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The Golden Age of Islam
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Reviews the period of history known as "The Golden Age of Islam," from the 7th through the 12th centuries, when Islam was the major force in the Mediterranean region & the Christian world was in the Dark Ages.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Reviews the period of history known as "The Golden Age of Islam," from the 7th through the 12th centuries, when Islam was the major force in the Mediterranean region & the Christian world was in the Dark Ages.
Paper Introduction:
Islam developed into a major force in the Middle East and the Mediterranean region from the seventh to the twelfth centuries. It became so again under the direction of the Ottoman Turks from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The first period was the Golden Age of Islam, an age which ended as the Islamic world passed into an extended period of decline. But this decline did not mean the extinction of the core beliefs of Islam. A resurgence would come about after several centuries of retreat and seeming dormancy in the Islamic world. A number of reasons can be offered for the retreat of Islam during this interim period; among them are the military defeat in Spain, the invasion by the Mongols and the Tartars, the burning of the library in Baghdad, and the rise of the Ottomans as a military and political force. Further than these reasons, however, is the
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The role of religion in the conquests wasoverestimated by early writers. . Another way of viewing the changewas that there was a turning away from true Islam to hybrid and opposingreligious and cultural forces within the Islamic world itself. While there is clear evidence that the scientific thought of Islamcontributed to the development of science elsewhere in the world, it isalso true that scientific investigations seem to have stopped, or at leastto have faltered, with the end of the golden Age. He offers a range of reasonsunder different headings as to why this may be so; all of which have incommon that they are discerned as forces in the post-Golden Age era.Hoodbhoy finds that the society of that later time changed its attitudes aswell as its political bent. Indeed, most ofthe marauders in time settled down and became Muslims themselves. So long as theempire enjoyed political power and control of trade, the commercialbourgeoisie could sustain a demand for knowledge and culture. Islam. Rethinking Islam. The non-Arab Muslims had their own traditions and their own outlook on life. Endnotes BibliographyAnees, Munwar Ahmad. Another force of the time was utilitarianism, the idea that theonly desirable things are those that are useful. New sects were formed, andphilosphical arguments became more pronounced. . The Culture of Islam. The fierce debates between those believing in free will (the Qadarites) and the predestinarians (the Jabrias) were generally resolved in favor of the former. ."[x]The retreat was more a withdrawal from active participation and fromcontact with certain outside influences as a way of protecting the Islamicworld. New York: Time Warner, 1991.Iqbal, Afzal. The Caliph successfully undercut 'Ali's power,and Mu'awiya was named Caliph in Syria and was soon generally accepted allover the Empire.[iii] At the time of Muhammad, Mecca and its environs were in a state offermentation that was aggravated by social injustices; these were theresult of discontent with the system of privilege that benefitted thosewith the right connections.[iv] The caliphate was one of the unifyingpolitical structures that emerged from the rule of Muhammad. Thislack opened the way to religious usurpers and the mobilization of thereligious sentiments of the masses, producing a splintering intosects.[xiv] Islam also did not develop a strong economic base because thefragmented nature of city life in Islam did not allow for the developmentof corporate institutions. However,beginning in the eleventh century, there were mounting risks thatthreatened the life of the cities, a life already made fragile by poorlycontrolled nomadic and peasant settings. Itexperienced a shift from an outward orientation to an inward orientation.In other words, it went from a stance that was open to the world, a stanceby which Islam flourished, to a period of being closed to the world, aperiod in which Islam did not flourish. it sanctioned a concern for material existence and the use of force as a means of survival, and both were built into the foundations of Islam. After the death of Muhammad there was a sort of constitutionalcrisis. The history of Islam can be divided into distinct phases--the periodof emergence extended from 61 to 661; the period of classical elaboration,or the Golden Age, from 661 to 1258; and the era of repetition andscholastic fragmentation from 1258 to 18 , followed by a time ofreactivation and political militancy in the nineteenth and twentiethcenturies.[i] Islam began with Muhammad and the revelations he made to hisfollowers and others. The Arabs took over only state lands andthe lands of enemies of the regime. He was the head of the region, with executive powers andan army. After the Golden Age there was a tendency to become more rigidwithin different sectarian compartments and to vie for supremacy. Obviously, the explanations one puts forth must necessarily be speculative.[xi]Indeed, Hoodbhoy does more than speculate. Islam developed into a major force in the Middle East and theMediterranean region from the seventh to the twelfth centuries. The war with the Ridda developed into awar of conquest leading far beyond the boundaries of Arabia to Iraq, Syria,and Egypt. Scholarly activity atthe time was concentrated in the great metropolises of Damascus, Baghdad,Isfahan, Cairo, Aleppo, Kairouan, Fez, and Cordova; these were affected bythe nature of the political power that overshadowed them. The latter group accepted the faith in order to claimequality of status with the new rulers. Intime, the ideological struggle between the Meccans and the Muslimsdeveloped into an armed conflict. Further than these reasons, however, is theshift that took place in the Islamic world as a result of these forces. The first part of the problem was the weakness of autonomousinstitutions like cities and trade guilds. Indeed, these extantcivilizations had an influence on the Islamic world so that soon there wasnot the unity there had originally been. Mohammed henceforth saw his task as overcoming all opposition.[ii] At the beginning of the 7th Century, after some three centuries ofstruggle, the Near and Middle East was divided between Byzantium andPersia. The new doctrine took shape inMecca, and the number of converts rose to approximately 1 . The caliph enforced legal decisions, safeguarded the divinely revealed restrictive ordinances, maintained the armies and guarded the community of Islam from external attack, enforced order and security, meted out justice, received and distributed the zakah and other alms, maintained the Friday services and public institutions, decided between disputants, served as supreme judges in matters bearing legal claims, married minors who had no guardians, distributed booty gained in war, and generally catered to a variety of needs brought before him by the faithful.[v]In the 'Abbasid period, from the ninth century on, the caliph became morewithdrawn from public accessibility and was replaced by a bureaucraticmachine. The West was thebeneficiary of this knowledge from the twelfth century on. It becameso again under the direction of the Ottoman Turks from the sixteenth to theeighteenth centuries. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1994.Farah, Caesar A. Initially, each of these invasions constituted an expansion ofthe Arab nation, not of Islam. This wasexpressed in the Arabic language and that was joined by human links forgedby trade, migration, and pilgrimage. The caliph was a ruler and alsothe commander of the faithful and the imam, or guide, of the community: The caliphate in its heyday was a powerful instrument working for the solidarity and coherence in Islam. There were some externalthreats to be considered;t he military threat from the Mongols and othersis one which produced a defensive posture. The people ofIslam developed: mathematics, including algebra, geometry, trigonometry,and arithmetic; astronomy; botany; pharmacology; zoology; geography;physiognomy; and psychosomatics to a high degree. While there was thus greater freedom inthe interpretation of doctrine, such freedom also led to the absence of acentral political-religious authority to resolve or mediate disputes. This istrue because of changes in attitude that came about after certain eventsthat undercut Islam's belief in a single unifying conception. New York: Barron's, 1987.Hoodbhoy, Pevez. The city structure in Islam was itself fragmented both in termsof how cities were controlled and how they interacted. Scientific knowledge of nature, the stars, the heavens, theearth, the flora, and the fauna therefore only reinforces the faith. Therewas also a literature of mirabilia, or the miracles of nature, halfwaybetween scientific observation and religious contemplation. Islam by contrast had no Church and no formal center oftyrannical religious authority. The growth ofthis and other fields of learning within Islam, however, came to a halt asIslam retreated: As in the case of philosophy, this great scientific movement came to a halt not as a result of theological supervision comparable to that exercised by the Christian establishment in the West but rather because of the new social and political environments for knowledge that developed in the whole of the Muslim world starting in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.[viii]One reason for the turning-inward that came at this time was a threat tothe urban environments that spawned this learning. "Even in defeat, Muslim culture continued to exert its influence. Islam'sretreat from the external world was fueled by the need to fight theideological battles taking shape at home while also protecting the Islamicworld from military incursions. Hoodbhoysays instead there were elements internal to the society which played avery important role in arresting its economic, political, and intellectualevolution. 'Ali came to power in Medina and marched on Kufa,which he made his capital. As a result, scientific researchgave way little by little to the mobilizing of a wartime ideology: Against the Reconquista in Spain, the Crusades in Palestine, and the Turkish and Mongol hordes in Iran and Iraq, Muslims needed an orthodox, dogmatic, and rigid but ideologically effective Islam to rally around.[ix] The Muslim world had long spread its influence far and wide, bothbefore the "retreat" and after: It fueled the engine of the European Renaissance. He first countered military action among the tribes known as theRidda, a word that means apostasy. But the gradual hegemony of fatalistic Asharite doctrines morally weakened the "will to power" of Islamic society and led to a withering away of its scientific spirit.[xii]Asharite doctrine is specifically anti-science in that it insists ondenying any connection between cause and effect, thus repudiating rationalthought. A resurgence would come about after several centuries of retreat andseeming dormancy in the Islamic world. A number of reasons can be offeredfor the retreat of Islam during this interim period; among them are themilitary defeat in Spain, the invasion by the Mongols and the Tartars, theburning of the library in Baghdad, and the rise of the Ottomans as amilitary and political force. Arabs and non-Arabs were throwntogether in a new society which was completely different from what hadexisted before. Many of the civilizations that came into contact withIslam were ancient civilizations, and often the Muslims did not make anyradical changes in these new territories. Forinstance, the single ruler gave way to a triple caliphate; this pattern wasaccepted and did not result in strong control even within any singlecaliphate. The new attitude was more negative than hadbeen the one prevailing during the Golden Age: In the heyday of its intellectual and scientific development, Islamic society was not a fatalistic society. The victory was interpreted by the Muslims as a sign that the city of Mecca would fall and that all Mohammed's opposition from Christians, Jews and pagans was in the wrong. This was resolved by the imposition of Abu Bakr as sole successorto the Prophet. It continuedto be of vital importance during the Golden Age and beyond; as noted, thefirst to follow the Prophet was Abu Bakr. The militarydefeat in Spain was a devastating blow and encouraged alternativepolitical, social, and religious forces. Yet the retreat in Islamicsociety was based more on the manner in which that society had developedand the structures it had created. Lahore: Institute of Islamic Culture, 1981.Lewis, Bernard. Outside influences had previouslybeen assimilated and changed, as was done with the thought of the Greekworld. A History of the Arab Peoples. But this decline did not mean the extinction of the core beliefs of Islam. Further, the Scientific Revolution, while dependent on thefoundation of Islamic learning, occurred outside the Islamic world, raisingthe question of why: Five centuries of Islamic scientific and intellectual leadership could have, but did not, lead to the emergence of a modern, universal system, of modern science. Instead there were new sectswithin Islam: The Arabs had their own traditions, their own outlook on life. The Arabs in History. This authority was tempered only after the LutheranReformation. Islam developed a strong intellectual base that motivated much of therest of the known world after the Golden Age. Another element was the different way religion enteredthe sphere of politics in Islam as opposed to Europe. Knowledge is not usuallyvalued only for its utilitarian ends, and this idea in time led to thedisintegration of theoretical knowledge.[xiii] Hoodbhoy also finds political factors contributing to the retreat.Most notable are the sacking of Baghdad by the Mongol marauder Halaku Khanin 1258 and similar losses in the Islamic world. Islam: Beliefs and Observances. Farah, Islam: Beliefs and Observances (New York:Barron's, 1987), 34-35.Ibid., 155.Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples (New York: TimeWarner, 1991), 87.Afzal Iqbal, The Culture of Islam (Lahore: Institute of IslamicCulture, 1981), 82.Arkoun, 79.Ibid., 8 .Munwar Ahmad Anees, "Islam and Scientific Fundamnetalism," NewPerspectives Quarterly (Summer 1993), 61.Pevez Hoodbhoy, Islam and Science (London: Zed Books, 1991),119.Ibid., 12 .Ibid., 119-121.Ibid., 131-132.Ibid., 131.----------------------- 1 In Islam at that time, scientificinquiries were encouraged as much as philosophic inquiries. These invasions came at atime when Islamic civilization was already in decline, and these externalfactors cannot be cited as the sole cause of the retreat. London: Zed Books, 1991.Hourani, Albert. This had abasis in the Quran as that work persistently invites the faithful toexamine the created world in order to appreciate the greatness and thepower of God. In Europe, theChristian Church exercised a tyranny over political institutions that leftno room for dissent. The Muslims did not interfere with theinternal civil and religious administration of the conquered peoples.Islam was identified by this time with Arabism, and this was apparent asnon-Arab Muslims flocked to the faith. Islam and Science. These andother political changes did not destroy the cultural unity of the Islamicworld, which grew deeper as more and more of the population became Muslims and the faith of Islam articulated itself into systems of thought and institutions.[vi] In the period of expansion and growth, the majority of peoples comingunder the sway of Islam accepted the new religion either because it had asimplicity that appealed to them or because they were taking the way ofleast resistance. . "Islam and Scientific Fundamentalism." New Perspectives Quarterly (Summer 1993), 61-63.Arkoun, Mohammed. The caliph was then relegated to the position of a ceremonialfigure. A period ofpersecution followed, leading to the Hijra, or emigration to Medina. Roberts, Islam (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1981), 19.Bernard Lewis, The Arabs in History (New York: Harper & Row,1966), 82-94.Caesar A. The first Muslim was Khadija, the Prophet's wife,and the second was either his freed slave or his teenage cousin. TheIslamic world in its developmental and expansionist phase, during theGolden Age, was open to ideas from outside just as it disseminated ideas tothe outside world through open contacts. Islam itself did notbenefit from its knowledge as much as did the European Renaissance, forinstance. This began when Mohammed raised a partyof 3 to set an ambush at the well of Badr on the road to Syria: The Battle of Badr is a landmark and had far reaching consequences. Between the two there was conflict, struggle, and tension.[vii] Afzal Iqbal emphasizes this tension as dividing the Muslim world.In fact it also served to invigorate that world with an infusion of newideas, and with encouragement for inquiry into a variety of fields. They were weak because thecaliphate in Islam was not determined by institutionalized, well-definedprocedures which would assure continuity of policy and encourage alternatecenters of power. . The Islamic city structure was controlled bythe ruling dynasties, who also dominated trade, transport, and militarylife: Extrapolating from the European experience, one can surmise that the existence of autonomous institutions would have stimulated the growth of industry in Islamic lands and allowed it to maintain the lead which it possessed over the rest of the world until the 14th century.[xv] The Golden Age ended not all at once but over time as Islamic societyretreated from engagement with the outside world. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1981.-----------------------Mohammed Arkoun, Rethinking Islam (Boulder, Colorado: WestviewPress, 1994), 3.D.S. However, Islam did notbenefit as much from its own efforts as the rest of the world. Islam was from the beginning a morefragmented social structure than the Christian world of Europe. Instead it turned to aperiod of internal retrenchment and dissension. In ashort time, he had about 4 converts. Spain, the then Muslim land closest to mainland Europe, became the bedrock of large- scale knowledge transfer as opposed to today's controversial and shallow-by-content technology transfer. . By the end of the tenth century, an Islamic world had come intoexistence that was united by a common religious culture. This world was divided into threebroad areas, each with its own centers of power, and with three rulersclaiming the title of caliph, in Baghdad, Cairo, and Cordoba. During the reign of 'Uthman therewas a breakdown; Medina was the internal center of opposition and Egyptattacked externally. The first period was the Golden Age of Islam, an agewhich ended as the Islamic world passed into an extended period of decline. New York: Harper & Row, 1966.Roberts, D.S.
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