RRST 223Islamic Civilization and Culture, By Dr. A.

Kheir 2014

Collected and Compiled

By

Dr. Abdallah Kheir (PhD)

MODULE INSTRUCTOR

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 RRST 223Islamic Civilization and Culture, By Dr. A. Kheir 2014

In the Name of Allah the Beneficent, the Merciful

[RRST 223 Islamic Civilizations and Culture]

Objectives:

At the end of this course the student should be able to:

1. Explain the concept of leadership and governance during the caliphate period
2. Analyse the political divisions and development of sectarianism in Islam
3. Describe and evaluate Muslim contributions to science, technology and several other
branches of science

Course Description {Content}:

(a) A brief biography of the Prophet of Islam Muhammad (saw)

(b) The history of the caliphate period and their achievements
(c) Development of Muslim education and the methodologies used
(d) The contribution of Muslim in various branches of science and technology

Definitions of the key words:

What is Civilization?

According to the dictionary.com the word civilization has almost seven meanings. It is a noun
that can mean the following:-
1. An advanced state of human society, in which a high level of culture, science, industry, and
government has been reached.

2. Those people or nations that have reached such a state.

3. Any type of culture, society, etc., of a specific place, time, or group: e.g. Greek Civilization,
Islamic Civilization.

4. The act or process of civilizing or being civilized: Rome's civilization of barbaric tribes was
admirable.

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5. Cultural refinement; refinement of thought and cultural appreciation.

6. Cities or populated areas in general, as opposed to unpopulated or wilderness areas: The plane
crashed in the jungle, hundreds of miles from civilization.

7. Modern comforts and conveniences, as made possible by science and technology: After a
week in the woods, without television or even running water, the campers looked forward to
civilization again.1

Popular usage defines "civilization" as "an advanced state of human society, in which high
levels of culture, science, industry and government have been reached." This definition is
problematic for archeologists, anthropologists, and historians, because it contains an overt value
judgment that civilization is better, more advanced, and superior to other forms of social
organization. Yet we know that some aspects of civilization seem in our judgment quite negative
for example, large-scale warfare, slavery, coerced tribute, epidemic disease, and the
subordination of women may come to mind. Nevertheless, some contemporary scholars have
even considered agriculture to be part of civilization.

Serious students of archaeology, anthropology, and history use a technical definition of

civilization that describes without conveying value judgments. Civilizations, in this technical
sense, are a specific type of human community: large, complex societies based on domestication
of plants, animals, and people, plus other typical characteristics.

What are the characteristics of civilization carefully defined?

The most influential theorist of civilization in the Western world during the first half of the
twentieth century was a professor of prehistoric archeology, V. Gordon Childe (1892-1957).
Childe's checklist for what constitutes a civilization is here in his list summarized briefly as
follows:

 Large urban centers

 Full-time specialist occupations
 Primary producers of food paying surpluses to deity or ruler
 Monumental architecture
 Ruling class exempt from manual labor
 System for recording information
 Development of exact, practical sciences
 Monumental art
 Regular importation of raw materials
1
Dictionary.com

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 Interdependence of classes (peasants, craftspeople, rulers)

 State religion/ideology
 Persistent state structures

This list seems, on the face of it, much too positive. What about warfare, slavery, and mass
suffering? Childe still used terms like "savagery" and "barbarism" to describe other forms of
human communities, revealing his assumption that civilization represented progress. By the
1960's anthropologists had dropped the concept of human progress and tried to find value-free
ways to classify and compare human societies, as the way to see more clearly what really was
happening.

What is Culture?

Culture is everything about a human community, its knowledge, beliefs, and practices;
civilizations are a particular kind of culture. Hence, Islamic culture generally includes includes
all the practices which have developed around the religion of Islam. It includes Qur’anic e.g.
prayer (salah) and non-Qur’anic (traditions that are not against Islam).

It is important to note here that Islam is not against any culture, except those ones which are
Jahilia related. Thus, any culture that is inhuman is rejected in Islam (e.g. FGM, slavery,
colonization, Ribaa, prostitution, homosexuality, lesbianism, celibacy etc).

What is Islamic Civilization and Culture

The Islamic Civilization and Culture started in 610 AD 1and that was immediately when Prophet
Muhammad (saw) started the Islamic Da’wah in the Arabian Peninsula. His teachings inspired
the Arab peoples, as well the non-Arabs, and by 750 AD Muslims had liberated an area
stretching from Afghanistan to Alndalus in southern Spain. Hence, trade, science, and culture
thrived in this Islamic state.

However, Islam never started with Prophet Muhammad (saw) according to Jewish Professor
Moshe Sharon of University of Jerusalem admitted that all Prophets were Muslim:

“Islam has been the only religion since Adam for all those people who think that Islam was the
religion of the Prophet Muhammad. Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Jonah and the final Prophet
of God Muhammad were all followers of Islam which means submission to one God never b(not

1
Before the coming of Prophet Muhammad (saw) there were different civilization, Greek Civilization, Roman
Civilization, Passion civilization, African Civilization and Arabian/Jahiliya civilization.

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trinity), nor a man, not Jesus but the one true living God that is not born, never dies, never
begets and was not begotten”1

Newly liberated2 lands were united by Islam, and by common tax systems, coinage, and laws.
Jews and Christians sometimes paid taxes Muslims paid zakah, but they were free to run their
own religious affairs so long as they did not insult the Prophet Muhammad.

Islam brought a new sense of unity and purpose to the traders and tribes’ people of the Arabian
Peninsula. Led by the Caliph, Arab armies spread Islam in the Middle East and beyond. It helped
that their main enemies, the Sassanids in Iran and the Byzantines in Eastern Europe, were
weakened by fighting each other. Islamic civilization and culture was spread by Muslim traders,
preachers, pilgrims and inter marriages.

Muslim pilgrims, traders, soldiers, scholars, and government officials made long journeys across
the Islamic empire and beyond. One of the most famous explorers, Ibn Battuta, set out on a
pilgrimage to Mecca in 1325 AD. He spent the next 25 years traveling, crossing the Sahara and
even reaching China before returning to Morocco to write his story. During their journeys, they
moved with both Islamic civilization and culture.

Many of the first Muslims were nomads, who needed to be able to pack up and move all their
belongings quickly. Traditionally, woven cloth was used for tents, bags, clothes, cushions,
bedding, and carpets. The art and craft of making textiles continued to be important in the
Muslim world, which gave us the words for damask (from Damascus), muslin (from Mosul), and
cashmere (from Kashmir).

On the outer edge of the Latin world, in Spain, Sicily, and North Africa, and surrounding
Byzantium in Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, was the world of Islam. For centuries, Islam was both
a threat and the source of new ideas to the Greek East and Latin West. Between the 7th and 12th
centuries, Islam became the center of a brilliant civilization and of a great scientific, philosophic,
and artistic culture. Although its language was neither Greek nor Latin, Islam absorbed a great
deal of Greek culture which it managed to preserve for the Latin West. In general, it can be said
that Islam absorbed and added its culture to the heritage of Greece, Rome, Judaism, Christianity,
and the Near East.

In the beginning the Muslims were both open and cautious. They borrowed and integrated
elements of other cultures into their own. The new religion of Islam, which we will get to in a
moment, adopted elements of Christian, Jewish, and pagan religious beliefs and practices. The
Muslims tolerated religious minorities within territories they had liberated so long as these
minorities recognized Islamic political rule, paid taxes, and did not proselytize among Muslims.
1
Uploaded on 21 Jan 2012 on YouTube http://youtu.be/ milZKUuc2jk

2
Many authors Muslims and non-Muslim uses the word concord land to refer to Muslim liberated lands as
occupations or concurred lands . It is important to note here that there is no land that was Concorde or occupied
by Muslims. What the Muslim armies did was libration of the land which was oppressed.

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Still, the Muslims were careful to protect the purity of their religion, language, and law from any
foreign influence. With the passage of time, and with increased conflict with both eastern and
western Christians, this protective instinct grew stronger. In the end, Islamic culture did not
penetrate the west in the same way that Germanic culture did, but would remain strange as well
as threatening to the West.

Fundamental to Islam was its religion -- this, of course, is true for the medieval west as well.
However, we know more about early Christianity then we do about early Islam. And the reason
is clear. Christianity was produced by a literate culture. Islamic religion, however, was formed
largely in an illiterate, nomadic culture. The home of Islam is the Arabian Peninsula. 1 The
Peninsula is predominantly deserted and the tribes who inhabited this area were nomadic, that is,
they traveled from place to place. Politically, Islam was not a unified territory nor was there any
centralized government.

The great unifying agent in Islamic civilization was clearly that of

Muhammad (saw) (c.570-632). He was born at Mecca and raised by family of modest
means. His father had died in the year of his birth and his mother died when he was 6 years old.
At the time of Muhammad's birth, Mecca was one of the most prosperous caravan
cities very reach in tread. However, Mecca was still tied to the traditional social
and religious life of the Arabian world. In other words, it was governed by the tribal
societies of the desert. Membership in the tribe was determined by blood descent. In such an
order, the interests of the individual were always subordinate to those of the group or tribe. Each
tribe worshipped its own gods in the form of objects from nature (moon, sky, dog, cat, ram) but
all Arabs during the Jahiliya period worshipped several objects inside the Kaaba, a large black
stone enshrined at Mecca. It was the Kaaba that made Mecca significant as a place of worship
and pilgrimage.2

As a youth, Muhammad (saw) worked as a merchant's assistant, traveling the major trade routes
of the Peninsula. When he was 25, he married the widow of a wealthy merchant and became a
man of means. He also became a kind of social activist, critical of Meccan
materialism, paganism, and the unjust treatment of the poor and needy.

Prophet Muhammad (saw) worked hard at his career but like so many "saviors" and prophets,
Muhammad (saw) was plagued by doubts. His doubt increased to such an extent that he left
Meccan society and lived a life of isolation in the desert. In 610, and at the age of 40, he received
his first revelation and began to preach. He believed his revelations came directly from Allah
(sw), a God who spoke to him through the angel Gabriel, who recited God's word to him at
irregular intervals. These revelations grew into the Qur’an which his followers compiled between
650 and 651. The basic message Prophet Muhammad received was a summons to all Arabs to
submit to God's will. Islam means "submission to the will of Allah (sw)."

1
The home of Islam is any where Shari’ah can be established.

2
Today Muslims are still facing Macca during their prayers. But Muslims do not worship the Kaabah the way many
non-Muslims believe.

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There was little that was new in Muhammad's message. It had been uttered by
a long line of Jewish prophets going back to Noah but now ending with
Muhammad (saw), the last of Allah's chosen prophets. The Qur'an also recognized Jesus
Christ as a prophet but did not view him as God's co-eternal and co-equal son. Unlike Judaism
and Christianity, Islam is a monotheistic and theocratic religion. 1

The basic beliefs of Muhammad's teachings were (1) that God is good and omnipotent, (2)
that God will judge all men on the last day and assign them their place in either Heaven or Hell,
(3) that men should thank God for making the world as it is, (4) that God expects men to be
generous with their wealth, and (5) that Muhammad was a prophet sent by God to teach men and
warn them of the last judgment.

It ought to be clear that many of these beliefs are similar to those of the Judeo-Christian tradition.
However, Muhammad's teaching was not a mere copy. Instead, Muhammad's religion grew as a
result of the social and economic conditions of Mecca itself. One other difference ought to be
noted. Christianity was produced in an urban environment while the faith of Muhammad was
fashioned from his life in the desert.

For Muhammad (saw), there were also five obligations which were essential to his faith: (1) the
profession of faith – there is no God but Allah and Muhammad was the last prophet, (2) prayers
had to be uttered five times daily, (3) the giving of alms, or charity, (4) fasting, and (5) the
pilgrimage to Mecca. These laws are recorded in the Qur'an, a book which contains all of the
revelations of Muhammad.

Prophet Muhammad (saw) through the teachings of the Qur’an believed that Allah (sw) had
chosen him to be the last prophet. Abraham and Moses were prophets. So too was Jesus Christ.
But Muhammad (saw) believed that Jesus was not the son of God. The Jews and Christians,
according to Muhammad (saw), had strayed from the true faith, a faith which Muhammad
believed he had had revealed to him by the angel Gabriel. It was his task to convert them and
bring them back to the true word.

Despite the faith of his companion, Muhammad (saw) met with disappointment as he preached
Islam at Mecca. Jews and Christians failed to convert. His faith was totally rejected by the
authorities at Mecca. It should be obvious that the merchants at Mecca would have objected to
Muhammad's belief – actually a profession of faith – that men should be generous with their
wealth. The authorities tried to quiet Muhammad (saw) and so he left for the northern city of
Medina in the year 622. The journey to Medina is known as the hegira (the "breaking of former
ties") became the true foundation of the Islamic faith. The hegira also marks the beginning of the
Islamic calendar and the first Islamic state in the Arabian Peninsula.

At Medina, Muhammad created an Islamic state. Besides the profession of faith, Prophet
Muhammad (saw) also specified that at his community there would be strict rules
governing diet; wine, gambling and usury were prohibited; he set up his own legal system;
1
Judaism clamed Uzeir as the son of God, and Christianity that Jesus is the son of God and the Mushrikun that the
Engels as daughters of God.

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and prohibited infanticide. After settling in Medina, the people of Mecca (The Quraish
community) and its followers began to attack the new Islamic state in Median and oppress
the remaining Muslim community in Mecca. By 624 the Muslim army was powerful
enough to liberate Mecca-and not to conquer Mecca as claimed by many historians- and
make it the center of the new religion. As mentioned above, Muslims never conquered nor
occupied lands, but they did liberate and freed land and people who were under oppression and
cruelty, regardless of their faith and what they believe in.

Prophet Muhammad (saw) died in 632 and his death presented his followers with a series of
profound challenges.1 He never claimed to be of divine origin yet his loyal followers saw no
reason to separate religious and political authority. Submitting to the will of Allah (sw) was no
different than submitting to the will of Muhammad. It is important to note here that
Muhammad (saw) never named a successor. Who would lead the faithful? Soon after his
death, some of his followers selected Abubakar, a wealthy merchant and Prophet Muhammad's
father-in-law as caliph, or temporal leader.

One of the main challenges confronting the Islamic world after the death of the Prophet
was the choice of caliph. When Muhammad's son-in-law was assassinated, Muawiyah, a
general, became caliph... Muawiyah made the caliphate inherited in his own family, thus
creating the Umayyad dynasty. One of the first things Muawiyah did was to move the
capital of the Muslim world from Medina to Damascus in Syria. However, internal
dissension over the caliphate created a split in Islam between the Shiites, or those who accepted
only the descendants of Ali, Muhammad's son-in-law, as the true rulers, and the Sunnites, who
claimed the descendants of the Umayyads were the true rulers. This split exists to this day.

. Arabic, Byzantine, Persian and Indian cultural traditions were integrated. And while in
Europe, learning seemed to be at its lowest point, the Muslims created what I suppose could
be called a "high civilization." Thanks to Muslim scholars, ancient Greek learning, acquired
from their contact with Byzantine scholars, was kept alive and was eventually transferred to the
West in the 12th century and after. But not only did Muslim scholars preserve the heritage of
Greek science and Philosophy, they added to it by writing commentaries and glosses, thus
adding to what eventually became the western intellectual tradition. Throughout the Qur'an
one can find a strong emphasis on the value of knowledge in the Islamic faith. The Qur'an
encourages Muslims to learn and acquire knowledge, stemming from, but not limited to,
the Muslim emphasis on knowing the unity of God. Because Muslims believe that Allah
(sw) is all-knowing, they also believe that the human world's quest for knowledge leads to
further knowing of Allah.

1
Some people rejected to give zakat, others committed apostasy and others were fighting for leadership etc

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DEVELOPMENT OF MULIM DEDUCATION AND THE METHODOLOGIES USED

The development of Muslim education started from the teachings of Qur’an and Hadith. Both
past and present, the Islamic world had a great respect to knowledge (education) and all branches
of sciences. Hence, it is not surprising to find that the Qur’an and Hadith provide us with
numerous incentives for acquiring education.

As the foremost duty of all the Prophets was to educate their people, therefore, one of the
personal characteristics of the Prophet of Islam is that he was an educator and teacher. Thus,
education was a top priority in his prophetic mission. The elements which form an integral part
of an educational system and which must be dealt with in any discussion on education are:

1. The importance and excellence of education and its forms

2. The fact of learning and communication
3. Position of the teacher and student
4. Center of education

5. Modes of education1

From the primitive time, to the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad (saw) up to the modern advanced
time, these basic elements have formed an essential part of the educational system in every
period and contributed a lot to the development of Muslim education. In any society, there can
never be educational development without having a teacher. Thus, a teacher or an educator is an
essential personality that contributes to the development of education. Qur’an has highlighted
various aspects of Prophet’s personality. Since the Prophet is believed to be a role model for
humankind, hence, his multi-face personality has been discussed in the Qur’an. The following
are some of the verses of the Qur’an that described the functions of the Prophet (saw) as a
teacher, Allah says:

‫م ٱثلك تت ينعع ن‬
‫ب‬ ‫مثنهمعع ثم ي ث نتل مععوا ا ع نل ثنيهتعع ثم نءاي ينت تعع ن‬
‫ك وني معنل ل م‬
‫مهمعع م‬ ‫نرب بنناَ ونٱثبعنععثث تفيهتعع ثم نر م‬
‫سععولل ل‬
١٢٩ ‫م‬ ‫كي م‬ ‫ح ت‬ ‫زيمز ٱثل ن‬ ‫ك نأن ن ث‬ ‫كيهت مثم إ تن ب ن‬
‫ة وني منز ل‬ ‫ونٱثل ت‬
‫حثك ن‬
‫ت ٱلعن ت‬ ‫م ن‬
“... Our Lord! And raise up in them a Messenger from among them who shall recite
to them Thy communications and teach them the Book and the wisdom, and purify
them; surely Thou art the Mighty, the Wise .”2

In another verse Allah says:

1
Alavi, Kalid (2004). Muhammad the Educator of Humankind, Daw’wah Academy, International Islamic University
Islamabad

2
The Qur’an 2:129

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‫كن ن‬
‫مك معع م‬
‫م‬ ‫منك م ثم ي ث نتل مععوا ا ع نل ثنيك معع ثم نءاي ينت تن نععاَ وني منز ل‬
‫كيك معع ثم وني معنل ل م‬ ‫سولل ل‬‫سثلنناَ تفيك م ثم نر م‬‫ماَ أثر ن‬ ‫ن‬
١٥١ ‫ن‬ ‫مو ن‬ ‫كومنوا ا ت نثعل ن م‬ ‫ماَ ل ن ثم ت ن م‬ ‫كم ب‬ ‫ة وني معنل ل م‬
‫م م‬ ‫حثك ن‬
‫م ن‬ ‫ث‬
‫ب ونٱل ت‬ ‫ٱثلك تت ين ن‬
“Even as We have sent among you a Messenger from among you who recites to you
Our communications and purifies you and teaches you the Book and the wisdom
and teaches you that which you did not know.” 1

Once again Allah says:

‫سععه ثم ي ث نتل مععوا ا‬

‫ف ت ت‬ ‫مععثن نأن م‬‫سععولل ل‬‫ث تفيهتعع ثم نر م‬ ‫ن إ تثذ ب نعن ن‬‫متني ن‬ ‫ه ع ننلىَ ٱثل م‬
‫مثؤ ت‬ ‫ن ٱلل ب م‬ ‫قثد ن‬
‫م ب‬ ‫لن ن‬
‫ل‬ ‫مععن قن بب ثب م‬ ‫ة ونتإن ك نععاَمنوا ا ت‬
‫معع ن‬ ‫ب ونٱثل ت‬
‫حثك ن‬ ‫م ٱثلك تت ين ن‬ ‫كيهت ثم وني معنل ل م‬
‫مه م م‬ ‫ع نل ثنيهت ثم نءاي ينت تهتۦ وني منز ل‬
١٦٤ ‫ن‬ ‫متبي ن‬‫ضل ينلل م‬ ‫في ن‬ ‫لن ت‬
“Certainly Allah conferred a benefit upon the believers when He raised among them
a Messenger from among themselves, reciting to them His communications and
purifying them, and teaching them the Book and the wisdom, although before that
they were surely in manifest error.” 2

All the above verses of the Qur’an introduce the Prophet (saw) as a teacher, instructor and an
educator; they as well specify the subjects of his instruction. The Qur’an tells us about the source
from which this great teacher has derived his knowledge. The Qur’an tells us that the Prophet
was an unlettered person and received all his knowledge directly from the Creator of the
Universe. He was not instructed by any human being and received guidance from a divine
source. Qur’an has emphatically denied the human source of Prophet Wisdom. Wonderful
enough, while the Qur’an describing the position of the Prophet Allah says:

‫ذا ل بٱثرت نععاَ ن‬

‫ب‬ ‫مين تعع م ك‬
‫ك إت ل‬ ‫خط م م‬
‫هععۥ ب تي ن ت‬ ‫ب وننل ت ن م‬ ‫ت ت ث نتملوا ا ت‬
‫مععن قنثبل تهتععۦ ت‬
‫مععن ك تت ينعع ل‬ ‫ماَ م‬
‫كن ن‬ ‫ون ن‬
٤٨ ‫ن‬ ‫مثبط تملو ن‬‫ٱثل م‬
“And you did not recite before it any book, nor did you transcribe one with your
right hand, for then could those who say untrue things have doubted.” 3

The Prophet (saw) has also explained the importance of education advising the Muslims to
acquire it. There are many traditions of Prophet which throw light to this aspect. The Prophet
said:

1
The Qur’an 2:151

2
The Qur’an 3:164

3
The Qur’an 26:48

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Abu Hurairah (ra) reports that the Prophet (saw) said: “Allah gives knowledge of religion to
whomsoever he wishes to grant well-being.”4

Methodology used to Disseminate the Knowledge

Our teacher Prophet Muhammad (saw) made it obligatory for the learned to transmit knowledge.
In Islam the learned is not allowed to withhold knowledge. Through this method, the Prophet
(saw) stand witness many thousands of Muslims in whose bosoms he had lighted the lamp of
knowledge. One such witness is Abdallah ibn Mas’oud who states: I had the Prophet of Allah
saying:

“May Allah keep the person flourishing who heard a tradition from me, committed it to memory
and then transmitted it. Often those to whom the tradition is conveyed preserve it better than the
listener. ”2

This was one of the Prophetic methods used to transmit knowledge from one generation to
another. It was this extraordinary sense of responsibility for the dissemination of knowledge
which impelled the Prophet (saw) to adopt various means of communication. For example, he
used to receive deputations and instructed them in Islam, sent his companions abroad to serve as
teachers and missionaries, dispatched letters, visited various tribes and called on individuals and
deputed his counselors and magistrates to visit people and transmit the knowledge of Islam.

The fact is that he spared no effort to convey the precepts of religion. Books on Hadith mention
several deputations who came to deal with the Prophet (saw). The following is one of such
deputation:

“When the deputation of Abdul Qays called on him, the Prophet (saw) said: Who are you?.
Rabi’ah they said. The Prophet (saw) bade them welcome. “We have come from afar, they
submitted and between you and us there is the hurdle of this Pagan tribe Mudhar. We cannot
reach you except in the month of Haram (sacred month). Tell us something that we may convey
to our people back home so that we may enter paradise.” The Prophet (saw) bade them do four
things and forbade them four things. He observed: “Remember this and convey it to your people
back home.”3

Along with these missionary activities, the Prophet of Allah (saw) also took steps to spread
knowledge. He declared the withholding of knowledge a crime and commends its dissemination
as a deed worthy of divine reward. The Prophet is reported to have said:
4
Collected by Ahmad 1/306

2
Collected by Ahmad 6/96

3
Collected by Muslim 1/35

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“If a man is asked to convey knowledge and he conceals it, the bridle of fire shall be put into his
mouth on the day of judgment.”1

Other methods used to disseminate knowledge:

a) Traveling with an intention of studying Hadith from other Ulamaa (Rihlatu fi Twalabil
Hadith)
b) Reading while the sheikh is listening to the student
c) The Sheikh reads while the student listening
d) Memorization
e) Reading a book in the absence of the sheikh and then meet the sheikh for an
authorization to teach his book to others

MUSLIM CONTIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE AND TECHONOLOGY

From the early days of Islam, Muslims all over the world in general, and the Arabs in particular,
travelled through valleys, hills, rivers and oceans. They crossed forests and deserts for different
causes. Others were students, preachers, others for Jihad, Hajj, explores and travelers.2

In the course of their journeys they collected information on social, political, historical,
geographical, economic, agricultural and other conditions of the lands they visited. In the process
of collecting such information, sciences such as history and geography were developed.3

Although there were no proper roads and means of transportation, yet Muslims travelled
extensively through all kinds of environment.

Through the pre-Islamic and post-Islamic history, 4 there is some information that proves, Arabs
had some physical or experimental sciences which, they gathered from their observation on
animals like horses, camels and sheep, and on the plants of their vast desert.

CALIPHS

1
Collected Ibnu Majah 1/97

2
Al-Masoud who visited East Coast of Africa in the 10 th Centuries and Ibnu Batuta who visited the same area in 11 th
Centuries.

3
Thus, you find a person like Al-Edrisy was the first scholar to draw the world map that was used by the Portuguese
to attack the East African City states and reached India.

4
For example the doctor who treated Sayyidna Umar when he was stabbed by Abu Lulu

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After the death of Prophet Muhammad (saw) in 632 AD, Muslims were ruled by caliphs. As
Islam spread, the caliphs had great political as well as spiritual authority. In the reign of the
fourth caliph, from 656 to 661, two rival traditions of Islam emerged: the Sunni and the Shi’a.
This division meant it was no longer possible for the whole Islamic world to be ruled by a single
caliph.

THE UMAYYADS AND THE ABBASIDS

The Umayyads and Abbasids were dynasties of caliphs. From 661, Islam was ruled by the
Umayyads, based in Damascus (in Syria). In 750, a new dynasty, the Abbasid, seized power,
although a branch of the Umayyad continued to rule Muslim Spain. The Abbasid caliphs were
based at Baghdad, which became the prosperous center of a huge trading empire and the artistic
capital of the Muslim world. Muslim armies conquered southern Spain in 711. They called it Al
Andalus, and it became the richest country in Europe. The Muslims, or Moors as they are
sometimes called, brought new crops, such as oranges, almonds, and cotton, and new technology,
such as water wheels. In 1492, Granada, which was the last surviving Islamic kingdom in Spain,
fell to Christian rulers.

Islamic culture is a term primarily used in secular academia to describe the cultural practices
common to historically Islamic peoples. The early forms of Muslim culture were predominantly
Arab. With the rapid expansion of the Islamic empires, Muslim culture has influenced and
assimilated much from the Persian, Bangladeshi, Turkic, Pakistani, Mongol, Chinese, Indian,
Malay, Somali, Berber, Egyptian, Indonesian, Filipino, Greek-Roman Byzantine, Spanish,
Sicilian, Balkanic and Western[citation needed] cultures.

Terminological use
Islamic culture is itself a contentious term. Muslims live in many different countries and
communities, and it can be difficult to isolate points of cultural unity among Muslims, besides
their adherence to the religion of Islam. Anthropologists and historians nevertheless study Islam
as an aspect of, and influence on, culture in the regions where the religion is predominant.

The noted historian of Islam, Marshall Hodgson, noted the above difficulty of religious versus
secular academic usage of the words "Islamic" and "Muslim" in his three-volume work, The
Venture Of Islam. He proposed to resolve it by only using these terms for purely religious
phenomena, and invented the term "Islamicate" to denote all cultural aspects of historically
Muslim people. However, his distinction has not been widely adopted, and confusion remains in
common usage of these article

Religious practices and beliefs in Islam

Language and literature
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See also: Islamic literature

Arabic

See also: Arabic literature

Early Muslim literature is in Arabic, as that was the language of the Islamic prophet
Muhammad's communities in Mecca and Medina. As the early history of the Muslim community
was focused on establishing the religion of Islam, its literary output was religious in character.
See the articles on Qur'an, Hadith, and Sirah, which formed the earliest literature of the Muslim
community.

With the establishment of the Umayyad empire. secular Muslim literature developed. See The
Book of One Thousand and One Nights. While having no religious content, this secular literature
was spread by the Arabs all over their empires, and so became part of a widespread culture.

Persian

See also: Persian literature

By the time of the Abbasid Empire, Persian had become one of the main languages of Islamic
Golden Age, Muslim civilization, and much of the most famous Muslim literature is thus.

Tabatabaee-ha House, Kashan Iran

Indo-Islamic

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The Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, Pakistan is one of the few classical examples of Mughal design and
architecture in South Asia.

See also: Bengali literature and Urdu literature. In Bengal, the Baul tradition of mystic music and poetry
merged Sufism with many local images.[citation needed] The most prominent poets were Hason Raja and Lalon
Shah.

During the early 20th century, the liberal poet Kazi Nazrul Islam espoused intense spiritual
rebellion against oppression, fascism and religious fundamentalism; and also wrote a highly
acclaimed collection of Bengali ghazals. Sultana's Dream by Begum Rokeya, an Islamic
feminist, is one earliest works of feminist science fiction.

Modern

In modern times, classification of writers by language is increasingly irrelevant. The Egyptian

Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz has been translated into English and read across the world.
Other writers, such as Orhan Pamuk, write directly in English for a wider international audience.

Theatre

The Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman. It is considered to be the first opera house linking Islamic
culture with classical music.[2]

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The Indonesian puppet of Amir Hamzah, in Wayang theatre.

In the performing arts, the most popular skittle of theatre in the medieval Islamic world were
puppet theatre (which included hand puppets, shadow plays and marionette productions) and live
passion plays known as ta'ziya, where actors re-enact episodes from Muslim history. In
particular, Shia Islamic plays revolved around the shaheed (martyrdom) of Ali's sons Hasan ibn
Ali and Husayn ibn Ali. Live secular plays were known as akhraja, recorded in medieval adab
literature, though they were less common than puppetry and ta'zieh theatre.[3]

One of the oldest, and most enduring, forms of puppet theatre is the Wayang of Indonesia.
Although it narrates primarily pre-Islamic legends, it is also an important stage for Islamic epics
such as the adventures of Amir Hamzah (pictured). Islamic Wayang is known as Wayang Sadat
or Wayang Menak.

Karagoz, the Turkish Shadow Theatre has influenced puppetry widely in the region. It is thought
to have passed from China by way of India. Later it was taken by the Mongols from the Chinese
and transmitted to the Turkish peoples of Central Asia. Thus the art of Shadow Theater was
brought to Anatolia by the Turkish people emigrating from Central Asia. Other scholars claim
that shadow theater came to Anatolia in the 16th century from Egypt. The advocates of this view
claim that when Yavuz Sultan Selim conquered Egypt in 1517, he saw shadow theatre performed
during an extacy party put on in his honour. Yavuz Sultan Selim was so impressed with it that he
took the puppeteer back to his palace in Istanbul. There his 21 year old son, later Sultan
Suleyman the Magnificent, developed an interest in the plays and watched them a great deal.
Thus shadow theatre found its way into the Ottoman palaces.[4]

In other areas the style of shadow puppetry known as khayal al-zill – an intentionally
metaphorical term whose meaning is best translated as ‘shadows of the imagination’ or ‘shadow
of fancy' survives. This is a shadow play with live music ..”the accompaniment of drums,
tambourines and flutes...also...“special effects” – smoke, fire, thunder, rattles, squeaks, thumps,
and whatever else might elicit a laugh or a shudder from his audience”[5]

In Iran puppets are known to have existed much earlier than 1000 CE, but initially only glove
and string puppets were popular in Iran.[6] Other genres of puppetry emerged during the Qajar era
(18th-19th century BCE) as influences from Turkey spread to the region. Kheimeh Shab-Bazi is a
Persian traditional puppet show which is performed in a small chamber by a musical performer
and a storyteller called a morshed or naghal. These shows often take place alongside storytelling
in traditional tea and coffee-houses (Ghahve-Khave). The dialogue takes place between the
morshed and the puppets.[7] Puppetry remains very popular in Iran, the touring opera Rostam and
Sohrab puppet opera being a recent example.[8]

Festivals
See articles on Eid ul-Fitr, Eid ul-Adha, Ashurah (see also Hosay and Tabuik), Mawlid, Lailat al
Miraj and Shab-e-baraat.

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Marriage
Main article: Islamic marriage

Marriage in Islam is considered to be of the utmost importance. The final Prophet of Islam,
Muhammad, stated that "marriage is half of religion"; [citation needed] there are numerous hadiths
lauding the importance of marriage and family.[citation needed]

In Islam, marriage is a legal bond and social contract between a man and a woman as prompted
by the Shari'a.

Art
See also: Islamic art

"Wayang Kulit", the Indonesian art of shadow puppetry, reflects a melding of indigenous and Islamic
sensibilities.

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"Advice of the Ascetic", a 16th-century Persian miniature housed in Tehran's Golestan Palace.

Islamic art, a part of the Islamic studies, has throughout history been mainly abstract and
decorative, portraying geometric, floral, Arabesque, and calligraphic designs. Unlike the strong
tradition of portraying the human figure in Christian art, Islamic art often does not include
depictions of living things, including human beings.

Islamic art is centered usually around Allah, and since Allah cannot be represented by imagery
["All you believe him to be, he is not"], geometric patterns are used. The patterns are similar to
the Arabesque style, which also involves repeating geometric designs, but is not necessarily used
to express ideals of order and nature.

Calligraphy

Main article: Islamic calligraphy

Forbidden to paint living things and taught to revere the Qur'an, Islamic artists developed Arabic
calligraphy into an art form. Calligraphers have long drawn from the Qur'an or proverbs as art,
using the flowing Arabic language to express the beauty they perceive in the verses of Qur'an.

Martial arts
Muslim Chinese martial arts
 Silat
 Pahlavani

 Yağlı güreş

 Kurash

 Pehlwani

Architecture
Main article: Islamic architecture

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The Great Mosque of Kairouan also called the Mosque of Uqba is at the same time the oldest mosque in
North Africa (founded in 670 and still used as a place of worship) and one of the most important
monuments of Islamic civilization,[9][10] situated in Kairouan, Tunisia.

The fortress-palace of Alhambra, a testament to the height of Islamic civilization in Europe, is one of
Spain's most popular tourist attractions

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Northeast entrance to Dehli's Jama Masjid.

Istanbul's Sultan Ahmed Mosque was completed in 1616.

Elements of Islamic style

Islamic architecture may be identified with the following design elements, which were inherited
from the first mosque built by Muhammad in Medina, as well as from other pre-Islamic features
adapted from churches and synagogues.

Large courtyards often merged with a central prayer hall (originally a feature of the Masjid al-
Nabawi).

Minarets or towers (which were originally used as torch-lit watchtowers for example in the Great
Mosque of Damascus; hence the derivation of the word from the Arabic nur, meaning "light").
The oldest standing minaret in the world is the minaret of the Great Mosque of Kairouan (in
Tunisia);[11][12] erected between the 8th and the 9th century, it is a majestic square tower
consisting of three superimposed tiers of gradual size and decor. [13]

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
A mihrab or niche on an inside wall indicating the direction to Mecca. This may have been
derived from previous uses of niches for the setting of the torah scrolls in Jewish synagogues or
Mehrab (Persian: ‫ )ممهِببراب‬of Persian Mitraism culture or the haikal[disambiguation needed] of Coptic
churches.

Domes (the earliest Islamic use of which was in the eighth-century mosque of Medina).

Use of iwans to intermediate between different sections.

Use of geometric shapes and repetitive art (arabesque).

Use of decorative Arabic calligraphy.

Use of symmetry.

Ablution fountains.

Use of bright color.

Focus on the interior space of a building rather than the exterior.

Interpretation

Common interpretations of Islamic architecture include the following:

 The concept of Allah's infinite power is evoked by designs with repeating themes which suggest
infinity.
 Human and animal forms are rarely depicted in decorative art as Allah's work is matchless.
Foliage is a frequent motif but typically stylized or simplified for the same reason.

 Calligraphy is used to enhance the interior of a building by providing quotations from the Qur'an.

 Islamic architecture has been called the "architecture of the veil" because the beauty lies in the
inner spaces (courtyards and rooms) which are not visible from the outside (street view).

 Use of impressive forms such as large domes, towering minarets, and large courtyards are
intended to convey power.

Music
Main article: Muslim music, There is no Islamic Music what we have is Muslim Music. In Islam Music is
prohibited. Although, many Muslims are very familiar to listening to music. Some people refer to Islamic
music is Muslim religious music, as sung or played in public services or private devotions. The classic
heartland of Islam is Arabia and the Middle East, North Africa and Egypt, Iran, Central Asia, and northern
India and Pakistan. Because Islam is a multicultural religion, the musical expression of its adherents is
diverse. The indigenous musical styles of these areas have shaped the devotional music enjoyed by
contemporary Muslims:

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 Arab classical music

 Religious music in Iran

 Hindustani classical music

 Qawwali music

The Seljuk Turks, a nomadic tribe that converted to Islam, conquered Anatolia (now Turkey),
and held the Caliphate as the Ottoman Empire, also had a strong influence on Islamic music. See:

 Turkish classical music.

Sub-Saharan Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the southern Philippines also have large Muslim
populations, but these areas have had less influence than the heartland on the various traditions
of Islamic music.

South India: Mappila Songs, Duff Muttu

All these regions were connected by trade long before the Islamic conquests of the 600s and
later, and it is likely that musical styles traveled the same routes as trade goods. However,
lacking recordings, we can only speculate as to the pre-Islamic music of these areas. Islam must
have had a great influence on music, as it united vast areas under the first caliphs, and facilitated
trade between distant lands. Certainly the Sufis, brotherhoods of Muslim mystics, spread their
music far and wide.

Notes and referencesEdit

1. Minds unmade; A new survey of global Muslim opinion. Don’t expect consistency May,
2013 The Economist
2. [1][dead link]

3. Moreh, Shmuel (1986), "Live Theatre in Medieval Islam", in David Ayalon, Moshe Sharon,
Studies in Islamic History and Civilization, Brill Publishers, pp. 565–601, ISBN 965-264-014-X

4. Tradition Folk The Site by Hayali Mustafa Mutlu

5. Article Saudi Aramco World 1999/John Feeney

6. The History of Theatre in Iran: Willem Floor:ISBN 0-934211-29-9: Mage 2005

7. Mehr News Agency 7.7.07 http://www.mehrnews

8. Iran Daily 1.3.06 http://www.iran-daily.com

9. "Hans Kung, ''Tracing the Way : Spiritual Dimensions of the World Religions'', Continuum
International Publishing Group, 2006, page 248". Books.google.com. Retrieved 2014-03-16.

10. "Kairouan Capital of Political Power and Learning in the Ifriqiya". Muslim Heritage.
Retrieved 2014-03-16.

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11. "Titus Burckhardt, ''Art of Islam, Language and Meaning : Commemorative Edition''.
World Wisdom. 2009. p. 128". Books.google.fr. Retrieved 2014-03-16.

12. "Linda Kay Davidson and David Martin Gitlitz, ''Pilgrimage: from the Ganges to
Graceland : an encyclopedia'', Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. 2002. p. 302". Books.google.fr. Retrieved
2014-03-16.

13. Al-Quairawan Mosque (Muslim heritage.com)[dead link]

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