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* Islam: a New Religion and a New Empire

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* Islam: a New Religion and a New Empire 292 CHAPTER 8 • THE HEIRS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 600-7SO Byzantines actually worshiped icons; others, Iconoclasm had an enormous impact on particularly monks, considered icons a nec- daily life. At home, where people had their essary part of Christian piety. As the monk own portable icons, it forced changes in pri- St. John of Damascus put it in a vigorous de- vate worship: the devout had to destroy their fense of holy images, "I do not worship matter, icons or worship them in secret. The ban on I worship the God of matter, who became mat- icons meant ferocious attacks on the monas- ter for my sake, and deigned to inhabit matter, teries: splendid collections of holy images who worked out my salvation through matter." were destroyed; vast properties were confis- Other Byzantines abhorred icons. Most cated; and monks, who were staunch de- numerous of these were the soldiers on the fenders of icons, were ordered to marry and frontiers. Shocked by Arab triumphs, they give up their vocation. In this way icono- found the cause of their misfortunes in the clasm destroyed communities that might biblical injunction against graven images. otherwise have served as centers of resis- When they compared their defeats to Muslim tance to imperial power. Reorganized and successes, they could not help but notice reoriented, the Byzantine rulers were able to that Islam prohibited all representations of maintain themselves against the onslaught of the divine. To these soldiers and others who the Arabs, who attacked under the banner of shared their view, icons revived pagan idola- Islam. try and desecrated Christian divinity. As icon- oclastic (anti-icon or, literally, icon-breaking) Review: What stresses did the Byzantine Empire feeling grew, some churchmen became out- endure in the seventh and eighth centuries, spoken in their opposition to icons. and how was Iconoclasm a response to those Byzantine emperors shared these reli- stresses? gious objections, and they also had important political reasons for opposing icons. In fact, the issue of icons became a test of their au- thority. Icons diffused loyalties, setting up in- * Islam: A New Religion termediaries between worshipers and God and a New Empire that undermined the emperor's exclusive place in the divine and temporal order. In ad- In the sixth century, Arabia, today Saudi dition, the emphasis on icons in monastic Arabia, witnessed the rise of Islam, a religion communities made the monks potential that called on all to submit to the will of threats to imperial power; the emperors one God. Islam, which means "submission hoped to use this issue to break the power of to God," emerged under Muhammad (c. 570- the monasteries. Above all, though, the em- 632), a merchant-turned-holy-man from the perors opposed icons because the army did, city of Mecca. While the great majority of and they wanted to support their troops. people living in Arabia were polytheists, After Emperor Leo III the Isaurian (r. Muhammad recognized one God, the same 717-741) had defeated the Arabs besieging one worshiped by the Jews and the Chris- Constantinople at the beginning of his reign, tians. He saw himself as God's last prophet— he turned his attention to consolidating his and thus he is called the Prophet—the per- political position. Officers of the imperial son to receive and in turn repeat God's final court tore down the great golden icon of words to humans. Invited by the disunited Christ at the gateway of the palace and re- and pagan people of the city of Medina to placed it with a cross, while a crowd of come and act as a mediator for them, women protested by going on a furious ram- Muhammad exercised the powers of both a page in support of icons. But Leo would not religious and a secular leader. This dual role budge. In 726 he ordered all icons destroyed, became the model for his successors, known a ban that remained in effect, despite much as caliphs. * Through a combination of per- opposition, until 787. This is known as the suasion and force, Muhammad and his co- period of iconoclasm in Byzantine history. A modified ban would be revived in 815 and last until 843. » caliph: KAY luhf ISLAM: A NEW RELIGION AND A NEW EMPIRE 293 600-750 religionists, the Muslims, converted most of Dotting the Bedouins' desert world were the Arabian peninsula. By the time Muham- cities that arose around oases—fertile, green mad died in 632, conquest and conversion areas. Here more settled forms of life and had begun to move northward, into Byzan- trade took place. Mecca, near the Red Sea, tine and Persian territories. In the next gen- was one such commercial center. Meccan eration, the Arabs conquered most of Persia caravans crisscrossed the peninsula, selling and all of Egypt and were on their way across slaves and spices. More important, Mecca North Africa to Spain. Yet within the territo- played an important religious role because it ries they conquered, daily life went on much contained a shrine, the Ka'ba. Long before as before. Muhammad was born, the Ka'ba, a great rock surrounded by the images of 360 gods, served as a sacred place within which war The Desert and the Cities and violence were prohibited. The tribe that Before the seventh century, the great deserts dominated Mecca, the Quraysh,* controlled of the Arabian peninsula were sparsely pop- access to the shrine and was able to tax the ulated by Bedouins.* These were nomads pilgrims who flocked there as well as sell who lived in tribes—loose confederations of them food and drink. In turn, plunder was clans, or kin groups—herding flocks for meat transformed into trade as the visitors bartered and milk and trading (or raiding) for grain, with one another on the sacred grounds, as- dates, and slaves. Poor tribes herded sheep, sured of their security. whereas richer ones kept camels—extremely hardy animals, splendid beasts of burden, The Prophet Muhammad and good producers of milk and meat. (Arab was the name camel nomads called them- and the Faith of Islam selves.) Mecca, the birthplace of Muhammad, was a Tribal makeup shifted as kin groups center with two important traditions—one re- joined or left. Though continually changing, ligious, the other commercial. Muhammad's these associations nevertheless saw out- early years were inauspicious: orphaned at siders as rivals, and tribes constantly fought the age of six, he spent two years with his with one another. Yet this very rivalry was it- grandfather and then came under the care of self an outgrowth of shared values. Bedouin his uncle, a leader of the Quraysh tribe. Even- men prized "manliness," which meant far tually, Muhammad became a trader. At the more than sexual prowess. They strove to be age of twenty-five, he married Khadija, a rich brave in battle and feared being shamed. widow who had once employed him. They Manliness also entailed an obligation to be had at least four daughters and lived (to all generous, to give away the booty that was the appearances) happily and comfortably. Yet goal of intertribal warfare. Women were often Muhammad sometimes left home and spent part of this booty, for Bedouins practiced some time on the nearby Mount Hira, devot- polygyny (having more than one wife at the ing himself to prayer and contemplation. same time). Bedouin wars rarely involved In about 610, on one of these retreats, much bloodshed; their main purpose was Muhammad heard a voice and had a vision to capture people and take belongings. that summoned him to worship Allah, the Tribal, nomadic existence produced its God of the Jews and Christians. (AUoh means own culture, including an Arabic poetry of "the God" in Arabic.) He accepted the call as striking delicacy, precision, and beauty. In coming from God. Over the next years he re- the absence of written language, the ceived messages that he understood to be di- Bedouins used oral poetry and storytelling to vine revelation. Later, when they had been transmit their traditions, simultaneously en- written down and arranged—a process that tertaining, reaffirming values, and teaching was completed in the seventh century, but new generations. after Muhammad's death—these messages * Bedouins: BEHD oo ihns * Quraysh: kur RAYSH 294 CHAPTER 8 » THE HEIRS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 600-750 Qur'an More than a holy book, the Qur'an represents for Muslims the very words of God that were dictated to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel. Gener- ally the Qur'an was written on pages wider than long, per- haps to differentiate it from other books. This example dates from the seventh or eighth century. It is written in Kufic script, a formal and majestic form of Arabic that was used for the Qur'an until the eleventh century. The round floral decoration on the right-hand page marks a new section of the text. Property of the Ambrosian Library. All rights reserved became the Qur'an,* the holy book of Islam. ognize authorities whose interpretations of (See pages of a Qur'an above.) Qur'an means the Qur'an and related texts are considered "recitation"; each of its chapters, or suras, is decisive. The Ka'ba, with its many gods, had understood to be God's revelation as told to gathered together tribes from the surround- Muhammad by the archangel Gabriel, then ing vicinity. Muhammad, with his one God, recited in turn by Muhammad to others. It forged an even more universal religion. begins with the Fatihah, frequently also said as an independent prayer, and continues with suras of gradually decreasing length, Growth of Islam, c.
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