(2001
James O. Richards All Rights Reserved.)
Islam and Europe
Outline of Lecture
I. Introduction
II. The Rise of Islam: Mohammed (570-632)
III. The Rise of Islam: the Qur'an (Koran)
IV. Expansion of Islam (632-1453)
V. Islamic Civilization
VI. Islam and Europe
Introduction
Islam posed the most serious threat to Europe of all its enemies from the
eighth to the tenth centuries. The Vikings and Magyars did a lot of damage as
they ravaged the lands of the West in the ninth and tenth centuries, but they
were both eventually integrated into the political, social, and cultural fabric
and accepted Latin or Roman Christianity. The Moslem invaders came to conquer
and convert, not assimilate. They followed the teachings of a desert prophet
Mohammed who inspired them with a vision that Allah desired the conquest and
conversion of all non-believers. After the Moslem invasion of the West was
turned back in 732 at Tours, Islam continued to expand elsewhere and to pose a
threat to Europe for centuries, particularly in what is today southeastern
Europe. But the empire Islam created also developed a rich civilization which
in peaceful periods provided a link to the classical past through which
knowledge, techniques and skills would flow to Europe.
The Rise of Islam: Mohammed (570-632)
Islam began as the personal faith of Mohammed. The setting for his life and the development of his faith was the fierce tribalism and disunity of Arabia. Bedouin nomads inhabited most of Arabia, recognizing no loyalty except the tribe or the family. Life was hard and simple, governed by the law of revenge. One of the main occupations was caravan raiding. Mecca the city of his birth was a central place where caravan routes crossed, business was conducted and even warring tribesmen suspended their feuds to worship at the Kaaba, a site housing the numerous tribal deities. Mohammed ("Highly Praised") by all accounts lived an uneventful life until about the age of 40. Like most men of his tribe, he probably never learned to read or write (scholars continue to debate that). An orphan, he was reared by an uncle and took part in the family business of caravan trading. He married a rich widow whose caravans he managed, and became a prosperous trader himself. As he approached the age of 40, he became more absorbed in religion. In 610 during the traditional holy month he withdrew to Mount Hira near Mecca to spend days and nights fasting and praying. There, alone in a cave, he had a vision of the archangel Gabriel who revealed to him the first of many teachings or Surahs. Reporting it later Mohammed said,
...the angel Gabriel appeared to me and said, 'Read' I said 'I do not read.'...So I read aloud, and he departed from me at last. And I awoke from my sleep, and it was as though these words were written on my heart. I went forth until, when I was midway on the mountain, I heard a voice from heaven saying, 'O Mohammed! Thou art the messenger of Allah, and I am Gabriel.' I raised my head toward heaven to see, and lo, Gabriel in the form of a man, with feet set evenly on the rim of the sky, saying, 'O Mohammed! Thou art the messenger of Allah, and I am Gabriel.'(1)
?
1. Is there a psychological or psycho-somatic explanation for dramatic
mid-life religious experiences? It has been suggested about Paul's
Damascus Road experience and Mohammed's vision of Gabriel as well. Can it
be explained that way?
2. What is the spiritual effect of extended fasting and praying? The physical effect?
Other visions followed later, each a Surah of the Qur'an or Koran. Mohammed said the entire Koran existed in heaven and was revealed to him by the Archangel who made him repeat each vision until he got it right.
After 610 Mohammed pressed his beliefs upon visitors to the Kaaba with increasing vehemence. The heart of his teaching was the unity of God, Allah, his own unique role as the Prophet of Allah, the imminence of the Last Judgment, and the duties of charity and pity. At the same time he denounced those who rejected his beliefs as idolaters. Finally, fearing assassination, he left Mecca for Medina in 624, the Hegira, or Flight (which marks year one of the Moslem calendar). Mohammed remained in Medina for six years, proclaiming more visions which further defined the faith and its way of life. He and his followers supported themselves by caravan raiding and increased their numbers by military campaigns against their neighbors. Finally in 630 Mohammed returned to Mecca at the head of an army, forcibly converting everyone who still worshipped the ancestral deities, destroying the idols in the Kaaba except for the Black Stone, and declaring Mecca off limits to non-believers. By the end of his life he had stamped the new faith indelibly and had set his followers on the path of foreign conquest. He was buried in the Medina mosque he had built during his sojourn there (the green dome is above his tomb).
?
1. Mohammed is everything in Islam that Jesus, the apostles, the writers
of the New Testament, and church tradition are in Christianity. In
Christianity Jesus left no writings, prescribed no worship service, left no
detailed rules for living. But Mohammed did
it all. He transmitted the Koran, specified the order of worship,
interpreted ethics and rules for living. Your reaction
to this?
2. Mohammed began the conquest of lands and forced conversion of infidels
(Jews and Christians were left unmolested so long as they paid tribute in lieu
of conversion). How has this affected Islam?
The Rise of Islam: the Qur'an (Koran)
Qur'an (Koran) means reading or discourse. It was not written by Mohammed but proclaimed in sermons over a period of some 23 years and memorized by his early followers. Portions were eventually written and preserved without any particular order. After Mohammed's death, a commission collected and arranged the whole which has been preserved substantially unchanged since 651. The 114 Surahs or chapters are arranged in order of decreasing length so that the earliest, and shortest, revelations are last and the latest, and longest, are first.
Central to Islam and to the Koran is the unswerving conviction about the
unity and singleness of Allah:
Allah. There is no god but He, the Living, the Self-subsisting, Eternal. No slumber can seize Him nor sleep. His are all things in the heavens and on earth. Who is there can intercede in His presence except as He permitteth? He knoweth what (appeareth to His creatures as) before or after or behind them. Nor shall they compass aught of His knowledge except as He willeth. His Throne doth extend over the heavens and the earth, and He feeleth no fatigue in guarding and preserving them for He is the Most High, the Supreme (in glory). (Surah 2, 255)
Like
the Old and New Testaments, the Koran is pervaded by the certainty that divine
providence is moving the universe toward a final, moral and just end. This end
is predestined as is the fate of every individual. To cite only two passages:
(Allah)
will admit to His Mercy whom He will; But the wrong-doers, for them has He
prepared a grievous Penalty. (Surah 76, 31)
(Allah) leaves to stray whom He wills, and guides whom He wills. So let not thy soul go out in (vainly) sighing after them: for Allah knows well all that they do! (Surah, 35, 8)
?
1. Do you see anything in the description above of Allah with which you
disagree?
2. Did Mohammed get it right: Allah knows all and what He knows will come
to pass? Divine Providence, or predestination?
Punishment of the wicked and reward for the faithful are certain. As the picture of punishment is vivid, so also is the picture of heaven. The evil will suffer punishments suitable to their sins on the seven levels of hell to which Allah will consign them. The New Testament pales in its imagery of hell compared to the Koran. Punishments for sinners were so exquisitely designed that any other scheme seems unthinkable. For instance,
Those who reject our Signs, We shall soon cast into the Fire: as often as their skins are roasted through, We shall change them for fresh skins, that they may taste the penalty: for Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise. (Surah 4, 56)
Even
those who suffer the least punishments still wear shoes of fire and drink
boiling water and excrement. (Those who have read Dante's Inferno will
naturally wonder whether he was thinking of the Koran when he wrote about
Hell). But the righteous--the good believers, those who die in battle for the
faith, and the poor--will take their ease in a garden paradise. In three
different Surahs, lest the faithful forget, the Koran
speaks vividly of the delights awaiting the faithful:
(Here is) a Parable of the Garden which the righteous are promised: in it are rivers of water incorruptible; rivers of milk of which the taste never changes; rivers of wine, a joy to those who drink; and rivers of honey pure and clear. In it there are for them all kinds of fruits; and Grace from their Lord. (Can those in such Bliss) be compared to such as shall dwell for ever in the Fire, and be given, to drink, boiling water, so that it cuts up their bowels (to pieces)? (Surah 47, 15)
And because they were patient and constant, He will reward them with a Garden and (garments of) silk.
Reclining in the (Garden) on raised thrones, they will see there neither the sun's (excessive heat) nor (the moon's) excessive cold.
And the shades of the (Garden) will come low over them, and the bunches (of fruit), there, will hang low in humility.
And amongst them will be passed round vessels of silver and goblets of crystal,-
Crystal-clear, made of silver: they will determine the measure thereof (according to their wishes).
And they will be given to drink there of a Cup (of Wine) mixed with Zanjabil,-
A fountain there, called Salsabil.
And round about them will (serve) youths of perpetual (freshness): If thou seest them, thou wouldst think them scattered Pearls.
And when thou lookest, it is there thou wilt see a Bliss and a Realm Magnificent.
Upon them will be green Garments of fine silk and heavy brocade, and they will be adorned with Bracelets of silver; and their Lord will give to them to drink of a Wine Pure and Holy.
Verily this is a Reward for you, and your Endeavour is accepted and recognised. (Surah 76, 12-22)
And those Foremost (in Faith) will be Foremost (in the Hereafter).
These will be those Nearest to Allah.
In Gardens of Bliss:
A number of people from those of old,
And a few from those of later times.
(They will be) on Thrones encrusted (with gold and precious stones),
Reclining on them, facing each other.
Round about them will (serve) youths of perpetual (freshness),
With goblets, (shining) beakers, and cups (filled) out of clear-flowing fountains:
No after-ache will they receive therefrom, nor will they suffer intoxication:
And with fruits, any that they may select:
And the flesh of fowls, any that they may desire.
And (there will be) Companions with beautiful, big, and lustrous eyes,-
Like unto Pearls well-guarded.
A Reward for the deeds of their past (life).
Not frivolity will they hear therein, nor any taint of ill,
Only the saying, "Peace! Peace". (Surah 56, 10-26)
?
1. With Mohammed you get very vivid images of both punishment and
rewards. Where did he get those insights? And the
ability to convey them so vividly? Allah?
2. Is there evidence for the charge that Mohammed presents a
male-centered, patriarchal vision of heaven? What pleasures await women,
if every male is going to have at his disposal seventy virgins as his reward
for a faithful life?
Provision was also made for those who wished only to gaze on the face of Allah or recite the Koran.
And what about women in the Koran and Islam?
Actually, Mohammed liberated women from the prevailing tribal custom, decreeing
that they should not be treated as property. Mohammed gave them equal standing
before the law and in financial affairs. They might pursue any legal
profession, keep what they earned, inherit property, and give away any of their
own belongings. Women had more rights and security of property under Islam than
they had in Arab tribal society. They were to be treated with respect. While
Mohammed permitted male believers to have as many as four wives, if they could
support them adequately, he prohibited their divorcing a wife privately. But
when all was said and done, Mohammed still seemed to think men had the last
say. What was the ideal relationship between the sexes?:
Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allah has given the one more (strength) than the other, and because they support them from their means. Therefore the righteous women are devoutly obedient, and guard in (the husband's) absence what Allah would have them guard. As to those women on whose part ye fear disloyalty and ill-conduct, admonish them (first), (Next), refuse to share their beds, (And last) beat them (lightly); but if they return to obedience, seek not against them Means (of annoyance): For Allah is Most High, great (above you all). (Surah 4, 34)
?
Feminism and Islam are incompatible. Agree or disagree? See the following
link for a site which
explores Islam's attitude towards women.
Finally, the Koran lays down the basic requirements of the faith, the
"Five Pillars" of Islam. Surah 2, 177
summed these up:
It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces Towards east or West; but it is righteousness to believe in Allah and the Last Day, and the Angels, and the Book, and the Messengers; to spend of your substance, out of love for Him, for your kin, for orphans, for the needy, for the wayfarer, for those who ask, and for the ransom of slaves; to be steadfast in prayer, and practice regular charity; to fulfill the contracts which ye have made; and to be firm and patient, in pain (or suffering) and adversity, and throughout all periods of panic. Such are the people of truth, the Allah-fearing.
The Five Pillars are:
(1) Submission to the will of Allah and acceptance of Mohammed as the last and final Prophet (to whom his followers also submitted). Islam means "submission" and Moslems are those who have submitted. The devout Moslem will give his life for the faith, which has made Islam perhaps the most militant of all world religions. Mohammed said, "Lo, Allah loveth those who battle for His cause....I swear by Allah...that marching about, morning and evening, to fight for religion is better than the world and everything in it; and verily the standing of one of you in the line of battle is better than supererogatory prayers performed in your house for sixty years."(2)
(2) Praying five times daily, facing Mecca. At dawn, at midday, in late afternoon, at sunset, and bedtime, the devout Moslem is summoned to prayer by the muezzin in the same prescribed form:
Allahu Akbar (God is most great)! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! I bear witness that there is no God but Allah. I bear witness that there is no God but Allah. I bear witness that there is no God but Allah. I bear witness that Mohammed is the Apostle of Allah. I bear witness that Mohammed is the Apostle of Allah. I bear witness that Mohammed is the Apostle of Allah. Come to prayer! Come to prayer! Come to prayer! Come to success! Come to success! Come to success! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! There is no God but Allah!
Prayer
is made while the supplicant bows the forehead to the ground three times,
symbolizing submission. If possible, the Moslem prays in the mosque (the word
meaning "place of prostration in prayer"), facing Mecca by turning to
the mihrab or prayer niche in the wall
pointing the correct direction. If a mosque is not available, the Moslem lays
down the prayer rug and faces toward Mecca while prostrating three times and
praying.
(3) Giving alms or charity to the poor. Not only was charity enjoined on the Moslem, but also dealing justly and mercifully with one's fellow man.
(4) Fasting during the daylight hours of the holy month of Ramadan. The devout Moslem not only fasts, but avoids certain foods, alcohol and gambling.
(5) Making a pilgrimage (Hajj) at least once to Mecca. Mecca is the Holy City of Islam, off limits to all but the faithful. The pilgrimage taken by Moslems usually includes praying in the Mosque of Mecca or the courtyard and walking around the Kaaba located in the courtyard seven times, trying to get close enough to kiss the Black Stone itself embedded in the outer wall.
?
Is it easier to be a Moslem, a Jew or a Christian? Your
reasons for your answer?
The teachings of Mohammed were simplicity itself compared to those of Christianity and Judaism from which Mohammed had borrowed stories and concepts. In its directness Islam appealed to the desert nomads to whom Mohammed preached, but also to those of later centuries and different nationalities. Mohammed was wholly human which meant that the faith was not divided over questions of the divinity of its founder. Allah was all; submission to him and obedience to the simple rules of the faith, the five pillars, rules without any subtleties or uncertainties, meant salvation. It was a simple easy process which did not require any soul-searching or emotional transformation. This simplicity and directness promoted the rapid expansion of the faith. But Islam was also an inflexible faith, prevented from much development by the rigidity of the Koran and the finality of the revelations it purported to give. Compared to most parts of the Bible, it lacks in spiritual insight and aesthetics. The monotonous assertions of Allah's mercy toward the righteous and punishment of the wicked in eternal fire are not relieved by soaring imagery such as that of the Old Testament prophets or by the yearning and intimacy of prayers such as the Psalms, or even by the simple beauty of such utterances as the Sermon on the Mount.
?
1. Do you agree with the judgment above that Islam is an inflexible
faith? Is inflexibility bad?
2. After reading excerpts from the Koran above, do you think the
work deficient compared to the New or Old Testaments? Why?
Expansion of Islam, 632 - 1453
At Mohammed's death in 632, Islam had already begun its expansion throughout
Arabia. Under successor leaders known as caliphs (commanders), Arab armies
poured out of Arabia and took Syria (634-641), Persia (635-641), Egypt
(639-644), North Africa (643-711), and Spain (711-715). At the height of
expansion armies reached the border of China, northwest India, and southern
France. By then the Arab leadership of Islam was giving way to that of other
peoples. The political capital of the empire was moved first to Damascus, then
to Baghdad. In 732 at Tours,
the Franks stopped the westernmost penetration. Eastern expansion ceased at
about the same time, and the unified empire after 750 began to disintegrate. In
the 11th century Seljuk Turks took the leadership and achieved
dominance of much of the former empire. In the 14th century Ottoman Turks
rose to the same dominance and eventually seized the last center of the
Byzantine Empire, Constantinople in 1453.
Islamic Civilization
Islam achieved a high level of civilization while ruling a vast empire and uniting diverse nationalities in a common faith. By the mid-9th century Baghdad, the capital, was a city of a million inhabitants, far surpassing any city in western Europe at the time. The government complex or citadel, the home of the caliph and the government quarters was 2 miles in diameter. Baghdad and other cities became centers of far-flung commercial activities which drew from all parts of the empire. From all parts came metals for skilled metal-workers: silver from India, iron from Sicily, and gold from the Sudan. Textile manufacturing flourished, as did paper making, a skill which came from the Chinese. Carrying these goods traders moved all across the empire from China to Spain. This commerce supported a rich life for the governing elite (by this time there was a rich Moslem elite despite Mohammed's command to give alms), illustrated by the Thousand and One Nights composed during the caliphate of Harun al Rashid (786-809). A diverse group of intellectuals and artists--poets, musicians, dancers, singers, and scholars-- inhabits the pages of these stories.
The Islamic empire was noted for its toleration of Jews and Christians. Mohammed had called them the "People of the Book" and forbade their forcible conversion. For the payment of taxes they were free to worship freely, as other non-Moslems were not, and to participate fully in Islamic civilization.
?
Should the "People of the Book" be able to get along better than they
do?
Islamic civilization was also noted for its learning and science.
This consisted primarily in conserving and passing on, not creating new
knowledge. Baghdad boasted a "House
of Wisdom", or research institute, as did Toledo in Spain. There
scholars translated and studied Greek as well as Persian and Indian works. They
also elevated Arabic to a new level as a language, the language of the Koran
which was studied because it was the medium through which the revelation of
Mohammed was communicated in oral and written form. In its new status, Arabic
became the other bond besides faith holding the Moslem world together. (Devout
Moslems still believe that one must read the Koran in its original language).
The House of Wisdom was also a library, observatory, and academy. Astronomical
observations were preserved and later passed on to European astronomers. A new
numerical system, adopted from India, but known as the Arabic system, was
popularized and eventually also passed to European hands. In Baghdad as well
were the first apothecary shops, the first school of pharmacy and numerous hospitals.
(Moslems who first encountered European medicine during the Crusades in the 11th
and 12th centuries were astonished at the ignorance and superstition
of European physicians. See the remarks by Usmah Ibn Munqidh in the following link.) Avicenna
(980-1037) produced philosophical and scientific texts which passed into
European hands and were used into the 17th century. In fact, many
Greek works, otherwise unknown to European scholars, were preserved by Moslem
scholars and passed into European hands.
Islam and Europe
Because Mohammed conveyed his visions as the final revelation of Allah and his will for man, Islam as a set of beliefs, values, and ideals never achieved the searching, questioning, dynamic development of Judaism or Christianity which contributed the same qualities to Europe as a culture. Further development was impossible. All that was called for was total obedience to the absolute sovereignty of Allah (and to his Prophet, Mohammed). Man's worth and dignity, for example, paled before the absolute grandeur of Allah. The wonderful passage of Psalms 8:5 "What is man that thou art mindful of him?...Yet thou hast made him little less than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor" has no echo in the Koran. Again, Mohammed never defined any principles for governing except those appropriate to a tribal society. Thus, Islam nurtured no political theory by which the state could be legitimized and made to work for the common social good. The caliphs and later Moslem leaders ruled by force. And Moslem thinkers and theologians counseled obedience to anyone strong enough to seize power and hold it--until a stronger figure emerged.
Such ideas suggest another tendency in Islam which prevented searching and questioning--the attitude of fatalistic passivity based on the omnipotence of Allah. Moslem thinking about the world, for example, had to overcome the Koran's stipulation that the universe is governed by an unfathomable divine power and is, therefore, incomprehensible to man's mind. Thus, Moslem scientists and philosophers had to ignore the tenets of the faith and be careful that their work did not openly contradict the teachings of Mohammed. (Mohammed in one of his sayings (hadith) warned: "Avoid novelties, for every novelty is an innovation, and every innovation is an error".) Perhaps for this reason, Moslem science and learning was essentially conservative rather than innovative.
Finally, the Islamic view of Allah's sovereignty and his control of the future never led to the revolutionary, transforming effect in Islam that its counterpart belief did in Christianity, and then in Europe as the Idea of Progress. This was undoubtedly due to the inflexibility of Islam and its perception that change could not be accommodated to the injunctions of the Koran.
?
Do you agree or disagree with the statements in the last section of this
lecture? Why?
?Keith Windschuttle
recently wrote: "The ability to stand outside your own political system,
your own culture, and your religion, to criticize your own society and to
pursue the truth, is something we today take so much for granted that it is
almost part of the air we breathe. Without it, our idea of freedom of expression
would not exist. We should recognize, however, that this is a distinctly
Western phenomenon, that is, it is part of the cultural heritage of those countries—in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia—that evolved out of Ancient Greece, Rome,
and Christianity. This idea was never produced by either Confucian or Hindu
culture. Under Islam it had a brief life in the fourteenth century but was
never heard of again." (Keith Windschuttle, “The
journalism of warfare,” (The New
Criterion Vol. 23, No. 10, June 2005.) Do you agree or disagree with this
statement?
?
Look at the link to The
Trouble with Islam and think about it.
1. R.A. Nicholson, Translations of Eastern Poetry and Prose (Cambridge University Press, 1922), pp. 38-40. Citing the biography by Muhammad ibn Ishaq.
2. S. Lane-Poole, Table Talk of the Prophet Mohammed (London, 1882), p. 159.
