Welcome back for part two of our complete survey of the Middle East region. Today begins the multi-section full historical overview from antiquity up to the present day though mostly covering events after the founding of Islam by Muhammad in the seventh century. The major beliefs and major schism of Islam will be covered in this section along with the early Muslim conquests of much of the known world. Here we go:
The complete study of history begins with a man named Cyrus (later, the great). In 550 BCE, Cyrus founded the Achaemenid Persian empire. He was a legendary conqueror and an even better diplomat. In Cyrus' domain, religious, and personal freedom was commonplace (he began the reconstruction of Solomon's temple). These policies of tolerance helped Cyrus to unify his empire and establish the first "world government". The supposed intellectual powerhouse at the time, the Greek City States, could not conceive of this type of unity. Cyrus and his successors built an empire that came to rule 44% of the entire world population at its greatest extent. This empire lasted for 200 years until it began to take losses to the Greeks in Anatolia and eventually faced ultimate destruction at the hands of Alexander the Great.
Alexander while one of, if not the greatest conqueror of all time did not make too many plans about either his succession or the administration of his empire. Therefore after his death in 323 BCE, his territories fell into the hands of his generals. The area that would come to contain much of the Middle East came under the control of the Seleucids (under one of Alexander's generals) before being conquered once again by the Persian Parthians. The Parthians ruled modern day Iran and Iraq along with much of South Asia for a shockingly long 400 years. For some context, on the western border of the Parthian Empire stood the Romans. It was during this period that Jesus was born in the area of Syria/Palestine and Christianity began to spread.
The Parthians were replaced by yet another Persian based empire, the Sassanids who expanded the territory under Persian control, stood toe to toe against the Roman Empire, and are considered a super power of their time. After the division of the Roman Empire into East and West, the eastern block, later known as the Byzantine Empire, under Constantine and then Theodosius declared Christianity as the state religion and founded their capital at Constantinople(modern Istanbul). This state sponsorship allowed Christianity to spread all across the world. Constant wars between the Byzantines and Sassanids greatly weakened both sides.
The history of these various Persian people is important because it illustrates the trend of Persian dominance within their homeland that continues to exist (with a brief interruption) until today and explains the pride of the Persians as well as their distaste of being confused with Arabs.
Achaemenid, Parthian, and Sassanid Empires (clockwise from left) at their greatest extent. Modern day countries are shown for scale.
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THE BIRTH OF ISLAM
In 570 AD, an Arab named Muhammad was born in the city of Mecca in present day Saudi Arabia. At this time, the Arabian Peninsula was mostly inhabited by Bedouin desert dwellers. There was very little unity between these people with a few trading cities to the west on the Red Sea as their only example of settled society. These people were polytheistic and relied on idol worship to express their faith. When he was around 40 years old, Muhammad is said to have been visited by the angel Gabriel who relayed to him, over the course of the next 23 years until his death, what Muslims believe to be the final and perfect revelation of God to the people of Earth. These revelations would later be written down by Muhammad’s followers in the Quran and would form the basis for the religion of Islam (meaning submission). In this way, Muslims believe that the Quran, unlike other holy books, is the literal word of God.
BELIEFS OF ISLAM
It is critical to any understanding of The Middle East to have a firm grasp on the basic beliefs of the Islamic faith which has come in so many ways to unite and divide the region. Like Judaism and Christianity before it, Islam preaches the absolute oneness of God (known as Allah by Muslims) his omnipotence, and omnipresence. Muhammad’s revelations served to retell the story of the Old and New Testament of Christians and Jews beginning with Adam and to expand on them to include Allah’s last, perfect message to humanity. Islam recognizes Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets of the two faiths, however, does not recognize Jesus’ divinity. Islam also teaches Muslims to respect the “People of The Book”, meaning Christians and Jews living in Muslim controlled lands.
All practicing Muslims are said to adhere to the “Five Pillars of Islam”. While in the modern age, more liberal interpretations of Islam necessitate less involvement, for the sake of argument and to illuminate the initial interpretation of the faith, The Five Pillars are as follows. First, it is the essential tenant of Islam to accept the oneness and all-powerfulness of God, and the role of Muhammad as his prophet. To Western ears, this may not seem revolutionary. Try to imagine, however, that everyone around you has been worshiping idols and believing them to be holy for time immemorial. After having done this yourself, you will be in the same position as Muhammad was when he received this revelation and hopefully, now you understand its significance.
The second pillar of Islam calls upon its followers to pray towards the holy place of the Kaaba in Mecca five times a day. The submission of Muslims to God is illuminated most clearly in their prayer where they are said to open up fully to God.
Almsgiving to the poor for those who can afford it is the third tenant of Islam. Expanded study of Islamic jurisprudence illuminates much on the topic of money. For example, many Muslims believe debt and interest to be illegal and many keep bank accounts at 0% interest.
Fasting during the holy month of Ramadan is the fourth pillar which seeks to bring believers closer to God and give them an understanding for the needy.
The final pillar calls upon all able-bodied and financed Muslims to take a pilgrimage to Mecca at some point in their life. This pilgrimage known as Hajj symbolizes the actions taken by Abraham, as well as his followers and brings the faithful to the Kaaba, believed by Muslims to be the first house of God built by Abraham and his son Ishmael. After Abraham’s time, polytheistic bedouins began to use the Kaaba as a pilgrimage destination during which all feuds were ceased. The carrying on of polytheistic rituals inside the Kaaba was seen as heretical to Muhammad who upon his conquest of Mecca entered the Kaaba and destroyed the Idols.
It is important to note that since Islam is viewed as the perfect faith by its followers, the concept of a secular state in a post-Muhammad world is nonexistent. As such, the early followers of Muhammad sought to ascribe from the Quran and The Prophet a code of laws to follow. These laws found their birth in the actions of Muhammad and his close followers and were recorded in the hadith which when paired with the Quran formed the basis for Sharia law. While the term Sharia is often discussed in the media it is a bit more complicated than a simple set of laws. Just as the ten commandments set forth the fundamentals for morality to the Jewish people and Jesus’ Sermon on The Mount expanded on these ideas, Sharia offers a moral code to which all faithful are bound.
EARLY ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION
Muhammad faced initial opposition mostly by the wealthy merchants of Mecca but eventually united the previously war-torn Arabian people into a cohesive, unified society based on Islamic principles. Muhammad was forced out of Mecca by those clinging to idol worship but welcomed by the people of Medina from which he grew his following. Skirmishes between the Pagan Meccans and Muslims culminated in the pilgrimage to and conquest of Mecca in 629 by Muhammad and the Muslims. Victory at Mecca proved the power of his faithful and his following swelled in size. Further skirmishes only further united the people who gained solace in the promises of Islam. Eventually, Muhammad succeeded in uniting the Arabian people through Islam. The importance of Muhammad’s successes in unifying the Arabs cannot be overstated. Through the common threads of language and religion, he was able to consolidate power on a scale not seen since the earliest civilizations. The Arabian people, never seen as a threat, were about to explode onto the world stage and change The Middle East and globe forever. Muhammad's army set off to expand their empire just as he fell ill and died in 632. The conquests that followed were impressive on every level, however, a division between the Prophet's followers as to who should rule the new Islamic state curtailed an even larger conquest and resulted in the Sunni-Shia split.
SUNNI-SHIA SPLIT
The differences between Sunni and Shia were born of a succession dispute but were solidified as a struggle of a minority (Shia) against what they viewed as a tyrannical system (Sunni) that placed Earthly success on the same plane as religious doctrine. The dispute began when the first caliph or leader of the faith was elected. Most Muslims believed that this man should be a strong leader who would protect the people of the faith. The dissent of the people who would become the Shias began because they believed that the leader should be a direct descendant of the prophet Muhammed and should not only lead the Muslim people but seek to interpret the inner meaning of the Islamic faith itself.
The dispute came to a head with the murder of Othman in 656. Othman was the third elected caliph and was murdered by rebel Muslim soldiers. In response to this, Muawiya, the governor of Damascus and Othman's cousin called on Ali, the newly recognized caliph by both groups to avenge the murder of Othman. Ali, a descendant of Muhammad who had long been the favored ruler of the Shias, supported the rebels and became embedded in a civil war with the governor which lasted until Ali's murder. Muawiya, victorious, took the title of caliph and began the hereditary Umayyad dynasty. This shift of leadership away from a recognized relative of Muhammed to a less learned almost secular ruler was seen as blasphemy by Shias and the divide has marked the faith ever since.
The most important act in emboldening Shia doctrine came in 680 when soldiers loyal to the Umayyads killed Ali's son Hussain, who was a recognized leader of Shiism. This assassination came on Hussain's refusal to recognize the legitimacy of Umayyad rule. His martyrdom, as well as that of his 72 companions, has forever shaped the face of Shiism and Hussain has become a perfect example of the proper way to live to Shias.
Since the split, the recognized caliphs of Sunni Islam continued to be political as well as spiritual leaders up until the time of World War I. For Shias, the Imams (different from the Imams who lead prayers in mosques) were the twelve true leaders of Islam starting with Ali and ending with Muhammad al-Mahdi who in 941 entered into a state of occultation or divine hiddenness. Shias believe that when the twelfth Imam reappears to humanity, it will signal the end of the world, a return to justice, and the final triumph of Islam over humankind. This judgment day theory is not supported by Sunnis who believe that the Mahdi (redeemer) has yet to come to Earth. As time has gone on the split between Sunni and Shia has been marked with political and territorial disputes as well as theological disagreements.
Today, the Sunnis are still the majority in the entire Islamic world. About 85-90% of all Muslims are Sunnis however, as Vali Nasr points out in The Shia Revival, in the Middle East the split is closer to 50/50 and, "around the economically and geostrategically sensitive rim of the Persian Gulf, Shias constitute 80 percent of the population"(34). The split has shaped Middle Eastern politics for centuries but today, in the age of misunderstanding, the rift between these two groups is deeper than ever.
MUSLIM CONQUESTS
The early caliphs quickly conquered the surrounding lands before Muawiya became caliph and established the Umayyad dynasty which conquered even more. The previous superpower Sassanid Persians were engulfed by the Muslim advance and much of the Byzantine empire was as well. At its greatest extent, this new empire controlled all of the Middle East, North Africa, and much of modern day Spain. This period is often known as a period of “Islamification” and “Arabization” of the current Muslim world where traditionally non-Arab societies (notably, Egypt) began to take on the characteristics, culture, and language of their conquerors. Important exceptions to “Arabization” are the Kurdish and Persian people who accept the Islamic faith but never embraced the Arabic language and continue to cling to their respective cultures. The Umayyads declined amid internal economic struggles as well as revolts between Arab tribes and non-Arab Muslims (called Mawali). What followed in the 8th century was the Abbasid dynasty, helped in no small part by the Mawali particularly those of Persian descent. Their reign unleashed a golden age for the Muslim world which preceded, (many scholars believe led to) the Renaissance in Europe. While the Christian kingdoms of Europe were labeling scientific and philosophical works by the Greeks and Romans as heretical and living in their own feces, the Muslims in the newly built capital of Baghdad were reviving old ideas, and inventing new ones. In today's day and age it's difficult to imagine Baghdad, or any Middle Eastern city to have been the center for scientific advancement in the world but that is exactly what happened. For one example of how the Arabs have contributed to scientific thought look no further than modern Arabic numerals. Now consider doing long division in Roman numerals and count your lucky stars that they thought up something better.
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As the Islamic Empire grew in size and prominence, it became increasingly difficult to rule especially as local populations began to desire autonomy. The empire began to split up. Egypt and Eastern Persia first came under new local rule. Slave soldiers from North Asia (called Mamluks) began to make up a greater percentage of the fighting population of the empire who were now more focused expanding west than consolidating their current territory. A major trend throughout all of world history involves an empire who while failing to recognize its instability, lusts for more territory, becomes greatly weakened, and is then conquered by someone else (almost always nomadic people from Asia in this part of the world). In our story, that cycle is like a revolving door.