Read Online Iran: Empire of the Mind by Michael Axworthy - Free Book Online
Authors: Michael Axworthy
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the veil originated as an elite practice, copied from the Christian Byzantine court—comparable perhaps with the custom among aristocratic Englishwomen in Victorian times). The Qor’an gave women the right to own property in their own name. It also discouraged the pre-Islamic practice of killing unwanted girl infants (in Sura 81, speaking of the Day of Judgement):
‘… when the infant girl, buried alive, is asked for what crime she was slain; when the records of men’s deeds are laid open, and heaven is stripped bare; when Hell burns fiercely and Paradise is brought near: then each soul shall know what it has done’).
Many have judged that the Qoranic ideal and Mohammad’s example were more favourable to women than later Arab and Muslim practice. 4
The decade after the Hijra was marked by continuing hostility and eventually war with the ruling families of Mecca; and by missionary effort toward the tribes of Arabia as a whole. Gradually Mohammad and his followers made headway, and finally in 630 the Meccans accepted Islam and Mohammad’s supremacy. The Ka’ba of Mecca was made the central, holy shrine of Islam. Islam’s victory over the Meccans’ resistance won over most of the remaining Arab tribes. By the time of the Prophet’s death in 632 most of Arabia was unified under the new religion; vigorous, idealistic and determined to spread its dominance more widely. Islam had created a powerful religious, political and military force that was to change the face of the region, and the world.
The Arab Conquest
When Mohammad died the Muslim umma threatened to fall apart as different factions had different ideas about the succession, and some tribes sought to regain their independence. Mohammad’s friend Abu Bakr was elected as the Prophet’s successor and became the first caliph ( Khalifa means successor), promising to follow Mohammad’s example ( sunna ). It was natural that this should include further efforts to spread the message of Islam, as Mohammad had done, both by negotiation, and by armed force, including raiding into hostile territory. Initially this meant consolidation in the southern and eastern parts of the Arabian peninsula, and then expansion northwards, into what is now Iraq and Syria. The dynamic of expansion helped to stabilise the rule of the first four caliphs (known by Sunni Muslims as the Rashidun , the righteous caliphs) but their rule was nonetheless turbulent and three of them died violently.
The crucial point at which raiding turned into more deliberate wars of conquest was the battle of Ajnadayn, near Gaza, in 634, where the Muslim Arabs defeated a Byzantine army sent to restore order in Palestine. The burst of confidence inspired by this success prompted further victories: Damascus was taken in 636 and a Byzantine relief force was decisively beaten at the battle of Yarmuk in the same year, confirming the Muslims in possession of Syria. Their enemies discovered that Islam had given the Arabs an almost invincible cohesion and confidence in bat-tle—an attribute later described by the great Arab historian Ibn Khaldun as asabiyah —which roughly translates as ‘group feeling’. In the following year the Muslim armies moved east, against the Sassanid empire.
Persia, like the Byzantine Empire, was weakened by the wars that had raged through the reign of Khosraw II. The Sassanids had repulsed initial moves by Arab raiding parties into Mesopotamia (notably at the battle of the Bridge in 634) but the royal army under King Yazdegerd III was defeated at Qadesiyya (near Hilla in modern Iraq) in 637, after which the Arabs took Ctesiphon and the whole of Mesopotamia. Arab generals persuaded the Caliph to continue the offensive against the Persians rather than allow Yazdegerd to counterattack, and they defeated him a second time at Nahavand near Hamadan in 641. After this Sassanid resistanceeffectively collapsed and Yazdegerd fled east, begging local rulers to help him against the Arabs (he was
‘… when the infant girl, buried alive, is asked for what crime she was slain; when the records of men’s deeds are laid open, and heaven is stripped bare; when Hell burns fiercely and Paradise is brought near: then each soul shall know what it has done’).
Many have judged that the Qoranic ideal and Mohammad’s example were more favourable to women than later Arab and Muslim practice. 4
The decade after the Hijra was marked by continuing hostility and eventually war with the ruling families of Mecca; and by missionary effort toward the tribes of Arabia as a whole. Gradually Mohammad and his followers made headway, and finally in 630 the Meccans accepted Islam and Mohammad’s supremacy. The Ka’ba of Mecca was made the central, holy shrine of Islam. Islam’s victory over the Meccans’ resistance won over most of the remaining Arab tribes. By the time of the Prophet’s death in 632 most of Arabia was unified under the new religion; vigorous, idealistic and determined to spread its dominance more widely. Islam had created a powerful religious, political and military force that was to change the face of the region, and the world.
The Arab Conquest
When Mohammad died the Muslim umma threatened to fall apart as different factions had different ideas about the succession, and some tribes sought to regain their independence. Mohammad’s friend Abu Bakr was elected as the Prophet’s successor and became the first caliph ( Khalifa means successor), promising to follow Mohammad’s example ( sunna ). It was natural that this should include further efforts to spread the message of Islam, as Mohammad had done, both by negotiation, and by armed force, including raiding into hostile territory. Initially this meant consolidation in the southern and eastern parts of the Arabian peninsula, and then expansion northwards, into what is now Iraq and Syria. The dynamic of expansion helped to stabilise the rule of the first four caliphs (known by Sunni Muslims as the Rashidun , the righteous caliphs) but their rule was nonetheless turbulent and three of them died violently.
The crucial point at which raiding turned into more deliberate wars of conquest was the battle of Ajnadayn, near Gaza, in 634, where the Muslim Arabs defeated a Byzantine army sent to restore order in Palestine. The burst of confidence inspired by this success prompted further victories: Damascus was taken in 636 and a Byzantine relief force was decisively beaten at the battle of Yarmuk in the same year, confirming the Muslims in possession of Syria. Their enemies discovered that Islam had given the Arabs an almost invincible cohesion and confidence in bat-tle—an attribute later described by the great Arab historian Ibn Khaldun as asabiyah —which roughly translates as ‘group feeling’. In the following year the Muslim armies moved east, against the Sassanid empire.
Persia, like the Byzantine Empire, was weakened by the wars that had raged through the reign of Khosraw II. The Sassanids had repulsed initial moves by Arab raiding parties into Mesopotamia (notably at the battle of the Bridge in 634) but the royal army under King Yazdegerd III was defeated at Qadesiyya (near Hilla in modern Iraq) in 637, after which the Arabs took Ctesiphon and the whole of Mesopotamia. Arab generals persuaded the Caliph to continue the offensive against the Persians rather than allow Yazdegerd to counterattack, and they defeated him a second time at Nahavand near Hamadan in 641. After this Sassanid resistanceeffectively collapsed and Yazdegerd fled east, begging local rulers to help him against the Arabs (he was
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