From the oasis cities of Makkah
and Madinah in the Arabian desert, the message of Islam went forth with
electrifying speed. Within half a century of the Prophet's death, Islam had
spread to three continents. Islam is not, as some imagine in the West, a
religion of the sword nor did it spread primarily by means of war. It was only
within Arabia, where a crude form of idolatry was rampant, that Islam was
propagated by warring against those tribes which did not accept the message of
God -- whereas Christians and Jews were not forced to convert. Outside of Arabia
also the vast lands conquered by the Arab armies in a short period became Muslim
not by force of the sword but by the appeal of the new religion. It was faith in
One God and emphasis upon His Mercy that brought vast numbers of people into the
fold of Islam. The new religion did not coerce people to convert. Many continued
to remain Jews and Christians and to this day important communities of the
followers of these faiths are found in Muslim lands. Moreover, the spread of
Islam was not limited to its miraculous early expansion outside of Arabia.
During later centuries the Turks embraced Islam peacefully as did a large number
of the people of the Indian subcontinent and the Malay-speaking world. In Africa
also, Islam has spread during the past two centuries even under the mighty power
of European colonial rulers. Today Islam continues to grow not only in Africa
but also in Europe and America where Muslims now comprise a notable minority. A
Summary of the development of the Muslim world and the different Caliphates
within it.
The Rightly guided Caliphs Upon the death of the Prophet, Abu Bakr, the friend
of the Prophet and the first adult male to embrace Islam, became caliph. Abu
Bakr ruled for two years to be succeeded by 'Umar who was caliph for a decade
and during whose rule Islam spread extensively east and west conquering the
Persian empire, Syria and Egypt. It was 'Umar who marched on foot at the end of
the Muslim army into Jerusalem and ordered the protection of Christian sites. 'Umar
also established the first public treasury and a sophisticated financial
administration. He established many of the basic practices of Islamic
government. 'Umar was succeeded by 'Uthman who ruled for some twelve years
during which time the Islamic expansion continued. He is also known as the
caliph who had the definitive text of the Noble Quran copied and sent to the
four corners of the Islamic world. He was in turn succeeded by 'Ali who is known
to this day for his eloquent sermons and letters, and also for his bravery. With
his death the rule of the "rightly guided" caliphs, who hold a special place of
respect in the hearts of Muslims, came to an end.
Umayyad
The Umayyad caliphate established in 661 was to last for about a century. During
this time Damascus became the capital of an Islamic world which stretched from
the western borders of China to southern France.
Not only did the Islamic conquests continue during this period through North
Africa to Spain and France in the West and to Sind, Central Asia and Transoxiana
in the East, but the basic social and legal institutions of the newly founded
Islamic world were established.
Abbasids 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 Mongol 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.
PersiaWhile 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 occurred formally 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
peacefully. Gradually Muslims gained political power beginning in the early 13th
century. But this period which marked the expansion of both Islam and Islamic
culture came to an end with the conquest of much of 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 established 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 concerned, 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 traveled 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 laming. 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 Western World 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 Eastern
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 modeled 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 EastFarther 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 becoming independent as recently as 1984.
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.
Conclusion The Islamic world remains today a vast land stretching from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, with an important presence in Europe and America,
animated by the teachings of Islam and seeking to assert its own identity.
Despite the presence of nationalism and various secular ideologies in their
midst, Muslims wish to live in the modern world but without simply imitating
blindly the ways followed by the West. The Islamic world wishes to live at peace
with the West as well as the East but at the same time not to be dominated by
them. It wishes to devote its resources and energies to building a better life
for its people on the basis of the teachings of Islam and not to squander its
resources in either internal or external conflicts. It seeks finally to create
better understanding with the West and to be better understood by the West. The
destinies of the Islamic world and the West cannot be totally separated and
therefore it is only in understanding each other better that they can serve
their own people more successfully and also contribute to a better life for the
whole of humanity.