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.