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A brief history of early IslamThere are several Muslim versions of early Islamic history, as written by the Sunni, Shi’a, and Ibadi sects. 19th century Western scholars tended to privilege the Sunni versions; the Sunni are the largest sect, and their books and scholars were easily available. Over the last hundred years, Western scholars have become much more willing to question the orthodox Sunni view and to advance new theories and new narratives.
MuhammadArabia before Muhammad was scantly populated by a number of Arabic-speaking peoples. Some were Bedouin, pastoral nomads organized in tribes. Some were agriculturalists, living either in oases in the north, or in the more fertile and thickly settled areas to the south (now Yemen and Oman). At that time the majority of Arabs followed various polytheistic religions, although a few tribes followed Judaism, Christianity (including the followers of Nestorius) or Zoroastrianism. The city of Mecca was a religious center for some of the northern Arabian polytheists, as it contained the sacred well of Zamzam and a small temple, the Ka’aba. Muhammad was born on the outskirts of Mecca in the Year of the Elephant. Most Muslims equate this with the Western year 570 but a few prefer 571. He was orphaned at an early age and was raised by his uncle Abu Talib. He became a trader, married a wealthy widow, and could have looked forward to a life of ease and prosperity. However, when he was some forty years old, he is said to have experienced a divine revelation while he was meditating in a cave outside Mecca. This would have been in 610 C.E. After an initial period of doubt and fear, he started to preach to his kinfolk and then in public, to all Meccans. Muhammad claimed that he had been chosen by God, like the Hebrew prophets before him, to preach repentance, submission to God, and a coming day of judgment. He said he was not preaching a new religion, just reviving the old and pure tradition that the Christians and Jews had debased. He attracted followers, and also created enemies. In 622 C.E., Muhammad and many of his followers fled to the neighboring city of Medina. This migration is called the Hijra; it was the first year of his “reign” as a secular ruler as well as a religious leader. Following the custom of the time, later historians took that year as the start of the Muslim calendar. The two cities of Mecca and Medina went to war. Muhammad and his followers won one battle (Battle of Badr) and managed to stalemate a Meccan attack in the Battle of the Trench. Through conquest and conversion, Muhammad was able to unite the surrounding tribes behind him and eventually assembled such a large force that Mecca capitulated without a fight. By the time Muhammad died, on June 8, 632, he and his followers had united the entire Arabian peninsula under his leadership, and had started to expand into the areas now known as Syria and Iraq. The spread of IslamAfter Muhammad’s death, Abu Bakr, his father-in-law and one of the earliest converts, assumed leadership of the Muslim community. This is still a matter of contention among Muslims; the largest sect of Islam, the Sunnis, and the various Shi’a sects, disagree radically as to the history and significance of Abu Bakr’s succession to what was later called the caliphate. Abu Bakr spent most of his brief caliphate fighting the Ridda Wars, bringing rebellious Arabian tribes to heel. After disaffection had been quelled, Muslim troops advanced into Syria, then a battleground between the Byzantine Empire and the Persian Sassanid empire. They won an unexpected victory against the Byzantines at the Battle of Yarmuk. Abu Bakr’s successor, Umar ibn al-Khattab, expanded the Islamic empire even further, conquering most of what is now known as the Middle East, Egypt, northern Africa, and the Persian plateau. References and further reading
This article is licensed under the Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “History of Islam.”
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