Once Upon A Time: When The World Spoke Arabic

Society Religion & Philosophy
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by Yaqoob Bangash

http://www.chowk.com

The history of Islamic society and culture does not begin with the infamous Bait Al-Hikma of Caliph Al-Ma’mun (813-33 AD), but with the inception of the Medinite Islamic society whose foundation was laid by Muhammad himself.

Islam, being a complete code of life mandated a certain way for its ‘momineen’ (believers) to follow which basically rested on the observance of the five pillars of Islam namely, Shahada (declaration of faith), Salat (prayer), Sawm (fasting), Zakat (alms-giving) and Hajj (annual pilgrimage to Mecca)—the life of every Muslim had to revolve around these five tenents.

However, with the gradual spread of the Arabs and the creation of an Empire, allowance had to be made for hitherto disliked practices in Islam—the Arab Muslims had to assimilate the Greek and Persian cultures and traditions in order to maintain and prosper their nascent Empire. This rationale led to the emergence of a distinct Islamic, yet Arab dominated, culture that fused the intellectual, cultural, political and societal framework of the crumbling Byzantine and Sassanian Empires, creating an Islamic ethos that mesmerized the world until the Renaissance.

After the death of Muhammad the issue of succession plagued the small Muslim community of Arabia. Even though Abu Bakar was soon confirmed as Caliph, dissension and revolts continued throughout the Muslim lands. The first civil war in Islam was soon to follow on the occasion of Ali’s rise to the Caliphate, which was challenged by the governor of Syria, Muawiyya. In the following course of events Muawiyya defeat the forces of Ali and after Ali’s assassination proclaimed himself the Caliph. Thus, begins the short but significant rule of the Umayyad Dynasty from Damascus.

The Umayyads, who were from the prophet’s clan, transformed the newly founded kingdom into a highly centralized and Arabized institution where only Arab Muslims enjoyed a privileged status. Till that time all of the official machinery was run on either Sassanian or Byzantine lines, official documents were in Greek and Persian and mostly Zoroastrians and Christians occupied positions in the civil services. However, soon, and beginning with the reign of Caliphs Abd Al-Malik and Al-Walid arrangements were made for the translation of tax registers from Greek and Persian into Arabic.

The changeover was made in 697 in Iraq, in 700 in Syria and Egypt and shortly afterwards in Khurasan. Administration was also reorganized with revenue collections and chancery documents of Byzantine origin in Egypt and Syria and the Sassanian four-fold division of finance, military, correspondence and chancellery evident in Iraq. The Caliphal court was also reorganized and now a court chamberlain kept visitors in order and regulated daily business. Together with this organization came a fundamental change in the office of the Caliph which transformed itself from the ‘first among equals’ version of Umar to an Emperor-Caliph version of Abd Al-Malik, influenced by the Byzantine Emperors and Persian Shahs.

In 697 AD, Arab coinage was also introduced replacing the earlier, but still used Byzantine and Persian coins. Thus, by the beginning of the eight century a firm foundation for what Lewis calls an ‘Arab Monarchy’ was established with the Caliph at its helm. Umayyad rule was, to an extent, sort of an anomaly in Islamic civilization. Its princes indulged in such activities that were not only disliked but condemned in Islam. Primary among these was the Islamic ban on images (tasveer) of either humans or animals (although Bloom and Blair argue otherwise ).

The Umayyads were clever in making a distinction between their private and public lives. Where in the public realm the only form of permissible art were floral and geometric designs and Quranic calligraphy, as exemplified in the Dome of the Rock, their private palaces and estates illustrated a deep love for Greek art and sculpture. The ruins of Khirbat al-Mafjar, which was probably built by the libertine prince al-Walid II (743-4) give witness to his patronage of wine, dancing, poetry and sculpting. Further, as the Umayyads had gained control of the kingdom mainly by force they, in order to enlist popular support, used orators mainly as story tellers, to entertain and keep a check on the populace. This led to the revival of the ostracized pre-Islamic style of poetry which celebrated desert life, wine, and sexuality.

Intellectual life also picked up under the Umayyads, with Arabic becoming the official language. Beginning with Muawiyya, eminent Christian scholars like Ibn Athal, Stephen and Marians were appointed to translate Greek books on medicine, astronomy and chemistry into Arabic. Other like Ibn Abjar and Hisham ibn Abdul Malik translated Persian literature into Arabic. Hence, it is a mistake to only trace the roots of intellectual life to the Abbasid period for its foundations were already being laid by the Umayyads, and which came to bloom only later. However, the Umayyads were of short stay and soon revolts ravaged the kingdom. Lapidus attributes this break-up and revolts to the primary use of Syrian resources to maintain the empire. He argues that successive battles with the Byzantines and the spread of the kingdom had over-stretched the Syrian army and administration and so when revolt came in the 740’s it met with little resistance. Also, as there was a huge discrepancy between the treatment of Arab Muslims and other converted Muslims (Mawalis), there was much civil unrest in a kingdom with considerable non-Arab and non-Muslim populations.

The discriminatory policies of Umar II towards Dhimmis (protected people), severe financial crisis, and a general resentment towards the flamboyant Caliphate led to the eventual fall of the dynasty at the hands of the Abbasids. The Abbasids, who had as their power base the Persian dominated province of Khurassan, were greatly assisted by the revolutionary Shiite party of Hashemiyya, who believed that the Abbasids would restore the Caliphate to Ali’s successors. The Abbasids also, on a wave of religious fervour, convinced many Arabs and Mawalis that they were going to bring the true just and Islamic rule, enlisting their support for the over throw of the Umayyads. Thus, riding high on Messianic and eschatological prophecies, supported by disgruntled Mawalis, Arabs tribes and Dhimmis, the Abbasids led by Abu Muslim raised their black banner of revolt in 745 AD from Khurasan. Then as Lewis puts it “the rest of the story is soon told. Once established in the east, the armies of Abu Muslim swept rapidly westwards and the last forces of the Umayyads were defeated in the battle of the great Zab. The Umayyad House and the Arab kingdom had gone. In their place the Abbasid Abu Abbas….was proclaimed as Caliph, with the title Al-Safah.”

The Abbasid Caliphate differed from the Umayyads in two distinct manners. Firstly, noble birth and tribal prestige lost their value and the Arab tribes that had dominated the Umayyad political scene withdrew into insignificance. Under the new order success and power depended on the Caliph who increasingly favoured men of humble and even foreign origin. Secondly, the Abbasids had a deep eastward orientation. They increasingly employed Persians and former Turkish slaves in the administration so much so that soon the former Persian aristocratic Barmakid family became a strong administrative force in the Caliphate, through the new Persian-inspired office of Wazir. This aspect gained further currency when the seat of government was transferred from Arab Damascus to Persian Baghdad by Al-Mansur in 756 AD.

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It is possibly this event that triggered the “Golden Age” of the Islamic civilization which was to last until the mid 1200’s when Baghdad would be destroyed by the invading Mongols. Its sheer size of 25 square miles and a population of between 300,000 and 500,000 is an index of its importance in the formation of the Abbasid Empire, society and culture. As the capital, Baghdad became a hub for commercial activity, industry and trade. Persians, Iraqis, Arabs, Syrians, and central Asians flocked to it, for work, trade and education. In the words of Lapidus, “Baghdad, then, was a product of the upheavals, population movements, economic changes, and conversions of the preceding century; the home of a new Middle Eastern society, heterogeneous and cosmopolitan, embracing numerous Arab and non-Arab elements, now integrated into a single society under the auspices of the Arab Empire and the Islamic religion. It provided the wealth and man power to govern a vast empire; it crystallized the culture that became Islamic civilization.”

In the Umayyad and early Abbasid periods two focal points of Islamic religious and cultural identity developed. On the one hand, Islam reflected the political identity of the court, the Caliphate and political elites; on the other hand, it expressed the religious, social and moral values of the urban Muslim populations. The court environment nurtured art, architecture, philosophy, science and Iranian and Hellenistic forms of literature in Arabic while the city milieu contributed to Quranic interpretation, mysticism and theology. Already the norm with the Umayyad Caliphs, art as a narcissistic affirmation of royalty, became the rule during the Abbasid rule. Court ceremony, protocol, decorations, physical separation from the common man, and decorations depicting the majesty of the ruler as semi-divine appointee of God, greatly enhanced and strengthened the office of the Caliph. This concept was further legitimised in non-Islamic Persian, Hellenistic, and other Middle Eastern terms. Court poets, elaborate paintings of Caliphs, and grand palaces—all reshaped the simple Bedouin Caliphate of Umar’s reign into a powerful hereditary Kingship of a great Empire.

The Abbasids also reaffirmed the religious basis of their rise to power. However, once firmly in power they were quick to get rid of their most extreme elements in the form of Abu Muslim whom they executed. Unlike their predecessors, they not only took on religious titles such as Al-Mahdi, Al-Mansur, Al-Hadi etc., but they also took active part in doctrinal matters as the Vice-regents of God on earth. Beginning in the reign of Al-Mahdi and the persecution of the Zanadiqa, the Caliphs made themselves responsible for the defence of Orthodoxy, much on the lines of the Byzantine Emperors and Sasanian Shahs. In the words of a later Arab historian “This dynasty ruled the world with a policy of mingled religion and kingship. The best and the most religious of men obeyed them out of religion and the remainder obeyed them out of fear.” Lewis also comments that “In place of Arabism, Islam had become the badge of identity of a new ruling elite of government officials, soldiers, landowners, merchants, and an increasingly professional class of men of religion.”

Perhaps the most important event that shaped the culture and society of Islamic civilization was the establishment of the Bait al-Hikmah by Al--Ma’mun in 832 AD. This complex included a vast public library, astronomical observatory, and bureau of translation. Here, Greek works (including Plato and Aristotle) were translated into Arabic, a world atlas was compiled and the sciences flourished.

Among the other works translated into Arabic were the medical texts of Galen and Hippocrates, Euclids Geometry, and Ptolemys astronomical writings. Original research in medicine was also conducted here. The Christian physician, Yuhanna, dissected apes. His student, Hunayn, produced a two volume work on the human eye. Al-Razi built a hospital and wrote books on smallpox, measles, and (his magnum opus), a medical encyclopaedia cataloguing Greek, Hindu, and Persian medical research. Also, under its patronage Ibn Sina (Avicenna) codified Greek and Arabic medical knowledge into a volume which became the standard medical textbook in Europe as well as the Arab world for five hundred years. The first pharmacies in the world date from this period. During this time, Baghdad boasted more than eight hundred registered pharmacists.

In the field of astronomy, the length of the solar year was accurately calculated five hundred years before the west was to publicly accept the notion that the earth is round. Arab astronomers also calculated the length of a terrestrial degree at 56 2/3 miles, within one half mile of the correct value. The moon`s effects on tides were also studied. In mathematics, al-Kwarizmi introduced and explained algebra. The geographer, Yakut, compiled an encyclopaedia of geographical knowledge. Arab navigators brought the compass from China and perfected the astrolabe, a kind of sextant. New foods, such as apricots, rice, and sugar reached Europe via Muslim traders. Further, in 751 AD, the technique for making paper arrived from China and was soon employed in all of Muslim academia and Caliphal offices. Thus, not only was the old information of the Greeks, Romans, Persians, and Hindus translated into Arabic and preserved for coming generations but great strides in the physical as well as medical sciences were made—all under the patronage of the Abbasid Caliphates, even in the face of occasional religious objections.

“Almost inseparable from Islam as a religion was the development of an Arab Literature covering linguistic, poetic, and historical subjects,” writes Lapidus. Arabic literature was cultivated both in court and the public. As urbanization brought more and more people speaking Arabic, creating rapid changes in vocabulary, grammar, style and syntax, religious scholars began to fear the loss of the original Quranic Arabic. Hence, in eighth century Basra, studies were undertaken to create a classical form of Arabic with specified word roots and proper rules for grammar and syntax. This standardisation of Arabic also brought with it an elaboration of a general Arab culture, with scholars collecting traditional Arab poetry, tales, and folklore. This not only preserved Arab culture but also gave an incentive to newer poets and scholars to compose and write in Arabic.

Also, the continual competition from highly developed pre-Islamic Persian literature fostered a great need for the existence of a purely Arab-Islamic literary tradition which later demonstrated itself in people like Al-Jahiz and Ibn Qutayba. The influence of Greek and Persian thought, especially in matters of theology and philosophy later gave rise to personalities like al-Farabi, Al-Ghazzali, and al-Kindi, who pondered over the condition of the human, truth, and reason. The great collection of stories, Alif Laila , is also a creation of this period. Set in the town of Samarqand, its tales are full of adventure and freedom. Its usually young and wise heroes and powerful women characters contradict the prevailing traditional notions and allow room for daring expeditions, which probably due to their Indian and Persian origins are full of eroticism.

Dress and Architecture also developed greatly under the Abbasids. From the simple covering of Bedouin Arabs developed the intricate styles of the jubba, rida, sirwal, imama, qalansuwa, among others, for the ruling elite. These garments, a synthesis of Arab, Irano-Turkic and Hellenistic Mediterranean attire became more and more elaborate, ornate and royal with the passage of the Caliphate from Umayyad to Abbasid hands. Stillman notes that “thousands of garments are listed among the annual treasury receipts under Haroon Al-Rashid” and “with the rise of the bourgeoisie during the Abbasid period and the dissemination of the polite and urbane educational ideal of adab by the Persian secretarial class, many new garments and fabrics came into general use, and the cultured people became ever more fashion-minded and concerned about their appearance.” A distinct form of Islamic architecture also evolved from a mixture of Byzantine domes and Persian halls. The courtyard plan of the Prophet’s house still provided the bench mark for the erection of Mosques such as the Al-Azhar and Al-Aqsa, but royal palaces and estates, especially the circular plan of Baghdad, with spacious quarters and extensive water works gave Islam its distinctive architectural fashion.

The world into which Islam burst in the seventh and eight centuries was predominantly Christian in the West and Zoroastrian in the East, with small pockets of Jewish communities scattered throughout the region. The Jews, especially those in Byzantine lands, by and large welcomed the new conquerors expecting them to be better than their previous Byzantine rulers and thus, in numerous instances even collaborated with the invading Arab armies.

For the Christians of the Byzantine Empire it was a different story. The Monophysite provinces of Syria and Egypt which were being persecuted and forced to conform to the Greek Orthodox Church breathed a sigh of relief when the Arabs conquered their territories and freed them from the Byzantine yolk. However, for the Palestinian Christians who were, for the most part, Chalcedonian the Muslim conquest was a nightmare, for it turned their status from the ruling class to an inferior, yet tolerated class. As for the Christians, mostly Nestorian, and Jews in the Sasanian Empire they, though not entirely alienated from the state, had suffered brief persecutions and were probably tired of the political and economic instability that marred the late Sasanian period.

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The Muslims, when they conquered this vast non-Muslim Empire, had to immediately deal with the status and rights of the majority of their populace, which was non-Muslim. They had something to build upon as the Jews of Khayber and the Jews and Christians of Yemen already paid a poll tax to the Muslims since the time of the prophet. But this new unique situation had forced them to make a quick succession of often loosely applied and understood rules. The most famous among these rules for non-Muslims or Dhimmis (protected people of the Book—Jews, Christians and occasionally Zoroastrians) were laid out in the “Pact of Umar”, reportedly from the seventh century and written down by the second Caliph Umar ibn Khattab. Although the historic validity of this document is questionable, it does exhibit the concerns and problems the Muslim rulers had to face while dealing with the non-Muslim populations.

The ‘Pact’ and many of its later versions stipulated a complete separation of the Muslim and non-Muslim subjects. It said that in return for the safeguarding of life and property and the right to worship unmolested according to their conscience, the Dhimmis, had to pay the Jizya and Kharaj. They had to conduct themselves with the demeanour and comportment befitting a subject population. They were never to strike a Muslim nor ride on horses with saddles nor carry arms. They were not to build new houses of worship nor repair old ones. They were also forbidden from holding public processions and proselytizing. Later, they were also forbidden to dress like Arabs, giving rise to special Dhimmi attire.

Although some form or the other of these laws did exist throughout the Islamic era their application and enforcement was always at the whim of the Caliph. For example, during the Caliphate of Muawiyya and al-Mamun Christians, Zoroastrians and Jews rose to high positions in the civil service and were at times better placed than their Muslim counter-parts. While during other times such as the Caliphate of Umar II and Al-Mutawakil even their employment in the civil services was banned and they were forced to wear distinctive clothing and made to do public, often humiliating, acts of submission.

The Jews in Muslim lands fared considerably better than the Christians and Zoroastrians. By the middle of the third Islamic century they had transformed themselves from an agrarian society of the Talmud to a cosmopolitan community in shaping what S. D. Goitien has designated “the bourgeois revolution.” Religiously, Muslim intervention in the election and appointment of the Exilarch and Gaons remained minimal, with the Exilarch commanding great regard and deference at the Caliphal court and the common man. As attested to in Benjamin of Tudela’s description of Baghdadi Jewry , the “Exilarach of all Israel” had complete control over the affairs of the Jewish population in Muslim lands and went with great pomp and ceremony to meet the Caliph, who ceremoniously had the right to appoint him.

Nevertheless, as Stillman remarks “Dhimmis were to be permanent outsiders with no real part in the Muslim Arab civitas Dei.” This is further attested by the almost disappearance of Zoroastrianism in the first couple of Islamic centuries; the faith that had deep roots in the Sasanian Empire soon broke down with the fall of the Empire that supported it and could not withstand the occasional wrath of the Muslim Caliphs. On the Christian front, most of the Chalcedonian Christians thought it better to leave for the Byzantine Empire for they were not only a ruled class but sympathizers of the Muslim enemy. The Monophysites and the Nestorians who had already learnt how to survive amidst harsh conditions simply adjusted to the new Muslim rule and survived.

However, this designation of second-class citizenship and social, political and economic apartheid did induce many Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians to convert to Islam and take part in the emerging Islamic civilization. It must also be accepted that with gradual Arabization and the adoption of the Arabic language and customs some Dhimmis, most frequently in Umayyad Andalusia, became part of an intellectual elite which was tolerated and respected. Nonetheless, as Smith comments “as assimilated as he or she might be, the Dhimmi always remained and infidel in the eyes of the Muslim.” Hence, in almost every case the Dhimmis always remained outside the ambit of Islamic society and culture and never fully became a part of it.

Islamic culture and society, as every other civilization, is still developing and changing with the currents to time. The communal and egalitarian society of the early part of the seventh century which, by the beginning of the eight century, had become the base of a centralised Arab monarchy in the next hundred years transformed into a flourishing Muslim Empire. The transfer of power from Umayyad to Abbasid rule was as significant as the inception of the Umayyad dynasty after the first Islamic civil war. Both events turned the tide of Islamic culture; the former to a more Arab centred tribal-like nature and the latter to a more Islamic and Imperial nature. Surely, non-Muslims were employed and made use of whenever the opportunity arose, especially during the Umayyad Caliphate, but no unified culture took shape in which the non-Muslim communities took equal part—they remained separate.

The culture that took shape during the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates was one that was continually trying to understand and appreciate its Arab and Islamic character where the only precedents available were either Christian Byzantine or Zoroastrian Sasanian. Further, in the Abbasid Caliphate the relationship between religion and state became a strong bone of contention and disagreement—a factor that still plagues the Islamic world. The Islamic world of today is a sad representation of the once great Abbasid civilization that prided itself for excellence in science, mathematics, medicine, and intellectual life. The syncretism of Middle Eastern cultures that came to the fore in the Abbasid rule and which inspired the European Renaissance has sadly now descended into a deep “Dark Age”, where social strife, economic instability, religious confusion and a lack of leadership have erased every trace of its “Golden Age”. This survey of Islamic culture has, in a significant manner, helped my understanding of the rise and the fall of great civilizations and made me realise that a golden age is just “once upon a time” in history.

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informative :k:

many clues in there for people who wish to understand how the religion got adulterated with other beliefs (notably Zoroastrian) of that time.