By Dr. Javid Iqbal
At the dawn of Islam, in the 7th century, geopolitical scenario in the
world shows two super powers on the horizon; the Eastern Roman
(Byzantine) empire and the Iranian empire. And they were perpetually
locked in a conflict with one or the other having an upper hand. We may
take first the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) empire. To say Rome and prefix
it with East might appear to be a misnomer, as Rome is a western
phenomenon—the city as well as the state. The Roman state in west was at
its pinnacle in 54 B.C, the era of Julius Caesar. Romans had overtaken
Greece, the state where knowledge originated.
Eventually, this state weakened, however the Romans with Greeks established another Empire in present day Turkey. The capital of this Empire was Constantinople [present day Istanbul]. The capital across the strait of Bosporus [the waterway separating Asia and Europe] is Eurasian [partly Asian, partly European] hence the Empire established was called ‘Eastern Roman Empire’ with another attribute ‘Byzantine Empire’ [in vernacular Bazan’tiney]. In 4th century Christianity became the state religion in the reign of Constantine. Constantinople was assigned in his name.
The Iranian Empire had the reign of Choesroes [Khusroo in vernacular] while as Byzantine Empire had Caesars [Kaiser in vernacular] ruling them. Iranian Empire was set up by Cyrus the Great [Jamsheed in vernacular] 2500 years back. In Persian lore Cyrus is taken to be the ideal ruler. Jam-e-Jam (Jamsheed’s goblet of wine) symbolizes the accumulated experience in governance in oriental poetic lore. Says Allama Iqbal in one of his Persian couplets that governance is not a purchasable commodity, in case you try to buy it, it will be like chinaware—highly fragile. Thus it has to be learned by experience. Son of Cyrus—Darius [Dara] fought Alexander [Sikander] of Macedonia. Dara-Sikander fights are legendary, lyrics have been composed of the valour seen in these battles. While as Cyrus and Darius were of Achemaid dynasty, Iran at the dawn of Islam was ruled by Sassanid [Sassani] dynasty.
Byzantine Empire encompassed present day Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Palestine; the Eurasian crossroads and the Iranian empire, Iran and Iraq, parts of Central Asia with a corridor across the sea, Yemen. These two super powers of 7th century vied for global space. As Islam was emerging, Iranians sitting pretty across Bosporus were targeting Caesar’s capital city
Byzantine Empire encompassed present day Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Palestine; the Eurasian crossroads and the Iranian empire, Iran and Iraq, parts of Central Asia with a corridor across the sea, Yemen. These two super powers of 7th century vied for global space. As Islam was emerging, Iranians sitting pretty across Bosporus were targeting Caesar’s capital city. Caesar sued for peace, but the offer was spurned by Iranians. Caesar with his back to the wall fought back and turned the tide. Soon Romans were threatening the borders of Iran and Madain [Madain is the pleural of Medina—city in Arabic] the Iranian capital was in panic. The capital was called Madain--the twin city encompassing Seleucidae—the city build by Greeks on one bank of Tigris [Dajla] and the city build by Iranians on another bank---Ctesiphon.
The turn of the tide against fire worshippers of Iran by the people of the book, the Christian Romans pleased Muslims. We may however leave the superpower conflict of 7th century here, which provides the background to the advent of Islam, and instead look at the state of Arabia.
Arabia—present day Saudi Arabia encompassed urban Hejaz and the desert - Najad. People originally belonging to Arabia were called Modharites [Modhari] and the Yemeni migrants were called Himarytes [Hamhari]. While as the Meccan population was mainly composed of Modharites, people of Yathrub [Yusrub—later Madinat-ul-Nabi (A.S)] were mainly Himarytes - Yemeni settlers. There were Jewish tribes in the suburbs of Medina and also in the nearby city of Khyber.
Worship of one God—Allah [SwT] ordained by Syedena Ibrahim [A.S] as he build the House of God [Khana-e-Kabbah] and followed by his son—Syedena Ismail [A.S] had turned to paganism with 360 idols in Kabbah. Mecca however remained the central city and Kabbah the prime place of worship
Worship of one God—Allah [SwT] ordained by Syedena Ibrahim [A.S] as he build the House of God [Khana-e-Kabbah] and followed by his son—Syedena Ismail [A.S] had turned to paganism with 360 idols in Kabbah. Mecca however remained the central city and Kabbah the prime place of worship. People from all over Arabia would come to Kabbah for pilgrimage. Kabbah, though the spiritual center, had limited temporal authority. Arab tribes were fiercely independent. They were lost in blood feuds that extended over generations. However the truce—a period of peace was observed during the days of pilgrimage.
The authority of administering and maintaining the spiritual center, Khana-e-Kabbah was divided between various tribes—the two principal branches of Qureish-e-Mecca [as the Meccan hierarchy was called] were Hashemites [Hashmi] and Ommayids [Ummwee].
This was thus the state of world and of Arabia at the dawn of Islam.
No comments:
Post a Comment