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CHAPTER 1

WHEN HISTORY CHANGED DIRECTION

I

To try to reach the spot where sunrise or sunset occurs is as futile as chasing the rainbow, since our movement towards it makes its location change. 'West' and 'East' should always be seen as relative terms. Universal creeds like Christianity and Islam therefore do not – or should not – conceive of themselves as Western or Eastern. How and why, then, have so many of us in Europe and North America come to see ourselves as 'Western', and decided that Arabs and Muslims are 'Eastern' in a way that, for far too many people, establishes a crude pair of irreconcilable opposites called 'us' and 'them'? A fault line has appeared, so it is scarcely surprising if it occasionally triggers earthquakes.

Let us begin at the beginning, before either the Arab world or the West existed. For Westerners today there is something unique about the central lands of the Middle East which are now predominantly Arabic-speaking: Egypt, Greater Syria and Iraq. This is because the origins of the West can be traced back to these countries. They gave us writing, mathematics, architecture, science, the seven-day week and much else. A European who visits the ruins of pagan sites such as Palmyra and Ba'lbek, or Christian ones like Qala'at Sima'an and Qalb Lozeh, sees architecture which seems familiar. It reminds him of Greece and Rome, and is closely related to his own heritage. The same might almost be said of the porticoes, columns and urns weirdly hewn from the multi-coloured rock of Petra. There was a unity of design and ornamentation in the architecture, statuary and mosaics of the Graeco-Roman world which stretched from York in the province of Britannia to Palmyra in the Syrian desert. Nothing similar would be seen throughout the Mediterranean until Western styles, which themselves were largely based on classical models, began to reappear in cities on its southern and eastern shores in the nineteenth century.

Columns and capitals, colonnades and domes, were similar everywhere. Mosaics showing scenes from Graeco-Roman mythology and statues with their easily recognisable classical drapery could be found all around the Mediterranean. Every self-respecting city had its own amphitheatre. The now ruined basilica of St Simeon Stylites in the hills outside Aleppo and the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus – which owes the architecture of the basilica a considerable debt – show how Syrians have as much justification as anyone for claiming their country was where Romanesque architecture originated, even though today we think of Romanesque as the glory of early medieval Europe and the forerunner of Gothic, that quintessentially European style. How many Europeans today are aware that soldiers from Greater Syria once served on Hadrian's Wall and the Roman forts along the Rhine? Or that both Greater Syria and North Africa gave Rome emperors and popes, that Egypt and Tunisia provided Rome with its wheat, and that Constantine, who built the new Roman capital of Constantinople – now Istanbul – was first proclaimed emperor in York?

As the central Arabic-speaking lands of today were once part of what was to become the West, they hold a special place in the Western psyche. After all, Judaism and Christianity both originated in Palestine. Yet what we think of today as 'the West' only came into being long after Christianity had conquered the Mediterranean world, which itself only occurred after Judaism had also spread across it. We think of our ancestors, the Greeks and the Romans, as 'Westerners' because of subsequent history. In many respects the Romans were more interested in the rich provinces they acquired to their east than in the uncouth Celts and Germans who lived to the north and west where the heartland of Western civilisation would later emerge. They even identified themselves as descendants of Trojan refugees who had fled their home in Asia Minor.

The greatest dangers the Romans faced were not in the east but on the Rhine and Danube. It was Alaric the Visigoth, a European barbarian, who sacked Rome in AD 410. Even when the Sasanian Persians unsuccessfully besieged Constantinople in 626, it was their Avar allies from the Danube valley who surrounded the city walls on the landward side. By that time, the Roman Empire had ceased to exist in the West, but its eastern half, which today we usually call the Byzantine Empire, survived until the fifteenth century.

That Persian attack in 626 did not change the course of history. What did change it was the sudden emergence of Islam from the Arabian Peninsula a few years later. Western Christendom, which would still use Latin as its principal written language for a thousand years after the Western Roman Empire fell to pieces, was left staring fearfully and suspiciously at a new world facing it in the Mediterranean and extending far beyond.

II

Muhammad was born in about AD 570 and grew up in the remote oasis city of Mecca in the deserts of western Arabia. Mecca was of little interest to the Byzantine Empire which still ruled the eastern and southern Mediterranean, or to Persia, which included what is now Iraq as well as Iran. The Christian Byzantines disdainfully tolerated Judaism but not the ancient, pagan cults of Greece and Rome. The state religion of the Persian Empire was Zoroastrianism, but Christianity and Judaism were also well represented in its territories, and there was hope among Byzantines that it would eventually be converted to Christianity.

The tribal confederations that lived in and around Mecca prospered from their trade with Greater Syria to the north and Yemen to the south. Mecca's dominant tribe of the Koreish also had a second source of wealth: religion. Although belief in one God was understood and people were at least vaguely familiar with Christianity and Judaism, the focal point of Arab religion was the Ka'aba, a black, cube-shaped shrine in Mecca, of which the Koreish were official guardians. Three hundred and sixty idols surrounded the Ka'aba, and others had been placed inside. The individual deities were essentially local and concerned themselves with particular needs. Thus, the god Hubal, whose name the Koreish called upon in battle, was also the god of rain. Mecca was the destination for an annual pilgrimage from many parts of Arabia which coincided with an important market and helped fill the city's coffers. The followers of the cults of Mecca and western Arabia put up considerable resistance to Muhammad's new religion, which shows that the old ways still had some appeal.

Muhammad was from the Koreish, but not from a leading family. He lost his mother when he was 6, while his father had already died before he was born. He was brought up by his grandfather and then by his uncle, Abu Talib. As a young man he is said to have made his living as an agent taking caravan trains to Syria, and married one of his clients, Khadijah, a wealthy lady who was noticeably older than himself but bore him several children. One of these, his daughter Fatima, gave him grandchildren and passed on his bloodline. He had a reputation for honesty and fairness in his commercial dealings, as well as an ability to defuse disputes. He was also charismatic and energetic but at the same time had a reflective and solitary side. One night, he was meditating in a cave on a mountain outside Mecca when he had a vision in which a figure he subsequently believed to be the angel Gabriel appeared and terrified him out of his wits. The figure said:

Recite in the name of your Lord who created – Created humanity from a blood clot; Recite – your Lord is most generous. He it was who taught with the pen – Taught humanity what it did not know.

As has been the case with many other visionaries, Muhammad's experience filled him with confusion. He feared diabolical possession and questioned his sanity. Nevertheless, he came to accept the revelations, which were to continue for the rest of his life, and soon had an unshakeable conviction that he was the Prophet of God and a determination to carry out the task appointed for him: to impart God's message to humanity. These revelations make up the Qur'an which was compiled as a single volume after his death.

Muhammad lived for about twenty-three years after that first occasion when he believed Gabriel visited him. After some years preaching, initially to family and friends and then more publicly, he was still making only a small impact in Mecca. His teaching threatened the existing order and the wealth the city gained from pilgrims to the Ka'aba. He suffered ridicule, ostracism and the risk of assassination. Those of his followers who lacked the protection of a powerful tribe which would avenge them if they were killed or injured were in very real danger. In 622, he therefore took up an invitation to go to Yathrib, a large oasis over two hundred miles to the north, where he would use his skill at settling disputes to arbitrate between the local tribes. He set out to establish a new society there which would be based on his new religion. The city's name was changed to Medina, an abbreviation of al-madinah almunawwarah: the illuminated, or enlightened, city.

Once Muhammad had settled down in Medina, a new set of problems emerged. There were five tribes in the oasis. The two main ones, the Aws and the Khazraj, converted to Islam. Although some conversions were enthusiastic and zealous, others were only superficial and expedient. Moreover, although the tribal leaders had accepted Islam at least outwardly, ultimate political power remained with them. Insincere conversions had never occurred while Muhammad was still in Mecca. The loyalty of the munafiqun, the 'Dissemblers' or 'Hypocrites', as the insincere converts came to be called, was suspect. They were likely to conspire with his Meccan enemies who could be expected to do their utmost to destabilise the polity he was now setting up.

The same applied to the other three tribes in the oasis. These were Jewish Arabs, the Nadir, the Qaynuqa' and the Qurayzah. They were under the protection of the Aws or Khazraj, and thus bound by the agreements those tribes had reached with Muhammad. A number of individuals converted, but for the most part they followed their rabbis in rejecting the new religion. Although Muhammad accepted that their religion was a true path to God, they were among the factions opposed to him and were potential traitors to his new polity. In due course, two of the tribes were exiled. The Qurayzah, the third tribe, suffered a worse fate. It was believed to have planned to betray Medina at a crucial moment in the struggle with Mecca which could have led to the fall of the oasis. The adult males, except for two who opted to convert to Islam, were executed and the women and children made slaves.

The struggle with Mecca had developed a military element soon after Muhammad's arrival in Medina. This started with an initiative by Muhammad and his followers who began raiding Meccan trading caravans. He and his followers had lost their property in Mecca, and on one level this military element may just have been customary tribal raiding. Nevertheless, it also indicated that Muhammad believed the Meccans were determined to extinguish his new faith or at least stop it spreading, and that armed conflict with them was therefore inevitable.

The first major encounter was the battle at the wells of Badr. In early 624, Mecca learned that a raiding party from Medina was trying to intercept an important caravan returning from Syria. Although the caravan changed its route and escaped, a relief force from Mecca met a much smaller Muslim army and battle was joined. Despite their superiority in numbers, the Meccans were roundly defeated. The victory of Badr marked the start of the Muslim martial tradition, and Muhammad received a revelation that he and his followers were aided by legions of angels. Politically, it greatly enhanced his prestige and at the same time laid down a challenge to the Meccans, who now had to avenge their defeat and crush Muhammad. To Muslims ever since, Badr has been an inspiration when they are at war.

The Meccans had partial revenge at the battle of Uhud the following year. Muhammad himself was wounded and feared dead at one point. The defeat strengthened the reputation of the Meccans, but it did not lead to the dissolution of Muhammad's new polity. The Meccans needed to make one final push and assembled a vast coalition to do so.

The third and final battle is known as the battle of the Ditch, or the Trench (al-khandaq). Having some idea of the size of the forces that might be marching against him, Muhammad and his followers prepared for a siege. Defensive ditches were dug at various points around the oasis to make it impossible for cavalry to cross. The tactic worked, and the Muslims were able to repel the assaults. When the weather turned cold and wet, the Meccan coalition broke up due to supply problems and discontent among tribes which had come in the hope of pillage when Medina fell.

Muhammad now seems to have had the upper hand. He announced that he wished to perform the pilgrimage to the sanctuary of the Ka'aba which, according to local tradition, Abraham had originally built with the help of his son Ishmael as a temple to the one true God. After negotiations, it was agreed that Muhammad and the Muslims would postpone their pilgrimage by one year, but that the following year the Meccans would evacuate the city for three days in order to enable the Muslims to enter without fear of strife. The postponement involved an additional painful concession by Muhammad who agreed to return any Meccans who came to him as converts to Islam during this intervening period. He needed all his authority and charisma to persuade some of his followers to accept what looked like a setback, but he was skilful in the negotiations. Soon after the Muslims had made their pilgrimage to Mecca, he took advantage of a breach of the armistice by the Koreish. When he marched on Mecca, opposition collapsed and he was able to enter the city in triumph.

Arabian polytheism was now suppressed and the Ka'aba cleansed of its idols. Shrines in neighbouring towns were also dismantled, sometimes after resistance. Muhammad's conditions for capitulation always involved the adoption of the new faith. Armies and emissaries from Medina persuaded tribal confederacies and rulers over most of Arabia to recognise him as the Prophet of God, although they often had no clear idea of what this entailed. Medina remained his capital, but his reform of the pre-Islamic pilgrimage rites had ensured that Mecca would be the focal point of the new religion. In 632, the last year of his life, he performed the pilgrimage with a large gathering of his followers. He was ageing, and may have been conscious that he did not have long to live. If this was the case, it is striking that he made no universally accepted arrangements for the community after his death.

III

The new religion lay broadly within 'the same universe of thought' as Christianity and Judaism. All three faiths share core beliefs such as the transcendence and oneness of God, the forgiveness of sins following true repentance, the Last Judgement, the resurrection of the body, Heaven and Hell. As Sidney Griffith has recently written, the Qur'an itself:

in its origins obviously participated in a dialogue of the scriptures, with the Torah, the Psalms, the Prophets and the Gospel named in the Qur'an as the partners of record in the conversation. ... [It] presumes in its audience a familiarity with biblical narratives, as well as with other aspects of Jewish and Christian lore, faith and practice. In short, the Qur'an and early Islam are literally unthinkable outside the Judeo-Christian milieu in which Islam was born and grew to its maturity.

The influence of both Christianity and Judaism on Islam is immense. This is not just a question of the many hidden borrowings, such as teachings from the Gospels and the Torah restated in the Qur'an and Sunna, which Muslims see as instances in which the revelation to Muhammad confirmed earlier revelations. There are also openly acknowledged borrowings from Christian and Jewish sources. Christian monks seem to have been held in particularly high esteem by Muslim scholars, who often quoted their spiritual insights with approval. Some monks may have reciprocated this. Sections of the pastoral writings of Ghazali, the great twelfth-century Muslim theologian, were adapted by monks for Christian audiences.

Nevertheless, despite the very considerable overlap of its teachings with the two religions which are ancestral to the modern West, Islam is not always easy for a Westerner to understand. Many non-Muslims who approach the Qur'an in a genuine spirit of enquiry find it a difficult text, particularly if they can only read it in translation. As is the case with the Bible, it is intended to be listened to or read by people who already accept it as divine revelation, and who therefore do so in a spirit of reverence, opening their hearts and accepting whatever it may say to them.

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Excerpted from "A Concise History of the Arabs"
by .
Copyright © 2013 John McHugo.
Excerpted by permission of The New Press.
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