Posted on 01/13/2008 8:08:44 AM PST by Mrs. Don-o
Today's religious map of the Middle East traces to the unification of the Arabian tribes under the banner of Islam in the 7th century, and their subsequent conquest of much of the known world. Muhammad's genius was in finding a way to unite the myriad of fissiparous, feuding Bedouin tribes of northern Arabia into a cohesive polity. Just as he had provided a constitution of rules under which the people of Medina could live together, so he provided a constitution for all Arabs, but this one had the imprimatur not just of Muhammad, but of God. Submission -- Islam -- to God and His rules, spelled out in the Koran, bound Arabian tribesmen into the community of believers, the umma.
Building on the tribal system of "balanced opposition" -- the subject of yesterday's essay -- Muhammad was able to frame an inclusive structure within which the tribes had a common, God-given identity as Muslims. But unification was only possible by creating a tribalized enemy against which Muslims could make common cause. This Muhammad did by opposing Muslims against infidels; and the dar al-Islam, the land of Islam and peace, against the dar al-harb, the land of infidels and conflict. Through the precepts of Islam, traditional Bedouin raiding was sanctified as an act of religious duty.
With every successful battle against local unbelievers, especially after the critical early battle against the Meccans, more Bedouin joined the umma. Once united, the Bedouin warriors of the umma turned outward, teaching the world the meaning of jihad, holy war. The rest, as they say, is history.
The Arabs, in lightning thrusts, challenged and beat the Byzantines to the north and the Persians to the east, both weakened by their continuous wars with one another, thus imposing their control over the Christian majority in the Levant and the Zoroastrian majority in Persia, and therefore over the entire Middle East. These stunning successes were rapidly followed by conquests of Christian and Jewish populations in Egypt, Libya and North Africa's Maghreb (Arabic for "the West"), and, in the east, central Asia and the Hindu population of northern India. Not content with these triumphs, Arab armies invaded and subdued much of Christian Spain and Portugal, and all of Sicily. Since the Roman Empire, the world had not seen such power and reach. All fell before the Saracen blades.
Most accounts of Islamic history, even that of the Lindholm's esteemed The Islamic Middle East, glide over these conquests, as if they were friendly takeovers. But the truth was very different.
The evidence is overwhelming that vast numbers of infidel male warriors and civilians were slain, and that most of those spared, particularly the women and children, were enslaved for domestic and sexual servitude. While men who willingly converted were spared, their wives and children were taken as slaves. In conquered regions, children were
regularly taken from parents, while on the borders -- especially in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Africa south of the Sahara -- raiding for slaves was normal practice. Of the male slaves, a substantial number were made eunuchs by the removal of sex organs, in order to serve in harems. This account of the Arab campaign in northern India illustrates the usual procedures:
"During the Arab invasion of Sindh (712 CE), Muhammad bin Qasim first attacked Debal…It was garrisoned by 4,000 Kshatriya soldiers and served by 3,000 Brahmans. All males of the age of 17 and upwards were put to the sword and their women and children were enslaved. "[Seven hundred]
beautiful females, who were under the protection of Budh (that is, had taken shelter in the temple), were all captured with their valuable ornaments, and clothes adorned with jewels." Muhammad dispatched one-fifth of the legal spoil to Hajjaj, which included 75 damsels, the other four-fifths were distributed among soldiers."
The multitude of reports from Muslim, indigenous and other sources of the Islamic conquests are equally detailed and equally daunting to a modern reader. It is true that throughout history intergroup relations in most of the world were exploitative and repressive, and not infrequently brutal and bloodthirsty. The world of Islam was not so much an exception to this, as exemplary of it.
The theological foundation of the Arab Empire was the supremacy of Islam and the obligation of each Muslim to advance its domination. The notion of Jihad, in particular, served to establish the Muslim community's permanent state of war against the dar al-harb until the infidels' conclusive submission and the absolute world supremacy of Islam.
Yet even as Islamic armies were coming to dominate the known world, fissures emerged within Islam, which would give rise to the bloody internecine battles that continue to this day in Iraq and elsewhere.
Most notably, the relentless oppositions within tribal life have been reflected on a large scale in the battles between Sunni vs. Shiite, a battle originating in a squabble between closely related kin groups over the leadership of the Islamic empire following Muhammad's death. Their divergent philosophical orientations are based on two tribal principles: Sunnism recognizes leaders based on consent; Shiism recognizes leaders based on descent. The continued anatagonism between the two groups constitutes one of the many ways in which the tribal spirit continues its dominance in the Middle East.
philip.carl.salzman@mcgill.ca
-Philip Carl Salzman is professor of anthropology at McGill University. This article is drawn from his forthcoming book, Culture and Conflict in the Middle East (Humanity Books).
Thanks you for that website Mrs. Don-o.
I forgot to capture it. You are a blessing.
—Jo—
“But remember folks, Arabs are not the problem; Islam is. If it were not for Islam, the Arabs could be Christian for all we know. Christian missionaries could’ve eventually made it over to the Middle East and civilized the Arabs and converted them. Who knows?”
Actually, we tried taking back the lands conquered by the Muslims, remember the Crusades? Those “evil” Crusades where the Christians were the bad guys for having tried to get the holy lands back that had been taken from them by Muslim Jihad. Those Crusades that the Christian haters now portray as an invasion without merit, totally disregarding the invasion that took place initially wherein the whole Middle East was conquered by the scimitar. The Crusades which some Christians still to this day feel they have to apologize for. But the initial takeover of the holy lands by force by the Muzzies is just peachy keen, don’t ya know. Geez....
So they are a bunch of violent savages bent on dominating the world. And why are they not expelled from civilized countries?
The Crusades were as defensive as the invasion of Normandy. Trying to get a beachhead in order to take back a captive continent that had been conquered by force.
You’re asking me?
Turns out, he had them all along, and hid them at his house. After his death, earlier this decade, they were found, and are not being made available to a group of German scholars. Some are using false names in print because they're scared of reprisals by Muslims. It will be interesting to see what they find. Makes me wonder if their discoveries will be trumpeted with the fervor of those who reported on the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Please post it. I’d like to read it.
It was in the print version. I’ll have to see if it’s online.
Very interesting; thanks for posting this, Mrs. Don-o!
Ping!
Islam was occultic from its beginnings. Doctrines of demons.
That’s the truth!
Not sure if this has already been posted, but here is a copy of the “complaint” and the response.
http://ezralevant.com/Soharwardy_complaint.pdf
http://ezralevant.com/Response_to_complaint.pdf
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Thanks Convert from ECUSA. |
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The Jihad against Russians (1995 onwards)?
Didn’t this actually start in ‘79?
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