Mighty Wind of Islam — Book III
Charlotte Solarz ©2019
In the palace of Abdur-Rahman Emir of Cordoba — 800 CE
Book III
INTRODUCTION
Review for Books I and I
To bring Book III into context, a refresher of the first two volumes of Mighty Wind of Islam may be helpful.
Book I scanned the era of the “Dawning of Islam” where, upon the Arabian Desert, and spanning the days of the lifetime of Muhammad, the Prophet of God sojourned among the tribes and unified them. It introduced the events surrounding His Announcement and Call to Islam, as revealed of God, which means submission to “Will of God,” also, “Peace.” Book II carries Islam into its expansion through its rulers of the caliphate years. And then Book III, relates the many challenges to Islam and demonstrates Islam’s amazing resiliency to meet crises not only from a world poised against Islam, but from within the world of Islam, as well.
Islam is like Jacob’s coat of many colors. In the Muslim world of varied dispositions, Islam is molded to fit its conditions. Muslims, represent the most wide diversity of color, class and cultures, but its foundation of belief has an underpinning singularity of a unified testimony, which is, concisely, “faith in one God,” in Arabic: “Allah.” This unity of faith is revealed in the prayers Muslims recite five times daily, recited at specific times wherever they reside and the prayer begins for all with these words:
I testify that there is no god but Allah and I testify that Muhammad is His servant and messenger.
Book I: Islam’s beginning, Islam’s genesis, is archetypal as we shall see — birth and reception of a new Faith is a universal story — but it is, as well, also specific in its genesis to a particular people within a specific physical environment.
Mighty Wind of Islam posts the story of Islam’s beginning in Book I of three consecutive volumes, and starts even before Islam was a name.
It’s 613 CE, the place is Mecca, less than 45 miles (75 km) from the coastal ports of the Hejaz (Arabia not yet named) and a new era is about to dawn. In this ancient city a brilliance of light is about to flash upon a gathering where clansmen and close allies are waiting, on the cool side of Mt. Safa, nearby. This is a restless, if small, crowd and among them are cousins snickering derisively as they whisper to each other in the early morning shadows of the mountain looking down upon old Mecca. Mecca: the city of the sacred Ka’bah.
Mecca and the Ka’bah:
In the world of that day tribal descent had been core of identity. And as for the lineage of the prophet, his tribal line was of the highly respected Quraysh tribe, who were keepers of the key to the Ka’bah. Kab’ah was a set up of stones offered at oases throughout the desert where travelers were refreshed by the oasis’ springs to revive their thirst. The custom of worship at these refuges was natural homage, because going across this barren land of dunes was terribly dangerous. And caravan travelers felt to give honor to their gods there in thanks. The Kab’ah in Mecca was more elegant, in that the city had pulled off inter-tribal treaties for a four month cessation of war. In these four months tribes entered Mecca in throngs to make pilgrimage and business, but first, leaving all weapons behind. This hiatus of fighting was, by the time of Muhammad arrival as Prophet for these people, an established custom, a century in a rhythm of tribal affairs in good working order. This progenitor of the Qurayysh tribe leadership was the famous Qurayysh chief, Hashim a direct ancestor of Muhammad. And because the city managed this framework of being peaceful and safe during that time of pilgrimage to its Kab’ah the tribe was respected, wealthy and powerful. Thus, this is Ka’bah.
The Ka’bah in Mecca was then and still is, a cube shaped structure circum-ambulated by pilgrims, where they came from near and far to pray and where were ensconced, in their niches, what so disgusted the prophet in his Day: 365 god-idols. And, these idols were the very lure for Mecca’s pilgrims, the very business which brought great prosperity to the city revenue. More later on Mecca.
But now, back to the dawn on Mt. Safa, and the arrival of one of Mecca’s young sons of the respected Hashimite clan, Muhammad, the nephew of his guardian, Abu Talib.
Within this gathering at Mt. Safa are tribal chiefs of the respected House of Hashim of the Qurayysh tribe; likewise with them are the curious members of its related clans. But one man stands apart. As the sun breaks over the horizon a hush comes over the crowd. It is he! And heads turn as almost by compulsion to Muhammad, one who is already seen by the city fathers for leadership, one who is invested with decidedly marked composure, also with a kingly grandness and authority seemingly surpassing the high chiefs, yet he, without even the slightest sign of personal self-seeking — announces that he is God’s chosen Messenger — he, Muhammad, declares his station as a prophet of God (Allah.) So declaring, he addresses Mecca’s leaders. He warns them, preaching to those who guard the focal point of Mecca’s wealth, its Kab’ah. And the embarrassed among those gathered there are the city fathers who are his own clan. Muhammad assumed the authority to tell the city fathers to make haste, to remove all idols in the Kab’ah because there is but one God (Allah),Who is beyond the construct of human images and imagination. Muhammad, His apostle, is given to them as a warner to reveal the command of God to put away all degrading superstition of idol worship. It is to their benefit to submit, he reasonably adds, to that which is God’s Will. It will bring them true prosperity to heed God’s call. The people of Mecca may well remember their heritage of belonging to the original tribes of God’s friend, Abraham who brought them his son, Ishmael.
The crowd on Mt. Safa that day broke up and dispersed in a storm of anger and derision.
Swords of all world powers from that day forward were drawn and aimed to extinguish this new claim of faith and its followers — and its Messenger. Ultimately, the familiar cycle of this epochal challenge to the established brokers of power begins. It is the repeat of contest of negation in contest against the revealed Will of God that will bring wars from both corners — East and West — and from this circumstance of dissonant human will, the fissures of unhealed wounds tended to improperly, fester and will link to present day. But even under those pressures, the creative forces of energy burst all restraints asunder to build marvels in all fields of accomplishment. Islam’s contribution of genius is obvious! The conclusion is that its fruits are the undeniable evidence of faith that took its place and has made its mark. By their fruits shall ye know false prophets. The Qur’an is the fruit. And as ever has been, the season changes in all things. The cycle of birth to decline to rebirth again is as rhythmic as the seasons of the year.
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The focus, then, for the first volume of Mighty Wind of Islam is a basic overview of the early history of Islam — Pre-Islam life conditions of primitive lawlessness and chaotic arbitrary alliances, and taboos and custom derived from superstition were the conditions in a disordered tribal world that swathed the prophet on this desert peninsula now known as Arabia. These were the rough people to whom God-sent Revelation to bring that world its soul awakening. Book I also describes what is known of the prophet’s life after his alignment as a Messenger of God; the stories infer his charismatic power to weld the disparate warring tribes into a new integrated Muslim identity which was revolutionary, a genesis in loyalty bonding, greater than tribal, and the pages of this first volume finally close with his tragic passing.
From Book I~ Notes on (a) Pre Islam; (b) Ancestral Legend that identifies the tribes of Arabia to be assigned God’s trust as bearers of the Will of God; ( c ) Days of the Prophet
Book I of Mighty Wind of Islam stays within the Arabian Peninsula where Islam dawned. This seeming god-forsaken land is comprised of the coasts outlined by the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, with its deserts formerly known in the Bible as the Paran. It a formidable place of shifting wind-blown dunes where Abraham brought his wife’s maid the banished Hagar and their son, Ishmael. This vast land all the way past what is now Israel to Jordan was then called the land of Canaan. Inhospitable land it was, where ages passed and this land aroused no envy for conquest by archaic ages’ builders of the ancient great empires, such as the Syrian, Mesopotamian, Babylonian, Achaemenid, Sassanid, Greek, Roman, Ethiopian civilizations, and so on.
Pre Islam ~ The Original Arabs
Along the coast the name “Arab” in the ancient world, was applied to any inhabitant of the Arabian Hejaz coast. The population settled there was mixed: actually these “Arabs” were originally from Persia, India, China, Yemen, Africa — also emigrants from Byzantium such as the Nestorians — (Christian Greeks and Romans )exiled for being “heretic,”who, of their pride would never have called themselves Arab. But this polyglot of settlers were defined by travelers or through natural intercourse between merchant dealers of other lands, all known abroad as “Arab” just for having settled along the Coast of the peninsula as merchant-traders or their crews and so on. Trade was then a pulse of activity and the course of trade stretched back and forth from the Hejaz coastal ports to India and China, and islands of the Mediterranean Sea, and elsewhere. That said the records show that apparently this Hejaz merchant economy was pretty much at “scratch,” — difficult for the lack of good management and the uncertainty of finding merchandise because there was always the problem of renegade robbers who may have got the goods first.
To explain the lack of identifying themselves as Arabs by the resident Persians or Chinese, mostly agent (merchants) for their homeland, is because the term of Arab defines wild “uncivilized” inhabitants of the desert a reputation most unsavory, centuries of separateness during the long passage of time before the Prophet. These “the first Arabs” have unflattering descriptions such a “tent dwellers,” “untamed nomads,” “raiders,” “abductors for slave trade,” “ignorant and illiterate,” “superstitious,” “continually feuding; the sum up of definition being this famous self-description of a Bedouin Nomad: “I fight my brother, my brother and I fight our cousin, my brother, cousin and I fight the stranger.”
But, on the other hand, right to the 21st century the tribal world is of peoples most adequately defined according to their work: “goat-herders ,” “camel drivers,” “sedentary agriculturalists” “ traders,” “musicians,” “story tellers,” whose capability astounded the travelers in their company socially; they were protective hosts, to the point of sacrificing food and guides to safety,” also, “shepherds” and uncanny land navigators, such descriptions that seem almost bi-polar when considering the equally valid descriptions stated above as well as the Bedouin mindset of freedom, wildness, wariness and pride. It is difficult to categorize these wanderers and wayfarers. The Bedouin for all their diverse clan loyalties perturb the mind trying to make a simple description. But the tribal Arab, whether nomad or sedentary was obviously worthy of the attention of God as He was about bestow, to raise up the polytheistic, pagan wanderers to a world mark in proof of the inherent greatness of which, then, only God could know.
Muhammad, as a Young Man~
Names, according to tribal custom were known by tribal inheritance to succession, inclusive of ancestry. Muhammad would, by that code so entrenched, introduce himself by his paternal links that brought him by his tribe’s position recognition and honor. Any name carried name of one’s father’s father, and who was his father, and which tribal affiliation is claimed. So the name of Muhammad goes: Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim. (ie. the father Qasim of his father Muttalib of the House of Hashim.
And an often used Calligraphic of “Muhammad:”
Muhammad often escaped the noisy city of Mecca to meditate in some of the cooler caves on nearby Mt.Hera — This was where Jabril — or as we know the name Gabriel — appeared before Muhammad and though illiterate Muhammad was commanded, “Read! Read in the Name of the Lord!” And this thunderclap (for Muhammad) began the history of Islam. At the time of the appearance to Muhammad in his retreat — the cave at Mt. Hera, Muhammad had been a young merchant who guided transport camels’ to coastal ports and then, once at port, his it was to oversee their goods’ proper disposition. Muhammad was so trusted he gained fame, being titled “Amin”, the trusted one. He was married to his dearly beloved business partner, Khadijah and together they shared a relatively prosperous household in the city of Mecca, with three daughters one, the famed Fatimih, and two adopted sons one his orphaned nephew, Ali, and the other a slave, Zaid, whom he had freed but then. by Zaid’s plea to stay, Zaid was adopted. It was Khadijah his wife, who was the first to believe in Muhammad having been chosen as God’s Messenger, and it was she who calmed his panic of the experience at the cave, by assuring her husband of his sanity when the summons from Gabriel had so unnerved him.
Having described the tribes of the desert of the Arabian Peninsula, as certainly not a unified entity, all would agree is fair. They were disparate and each clan was out for their own aims. But they — by the hundreds — tribes and clans, large and small, transient and agrarian, gathered for pilgrimage in Mecca which had been made safe by a tribe- wide truce calling for weapon-free by the time the prophet Muhammad was beginning his mission. (This was a House (Tribe) of Hashim accomplishment.) Trade and pilgrimage to the Kab’ah in Mecca was their ostensible draw there but the atmosphere of revelry had its own draw. The Kab’ah housing 365 idols, each clan had its favorite god, and household members likewise theirs; and the stone, lodged in a corner — this! was a special stone and was core of importance to the Kab’ah and to the pilgrims.
Of course, the divine commandment we now mostly understand by collective tradition is that such a manner of idol worship is anathema in God’s Laws. Monotheism has been long practiced by Jews, and subsequently from that Judaic link, polytheism was forbidden to Christians. And they too, to be Christian, converted from idol worship and had come to attest monotheism as a Christian witness of faith. And this Law of belief in but one God given to the Jews and then after the Christians hearken back to the original Testament of Abraham’s days of forced exile for his refusal to bow before the idols of his father. These are held as sacred stories, lessons teaching submission, which centuries later became the foundation of Islam and carried forward from Judaic Law to Christian Law out of the God-Command of those biblical ancient laws. The Command in the Teachings of Muhammad came fresh to his world to include the tribal peoples of the desert into the brotherhood of monotheism: thus, the three faiths’ all have in stages agreed to follow the One God-covenanted to His people in the Ten Commandments and will also comply by the Prophet’s teachings. Muslims will identify to the testimony of One God as the crown over a widening inclusiveness of being (also) God’s chosen people who are predestined to accept this ancient Commandment. So, what was first among the ancient commands of God? Begin to retrace to (Exodus 20:2, 3, 4, 5): “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me;” “Make no graven images …to bow down before;” and “Worship no god but Me:” these being the first four of the 10 Commandments, so obviously, display of idol worship has been primarily and clearly not the “will of God.” Will this be a tough sell?
While this law of God addresses the faithful to bow before One Creator as their single Jehovah, (Jews) Father Figure, (Christians) yet, in spite of the presence of both Jews and Christians sojourning in the midst of the Arabs, Christian and Jewish monotheist living among the Arabs held no influence [see Ref. 1] Pre-Islamic idol worship was its economic base and the generations’ way of life within the Nejd desert and Hejaz coastal inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula. Moreover, the favor of many gods to call upon for help was their proud boast of “who they were.”
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In thoughtful remembrance of Abraham now, scholars of ancient tradition have shown how monotheism had a start in the region of Mecca many generations prior to Judaism or Christianity. It may even have had a primitive beginning with Adam in the Book of Genesis of the Pentateuch. It is the story of Adam, laying the stone in place where was what would be called by Muslims later as the first Mosque and meeting there to, in paraphrase,” hear the first of God’s lessons to humankind,” thus, Adam, in laying down, purportedly, a sky-fallen stone, perhaps a meteor, was, according to speculation. to become the first setting of sacred ground as a gathering place for community worship of God. If this is legend or fact, either way, we can see that this story signals the awakening genesis of knowledge how humankind is taught lessons by God, and guided sequentially through His Mediators who bring God’s Word to a people. And that there is a consistency comfortable to the Arab that there is physical as well as spiritual lineage, first with Adam and Eve. This firstness is a firstness of but a segment of the whole of humanity, the world is still much unknown, but the details to delve into this statement might set a stream of words that are quite ready to be spoken, but in a different book. So permit me to stay with the Judaeo-Christian-Muslim lineage for this is our purpose here.
So, The legend that connects Adam to Abraham is of a stone that metaphorically reminds the faithful of the Covenant established by God to humankind at the era of time when Adam’s stone “altar”was laid out and marked. And theoretically this stone may be designated as God’s first altar and a Covenant of “more to come” — as was God’s Promise — and was the same stone to become described in a millennial latter day as a relic of that first stone laid in place within the walls of the Ka’bah in Mecca. The stone remnant may in this way signify the eternal presence of God in our lives and assurance of closeness, of His Laws cyclically abrogated and added as social conditions evolve,the eternal laws and the time-allotted ordinances and principles that are to be obeyed with honor and ever protected.
And there is a parallel legend, we look at because it is relevant to the cultural lineage minded Muslims: This legend dips back to the earlier life of Ismael, and now mentioned as it is germaine to Islam. This aspect of theological scholarship is as a backbone in a deeply rooted tribal claim that to the Muslim sense brings legitimacy to their claim to righteous place in the line of Gods’ favor between ancient firstness of Adam’s to Abraham’s, and thence to his first born Ismael who was by Abraham the prophet’s own designated heir to the tribes of Arabia. Ismael is the paternal chieftain link to the Arabs. That by Abraham as father to Ismael, laying down of a black stone, (same ?) Abraham together with Ismael , placed the symbol to mark Ismael’s role as chosen guide for the tribes to monotheism. Back in Sinai, we know, the well beloved Isaac was given as heir by Abraham to guide the Jews. Ismael was to be Abraham’s son and heir for the tribal peoples of Paran — perforce, the Muslim paternal link from Abraham passed through to Ismael to the people of the Qur’an.
And, why was Ismael in this wasteland located in proximity to Mecca? Return now to the the stage of events after the child Ismael was led by Abraham to his sacrifice at the altar which was happily interrupted and resolved, by God, (with Gabriel again as God’s messenger who found a substituted sacrifice in the ram as you remember.) In this time Abraham’s second son Isaac had been born to Sarah, (finally). Then for reason of Sarah’s disapproval of both Hagar and Ismael’s imposing presence, Abraham led his maid Hagar and their child Ismael from the household of Sarah — Abraham, did this in obedience to the commanding word of God through Gabriel, to remove them to a distant place in the dessert of Paran, and having done so, this obedient and beloved favorite Chosen of God, Abraham, returned to Sarah. Abraham still with fatherly love for Ismael would travel to visit Ismael and Hagar, and to guide his son Ismael to the duty to bring to the tribes around the Hejaz or Paran the Teachings of a single God — being that Abraham was God’s Messenger and His Teaching for that Day. The drop off place of Hagar and Ismael was in the God-forsaken dunes of dry desert where after days of heat and no more provisions, by the help of an angel a well (Zan Zan) was uncovered saving the lives of mother and son. Time passes and now Ismael is grown and a tribal chief — a trustworthy leader who achieved renown, and who for all the succeeding generations, was still revered as a father figure for the desert inhabitants who came to call themselves Ismaélites and were still a clan, right to the day of Muhammad’s appearance. This story of the son Ismael was kept in memory generation to generation, even though the Monotheism preached by Ismael did not take root among the Arab Ismaélites of succeeding generations, that is, until the Day the new Dispensation of Islam lit the Arabian skies.
Consider now: how could it be possible that a fiercely independent, tribal and polytheistic polyglot world, so widely dispersed geographically and how, psychologically, a cataclysm of reformation in the disciplines of religion, or, how could the latter degraded tribal world become united, into a single cohesion of faith is beyond what we can imagine. Such a change of heart could only happen through the strength of a prophet of God who was given divine inspiration to accomplish this miracle of conversion.
Muhammad, the Announcer of Glad-Tidings
Mecca, the city under the banner of the Quraysh’ tribe did not provide a welcome to the reforms being taught by the prophet Muhammad; the relatives of the prophet sneered at his announcement of the will of God he was divine intermediary for asserting that there is but one God to worship. A few rose in response to his summons to God’s new laws; His followers grew in numbers, but the Qurayysh tribe of Mecca and its allied clans’ persecution against the prophet that aroused harm, not only to Muhammad but to the band of followers: the first Muslims.
While the prophet resided in Mecca immense sorrows engrossed him, one after the other. First and most harsh was the death of his dearly beloved wife Khadijih. He was sorely grieved for his loss of Khadijih, so much so that it concerned the rather small band of new believers. Then, not long after the death of Khadijih, his uncle-protector of clan support also died, leaving Muhammad to his hostile kin. And in that world at that time this is disaster. His clan quickly disavowed Muhammad, and went so far as to engage mercenaries to murder him! Being out-casted by a tribe was as good as a death sentence, for no protection was accessible for the outcast. That peril urged resettlement and plans were put together to seek a safe haven. First, Muhammad sought protection in Ta’if, a pleasing oasis village. But the chiefs of Ta’if refused his plea, telling the people to stone the prophet(which they did!). Back in Mecca to recoup, the sorrows heaped high for the prophet and in great part for his followers for likewise being excluded from society’s benefits, even of marriage, or from making any mercantile or social contacts in Mecca — from social or mercantile association a blockade was formed. At this time, the prophet called out to God his sorrows:
O God! I grieve before Thee for the feebleness of my powers and the insignificance of of my being amongst men. O God,the Most Merciful! Thou art the Lord of the weak and Thou art my Lord!
And then….God did answer his Messenger the prophet Muhammad by a vision of a journey. The prophet then and set this vision in the Qur’an: It is titled Bani-Isra’il (The Night Journey): Surah 17:1 [1]
Glory be to Him, who carried His servant by night from the Holy Mosque to the Further Mosque, the precincts of which We have blessed, that We might show him some of Our signs. He is the All-Hearing, the All Seeing.
Mosque is place of collective worship, as you know. And the Night Journey is interpreted to mean Muhammad, the prophet of God was lifted by the arch angel Gabriel from Mecca to Jerusalem. The Muslim world has accepted that this Sura signifies a literal “ascent” of the body of Muhammad to Jerusalem. Thus, this verse is interpreted as a literal experience, and is fundamental of Islamic theology. But, there came a latter day challenge to that interpretation by a 19th Century Shaykhi School within Islam which assigned a metaphorical interpretation of this surah.
Universally, however, such a sanctified verse, as any verse in the Qur’an is, is indeed sacred and laden with untold numbers of mystical significance. But by sheer literal implication of this mystical vision, theology has it that once the prophet was in Jerusalem, in this transmigration of the Prophet — he stood upon, or as was also suggested, carried to the far away mosque (taken by the believers to mean Jerusalem) upon a rock, so the rock was thus, sacred, and blessed. And so this being given a literal interpretation explains the intensity of the drive Muslims had to establish Jerusalem as their third most holy spot on earth (as they did) after Mecca and Medina.The photo below is the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, the third mosque built historically, and integrated within “The Noble Sanctuary” which includes(The Dome of the Rock) all of which is inspired by and dedicated to that vision of the Night Journey of the Qur’an.
The persecution suffered at the hands of the idol worshipers of Mecca by the prophet’s disdainful kinsmen and the danger this posed through their city wide influence left no choice but to plan an exodus or Hegira (meaning exile) of the Muslims of Mecca. The plan was to move to Medina, his birth place, then called Yathrib. The Muslims, led by Muhammad, would leave as inconspicuously as possible in batches. The choice of Medina had appeal. It was a better city, cooler and healthier, and was where Muhammad held high hopes for safety and where Islam could establish its “base.”At this time, Islam had been embraced by numbers of Medanites, so the plan was set for emigrating there. The believers, leaving Mecca in stages, included the prophet’s adopted son Ali, Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman, who will be future major players, uprooted from Mecca to the safety of Medina and support the mission of Muhammad. Now we keep watch how these closest advisers to the Prophet, become the first ones in succession to Muhammad, to be its “caliph“s, the rulers of Islam, in the years to come.
The years counted in the Islamic calendar mark from that arrival (Hegira)to Medina. They are counted A.H., After Hegira. Year 1 began upon the arrival of these Muhajarun (immigrants of Mecca) to live as guests of the gracious Ansar (Helpers) of Medina.
Let us now consider the aspect of “conquest.” The Western slant to the growth of Islam was due to military conquest and forced conversion.
Conquest —
(What are we talking about?)
One point of view of Islam’s history, which we hear today, is that its expansion is to have been “won” by forcing submission to Islam by conquest of the sword” — but to Islam’s point of view “conquest” is termed “conversion.” The historical accounting of incidents we read by scholars of East and scholars of Mideastern Studies in the West, is in perspective which supports the picture of Islam’s expansion by conversion which began its undertaking in the prophet’s lifetime and brings a more true and plausible story to mind.
Based on records, we may again hypothesize, this scene in the early years of the prophet’s residing in the city of Medina and leading his followers to the peninsula’s outward clans to spread Islam: Imagine that in the dunes, near an oasis two days journey from Medina is a group of advisers in the prophet’s tent. Muhammad, the prophet is consulting with the best of his planners. And Muhammad’s protectors from Medina now blend with the followers from Mecca, and are bivouacked near an oasis tribal village. And in the tent is the prophet looking at a prepared map that marked the boundary lines showing where Islam was, with space behind those lines being where Islam was not — at least, not yet.
It was for the prophet to consider that oasis village, its reputation, and so on, and weigh the reception he may get. Would it be acceptance or rejection of the message brought to the chief in the first overtures? Rejection of Islam by the village headman did not call for invasion, though, because forced belief was not Islam. For “Islam” also in its Arabic are the same characters of “peace.” But if it be rejection with hostile intent to impede Islam’s presence by force, that required decisive military defensive conquest.
And then with a new area of land turned over to Muhammad, or perhaps allied-friendly to his leadership but not submitting to an uncommitted Islamic sovereignty, he personally, or through his deputies, would, with greatest patience follow up with parleys to clarify Islam’s tenets and how the new faith will bring greater benefit to their tribe. But forced belief was not the response by the Muslim armies under the prophet. Peace reigned in the region so long as there was no subversive activity against Islam.
So, in this hypothetical tent, the prophet met challenges with straight forward diplomacy — he consulted his companions and weighed their opinions. And by his wisdom moved the cause of God forward. He, of course, had the wisdom of a prophet, as how Islam was to be presented: Islam, being a unifier, bringing a new paradigm to bring tribes to a broader unity that made all men as true brothers. Islam’s expansion within that vast land of desert was his immediate goal — his destiny — his challenge. Muhammad well may have said, “We will have this map showing Islam’s boundary line singly surrounding the whole of the Arabic Peninsula!” And so it came to be. By the time of the prophet’s ascension this expansion of Islam covering the whole of the great peninsula was totally won — a total victory. The return of Muhammad to his home of Mecca, together with 10,000 army support, easily gained its gates, and straight away he with a regiment approached the Ka’bah and removed every last idol, just leaving alone the niche which housed a figurine of the Madonna with the Christ child. That he ordered to be left in its place. And this is that victory meant by the prophet to show the way to claim the Will of God for gaining other lands under the universal spirit of larger loyalties than ever before had been ordained.
When hostile powers threatened war, such as happened when Arab Christians joined together with tribal nomad warriors, adding their numbers to combine with troops ordered by Byzantium, such a united front to meet and defeat Islam forced a challenge of proof of Islam’s being of God’s will; because the cause of threat and war actions were purely for denial of the possibility of righteousness in a universal purpose, and that Islam’s efforts to mediate in parleys with rulers and tribal chiefs were for the noble purpose of reforming pagan idol worship which was to emblazon a wider acceptance of one Creator. The response of raising swords was created by rejection by those rulers to that declaration of Authority and bearing arms against that claim.
From what was called the “Coastal Hejaz” along the Arabian sea to the interior of the peninsula’s vast Nejd desert wilds, was land being drawn into Islam with its inhabitants equals as brothers, learning new laws with new requirements in worship such as prayer, gestures for prayer, even social greetings, and charity; all newness unfolding to create this difference between the old and new form of faith.
With what speed this vast area of “conquest” was won under Islam’s march! This sweep of the Peninsula inevitably coming under the Islamic control was shocking to the two great powers of that time, namely, the Sassanian power, under Chroses III, enthroned in beautiful Ctesiphon, Iraq; likewise alarmed was Byzantine Eastern Church Patriarch, Heraclitus of Constantinople, under advisement, of the pope of the Latin Church to protect his domains. The power Byzantium had in its day was of a great empire whose lands were bordered right to the outer fringes of the Arabian Peninsula. The Peninsula, being such an immense area in process of being planted with the new green standards of Islam, was being won quickly in comparison with anything known heretofore. And this so shocked and alarmed both Sassanian Chroses III, and Byzantium Patriarch Heraclitus, that there are records that show the inveterate enemies actually exchanged envoys bearing proposals to align as allies against Islam. But no truce was to be had aligning Christian power with Mazdean Sassanian power — mainly because the Sassanian Empire had its own problems, and was entering its throws of decline. And, as the inevitable skirmishes arose, those militant hostile challenges to Islam’s expansion and consolidation actually served to strengthen Muslim self-identity.
The Nejd and Hejaz inhabitants, that is, the nomads, the merchants, the agricultural date and spice growers, the clans of rival tribal groups, chiefs and rulers, the Christian Copts and Nestorians, and those who had fled to the remote refuges of the peninsula to escape the church condemnation of their teachings as “heretic,” likewise, the upper class Jews who had their separate private enclaves within the old Yathrib, now Medina, and also Persian Mazdeans, mostly making their livelihood trading on the Hejaz coast, all these kaleidoscopic elements, now were welcomed and blended — equal in one identity: Muslim — Muslims purely upon their free choice. The great welcome given to the first Arabs of the Paran- desert of the crossings of Abraham then Moses, those very “wastelands,” and by patience, the Bedouins (which were a tough sell) they too finally testified to the claim of Islam. Now they were Muslim, and they were won to Islam by their choice to submit in faith. Islam means “Submission to the will of God,”And as Arabic is a written the same is in the characters of “Peace.” So the tribes who enrolled came into Islam by their own decision which then was directly under jurisdiction of the prophet having located his capital city in Medina. Enrolled Muslims, in great part, joined in mass under their tribal chiefs’ conversion. Now they were Muslim, and they were won to Islam by free choice to submit in faith.
The Qur’an —
Book I enumerated Islam’s fundamental Laws for the Muslim faithful, but an explanation how its laws were derived from its holy book, the Qur’an serves to contextualize its formation. Take a moment now to gather in, “what is this Book, the Qur’an, that frames life for the Muslim world? Moreover, how did it get its form?”
So unique from either Judaic or Christians’ genesis, among the Arabs was an amazing oral literacy. Generation to generation Arabs, were, because life often depended upon it, trained to listen, to memorize and recite verbatim what they heard. It was a matter of life and death upon meeting strangers to be able to recite your tribe’s affiliations, your clan lineage, and your status according to who your protectors were. Words again, in another facet transcended the practical to the realm of poetry which was a passionate diversion that made a hard life lively. So poetry spoken or sung was the traditional Arabic life with word memorization by ear matching the input precisely and pervasive enough to assure correctness of each word. These attributes, so natural to the Arab, made a confident background to formulate the Qur’an precisely as the prophet recited it in its sacred aspect as revelation from God. Literate Scribes would take down the Revelation in writing. (Muhammad was illiterate.)These two skills of memorization and recitation to exact replication of what was heard were within the skills of special companions traveling the desert of the Nejd and the coastal port cities with the prophet.
His magnetic presence drew to him the highest tribal chiefs of both the desert and coastal inhabitants. Consequently, growth of Islam netted territories to Islam as they became tamed by the prophet throughout the whole of the peninsula. Muhammad, the prophet, was constructing by words of guidance a new social paradigm of inclusiveness that extended the tribal affiliation into a stronger brotherhood of Muslim identity.
Of course of the important reforms, he was absolutely clear about Islam’s foundation of the singleness of God. His tasks then were settling firmly the new foundation of Islam as a totally new way of life and removing the idols of old worship. The removal of idols would have been truly a thunderbolt to tribes who had been polytheistic pagans for many centuries. One at least begged for their favorite idol, “just leave us this one?” The answer was “no!” and the tribe in submission, complied. The minutia of custom in the former life was circled in paganism and tribalism. The accomplishment of God’s will in such an undertaking is one of many of the miracles of Islam.
Muslims say today that the miracle of Muhammad was the word of God. Every victory won was under Muhammad’s charismatic power which was born of God. So as he accomplished his mission he was, at the same time, receiving and disseminating divine revelation. And these spontaneous moments of revelation were taken in, recorded and memorized by his “reciters” wherever the prophet was at the time. Being with Muhammad, the protection of what is sacred was understood. And as said the “reciters” as were called had exactitude to what the Messenger of God had revealed. So this was the Qur’an — seeded “on the go,” we might say, by the Words streamed through the will of God, Muhammad, Messenger of God, with divine epistles revealed continually during the lifetime of the prophet. The grueling march that ultimately covered the whole peninsula was so dominant in this period, that during the time of the prophet there was no sitting down to compile the holy Qur’an; that was to come under the years of a subsequent ruler of the early caliphate.
Islam and Wives and Rights of Women: For the sake of presenting one of the most persistent complaints about the validity of the faith of Islam, Book I sought to speak to this harsh judgement put upon the whole of Islam for his betrothal to thirteen wives.
Conditions of Times and Circumstances are needed to be understood for satisfactory conversation — to appreciate context. One may feel the immense pressure as military aggression against Islam came soon and heavily from all quarters. From Mecca; and within Medina under foment from the “displaced” leadership base of old Medina , now the“City of the Prophet;” also, out on the plains of the Njed desert, near borders there amassed armed Persian soldiers whose orders were to throttle the Muslims; war was also waged concurrently with warriors of the Christian Arabs who joined as allies with the Byzantines and all their war equipment bearing down with vows to annihilante “Islam.” All established rulers with their forces were solidly seeking to exterminate Islam. Why? For what to their alarm of rapid growth of this Muslim Faith in this vast desert meant as an imagined threat to their power. Regarding wives of the prophet this relates: Aggressive war actions against this new Faith was costly to the Muslim armies, for the losses, the downed defenders having made life-sacrifices to their nascent faith in Islam.
Although Muslim armies more often won those battles than lost them, still losses of Muslim soldiers and officers were rigorous. The question came, then, of widows’ status; so the prophet called for a compassionate need for their protection. Customs of that day in the tribal world were of a society with no recognition of women having rights once they were unprotected by a male family member. (Still so for much of that world.) Some of the widows, who, securing their presence in the household of the prophet were provided the only protection and safety of those days. And this situation is of several of the wives of the prophet who were widows, one even older than the prophet. As well, these war widows were also similarly provided for by the host Medenites who mutually (by following Qur’anic marriage laws ) did become absorbed into their households — if she assented by proper offer of protection by marriage.
Now to take a look at the story of A’isha, the very young wife, age: nine years, and this story is well known and true; although it is also related that Ashiyih was thirteen. This betrothal was for reason that the child was the daughter of his general and was Muhammad’s closest adviser, Abu Bakr. She was the first child born into a Muslim house , and bringing the two clans, that of Abu Bakr of the Banu-Taym tribe and the Hashimite Qurayysh Tribe of the House of Muhammad, was signal of a “statement” a pledge of formal recognition in affiliating formerly separated houses as brothers. Abu Bakr had given every thing of his wealth in complete support to Muhammad from its first days. (In Mecca at Islam’s start, Abu Bakr was the third or fourth to believe in him.) Abu Bakr fully expected this sacrifice to be honored by this arranged marriage of his daughter; And this was not outside of cultural conditions of that time. This type of contract was the working system of gift giving in that day. Furthermore, the history of this marriage has it that there was no wedding celebration for A’isha upon the nuptials, as her child years did not conduce to any such festivities.
Into the blooming ranks of Muslims the common former tribe world customary uses of women (like commodity) were identical with Continental Europe of the same middle age now being of our study. Arranged marriage was rigid custom for centuries, into centuries ahead, of Europe’s royal houses right into the day of Queen Victoria, looking forward-back from this time of the sixth and seventh centuries spoken of in Book I. Europe specialized in multiple monogamous marriages; whereas the orient saw polygamy as a proof of status, and reform of this custom was brought into line by Muhammad who introduced law toward a more reasonable four wives according to the Qur’an. Its marriage laws regarding multiple marriages with the limit of four wives states that four wives may permitted as long as each wife is treated equally. That this equality of treatment is impossible is implying monogamy is the most godly of choice.
Then comes a most interesting lesson [*note 3]by the prophet taking a thirteenth, and last, wife, Maryam. Maryam was a “gift” sent him by the King of Egypt. She was Christian, the king’s slave, and was the only wife, other than Khadijah, to bear Muhammad a child, though the boy did not live past childhood. But it was the immense love Muhammad had for Khadijih that had such a heritage of woman’s place of honor noted by the prophet of God — She was his only wife until her death — and this was known throughout the rank and file of the faithful. Revelation in the Qur’an put many an admonition regarding the proper status of womanhood so as to lift attentiveness to their rights among the faithful.
Book I Closes:
The prophet Muhammad became gravely ill, perhaps by a poisoning, perhaps due to pneumonia. He had been in a state of coma, but came around and seemed, although trembling with weakness, to rally enough to attend the crowds gathered in his mosque. It was to be his last sermon and the prophet asked if he had done well and accomplished his mission. His followers replied that indeed he had! Soon thereafter the prophet of God, Muhammad ascended; peace be upon him!
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1-Refer to: Baha’i Publishing “Abraham, Three Wives Five Religions” Frances Worthington
2-Refer to: Six Lessons on Islam, BPT — Marzieh Gail
3- From the Qur’an: The position of the Prophet of God, as God’s Messenger is not subject to the criticism of the faithful: He is above their position and their honor is subject to His revelation.
There is no fault in the Prophet, touching what God has ordained for him-God’s wont with those who passed away before; and God’s commandment is doom decreed; who were delivering the Messages of God, and were fearing Him and fearing not any one except Him; and God suffices as a reckoner. Muhammad is not the father of any one of your men, but the Messenger of God, and the Seal of the Prophets; God has knowledge of everything.
Book II ~ The Caliphate Years
The Caliphs; The Qur’an — Source of Religious Law; Betrayal and Rebellion; Umayyad, Abbasid, Fatimid — Isma’ili Dynastic Periods.
The prophet left this world with no will or testament in writing as to who would be his successor. Absent any named successor by the prophet, an election held by his closest advisers put up and elected, the pre-eminent companion of the prophet, Abu Bakr. The expectation of many, and for good reasons of tradition plus the prophet’s avowed favor, was that the leadership would be inherited by his adopted son Ali. But Ali pledged his fealty to Abu Bakr and thus averted any potential for division at such a painful and tender time of confusion. And this began the new era, post the prophet’s living presence, as a “Caliphate” — a generally steady but adapting to changes in evolving reigns of caliphs. Rule of the faithful through the caliphate lasted for spotty periods between greatness, perfidy, and mediocrity and rebounds for over a thousand years. These years shone with greatness more unique and grand than any period in the history of the world, but the dark shadows also came as a warning to the future generations, yet the years of Islam’s dominance in these years always revived, in new guises, productive and brimming with evidence of resilience for renewal and resurgence.
The Rashidun. That is a term of titles for the first four caliphs. Rashidun, meaning the “Rightly Guided” Caliphate, ended when, after the 4th Imam caliph, Ali, the adopted son of the Prophet was murdered under the ambitions of the Umayyad House, and as the caliphate came to be under the Umayyad Clan for successive generations until 750 CE., ground for cleavage within Islam was plowed. Many were of thought that Ali should have been the first Caliph by the prophet of God’s frequent choice of being his deputized counselor for important parlays. But also by customary lineage claims was the expectation for Ali to be successor. But all points of view, then and now, agree that there was no revelation nor written testament that placed the prophet’s well beloved son-in-law, Ali in appointment as successor to rule after the passing of the prophet. So began the Rashidun period. The sum total of the caliphates had several distinct periods: the Rashidun, the Umayyad, the Abbasid, and the caliphates that ran parallel in time of the Fatimid/Isma’ili this one distant in geography and likewise disavowed still by Sunni and Shi’ah Islam alike; and finally the Emirates then caliphates of Spain. [3] Islam under the Emirates in the Iberian Peninsula of Andalusia, as Spain was called in its Muslim Moorish days is described in Book III in the following pages.
More on the Qur’an
As to the Qur’an, as alluded to earlier, it was the third Rashidun Caliph — Uthman — who (by most accounts) collated all Revelation of the prophet; and this would have been a most daunting project. The prophet would receive revelation spontaneously. As the prophet Muhammad was journeying throughout the vast desert Peninsula on his campaigns, and the Qur’an was revealed in ongoing missions of campaigns. Surahs (chapters) of the Qur’an were originally memorized. A special level of Arabic “Reciters” who were of generations of Arabs who had cultivated that skill of memorizing from listening, always accompanied the prophet for these skills. His scribes who accompanied the prophet accompanied him here and there, over the spread of the peninsula, as companions of the prophet and under his appointment to take down Revelation from the prophet. So such circumstance would preclude that Scripture was scattered, held onto in places throughout the land. Thinking about what constituted materials scribed upon, it was whatever materials were at hand at the time, for instance, sheep skin, leather saddles and leather parts, and woven hemp paper, even bone. But these reciters were thinning out. Two battles had been sorely lost with an alarming number of reciters among the fallen. So it became crucial to the preservation of Islam for generations ahead to bring in every sheaf of the Qur’an to Medina, “The City of the Prophet” where the caliphate resided. So, under the caliph’s scrutiny, together with selected remnants of reciter-scholars and close companions of the prophet, a purposefully tight band of transcribers, put together the Qur’an from near and far in those distant places where the Qur’an’s surahs were left behind. Two scribes had to agree to every nuance of every surah.
So the Qur’an was bound to exactitude of its divine revelation, with all that was not corroborated as revelation destroyed, so the agreed wholeness of the Qur’an came to comprise Islam’s holy book — in hand — with the same scriptures read and recited to today. Not a surah nor its location in the Qur’an has been altered since that feat under caliph Uthman was accomplished in the span of time termed the early “rightly guided” caliphate. After this was accomplished, the Qur’an, in the Arabic tongue became accessible to be taught and disseminated throughout the Islamic world of that time, and as it now is: for all time.
The Qur’an is not organized in a sequential order from the earliest to the latest periods of the duration of the Prophet’s life-mission. Another aspect of the Qur’an is that its surahs sometimes have specificity to a timely and earthly situation at hand, and are relative in directives to that situation, while other and probably most of its Writings are allegorical and universal in scope. Interestingly, for those researching common themes in diverse faiths, it is, likewise for Islam, to find repeating themes of prophesy and to read of a “Promised Day” of Resurrection or Return. And holy scriptures and traditions bear another commonality: A particular Verse or sutrahs or surah which seems literal, actually may have indecipherable “locked” meanings that actually may be, in a latter time, freshly understood, (by the grace of God.) Time it takes to show its metaphor, and such sacred verses laden with many layers of meaning are marvelously also of universality, and such insights are there to become unlocked by a later- day divine Revelation. [2] But one, no matter his human capacities and recognition, must definitely bear mind to their own status of weak fallibility (compared to God and His Chosen Apostles) when assuming inferences of the holy word to be “correct”and accounted as righteously sacred.
The Qur’an and Law:
The subject of Islamic Law is relevant when it is understood that the Qur’an is the highest authority of Islam to the Muslim world. Laws that distinguish how a Muslim’s acts of faith differ from adherents of other faiths are helpful to assess this specific claim the Qur’an has on Muslims for every day worship. In the time of the lifetime of the prophet, Muhammad, Qur’anic laws were being revealed progressively and as converts entered, and new followers would incorporate the laws in their daily lives. Primarily, essentially, in Islam the Law indicates that State and Religion are one entity. And laws of prayer, fasting, marriage, inheritance, pilgrimage, protection of the faith, taxation, charity have been ensconced within the daily life of the Muslim since the days of the life of the prophet and link that past to the present day.
Specific rulings have been issued under an evolving system of jurisprudence with an additional resource for judgments derived from the Hadith. The Hadith is a collection of sayings or actions of the prophet remembered and recorded as quasi sacred documentation. These sayings and remembered acts of the prophet are then referred to as “sunnah.”
As said, there is nothing but open testimony that Church and the State are one entity.
The robed, turbaned men who dispense rulings and interpretation of law are of a cleric class recognized for their mastery of Arabic and the Qur’an and Hadith. Since the early days when Islam became diffused and run by a single powerful rule of its caliphate, or emirate, and sultanate, the evolution of rule has come under varied guidance of a vast array of clerics. By this application of statehood in Islam there are many schools with its own clerics whose influence upon their congregation is circumscribed by locale and other differences, such as language and culture and cleric’ individual capacities and bent. Inside these smaller circumferences of influence, the Muslim clerics are the civil judges of law. These clerics are hierarchical in their power and deferentially addressed as mujatahids, imams, ulama, mufti,and also more contemporarily: ayatolla, imam-jumih, sheikh, and includes the long line of common authority within all Islam’s sects, that of mullas. These are those whose position is that of standing before the faithful making rulings of law which focus on interpretation of the Qur’an and its laws. Also rulings of law are made, when necessary, through consensus with other titled judges, but interpreted according to the bent of line of various schools or sects of Islam. And as for a contemporary reality in this process the stories are of inconsistencies of judgement and which noted rather distills the appearance of order in a generalized way; as there are famous local stories of the mujatahid whose gavel goes in favor for the plaintiff and then through the process of retrial turns around the verdict to go in favor of the defendant, as the cleric speaks of having a different “inspiration.” This makes for busy courts, I would guess!
Land Conquest and Faith Expansion Under Caliphates —
War, with all mayhem that accompanies it, was part of expansion that came with the victories of conquest of the great empires such as the Persian Achaemenid, Greek, Roman, Sassanian, and so on: those ages that came and disappeared, or revived to disappear again. Wars to conquer had been means to extend power throughout all ages, to the latter day, Spain Portugal, Venice, Ottoman, then England, Netherlands,Germany, Italy, Japan, America. But, for the vast expansion of lands in Islam in days of the caliphate and emirs right to the Crusades there is difference, although not always so precise as originally was the Way of the Qur’an.
Conquered lands were claimed for Islam as they succumbed to the power of Muslim victors. It was for Muslim generals won “righteously” for reason that the chiefs and rulers’ reaction was militarily against Muslim rule in its claim to be pursuing a divine mandate to reform the current state of established confusion about monotheism as well as proper observances as God willed. Islam was defending rights given of God as were theirs. We noted above that the chief or ruler of a territory was free to accept or reject the claim of Muhammad being God’s chosen messenger. Only did jihad for defense become the means of protection of this new faith. Only by aggression against Isalm did the the Muslim armies muster and meet their enemy forces; most often (but definitely, not always) winning those battles — whereupon, upon when victory was assured, did the Muslim armies lay claim to the territory and its booty and spoils of the vanquished used as pay for the soldiers. Most gratifying to see the records accounting upon these victories, that the over-powered of that land were treated well. By order of the caliph the acts of absorption were prescribed and benevolent. Non-Muslims were protected, reasonably taxed, given rein to pursue their own spiritual traditions when they did not convert to Islam, nor was the new power of Muslim over-lordship to require wives to convert to Islam if they did not wish to. By fiat those of the Book (Christians) refereed to as dhimmi were to be allowed their churches, their synagogues, and even their many gods if they were pagan. So, when the unfortunate response of war and battle came, it came as contest to the caliphate because of antagonism fueling the deniers’ war spirit.
The wisdom of those means of calling the Muslim armies to arms were of the rigor of those times. Moreover it was absolutely vital to protect this faith of God. The Eastern Church of Byzantine, the Western Church of Rome as we see in this Book III calls to war against Islam was a manifest denial of Islam being God’s Will, followed by the power of rule amassing all war components to demolish Islam and thus the threat to Islam was to be answered. Caliphates had enemies with ill intentions, just as the prophet had had in his lifetime. The specifics of these situations are dramas told in Book II. Likewise were the headstrong deviations of the core spirit of righteous defense.
What was best for the survival of Islam required a decisive reply and this was “Jihad,” righteous war. Its “call to muster” response also had the power to unify the Muslims in its cause. They had to rally and muster forward and that brought identity to them to carry on in defense, as conjoined to testifying to the will of God.
The good news is also in Book II as it described marvels of achievement by the Umayyad Dynasty, then progresses to the great golden era of the Abbasid Dynasty, and subsequently, the spread and high level of life made possible under the Fatimid/Isma’ili dynasty. Summarily, new heights of civilization resurged, almost as if competitively, for each dynasty’s heyday. With territories expanded abroad, the world of Islam came to a vast population of Muslims who followed the admonitions of the Qur’an, taken at its Word to bear witness to living by the spirit of the Qur’an with surahs preaching friendly universal inclusiveness to all believers and cooperation with others as friends. Arts, Sciences, Mathematics, Navigation and new healing arts advancing medicine and diagnosis, also, entertainments such as the dynamic Berber music with a new introduction of musical instruments, and the flourishing of poetic expression, then: such marvels of craft-wares, so revealing of high-culture, with offerings that wealth was easy to attract. Industry was visible everywhere, everyone bustling! Actually These accounts to great degree describe the three caliphates at their apogee, and especially fit the descriptions of the Abbasid and Fatimid/Isma’ili caliphates which brought Mighty Wind of Islam to the end of Book II.
Also two seminal events that are precursor to the split of Islam into various sects which is described as the rise of “schools” of Islam. One unsettling event was the assassination of the 4th Caliph Ali as he slept;the other truly tragic maneuver was by the Umayyad army who, having not accepted the Imam Ali’s son and heir, Hussayn, amassed an encirclement of Husayn who was seeking to arrive to the capital to assume his role as heir to rule. On the Iraqi plains of Karbila Imam Husayn was beheaded because of his blood relationship to the prophet and the logical claim to the leadership according to the expressed will of his father, the Imam Ali. The House of Umayyad was the root of this egregious and foul act.
Damascus was the Umayyad capital, and while awful ambitions of politicking were within its rule, vitality coming to Damascus with its influx of artisans, scholars, and scholars of every possible avenue of learning was also a great intense focus. The highest qualified among the intelligentsia of the medieval world were encouraged to participate in the building of a new civilization that the Arabs would be proud to be part of. All capabilities from any background, religious or class or nation were part of a great increase of knowledge and arts in Damascus in this period. It was magnificent. It was this combination of politics and civic refinement in this era of Arab rule — and what was to become a problem.
Directly as consequence of a wide perception of Arab arrogance for negligable Muslims outside the Arab background received due in being part of this developing civilization. And this caused revolution. A new Abbasid Era began after it dramatically and successfully amassed warriors in civil war against the Umayyad Arab rule.
Next stage of Islam began: It was beautiful Baghdad by the Tigris and Euphrates River where a confluence that the Golden Age of Islam sprung up and propelled Islam to the spur of modern world civilization. The Abbasid Caliphs in succession (for its period of cohesion) amassed every kind of pursuit, attracting the best and the smartest from every corner of the world, advancing and seeking to perfect all knowledge. Such was the most notable of the next caliphs’ ambitions. And, with great subsidized support from the caliphs the refinement of intellectual knowledge and arts came to great heights; Every kind of art was adorning its splendid architecture to add beauty to the new arrival in society called Halls of Learning (the first universities and libraries);there was no greater excitement for advancement of culture, and no greater yearning for world recognition of the splendors achieved — its height of accomplishments greater than anywhere else in the world during that age of Islam’s arrival into a great period characterized as the “adolescence,” of bravado, assertiveness, and proud identity.
Book II closes in appreciation to the eminent scholar, Dr. H.M. Balyuzi, his work, “Muhammad and the Course of Islam greatly guided my hand in writing “Mighty Wind of Islam. ” In widening our understanding of World of Islam, this paragraph of his is most succinct: he wrote:
“The civilization of Islam was neither Arab, nor Persian, nor Syriac. It had all those elements within its fold, and many more: Egypto-Coptic, Indian, Greek, Spaniard, Berber and Turkish. Jews, Christians, Muslims, Mazdeans, Sabeans, even Pagans were equally proud to rear its structure. Never before in the experience of mankind had monotheistic thought and pagan speculation found a congenial home in which to exist side by side, neither infringing on the other, neither sanctioning the other, neither assimilating the other. [4]
This phenomenon is today, spoken in Arabic, the word: “Ummah” Ummah speaks to this world-wide diversity of Muslims united in Islam.
Islam and its Spread, 632–750 CE
Notes
A. Allegorical Scripture, with expository analysis by author:
Reference: Dr. Sabir Afaqi Proofs of the Holy Quran (Regarding the Advent of Baha’u’llah) #37 p122
[1] Balyuzi, Muhammad and the Course of Islam, GR Geroge Ronald, Oxford, 1976, All Rights Reserved, 40
[2] See: Lights of Irfan Colloquium, Vol. 2 (2001) 99–117 Moojan Momen Baha’i Library On Line — Stages of the Soul article/reference to Qur’an Surah of Rum
[3] Balyuzi, MCI pp152, 153,154
[4]H.M. Balyuzi, Muhammad and the Course of Islam, GR George Ronald Oxford, 1976 All Rights Reserved, 289
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Book III — The Golden Age of Islam and its Challenges
Book III~
Ahead: Chapters 1 and 2: Isma’ili Fatimids in Cairo; Golden Age for Fatimid Empire; Andalusia and the Moors; Cordoba to Grenada — Great Golden Era of Al Andalus; Reconquista ; The Princes Alfonso; El Cid; Crusades and Crusaders. Chapters 3 and 4:The Latins and the Greeks; Fatimid decline and the Saljuks; Crusades and Crusaders; The Kurd Sultan (Ayyubid) Saladin: Crusade Period to the end game. The Mongols, Mamluks; Tamerlane; Ishma’il the fanatic Shia’h and the show down between The Shi’ah Isma’ilis vs. The Sultanate Sunni Ottomans;
Sum totally this summary of contents is a roster of protagonists and antagonists on the world stage of Islam. In the abstract it is the same story as today’s.
Chapter 1 — The Fatimid/Isma’ili Dynasty —
Mighty Wind of Islam, Book II left off with yet unsaid spectacular world-class contributions belonging to the Fatimid caliphate of Cairo. So we begin Book III back by stepping back somewhat by telling the Fatimid legacy which brought the world a mighty worthy status where the Dynasty’s nearly 300 years’ presence showed a chronicle of great freedom of thought as well as freedom of association under the Fatimid Isma’ilis.
Review that after the insurrection and murder of the revisionist Abbasid Caliph Mutwatakkil, “Nero of the Arabs” he was called, and that in 861 CE, the Turk Soldiers of Samara had become disgusted with this caliph’s ineptitude so the Samara general of the troops, in some sense of propriety of honor, himself entered the caliphs chambers, dagger in hand to finish off this lord of whom the soldiers had no respect. The Turks, you remember, perhaps, were originally conscripted to protect the caliphate but rose in rebellion to finish off this Abbasid remnant of what had been a great period until the Abbasid decline that culminated under the arrogant Mutwatakkil. The Turks were now in place of authority but knowing themselves incapable of the kind of power needed to hold the empire together set up, or, allowed to have set up a regime under their protection as before but one that espoused their most literal kind of Islam. From then on these rebels showed themselves zealots as of the Hanbali School of literalism and bigotry of the Ashari school [n.1]that brought with that fanaticism many terrors accompanying their self righteousness. The ensuing exodus of the intellectuals and the artists and creativity now starts — Many left Baghdad and its satellites of Iraq, and it was to Cairo or to the Iberian Peninsula (Spain) where the song makers, the poets, the intellectuals took their light that had so well illumined the halls of the Abbasid Dynastic Era years earlier. We return to the account of the exodus to Spain later after the Fatimid Period gets its due here.
There came upon the scene in Baghdad an announcement to the claim to rightful Imam/Caliphate to have been the son of Ishmael,, the sixth Imam; The claim was to cleave the Shia’h in half for there was disagreement for Ismai’l had died. His brother Muhammad was also deemed the sixth. But claim for Isma’il’s son Musa as the rightful seventh Imam was the genesis of the Isma’iliyyah movement. Its founder laid claim to lineage with the 6th Imam, and was by that linkage meant to be identified with the Shi’ah, which in its fundamental theology espouses lineage to the Prophet and his descendant Imams as being the only way Islam could be ruled justly. Isma’ili doctrine was built around expectation of the disappearance of the Imam Musa and awaiting his return. He was not dead, according to the Isma’ilis, as they preached, but in “occultation.” His return was to indicate the time of resurrection and he together with Christ will rule.
However, the Shi’ah of Baghdad were Persians, in the position of Officials under a caliphate set up by the Turks, but not working all that efficiently; these Persians were, at this point no longer adamant about the Shi’ah cause, as they had comfort, being ensconced as part of the thriving commerce and infrastructure of the weakened (name-only) caliphate of Baghdad, and did not rally to the Isma’ilis. Furthermore, the greater majority Shi’ah, were holding to the doctrine the Return of the 12th Imam, another with its own poignant story but also in “occultation,” and who are yet to this day known as “The Twelvers” — all the more reason that the Isma’ilis were accused of heresy and to be impostors, denounced by the Shi’ah and Sunni alike, thereby forcing the Isma’ilis to go in exile to Africa and form an independent sect or school.
So we know that the Isma’ilis held on and found a hearing among the Berbers and set up a capital in West Africa. After the region of North Africa was won the Caliphate looked across the Gulf to establish their power base from Cairo, Egypt. Then years of good governance caused the Fatimid/Isma’ili branch to prosper greatly and the economic boon is now briefly described to round out the picture. Their name also incorporated “Fatimih,” who was the iconic daughter of the prophet Muhammad whose husband was then the Imam Ali. The Fatimid/Isma’ili is the dual affiliation by name of the dynasty.
The Fatimids established a vast network of trade and commerce, with Egypt as the focal point of trading activities that extended as far as Spain in the west and India in the east, and well beyond the specifically Muslim regions. Describing the markets in Fatimid Cairo, Nasir Khusraw, Persian poet of the 11th century had become dissatisfied with the Islam he was seeing. Then he had a dream of the prophet. Soon from this experience he set off to search for what else Islam looked like. He traveled to all quarters throughout the Islamic world, and when coming on to Cairo he chronicled his pleasure with what he saw:
“I estimated that there were no less than twenty thousand shops in Cairo… Every sort of rare goods from all over the world can be had there: I saw tortoise-shell implements such as small boxes, knife handles, and so on. I also saw extremely fine crystal, which the master craftsmen etch most beautifully… I saw the following fruits and herbs, all in one day: red roses, lilies, narcissus, oranges, citrons, limes and other citrus fruits, apples, jasmine, basil, quince, pomegranates, pears, melons of various sorts, bananas, olives, myrobalan, fresh dates, grapes, sugarcane, eggplants, fresh squash, turnips, radishes, cabbage, fresh beans, cucumbers, green onions, fresh garlic, carrots, and beets… In Old Cairo they make all types of porcelain, so fine and translucent that you can see your hand behind it when held up to the light. From this porcelain they make cups, bowls, plates, and so forth…They also produce a glass so pure and flawless that it resembles chrysolite, and it is sold by weight.” [2]
Mercantile Trade penetrated further, deeper and richer than the Abbasids had ever attempted. The Atlantic came under their cargo laden ships, the Mediterranean Sea brought Fatimid/Isma’ili ships to coasts of Greece and France and Italy, but also to the West African countries “like Ghana, Mali, Songhay and Kanem-Bornu [which]flourished until their decline after the European penetration of West Africa.”[3].
Famously, merchant-supported outposts for trading houses were maintained in India and also China. Egyptian cities enjoyed a great prosperity with the influx and out-go of desirable goods traded in a standard of highest quality gold in a currency called dinars. The Fatimid/Isma’ilis society, was Christian and Jew, Sunni and city pagan who enjoyed unrestrained freedoms and also great wealth, and this wealth fed into high society reflecting European influences that forged a class of nobility, and palace life. And from lucrative commerce the flow of dinars returned to society to build city life with civilizations’ best offerings with its pride for the splendor of prosperity but a vast array of free public services (libraries, the first university of Cairo in 971 CE and medical care). There were periods of unrest, rebellion and the responding consequence of reprisals; these were the occasional outbursts in the hinterland, because the Arab Fatimids were city folk ,thriving and wealthy; and the disaffected were from outlying regions — Berbers who hated being taxed and reluctant country dwellers, many still pagan, other Isma’ilis, breaking off, feeling the freedoms allowed and enjoyed in Cairo was not true Islam — this too is noted in this time period of the Fatimid Era. And as the disgruntled always attracts to itself more rebellious factions, along came the Carmathians who were of the label of Fatimid but fanatically eager to see everyone “Fatimid” and willing to assassinate to provoke the revolution that would bring that perversity to the fore. The everlasting dishonor of the Carmathians’ sorry existence was by their having absconded with the black stone of Mecca’s Ka’bah to Bahrain. (It was returned within 24 years.) [4] So pathetically removed from the spirit that animated the Fatimid/Isma’ilis’ at their apogee, were the Carmathians yet their claim was to be the true Muslims as Fatimids. Generically speaking, this is the kind of claim that is a familiar circumstance.
The Fatimid Dynasty of 1040 CE, marks the peak of the Ismaili tolerance for all faiths was recognized (in benefit of both Jews and Christians) and at its peak. Then came shock as word came about undisciplined sword-felling of heads by conscripted Turk and African soldiers who had joined as confederates with disaffected Isma’ilis. And in continued rampage these factions began marauding the Christian towns behind the Byzantine border. [4] These skirmishes became grossly out of hand and the former trust between Muslim to Christian powers came under the dark shadow of Byzantine mistrust. An alarmed pope Urban set up the call for military reply, which linked that temper of Christian war in response, and down came the Christian armies bearing swords, bows and arrows, with their Fresian horses pulling the dreadnoughts came numbers upon numbers to retrieve what was theirs and continue onward in all directions to shrink the Fatimid empire to but a corridor. All the bloody way into Jerusalem they came and secured their positions. The Fatimids meanwhile, if not engaged in battle with Christians, were fighting Berbers with Kurd allies and victories spotty; and the Fatimids were faced against the errant rebel Isma’ilis. And woes increase. The Turk Saljuks were coming at the Fatimids in this weakness, and then came the assassination of the last Fatimid caliph, Al Aazad, which created in-fighting over who was best to lead the Fatimid/Isma’ilis out of this morass. A tough ending indeed. The Fatimid/Ismailis deserved better. Next incoming rule of Egypt: the Sunni Conservative and brilliant Strategists, the Turk Saljuqs, and we meet Malik Shah.
So at this point in the timeline of Islam, 500 years into Islamic history, Islam’s wind has blown both fair and foul. And yet all acknowledge that there is no civilization marching through time on this earth that does not suffer through harsh consequences of over-ambitious vanities. Amazing it is that by the grace of their vision or original high ideals, often these civilizations have proven a lasting brilliance out of the collective mass-will to assist its goals, — and that is what carries forward to the annals of all time glory for its name. Alas the great Fatimid era had to end!
These integers of history present great heights of glory to the world with accomplishments done avowedly in honor to Islam, which in its victory won a golden era that surpassed the West’s decrepit bastions with their medieval dominions, floundering, gripped by the hand of a theocracy with arbitrary tyrannical authority. The fortified castles of Europe held relatively small kingdoms and fiefdoms intact, and outside those walls was always a dangerous place to travel for the bandits were lurking waiting for opportunities. Halls of Learning? None. Hospitals? None. Sickness? Yes. Unsanitary and filthy? Yes, terribly much so. Plagues and Fevers taking out whole cities. Scientific pursuit and discoveries and theory? Passed when meeting the approval of the papal counsels of theologians (not scientists); that sort of thing. “The earth is flat and square.” Saying otherwise meant house arrest and the label “heresy” to worry over. We in fairness must acknowledge this great gulf between medieval civilizations of the West and that of the accomplishments we would credit the Orient of that day.
From Cairo, the Saljuks did settle down this troublesome faction of Isma’ilis who were hiding in the hills and wrecking havoc in northern Syria. But further afield, the Crusaders, the Franks, to be exact, in military muster for the first of the Crusades did overtake Jerusalem ( in 1099 CE) and restored it to Christendom,[5] and this fall of Jerusalem was to set the stance of Islam to Christianity — the East to the West — an impassable battle of wills for a long future ahead.
But take a closer look into this first of battles of this era where Jerusalem was overtaken in battle by Christian armies,because there is a good story, that starts in a splendid Fatimid castle in Cairo, Egypt. Close by is a Kurd warrior of fame; and it is Saladin whom we are pleased to introduce. Saladin is in the wings, behind the curtain of a doomed Fatimid/Isma’ili caliph who will meet the sword of an assassin soon. Saladin meets his destiny then, with a glint of “Now it’s my turn!” in his eyes.
Ayyub’ id is the House of Saladin who is a star hero in this period of Islam’s history. His proper name is al Malik an Nasir (“King)Salahi-d-Din and it was he who in Egypt brought the Fatimid era to an end and finished off the Zangid heretics who had tried to disrupt the peace treaties made prior years with King Baldwin III. Saladin had two objectives: to wrest Jerusalem of the Crusaders and to secure the region free of Fatimid or Shi’ah and of any claim to Islamic leadership that was not Sunni. His Sunni Islam was of the Hanbali-Ashari rigidity and listeralism.
Although from Kurdish tribal stock, Saladin won the crown of Sultan of Egypt(a rank of power, equal to “king.”) He bore the sultan’s crown somewhat opportunistically for being close to the king upon his death. Saladin was vetted into a high position in court as a great warrior general, worthy of respect. Then, murder of the weak Fatimid king, al Adid brought Saladin to Cairo, where, soon enough, he took assumption of power to rule with a clear goal to set a new course of correctness that would wrest any sign of eclectic “freedom of conscience” Islam, such as how he saw Fatimid Islam was being practiced.
Totally, Saladin considered the Fatimids too lax, too lenient! And his experience with those unhinged Isma’ili assassins sealed his intent to rid the world of the Isam’ilis. One of his first goals was to restore Baghdad with the goal to renew its strength of Islamic identity to be under the conservative Sunni school of literalism with which Saladin was more comfortable. [6]
Saladin’s predisposition was completely with Sunni but his malevolence was upon the Fatimid /Isma’ili Caliphate through the unnerving escape of more than one assassination attempt upon him. These attempts on Saladin’s life were undoubtedly under an established connection with the Isma’ili defectors, who aiming their ambition for the Shi’ah to rule went so far as to preach and teach the skills of assassination. These were the Hashshashin.[See Note 2]
With no appearance of accommodation to the previous kingdom’s Shi’ah disposition, Saladin, as king, immediately set up Egypt to be a Sunni State, and began to set his course toward gaining Syria (toward a pathway to Jerusalem with a Syrian military support to regain the losses from the Franks). Saladin’s first military ventures went well and he secured the twin holy cities of Mecca and Medina, Yemen, and the extension of the Persian Abbasid region for the Sunni form of Islam he so much believed in.
Within two years after the demise of the last Fatimid caliph, Saladin (Salahi’d-Din al-Ayyubi) gained total control over Egypt; he stayed in Cairo long enough to establish a hospital, called “bimardristan,” with special departments of medicine such as, ophthalmology, orthopedics; internal diseases, fevers, and diseases of the mind.[7] Saladin generously stayed in Cairo long enough to over see the smooth running of his bismardristan. And then he took to the business of strengthening the Abbasid caliphate of Baghdad. Saladin, the Ayyubid as Sultan-general made himself renown by his generous reconstruction of Baghdad which had become impoverished, having lost markets to a better shipping control that the Fatimids had achieved. That done, soon Saladin returned his focus on military support of the Sunni powers. And he together with growing armies — from Abbasid, Turks, and Kurds and mercenary fortune seekers who were attracted to be under his command — ventured outward, bound to contain the threat to Islam of the Christian Crusades with its totality of Christendom called upon to arms to present a serious challenge to the Muslim world. Saladin, initially, to make his power visible he together with his Kurdish warriors set upon the weaker Christian holdings in the region of Syria and Yemen, and won them. It was his master ambition to restore the defunct Abbasid rule of caliphate back to orthodoxy, extend the empire beyond its current borders, and, of course, to to regain Jerusalem.
So it was that the literalism of Hanbali School of Sunni orthodoxy that had found place in Baghdad back in 820 CE that was militarily strengthened and put, once again, as the ascendant voice of jurisprudence under the watch of Saladin and his puppet Abbasid caliph.[8] All free-thinking, open debate, Greek philosophy and openness to what was set by Qur’anic standard to be immoral, which had leeway without censure within Hanbali’s theology was deemed heretic and unacceptable. And that made its opposite school, the Mutazilah (“The People of Unity and Justice”) to be deemed corrupt partakers of heresy. It called for the hand of one like Saladin to force a reconstruction of Baghdad to Sunni orthodoxy.[9] The poets, the intellectuals, and artisans who had for a time been the pride and very underpinnings of Islamic affairs of the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad fell to disgrace and ostracism under the take-over of power by the Hanbali Movement. These brilliant stars and artists of freedom of spirit, “the cream of civilized advancement” drifted away from the Sunni capital city of Baghdad, in a drifting exodus to Spain. The Iberian Peninsula of Spain (Al Andalus) where, as the wind blew the news, there was a Sunni Emir in power eager for the talented minds to come. His ways of rule beckoned the most brilliant minds of Baghdad, and with words so sweet to their ears, in tone of an alluring graciousness, not to be found anywhere else but in Andalus — and this promise beckoned the beleaguered Mutazilah theSuffi, the free thinking, the intellects, the trader merchant Muslims of Baghdad to Toledo, and Cordoba, anywhere there was action in Al Andalus.
It was the beautiful city of Cordoba on the Iberian Peninsula that stood as a haven. The tide had lifted. A loyalist Sunni Umayyad, Abda’r Rahman I had arrived upon the Peninsula’s shores. This lord of Umayyad power, a son of a caliph, was Ruler, rather: the Amir, as he (wisely)proclaimed himself to be — and he was for his capability as well as status welcomed by the majority of settlers and leadership already there ahead of the Amir. It was to be his to make history, to build up a new dynasty. And after stability was established for Islamic dominance in Spain, Abda’r Rahman he settled in Cordoba, with expectations to lay the foundation for a great tolerant Islamic society that the world would admire. Rahman I: Arab; Umayyad; Damascus Umayyad Caliph whose caliphate succession was aligned for him and his rise thereto through his grandfather the Caliph Hisham; Then came the Abbasids to wage a bloody civil war: Rahman I, of the Abbasid nobility, for his very life, escapes and repatriates South to Al Andalus! And there: it seems a bell- like call of Islam in the tone of “All welcome!” and the population swells: Arabs from Damascus (what’s left) and Sufi, Musicians, the talents and the most brilliant drift in from all quarters: Italy, Germany, France, East Africa, Iraq, to Greece,and the Baltic Region to build a whole new splendid dynamic civilization. Jews unmolested, Christians, Mazdean, pagan, a class system from slaves to full Court headed by king and queens that allowed talent to rise to however their inherent capacities could best serve. And this first impact of Islamic Civilization in Spain has the stamp of the poet warrior of Rahman I. The world is always a thrown curves to catch from inconsistencies of human leadership. It is like the shine from the Same Light of Islam — with a bi-polar refraction!
And this is Islam, in its essence, having a broad inclusiveness likewise as was manifested concurrently in Egypt and Syria and its satellites under the Fatimids. Twins as it were, Sunni and Shi’ah. Although, and perhaps because, those labels were not of great importance then. Both Al Andaluse and Fatimid eras were vibrant and productive, where brought into this world of being were marvels of progress. And this had been true earlier, of the great Abbasid Era as well as the Umayyad Empires; all the elements of fulfillment of faith’s inherent creativity, seeded and released through the miracle Days of the Prophet Muhammad. These dynastic periods, each in degree, outshone in splendor any other contemporary western world civilization counterparts. And were a gift of grace did humankind but know it!
Later we will return to Saladin!
**
Chapter 2
THE GOLDEN AGE OF ISLAM — Al Andalus (also: Andalus, Andalusia)
Now the Mighty Wind turns the clock back to pick up the Light of Spain (Al Andalus as the Umayyads had given name to this peninsula.)
territory Http://www.hispanicmuslims.com/andalusia/map1.jpb
Andalusia ~ is the great peninsula known as the Iberian Peninsula (Spain) with the “Emirate,” under the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad. While Gallecia, Castile and Pamplona to the north lay outside Islam claim, the vast majority of the Peninsula was held as Muslim with Rome watching and waiting for the right opportunity to recapture the land for Rome. This ambition stayed on hold for more than 800 years.
The Golden Age in Al-Andalus
Al-Andalus, means, “to become green at the end of the summer” and was the area occupied by the Muslim empire in Southern Spain, including the cities of Almeria, Malaga, Cadiz, Huelva, Seville, Cordoba, Jaen and Granada. This civilization spawned a golden period that basked in the glow of Islam from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries, CE [1]
Andalusia had at one point included Portugal, Southern France, and the Balearic Islands. Within 3 years, in 714 CE, Muslims had occupied almost all the peninsula. Muslims crossed to Sicily and established control there for 130 years.
First, to set this up, we turn the clock back to the Umayyad caliph Walid in Damascus. Spain then was, in 711 CE, held by the warring German Visigoths, to maintain the territory under the flag of Catholic Rome[2] until Muslim armies, bearing banners of the Berbers of Africa [3] swept them away. The Berber (freedman) Jabal Tariq, under the Umayyad Caliphs’ rather tentative permission to investigate “possibilities” of expanding the Empire into Spain, (711)successfully landed on Gibraltar where this former slave, now a freed man, established his post. Actually, this is how the name Rock of Gibraltar got its name. (“Riq” of Jabaltar)It is the corner of the conquest where Jabal Tariq’s Berber armies gained foothold into Spain. Two years later conquest of Spain was won for Sunni Islam, and from then for nearly a thousand years unto the late 1400’s, Spain is identified as “Al-Andalus,” or, “Andalus.”
In Andalus, the Muslims were seen as liberators and welcomed more especially heartily by the Jews, and Christian as well, worn out with abuse from the Visigoths who had been their colonial yoke. The Berbers’ rout of the hated King Roderick, who was never to be seen again caused no grief. All remnants of armies serving the Visigoths were totally disgorged and the priests fled for Rome. This also gave cheer to the populace. The Muslim replacement of power was welcomed enthusiastically. This time was at the height of Umayyad power in Damascus.[4]
Then came the year: 750 CE, and the Abbasid armies came into Damascus in numbers of troops ferociously overwhelming the Umayyads who succumbed to their power and their reign ended. With the onrushing and bloody overthrow of the Umayyad caliphate, one noteworthy Arab made his way to Al-Andalus to avoid the danger of being the wrong person in the wrong place in the wrong time. This was Abda’r-Rahman I, a noble lord within the Umayyad line, and whose mother was Berber[5]. When the rebellion under the House of Abbas came to Damascus, he got out of the way and sought a new destiny in Spain where the “Moors” (as the Berbers were referred to) were expanding the Muslim hold under the command of Tariq with his Berber armies. Arriving in the city of Cordoba, Rahman was welcomed by the Berbers so the nobleman Umayyad Rahman, as Emir, began his rule over much of the southern Iberian Peninsula which the Berbers had wrested from the Visigoths.
Al-Rahman I settled in Cordoba. And as the area under Rahman’s rule stabilized, it also looked attractive to Arabs who made their way north from the desert into the Iberian Peninsula. The Arab emigration into the Peninsula helped vastly to settle the region for Islam. And the presence of Arabs also planted in Al Andalus the preference for Sunni Islam over the Shi’ah. But by then, and there, as well as it would in Egypt under the Fatimid Ismailis later, a waning passion for any distinctions between Sunni or Shi’ah was more the mode. Those ill-tempers had been put to rest.
The brilliance of Emir Rahman I and the succeeding three Emirs of his lineage was in how carefully the emirs kept the Andalus emirate free of any appearance of claim to Caliphate so as to prosper without drawing the wrath of the Abbasid Caliphs in Baghdad. In diplomatic arrangement a guarantee of protection by the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad was understood between caliphate to emirate, and co-existence worked fine right up to the Turk revolution against Abbasid Caliph Mutawatakkil. Then other challenges to the Andalusian order of things began to multiply.
Al-Rahman’s I heirs to the emirate held their status as rulers, and are recorded as continuing the expansion of Andalus both culturally and somewhat geographically. Rahman I’s son Abda’r-i Rahman II ascended to the emirate, upon the passing of his great father. Rahman II loved poetry more than he loved war. Abda’r-Rahman II, looked toward refinement as a worthy vision for his realm. This inheritor of the crown of leadership by this era of peace contributed to the prosperity of Islam and supported all aspects of cultural achievement. Court manner and elegance was brought to the ranks, and this was when , in the court of Rahman II, an exile from Andaluse, Zayrab, (Blackbird) held influence and admiration for his being the iconic harbinger of courtly manners, fashion style, music, new musical instruments, new foods, order of serving dishes, capped off with desert, tableware, refinement of dishware, even introducing chess and polo to the court at Cordoba. His name and his deeds are yet famous for the Arab world. [see 20]But, upon the passing of Rahman II the next three successors were inept, enabling considerable weakening of the pillars that sustained the emirate. Two emirs in succession to Rahman II almost brought disaster to the realm through sheer inadaquacy. When Rahman III, who was the grandson of Rahman I stepped into power he had to deal quickly with the challenges on the doorstep of Andalusia. The new threat was of the Fatimids closing in. The threat was very real for the Fatimids had already taken away gains to Andalusia’s lands acquired by the Berbers. Sicily is one of those losses. Without support from the now effete Abbasid Caliphate and loss of use of the Turks of Samarra, Rahman III desperately needed help.
Emir Rahman III took a different approach than did his grandfather Rahman I toward his Fatimid challengers. Emir Rahman declared himself Caliph.[6]This move secured a greater power base with Arab Umayyad Sunni support drawn from other Sunni emirates and enabled a stand-off with [7]the powerful Fatimids whose armies were in a burst of empire-building and actually appeared to be moving their troops of Turks to claim Andalus for the Fatimid empire. Ever watchful of how the wind blows the Fatimid generals noted the Sunnis of the Ummayad loyalist base mustering in behalf the call of (Caliph) Rahman III. Smartly, the Fatimid Ismaili’ warriors got second thoughts and turned back to easier targets. So the Fatimid forces, to save themselves from protracted battles, turned their attention to Egypt and Algiers — gained territories in Egypt, secured Cairo, and avoided the power of support gained by the Andalusian Emirate.
This was significant relief to Rahman III. It allowed the caliph-emir to steer the course of Islam to focus on continuing Islam’s Golden Age, and by default to coincidentally share this prize with the Fatimid caliphate. The caliphate of the self-declared Caliph Rahman III came to be seated, then, in the beautiful city of Cordova, developing the truly outstanding culture of civilization.It was under Rahman III that Cordova could support “seventeen colleges, six hundred mosques, nine hundred public baths, and eighty schools.” It was he who confronted the threat of the Fatimids who advanced too close to the outer perameters of Andalus, and presented to Emir Rahman III the Fatimid ambition to absorb the Iberian peninsula under Fatimid dominion. His cleverness prompted him to proclaim himself being a Umayyad nobleman descendant of a Umayyad caliph as being “Caliph” (unlike his grandfather who avoided this title for the sake of peace with Baghdad and the Abbasid caliphate.) He titled himself also,“Commander of the Faithful,” directing this trumpet call to the attention of that Fatimid threat, for it, thereby, won to him all forces aligned with Sunni Islam; Expanding the empire militarily outside the Peninsula was not the intention in the Andalus Era. The goal was rather for gaining a place in the sun as a bright resource of intellectual scholarship and support of the arts was the intent than for gaining lands.
A familiar tale: once again we see, in the passage of time, various intra-factional ambitions as well as foreign powers attempt to wrest the posts of power of Islam. Al-Andlus as a state was subject to ambitions from usurpers from abroad eying the prosperity of Andalus from distant regions within Islam’s borders, but no ambition was more intense than Rome’s long held wish for vendetta to regain Spain for Christendom.
Alhambra Mosque — Grenada
Highlights of this Era with Al Andalusian Golden Age
The Golden Age of Islam extended 592 years beyond the 10th century so that this Moorish/Arabic civilization, even with its periods of setbacks, would come to radiate like the rays of a sun to the glory of Islam, with a brilliance that shone upon the continents of Europe and Asia.
A Cross-Pollination of Civilizations
Multiple contacts were made between the West and East throughout the Middle Ages between Europeans and Muslims. The main points of transmission of Islamic knowledge to Europe were in Spain — particularly in Toledo, and in Sicily, following the Islamic conquest of the island in 965 C.E. The reconquest by the Normans in 1091 developed an intense Arab-Norman culture. The co-mingling communities between Christians and Muslims was exemplified by rulers such as Roger II, who had Islamic soldiers, and poets and scientists seated at his court.
During the eighth to 10th, 11th and 12th centuries, Christian scholars and clerics and princes traveled to Muslim lands to imbibe rich academic research offered in hundreds of libraries. Notable examples include, Leonardo Fibonacci, Adelard of Bath and Constantine the African. Also, from the 11th to the 14th centuries, numerous European students, princes of landed gentry attended Muslim centers of higher learning to study medicine, philosophy, mathematics, cosmography and other subjects. Likewise did a future pope study alongside the scholars of al -Andalus, Pope Sylvester II. [8]
Among the Eastern World’s scholars of China, India and Greece, continental Europe’s intellectuals and highly placed gentry were invited to Damascus in the days of Umayyad Caliphates, and subsequently to Baghdad’s by the Abbasid Caliphs. To the extensive libraries and“Houses of Wisdom” [9]the known world savants were welcomed, and then as fortunes of the purported Islamic “search for knowledge” of the Qur’an’s directive shifted to al Andalus and Cairo, so did the pathway to higher pursuit of intellectual enlightenment by Europeans (and so on) shift to those arenas where the light of Islamic caliphate support of academia shone brightest. Scholars of this kaleidoscope of backgrounds sat together in the libraries and universities accessing works astutely cataloged, and generously offered to whoever wished to learn or teach. It was a two-way flow, East to West, West to East: Christian kingdoms with Muslim states. And this is how spirited genius and brilliant achievements with the “golden age of Islam” spawned, in ever far reaching waves, a process of civilizing and advancement. So the key of inclusiveness describes the mysteries of those dynamics which extended influences that stirred Europe toward its great awakening, the Great European Renaissance.
Moreover, there had been an enormous influx of Jews to Coroba, Seville , and especially to Cairo under the Fatimids, [10]where they sought haven to escape from Church’s edicts of forced conversions under penalty of death. And Jews entered the cities without ostracism, free as zealous idealists for their Jewish faith. Fundamentally, cooperation between Muslims to Jews and Muslims to Christians was exemplified by the spirit of Islam by Teachings for which protection of the “people of the Book”was guaranteed: To quote the Qur’an: “No compulsion is there in religion.” (Qur’an: 2:256) So cities in Muslim Andalus exemplified a rich multicultural society of Zoroastrians, Christians and Jews, polytheists and animists, where fields of government, science, medicine, the arts, all capable talent were drafted and welcomed to contribute to the Golden Age, without censorship against religious or even pagan polytheistic identities.
Non-Muslims were required to pay a higher tax than the Muslims. But such imposition was received by the Christians and Jews living in Muslim lands as fair and just. The tax paid exempted the non- Muslims from serving in their armies! The dhimmi as the non-Muslim Jews and Christians were labeled were not obliged to serve to protect the territories within Islam’s empire.
The Andalusian “golden years” lasted, albeit not totally stress free, from 730 to the latter 15th CE, and in a mirror of sterling achievement so did the Fatimid Era’s impact stretch its influence out to vast distances. From Baghdad to Cairo, and from Cordoba, and Toledo, and Grenada, Islam was the major dispenser of idea and artifact and produce; and with this in view, one gets sense of a boiling cauldron of creative artisans of master craft guilds; engineering, academic and military and city planners, as well as sea faring travelers and merchants buying and trading their produce and goods across the three continents of Africa, Asia and Europe.
Gifts from a Long Enduring Golden Age to Stir Life into an Old World:
ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS
The light of civilization, was dimmed in Medieval Europe but its intellectual treasures of antiquity were rescued through Muslim advance into Byzantine or Greek, Frank, Sicilian fortresses. Remnants of classic brilliance were gathered and brought to the Abbasid caliphate then to the Fatimid dynasty, likewise did the Iberian Peninsula, as ground of the Andalusian emirate receive every vestige of classical antiquity into its embrace. The Islamic world feverishly built its foundation upon the will to accommodate their thirst for learning.
The insatiable desire was for Islam to become a world valued resource for all the best civilization has to offer. And, indeed, achievements would surpass the imported pride of previous ages.
Precious treasures of antiquity’s highest achievements made their way to the Muslim world. They were carefully bundled to be put into the waiting Caliphs’ hands throughout the centuries claimed for Islam’s greatness. Manuscripts of the ancient sages were put under Islamic oversight long ahead of Europe’s revival. As the centuries belonging to the caliphates of Islam passed, works and cultural vestiges born of Greece, India, China, African Kingdoms, Persia, France, Sicily, were transported to the caliphate Capitals of Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo and so on where they were copied and passed on to its satellites to seed new heights of advancing civilization. Philosophy of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, Scientific Essays of Plutarch Healing Arts of Herodotus and Galen, were translated into Arabic, to be mastered and integrated to be made use of as proof of high civilizations’ impact upon a well-being of life. Manuscripts of papyrus scrolls or chinese logographics on parchments or even cunieform on clay tablets that preserved the Mesopotamian rulers’ edicts were brought to be unwrapped in the caliph’s or emir’s palaces. and then, as the caliphate developed their city’s endowments, Houses of Learning (Dar al-Ilm) or Houses of Wisdom (Dar al-Hikma) were built in the heart of the centers such as Baghdad, Mosul, Bukhara, Marv, Kharazm, Cairo, Fustan.
Within the developing Islamic world, learning was universally modeled after the Abbasid Caliphate’s construction and use of Halls of Knowledge. Likewise, the building of magnificent libraries during the Abbasid Era extended in form to the outer most reaches of the Islamic Empire. And this is how a firm foundation upon which to build a civilization was, stage by stage, established where the multitude of disciplines were translated and gathered for study and further advance. The ancients’ achievements were translated by Jews, Christians, Persians and Arabs, into Syriac and then Arabic. Interestingly, and to the great credit of those days, to demonstrate the adherence of Muslim liberality giving respect for independent thought, within this time of concentrated translating, the most eminent translator was pagan and he as well as his heirs found their talents well used for generations. It was he, this pagan genius, who translated Euclid to perfection beyond its earlier rendition.
And, as said, the dedicated emphasis of seeking for knowledge by the Muslim World in its first thousand years, based as it was on accumulated knowledge of the past, became the firm foundation for even greater achievements than that which preceeded it.
To give only some examples: what excited scholars of mathematics in Baghdad was a different number system brought into Baghdad from India which then became refined. What advanced mathematical calculation was through the genius of a Persian mathematician initiating use of the Indian numeral zero (zero means safir or “empty” in Arabic); Thus the Roman numeral system of letters was cast aside in favor of the greatly simplified 9 numbers we use today, and which, incidentally, are referred to as Arabic numerals with 0 being a mathematical solution heretofore unexplored. The same Persian also developed the field of algebra as an original Islamic development, (“al-jabr meaning “something broken”) and then came further sophistication in mathematics arrived in this atmosphere of Islamic civilization was plane and spherical trigonometry. Astronomers of the Ninth Century produced the astronomical tables, naming constellations, with Betelgeuse, the Crab, Scorpion, for just some examples. The Study of Medine: study of medical arts, (which was specifically encouraged by the Prophet Himself) and skills for the art of diagnosis was emphasized. Caliphates subsidized medical libraries for systematic study, of practiced methodology of healing with responses to use of drugs and herbs. Chemistry owes its start to these innovations. Hospitals in Baghdad (bimaristan or “Home for the Sick”) and in Cairo were free to the ill, and had specialized departments for different illnesses and conditions. The greatest bimaristan was in Cairo and built during the resurgence of Sunni Islam under the Sultan-General Saladin. Back before Islam, medical arts were practiced in Persia by refugee Christian Nestorians who were there because Pope Julian, having declared Nestorians heretic were banished from Byzantium, but most generously made welcome by the Persian Sassanian King Chroses I in the 5th Century. So this welcome of Nestorians was continued by the caliphates for the next 250 years; there was always a place for the Nestorian as well as Jewish physicians among the Muslims. Such exclamations of wonder accompanied this insatiable thirst for intellectual refinement and echoed in the passage of this “Golden” time, consistently under one Caliph after another. There are many names and many stars of this era: Rhazes and Avacenna, are two of those whose names are brought into Western history. Their medical encyclopedia was translated into Latin and Avicenna was complete master of his age as scientist, physician, music, logician, master of metaphysics , whose medical “Canon” of five volumes was translated into Latin and printed 15 times and used in the medical colleges in Europe unto the 17th Century. Avicenna, this marvel of a genius, compiled cures of music to heal, (called“ash-Shifa’” ) and this also is most remarkable — an open door to unorthodox alternative medicine we today are yet questioning.
So this ambition for human perfection of skills is derived directly from the Qur’an‘s verses: “to seek knowledge, be it even unto China”, “The ink of the pen of the scholar is more worthy than the blood of the martyr”, “He who leaves his home in search of knowledge walks in the path of God”, and “Are they equal: those who know and those who know not?” (Surah xxxix, 12) [11]
Avicenna, author of the Canon of Medicine
ISLAM IN SPAIN~
The Cordoba library became the greatest library of the eastern or western world. Seventeen colleges and universities, seventy libraries, 600 mosques[12] in Cordoba alone, hundreds of public baths, and eighty schools opened. Delegations of Europeans from the Church’s priest-class to the prominent royalty came to Cordoba and Seville for intellectual stimulation and the openness of flow between Islam with all faiths. Avicenna, (Ibn i-Sina), the genius still in contemporary memory had reign over the libraries, and his prodigious works during his sojourn in Cordoba survive to this day.[13]
Mosque in Cordoba
World Cultural Revolution from Spain
With the creative influx of Baghdad’s expatriots to Toledo and Cordoba came great sages and poets. These who were the brightest sparks of creativity fled the increasing persecution by (Turk) orthodoxy for better climes. And the brightest stars, emigrated, often by wise escape, to be welcomed with open arms by the Emir himself for the enrichment of cultural life in Cordoba.
And, as ever among Arabs and Persians there was the vitality of poetry. A long established reverence for poets and poetry, which was the signal emblem of civilization throughout the Middle-Eastern world reached the height of greatness. In the Al Andalus Period poetry in song and recitation reached the pinnacle of glory. Today great Sufi poets that enjoyed full support by the Rahman Emirates to its caliphate era in Cordoba are revered unto this very time, predominantly in the Western world. Sufi poetry is set to music, sung and recited in languages that cover the globe.
The Business of Trade
To preserve a continuum of balance and order based on mutual desire for reciprocity of economic flow came from the business of doing business with distant centers of commerce.
Commerce out of the Al Andalus caliphate as well as the Fatimid caliphate maintained flow throughout the period, trading still, sometimes in spite of skirmishes and piracy between competitive markets. Caravans and ships continued to move goods up and down land corridors or by sea routes to and from African countries to China, India, Italy, and into the Mediterranean ports. This business world certainly was yet another key to spur for the Renaissance in Europe. Playing a great role in these exchanges, having ambassadors and agents in Chinese, Indian and European cities such as Genoa, Arab and Latin cultures intermixed intensively. Outside the arena of business, even soldiers from either side, Christian or Muslim, exchanged their “talents” to the highest bidders. Summarily, these ironies of the Age include many of the marvels that distinguish how Islamic civilization pollinated Western soils.
Sufism
The famous Sufi Movement was Islam without creed or dogma, a broadly based “free thinking” association, and a welcome environment for poets and musicians. It owes its own genre to Greece, especially to the Perso-Indians within the region of the Middle East. The Sufi movement attracted others by their eclectic dynamism and that included Mu’tazalites, Christians, scholastics, to pantheists, and pagans, Within the Sufi school were Christians who were welcomed, but truth be told, sadly Jews were not favored by the Persians among the Sufis.[14]Ultimately Sufism suffered factionalism and over-indulgence as well, and, in this way, there has been a waxing and waning of its fortunes. But that we in the West know more of Sufi today than any other branch of Islam does show its resilience!
According to most scholars, including Father Cyprian Rice quoted in Muhammad and the Course of Islam, “the Sufi movement cannot be called an order or a sect of Islam”, but an element of Islam to which its Islamic poets, musicians, and philosophers are drawn. Politically in the early centuries of the Abbasid Empire to the latter era, Sufism was in and out of favor according mostly to its own vitality or lack thereof, although the literalists when in power tended to persecute the free thinking and reduce by censure the presence and influence of Sufism.[15]
Poems are included in this chapter as examples of the Sufi School of poetry. The spectacular world of poetry, mostly what we in the West know, from the Sufi Movement has provided the world with a sharpened inner vision and awed spiritual reverence, even a passion for God as the Beloved.
Included are poets such as Abu Sa’id ibn Ab’il Khair, Attar, Hafiz, and Rumi, who represent the burst of creativity as a dynamic relief against the wall of religious constraint that crept into and ultimately squeezed the life out of their movement under the literalism influence that crept into Abbasid and subsequent reactionary regimes of Saladin as he reconstructed the Baghdad caliphate to Sunni orthodoxy.
Sufi philosophy embraces one universal God and to be Sufi meant you were God-seeking, and with any and all diverse worldly expression toward that aim is acceptable. The start of the movement was out of a growing disgust for the pomp and display and grandiose manners of the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates.[16] However, as the Qur’an forbids asceticism and retreat, Sufis remained as an active part of their societies. For Sufism today it is Sufi Poetry that is the most lasting of gifts from the Movement. You may recognize the following poems and even find the poets’ names familiar — as they, like jewels, are sewn into the fabric of scholastic works of poetry worldwide. And world associations of devotees of Sufi poetry readings, and of Arabic scholars seeking attainment of more pure translations of Sufi poetry are in a world of their own today. Likewise throughout our lives we meet this poetry in many venues, such as academic lectures or literature. Sufi poetry is considered both religious and on the other end of the scale, very worldly for its passionate liveliness. Both worldly and religious. Ecstatic Love is a major theme.
The Poets
Poems are included in this chapter with examples of the Sufi School of poetry. The spectacular world of poetry, which, as by this narrative has brought up, the oral richness had long been most remarkable in an ancient Arabic language. (See Book I) But through intellectual and cultural advancement of all things, as Islam swept the region and evolved, mostly what poetry we in the West know, is the lyric joy that rose from the Sufi Movement. Sufism is a cord that by devoted translation still provides the world with a sharpened inner vision for expression of awed spiritual reverence, and surely a passion for life and for God as the Beloved One. Suffism has a thread of consistency with the words: “Knowledge is the life of the heart, which delivers it from the death of ignorance; it is the light of the eye of faith that keeps it from infidelity.” (Abu Ali Thaqafi) [17]
Included are poets such as Abu Sa’id ibn Ab’il Khair, Attar, Hafiz, and Rumi, and who represent the burst of creativity as a dynamic relief against the wall of religious constraint that crept into and ultimately squeezed the life out of their movement under the literalism influence that crept into Abbasid and subsequent reactionary regimes of Saladin as he reconstituted the Baghdad caliphate to Sunni orthodoxy.
Six poems were selected as examples of the famous Sufi School of poetry. The spectacular world of poetry from Sufi Islam provided the world with a sharpened inner vision for an abundant wealth for expressing spiritual awe.
What follows next in a special installment is a most brief recap of well-known Sufi poets and their poems still so revered. Sufi poetry, so steeped in ecstasy connecting our souls to embrace the world of this Mystery of divine love is worthy for searching out universally today.
1)Sanai (1118 -1152 CE) Abû’l-Majd Majdûd Adam Sanâ’î is revered as one of the first great mystical poets of Persia. He produced many lyrical poems and a religious epic, The Walled Garden of Truth. Source: Jafar Alam’s blog
Those unable to grieve,
or to speak of their love,
or to be grateful, those
who can’t remember God
as the source of everything,
might be described as a vacant wind,
or a cold anvil, or a group
of frightened old people.
Say the Name. Moisten your tongue
with praise, and be the spring ground,
waking. Let your mouth be given
its gold-yellow stamen like the wild rose’s.
As you fill with wisdom,
and your heart with love,
there’s no more thirst.
There’s only unselfed patience
waiting on the doorsill, a silence
which doesn’t listen to advice
from people passing in the street.
ref. Sanai — “Persian Poems” — Coleman Barksanai (Threshold Books)
2) Attar of Nishapur(1145–1221 CE)~ saint and mystic, one of the most voluminous authors in Persian literature on religious topics. His best-known work, Conference of the Birds, is an elaborate allegory of the soul’s quest for reunion with God.
So long as we do not die to ourselves, and so long as we identify with someone or something,
we shall never be free.
The spiritual way is not for those wrapped up in exterior life.
Strive to discover the mystery before life is taken from you.
If while living you fail to find yourself, to know yourself,
how will you be able to understand
the secret of your existence when you die? Farid ud Din Attar — translation Margaret Smith -The Jawhar Al-DhatAttar
3) Hafiz of Shiraz (1230–91 CE) the greatest lyric poet of Persia, who took the poetic form of the ghazal to unparalleled heights of subtlety and beauty..
“Hafiz,
Don’t just sit there on the moon tonight
Doing nothing —
Help unfurl my heart into the Friend’s Mind,
Help, Old Man, to heal my wounded wings!”
We are the companions of His Beauty
We are the guardians
Of Truth.
Every man, plant and creature in Existence,
Every woman, child, vein and note
Is a servant of our Beloved -
A harbinger of joy,
The harbinger of
Light
Hafiz — “The Subject Tonight is Love” — Daniel Ladinsky
Below: Hafiz — “The Subject Tonight is Love” — Daniel Ladinsky
We are the guardians of His Beauty
We are the protectors
Of the Sun.
There is only one reason
We have followed God into this world:
To encourage laughter, freedom, dance
And love.
4). Jalaluddin Rumi — (1207–1273 CE) thinker and mystic, inspiration for the Mevlevi Order of the whirling dervishes, highly revered for the great Mathnawi which is a grand tribute to the depth of spiritual life. Rumi is quoted universally today
What is Bounty Without a Beggar? (Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi)
What is bounty without a beggar? Generosity without a guest? Be beggar and guest; for beauty is seeking a mirror, water is crying for a thirsty man.
Hopelessness and need are a tasteful bezel for that ruby. Your poverty is [your steed]; don’t be a coffin riding on other men’s shoulders.
Thank God you hadn’t the means or you may have been a Pharaoh. The prayer of Moses was, “Lord I am in need of Thee!”
Daniel Liebert The Rumi Collection, Edited by Kabir Helminski — Shambhala Publications,, Inc.
5. “The Grainary Floor” Rumi ~ Translator, Coleman Barks
Friend, we’re travelling together.
Throw off your tiredness.
Let me show you
one tiny spot of the beauty than cannot be spoken.
I’m like an ant that’s
gotten into the grainary.
ludicrously happy and trying to lug out
a grain that is way too big.
6. The Gift
You’ve no idea how hard I’ve looked for a gift to bring You.
Nothing seemed right.
What’s the point of bringing gold to the gold mine, or water to the Ocean.
Everything I came up with was like taking spices to the Orient.
It’s no good giving my heart and my soul because you already have these.
So- I’ve brought you a mirror.
Look at yourself and remember me. —
Jalaluddin Rumi, Essential Rumi, Coleman
The Rumi Collection, Selected and Edited by Kabir Helminski, Published Shambhala, Boston and London, 1999
A Prayer
(Woman Sufi Poet , Rabi’ah, 8th Century)
“O God! Were I to worship Thee for the fear of Hell, consign me to that Hell, and were I to worship Thee in expectation of Paradise, deny me that Paradise, but if I worship Thee for Thine own sake, withold not from me thine Eternal Beauty.” [
Whirling Dervish Sufi in Calligraphic
Music of Andalusia & Examples of Instruments
url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FBalaban_%28instrument%29
“Andalusia was most likely the main route of transmission of a number of Near-Middle Eastern musical instruments used in in classical music: Some of them are included above: the rebec (ancestor of the violin),the rebab, or guitar from the qitara, and the naker from the naqareh. atabal (bass drum) from al-tabl, atambal, from al-tinbal, the balaban, sonajas de azófar from sunuj al-sufr, the conical bore wind instruments,the alboka, a circular wind instrument, & the middle picture: fistula(flute.)”[17]
According to historic sources, music was heart and soul in both religious expression and secular entertainment in the first millennia in the Islamic and pre-Islamic world. Music had been part of Arab, Sassanian, and perhaps the earliest world cultures, and particularly within Islam having been derived first out of Arabic desert life style. In centuries to come, the influence received in France or Germany of the Moors and their musical talents was withtheir presence in the German court by German capture of Muslim Moors as slaves in the time ahead, that of the Reconquista[18] — in Spain and bringing the Moorish troubadours as slaves into the German royal court for their most pleasing and exotic music.
Out of the Crusades France brought to Poitiers hundreds of Muslim prisoners. The hypothesis that the troubadour tradition was created, more or less, by William after his experience with musical artists of the Moors.
The Musicians
“House party” with instruments of the golden age of Islam in Cordoba, Andalusia 900 CE
Medicine and Pharmacy
The arts of the diagnosis of illness and use of antidotes in terms of drugs and herbal remedies continued to be of the highest focus for State subsidy. The Prophet Muhammad, had revealed a Surah in the Qur’an that speaks to this. Paraphrasing, it says that there are two forms of science: the science of religion and the science of human bodies, referring to medical arts. The pursuit of physicians for medical expertise through the support of the caliphate and emirate eras bring another bright luster to the annals of Islam.
Inter- Cultural Aspects Under the Andalus Caliphate
Muslims and Jews and Christians — Jews entered the cities of Andalus even as zealous idealists for their Jewish faith. What attracted Jews to Moorish Spain (Andalus) was to escape the terrors put on them in the Christian held dominions, and receive welcome in its stead into a rich, multicultural society of Christians and Jews, the “people of the Book of which Muhammad spoke: Again, to quote: “No compulsion is there in religion” (Qur’an: 2:256)
Thus, the Spanish cities held large Jewish communities. The Jews in Spain at this time received all that would be due them from the Muslims who benefited by the capable, well-established Jewish population. Elsewhere, as history records show, in Europe the Jews were hounded and persecuted. But the Jews in Andalus freely entered the fields of government, science, medicine, and literature and contributed greatly to the Andalusian Golden Age of Islam. Likewise, did Christians hold high positions throughout the period of Islamic rule in Al-Andalus just as they had enjoyed protection and rights — and service — in both Damascus and Baghdad. This ideal of a lack of animosity between the different faiths within the Andalus emirate hallmarked this period with integration of its citizenry of “the people of the book.” The Non-Muslims were not required to defend the borders but instead, to pay a higher tax than the Muslims. But such imposition was received by the Christians and Jews living in Muslim lands as a fair and just. But the times came when taxes were increased, or again decreased depending on the power in place and records reveal a Jewish and Christian chafe against their tax burden.
For this great era of history, world-view acknowledges with gratefulness Islam’s invigorating offerings. The Muslim faithful propelled civilization forward under the skills and vision of Islam’s elected or inherited leadership, those, to put it simply, whose deeds conformed to the inspired direction put forth by the Prophet and the revealed Qur’an. And by this age of genius the light of progress infiltrated into the stagnant western world in the time of the darkness of the middle ages.
This chapter was given over to bring out the rich compatibility, the thriving of Moorish civilization brought about by a coexistence of give and take cooperation between the faiths of Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians. This cultural melange intermingled as natural components enriching the society built by the rulers of Islam — a society where black slaves rise (for one of many examples of rewarding the worthy regardless of racial or religious identity)to the height of marked heroism — as did a former slave Zayrab [n1]add to the the very fiber of eons of civilization that we today acknowledge culturally as “good manners,” or in other instances other slaves elevated to the highest ranked generals or advisers of epochal campaigns in the Ottoman Period ahead, campaigns that defined for Islam an expanded geography originally secured from the days of Prophet Muhammad, then into the Caliphate eras, and beyond those to today. And as for “today,” this is speaking to the movement of Muslims by present circumstances into European and continental capitals, and throughout the Americas, Pacific Islands, and Asia.
So now, at this point in its time, Mighty Wind of Isam enters into a timeline where resilience is the key characteristic of a religion now become expanded geographically, ethnically, and culturally. One wonders how such disparity can be a glue of identity, even along side its factions, its challenges, its weaknesses and there, finding its strengths.
**
Chapter 3 — Islam Resilient
Actually, the long peaceful era being like bedrock in Andalus between Muslims, Christians and Jews lasted in spite of major challenges of invasions under different banners, one of “Reconquista!”and others from armies under Islamist Turk reformists with recruits from Northern Africa. [1] And another uprising of powers both within and with out of the influence and restraints of Islam, the religion meaning “peace.”
Mighty Wind of Islam turns now to trace this theater-drama on its stage, both within Islam and from the outside world, which will lead to a grand epic of six acts. Act 1, Christendom; Act 2, Mongols; 3, Mamluks; 4: Ismai’lis; 5, Tamerlane; and the final 6th Act, The Ottomans; protagonists and antagonists in world stage of IslamThis chapter will cover that which our Christian background has had most to say: the Crusades. There were nine Crusades, but the term “crusade” is actually fluid in defining the different wars between Islam and Christianity. That is why
six acts: Act 1, Christendom; Act 2, Mongols; 3, Mamluks; 4: Ismai’lis; 5, Tamerlane; and the final 6th Act, The Ottomans; protagonists and antagonists in world stage of Islam. This Chapter forcuses on the events sur
Resilience — Hallmark of Andalus and Hallmark of Islam
Invasion after Invasion — Andalus had, through death, lost the brilliant leadership of Rahman III and then too soon death also took his son and worthy successor, al-Hakam II who ruled well and was much beloved before he succumbed to death. Unfortunately the caliph al-Hakam had no heirs to meet the skills required for rulership upon succession. Three quarrelsome heirs came and went with crises looming for their weak leadership and for that beckoned the seeming open invitation to invade which was taken by the Castilian prince, Alfonso VI to gain territory into Spain; which he did, and easily, Toledo fell to his forces.
Eastern Church and Spain
So we watch the moon of Islam’s Golden Age wane from pressures that came from several sources, and in this era of instability an ominous challenge came by the steady forays into Spain from the northern mountainous regions by the princes of Castile. And a weak new generation of caliphs or emirs proved less capable in holding their borders.This threatened a great loss of al-Andalus for by that weakness, militant Muslim groups separately took opportunistic advantage to gain a foothold in Andalus, each for themselves. The wholeness of Andalus became destabilized and the perfect timing for Prince Alfonso from the Castilian region to gather his armies and look for a unified march of war made up of the force in the kingdoms under Castilian, Aragon, and also Leon in a “heroic” Reconquista for Spain. After petitioning the pope for this “service to the Church” he was given support and with the widened scope of armies put to his command Alfonso began forging victories deeper and deeper into Muslim al-Andalusia.
El Cid
One of Alfonso’s invaders was the Castilian Lord, Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, who was leading his army into the Muslim held territories,and who, in in this time will be of interest, for the name he is known by has reached our history books, as El Cid. [2]. He disengaged from Prince Alfonso IV and presented himself and his army to the the Muslim Ruler of Saragossa, and for this was offered the rule of the beautiful city of Valencia. El Cid became his name while he ruled there, and he was much beloved by the citizenry. El Cid is Arabic, and means Siyyid, a title of honor given to a high judge and master. He was Governor who blended philosophically with his governance of Muslims so well that his honor is still remembered. However, Alfonso VI, without the help of El Cid, proceeded onward to win Toledo for its return to Christian over-lordship.
In the midst of Muslim losses to the Castilian re-conquistadors to the rescue of al-Andalus came troops from North Africa in a counter-punch that made Alfonso retreat. But then, after this Muslim army returned across the strait back home to the African coast, the region was left unguarded and, doggedly, Alfonso returned with his armies’ and what was lost was regained; almost comically still again this repeated as Alfonso VI was beaten again by the same North African Army that again sent the prince home to safety. Last act in this trilogy took time to happen, but this time Alfonso I returned to a decisive claim (1118 CE) for Saragossa and Alfonso VII secured footing in Spain against some Muslim posts in the highlands where never again would the standard of Islam be hoisted. This flip-flop was seen to be an opportunity for grab for still another contingent of Berber Islamist reformers, the “Unitarian” Almohads. The Almohads invaded and were able to spread over Al Andalus but after the death of the Almohad caliph, his successor, being weaker, could not manage holding onto the winnings. Now, catching the whiff of a destabilized Andalus opportunists came, bringing the Islamic holds on the Iberian Peninsula under chaos and siege. So that is how three separate Islamic states were formed: one the Berber held, another, Andalus, which was an Arab/Spanish fusion, and the third region was held by the Slavs, that being an ethnic mix. In spite of this, the kingdom of Seville held where culture thrived particularly in Seville which was under the nominal rule of father and son poets of Seville, now protected by the Berber Almohad Unitarians. [3]Poetry is always a thread that has woven itself as a prideful declamation of identity since centuries before Muhammad the prophet appeared among the Arabs. In fact this period of turmoil amazingly established one of the most creative periods for the whole of Islamic history, although the centers of that vitality shifted according to the pressures multiplying upon them
Over a century of skirmishes and recoveries keep the Reconquista from gaining their goal to oust the Muslims from the totality of Spain. Shrinkages for the Muslims of al-Andalus but a long time is yet to be of a well and vibrant presence of Islam.
Grenada Thrives
In 1238, a Medinite by the name of Nasrid arrived onto al Andalus and by his command of forces he secured a kingdom for Islam around Grenada and this is how Grenada became the center for arts and intellectual pursuit to become the last vibrant Islamic holding in Spain that lasted until the end of the 15th Century. Indeed it is ironic that the era of Islam in Grenada actually was the most productive and creative of all within the Golden Age of Islam. The poetry, the philosophy, the scholarly works of the greatest of historians of Islam, the most gorgeous of architecture in the Red Palace, (Alhambra) beaming its assurance of endurance, and among the names of fame were Avicenna and Abubacer (Arabic: Hibn Tufayl)whose tales respectively, carry the tale of a recluse on an island who is forced to abide a visitor and by their philosophical challenges to each other become aware in stages of God’s being the ultimate creator. These two books had a profound influence on the West as they were translated in many languages of the European Continent. The Western tale of Dufoe’s Robinson Crusoe adopted this confluence of thought from these Arab-tales.[4]
Finally after five centuries of this outpouring of brilliance came the end of Al-Andalus, totally in 1492 — for which Queen Isabella and Ferdinand get credit — is history we all know. Islam will be forced out of Spain. As the Christians slowly and incrementally reconquered Spain, sheer vengeance was meted out wherever the crusaders, as conquerors landed in Spain. As Andalusia’s beautiful cities and centers were “re”conquered — i.e., Seville, Cordoba, Toledo, thousands of books were pulled from magnificently endowed halls of learning, and from the hundreds of well endowed libraries, the treasures of manuscripts were burned to the ground as heretic “unauthorized works of infidels,” all discovered calligraphic arts utterly destroyed — lost to the future. Likewise, beautiful mosques were brought to rubble, or because of their beauty, to be taken over for the Church to occupy; but the most cruel of ecclesiastics’ decisions was its campaign against the unfortunate Jews of these cities: they were to be brought to the scaffold or committed to the fires unless they converted to Christianity. By this revenge the return of Spain to the Christian dominion overwhelmed the Andalusian Muslims.
Troops under Christian princes, had orders for “reconquista” to reset the papal power base against that shock of the Muslim invasion of Spain. This invasion by the Berber Tariq was so long ago, but never was acceptable by generations of papal power since. It must have been as an open sore, recollecting the humiliation, as it was, when the Muslim armies, who were led by the Black Berber Jabal Tariq [5] won Spain (in 711 CE) for Islam. Tariq’s armies, incidentally, who were welcomed by the populace, and cheered on to rid the peninsula of the Visigoth presence of which more is explained below.
It is most unfortunate that which replaced the tolerance and creativity of the centuries of Islamic civilization, so integrated with the Andalusian Muslim Era, was bigotry and religious fanatic fervor, so ferocious that, as said, advanced scholarship, translations of the Classics, the discoveries of its scientists were put to the fires of hell; likewise were the skies lit with the fires of witch hunts, and inquisitions against heresy, and pogroms against Jews. One must sigh. Yet we know now of the light of the Age of Reason will, indeed, rise in in Europe in a future truly, if not confessedly, seeded by the Golden Age of Islam and ultimately expand outward to the “ new world” of the Americas. There, the brilliant seeds of civilization’s jewels will be planted so as to begin the spread of the relationship of God’s permeating will to speed the new world submission of God’s oneness and ultimately its unity of spirit as has eternally been bequeathed and well intended.
**
Reconquista~
What Reason Supports the Ages of Fury of the Holy See in Rome to Call for Reconquest?
Might you be enticed to pause for the telling of underlying motives why Christendom was bedeviled — and dogged — for 5 centuries to seek total return of what had once been under the standard of the Cross? That would be, of course, Spain — and Jerusalem.
For those who have wondered, why did popes, one after the other, keep an unrelenting agenda centered on regaining Spain? And what motives obsessed the popes for the eventual extension of “Reconquista!” to unify Christian kingdoms to retake Jerusalem, by “Crusade”?
How the pope “lost” Spain recalls back to the time when the Germanic Tribal Visigoths, total thugs in their brutal war mode, brought absolute fear and horrors to Rome. The pope facing the destruction of Rome by the Visigoths was forced to make a peace treaty with the Visigoths. So the pope negotiated the sweet “gift” of Spain to get the warrior Visigoths gone, out, and away. The comfort would have been likely that while the Visigoths were boisterously also disrespectfully independent of Rome, they were at least “Christian.” Rome was at least more protected and could feign extended empire because Spain was the domain of the Visigoth Christians by treaty of peace. It must have been seen as a necessary evil. Reality was different however; the Visigoth rule of Spain was uncouth and excruciatingly burdensome for the inhabitants of the Peninsula, and upon the naval invasion and settlement of the Muslims (first basing their threat of invasion on Gibraltar)and where from, the Berber troops branched onto the peninsula itself, the populace rejoiced seeing the troops’ captors run for their lives, (not always successfully)[6]. And when the Muslims invaded, the Visigoths had no place to hide. This story may signify the feeling of embarrassment for the Holy See in Rome. Christianity had been thoroughly replaced through Muslim conquest in 756 C. E.
Weaving in this narrative another thread of reasonable anxieties held by Christian ecclesiastics to distrust Islam:
The Papal calls to avenge Christianity by regaining Spain became regular constant urgings to the Christian world, generation after generation, with this war-call termed, “Reconquista.” But another fury with Islam intensified tremendously after that murderous coup by the Samarra Turks against the Abbasid Caliph Mutawakkil initially placed hardliner Turks into power in Baghdad. The after-math of this coup unsettled the usurpers having addressed their anger but brought about emptying the seat of the caliph leaving no strong caliphate to rule these soldier Turks. It was not long after the coup that bands of Turks drifted away from Baghdad, to become roving, undisciplined Turks, creating chaos and havoc.[7] This ill venture by those Turks was the great grief Turks brought to the pope, bequeathing a long memory to the Prelates of Rome of the Turks reminding every terror, cruel abduction and the slaying of pilgrims on the trails to Rome to rebel Turks who fell upon those innocent travelers, pilgrims to Rome, and merchants with caravans of goods heading to facilitate commerce abroad. But more telling is that innocent merchant Muslim travelers were also waylaid in their crossings with those Turk highwaymen, giving the Muslims the same treatment. This must have been known. It therefore might have been considered a reason to pause in labeling the atrocities as an “Islamic hostility directed as a threat to the Christian world.” It was truly unfortunate that cool heads did not prevail in the use of reason and inquiry to cooperatively respond to those barbarous acts. Certainly the brush of “the devil Islam that seeks to overwhelm Christianity” served to gain a religio-political use of inseminating suspicion and distrust against Islam by Christianity’s clerical defenders. It is unfortunate that the paint brush of western history colored the whole of Islam by reprehensible acts of an outcast sect hated by Muslims themselves, whether Sunni or Shi’ah [8]
Then moving on to the next cause for Christian aggressive militancy against Islam is the reaching out from Cairo in the waning days of the Fatimid/Isma’ili Era by the brilliant Turk, Sultan Malik, who led his Saljuks to restore Jerusalem to the rule of Malik Shah, and to recover territories lost to the Byzantines earlier and who restored the Muslim borders under his reign to his caliph in Baghdad. [9] This was a brilliant accomplishment for recoup under the Sunni Saljuk.
The Turks were a mixed bag, all right, but it would have been remiss not to balance the stories of the rebels’ rapaciousness on the highways, likewise their bent to an Islam of literalism, on a scale that also weighs the brilliant Islamic leadership within the Turk of Malik Shah, the Saljukid,[10] with stories that tell of his support of science where through his patronage of astronomy, the most precise exactitude for the annual calendar yet to be devised was brought to light; also, vast conquest was underMalik Shah. Turkistan , Cashgar, the Tartar Kingdom, then to the mountains of Georgia, plus the frontier of Persia, most importantly the holy city of Jerusalem — these were brought under Malik Shah’s jurisdiction. Then he passed on to the next world and those who succeeded him could not match the capability Malik Shah had for maintaining these holds. So the House of Saljuk fractured (in that familiar story of successionary weakness) and the Saljuks lost their gains as the Crusaders drove through those lands, especially initially with the fall of Jerusalem to the Franks, 1099, a loss that changed the arrangement of history between East and West right to this day. [10]
These calls to arms sadly represent a dark cloud upon the East- West horizon and the most mournful knell of that Spirit of universal harmony found in the Teachings of Christ and Muhammad. Neither the peace of love from the Holy Gospels and the Warnings of the Holy Qur’an held back the coming centuries of hatred between these two faiths. “And that they [i.e.Muslims]should not become like those[i.e. Jews, Christians] to whom was given Revelation aforetime, but long ages passed over them and their hearts grew hard.” (Qur’an 57:16) Hope for reconciliation still beat in many breasts upon each shore, even though popes insisted upon the return of Jerusalem to Christendom. What was truly intended was to bring utter annihilation of Islam as a competitive presence, as seen.
Upon the successful reconquest by the troops regaining “their” Spain stress between faiths then became a dominant fixture of life, a harsh brutal relationship, most particularly a deliberate theological split between Jews and Christians. This was the result of the final blow of Reconquest in Spain as the years advanced. Crusades against Muslims and pogroms against Jews from this juncture forward became the rigors of the times. What a shocking change this seems to be. But of course there were causes and effects, as were noted here; hard hits and retributive stages of change that presented challenges to both West and East where our Mighty Wind will now re-cap to linger a while longer to close the chapter on al-Andalus.
The Crusades~
We turn now to consider: “How does a summons to ‘Crusade!’ work?” (The word “Crusade” came centuries after those papal campaigns began, but we know those seven campaigns called for by popes and one sainted king as crusade, so shall we, also.
But how did the Christian kingdoms come together to restore their “lost” dominion? Tradition bears on this question particularly for the years of Christian Empire-building that dates back before 300 C.E. (well before the challenge of Islam to Christianity) that the method of troop-gathering was based on a tried and true principle of “stick and carrot!”
Papal call in behalf of the spread or protection of the Christian Cause was broadcast by appointed papal bishop deputies sent to the clergy and kings of Christendom. Both royalty and their ecclesiastics knew, from experience, that to disobey the Pope’s command to the least detail threatened excommunication. That was the stick. And then there was the carrot: Papal dictum included the promise that the princes of Europe were to be “given” the lands and fortunes taken as their reward. In this consistent manner of Empire building, the method of stick and carrot, is how the King of Leon, Alfonso IV was strengthened by additional troops for Reconquista for Spain. Christian forces under the principalities of Leon, Castile, brought Seville and Cordova to fall to their Legions of Reconquista support that later had come out of Europe’s kingdoms of Leon, Castile, Aragon and Navarre.[11]
From 1147 skirmish after skirmish for reconquest of Spain went on until 1236 when the Christian forces, under Ferdinand III almost claimed the city of Grenada. But the Muslim city held, thanks to the capable defense of Grenada under leadership of a Medinanite,[Muhammad Nasr. The Nasrid “Kingdom” held Grenada for generations as an Islamic stronghold until the end of the 15th Century, as mentioned earlier.
And yet throughout these years, despite rigorous challenge to the Muslim Empire in Andalus, from 1200 C.E. to 1450 C.E., strongholds of vibrant Islamic culture stayed intact. The capacity to not be cowed by immense pressure marked a very resilient presence for Islam, most particularly so in the Andalus section of the peninsula which was carved out of what had become, as said, essentially three petty kingdoms.
University scholarly pursuits, rather, its prototype, with departments of academia, (philosophy, medicine, astronomy, physics and so on) that are familiar today, festive gatherings with music, bazaar lined avenues filled with foods and goods from distant markets, and all material splendor that hallmarked the Golden Age, still held strong and even prospered, chiefly in Grenada. Europe’s princes and prelates escaped their stagnant world for the vibrancy that thrived in Grenada to learn and engage with its universities, libraries and entertainments.
In summary: Efforts to pull down Islam’s ramparts that framed the golden civilization of Islam came from many quarters. But, certainly, the ultimate coup de gras for Islam’s Golden Age, and the age of central governance of Islam started significantly by Christian Reconquista that slowly but relentlessly pursued an (unrealized) aim of ridding the world of Islam on the Iberian Peninsula with victory, finally achievable after 700 years of trying, in 1492 C.E.
Likewise, the bandit Turks in league with the renegade Isma’ilis and their assassins were also an undermining force that must account for their part in the disintegration of the Golden Age of Islam that had achieved such glory in al Andalus or…Spain. But Islam is resilient, as we shall see
Returning the narrative to the thousand, one hundred year mark of the Christian Era, and the displacing of the Turk Saljuks from Cairo then rise of the Kurd Saladin, we dip into what we in the west have a great part of dis-information about: the Crusades.
Pope Urban II addresses the Christian World
Pope Urban II (1088–1091) gave call to arms against the Muslims: Calling The First Crusade
In 1094 or 1095, Alexios I Komnenos, the Byzantine emperor, sent to the pope, Urban II, and asked for aid from the west against the Seljuq Turks, who taken nearly all of Asia Minor from him. At the council of Clermont, Urban addressed a great crowd and urged all to go to the aid of the Greeks and to recover Palestine from the rule of the Muslims.[12]
Pope Urban II’s Speech at Clermont
This Speech Launched the Crusade
“The noble race of Franks must come to the aid of their fellow Christians in the East. The infidel Turks are advancing into the heart of Eastern Christendom; Christians are being oppressed and attacked; churches and holy places are defiled. Jerusalem is groaning under the Saracen [Arab] yoke. The Holy Sepulcher is in Muslim hands and has been turned into a mosque. Pilgrims are harassed and even prevented from access to the Holy Land.
“The West must march to the defense of the East. All should go, rich and poor alike. The Franks must stop their internal wars and squabbles. Let them go instead against the infidel and fight a righteous war.”…
December 1095. ‘Fulcher of Chartres
“Although, O sons of God, you have promised more firmly than ever to keep the peace among yourselves and to preserve the rights of the church, there remains still an important work for you to do. Freshly quickened by the divine correction, you must apply the strength of your righteousness to another matter which concerns you as well as God. For your brethren who live in the east are in urgent need of your help, and you must hasten to give them the aid which has often been promised them. For, as the most of you have heard, the Turks and Arabs have attacked them and have conquered the territory of Romania [the Greek empire] as far west as the shore of the Mediterranean and the Hellespont, which is called the Arm of St. George. They have occupied more and more of the lands of those Christians, and have overcome them in seven battles. They have killed and captured many, and have destroyed the churches and devastated the empire. If you permit them to continue thus for awhile with impurity, the faithful of God will be much more widely attacked by them. On this account I, or rather the Lord, beseech you as Christ’s heralds to publish this everywhere and to persuade all people of whatever rank, foot-soldiers and knights, poor and rich, to carry aid promptly to those Christians and to destroy that vile race from the lands of our friends. I say this to those who are present, it meant also for those who are absent. Moreover, Christ commands it.
“All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins. This I grant them through the power of God with which I am invested. O what a disgrace if such a despised and base race, which worships demons, should conquer a people which has the faith of omnipotent God and is made glorious with the name of Christ! With what reproaches will the Lord overwhelm us if you do not aid those who, with us, profess the Christian religion! Let those who have been accustomed unjustly to wage private warfare against the faithful now go against the infidels and end with victory this war which should have been begun long ago. Let those who for a long time, have been robbers, now become knights. Let those who have been fighting against their brothers and relatives now fight in a proper way against the barbarians. Let those who have been serving as mercenaries for small pay now obtain the eternal reward. Let those who have been wearing themselves out in both body and soul now work for a double honor. Behold! on this side will be the sorrowful and poor, on that, the rich; on this side, the enemies of the Lord, on that, his friends. Let those who go not put off the journey, but rent their lands and collect money for their expenses; and as soon as winter is over and spring comes, let hem eagerly set out on the way with God as their guide.”
Those who with pure hearts enter upon such a sacred journey and who are in debt shall pay no interest. And if they or others for them are bound by oath or promise to pay interest, we free them by our apostolic authority. And after they have sought aid of their relatives or lords of whom they hold their fiefs, and the latter are unable or unwilling to advance them money, we allow them freely to mortgage their lands and other possessions to churches, ecclesiastics or other Christians, and their lords shall have no redress.
Following the institution of our predecessor, and through the authority of omnipotent God and of St. Peter, prince of the Apostles — which is vested in us by God — we grant absolution and remission of sins, so that those who devoutly undertake and accomplish such a holy journey, or who die by the way, shall obtain absolution for all their sins which they confess with humble and contrite heart, and shall receive from the Remunerator of all the reward of eternal life. Granted at Vetralle on the Kalends of December. [13]
The Crusaders
What characterized the Crusaders was not one single ideal of a Christ-centered desire to protect the Cause of Christianity. Without a doubt there were sincere “Crusaders” with such ideals. King Louis IX who conducted the Seventh crusade was of the highest sentiments and was sainted. But as the Turk highwaymen, originally conscripted to protect the caliphate at Baghdad, had become renegade mercenaries, likewise, there were crusaders who were just as uncouth as they, with dark deeds recorded of their rampaging after defeating the Muslim villages described as “grotesque,” and who, as they went forward, rampaged under the gaze of their lord, who, with his knights and soldiers, grabbed the rewards of booty more for their own purpose than for any espoused ideals of Crusade. So, crusaders respond to the pope’s summons and marched out to war from the fiefs of Lorraine, Boulogne, Taranto, those same kingdoms who had been, throughout the long medieval period, more fiercely wrangling with each other than interested to engage in warfare against the Muslims so far away and by reputation of being so formidable would have brought a long, thoughtful pause before running off to war.
The Byzantine territories of the Patriarch of the Eastern Church were under Papal jurisdiction but the patriarch was obliged to sign treaty of peace over to the Saljuk Turks who managed to restore lands won for the Caliph in Cairo. This was the time Pope Urban II called for the first Crusade, in rhetoric as reported above, and it was the Franks, who rallied for the march to Jerusalem, picking up kingdoms as victors on their way. The Byzantine patriarch responded to the papal summons to win back Jerusalem with an offer to supply the crusaders with added numbers of soldiers, but the support that Byzantine Christians offered the pope was not welcomed by the Roman Church to participate in their Crusades. The fracture between the Eastern Byzantine Church with the Western Church in Rome was now out in the open. But this fracture between the Eastern Church against the Roman Papal power was balanced by the inability of the Muslim emirs in their kingdoms to unite in common Cause. They too had succumbed to quarrels. But when word came to the Crusaders that Egypt was in-gathering a mighty force to protect Jerusalem, the attitude of Europe’s princes shifted from wrangling to muster. They now moved to get to the Holy Land as soon as possible, with each unit marching toward Jerusalem under the Papal Standard.[14]
West Meets East and East Meets West ~ ~First Crusade
1099 C.E. was the year. Two of the prince-generals who had much to gain in rewards for winning this Crusade for the Holy Land were Prince Raymond and Count Baldwin I, also King Baldwin of Boulogne, Jerusalem’s first king ruling from 1100 to his death. Baldwin, together with other noblemen lead armies to battle they made their bloody way from the Boulogne toward Jerusalem. And in 1099 Christians arrived to Jerusalem, and won the city holy for Jew, Christian, and Muslim.[15]
So swift was the Crusaders’ arrival upon the scene at Jerusalem that the Muslims had no hope of rescue by way of the promised support from Egypt. Seeing no way out, attempts to flee were made by those of wealth, with offers of heavy ransom to the Crusaders in place of capture. That effort to escape totally failed except for one very wealthy citizen. Sounds of war surrounded the city and every rampart of protection was broken open for the thousands of crusaders to enter. Masses of Muslims rushed in panic to the Dome of the Rock (Mosque) and where Muslims call “The Noble Sanctuary.” [16] There the Muslims were caught within the mosque. It was the first mosque in Jerusalem to be sacked and desecrated by the soldiers under banners of the Cross. And so the massacres began. Escape was not possible. And it was an equally gruesome ordeal for the Jews in Jerusalem. Jews were by the Christians seen worthy of the sword. The Crusaders rushed the streets, entered homes, temples, shops, and mosques and killed everyone, man, woman and child, with no one spared. “When Raymond of Aguilers later that morning went to the Jew’s Temple area he had to pick his way through corpses and blood that reached up to his knees.”[17] The outcome was that Crusaders secured Jerusalem and parts of Syria and claimed them for Christian holdings under Franks, the Hohenstaufen barony of Germany, Venice, even the Eastern Church of Byzantium. “It was this bloodthirsty proof of Christian fanaticism that recreated the fanaticism of Islam.” [18] There is a long memory of this slaughter which had stymied centuries of attempts for dialogue. Relief to degree comes for a show of progress, however. Recent visits of Christian prelates with Rabbis at the Wailing Wall, and Saudi princes in Rome in audience with the current pope show a greater success for such noble impulses of outreach, most gratifyingly.
Second Crusade
Meanwhile, in the western reaches of Islam, the renegade Zangids rose up and became such threat as to worry the Church in Rome and issue a call to head off further encroachment. From Mosul the Saljukid appointed governor had capitulated to the seeming unstoppable Zangid warrior, Mahmud. And Mahmud’s successes that followed Mosul’s capitulation included Aleppo, which was then under the Byzantine flags and then, Edessa, a Byzantine capital city for the Christians in this region was consumed by Mahmud’s warriors. With these threats, fire for this Second Crusade burst forth from France. However, in the course of battle, the commanding Frank princes were captured and held in bondage (nine years duration) until a heavy ransom was paid to release them. At such losses as had incurred, the remnants of that army of the Cross retreated and this 2nd Crusade withered on the vine. [19]
Mahmud’s son who inherited his father’s role to rule over the territories won by the Zangids, and who was more capable as ruler than his father, made his capital in Damascus. Saladin was building his base and upon returning from campaigns to Cairo, Saladin proclaimed the Zangid movement as heresy, and declared them independent of Egypt, thereby putting the Zangid Movement on his “Things to Do List,” that being all intention to rid the region of their existence. And it is now that Saladin set his course of conquest and consolidation through his wholehearted support of that philosophical base of Hanbali orthodox Sunni — as Sultan — of which he, Saladin of the Ayyubid House was now as ruler residing (when home) in his capital city, Cairo, Egypt, with rule over,sum totality, all Sunni Islam’s wide claim of lands.
Saladin, the Great Sunni General
Weaving the thread of the great warrior king (Sultan) Saladin back into the story of Islam we left him off upon his rise to power in Cairo after the great era of the Fatimids. It was Saladin who, at his restoration of Baghdad, he reinstituted the orthodox Hanbali Sunni, routing out any remnant Shi’ah Fatimid/Isma’ili sympathizers. The city of Baghdad was in rubble for the campaign, but Saladin stayed long enough to rebuild the city. That accomplished, he turned away from Baghdad to seek his most prized goals: to return to Syria to assure its adheres to Orthodox Sunni, and to restore Jerusalem to the Muslims by wresting it from the Crusaders. Saladin first thoughts were to prepare for his Jerusalem campaign, that he must, once and for all, rid Egypt of the Fatimids for their “apostasy. And he succeeded. The Isma’ilis were hit and brought to a severely reduced and beggarly presence. There should be no wonder about his choice to deal harshly with the Isma’ilis, for reason that two assassination attempts on his life were a calculated challenge orchestrated by Isma’ili contracts with the “Old Man of the Mountain.” This refers to the renegade Assassins and Saladin wasted no time turning his attention to — to secure his safety. His forces surrounded the Assasins’ mountain hide-out and Saladin won a truce to which the “old man” (Sinan) [20]agreed, “never to cross Saladin’s path again.” After this and dealing decisively with other aberrations of misaligned Islam, Saladin accumulated these successes as a seasoned war general, and a freshly confident Saladin began a carefully planned military campaign to bring the holy city of Jerusalem back under Islam.
Saladin’s campaigns in Syria were successful, and his armies drew ever closer to Jerusalem where presided a formidable Crusader, King Baldwin IV. King Baldwin IV of Jerusulem received his crown when he was but 14 years old. And he was very capable as the protector of the holy city of Jerusalem. Baldwin proved stronger than Saladin by a severe trouncing of Saladin’s forces as they attempted to gain Ramlih. So Saladin retreated, in an escape that was a very narrow disaster for Saladin. [21 ]He prudently decided to hold back, to take care of other business rather than to hastily pursue the restoration of Jerusalem to the sovereign rule of Islam. He entered into a two year truce with King Baldwin IV, turned north to extend his personal will of Sunni Islam (no Shi’ah) in Persia. That accomplished to his satisfaction Saladin resumed his objective of a forward march of conquest to Jerusalem; And on this march with greater armies he successfully brought in much of Syria, including Aleppo, where were located a hard faction of Zandigs who were mainly Arabs under the sway of Greek pantheism — heretics by any standard of Islam. Saladin subdued them and brought them as converts into his reign. This success awed both Muslim and Christians who regarded this feat as astounding. He was readying his armies for the reconquest of Jerusalem.
As a brilliant and worthy a king as there ever was, the unfortunate King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem had been stricken with leprosy and to add to his troubles he had his own enemies, including his own mother and brother-in-law, who opportunistically hovered around him on his sick-bed. Thieves and pirates found themselves protected within King Baldwin IV’s kingdom. Under the flying flag-standard of King Baldwin was a fortified harbor, a haven to which the pirates hastened their ships to protect their plunder. Pirates then lurked up and down the Red Sea and repeatedly attacked merchant ships causing great loss to both Muslim and Venetian trade. More heinous even, the pirates showed no mercy as they pillaged Muslim merchant ships and even ships with pilgrims, letting these ships go down to the bottom of the sea without sparing one life. Saladin vowed to slay the person, the notorious Frank, Prince Raynald, who was source of this pirate trouble — with his own hands.[22]
Saladin and King Baldwin IV’s truce had gone on for two years when word of the treachery of the notorious Prince Raynald brought a furious Saladin out of Egypt. King Baldwin IV had finally succumbed to his long bouts of illness. Saladin bid his time because “his own forces were not yet solid,” and arranged for truce with the new king and princes of Jerusalem: first with Guy then with Prince Raynald. Guy accepted the truce, but Raynald, not surprisingly, broke truce.
Here author-scholar H.M. Balyuzi in Muhammad and the Course of Islam describes the story of Saladin and the restoration of Jerusalem to the Muslims.
“Saladin was now ready to take Jerusalem by storm. A few miles from Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee lie in [some] heights known as the Horns of Hattin … [By] desire to save Tiberias …King Guy and his army to the [Horns of Hattin.] In 3 July 1187 they bivouacked for the night, unable to go further. But no water could be found nor was there protection from the intense heat. Below them Saladin kept watch. His men had shade, water and comfort, while the Christians were thirsty, weary and exposed. When Saladin closed in on July 4th, few of them escaped. The king, the princes, barons, knights and troopers were all made captive. Reynald was amongst them and Saladin, after recounting to Reynald all his misdeeds, with one stroke of his sword decapitated the scoundrel to fulfill his oath. King Guy, on the other hand, was treated with respect, for one king does not slay another, as Saladin told him. The next day Akka opened its gates and Jerusalem capitulated on October 2. Saladin proved most generous at the hour of his supreme victory. He freed the royalty, except for the Templars and the Hospitallers, And Saladin freed thousands of other captives. …Not only did he give Christians their liberties; Jews were encouraged by him to go back to Jerusalem (after nearly a century) and settle there.”[23]
The story of Saladin gives the present generation — perhaps, a surprising picture of the decency of Islam’s heroes in the time and age of the Crusades. To further extend praise of Saladin it would have to be added here that he was truly a marvel. For Saladin managed to achieve the task of forging unity between Muslims of Western Asia and Egypt. So for this period, Islam regained its place in the sun.
Saladin, the Ayyubid Sultan after winning his battle against the Crusaders for Jerusalem then turned to the Outremer castles to wrest the Frank strongholds in order to preserve the strength of Sunni Muslim presence in the Levant. His armies issued forth and engaged citadel forts from northern to southern outposts of the Levant, He meant to vanquish them. Although these campaigns by Saladin were effective, the job was unfinished.
From Rome the loss of Jerusalem shot through the whole of Christendom as a shock, and swiftly the Franks came to muster for the coming Third Crusade with sight to recapture Jerusalem. King Guy joined the fight for Jerusalem in spite of his promise to never return.
Third Crusade
Saladin knew he had to ready his forces to bring defeat to the coming Third Crusade under King Guy who,despite the vow he made to Saladin to never fight him again — here he was, with formidable Frank armies facing Akka and Jerusalem. Battles began but the siege became protracted, and it took two years before Akka succumbed to this 3rd Crusade. It was a grueling war, won by the Franks who held Jerusalem another hundred years. Saladin sat at the peace table to set terms of peace with King Richard (English). The peace treaty concluded with some coastal port cities to be held by the Franks. But that for a reward of victory was not so outstanding or significant an achievement. Saladin had the skills of negotiation with King Richard to make appeasement treaties with France, England, Rome, as well as treaties between Byzantium and Damascus, which had become Saladin’s capital. The Eastern Orthodox and Roman Church were apportioned parts of the Holy Land by Saladin, who did not allow any sect to dominate the area. Famously, King Saladin, the conservative Sunni Kurdish warrior apportioned the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to Byzantium.[24] The lords from their cantankerous home kingdoms who were at war with each other at home had joined as comrades to engage in the Third Crusade — those kingdoms being: Germany (Frederic Barbarossa), England (Richard the Lion Hearted) France, (Philip Augustus, and King Guy) who protractedly, agonizingly but decisively won “for the Cross” the rule of Jerusalem, Acca and Cyprus in this Third Crusade now returned to their homelands to resume their wars with each other.
At the table negotiating the treaties, Sultan Saladin the Ayyubid High General with King Richard’s put together as amicable an apportionment of the lands to a goal of peace and honor for the defeated as well as the victor. The relations between King Richard and Saladin went so well that King Richard in future days knighted Saladin’s nephew. These face-to-face treaty arrangements were the last noble efforts made by Saladin. Because, barely returning home to his capital, the great but now exhausted Saladin died at the age of 54, in 1193.
Saladin was among the greatest of leaders: as formidable warrior, truce and treaty negotiator, as honor-principled executioner of rogue usurpers of power, honor in judgement, balanced in settling the hard won victories with relief to its innocents, all just as exemplified in Islam based upon the Qur’an in its glory days . The world has seen few if any other who has bequeathed such laurels of statehood as did the Sultan, Salahi’d’Din. His mausoleum represents a proud testimony and graces Damascus, his capital city where he is remembered as a hero.
More amazing history of these two powers is told by happenings in the next Crusades and we do not want to exclude them. So, let us glance upon European affairs as of the 12th and 13th and 14th Centuries to see how a great duel proceeds between the powers as to “who is to claim rule over Jerusalem, its holy sites, and Akka” that becomes the intense challenge of the eras ahead.
Europe, meanwhile — The Fourth Crusade
Most of the difficulties in the next period of the medieval Europe concern fratricidal feuds between various kingdoms. There was virtual war for trade between Florence and Venice, likewise, between Genoa and Pisa in a deadly sea combat where each sought safe sea passage and port access: The Venetians were close to the powerful Hohenstaufen dynasty who mutually invested their ambitions and gold to use the Crusade to ship the army to Egypt. New Orders sprung up into action in this period: the Knights Hospitalers, the Knights Templars and late-comers,The Teutonic Knights. These orders hated each other, and their alignments reflected this antipathy. The Knights Hospitalers, for instance allied with the Isma’ilis and “the Old Man of the Mountain” assassins, and the Teutonic Knights were under the wing of the Hohenstaufen powers. Each order was loyal to the Latin Church, but their efforts were uncooperative and uncoordinated, to say the least. [25]
So Pope Innocent III called for a Fourth Crusade, or campaign and the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick agreed to support it with ships, troops, and materiel. But his generosity was not intended purely to transport to the Levant in behalf of the Pope’s Crusade, but secretly for being economically more interested to hand over the Eastern Byzantine church to the Latin Church, to demolish Greece, so that all will come under the dominance of the Latin pope who, as reason would have it, would be beholding to their dynastic gratitude, and under the Hohenstaufen sway. So this was the game plan: to delay ships after the armies arrive to the yards and then raise the cost of their shipment.
That tactic served , and was repeated throughout the crusades. On this Crusade, ships eventually did leave Venice filled with everything needed for war — supposedly for getting to Egypt for the “take all” march to the Levant for the 4th Crusade. But instead of landing in Egypt as bidden, ships debarked upon the shores of the Dalmatian Sea, and began a mayhem of sieges against Eastern Christian principalities of Byzantium, where, once they were destroyed, the Crusaders marched right to the castle of the Byzantine Emperor and Patriarch in Constantinople. With Genoa and Pisa as part of this force of “conquerors” they, as always, so bitterly engaged in feuds, divided Byzantine spoils cantankerously among themselves. The Patriarch and the King (Alexius V) with his son had escaped to Thrace and Nicea and kept their Greek church alive by that emigration.
The Frank armies entered the absolutely wondrous city of Constantinople but did not see the marvels of beauty, but instead, regarded the churches’, libraries’, schools,” hostels’, convents’ architectural splendor and all decor within as something worthy of smashing to total destruction. Libraries were ransacked, ravishing and rape of the nuns in the city was total horror and a gross shame of war heat, and but the sole grace would be credited to the cultured Venetians who carefully carted away the spoils of the iconic artifacts — the art and Byzantine masterpieces — these artifacts otherwise surely would have been totally destroyed. The arts of which are visible today were representative of the Byzantium cultural genius, hence have lasted beyond the follies of wars. That which was saved is displayed today in Venice. [25] But the Pope was livid. For the disobedience to the purpose of the Crusade, Pope Innocent III excommunicated the Venetians. They were, later,to undergo restoration of status as proper Catholics and then: another excommunication.
Back onto the southern tip of Italy, Sicily lost its war with the Franks and came under a most hated domination.
This period saw the Pope in frustration on several fronts. England was not responding to the Pope’s desperate call to his next crusade. The Third Crusade sapped the will for Crusade that never again was able to rally “holy cause” to its full force. England’s national ambitions were to wrap her borders around Scotland and Wales, so protection of Outremer (meaning Europe’s fiefdoms in distant lands) was of little purpose to them.
The disastrous Children’s Crusade fell in between the 4th and 5th Crusades. This was a tragic enterprise, with the children unattended while they long waited for transportation. Ships finally came but brought them to Egypt to be sold as slaves. It is said (without proof) that the Egyptian sultan al Malik bought and used “his” children and youth slaves as teachers, secretaries, and translators without forcing any to convert to Islam. Very few made it back home. The German home townspeople that provided their children to this debacle were so furious, the father of the one they blamed for leading their children away was mobbed and hung.
The Fifth Crusade
Pope Innocent III died and Honorius III was the next Pope and wanted to pursue Innocent’s call for Crusade. It took a while for the order of command heirarchy to be settled and papal legate, Cardinal Palagius battling the other contenders, such as King John, demanded and, therefore by his ecclesiastic authority took the position of supreme commander. And the Fifth Crusade begins.
The 5th Crusade was a riot of tangles with criss-crossing and double crossing betwixt and between Latin’ and Muslim’ forces — “Sides” so mercurial that at this stage of two sides fighting against each other in ambitious righteous warfare, reading about it seems almost comical except for the waste of it. Both sides, Muslims as well as Christians, sought support of supposed “enemies” to align with as allies, mostly for the purpose to assist the downfall of their own “ inside battles:” King Leo of Little Armenia attacked the leader of the First Crusade, Bohemond IV, ruler of Antioch. An Ayyubid ( descendant sultan of the House of Saladin) attacked Tripoli, to punish hostility by the Knights of the Hospital. Little Armenia attacked Antioch which was claimed by Bohemond IV. Behemond sought out the Saljuks to help Behemond punish the Armenians; the pope even got into trying to establish troop support with the Ayyubids to try to keep the city of Aleppo safe from the Greeks. Some years later, the Isma’ilis murdered the son of Bohemond IV of Antioch under the direction of the Hospitalers. [14- 349] And then Bohemond IV was with the Knights of the Temple to attack a fortress of the Isma’ilis. There are more of the same cross cultural alliances and they are of record, but to say: we need to realize consciously how slim the ideals of saving Christian holy places from the depredations of the “infidel Muslims” were to provide the real motive for war! The most painful thing to read about this particular Fifth Crusade is that it was pushed by two popes and served by a cardinal: Innocent III and his successor Honorus, and Cardinal Pelagius (a Spaniard); so armies arrived, with the war mandate to rid “their” holy realm of the Muslims, with no intention of sparing the despised Jews, of course, at a time and a place where, as said, actually, life was smoothly operating through the Peace Truce between the citizen Muslims, Christians and Jews living there in Jerusalem.
A Crusade battle in the early days of the Fifth Crusade had given a measure of success and hope for Rome to gain rule over Egypt, and the win made that ambition seem possible. The Ayyubid rulers were contentious and lacking coordination and that was the cause of the Crusaders winning al Adiliyyih, the army quarters of the Sultan Adil. The sultan was grief stricken at the loss of his army corps at Adiliyyih, and died soon afterwards. About Sultan Adil: briefly, Sultan Adil was the brother of Saladin , and a capable and just ruler he was. He created a lucrative business of trade with the Franks with the good intent to keep the Crusade from imposing itself on Egypt. Then that barrage of Crusader warfare aimed at Damietta, a sea port, won the fort garrison. And it was not long afterwards that the Sultan al Adil passed on. So, as the custom of eldest son inheritance of succession had it, Al Adil’s eldest son al Malik al Kamil took the throne of his father as Egypt’s new ruler. [26]And Malik, like his father and his uncle before him, the Sultan, also known as Saphadin, of Kurdish lineage of the Ayyubid House was a worthy and illumined ruler, as his uncle, Saladin and his father Adil had been.
Time is 1219 and a famous incident occurred. Interesting was in a pause of battle at Damietta, when a visitor arrived at the palace of Malik al-Kamil. It was Francis of Assisi, come to observe the fighting, and according to Catholic resources, hoping to convert the Sultan King al Kamil, of Egypt, to Catholicism. In his castle with his guest, the Sultan treated him as a holy man, with due respect, and bade a kind farewell to the departing Friar Francis, with Egyptian guards as protectors for his return to the Christian camp that was readying itself to rout Islam out of Egypt.
And skirmish between the Crusaders wore on but the struggle was with Muslim defenders of Damietta who could barely hold on. The fort had been taken as said, but the Muslims did keep their city when reinforcements came to the rescue. [27]For a while.
Siege of Damietta Port City in Egypt
A second winter was a stalemate; the citizens of Damietta were starving and dying when the Crusaders did gain control of the port city, and again parceled out the spoils with unhappy winners. The peace treaty which had been extended the year earlier by the Muslim defenders but refused by the supreme commander Cardinal Pelagius, who was being doggedly unwilling to deal with “infidels.” Pelagius however was forced to surrender to “the infidels” together with King John when they unwisely moved their troops inland where floods enveloped the area and surprised them . They having no escape retreated right into the waiting Muslim Armies. The Crusader army was decimated. The supreme commander and his warrior King John surrendered to the mercy of their captors. By Sultan al Kamil’s benevolence, the supreme commander and his king were released — it was to Acre for King John and the Cardinal Pelagius it was Antioch.
The Fifth was a messy Crusade that lasted from 1216–1238. The Sultan al Kamil of Syria had demonstrated a will for peace with two offers extended to cede Jerusalem to the crusaders, and by treaty turned over Jerusalem to an excommunicated Emperor Frederick. When the Emperor Frederick of the House of Hohenstaufen came to Jerusalem, Sultan al-Kamil forbade the Call to Prayer (by the mu’ adhdhin) as respect to the Christian Emperor. Mutual respect, given, Frederick, spying one of his monks following him into the Haram al Sharaf was furious and declared anyone who tried to enter the holy places of the Muslims without permission should be put to death. All said and done, Frederick and al-Malik had made a peace treaty that failed to make anyone happy.
And came a new pope: Pope Gregory IX. With a bit of irritation he reinstated Frederick. He had a treaty to show for his insubordination,after all. Troubles in the interim before the next crusade were fierce engagements between Hospitallers versus the Knights of the Temple., and Frederick was able to settle their distracting feud.
Sixth Crusade
The 6th Crusade — al-Kamil died 1238 and the Treaty with Frederick had expired [28] Factions of loyalties were within the courts of Egypt and, of course, mutually hostile to each other; unfortunately leadership failed to deal with this satisfactorily. The treaty with Frederick had expired These situations invite the time to attack! The next Ayyubid sultan was An-Nasir retaliated an Outremer nobleman who hijacked a Muslim caravan, robbed it of its livestock heading for market. Al Nasir acted swiftly and brought all of Jerusalem’s fortifications down to rubble. And…. Pope Gregory IX set out a call for a sixth crusade, for the purpose of taking Egypt. Response was flat. Frederick had no intention of returning, England and France demurred, Conrad, the nobleman in the position of overseer of Tyre, was preoccupied about the Outremer and promised nothing. Essentially it was more of that same plague of jealousies that was too burdensome for any decisive change to the positioning of the Crusaders in the Holy Land. The leader of this crusade was Tibald and he threw up his hands and returned.
Seventh Crusade — is the Crusade of King Louis IX of France. His was a noble life of sincere purpose to serve the Church,and he was sainted for his steadfast adherence in this 7th campaign.
But what was also coming over the hills were the hordes of Mongols right into the northern boundaries of Muslim held Persia.
The Mongols had decimated Muslim held lands, trashing the province of Kharzemshah and spread this devastation deeply into Asia Minor. What sign of God was this?
The whole of Europe had great hopes that the obvious Mongol hostility to Islam meant the end for Islam would come at the hands of the Mongols. Then their hopes turned to apprehension. Under the Lord Qa’an Utkay his Mongol hordes had turned their might to Christian Poland, Hungary and Silesia, and it looked like nothing was stopping the Mongols from claiming the whole Continent of Europe. Kiev was gone to the Mongols. Ukraine also. And a worried Pope Gregory IX turned to Emperor Frederick, also to the English and France’s Kings to join forces to stop Utkay Qa’an and his hordes. But mustering to head off the Horde was suddenly unnecessary. The tide had turned because Utkay died, and at that news, the Mongols returned home, leaving Europe altogether. This all in the midst of the Crusades: Mongols absorbing the lands from Persia to Siberia. We return to the Mongol threats and its surprises later.
The change of popes from Gregory to Innocent IV did not mean the change of the Church for seeking out Mongol help to rid the world of the menace of Islam.
Perhaps somewhat delusional, Pope Innocent IV sent envoys to the new Qa’an Gayuk, the new overlord of the Mongols, seated in Qaraqarum, China. The Mongol Overlord (Qa’an) treated these envoys well, and sent the envoys back saying (exact words) “that all the princes of Europe should present themselves to the Qa’an, and properly address the Qa’an as their new ruler “of the world.” It was noted by the envoys that the Qa’an was being advised by Nestorian Christians.
Pause: The Nestorians remembered:
Now: we pause briefly — a most worthy aside; you recall, perhaps, the background of the Nestorians (Books I and II) of whose presence in Asia Minor was long a part of its ever-evolving dynastic powers. Their presence in the region that came to be under Islam dates back to antiquity. In 486 CE, the Mazdean Persian Sassanian Court welcomed the Christian Nestorian exiles fleeing the wrath of the Patriarch of the Eastern Byzantine Church. And centuries later when Islam overtook Arabia and then Iran , each new generation of Nestorians were sought for valuable services (especially as physicians) by Umayyad and then the Abbasid Caliphates, likewise did the Mongol Lords accommodate the Nestorian Christians as their “right hand advisors,”and more surprising perhaps: there were war generals, winning status as eternal heroes. Centuries of varied dynasties gave the Nestorians refuge and high esteem. And so, these “heretic” Christian Nestorians (deemed “heretic” for Bishop Nestor’s “deviation”against the Council’s incorporating the veneration of Mary as “mother of God” theology.” The Patriarch Nestorious’s preached against this church dogma, deploring that there could be a “mother of God.” The Nestorians as refugees from Constantinople’s Byzantine capital were still thriving outside the Eastern or Western Church, and beyond their expulsion, even after 800 years. Succeeding generations of Christian Nestorians had made haven with enclaves of followers, mainly within Persia, their church and dogma distinct from Mazdean Sassanian power but their presence welcomed and well serving within the highest circles wherever they settled. And as generations of the land passing into the bondage of Islam and then this land succumbing to Mongols, their loyalty to whomever was in power is remarkable. Thus, Nestorian migrants were at the service as war campaigners and diplomats of the Great Qa’an Güyük: (also spelled Kuyuk) the Mongol, the grandson of Genghis Khan and eldest son of the grand khan Utkay. This was year CE 1248), [29]
Back to the Seventh Crusade, King Louis’ Crusade:
Back to Pope Innocent IV and King Louis. The letter was received, but something must have been misunderstood, because King Louis came under the impression that the Great Qa’an Gayuk, the Ghengez’ grandson, was interested in becoming Christian. Hopes soared! A Dominican delegation was suited up for travel and heavily laden with gifts that included a portable chapel. (We assume this thoughtful gift was intended to be carried to the war camps from where Mongol troops would wage combat against the Muslims under the protection of the chapel’s statuary contents.) But by the time the delegation reached the palace of the Qa’an, Gayuk had died. His wife acting as Guyuk Qa’an’s regent accepted the pope’s gifts intended for her husband, as though they were from fief petitioners, and told them “to keep sending gifts every year.” [30]
And now without the support of the Mongols, King Louis proceeded with his own armies. The Papal objective was still to subdue Egypt. He was to lead by his own significant talents, because he was without help from the Venetians — neither would help come from the Genoese, nor the Pisans, because they were fighting each other. It was at this burdensome time Empress Maria of Romania presented a Queenly appeal to King Louis. The Emperor of Nicea was encroaching upon Romania, menacing the land. King Louis replied that he had come to fight infidels, not Christians. [31]
1248 — King Louis IX was in Cyprus to gather support for the 7th Crusade when he received a damsel in distress, Empress Marie of Romania who sought all support King Louis could gather to face a Nicean threat to her land. His sympathy was unaroused and he said he was there to lead a campaign against infidels not to aid one Christian monarch against another.
The stars were not aligned. Supply ships bearing food and war materiel were seized, disease hit his troops hard, which so disheartened King Louis that he ordered retreat. This was when he was captured, ill and weak, and put in chains. This humiliation to King Louis was at the hand of a new heir to the Egyptian seat of power, Turin shah, the very last of the Ayyubids, and was a harsh and vain act so rudely put upon King Louis. This infamous young sultan, Turin, the new successor to the throne vacated by his brilliant father, al Malik let down the honor of his heritage that derived not only from al Malik, but his grandfather, the great hero, Saladin. But no more harm came from his hands because the young sultan who captured and mistreated the King ruled but for three months. Turin Shah was murdered at the hand of a Mamluk, a complex ruler named Baybars, whose deeds and influence will reveal a distorted Islam of terror in the coming years. Blame for the assassination is given to Baybars, although it is also believed by others that the murder of Turin Shah to have been committed by Assassins trained by “The old man of the mountain” the formal name of which is “Nizari Ismailis, ” and, still….perhaps a murder set up by Baybars. (see fn. 2) [32]
So, who was Baybars? Baybars: “not all bad.” Baybars took the role of the 4th Mamluk Sultan of Egypt and all that had been put under the standard of the Ayyubids was now under him with yet more land to be secured under his dominion. After a successful campaign the third Mamluk Sultan Qutuz received Baybars as his honored general . “ Baybars expected to be rewarded with the town of Aleppo; but Sultan Quṭuz disappointed him. “Baybars approached Quṭuz and asked him for the gift of a captive Mongol girl. The sultan agreed, and Baybars kissed his hand. On this prearranged signal the Mamlūks fell upon Quṭuz, while Baybars stabbed him in the neck with a sword. Baybars seized the throne to become the fourth Mamlūk sultan.” [33] Baybars, was a notable figure for this period of Mamluk power. He rode roughshod over vast regions and earned the same reputation for ruthlessness as the Genghiz had some years before. He demolished the Church of the Virgin, Nazareth was put to ruin, he killed every Christian he could find, brought down to rubble the oldest city won by the Crusaders: Antioch, and the list of madness goes on. For instance, he or his contracted Assassins murdered Prince Edward, who was stabbed with a poisoned dagger as he was leaving to return for England, the prince imagining he had settled by treaty with Baybars to give Outremer a 10 year,10 month sojourn of peace. He it was who mastered his armies over the Mongols, causing them to retreat from Syria. True that his was rule by perfidy at its most raw.
And the history of Baybars had many twists which requires a synopsis of his “not all bad” aspect: Baybars was gifted at negotiating and diplomacy. He and the very ambitious Charles of Anjou established friendly rapport, he negotiated commercial treaties with the Castilian Alfonso X ( of Toledo). Baybars was, moreover, more than a military leader or a diplomatic politician. “He built canals, improved harbors, and established a regular and fast postal service between Cairo and Damascus, one that required only four days. He built the great mosque and the school bearing his name in Cairo. He was also the first ruler in Egypt to appoint chief justices, representing the four main schools (Sunni: Hanbali, Hanafi, Shafi’i, and Maliki) of Islamic law)[23] and he made allies with the Golden Horde. By Sunni standards today Baybars won his place in the sun.
And now we must return to the capture of King Lewis and his commander. The benevolent Mamluk Ruler, (Egypt) the Sultan Malik of Damascus, some years prior, Baybars had agreed to pacts with King Louis because of their mutual apprehension over the Mongol menace. Little could he then realize the mayhem and horrors the Mamluks were capable of.
The mettle of King Louis now was then revealed. He suffered tremendously under his imprisonment. He was ransomed and finally freed. But he refused to leave the region because his responsibility, as he saw it, was to the Outremer. The crusaders there at their castles in the Levant were, as usual, disunited, and King Louis wished to give them his leadership to settle their disputes as no other could achieve. And indeed, the King was able to restore calm and order among the fractious Outremer posts under royal flags of home principalities who were warring each other on the seas and back in their homelands. So, Outremer had settled down. And King Louis returned home to France. But. within days the fighting between the outposts of Outremer resumed. The pope himself interposed, sending a delegation to the quarreling contenders, and by his rule apportioned the outposts according to this decree: Genoese, go to Tyre, keep away from Acre; Pisans and Venetians to keep Acre. The Genoese were furious and to pay back the pope their perception of insult, they put their fleet and service to the Nicean Emperor, and for that help, Constantinople was again captured for Byzantium and Romania ceased to be. Empress Maria had tried to warn King Louis about the Niceans.
Restless, in his castle in France, King Louis longed to return to the Levant to rescue his project of reconciliation among the fortresses in the Outremer. Pope Clement IV was interested in a new expedition to the Levant to secure the holdings for the Church. The pope chose his Commander for his 8th Crusade to be the ambitious Charles d’ A’njou.
And then 1256 came and war had broken out in Acre between the Genoese and the Venetians, over who should be entitled to a particular monastery. Tyre was opposing the Venetians. The Pisans, the Teutonic Knights and the Knights of the Temple sided with the Venetians. The Genoese were supported by the Hospitaliers — all these Italians at loggerheads with each other, that took the overriding power of the new Pope Alexander IV to settle by demanding an armistice between the Genoese and the Venetians. The Genoese were acquitted to Tyre, and the Venetians and Pisans would have Acre. The Genoese were disgruntled. So they got in league with the Emperor of Nicea, and together stormed and won Constantinople, and moved on — indeed just as the Romanian Empress Maria had feared in her appeal for help from King Louis. Romania was lost to Nicea’s onslaught that came with the help of the Genoese. [34]
Eighth Crusade (1)
Up to the spotlight saunters Charles of Anjou who was King Louis’ brother, and by that relationship, Louis unwisely assented to Charles’ appointment to be the commander of the next Crusade. Soon Louis was deeply in the midst of plans to gather all necessary supplies for this crusade to get to the Levant to nurture back the health to the ill, constant bickering among the lords in the Outremer. But, Charles was not interested in this. He was interested in capturing Constantinople and to hobble the Byzantine power for Rome. So Charles contrived a story to distract his King and brother, saying that the Muslim Emir of Tunis was on the point of conversion to Christianity, and that Louis should go there right away to welcome him and assist him as a newly converted Christian. Of course the Emir had no such intention, and the army accompanying their King became so ill they could give no support to King Louis, and, tragically, the King also succumbed, dying there in Tunis, and thus was this noble King Lewis buried in Tunisia. [35]
And at this time, in the Holy Land, where King Lewis would have been — had it not been for Charles’ lie about the conversion of the Sultan, and the illness that took King Louis’ life in Tunis, the eye of this story turns to observe Baybars and his armies raging havoc in Syria, moving his forces to the Levant, exercising no restraint in the destruction of the Church of the Virgin, stopping at Akka’s gate only after putting to death every Christian in sight. Another of his armies almost destroyed Little Armenia. And Antioch, in Turkey, once a beautiful and prosperous star city was hit so hard by Baybars’ forces it never recovered. This ruin of Antioch will happen later, but gives the tone what happens ultimately.
The hope for a unified Outremer, their citadels protecting Christian control over the Levant without King Louis was never more dim.
The Eighth Crusade (2) — A double start:
So the foray into the Eighth Crusade bottomed out in 1270 CE for the passing of the sainted King Louis and it will not be until year 1284 before a new campaign with the Levant to where the Church wished to remove all threat of the Mamluks, would be called. “The (renewed) Eighth Crusade,” it may be referred.
Sicily
The Hohenstaufen dynasty, whose interests were dependent on Sicily for its strategic location for sea commerce, was under the crown of Roman Emperor Frederick, whom we met as Emperor Hohenstaufen in the 5th Crusade. At this time, he was a favored royal of the Pope Honorius III. Wealth in shipping made him a dynastic power. But his ambitions for expansion by military attacks against the Franks, was averse to the Francophile pope’s direction and Emperor Frederick incurred the pope’s wrath; thus he met the ax of excommunication, as said earlier. Reprimand of the Emperor Frederick’s excommunications during his life tenure and reinstatement would come four different times.
But the arch-enemy of the House of Hohenstaufen was the Anglo-French empire known as the Angevin Empire to which Urban IV, now pope, was totally committed — therefore, was Pope Urban IV eager see this dynasty hobbled because Hohenstaufen allies came, after all, through their trading route negotiations to include the hated Byzantines.
A period change of papal authority was in the passage of the next 12 years, but some seminal history in this medieval period did take place. The brother of King Louis, Charles of Anjou was working the angles. In 1272 Charles of Anjou had gained high status with Pope Urban by his efforts to dislodge the Hohenstaufen base out of Sicily, which enabled him to receive favor of the pope. Once he accomplished that he was given by the Church the kingdom of Sicily to fly his Angevin standard representing France’s newly sceptered King Charles of Anjou. The great angst of the curia of Rome, in succession one after the other of several popes, had been, since Pope Gregory IX in 1227 sheer wariness over the Hohenstaufen power.
Then, upon Urban’s passing, Charles maneuvered to win the next throne of the papacy to Gregory X.
Then, Sicily erupted. A volcanic uprising of rebellion by the Sicilians put the people in the streets in sheer mayhem in all-out revolt and is referred to as the “Sicilian Vespers.” The Sicilians overthrew the hated Franks by cause of their hatred for the Frank imperiousness that brought the people into a state of impoverished starvation. It was a bloody revolution. The fall out of this revolt fell directly against the tyrannical French King Charles of Anjou, who had enjoyed the riches that came with being the wielder of the scepter in Sicily, and threw him into a state of panic. The instigators of the rebellion were the Byzantines. And after the dust settled, Sicilians petitioned for the new King of Sicily to be Peter of Aragon,whose Queen was a Hohenstaufen, and this collusion between Byzantines, and Hohenstaufen incensed the pope who excommunicated Aragon, who did not care.
Intrigue originally had put Charles of Anjou and Baybars somehow in an established cordiality. Baybars must have initiated it by seeing the advantage a desperate Charles would offer Baybars the warrior leading the cause of the voracious Mamluks. This is suggested because how Baybars worked; he established a meeting of the minds with the Christian Alfonso in Seville, and the Aragon King James I, the Golden Horde, and Byzantium, where Patriarch Michael Paleogogus rebuilt a Mosque to please Baybars.
Another pope, Pope Martin IV, was enthroned. This highest prelate of the Curia, had gained his position by the political manipulations of Charles of Anjou, and Pope Martin IV did not do one picky thing without being advised by Charles of Anjou. Martin IV was a proud Frenchman who was incensed at the rebellion that brought in both Constantinople and the Hohenstaufen power upon which the Angian Charles received favors from“his” pope bringing his prosperity. Meanwhile in Sicily, as the Sicilian rebellion got cleaned up and all settled down, the Sicilians invited Peter Of Aragon to rule, and history has noted that Peter’s immediate gestures were to present petitions for formal reconciliation with Pope Martin, and in so doing, expressing submission to the dictates of the Latin Church. But by insistence of Charles of Anjou, Pope Martin refused the overtures made by the Argonese king. Instead, he excommunicated Peter of Aragon, as well as the Emperor of Constantinople, Byzantine Patriarch Michael III Palaeologus, as well as the Hohenstaufen Queen, the royal wife of Peter. These acts of vengeance brought the affiliation to a chasm — the final defining act that tore asunder the fragile ties between Rome and the Greek Byzantine Church. And his next act saw the pope calling for an all-out crusade against Sicily — the first Christian against Christian crusade. [23]
All main actors of this horror did not live much longer than getting as far as this. Charles, Peter, Martin, all had been buried by year 1285. None of the subsequent attempts made by the Curia to retake Sicily were successful in commitment after commitment of forces for that purpose. Poor Sicily! The people suffered harshly for a long time .
And this is the time (to be again mentioned next chapter) when the Mongol Il Khan Arghun called for help to put the Mamluks to the run and by that help to restore Jerusalem to the Christians. [37] He sent messages to princes to Europe asking support for the campaign with needed manpower and goods to end the threat of the Mamluks. England demurred. Scotland and Wales were the King Edward’s objectives for conquering. France was distracted, its kings unresponsive to the pope’s call.And this is the time (to be again mentioned next chapter) when the Mongol Il Khan Arghun called for help to put the Mamluks to the run and by that help to restore Jerusalem totally to the Christians. [38]
So all the Pope had left for armies was the Italians to be dispatched by papal demand to rid Akka and Jerusalem of any presence of Muslims — and Jews as well. Because, on the eastern front, the Mamluks, ominously, to the pontiff’s point of view, were reported as gaining ground in the Holy Land. The early 1280’s to 1289 was seeing a severe challenge to the region between the Outremer and the coastal control points of the Levant. The Crusader outposts of Outremer were weakened for lack of unity and focus for maintaining the Crusade won fortifications.
Qala’un, within this time invaded and took the fortress citadel of the Hospitallers. Earthquake hit another port fortification and Qala’un’s forces practically walked in, laid claim and no one protested. Tripoli fell after a nasty siege but it was now under Qala’un’s Turk’s. Qalal’un (had the same intention of the Ayyubid Sultan al Kamil did —to honor the Christian Cross over the Kingdom of Jerusalem , meaning, Akka and Jerusalem as he and Frederick had worked that out back in the Fifth Crusade) so Qala’un set up a renewable peace treaty to be for 10 years, setting terms for Akka and Jerusalem under the Cross in peace, unmolested by the his powers, and Cyprus, for central rule. Europe for its pact was committed to not build any additional fortifications in Cyprus,[39]
Which brings mind to pull up a sense of daily common “Life in Acre” as it was by virtue of a Ten Year Treaty of Peace and life easily adapted into a steady quality. The view of Akka was of a peaceful principality, with amicable intercoursings, a flow of prosperous activity between Muslims, Christians and Jews. [366] The King whose domain was Cyprus with rule over Akka was English King Hugh who came under unfortunate circumstances, and died; and then, first in line to succeed King Hugh also died; the next in line to be crowned was a very young nine year old Henry III. At 15 or 16 years old (1286 CE,) Henry was given the crown of Cyprus which placed Henry’s crown over Akka as his to rule as well. And either just previous or upon Henry’s taking the throne at Cyprus he and Qalala’un forged a 10 year peace treaty. And early years of this truce period passed well. There was much to encourage thoughts of peace.
The business of trading was in flow, mutually carried on organizing merchant ships off to shores abroad or unloading goods for markets in the Levant, or and loading agricultural goods like oranges, lemons, nuts, dates — and so on! And, livestock like sheep or goats, likewise, wool fibers sought for weaving goods, not to forget the lucrative spice trade — all such innumerable items for export or import for domestic markets. But on this day…. all flags were flying. Because Akka was all scrubbed for a grand celebration to welcome the new King of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, (who was now fifteen.) Henry. it was, the youth king, son of Hugh, from France, who was going to his castle in Akka to be seated formally and receive the notables in the region. Crowds of thousands were out and gave him a boisterous welcome to cheer his arrival to rule over them. The streets were busy with the sounds of donkey pulling carts of all things to sell, and citizens out jovially greeting each other in the bazaar of Akka; long cloaked, turbaned men , and rough garments as well: men and women with their children, gathering in small groups less for business on this day than for pleasure; and, in the ease of the peace treaty being enjoyed, Jew and Muslim, as friends and business partners meeting with a chess board on the table over cups of Ethiopian coffee (Kahwa); and breaking into a hand-shake on a deal made for a loan toward outfitting a merchant ship; and for the special occasion in terms of the festive, noisy activities around the bazaar of Akka, there, in a stony field the young are in cross cultural melange of ruffians with the children of the citadel playing blind man’s bluff, others bowling; of crowds inclusive of common folk intermixing with nobility, purely for the pleasure of this break in the daily life being a great cause of merriment to celebrate the king’s arrival — jesters and jugglers street-entertaining the folks; and then, in this festival mood, near the French quarter a large crowd is drawn to music. Mesmerized groups of people have been watching a high stepping beautiful girl in her layered ruffled dresses dancing and foot-stomping in solo dance with the accompaniment of three or four musicians’ most amazing percussive bold rhythms and song — These were the troubadour slaves brought over to the al-Andaluir Crak du Chavaliers Citadel for the French court’s amusement and presented to the crowds for this great occasion of welcoming their king. Drawing closer into the center of the main square, as the evening draws into shadows, fires are lit and groups gather attracted to the voice of an Arab in song. He would be singing ballads in words of romantic poetry. Then the troubadour balladeers performed the famous Cheer (Zajal) Songs — and striking the onlookers’ curiosity were their instruments never seen before: the lute and the rebec; totally new! What a melting pot and “what a splendid display to remember!” “We must bring these troubadours back to France to entertain us at court!” So it was said, and that did happen, just as spoken for. The King’s arrival was a great occasion. This event and the likes of it did not get put into the history volumes describing this special occasion.
Ninth Crusade — Qala’un, King Henry II, Italian Crusaders and the Mamluks, and, Europe in the meanwhile:
So, quartered in Cyprus, young King Henry came to hold the ruling scepter over Jerusalem, and *Acca (Acre or Akka) located along the shores of the sea lapping on Syria’s shoreline along the Mediterranean Sea. Acre was not far from the hold of Turkish Mamluks but truce had been kept. The pope, however was not at ease with interaction that kept both Muslims and Jews in the Levant, not with those Turk Mamluks within the environs of Jerusalem. And he called for Crusade.
Pushed to Crusade were the Italian peasant folk under liege to their lords given their papal summons to war. So with dreams of promised booty and forgiveness of sins they came to the ships in an onrush of crusader or material zeal. The Ten Year Peace Treaty between King Henry and the Mamluk Lord was dissolved right upon their arrival as they made havoc with this prosperous but delicate balance. They invaded Acre, and in a drunken orgy hunted down and slayed Muslims. Every bearded man was slain, including Christians, mistaken as Muslims. Jews were not spared either. In Cyprus King Henry surely was aghast for what kind of response to expect from the Mamluks. Qala’un formally asked the King for an explanation and to bring the guilty before him. The French hesitated. So there was no redress for the brawl that saw so many dead against the truce, and this was outright insult. Suggestions have surfaced in analysis of this and one popular opinion is that the Franks wanted war. At any rate, lack of formal apology and justice being meted out to the marauders, brought the reaction that must have been anticipated. It came from the Mamluks as a swift, terrible retributive war.
Qala’un was in Cairo. In a fury, he set out to the Crusaders’ citadels to bring counter measure to the terror caused by the Italian Crusaders, but on his way to Akka he died! But on his death bed he bade his son Khalil to command the armies and proceed with the seige of Akka. Meanwhile in Cyprus, King Henry was duly alarmed, aware of the terrible threat from the Mamluks and sent his appeals to the home European powers to bring support. England sent a small regiment. That’s all Henry III got from the Continent. Cyprus sent what forces they had, minimal at best. Brave King Henry, 20 years young, left Cyprus to protect his subjects in Akka, and his defenses such as they were could never have matched the Mamluks descending on Akka. Henry, like the ship captain who stays with the sinking ship, sent the women and children back to Cyprus, but stayed and fought bravely as his subjects also fought to protect their city. But all ramparts were decimated and brought to rubble, not a life within the fortified city was spared. King Henry, at the last moment before total capitulation of Acre, put to sails and barely escaped with his brother.
The situation in Acre was most unfortunate, because the Mamluks who fell upon the Christians of Acre to avenge the slaughter of the Muslims of Acre showed no mercy. Qala’un, the Mamluk sultan, left Cairo to empty the Outremer of the Franks [367] but died on the way, leaving the job to his son. In Acre, the Mamluk Turks committed dreadful atrocities against the Christians posts in the Outremer. d. [40] Soon after Acre, Haifa was purged of Christians. All along the Syrian coast, towns and the hills and valleys of the region of the Levant, all succumbed to the unrelenting Mamluks. All the worst possible acts of savagery were committed by the Mamluks in rage. Monasteries reduced to rubble, and then the bombardment of the Templars castle fell in,to the crushing of 2000 Mamluks. [41] All said and done, Fatimid restraint and leniency was not within the spirit of the Mamluks. Likewise, Saladin’s reliability for holding to treaties negotiated with the Christian citadels in Outremer was not firm nor secure when the line of Mamluks took over and wielded the hard line of a fanatic “righteous jihad.” No one knows how high the count of slain, the slaves taken, women raped at the hands of the Mamluks in war rage. Outremer, the Christian anchor of citadels under the crusade bulls of papal Rome, was now history. The Mamluks had accomplished it. And chasm deepens between the two great faiths of Christians and Muslims.
Who Are the Mamluks?
The Mamluks entered wars of conquest from the time of that first revenge against the Italian Crusaders who recaptured Jerusalem, killing Christians indiscriminately as the Mamluks poured into Haifa, Jerusalem and Akka, and thence the Outremer. This is the siege that put the Mamluks on the sorry list of renegade as their heinous deeds gained them a reputation of extreme jihadists for their brutal disposal of Christians that came in response to the shocking arrival of Italian Crusaders who had drunkenly spoiled the truce in their orgy of killing, as described above.
So your probable question is to be considered: “Who are the Mamluks?” The Mamluks were a class of warrior slaves drawn in from many ethnicities, but especially Turkic, Egyptian Copts, Circassians, Georgians. Their presence came to the Islamic realms by way of slavery, (Mamluk means slave in Arabic) and came into Egypt which complemented the development of the rise of the powerful and wealthy class of the sultanate. The Mamluk “slaves” were bought by the wealth of Sultans to preserve, likewise to expand, possessions in behalf of their sultanate. The system seems to have been one where the slave, after being trained in warfare could achieve rank that even outstripped citizens. Their place is set within the range of lands between Egypt, Syria to Afghanistan, and in their multi century history, the slave Mamluks had higher status than the free born. This relates to the bearing of arms which Mamluks could do, but the free-born could not!
Incentive for reward was bestowed on the slave warrior who showed aggressiveness and efficiency as a warrior: the bravest and smartest among the Mamluks eventually became consultants to the sultans and in time, could well be more powerful than the sultan himself who had originally enslaved them. Baybars, for instance, was originally a slave but rose to the rank of Sultan. Mamluks had many ways to be employed. The Muslim fraternal struggles between ambitious sultans, in their last gasps of power, even competed for the Mamluks’ military services! The Mamluks were mercenaries in other words. They could be fighting for one sultan in one month and against him another. Their military presence was pervasive throughout Egypt, for a thousand years actually, ending up in Iraq, and so came a time when the power of the Mamluks was felt throughout the realm, and the era of the Mamluk power began. This Mamluk development in Islam leads to the coming rise of the Ottoman Empire which will quite thoroughly vanquish them eventually. The Mamluks did drive Islam forward, and solidify the lands, and protect it as well, as seen with their decimation of both the encroachment of the Mongols and the ridding their lands of the last of the Crusaders. [43]
Sum totally the Mamluks were not loved — by Christians, Mongols, or Muslims for their fanaticism, their rapaciousness, and the great fear they induced. Their business was not de facto derived of the faith of the Qur’an, but rather by imposition upon those regions within the Islamic world that in time led them north to Afghanistan, making wars they pulled from the bowels of a zealotry of fanatic literalism.
**
Chapter 4
Will Troubles Never Cease?
Prior to the final settling of what will turn out to be détente between Europe and Islam — East and West — that is, the settling of lines bordering a predominantly Christian Europe to Middle-Eastern lands bearing the Islamic emblems, the Crusades must be considered playing only part of the role played in the tensions culminating in the decline of the Caliphate driven Golden Age of Islam.
The Mongols
Islam faced far greater challenges for survival than the Crusades. The Mongolian Hordes invaded — in the mode of destruction throughout every corner of Muslim lands. And under pressure of several onslaughts, by the Mongols, Islam faltered but holds on and rises again and again, to prove its remarkable resilience to survive its major challenges. The challenge of the Mongol’s Hordes to Islam was current with the challenges of the Crusades. So this Mighty Wind of Islam having come all the way in time to the 9th and last Crusade, the tapestry of Islam has threads of “challenge” and you will recognize familiar names, and so, certainly the Mongols’ challenge is worthy of inclusion. There too was a mighty wind!
Of all the epochal challenges to civilization itself, the most horrific threat to East or West, Muslim, Christian or Jew, was the threat of the Mongol Hoards. And the Mongol Hordes’ war cry came on villages, cities, and capital centers like a wild cyclone. And of this Mongol threat you know of the Great Khan, Ghengis, and the Mongol later generation of Kublai Khan and his brother, Hulagu, who stemmed from the prolific tree of the Genghis Khan. Genghis as war lord led the Mongols’ time of terror to wreck and control vastly distanced lands.
First the Mongols won the important Chinese provinces, assimilating fresh soldier-conscripts (or, we could say: “forced labor”)and adding them to their armies. They then ventured outside Chinese borders to prove to the world their formidable and bloody capabilities. The genius of the Genghis is indisputable. He organized his troops into units of ten, from the basic unit of ten to 10,000 — each unit with specific roles to play as warriors who were absolutely fearless as they were ruthless. The trait of the Mongol warrior was nomadic and this was their pride. At their peak of conquest of land, the Mongol hordes’ laid claim all the way into Europe to ultimately bring the greatest amassing of territory ever of any previous dynasty. Their breed horses were small and tough, as they still are, each soldier having four or five for changing as they progressed ahead on their fast moving, far reaching invasions. Their chief weaponry was bow and arrow and the warriors were so adept on their horses for archery that they could shoot to kill with their backs turned against the forward galloping of their muscular little horses. Genghis Khan demanded and won the loyalty to his leadership of the widespread tribes of Mongolia and his conquered China and accomplished this loyalty by separating tribal kinsmen into units. Was he inspired to do so by this method of reestablishing bonds between disparate tribes just as Muhammad had done with success in forging unity of cause? Genghis, the war general was on top of every detail to maintain order. He kept records of his warriors and their ranks and watched over their attentiveness to the tasks they were expected to accomplish.[1]
The War Khan, Genghis:
Genghis Khan, born Timujin, who became “Genghis” (Chingiz, and Jenghiz) was truly the embodiment of the definition of Genghis which means “perfect warrior.” His start into the outer regions of Asia began with the assault on Alai d-Din Muhammad the Sultan in Kharazam [n.1](who had vanquished the protected Turkish delta states that were buffer between China and his land, and who after being addressed by the Khan as diplomacy required, was taunted by the sultan — most unwisely. [2] Thus did Genghis go all-out for war against the Sultan, with war begun, and extended against Islam as a whole.
It was the year CE 1215, parallel in time with the siege the Crusaders laid upon Damietta. Likewise this was, just previously, when St. Frances met with the gracious Sultan Al Kamil who wished to turn Jerusalem over peacefully to the Christians, if the Christians would leave Egypt. And that was the time when Genghis, the Great War General led the armies and began the infamous sweep over vast stretches of the Persian reaches of Transoxania, Khurasan, Afghanistan, each a center with marvels and civilized splendor, when the Hordes then moving on, and left behind a wake of destruction. Then the Khan chose Persia to become the Mongol’s geographical center from which he carefully drafted the course of victory after victory. Mongols charged even into Europe, into Kiev, into Poland, murdering , pillaging and burning cities — with no purposeful intent but to overpower. They rammed the ramparts’ walls, gained entry into the city centers, set to fire the mosques or churches and synagogues; theirs was not a religious war. Libraries, hospitals, halls of learning were leveled, ashes and rubble on the ground; the city’s great monuments, before Genghis’ assault, so gorgeously embossed with ornamentation of frescoes and arches of mosaics, or the iconic statuary, displays which Mongols had no argument with, which were by graceful intention to glorify heroes and saints, were put to Mongol’s new war machine — the battering ram of spoils of war won on the Western front. The very purpose of this mayhem seemed to make of civilization and its progress as a disdainful thing and meaningless. All signs of civilized order failed to touch their hearts. But what territories they took through combat were held under Mongol wraps and management by administration left in place.
The Mongols did not rob or steal. All booty of war spoils were apportioned by the Khan equitably in payment for combat. No soldier or officer could take valuables without it being apportioned. Then, that done, the armies moved on leaving only reduced remnants of what had been before the Mongols arrived. Beautiful Kiev in Russia, (now Ukraine) is one example of many such like cities brought to rubble by the Mongol Horde. What the Mongols did was “just destroy.” So thoroughly did Mongols kill, that in their battles millions of bodies , without exaggeration, lay strewn about over vast lands; one survivor who managed to hide in a minaret of a ruined city reported, “They came, they killed, they burned, they left.” [3]Every city, village and cropland crossed by Mongol nomadic warriors burnt to be made useless, and still the Mongols went forward, bringing Georgia, and the Caucasus, Persia into their possession, and ultimately, at its peak, the empire’s shape lay bordered between the Pacific to the headwaters of the Tigris, “and from the Indian Ocean to the Arctic.” [4] Amazing stoppage to the Mongols issued from the Abbasid warriors, before the Hordes just “moved on.”
Mongolian Empire[4]
The idea of sublimation to a single over-lord as ruler was obviously key in maintaining cohesion of the vast Mongol Empire. In one transliteration of the word for overlord is the word, “qa’an.” [5] So it was Utkay as the first overlord or the first qa’an, after Ghengis Khan’s’passing, and while efficient at expanding the empire as his great father Ghengis was, Utkay is described as just as aruler who ventured to make reparations for violence and wreckage left in the wake of the horrors of earlier days. The fourth Qa’an, Mingu, also left an honorable heritage by his ability as an organizer of territories being put into the hands of family members for easier management by provincially separating rule of territories, but maintaining rule in obedience to the over-lord Qa’an in China. Mingu called upon Qublai Khan and his brother, Hulagu to their tasks of subjection of China: and China was given to Qublai; then, conquest of Iran was given to his son by Qublai’s Regent Nestorian wife, to Hulagu. Previously, Isma’ilis had murdered the second son of the great Khan Ghengis. Predicatably, Hulagu’s First assignment by the next over lord Utkay Qa’an to Hulagu in Persia was to bring armies together for a unified force against the Isma’ilis for their hand in the murder of the son of Ghengis. So Hulagu forewarned the Isma’ili shahs to submit to the mercy of the Mongols. Some immediately did so but one or two “stalled.” However, in the long view, Hulagu was set to follow exactly as the Qa’an ordered for eliminating all Isma’ili fortifications, and every existence that was Isma’ili. First came a brutal assault on Baghdad’s caliphate, where the caliph was a timorous “effete” ruler, whom the Mongol soldiers under command rolled up in a carpet to suffocate him to his death! After reducing Baghdad to village status Hulagu’s armies wiped out what was remaining of the hated Baghdad remnant Isma’ilis to a man. So, in stages was this goal completed beyond the rule of several qa’ans: every fortress or castle, and every Isma’ili caught in the mesh of the Mongol forces — all emblems of Isma’ili power in the Persian domain — brought to naught, per orders of the first Qa’an. Perhaps the most critical means of hobbling Baghdad was by the destruction the Abbasid irrigation system and at the same time render inoperable the shipping and water resource for the region. [ fn 2]
The stopping point for the Mongol forces eventually came at the borders of Syria.[6] The beginning of Mongol’s vulnerability was marked when the Mongols, under Hulagu’s trusted general, on three occasions attempted to gain Syria but were stopped decisively with the loss of thousands of soldiers at the hands of the Turk Mamluks. (Year 1313 )CE
The Mamluks had, by then, replaced the rulers of Egypt set up through Saladin’s heirs who most unfortunately lacked the capacity to rule with the decisive qualities of their father, so as opportunities rise for those who seek power, Mamluk Turks came to the seat of rule in Egypt. The Mamluk sultanate started out well (Al-Kamil, and the temperate Qala’lun)but after his death , the compass of moderation spun out of control; the Mamluks started their ravaging warfare and this proved to make a strong contest for the Mongols.
So when the Mongols arrived with their ambitions to gain Syria, the Mamluks were able to inflict enough damage to stop the Mongol attempts to gain Syria. Hulagu had turned back to the crisis of death of his father before this battle to focus on Persia, putting Qublai as Qa’an and Hulagu had to wonder what this meant for him. Qublai Qa’an, in China, was attending to the threat of the Golden Horde making moves to usurp the Qa’an’s power; he met them on the battle field, and did well, and took over huge portions of China, establishing a new capital there, Qaraqurum, in what is now Peking. And with distance so separating Qublai as ruler, to the rest of the empire,the Qa’an granted Hulagu status as commander “Il Khan,” where his seat of capital was in Hamadan, henceforward, by his power to reign over what is now Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan . Hulagu Il-Khan’s lands were to come to identify with Islam with its member states, and the vast sections of China would fall under Qublai Qa’an’s rule, would be identified with a Mongol accent of Buddhism, and where the descendants of Chingez were to ascend to the rule of the Yuan Dynasty of which the Ming Dynasties will next assume rule. [7]
Came the time when around 1295–1304 CE when the Il-Khan was Ghazan who assumed rule over the vast Mongol Empire. Ghazan almost immediately converted to Islam and took the name Mahmud to indicate this conversion. This surprised the Muslims immensely, but they welcomed him. His conversion to Islam was at a time when many lords in the Persian lands were converting to Islam. The Il-Khan Ghazan was sincere, so sincere in fact that he sent emissaries to the Pope and the Byzantine emperor with indications that he wished to fight the Mamluks in their behalf to relieve the suffering brought upon the Christian domains by the Mamluks. (Mahmud indicated he expected their help in the formidable task.) Mahmud and his Mongol armies were effective in routing the Mamluks in several battles,and the Emperor of Byzantine Capital City sent an ambassador to plead for Mahmud to extend the battle to rid the region of the Ottomans who were gaining a power base and getting close to their lands. But Mahmud would not engage against the Ottoman forces for reason of being “devout Muslim.” Mahmud was committed to rid the region of the hated rebel Mamluks, even though after one failed crossing into the territory of the Mamluks, he presented his surrender to the Mamluk monarch, to resign his forces to the Sultan’s power, but met refusal by the monarch so Mahmud left, And he entrusted a highly placed general to conduct the war against the Mamluks. But this failed, by his too hasty a retreat. Successes of combat ended upon Mahmud’s early death in Qazvin Persia. His brother, stepped into the position of Il-Khan of Iraq-Iran.
Mahmud’s brother was Uljaytu. And, Uljaytu first embraced Christianity, and took the name Nicholas to confirm his conversion. He then became Muslim, and took the name Muhammad so as to assure his sincerity to the Muslim cause. Next, he was curious about the two most powerful branches of Sunni Islam then most prevalent in Iran and Iraq. So he invited the highest ranking scholars to present the distinctions between their theology to help him choose. The two schools’ representatives became so argumentative with each other that Uljaytu (Muhammad), the Mongol, who had become Christian, and then became Muslim, became disgusted. He almost altogether dropped the idea of being Muslim! But Uljaytu decided to embrace the Shi’ah branch of Islam. It is timely to point out that Shi’ah and Sunni issues were not of much import in this time, and that most Muslims in that region were Sunni.[8]
Then Uljaytu gathered all his forces of military might to proceed with the unfinished business to pursue the Mamluks. Despite significant gains in that effort, Muhammad could not penetrate deeply enough into the Mamluks’ holds to clear the region of their menace. And this was unfortunate.
Eliminating the fanatic Mamluks would have benefited Christians, Muslims and Jews. The early death of Uljaytu — perhaps by poison — was signatory of the general demise of the Mongols and of their dominating power. There was but little time left in history for the Mongols’ dominance. But history might consider in retrospect his presence and efforts worthy and honorable.
This puts the time line to 1316. Uljaytu’s heir, Abu-Said, was too young to immediately take up where his father left off. Upon gaining rule, while still a youth, his preciosity became apparent in forging the continuance of the pattern of diplomacy set forth by his father the Il Khan Uljaytu. Abu-Sa’id within two years of rule demonstrated his religious tolerance by protecting the Armenian Christians. He was then able through diplomacy to prove his desire for peace with the two distinct branches of Christendom, the Byzantine (Russian and Greek Patriarchy ) and Rome. Pope John XXII established an archdiocese that included the whole of the Iranian plateau and which boded well for trade and diplomacy between Christendom and Islam. This seat of the archdiocese was in Sultaniyyih and bishops were posted to cities within this domain. How promising this must have felt — for all sides, and the posts prospered for awhile. He kept the flow of good will between the Il-Khanate in Peking as well as the Eastern and Western church. As for the military challenges always present, Abu-Sa’id managed to preserve the extent of the Kingdoms in Iran and Iraq, also Abu-Sa’id did manage an important challenge in repelling another invasion of the Golden Horde in the region of Iraq.
As for Golden Horde which spread the Mongol boundaries significantly, and challenged (as well as converted to Islam) not only to the fortunes of Islam, but also set challenges to Byzantium, (Greece) and Russia, it challenged the Il Khanate in rival fraternal claim to rule. Their original complaint over the Il Khanate came from right of succession to rule by son -father relationship to the Genghis and the assumption of rule by the Il Khans being subordinate to the Grand Khan overlord in place after his death. The Golden Horde took the way of life to be nomadic. Movement and conquer was their assumption of empire making whereas from the Il Khan’s rule was from palatial capitals with court and a relatively sedentary life. The Golden Horde and also another break away White Horde kept to the Mongol war tradition that by roving as nomads through regions by speed and a ruthless conquering that expanded the Golden Horde’s domain earlier that famously included sacking and burning the city of Kiev in 1240. At its peak the Golden Horde’s territory extended from the Carpathian Mountains in eastern Europe to the steppes of Siberia. Caucasus under the Golden Horde ruler of Berke, a convert to Islam. There Mongols, in the not too distant future when they began to wane in power remnants held on to settle as sheep herders. To the south the Golden Horde held to the border of the Caspian Sea but no further into Persia. The almost twin demise of both Hulagu and his cousin Berke [9]ended their war with each other. The Il Khanate succession had the region of Persia that included Iraq, Afghanistan, Anatolia, Allepo in Syria, Transoxania, all of which would fall in the time to the raging Mamluks. The Empirical management of the Mongol lands from the overlord Khan in Peking gradually dissolved and evolved toward the high culture, morphing into the Yuan Dynastic Period that was sired through lineage of the great Khan Genghis.
However, at Abu-’Sa’id’s death it left no one whose personality was strong enough to keep to that grand gesture of making a strong bridge between faiths. The growing power of the Ottomans, plus the still most domineering power of the Mamluks, and the antagonism of the rebel elements of the Golden Horde, the vast Empire from the Hindu Kush to Syria’s borders posed such instability that that which had been held by Hulagu’s descendants was doled out to eight lords, and for the first time in the history of Islam there was no central point of law and order. No central direction from which an evolving Islam would ever again take its direction by recognition of centralized rule. [10]
Tamerlane
Timur, another Turk (Timur the Lame) was at one time a wanderer in the desert, looking for allies. By 1369 he had subdued through military prowess the region of Transoxania and was looking to establish his domination over the vast regions of the Empire. He is yet remembered as a terrifying megalomaniac of destruction in the way that Genghis Khan is remembered, but worse. His armies subdued the largest reach of empire, even greater than the Mongols ever achieved. In his aggression he waged war against Islam, and against all settlements whether Christian, Mongol, or Muslim, pulling to the ground all vestiges of civilization such as houses of worship, universities, libraries, hospitals. Timur wrecked havoc and murder wherever he invaded. As Tamerlane, he definitely had no bias toward Islam to give favor or to spare. His it was to rear a testimonial marker of 20,000 heads of Muslim citizens of Aleppo into a mound display. And he drove the Byzantines out of Asia Minor. The Ottomans were stumped by his armies. Rampages led by Tamerlane, left halls of learning demolished, mosques brought to rubble — heads on stakes, bodies buried under capsized fortifications, millions on the fields of his battles: he was not Muslim. His cruelties, his massive annihilation of all human support of the edifices of Islam or Christianity in its presentations to the world are attributed to have resulted from a megalomaniac form of insanity. [11]
And yet, after the death of Tamerlane, the “House of Timur” did endure, and heirs regained enough vision and purpose to set the balance of civilization on keel once again. Transoxania , the Iranian plateau, Mashad, Adharbayjan, Khurasan, Iraq and Anatolia with split factions within were brought into a consolidated sphere sparking a period of renaissance by the heirs of Tamerlane. Mosques, conservatories, madrases with shrines were built or re-built as a grand display of faith. A particular mosque in Mashad was described by an Englishman, an astronomy Professor, John Greaves, in 1665 who by disguising himself as Muslim gained access and recorded its dazzling impression. With enthusiasm he describes its architectural detail, and sums up with a word picture of an exquisitely designed arch, its minaret in turquoise flowing faience a Kufic style of calligraphy that attributes the total design of the minaret with its hidden gardens to have been by hand the son of the son of Timur , “with hope in God.” [12] The monument was dated 821 AH or 1418 CE.
The battle-fabric of that era, woven with such twists, makes a difficult pattern to study. But, as an archetypal pattern of conflict, with its generals and rulers reaching out in clandestine fashion,with messengers and diplomats, scurrying across borders to make allies of “enemies” and at the same time, granting bribe-favors to fortify “friends,” it is as modern as today — a crude unwashed cloth that should have worn out by now
1492! That was a particularly auspicious year — for the near total extrication of Islam from Spain, an auspicious year for the Pope, or on the other side of the coin, a foreboding year to the Muslims with their hold becoming tentative upon their shrunken corner of Grenada in Spain. Spain’s claim of “Discovery” of land on the Continent of America brought ventures never before attempted for whole another kind on conquest, Reviving the competitive states’ urge for power, their ship yards reinvigorated their skills toward competitive grasps for empires beyond the confinement of sea. The Kingdom powers of Genoa, Venice, France, England, Germany and Portugal set their Royal standards to furl upon ships out to map the best trade routes, and the quickest way to establish “claim” to lands unknown until then. Without a shred of doubt it was a competitive race among these powers. This accounting, by western acknowledgement of any relationship with Islam is seeming an unnoticed quieting down of the Influence of Islam in this period. And this is due to “New focus, new politics, new frontiers.” In the Western world maritime powers shifted. Search for gold in trade created a frantic gold mine-to-market search, with efforts for lands’ acquisition stretching over distant and expanding horizons. When, confidently, ships sailed over horizons without falling off the earth, contrary to Church four-square theological dogma, the world was found officially to be round and for the taking! San Salvador, thought to be India , was landed upon by the passionate Captain Christopher Columbus and claimed for Queen Isabella. New world geography with new navigational maps began to call to adventure and conquest and Christian conversion as the excuse. The sea was key, and the dominant Islamic powers of the Mamluks and the rising power of the Ottomans did not enter the contest of this maritime world. The Egyptians in trade had customarily used the Venetians for crossings of their merchandise. And by that lack of foresight the sun of enlightenment and its bounties moved westward! Were it by corruption that comes from greed for power or were it by the will of God? Difficult questions! We must truly take the large picture in mind to take the latter question affirmatively.
And, how did Islam submit to this shift? Or did it?
Ismaili Safafids in Iran — that Name again!
Events that has a life-cycle extending into modern day occurred in the lands of Iraq and carried the name of Ismail and appellation of “Safafid”. The original Isma’il was built on the dubious premise of having a blood-line connection with the Prophet Muhammad through the seventh Imam. By 1500 C.E., a descendant of that false claim — which, according to Sunni scholar and Shi’ah jurisdiction was sham, was a new remarkable young Ismail. [13]
Out of the remnants of the House of Ismail an 13 year old Turkish speaking Shah Ismail was recognized to take over the Ismailis. And — Yes, surprise: Together with a Sufi contingent of warriors, Ismail led campaigns that regained lands that had been lost to the Mamluks. So The Sufi poets and intellectuals eventually got into militarily avenging “wrongs” also! [19]After years of successes and growing strength, Ismail secured Iraq and lands right up to the Ottoman borders for the Safafids. Next, he took the holy sites within Iraq and Iran for the Shi’ah sect. In these regions, Shi’ah Islam had until now become almost obscure. Most of the realms were well under the Sunni umbrella. But Ismail took it unto his forces to resolve ridding the presence of his hated Sunni of Iraq and Iran, also, further domains yet to be won, into Shi’ah holds. As his armies conquered, Shah Ismail , showing no mercy, put to death the Persian Sunni clerics in each city he won.
The Ottoman Upsurge
It is an irony that Shah Ismail, being Shi’ah, was a Turk by genealogy who would seek to engage the opposing forces of the Ottomans, led by another Turk, Salim, loyal to Sunni Islam. Ismail recruited his warriors from various Turk tribes. And as said, Ismail had also within his allies Sufi’s — in a paradoxical development of this movement of political abstinence that had evolved to become militant. And Salim had experienced Turk warriors as well as his “Janissaries”[14] from Europe. Shah Isma’il’s successful campaigns meant shrinkage of the Ottoman dominion which was only annoying to the Ottoman Sultan Salim for the Ottomans were not interested in the lands of Persia. Salim’s eagerness was to expand Islam’s lands in Christian Europe, not holding on to some few losses incurred by that rabble-rouser, Shah Isma’il.
By these two Turks, representing Shi’ah and Sunni respectively, events, according to the famous historian Arnold Toynbee, indicated the demise of a blend of Islam that had been evolving in a “nascent” form, by the “bellicose” fanaticism of Shah Ismail, who started his campaigns precociously at the age of 13!
In this time frame, centuries had passed since the tragedy of the martyrdom of Imam Husayn, [15]through the perfidy of the Umayyad Arab Caliph. Shi’ah and Sunni had forgotten the pain and were living together amicably without difficulties in many provinces of Iraq/Iran. At gross fault was Shah Isma’il for being the divider. The most permanent cleavage to date between the two major schools of Islam: Shi’ah and Sunni, arose because of forced conversions of the populace and executions of Sunni clerics. Then as the bold Ismail made further inroads of conquest, right to the borders of the Ottoman territory, the Sunnis, under the Ottoman Salim were consequently stirred into counter action.
So down upon Shah Ismail came the Ottoman Salim with his Turks!In August 1514, the Ottomans arrived full force sixty miles from Tabriz. [63]They hounded Shah Ismail”s forces mercilessly. One Ottoman Sunni defeat of the Ismaili armies was particularly gruesome. At this defeat to Salim, the Sultan Salim, heaped insult upon the Shah Ismail, the Safafid loser. Sultan Salim demanded Isma’il totally recant Shi’ah sympathy; then proceeded to add further insult, the Sultan further demanded that the terms of peace required Isma’il to hand over all Safafid gains to the Ottomans. A battle ensued, and the Safafids lost heavily, but the Ottomans could not immediately maintain hold of the gains won from the Safafid Isma’il.
Elsewhere, Egypt tried to hold on to their vital trade routes, by trying to keep the Portuguese from interfering with ship trade handled heretofore by Venetian allies of Egypt. The Venetian power in the sea trade by then had become subject to the greater Portuguese strength.
Attention thus diverted, the Safafids tried to strengthen their force by seeking out Mamluk support. The Safafids and the Mamluks had been enemies who had nothing in common in this confederacy but there was mutual desire to rid their horizons of the Ottoman threat. In an attempt to keep the Ottomans from suspecting any allied agenda to move against the Ottomans, a ruse for parlay was arranged between the Safafids and Mamluks who set out toward the Safafids. However, the ruse was found out. The Ottomans swooped in and wiped out Mamluk troops, rendering the Safafids weaker still. In swift action that followed, the Ottomans entered Cairo where the last of the Mamluks in refuge there were shown no mercy. To quote Dr. Balyuzi, the Ottoman “Salim had achieved all that he desired; he had become master of Syria, Egypt, North Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula but, above all, of the holy cities”[64] of Mecca and Medina. In the nine years of his reign the Sultan Salim had wiped out Sh’iism. “But it was a hollow victory.” Shi’ism did resurge and settle into the Persian consciousness to become its identity.
There are twists and turns so numerous in the next two hundred years of the Ottoman Period that to do justice to them would lengthen the narrative beyond the purpose intended for Mighty Wind of Islam. Ottoman history, its power and expansion is worthy of a new volume’s worth of attention than this ! The miracle of Islam is yet mighty, and of this Ottoman Period we might well say that it is by inference of what we already know of this 18th- 19th era of East and West at the face-off being what maintains world respect of Islam as still impacting the world with mighty contributions. The West has “won” its sea routes and and the shift of power is made. But this serves to point to the hand of God bringing humanity yet another chapter to a great story. And fairness requires a realization that such events prove of themselves an illusion of the times in which they were exacted. Ample proof we have that ways of crossing borders, extending defined lines into another geometry of larger or shrunken territories’ gains or losses was the way of life for all empires of these centuries. If interest in these geo-political maneuvers layered by the next era of Ottoman Military ambition, as it threatened the European Continent is aroused and left unsatisfied, there are courses and resources rich for further study! Bon Appétit!
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Chapter 5
Capsule Summary Accounting for years 1576–1774 CE
Under the Ottoman Sultancy, Iraq was gained. Further, Ottoman Empire land grabs gained Tabriz, Isfahan in Iran, where the Safafid remnant rulers were totally unequal to the challenge of the Ottoman Turks’ invasions.
· Sulayman, the greatest of the Ottoman leaders, attempted to gain Vienna, but was beaten back by Charles V.
· Charles V, the Habsburg emperor, pushed back the Ottomans behind the Danube. Hungary was kept in the Ottoman holdings more than 100 years.
· Ottoman Empire managed to be held together less by the Sultanate than by capabilities of princes in separate states of the Ottoman Empire, and, even more by the lack of the attention of infighting European forces to focus on dislodging the Turks.
· Ottomans moved once again to take Vienna and almost succeeded but were surprised from behind the rear flanks by the Poles, forcing the Ottomans to beat a hasty retreat. With a new alliance of the European powers of Russia, Poland, Austria, and Malta, the Ottoman Turks faced losses and regains and finally became engaged in an all-out war with Russia. In 1739 Turkey beat Russia; in 1774 Catherine II snagged Poland’s participation, and this was the combined force that humbled the Ottoman Turks and signaled the end of the era of the Great Ottoman Empire.
· Persia and Shah ‘Abbas: Turning back the clock, in 1587 a young nobleman ascended to the throne. It was Shah ‘Abbas, and his memory shines in Iran’s history. The depredations then rife in Iran included the presence of the Ottomans within the claim of borders of Iran/Iraq. Likewise the deplorable affront of the Uzbek contingent, remnants of the Mongols yet untamed, were ensconced in their territories and raiding the holy cities and bringing great misery to Khurasan. ‘Abbas pushed them up further north where he enlisted the Kurds to keep the Mongols out of range, and with that arrangement, Khurasan enjoyed peace for many years. Shah ‘Abbas built up his forces with troops that included converts made up of Georgians and Armenians. By their strength and his brilliant oversight he was able to totally win back the territories that had been within Persia during the days of Shah Ismail I. Shi’ah was made to be the calling of all Persia. ‘Abbas built all the accouterments of refinement of culture: fabulous mosques, such as the Blue Mosque of Tabriz, schools, infrastructure, poetry, rug making, and Persia once again had for itself the pride of its inherent brilliance to show for itself.
Blue Mosque of Isfahan
Interior of Blue Mosque of Isfahan
· Shah ‘Abbas looked to Europe for alliances, and after initial failures to attract Europe’s princes to formalize friendly relations, ‘Abbas’ envoys including England’s “friends of Iran,” British Sheerley brothers, represented Persia for the sake of promoting trade. The Thirty Years’ War in Europe was an impediment to negotiating trade with Persia, and this time saw no developing trade relationships between Persia and Europe.
· East India Company: The time passed for ‘Abbas’ The Great Ismaili reign, and his heir was left to polish and strengthen international links of trade that were “unfinished business.” So, step-by-step, the trading company, the famous East India Company that represented England’s new strength rose phoenix- like out of the charred embers of war, and England became linked in trade and colonial prowess to India. Persia as well traded through the East India Company with England, which had gained mastery over the seas, first over Portugal and next as victors over the maritime challenge posed by the Dutch.
· Fall of the Ismailis: After several generations of Ismaili shahs, who favored the Shi’ah sect of Islam, they, too, faltered through ineptitude. Such are history’s similar echoes of the inherent weakness of personality-driven power. The enfeebling of the Ismaili kingdom was accomplished by a series of forces seeking to claim control over all that had been gained by ‘Abbas the Great. One tribal chief tried and failed to wrest Shi’ ism from the land.
· As the mid-1700s approached, the political geography of the area showed the Uzbeks out of Iran. Next, another Turkish soldier rose in rank and broke into the region of Persia and set up his capitol in Shiraz. This man broke all stereotype of the “wild Turk.” He is known as Karim Khan, who styled himself as “Deputy of the People” although he could have worn the mantle of Shah had that been his ambition. As noted by Balyuzi, “The benevolent reign of this great man, who not only spared the lives of his opponents, but invited them into his court as advisers, brought Iran a peace it had not known for decades”,[1]
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FINAL THOUGHTS
The narrative, Mighty Wind of Islam, in several chapters feature the golden age of Islam. To acknowledge evidence of this era’s creativity, it has taken images from internet resources, common use graphics, to depict the fabulous accomplishments of that time. Of course, such a presentation is at best but an indication of arts that flourished under the protecting wing of the caliphates, emirs, sultanates and dynasties by what each period in their time had to show for the rulers’ patronage. The creative eras, as they matured, were briefly reviewed in Mighty Wind of Islam and we showed them as they issued from the capital cities of Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, Cordova, and Grenada. And finally as we discovered: the stamp of Islamic splendor found in cities like Kirmanshah, Damascus, Isfahan, Istanbul. Such glory of magnificence burst free: houses of worship, gardens, the arts and music and instrumentation; philosophy, recorded history, epic poetry, science, mathematics, irrigation, agronomy, seafaring, and astronomy, universities, medical arts, learning hospitals, and much more received as inheritance that today are normal activities in contemporary life professions of work. Think also of these centuries of Islamic artisans’ exquisite antiquities of arts and crafts as treasures now in guarded exhibits, enchanting to view in museums across the world. Volumes of books might already exist that serve the thesis, that enable one to discern clear proof of the significance of the Genesis of humankind’s confident creativity, that burst like a vast flowering garden does, when the spark of infused faith finds its way to discover the dynamics and modem of human expressions of excellence. “Islam: Peace!”
The crucial issue of this aspect of Islam is that its creative advancement was inspired of faith. The support of learning as came under the direction and encouragement of Islam’s rulers lasting with vigor, at least, through into the Ottoman Era. This speaks to the freedom and encouragement found in Islam and its commanders in succession to pursue knowledge to the ordinances of Qur’an. “Seek ye knowledge, even unto China;” and “From the cradle to the grave, seek knowledge:” “The ink of the pen of the scholar is more worthy than blood of the martyr.”and “Are they equal, those who know and those who know not?” (Surrah xxxix, 12) [2].
The meaning of islam being, “will of God,” implies that there is an eternal Divine Plan that pushes forward stages of societal inclusiveness from simple to complex. And that by knowing and studying Islam we greet its role in that plan. We may feel soul assured of God’s Great gift of epochal Messengers who have stirred the whole of humankind period to period, strength to strength, and crisis to victory. And see also that Islam’s presence which is true legacy is derived of the Holy Qur’an which we may see as the Word with God written in an unfinished Book of God.
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References ~ Introduction
[1]Baha’i Publishing “Abraham, Three Wives Five Religions” Frances Worthington
[2]Six Lessons on Islam, BPT — Marzieh Gail
End Note 1 ~
The “Problem” of Plural Wives of the Prophet “ The discussions over time about the wives of the Prophet is a Western view of misunderstood or ignored circumstances of those times.
To judge as an insurmountable obstacle of a very germaine Claim to righteous faith , without understanding the times and tribal conditions of life of a long ago era cuts the opportunity for appreciating an ever evolving advancement of women through religion — but when this becomes soon widely known there will be a reassessed sympathetic cognition that would repair these prejudiced views.
The Marriages of the Prophet does in no way serve to invalidate the divine claim of Muhammad as a Prophet of God. Now, let us visit this issue.
We in the West lack the understanding of circumstances for the wives of the Holy Household, and it serves well to take a closer look at “the problem of the plural wives of the prophet.” To do this, we need first to look at the Days of the Prophet Muhammad and how righteous it was for his consideration of protection of the vulnerable by bringing them into his household to the number of eleven total during his lifetime as prophet. As a way to bring this up briefly, these wives and each their circumstance in a general way explains one of the most abused complaints about the prophet of God. There is additional honor for this very aspect of the life of the prophet that well serves this one aspect of the life of the prophet (that is his marriages) how his acts consistently exemplified his spotless integrity.
The first wife of Muhammad was Khadijih. Khadijih was the first to believe in the Prophet. Muhammad was monogamous with Khadijih until she died and her death was for the Prophet a terrible blow. How bereaved Prophet was upon her passing, is history, and as He mourned his grief was noised abroad and and is as a seed planted of the shift of spiritual maturation of how marriage and woman as wife is valued by God. This is seeded to evolve a very different religious principle than put in any previous lesson of the Teachings of any previous Messenger of God, be it Christ, the Pentateuch of Moses’ Era, the Bhagavad Gita of Hindu, or the Buddhist Scriptures and so on!
Muhammad shared a rich companionship with Khadijih and this companionship indicated the value of love between man and woman. Male and female “partnership” (recalling that their relationship was begun at the invitation of Khadijih for a business partnership.) Marriage is a sacred institution, beloved of God just as God’s Messenger set the example by his life as revealed guidance by the Word (Qur’an) for those who follow him, as well. Revealed Qur’anic surah’s are regarding women and upraise the status of the consideration for women socially by followers in the Muslim communities. The process is slow for that era for Qur’anic verses to have been adamantly clear against too constrained a plurality of wives because custom of wives and concubines (even to a thousand!) was life for the chiefs for centuries before the advent of Muhammad. It was a paradigm shock for the changes Islam brought to the tribal world and put in to the marriage laws the requirement to marry with justice for each wife being the Qur’an’s standard.
By marriage with Khadijh, the holy household directly had eight children. Two were added by adoption, Zaid (a former slave, and Ali through the death of his father and uncle to Muhammad.) Only one of the eight, his daughter Fatimih lived past the 3rd decade. Fatimih is revered as the flower of womanhood in Islam. The family took in two adopted children who grew into heroic figureheads of Islam: Ali and Zaid. Ali became the Fourth Imam/Caliph. Zaid was martyred on the battlefield.
The Qur’an, as revealed by the Prophet as God’s Messenger, His Apostle, has more allusions in specific (verses) Surahs that regard a respectful, mindful status of women, upraising their position in the Muslim society higher than they had had in their tribal world ever before, or truly more specific to honor women than any other previous Messenger of God has in their Holy Texts. This as principle is implied more evolved and more specified within the Qur’an, laying groundwork toward the populace recognition of womanhood’s exalted place. The advancement of women has always been implied through stories of sacred merit. We have marvelous women of the Torah, and we know most affectionately though Christ’s lesson of honor of a low caste woman had been well taught by Christ, where he washed the feet of Mary while in the company of the high ranked philistines, (This may have been Mary Magdalene some scholars surmise.) So it is in a lineage of divine continuum where the Qur’an gives this theme of righteous attitude within actual surahs for the just cause of womankind, by revelation of Muhammad toward the gradual building of his mission of a new consciousness in faith for the anticipated great assemblage of followers newly disengaging from a male dominant tribal in total disconnect with girls as recorded in the pre-Islamic acceptable practice for the poor nomadic tribes to bury their newborn girl babies in the sand and as well, women being of no import without male protection. Muhammad decried these conditions in the Qur’an.
Other Wives of Muhammad:
These were the times when a woman alone had no recourse or protection. No “insurance” if her husband died. The tribal world did not provide protection for widows, and prostitution or poverty was the lot of the woman without male protection.
So, for protection, of some of the wives were for those who were war-widows. These widows were (even one older than the prophet) taken into the safety of the Prophet’s household to protect them and honor them for the valor and sacrifice of their husbands. Women simply had no support if there was no men to protect them, no bank accounts to draw out savings needed for living expenses.
Aisha the Nine Year Old Bride:
One of the wives who were signatory of alliances between clans is Aisha, who was the first daughter born Muslim to the house of Abu Bakr. It is he who was of the first three or four Meccan believers and it was he who gave all he had to Muhammad to provide material for the emigration to Medina and who covered costs of Meccan emigrants being uprooted. This daughter was nine at the time, or thirteen, according to some historians, and the formality of this arranged marriage was with utter integrity on the part of the Prophet to her youth. The prophet held no betrothal celebrations for the wedding occasion.
Also in the realm of wives were those given to assure diplomatic ties; there was the Egyptian Christian Royal (Maqawqis) who sent Muhammad a beautiful slave, Mariyih (Maria) as a gift. They had one son (Ibrahim) who died in infancy. No other child was fathered by the prophet. So one has to observe that there was really not so much profligacy or licentious behavior that could be mis-attributed to the Prophet, after all. Another of his betrothals was a clear signal to the Muslim world of the forged tie between the Umayyad House with the Quraysh House of Muhammad though these two houses had been antagonistic for generations,
One wife drew especially harsh criticism. This was the wife of Zayd (the Prophet’s adopted son: it was he who had been a slave offered to Muhammad and upon being released to his father Zaid asked to stay with the household, and he grew up there. His wife was Zaynab, but she did not want to stay married. She was about 38 years old when the Prophet brought her into his household. Argument outside of the Muslim base was heard and the Qur’an has several verses (surahs) about this cause of consternation; but of itself is a very important lesson and key of setting to the believers — and to our own understanding — of recognition of the station of the Messenger of God truly being the chosen expounder of the will of God to the human as the receiver of the will of God only through God’s chosen Messenger by his revelation; and his it is to by God’s inspiration guide the generations of humankind who have been given no rights to interpose personal disputes between God and his favored, beloved Messenger.
The Surah — Alzab; ‘O prophet, we have allowed thee thy wives unto whom thou hast given their dower, and also the slaves which thy right hand posesseth, of the [booty] which God hath granted Thee; … and any [other] believing woman, if she give herself unto the prophet…[This is] a peculiar privilege [granted] unto thee, above the rest of the true believers.’”
v.49
Muhammad took no more wives than the eleven spoken of here. The wives of the prophet were respected and protected by all means available.
The wives of the Prophet from the contemporary Western view is misunderstood or ignored for lack of understanding the circumstances of the times, of that long-ago era. To judge as an insurmountable obstacle toward recognition of a very germaine Claim to Righteous Call, without understanding the times and tribal conditions of life of a long era that is women’s history — and known can be reassessed in a detached interest toward an outreach to the Mid-East that may serve to repair our prejudices that have been cultivated for Western world sensibilities.
The Marriages of the Prophet as a damning issue has been a barb used for generations to denigrate the validity of the divine claim of a Prophet of God.
Book III
Chapter 1 references:
[1] H.M. Balyuzi, Muhammad and the Course of Islam, Pub.George Ronald Oxford, Soft Cover Edition 2002 — p 260
[2]Ibid (Nasir Khusraw)271
[3] Sidra Hassam, “The Socio-Economic Aspects of the Fatimid Caliphate” Nasir Khusraw’s “Book of Travels” -on-line
[4] Balyuzi, MCI, 267
[5] Ibid, 319
[6] Ibid, 324
[7] Ibid, 225
[8] Ibid, 324
[9]Ibid, 284
End Note:
[1] The Ashari Movement of Baghdad briefly explained: The essence of Ashari is that “the Qur’an was “uncreated” and,“The Qur’an is co-existent with God.” This belief goes further: that all verses are exactly literal in meaning.” There is a surah of the Qur’an, where it is revealed that, “you will see God. The Asharis proclaim this is literally true! You will see God. And this drew favor of the arch-conservative Hanbali School. Such a stance of a literal Qur’an precludes that there be a necessary class of scholars and judges to clarify the confusion this causes. Perhaps this explains the motive for such a view. Dogmatic absolutism of course is a choke hold on the freedom of independence to discover meanings within the Qur’an’s surahs, with its composition dedicated to spiritual enlightenment often through allegory; but this orthodoxy took rein in Islam’s history within the time of Abbasid decline, and has spawned similar rigidity in various movements, within Islam that persist to this day.
A timely resistance to the theology of Ashari literalism arose, and one of the movements was The Brethren, (a Fraternity of Sincerity.) Although a secret society, it is well known that the Brethren, kept at the tasks committed to work of cultural and intellectual preservation as encyclopaedists, moreover, to pursue knowledge “to China” just as the prophet had revealed in the Qur’an. MCI 284 This secret society is thought to still have its place in the realm of Islam.
[2]Renegade Isma’ili Assassins known as Hashshahshin had a method of assassinating their opponents which was to warn the intended victim by placing a dagger where the victim would know what to expect and then, after the murder the assassin stayed there until the body was discovered. Psychological fear tactic as it was intended to be. The cult was able to endure for about 185 years. Their founder (probably) was Hassan-i Sabbah, who bought orphan boys and made them his disciples, he called his “Asāsīyūn” but some foreign travelers misunderstood the name as deriving from the term hashish. You may still read that this is the meaning. Of course such a dreadful level of dealing with problems was to be painted upon the whole Islma’ili branch of Islam in the European Chronicles, but, in truth, historians have put out the reminder that the use of assassination was not so sensationally infrequent, nor so different from similar methods of ridding threats to power used in the “world around them.” MCI 264 and online: ThoughtCo.Hashashin Persia’s Assassins
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Chapter 2 References
[1](Hanbali literalism) Balyuzi, Muhammad and the Course of Islam (GR) 260
[2](Nasir Khusraw) Ibid, 271
[3]Fatimid merchant ships cite, The Socio-Economic Aspects of the Fatimid Caliphate: Nasir Khrusraw’s Safarnama (Book of Travels)
[4]Turk African rampage Balyuzi, MCI, 267
[5] ibid, 303
[6] ibid, 233
[7] ibid, 304
[8] ibid, 312
[9]ibid, 311
[10] ibid, 273
[11]ibid, 290–302
[12] ibid, 302
[13] ibid, 304
[14]ibid, 282
[15]ibid,283
[16] ibid, 277
[17] ibid, 278
[18]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wind instruments
[19]MCI, 311
[20] ibid, 303, 309; also, Ziryab,Website Muslim Heritage.com owned, operated and published by the Foundation for Science, Technology ad Civilisation, (FSTC) Manchester, UK
Note 1: Zayrab was a human phenomenon, a genius whose influence touched life style practices to the very details of behavior still practiced commonly to this day. Table manners, music, the Flamenco music style, culinary arts, new foods, style of dress, hair, seasonal clothing, hygiene, and many firsts were introduced by Zayrab, or “Blackbird.” Many aspects of enculturation that have permeated the western world are derived from this Arab speaking invention master and innovator who is barely known today in the Western world. For more information see Wikipedia article on Zayrab; also see Aramco Article by Robert W. Lebling Jr.“Flight of the Blackbird,” which appeared on pages 24–33 of the July/August 2003 print edition of Saudi Aramco World(on line).
Chapter 3 References:
[1] Balyuzi, Muhammad and the Course of Islam, GR Oxford, 2002, p 306
[2] Ibid 305
[3] Ibid 305
[4] Ibid 308
[5] Ibid 206 See also Maryam Noor Beig, Andalusia When it Was (on line)
[6]MCI, Balyuzi 208
[7] Ibid, 253
[8]Ibid, 267, 322
[9] Ibid, 318
[10] Ibid, 299
[11] Ibid, 319
[12]Source: Dana C. Munro, “Urban and the Crusaders”, Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History, Vol 1:2, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1895), 5–8
[13]Note:Two resources comprised of contrasting views regarding Pope Urban II’s public call to (“Crusade!”) for troops to defend Christianity to protect the East flank of Christendom under the Patriarch of Byzantium, (or was it, as suggested, rather to annex that land for more direct papal control by the Church in Rome?) But officially it seems to have been to reinforce the power to oust the Seljuk Turks from the land once claimed by Byzantium. This emotional appeal is full of depredations against Muslim statehood. His accusations include descriptions of gross defilement of churches, and includes the Seljuk’s rape of the innocents, all sorts of mayhem in general; and the early papal call to arms’ speeches indirectly urged Christian troops to progress in their march onward past the restoration of the Byzantine former holds of lands past their restoration and continue onward to the Levant to restore Jerusalem. That there are several versions of the call to arms must take into consideration that Pope Urban II’s speech was archived to the Vatican library decades after the fact. This speech, attributed to the Pope Urban II attributed by translators as noted show the widely accepted specific date and place of Urban’s appeal, even though claims for authenticity of specific content of his call are varied. He did call to arms. He did not use the word “crusade.” And the promises of redemption of sins and debts are long understood as being part of the carrot to lead the warriors into the battles as the pope did indeed offer.
Note 1: This speech is attributed to the Pope Urban II for correct dating and place. And this entry into the Answers on Internet is attributed by Dana C. Munro, “Urban and the Crusaders”, Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History, Vol 1:2, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1895), 5–8
Then the (2nd )Source: Bongars, Gesta Dei per Francos, 1, pp. 382 f., trans in Oliver J. Thatcher, and Edgar Holmes McNeal, eds., A Source Book for Medieval History, (New York: Scribners, 1905), 513–17
[14] Balyuzi MCI, 319
[15] Ibid, 320
[16] Ibid, 321
[17] Ibid, 320
[18] Ibid, 322 quote of History of the Crusades Vol I pp 285–7; Penguin Edition
[19]-Ibid, 323
Note 2: [for more information on the leper youth King Baldwin see:Wikipedia (add info on leprosy) History Sources: Hamilton, Bernard. The Leper King and His Heirs. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2005. Howarth, Steven. The Knights Templar. Barnes & Noble Publishing, 1991.Lane-Poole, Stanley. Saladin. Putnam, 1906.Madden, Thomas F. The New Concise History of the Crusades. Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.Tyerman, Christopher. God’s War. Harvard Univ. Press, 2006.]
[20] Ibid, 325
[21] Ibid, 325
[22] Ibid, 325
[23] quote: Ibid, 326–327
[24] Ibid, 328
[25] Ibid, 345
[26] Ibid 350
[27] Ibid, 351
[28]Ibid, 355
[29]Ibid, 291 + 356
[30] Ibid, 357
31] Ibid, 357
[32] Ibid, 357
[33] cite: Hassanein Muhammad Rabig, Encyclopedia Britannica, June 27, 2018 ~https.//www.britannica.com/biogragraphy/Baybars-1
[34] MCI, Balyuzi , 361
[35] Ibid,361
[36] Ibid, 363 +364
[37] Ibid, 364
[38] Ibid, 364
[39] Ibid, 366
[40] Ibid, 367
[41] Ibid, 367, 368
[42] Crac des Chevelliers (Syria) UNESCO World Site ~ Outremer CrusaderCastle ~https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1229 -Byzantine built 10th Cent. Franks reinforced and add ramparts, late 12th C. Ayyubid Dynasty reinforcements late 12th/13th Cent., Mamluk fortified late 13th. Still as a heritage site and restoration continues.
[43] Ibid, 368
Chapter 4 References:
[1] cite — Ghengiz Warrior Methods ~ History on the NET ~ files://C:/User/Documents/Mongol.html ~ Mongol Empire Who Was Genghis Khan?
[2] H.M. Balyuzi, Muhammad and the Course of Islam, Publisher, George Ronald Soft Cover, 2002, p. 321
[2]Ibid, 333
[3] Ibid, 333
[4] Ibid, 333
[5] Ibid, 335
[6] Ibid, 340, 372
[7] Ibid, 336
[8] Ibid, 372
[9] Ibid, 341
[10] Ibid, 375
[11] Ibid, 377
[12] Ibid, 380
[13] Ibid, 386
[14] Ibid, 392
[15]See Mighty Wind of Islam, Book II, _______; Ibid 194–96
[16] Ibid, 392
Note. 1 Today Khwarezm belongs partly to Uzbekistan, partly to Kazakhstan and partly to Turkmenistan.
Note 2 (re.hobbling of the water system by Hulagu’s Army)This you may recall in Book II is the same irrigation system that in the Abbasid Caliphate of Harun Rashid, the where water wells and cisterns were systematically set up most brilliantly and followed the pilgrims’ trail from Baghdad through mountains and desert to Mecca in the time of the 5th Abbasid Caliphate 786 CE,of Harun Rashid. This water system included the dredging of the Tigris for river transportation, as well as creating canals for irrigation in agriculture, and all construction was overseen and funded through patronage his wife, Queen Zubayda bint Ja`far Ibn Mansur whose motive was to provide the assurance of water availability for pilgrims on the trek to Mecca from Baghdad. She was in charge of seeing to this grand accomplishment. (ref. Verde Tom, 2016, Khayzuran and Zubayda Saudi Aramco Jan Feb p45)
[note 2] “Outremer” — outposts that are principalities administered as kingdoms, under their European kings and among which there was nothing but bickering.
Chapter 5 References:
[1]Muhammad and the Course of Islam. H.M. Balyuzi George Ronald Publisher Oxford, Softcover Ed. 2002, 407–08
[2] Ibid, 291