. The supporters of these successor prophets [ Shiites ] were naturally bitterly opposed by the orthodox [Sunnis] who regarded Mohammed as the ultimate prophet. But occasionally, in the Middle East and northern India, messianic leaders succeeded in transforming their theocratic claims into actual political power and thereby provided isolated areas in which supporters of a continual revelation found refuge. 
   The MYSTICAL TRADITION in Islam, as in medieval Judaism, was a reaction against the stultifying confines of orthodoxy. The Moslem mystics [ Sufists ] sought a direct personal relationship with God and an intense religious experience as an escape from the heavy legalism of orthodoxy. 



   

GROWTH OF ISLAM --- Episode 3

It may be that the Arabs had fully expended their resources even before the battle of Tours and that they could not have, in any case, conquered France. But, their defeat put a stop to their further advance to the north, and they remained satisfied with Spain. Meanwhile, in 717 the Arabs made their last great assault on Constantinople before the fifteenth century and were unable to take the great fortress on the Bosporus. The Arabs quickly became masters of the Mediterranean and conquered Sicily and Crete, and they attacked Constantinople from the sea. But the citadel on the Dardanelles was able to withstand the Moslem onslaught in part because of a new weapon that the Byzantines had developed : the so-called GREEK FIRE, a form of incendiary bomb that the Greeks used to inflict great damage on the Moslem fleets. CONSTANTINOPLE THUS MANAGED TO TO SURVIVE THE ARAB ATTACK AND THEREBY SAVED WESTERN EUROPE FROM MOSLEM CONQUEST VIA THE SOFT UNDERBELLY OF THE EUROPEAN PENINSULA. Yet, of all its great and wealthy eastern provinces, Byzantium had managed to hold on to only Asia Minor . The harassed emperor was now forced on the defensive, and there was no possibility of the exhausted Byzantine state undertaking a war of reconquest against the Arabs for another two hundred years. 

   Until the middle of the eighth century, the extensive territory that the Arabs had conquered was under ONE RULE. The caliph made his capital in Damascus and ruled these vast territories and peoples with an autocratic government modeled on the oriental monarchy of Persia. In the eighth century the non-Arabic peoples who had been conquered and had converted to Islam became dissatisfied with their with their subject position and demanded a share of the government of the vast Arabic empire and equal citizenship with the warrior caste that had come from Arabia. Finally, in the middle of the eighth century the subject peoples revolted against the caliph of the Omayyard dynasty, who ruled from Damascus and a new dynasty, the Abbasids, who were mainly Persian in background seized the title of caliph and set up a new capital in Baghdad. 

   The supplanting of the Omayyad by the Abbasid dynasty was a signal for revolt and political decentralization throughout the Islamic world, and by the end of the ninthe century, instead of one great Arabic empire, the Islamic world was divided into several states.  The rulers of these states continued to respect the caliph as the successor of the Prophet, but the political power in the Islamic world had fallen into the hands of various despotic princes. Among these princes was the ruler in Spain, where the Omayyad dynasty alone had managed to prevail. The Mediterranean world was now united by the Arabic religion and language, and it formed a great economic system, BUT THE ARABIC CIVILIZATION WAS NO LONGER A POLITICAL ENTITY. From the eighth century the term Arabic identifies a great civilization on the eastern and southern shores of the Meditarranean to which many peoples --- Greek, Persian, Syrian, Egyptian, Jewish, and Berber, as well as Arab --- contributed. 

GROWTH OF ISLAM --- Episode 2

         Mohammed may not have been the most sophisticated and learned of religious thinkers, but no spiritual leader has ever founded a faith which has so rapidly appealed to such an enormous number of people. Of all the great religions of mankind, Islam is most suited to serve as a universal religion. The theology presented in the Koran is simple and easily comprehended. It envisions an omniscient deity who makes severe ethical demands on mankind, but who at the same time promises certain reward of eternal life in return for fulfillment of the divine precepts . The all-powerful and all-knowing Allah is a purely monotheistic deity : the Christian idea of the trinity is as much an anathema to the Moslems as to the Jews. Mohammed brings to mankind the word of God, but Mohammed is only the last and the greatest of the prophets, "the seal of the prophets," and he is not in any way a partaker of divinity. In the Koran view Christ, like Abraham, is one of the great prophets who prepared the way for Mohammed, but the Christian theology of the Trinity , with its heavy debt to Platonism, is rejected by Mohammed in favor of pure monotheism. 

  "Islam" means "submission" to the will of Allah, and Allah demands from His adherents among mankind, if they wish to enjoy the great rewards which He promises, the fulfillment of a stern and puritanical code of conduct. The Moslem is to pray several times a day, and he is to make an attempt to go on a pilgrimage to the fountainhead of the true faith at Mecca at least once in his life. The Koran sets down a long series of regulations on the daily life of the Moslem. The Moslem is to refrain from drinking and gambling, he is not to practice usury in business, and generally he is to deal with his fellow humans according to the highest precepts of justice and mercy. The Moslem is to exercise charity toward his fellow men, and he is to be most generous in assisting the unfortunate and downtrodden of mankind. The Koran emphasizes the value of family life, and while, for the Moslem who can afford it, four wives are allowed, the most rigorous precepts of sexual morality are enjoined upon all members of the Islamic faith. Finally, the Moslem is required to give his life, if necessary, to further and protect the true faith, and for those Muslims who suffer such martyrdom the rewards of eternal life will be the most assured and the greatest. Holy war is one of the pillars of Islam.
   The Koranic doctrine presents the most explicit theory of merits among any of the great religions of mankind. Those who follow the word of Allah and who serve God with sincerity and devotion are assured of eternal life and eternal happiness. The agonizing problems raised by the Pauline--Augustinian stream in Christian thought are completely avoided in the Koranic teachings. And even the occasional doubts that creep into Hebraic thinking on the question of merits and reward, such as are found in the Book of Job, are largely absent from Islamic thought. Furthermore, whereas the Hebraic concept of heaven is extremely vague and the Christian concept of heaven is purely ethereal and spiritual, the Koranic picture of heaven is both specific in detail and highly attractive to human desires. In fact, the Moslem is promised a heaven in which he can partake of pleasures denied him in this world. He may drink, gamble, and enjoy the company of beautiful black-eyed maidens, who are mentioned several times in the Koran as rewards promised to the most worthy members of the faith. The Islamic religion, then, is an optimistic one. It conceives of an omnipotent and omniscient God who requires a high and generous level of conduct, and for those who fulfill these precepts it promises the certainty of reward in a heaven that turns out to be a most attractive oasis. It is no mystery why this religion proved to be most popular among the Arab warriors, but its theology is austere enough and its ethic certainly rigorous enough to appeal also to men of the greatest education and sophistication, both in the medieval period and today. 
   

GROWTH OF ISLAM --- Episode 1

  THE IMPACT OF ISLAM ON EARLY MEDIEVAL
                                            EUROPE 

   The expansion of Islam was a decisive factor  in medieval history. It divided the Mediterranean world into three civilizations and power blocks : [1] THE BYZANTINE, [2] THE EUROPEAN, and [3] THE ISLAMIC. One of the major themes in medieval history from the seventh to the twelfth centuries was the relationship and interaction among these three cultural, economic, linguistic, and religious groupings. In various degrees each of these civilizations was an heir of the late Roman Empire. Byzantium exemplifies the most direct continuation of Roman law, administration, and thought. Western Europe also inherited many Roman traditions, and Islam absorbed some aspects of Roman imperial organization and the better part of the philosophy and science of Greece and Rome. However, Islam was also heavily indebted to oriental traditions, particularly those of Persia and Egypt. Oriental culture had also influenced the later Roman Empire, but Islam was the medieval civilization most directly in touch with the eastern heritage. 
   The triumph of Islam on the eastern and western shores of the Mediterranean in the seventh century was the consequence of the final and successful attempt made by Arabic tribes to break into the Mediterranean world. There was nothing novel in an Arabic invasion of Egypt and Syria ; there had been periodic invasions  of the Fertile Crescent by nomads from the Arabian desert since the second millennium B.C.E., and the appearance of the Hebrews in Palestine may have been the consequence of one such northward thrust. The organization of the Mediterranean world under Roman rule had, however, put a stop to large-scale Arabic incursion, and the Byzantine empire, until the early seventh century, was successful in blocking the northward migration of the Arabian peoples. 
   What difference, then, can be seen in this new Arabic invasion that accounts for its success on a great scale ? In the first place, the attack on the Mediterranean world came at a time when the two empires that could have blocked the path of migration and conquest were either dead or exhausted. Heraclitus I had just destroyed the Persian empire, but Byzantium's military resources had been fully expended, and the imperial armies were able to offer only token resistance to the Arabs. Furthermore, great masses of the population of Egypt and Syria had been alienated by the religious policy of the orthodox emperor. Not being satisfied with this disaffection, Heraclitus had undertaken a large-scale persecution of the Jews, who made up substantial portions of the population of Alexandria, Antioch, and other great eastern cities. Under these circumstances, the Arabic invaders could not but have succeeded, provided that they possessed  a modicum of unity and organization. 
   And for the first time the warlike peoples of the Arabian desert had been united by a common faith and by religious authority. In this way Islam contributed the vital factor that made possible the rapid Arabic conquest of the richest provinces of the eastern Roman Empire. The old myth that the Arabs burst forth with sword in one hand and the Koran in the other, offering the Mediterranean peoples either either conversion or death, has long been discredited. In fact, the Arabs tolerated the religious practices of the Christians and Jews they conquered, only placing a head tax and limitation of political rights on those who would not recognize Mohammed as the Prophet of Allah, and therefore they had a vested interest in not hurrying the conversion of their subjects. 
   We should also forgo the assumption that Arabia was an impoverished desert. On the contrary, there were several important commercial cities, of which Mecca was the largest and most prosperous, and extensive commerce was carried on with the lands to the east. Great caravan routes stretched across the peninsula, and the picture we build up of Arabia at this time must include areas where urban and agricultural life flourished.