User:Aminz/Arabian Context
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As a result of the general awareness of the material factors underlying the history in the second half of the 20th century, recent biographies of Muhammad have taken a fresh approach by reconstructing the economical, political and social background of the movement initiated by Muhammad. Whether the historian holds that the economical, political and social factors entirely determines the course of events in the rise of a movement like that of Islam, or leaves some room for the religious and ideological aspects of it, historians all agree on the importance of the economical, political and social aspects and aim to read the ideological and religious aspects of Islam in that context.[1]
- Economic basis
The Arabian Peninsula was dominated by volcanic steppes and desert wastes. It was therefore not suitable for agriculture except where the feasibility of irrigation existed (such as in oasis and at certain spots high in the mountains).[2][3] Thus the Arabian landscape was dotted with towns and cities, two prominent of which were Mecca and Medina.[4] People of Arabia were either nomadic or sedentary. The latter were the descendants of nomads and had preserved many of the desert-born habits of their ancestors. The nomadic life was based on stock-breeding traveling from one place to another seeking water and pasture for their flocks. Their survival was also to some extent dependent on raiding on caravans or on oases; thus no crime in the eyes of Bedouin.[3] Agriculture and trade were two important occupations of the sedentary Arabs. Mecca was an important financial center in which operations of considerable complexity were carried out and had created a financial net involving Meccans and many of the surrounding tribes. The Meccan leaders were "skillful in manipulation of credits, shrewed in their experience and interested in lucrative investments from Aden to Gaza or Damascus".[3] Islam was thus born in an atmosphere of high finance. Medina, another important city in Arabia, on the other hand was a large flourishing agricultural settlement.[3]
Some scholars have suggested that the rise of Islam and its subsequent expansions were a result of the hunger caused by a decrease in the water supply in the Arabian steppe. William Montgomery Watt however argues, among other things, that there is no good evidence of any significant deterioration of climatic conditions.[3]
- Tribal solidarity
Communal life is essential for survival in desert conditions. Men need help of each other against the forces of nature and against other human rivals. The tribal grouping was thus enhanced by the need to act as a unit.[5] This unity was based on the bond of kinship by blood. Though divided in various tribes, all the Arabs were somewhat united based on a common language, common poetical tradition, conventions and ideas, and a common descent (all Arabs traced their genealogy to two men named Adnan and Qahtan). According to William Montgomery Watt, this Arabic sense of distinction from other people and superiority over others became important when Muhammad created a political unity among the Arabs in Medina.[6] Fazlur Rahman disagrees arguing, among other things, that "the egalitarianism that it [Islam] presupposes transcends, by its very nature, any 'national' idea".[7]
- Decline of tribal solidarity and growth of individualism
The accumulation of capital and the commercial life of Mecca had however fostered individualism and had created a growing awareness of the existence of individual in separateness from the tribe. This tendency had in turn produced a greater interest in pursuing the problem of cessation of man's individual existence at death: Was death the end? The individualistic tendencies could be observed in the early Islam: Many of the earliest followers of Muhammad decided to convert to Islam despite the disapproval of their clans or even their parents; Muhammad's uncle, Abu Lahab, joined the opposition against Muhammad.[8]
A new phenomenon which could be observed in the advent of Islam in Mecca was the formation of a sense of unity based on common material interest. Following the Muslim victory over Meccans at the battle of Badr, a kind of "coalition government" was formed among rival tribes in Mecaa against the Muslims. As the coalition was not based on blood kinship, it weakened the bond of kinship by blood thus implicitly provided the opportunity for the later establishment of a wider unity on a new basis.[9]
According to Watt, a major economical change correlated ("absolutely dependent" according to Marxist historians) with the advent of Islam was that:[10]
In the rise of Mecca to wealth and power we have a movement from nomadic economy to a mercantile and capitalist economy. By the time of Muhammad, however, there had been no readjustment of the social, moral, intellectual, and religious attitudes of the community. These were still the attitudes appropriate to a nomadic community, for the most part. The tension felt by Muhammad and some of his contemporaries was doubtless due ultimately to this contrast between men's conscious attitude and the economic basis of their life.
