Umayyad
The Umayyad caliphate established in 661 was to last for about a century. During this timeAbbasids
The Abbasids, who succeeded the Umayyads, shifted the
capital to Baghdad
which soon developed into an incomparable center of learning and culture as
well as the administrative and political heart of a vast world.
They ruled for over 500 years but gradually their power
waned and they remained only symbolic rulers bestowing legitimacy upon various
sultans and princes who wielded actual military power. The Abbasid caliphate
was finally abolished when Hulagu, the Mongol ruler, captured Baghdad in 1258, destroying much of the city
including its incomparable libraries.
While the Abbasids ruled in Baghdad ,
a number of powerful dynasties such as the Fatimids, Ayyubids and Mamluks held
power in Egypt , Syria and Palestine .
The most important event in this area as far as the relation between Islam and
the Western world was concerned was the series of Crusades declared by the Pope
and espoused by various European kings. The purpose, although political, was
outwardly to recapture the Holy Land and especially Jerusalem for Christianity. Although there
was at the beginning some success and local European rule was set up in parts
of Syria and Palestine , Muslims finally prevailed and in 1187 Saladin,
the great Muslim leader, recaptured Jerusalem
and defeated the Crusaders.
North Africa And Spain
When the Abbasids captured Damascus ,
one of the Umayyad princes escaped and made the long journey from there to Spain to found Umayyad rule there, thus
beginning the golden age of Islam in Spain . Cordoba
was established as the capital and soon became Europe 's
greatest city not only in population but from the point of view of its cultural
and intellectual life. The Umayyads ruled over two centuries until they
weakened and were replaced by local rulers.
Meanwhile in North Africa, various local dynasties held sway
until two powerful Berber dynasties succeeded in uniting much of North Africa
and also Spain
in the 12th and 13th centuries. After them this area was ruled once again by
local dynasties such as the Sharifids of Morocco who still rule in that
country. As for Spain
itself, Muslim power continued to wane until the last Muslim dynasty was
defeated in Granada in 1492 thus bringing nearly
eight hundred years of Muslim rule in Spain to an end.
After the Mangol Invasion
The Mongols devastated the eastern lands of Islam and ruled
from the Sinai Desert
to India
for a century. But they soon converted to Islam and became known as the
Il-Khanids. They were in turn succeeded by Timur and his descendents who made
Samarqand their capital and ruled from 1369 to 1500. The sudden rise of Timur
delayed the formation and expansion of the Ottoman empire
but soon the Ottomans became the dominant power in the Islamic world.
Ottoman Empire
From humble origins the Turks rose to dominate over the
whole of Anatolia and even parts of Europe . In
1453 Mehmet the Conqueror captured Constantinople and put an end to the Byzantine empire . The Ottomans conquered much of eastem
Europe and nearly the whole of the Arab world, only Morocco
and Mauritania in the West
and Yemen , Hadramaut and
parts of the Arabian peninsula remaining
beyond their control. They reached their zenith of power with Suleyman the
Magnificent whose armies reached Hungary
and Austria .
From the 17th century onward with the rise of Westem European powers and later Russia , the
power of the Ottomans began to wane. But they nevertheless remained a force to
be reckoned with until the First World War when they were defeated by the
Westem nations. Soon thereafter Kamal Ataturk gained power in Turkey and
abolished the six centuries of rule of the Ottomans in 1924.
Persia
While the Ottomans were concerned mostly with the westem
front of their empire, to the east in Persia a new dynasty called the
Safavids came to power in 1502. The Safavids established a powerful state of
their own which flourished for over two centuries and became known for the
flowering of the arts. Their capital, Isfahan ,
became one of the most beautiful cities with its blue tiled mosques and
exquisite houses. The Afghan invasion of 1736 put an end to Safavid rule and
prepared the independence of Afghanistan
which occured fommally in the 19th century. Persia
itself fell into tummoil until Nader Shah, the last Oriental conqueror,
reunited the country and even conquered India . But the rule of the dynasty
established by him was short-lived. The Zand dynasty soon took over to be
overthrown by the Qajars in 1779 who made Tehran
their capital and ruled until 1921 when they were in turn replaced by the
Pahlavis.
India
As for India ,
Islam entered into the land east of the Indus River India in 1526
by Babur, one of the Timurid princes. He established the powerful Mogul empire
which produced such famous rulers as Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan and which
lasted, despite the gradual rise of British power in India , until 1857 when it was
officially abolished.
Malaysia
And Indonesia
Farther east in the Malay world, Islam began to spread in
the 12th century in northem Sumatra and soon Muslim kingdoms were establishd in
Java, Sumatra and mainland Malaysia .
Despite the colonization of the Malay world, Islam spread in that area covering
present day Indonesia, Malaysia, the southern Phililppines and southern
Thailand, and is still continuing in islands farther east.
Africa
As far as Africa is concemed, Islam entered into East Africa
at the very beginning of the Islamic period but remained confined to the coast
for some time, only the Sudan
and Somaliland becoming gradually both
Arabized and Islamized. West Africa felt the presence of Islam through North
African traders who travelled with their camel caravans south of the Sahara . By the 14th century there were already Muslim
sultanates in such areas as Mali ,
and Timbuctu in West Africa and Harar in East Africa
had become seats of Islamic leaming.
Gradually Islam penetrated both inland and southward. There
also appeared major charismatic figures who inspired intense resistance against
European domination. The process of the Islamization of Africa did not cease
during the colonial period and continues even today with the result that most
Africans are now Muslims carrying on a tradition which has had practically as
long a history in certain areas of sub-Saharan Africa
as Islam itself.
Islam in the United States
It is almost impossible to generalize about American
Muslims: converts, immigrants, factory workers, doctors; all are making their
own contribution to America 's
future. This complex community is unified by a common faith, underpinned by a
countrywide network of a thousand mosques.
Muslims were early arrivals in North
America . By the eighteenth century there were many thousands of
them, working as slaves on plantations. These early communities, cut off from
their heritage and families, inevitably lost their Islamic identity as time
went by. Today many Afro-American Muslims play an important role in the Islamic
community.
The nineteenth century, however, saw the beginnings of an
influx of Arab Muslims, most of whom settled in the major industrial centers
where they worshipped in hired rooms. The early twentieth century witnessed the
arrival of several hundred thousand Muslims from Eastem Europe: the first
Albanian mosque was opened in Maine in 1915;
others soon followed, and a group of Polish Muslims opened a mosque in Brooklyn in 1928.
In 1947 the Washington Islamic Center was founded during the
term of President Truman, and several nationwide organizations were set up in
the fifties. The same period saw the establishment of other communities whose
lives were in many ways modelled after Islam. More recently, numerous members
of these groups have entered the fold of Muslim orthodoxy. Today there are
about five million Muslims in America .
Aftermath of the Colonial Period
At the height of European colonial expansion in the 19th
century, most of the Islamic world was under colonial rule with the exception
of a few regions such as the heart of the Ottoman empire, Persia , Afghanistan ,
Yemen and certain parts of Arabia . But even these areas were under foreign influence
or, in the case of the Ottomans, under constant threat. After the First World
War with the breakup of the Ottoman empire, a number of Arab states such as Iraq became independent, others like Jordan were created as a new entity and yet
others like Palestine , Syria and Lebanon were either mandated or
turned into French colonies. As for Arabia, it was at this time that Saudi Arabia
became finally consolidated. As for other parts of the Islamic world, Egypt
which had been ruled by the descendents of Muhammad Ali since the l9th century
became more independent as a result of the fall of the Ottomans, Turkey was
turned into a secular republic by Ataturk, and the Pahlavi dynasty began a new
chapter in Persia where its name reverted to its eastern traditional form of
Iran. But most of the rest of the Islamic world remained under colonial rule.
Arab
It was only after the Second World War and the dismemberment
of the British, French, Dutch and Spanish empires that the rest of the Islamic
world gained its independence. In the Arab world, Syria
and Lebanon became
independent at the end of the war as did Libya
and the shaykdoms around the Gulf and the Arabian Sea
by the 1960's. The North African countries of Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria had
to fight a difficult and, in the case of Algeria, long and protracted war to
gain their freedom which did not come until a decade later for Tunisia and
Morocco and two decades later for Algeria. Only Palestine
did not become independent but was partitioned in 1948 with the establishment
of the state of Israel .
India
In India Muslims participated in the freedom movement
against British rule along with Hindus and when independence finally came in 1947,
they were able to create their own homeland, Pakistan, which came into being
for the sake of Islam and became the most populated Muslim state although many
Muslims remained in India. In 1971, however, the two parts of the state broke
up, East Pakistan becoming Bengladesh.
Far East
Farther east still, the Indonesians finally gained their
independence from the Dutch and the Malays theirs from Britain . At
first Singapore was part of Malaysia but it
separated in 1963 to become an independent state. Small colonies still
persisted in the area and continued to seek their independence, the kingdom of Brunei
Africa
In Africa also major countries with large or majority Muslim
populations such as Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania began to gain their
independence in the 1950's and 1960's with the result that by the end of the
decade of the 60's most parts of the Islamic world were formed into independent
national states. There were, however, exceptions. The Muslim states in the Soviet Union failed to gain their autonomy or
independence. The same holds true for Sinkiang (called Eastem Turkestan by
Muslim geographers) while in Eritrea
and the southern Philippines Muslim independence movements still continue.
National States
While the world of Islam has entered into the modern world
in the form of national states, continuous attempts are made to create closer
cooperation within the Islamic world as a whole and to bring about greater
unity. This is seen not only in the meetings of the Muslim heads of state and
the establishment of the OIC (Organization of Islamic Countries) with its own
secretariat, but also in the creation of institutions dealing with the whole of
the Islamic world. Among the most important of these is the Muslim World League
(Rabitat al-alam al-Islami ) with its headquarters in Makkah. Saudi Arabia
has in fact played a pivotal role in the creation and maintenance of such
organizations.
Revival and Reassertation of Islam
Muslims did not wish to gain only their political
independence. They also wished to assert their own religious and cultural
identity. From the 18th century onward Muslim reformers appeared upon the scene
who sought to reassert the teachings of Islam and to reform society on the
basis of Islamic teachings. One of the first among this group was Muhammad ibn
'Abd al-Wahhab, who hailed from the Arabian peninsula
and died there in 1792. This reformer was supported by Muhammad ibn al-Sa'ud,
the founder of the first Saudi state. With this support Muhammad ibn 'Abd
al-Wahhab was able to spread his teachings not only in Arabia
but even beyond its borders to other Islamic lands where his reforms continue
to wield influence to this day.
In the 19th century lslamic assertion took several different
forms ranging from the Mahdi movement of the Sudan
and the Sanusiyyah in North Africa which fought wars against European
colonizers, to educational movements such as that of Aligarh
in India
aiming to reeducate Muslims. In Egypt
which, because of al-Azhar
University Persia
but settled in Cairo
and who was the great champion of Pan-Islamism, that is the movement to unite
the Islamic world politically as well as religiously. His student, Muhammad
'Abduh, who became the rector of al-Azhar. was also very influential in Islamic
theology and thought. Also of considerable influence was his Syrian student,
Rashid Rida, who held a position closer to that of 'Abd al-Wahhab and stood for
the strict application of the Shari'ah. Among the most famous of these thinkers
is Muhammad Iqbal, the outstanding poet and philosopher who is considered as
the father of Pakistan .
Reform Organizations
Moreover, as Western influence began to penetrate more
deeply into the fiber of Islamic society, organizations gradually grew up whose
goal was to reform society in practice along Islamic lines and prevent its
secularization. These included the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan al-muslimin)
founded in Egypt and with branches in many Muslim countries, and the Jama'at-i
Islami of Pakistan founded by the influential Mawlana Mawdudi. These
organizations have been usually peaceful and have sought to reestablish an
Islamic order through education. During the last two decades, however, as a
result of the frustration of many Muslims in the face of pressures coming from
a secularized outside world, some have sought to reject the negative aspects of
Western thought and culture and to return to an Islamic society based
completely on the application of the Shari
'ah. Today in every Muslim country there are strong movements to preserve and
propagate Islamic teachings. In countries such as Saudi Arabia Islamic Law is
already being applied and in fact is the reason for the prosperity, development
and stability of the country. In other countries where Islamic Law is not being
applied, however, most of the effort of Islamic movements is spent in making
possible the full application of the Shari'ah so that the nation can enjoy
prosperity along with the fulfillment of the faith of its people. In any case
the widespread desire for Muslims to have the religious law of Islam applied
and to reassert their religious values and their own identity must not be
equated with exceptional violent eruptions which do exist but which are usually
treated sensationally and taken out of proportion by the mass media in the
West.
Education and Science in the Islamic World
In seeking to live successfully in the modern world, in
independence and according to Islamic principles, Muslim countries have been
emphasizing a great deal the significance of the role of education and the
importance of mastering Western science and technology. Already in the 19th
century, certain Muslim countries such as Egypt ,
Ottoman Turkey and Persia
established institutions of higher learning where the modem sciences and
especially medicine were taught. During this century educational institutions
at all levels have proliferated throughout the Islamic world. Nearly every
science ranging from mathematics to biology as well as various fields of modern
technology are taught in these institutions and some notable scientists have
been produced by the Islamic world, men and women who have often combined
education in these institutions with training in the West.
In various parts of the Islamic world there is, however, a
sense that educational institutions must be expanded and also have their
standards improved to the level of the best institutions in the world in
various fields of leaming especially science and technology. At the same time
there is an awareness that the educational system must be based totally on
Islamic principles and the influence of alien cultural and ethical values and
norms, to the extent that they are negative, be diminished. To remedy this
problem a number of international Islamic educational conferences have been
held, the first one in Makkah in 1977, and the foremost thinkers of the Islamic
world have been brought together to study and ponder over the question of the
relation between Islam and modern science. This is an ongoing process which is
at the center of attention in many parts of the Islamic world and which
indicates the significance of educational questions in the Islamic world today.
Influence of Islamic Science and Learning Upon the West
The oldest university in the world which is still
functioning is the eleven hundred-year-old Islamic university
of Fez , Morocco , known as the Qarawiyyin.
This old tradition of Islamic learning influenced the West greatly through Spain . In this
land where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived for the most part peacefully for
many centuries, translations began to be made in the 11th century mostly in
Toledo of Islamic works into Latin often through the intermediary of Jewish
scholars most of whom knew Arabic and often wrote in Arabic. As a result of
these translations, Islamic thought and through it much of Greek thought became
known to the West and Western schools of learning began to flourish. Even the
Islamic educational system was emulated in Europe
and to this day the term chair in a university reflects the Arabic kursi
(literally seat) upon which a teacher would sit to teach his students in the
madrasah (school of higher learning). As European civillization grew and
reached the high Middle Ages, there was hardly a field of learning or form of
art, whether it was literature or architecture, where there was not some
influence of Islam present. Islamic learning became in this way part and parcel
of Western civilization even if with the advent of the Renaissance, the West
not only turned against its own medieval past but also sought to forget the
long relation it had had with the Islamic world, one which was based on
intellectual respect despite religious opposition.
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