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Islam:
A Mosaic, Not a Monolith
President's
Essay From the 2001 Annual Report
by Vartan Gregorian
Although
more than a year has passed since the attacks of September 11, 2001,
most Americans still have such a sketchy knowledge of Islam that
we probably need to keep ourselves focused on President George W.
Bushs repeated reminders that terrorists, not Muslims or Arabs,
are the enemy. That reasoned message, however, is often drowned
out by noisy ones from some Muslim clerics who call America the
Great Satan and some political theorists who interpret
the war cries of some militant Islamists as the start of a clash
of civilizations.1 Provocative
messages always gain a disproportionate amount of public attention,
but they must be carefully considered and put in context, especially
in the aftermath of September 11.
It
will surprise many Americans that Islam is the worlds and
Americas fastest-growing religion. It continues to grow at
a rate faster than that of the worlds population. If current
trends continue, according to some estimates, it will have more
adherents by the year 2023 than any other.
Most
Americans tend to think of Islam as exclusively a religion of Arabs.
But Muslims are as diverse as humanity itself, representing one
in five people in the world. Only 15 percent of the worlds
1.2 billion Muslims are Arabs, while nearly one in three Muslims
lives on the Indian subcontinent. The largest Muslim nation is Indonesia,
with 160 million Muslims among its 200 million people. Muslims represent
the majority population in more than 50 nations, and they also constitute
important minorities in many other countries. Muslims comprise at
least 10 percent of the Russian Federations population, 3
percent of Chinas population and 3 to 4 percent of Europes
population. Islam is the second largest religion in France and the
third largest in both Germany and Great Britain. Although estimates
vary widely, Muslims represent 1 or 2 percent of the United States
population, and some say there are more Muslims than Jews or Episcopalians
in America. Religious, cultural and population centers for Muslims,
then, are no longer limited to such places as Mecca, Cairo, Baghdad,
Teheran, Islamabad, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Fez and Damascusthey
also include Paris, Berlin, London and now New York, Detroit, Los
Angeles and Washington, D.C.2
Many
Americans do not know that there are Christian Arabs as well as
Muslim Arabs. Indeed, some of the oldest Christian churchesincluding
the Coptic Orthodox, Jacobite and Maronite churchesrose, functioned,
and still do, in Arab countries.
Given
Americas role as a magnet for immigrants, it is not surprising
that the United States is one of the best reflections of Muslim
diversity. It is of the greatest interest and significance
that the Muslim umma, or community, of North America is as
nearly a microcosm of the global umma as has ever occurred since
Islam became a major religion, writes Lawrence H. Mamiya.3
American Muslims bring a rich ethnic heritage from South Asian countries
such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan; Southeast Asian
countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines; all Arab
nations, Iran and Turkey. American Muslims also add their African,
Caribbean and European heritage to the nations mix.4
With
the United States currently being the worlds sole military
and economic superpower, I believe that we as a society have a responsibilityfor
our own sake as well as for othersto know the complex
nature of the world, its incredibly rich variety of races, nations,
tribes, languages, economies, cultures and religions. Today, of
course, Islam has become one of the major topics of discussion and
controversy in the United States and elsewhere. Yet there is a disconnection
between our passions about Islam and our knowledge of it.
It
has become essential for us to understand Islam as a religion, its
unity, diversity and cultureand to appreciate the legacy of
Islamic civilizations, their role in the development of modern civilizations,
the roles of Muslim nations and the challenges they face, and their
future place and role in the world. Of course, this is much easier
said than done, especially because in America today there is unfortunately
no deep national commitment to history and heritagenot our
own, and certainly not that of the world at large.
A
Survey of Islam
To
understand Islam, one has to appreciate the central role of Prophet
Muhammad ibn Abdallah (570632) in the formation and propagation
of Islam as a religion. Muhammad was an Arab merchant, respected
and wealthy, who belonged to the Qureish tribe in Mecca, then a
great trading and religious center of pagan Arabia. His father had
died before his birth, and his mother died in his early childhood.
He was brought up by his grandfather and, after his death, by his
uncle, Abu Talib, whose son Ali ibn Abi Talib became the Prophets
first disciple and later his son-in-law.
Muslims
believe that Muhammad, following Gods instructions through
the Archangel Gabriel, called humanity to a faith acknowledging
Allah. Contrary to what many believe, Allah was not a new
god, but simply the Arabic word for Godthe God of Abraham,
Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. According to Muslim tradition, the Prophet
Muhammad brought a message of continuity with Judaism and Christianity
to the polytheistic tribes of Arabia. His message was an uncompromising,
non-idolatrous monotheism. The faith was Islam, the Arabic verb
meaning surrender or submission, as in surrendering
to Gods will. (Quran: With God, the religion is
Islam and It is a cult of your father, Abraham. He was
the one who named you Muslims.)5
Muslim is the active participle of the verb islam, meaning
I surrender.
In
622, having challenged the polytheist practices in Mecca, Muhammad
fled for safety to Yatrib, subsequently named Medina, the City of
the Prophet. This event, called the Hijra, marks the start
of the Islamic era and of the Islamic calendar2002 a.d. is
1423 a.h. or Anno Hegirae, the Year of the Hijra.I
Islam,
like Judaism and Christianity, is a prophetic religion. It, too,
emphasizes Gods relationship to humanity and reveals Gods
will through the medium of prophetswith warnings of punishment
that will befall those who reject the divine message or are guilty
of the cardinal sin of idolatry. (The Quran: Say ye:
we believe in Allah, and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham,
Ismail, Isaac, Jacob, and all the tribes. And, to that given to
Moses and Jesus, and that given to [all] prophets from their Lord.
We make no difference between one and another of them.)6
Muslims
believe that the Prophet Muhammad received divine revelations from
610, starting in the ninth lunar month, Ramadan, until his
death in 632 and that these oracles were transcribed during his
lifetime and, within subsequent decades, were officially collected
in the Quran, from the Arabic verb qaraa,
meaning to recite, read or transmit. The Quran, which Muslims
consider to be a supernatural text, has 114 chapters, suras,
of varying lengths, from 3 to 286 lines, and they are arranged not
in chronological or narrative order, but rather by their length,
with the longest chapter near the beginning and the shortest chapter
last.7 Many non-Muslims will be surprised,
on reading the Quran, to see the numerous references to biblical
stories and figures. Writing about the universality of the Quran,
the scholar Mohamed Talbi refers to a saying attributed to the Prophet
Muhammad that the Quran is Gods Banquet,
to which everyone is invited, but not obligated to attendpeople
should come to him out of love, not compulsion.II Muslims consider
the Quran to be the revealed and eternal Word of God and believe
that the Quran completes and perfects the revelations
given to earlier prophets, including Moses and Jesus. Muslims maintain
that Muhammad was the greatest prophet and that he was the last
one.
Muslims
also believe that since God spoke to Muhammad through the Archangel
Gabriel in Arabic, translations of the Quran are hence considered
to be mere interpretations. Even though the vast majority
of Muslims do not understand Arabic, only the original Arabic is
used in Muslim prayers in the belief that the faithful can experience
the presence of God by reading the Quran aloud. Some of the
oldest surviving copies of the Quran apparently date from
the start of the eighth century, but more than a thousand years
passed before questions of spelling, structure of the text and rules
for reading were finally formalized with its publication in Cairo
between 1919 and 1928.8
The
fundamental principles of Islam are Towhid, unity of God;
Nowbowat, belief in the prophetic mission of Muhammad; and
Maad, belief in the day of judgment and resurrection.
In addition, Islam has five cardinal tenets, called the Pillars
of Faith, which all Muslims must observe. They must:
- bear
witness, Shihada, that there is no God but God, and
Muhammad is his Prophet.
- pray
five times a day as a regular reminder of their commitment to
Islam. To symbolize the unity of the faithful, the earliest Muslims
oriented their prayers toward Jerusalem and, later on, toward
Mecca. Muslims must prostrate themselves in prayer, repeatedly
touching their foreheads to the ground, to dispel arrogance and
promote humility.
- give
a portion of their income as tax, zakat, and one-fifth of their
income, khoums, to the poor. The zakat, meaning purification,
is based on the concept that a society cannot be pure as long
as there is hunger and misery.
- fast
during the day for the whole month of Ramadan to experience hungerthat
most visceral suffering of the poor.
- make
at least one pilgrimage to Mecca, if physically and financially
able.
In
addition to the Quran and its Five Pillars, the study of Prophet
Muhammads life, known as the sunna, became a part of
the Islamic faith, law and theology. This occurred because Muhammad
was considered to be the Perfect Man, and though he was not deemed
divine, his life eventually became a source of inspiration and a
guide to practicing Muslims. By imitating the smallest details
of his external life and by reproducing the way he ate, washed,
loved, spoke and prayed, Muslims hoped to be able to acquire his
interior attitude of perfect surrender to God, writes Karen
Armstrong.9
The
sunna, the oral history of the Prophet, is the second most important
source of Islamic law, after the Quran. The third source is
the hadith, which consists of thousands of references to
Prophet Muhammads sayings and teachings that are documented
through a reconstructed, uninterrupted chain of people, traced to
his immediate family and entourage. The entire body of Islamic law
is called the Sharia, or the straight path to God. The
Sharia has five main sources: the Quran, the sunna, the hadith,
legal analogies based on the Quran and the hadith, and legal
decisions that arise from consensus, in the belief that God would
not allow the whole community to go astray.10(Some
strict schools of Islamic law do not accord the latter two sources
or even the hadith much weight.)
The
Quran singles out Jews and Christians as People of the
Book and sets them apart from non-believers. After all, Jews
and Christians, like Muslims, worshiped the transcendent God of
Abraham. But the Book mentioned is not the Bible; it
refers to a heavenly text, written by God, of which the Quran,
according to Muslims, is the only perfect manifestation.11
As
in Judaism and Christianity, Abraham, Ibrahim, occupies a
central place in Islam. Abraham is at the root of all three religions:
just as Jews trace their lineage to Abraham and his wife, Sarah,
through their son, Isaac, the Arabs trace their genealogy to Abraham
and HagarSarahs Egyptian maidthrough their son,
Ishmael.12 In the Quran, Abraham
is recognized as the first Muslim because he surrendered to God
rather than accept the idolatrous religion of his parents. There
are more than 60 references to Abraham in the Quran, and he
is called Hanif, a True Monotheist, Khalil,
a Friend of God, and even Umma, Muslim community,
for initially he was the entire faith community. In every Muslim
prayer, Ibrahim is mentioned.13 Muslims
believe that it was Abraham and Ishmael, Ismail, who rebuilt Islams
holiest shrine in Meccathe Kaaba, believed to be the
oldest monotheistic temple, which some Muslim traditions trace to
Adam. The cube-shaped Kaaba is made of stone and marble, and its
interior contains pillars and silver and gold lamps; it is entered
only twice a year for a ritual cleansing ceremony.14
Moses
is also considered to be a great prophet. His confrontation with
the Egyptian pharaoh, his miracles in the desert and his ascension
to the mountain to receive Gods commandments are all acknowledged
in the Quran.15
For
Muslims, Jesus, Isa, is a great prophet and messenger of Godthe
promised Messiah who brought the Word of God and Spirit from
Him. Jesus is considered the son of the sinless
Virgin Mary, Maryam, who is mentioned more often in the Quran
than in the Bible.16 Muslims believe
that Jesus preached the Word of God and worked miracles; but like
Jews, Muslims reject the Christian concept of Jesus as the divine
son of God. Muslims consider that blasphemy, for they believe there
is only one divinity, God. The crucifixion of Christ is mentioned
in passing only, and the Quran states that Jesus did not die,
but was rescued by God and taken to heaven.17
In the end, Jesus and other prophets will descend to be at the final
judgment. Muslims also believe that Jesus true message had
to have been distorted by his followers and that the Prophet Muhammad
was sent to bring the definitive message of God.18
Of
course, there are many important similarities and differences among
the religions. To mention just a few more: Jews dont accept
the New Testament, but Muslims do. The miracles of Jesus, his virgin
birth and his second coming are accepted in Islam, but not in Judaism.
Both Judaism and Islam put great importance on living according
to a system of lawfor Jews, the law is the Halakhah; for Muslims
it is the Sharia.19 In Christianity,
which has the concept of original sin, humans are born as sinners;
but in both Judaism and Islam, sin is not present at birth and accrues
only through sinful activity. Both Judaism and Islam share similar
dietary restrictions, including bans on eating pork or blood, though
the Islamic rules are generally less restrictive than Judaisms.20
And, as with Christian and Jewish children, Muslim children are
freely given biblical names: Solomons and Sulaimans, Sarahs and
Sirahs, Josephs and Yusufs, Marys and Maryams, Jesuses and Isas,
Johns and Yahyas, and Davids and Davuds, to cite a few.
The
Phenomenal Spread of Islam
The
early spread of Islam is one of the most dramatic chapters in all
history. By 632, when Islam was only decades old and just solidifying
into a religion, almost all the tribes of Arabia had converted to
Islam or joined Prophet Muhammads confederacy. Within less
than a century of Islams birth, the Muslim community had grown
by conquest into one of the largest empiresone that lasted
longer and, indeed, was bigger than the Roman Empire.III
By 712, Muslim conquests extended from the Pyrenees to the Himalayas,21
from the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Indus Valley and Central
Asia in the east. 22 Muslims advanced
into Europe until stopped in 732 by Charles Martel, king of the
Franks, in the Battle of Poitiers in western France.23
Historians
point out that Islam arose at the right time and place. In the sixth
and early seventh centuries, a power vacuum emerged after protracted
wars between the Persian and Byzantine empires had weakened both.
As Muslims conquered Palestine, Syria, Egypt and Armenia, they promoted
conversion to Islam in several ways. They gave polytheists the option
of conversion or death (the Quran: Slay the polytheists
wherever you find them. But if they repent, and perform the prayer,
and pay the alms, then let them go their way; God is all-forgiving,
all-compassionate).24 Jews and
Christians were not required to become Muslims; however, if they
did not convert, they were tolerated as subjects but not given equality
and were required to pay a burdensome tax, jizya, ostensibly
to pay for Muslim protection. There were also voluntary conversions
not only for religious reasons, but also for the practical reasons
of securing social and economic advantages in an Islamic society.
For many converts, Islam might have had a comforting familiarity,
embracing as it did monotheism and biblical messages that Judaism
and Christianity had spread for many centuries before Muhammad began
preaching around 610. St. John of Damascus, who first chronicled
Islam in the eighth century, regarded Islam not as a new religion,
but as a branch of Christianity.25
Historians
emphasize that Islam also spread rapidly because of its extraordinary
acceptance of diversity from the beginningreminding us that
Islam grew organically and not as an inflexible religion. In some
conquered lands of the Byzantine empire, we know that the inhabitants
had been persecuted, sometimes oppressed and heavily taxed by Christian
rulers, and some minorities naturally welcomed the new Muslim rulers
with their relatively tolerant religious policies. Islam also appeared
to be far more accommodating than Christianity to other culturesso
accommodating, in fact, that apart from the Five Pillars, the practice
of Islam varied enormously from place to place and often included
practices and beliefs that were not consistent with the Quran.IV
The rich legacy of Islamic civilizations, historians argue, is due
in part to its exceptional absorptive quality and relative tolerance
for different cultures and ethnic traditions of civilizations from
southern Europe to Central Asia.
Early
Divisions in Islam
Unlike
Christians, who consider the Church to be the mystical body of Christ,
Islam did not sustain a centralized organization. Instead, Prophet
Muhammads khulafah, Caliphs or successors, provided
leadership, but succession disputes frequently arose and dividedand
redividedthe faithful. Religious authority became increasingly
dispersed among the ulama, scholars and clerics, in numerous
Islamic denominations spread throughout Muslim realms.
The
debate over succession began immediately after Prophet Muhammads
death, for he had left no indisputable instructions about the rules
of succession or whether spiritual leaders were political leaders
as well. Since Muhammad did not have a son, one faction wanted the
Caliph to be elected from the ranks of respected leaders in the
umma, the Muslim community. A rival group contended that the leadership
should be confined to the Prophets immediate family and descendants.
His closest surviving male relative was Ali ibn Abi Talib, who was
both a cousin and the husband of his daughter, Fatima, as well as
the father of two of Muhammads grandchildren, Hasan and Husayn.26
We
know from history that, in this instance, election won out over
heredity. But before the century was over, much Muslim blood was
to be spilled in civil wars tied to the widening rifts over succession
and legitimacy. Muhammads first successor was Abu Bakr, a
compromise candidate because he was an honored leader as well as
one of Muhammads fathers-in-law. Abu Bakr was the first of
the four Rightly Guided Caliphs, as the first leaders
are known. All four had been close companions of the Prophet and
were considered authoritative sources of information about the Prophets
life and teachings.27 Abu Bakr died
a natural death, but the next three Rightly Guided Caliphs were
all assassinated: Umar ibn al-Khattab in 644; Uthman ibn Affan in
656; and Ali ibn Abi Talib, Muhammads son-in-law, in 661.
These assassinations sparked violent conflicts or outright wars.
Indeed,
the theological and political consequences of these struggles over
succession were far-reaching. After Alis assassination, Shiat
Ali, the Party of Ali, created its own Shii branch of
Islam. Initially, the break was over the succession dispute, with
the Shii favoring a succession based on blood ties to the Prophet.
Muslims who favored an elective system came to be known as Sunni,
taking their name from sunna, which in this context refers to the
customs, actions and sayings attributed to the Prophet and the first
four Caliphs.28 (Otherwise, sunna refers
only to the Prophets sayings and deeds.)29
Early divisions in Islam ultimately resulted in scores of Muslim
denominations.30
But
calling this break a dispute over succession does not nearly tell
the whole story. In his recent book, Khalid Durán notes,
The conflict between Sunnism and Shiism resembles that
between Judaism and Christianity. Just as Christians have held Jews
responsible for the killing of Christ, Shiis hold Sunnis responsible
for the killing of Alî and his sons, Hasan and [Husayn].
Âshûrâ, for example, is a religious
holiday for both Shii and Sunni, but while the Shii mourn the anniversary
of Husayns assassination, the Sunni have joyful celebrations
commemorating Gods mercy in delivering the Israelites from
Egyptian bondagePassover in Judaism.31
Islam
also developed a mystical component, called Sufism, that
drew followersas well as fierce and sometimes violent adversariesfrom
both Shii and Sunni Muslims. Sufism is named after the coarse shirts
of wool, souf, worn by early ascetics who were reformers and, according
to some mainstream Muslims, heretics.32
Even
a thumbnail sketch of each of the three main Muslim denominations
conveys a sense of Islams complexity as a religion:
Sunni
Muslims
The
Sunni represent the overwhelming majority of Muslims, but Sunni
doctrine has long been a source of dispute. In the eighth and ninth
centuries, there was a major theological conflict among the Sunni
that has echoed throughout Islamic history. On one side, some schools
of theology were led by Mutazilite scholars in Basra
and Baghdad. They used rational proofs for God and the universe,
as they sought to harmonize reason with Muslim scriptures, proclaimingblasphemously,
to somethat the Quran was man-made and was not an eternal
truth revealed by God.V The Mutazilite
scholars called for a rational theology, arguing that God has a
rational nature and that moral laws and free will were part of the
unchangeable essence of reason. The movement was the result of the
encounter of Islam with earlier civilizationsPersian and Greco-Romanand
especially with the traditions of Greek philosophy.
A few
early Caliphs tried to enforce this rational approach as the exclusive
interpretation of Islam. Had they been successful, they would also
have solidified their authority not only as political leaders, but
also as the final arbiters of religious law. But in 848, after several
decades of Mutazilism being the Caliphates official
doctrine, Caliph al-Mutawakkil succumbed to widespread opposition
from the ulama, the religious establishment. As the Caliphate saw
its religious authority chipped away, the Caliphs claim to
rule as successors of the Prophet came under increasing attack from
the ulama. The resulting loss of a central religious authority meant
that, for Sunni Muslims, there would be many interpreters within
the ulama at many theological centers in many regions.
Shii
Muslims
Shii
believe that Ali, the Prophets son-in-law, was divinely inspired
and infallible in his interpretations of the Quran and the
Prophets teachings and that only his descendants possessed
the sacred blood ties and religious knowledge to qualify as Imams,
the Shiis exemplary leaders.
Hence,
according to Shii theology, called Imami, the line of succession
passed through Ali and Fatima; and the Imam could be any male descendant
of their sons, Hasan and Husayn. Difficulties arose after Ali and
Fatimas elder son, Hasan, died in 669, and their second son,
Husayn, along with relatives and friends, was assassinated in 680
in the Battle of Karbala, after challenging the authority of Caliph
Yazid ibn Muawiyyah to rule and asserting his right to the Prophets
succession. Alis third son (with another wife), Hanafiyya,
died in 700. Shii sects developed around each son, the Hanafids,
the Husaynids and the Hasanids. Other denominations
also emerged around other branches of the Prophets clan.
Succession
disputes were intensified when there was more than one male descendant;
in one instance, Muhammad al-Baqir, the fifth Imam, denied his brothers
claim to be Imam by asserting that he, like prior Imams, had a mystical
ability to interpret the Quran and had also been anointed
by his father. His brother, Zayd ibn Ali, challenged that view and
developed his own following.33 The
Zaydis are one of three major Shii sects:
The
Zaydis. They believed that the Imam could be any male descendant
of Ali and Fatimas sons, Hasan and Husayn. The Imam was also
expected to be a learned man, namely an expert in Islamic law, as
well as an able warrior. But unlike some other sects, they did not
believe the Imam was infallible. More than one Imam can be present,
in different territories, and an Imam can be deposed if deemed sinful.
During times when there was no Imamas is the case now in Yemen,
where most Zaydis livespiritual leadership was vested in Zaydi
scholars until a new Imam arrived.
The
Ismailis. In the eighth century, there was a Shii conflict over
which son of Imam Jafar al-Sadiq should succeed him: Ismail
ibn Jafar or his younger brother, Musa al-Kazim. Each brother
developed his own following. Ismails followersIsmailisrevere
him as the last of Ali and Fatimas descendants. The Ismailis,
unlike the Zaydis, consider the Imam infallible. Another major succession
dispute, also between two brothers, arose in the 11th century and
split the Ismailis into two major denominationsone led today
by the Aga Khan and another denomination known as the Buhura Ismailis.34
Many smaller Ismaili sects appeared as well.VI

The
Twelvers. While the Ismailis followed Ismail ibn Jafar
and his descendants, the Twelver Shii followed the lineage of his
brother, Musa al-Kazim. The Twelver Shii had many conflicts with
Sunni Muslims, who kept several of the Twelver Imams under house
arrest. Many Imams were apparently poisoned as well, including the
11th Imam. The 12th Imam, a young boy, disappeared in 874. Followers
of the 12th Imamhence, Twelversbelieve that God rescued
him, that he was occluded, taken up, and that he will
return as a messiah to restore peace and justice in the world. Until
he returns, political and religious authority are exercised, fallibly,
by the clergy; in order of rising rank, they include mujtahids,
hujjatu-l-islam, ayatullah, ayatullah uzma and, the highest
rank, marja-e-taqlîd, the one who sets the norms
to be followed. Ayatullah, meaning sign of God, is used
only among Shii in Iran; it first appeared in the 18th century,
invented by a king who, like monarchs everywhere then, coined and
sold titles, including ayatullah.35
(Ayatullah Uzma Ruhollah Khomeini, who led the 1979 revolution
in Iran, was often called Imam. This was an innovation
because, unlike in Sunni Islam, in Twelver Shii Islam the term Imam
refers only to the twelve Imams. Ayatullah Khomeini stressed the
point that he was imam only in the sense of prayer leader and spiritual
guide and nothing more.)36
The
Shii, and especially the Twelvers, have developed a vast and complex
religious hierarchy that may be comparable, in some ways, to the
structure of Christian churches. In this regard, the Shii are also
very different from the Sunni, who, somewhat inconsistently, have
many religious leaders but no religious hierarchy of such complexity;
they consider Islam to be a decentralized religion.37
Indeed, it is this decentralization that gives rise to persistent
questions about who has authority to speak for Islam.
Twelvers
believed that religious principles could be found through use of
God-given reason, though these principles could not contradict the
Quran or sayings of the Prophet or the twelve Imamsfor
these sacred texts were believed to contain all the rules of reason.
The Twelver legal school was developed by Imam Jafar al-Sadiq,
the sixth Imamhence the name Jafari for the law
school. The Jafari accorded equal weight to the behavior and
sayings of the infallible Imams and to those of the Prophet. In
addition, other ulama advocated varying levels of independent reason
as acceptable in applying the hadith and Quran to issues of
the day. On one side, the Usulis felt free to use analogies
and rationality in interpreting the sacred texts; at the other end
of the spectrum, the Akhbaris insisted on a strict, literal
reading. The Twelver denomination has about 140 million members
in more than a dozen nations today. Twelver Shiism became the official
religion of Iranians during the Safavid empire in the early 16th
century. Currently, there are also Twelvers in Pakistan, Iraq, Saudi
Arabia, Bahrain and other oil-rich countries.38
Sufi
Muslims
Within
its many denominations, Sufism developed in the 10th century as
an early effort to reform Islam, in part by emphasizing spiritual
rewards in the afterlife rather than material gains in this life,
and in part by challenging literal, legalistic approaches to Islam
and the Quran. Sufis seek to commune directly with God through
meditation, ritual chanting and even dance (the Mevlavi Sufis
were famously known as the whirling dervishes). Some Sufis even
worshiped Jesus and others worshiped Muhammadpractices considered
polytheistic and blasphemous to mainstream Muslims, who sometimes
persecuted the Sufis.39 Yet Sufis often
served as Islams most energetic missionaries in addition to
their many contributions to Muslim literature, especially love poetry,
in Arabic, Turkish, Persian and Urdu.40
Khalid Durán calls Sufism Islams counterculture.41
This
cursory description of Islams denominations illustrates the
wide and deep theological divisions within what might appear from
the outside as a monolithic religion. These divisions, in turn,
led to extremely complex and varied theological and political differences
even within mainstream Sunni Islam.
Stopping
New Efforts to Interpret the Quran and Hadith
The
efforts of the ulama to formalize Islamic doctrine for mainstream
Sunni Muslims led to the emergence of four prominent schools of
Islamic law in the eighth and ninth centuries. The four Sunni schools
made a religious science out of hadith by checking the authenticity
of each link in the chain of sources of oral history and by resolving
discrepancies in reports on the Prophets words and deeds.VII
The schools, still influential today, are the Hanafi (named
after Abu Hanifah, who was born in Central Asia), which is now followed
in parts of South Asia, Turkey, the Russian Federation with the
exception of the North Caucasus, southeastern Europe, China, Central
and West Asia and parts of the Middle East; Maliki (named
after Malik ibn Anas), which is followed in North and West Africa
and in some southern parts of the Middle East; Shafi (named
after Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi), which is followed in the coastal
areas of South Asia, East Africa, East Asia, Egypt and some parts
of the Middle East; and Hanbali (named after Ahmad ibn Hanbal),
which is followed mostly in Saudi Arabia.
The
schools varied in their amount of leeway in interpreting Sharia,
Islamic law, and whether those interpretations could be made by
individual scholars or had to be endorsed by a consensus of scholars.42
The Malikis and the Hanbalis read the scripture and hadith quite
literally, scorning the use of human reason as it was employed by
the other two, more interpretative schools. The Hanafis used analogy
and reason, especially in untangling conflicting statements attributed
to the Prophet. The Shafis sought to concentrate on the most authentic
oral reports and looked to find a consensus among scholars on interpretive
rulings.43 The issue wasand still
isextremely important, because such interpretations became
part of the Sharia, which Muslims consider to be the divinely revealed
law of Islam.
In
the 10th century, orthodox Sunni ulama argued that there had been
enough of this independent reasoning and warned that it could not
continue without distorting Islam. They maintained that the Sharia
was completely and finally assembled within three centuries of Muhammads
death and it was time to close the gates of ijtihad,
or rational interpretation. This argument gained ground and was
finally formalized in the 14th century when Sunni ulama agreed that
contemporary questions could be answered only by a literal reading
of the Sharia and not by new interpretation.44
But
many Muslim reformers, from the 11th century on, objected to such
a mechanistic, literal approach to scripture and argued
that the schools of law were too rigid in defining Sharia. Much
debate has centered around the hadith, with reformers questioning
the vast number of oral histories, the often conflicting interpretations
of the hadith and the ulamas ability to verify the Prophets
sayings as they were passed down through the ages by his friends,
family and community members. Reformers in the past, and especially
in the 19th century, attempted to portray the hadith as parables,
not to be construed as religious doctrine or lawand certainly
not to be used to diminish the exercise of God-given reason in addressing
contemporary challenges. Different approaches to Sharia not only
divided Sunni, but also sharpened the divisions and struggles between
Sunni and Shii.VIII That is because
the Sunni believe the Sharia is complete, while the Shii consider
it to be evolving jurisprudence.45
Muslim
Empires and the Golden Age of Islam
The
early formative period of the Muslim empire was followed by the
Abbasid Caliphate (7501258), named after Caliph Abu al-Abbas
al-Saffah,46 who claimed descent from
an uncle of Muhammads.47 He transferred
the seat of power from Damascus to Baghdad and inaugurated what
is known as the Golden Age of Islamic civilization. This Golden
Age is no mere footnote in Islamic history, for, arguably, Islamic
civilization was essentially human civilizationone that, like
prior Greek and Roman civilizations, embraced and thrived on all
human achievement. As such, we are just beginning to recognize the
enormous influence that Islams Golden Age had on Western Christendom,
as W. Montgomery Watt reminds us:
It
is clear that the influence of Islam on Western Christendom is greater
than is usually realized. Not only did Islam share with Western
Europe many material products and technological discoveries; not
only did it stimulate Europe intellectually in the fields of science
and philosophy; but it provoked Europe into forming a new image
of itself. Because Europe was reacting against Islam, it belittled
the influence [of Muslim scholarship].... So today, an important
task for our Western Europeans, as we move into the era of the one
world, is to correct this false emphasis and to acknowledge fully
our debt to the Arab and Islamic world.48
During
those five golden centuries, Muslim realms became the
worlds unrivaled intellectual centers of science, medicine,
philosophy and education. The Abbasids championed the role of knowledge
and are renowned for such enlightened achievements as creating a
House of Wisdom in Baghdad, the city they built on the
banks of the Tigris River. At this Abbasid institute, Muslim and
non-Muslim scholars49including
Nestorian Christians and star-worshiping Sabianssought to
translate all the worlds knowledge into Arabic. Classic works
by Aristotle, Archimedes, Euclid, Hypocrites, Plutarch, Ptolemy
and others were translated. Christian monks translated the Bible
into Arabic, and many Jewish philosophers wrote in Arabic.
Without
these Arabic translations, it is interesting to note, many classic
works of antiquity would have been lost. Furthermore, from the 11th
to the 13th centuries, many Arabic translations of classic works
were, in turn, translated into Turkish, Persian, Hebrew and Latin.
The 13th-century Catholic theologian St. Thomas Aquinas, for example,
apparently made his famous integration of faith and reason after
reading Aristotles philosophy in a translation by Abbasid
scholars, including Abu Ali ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna.50
Avicenna was an 11th-century philosopher and physician who wrote
an encyclopedia of philosophy and some 200 influential treatises
on medicine, including one on ethics, which were widely read in
Europe. Abu al-Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Rushd,
better known in the West as Averroës, was a preeminent authority
on Aristotle as well as a judge and a physician. This 12th-century
philosopher is also known for having synthesized Greek and Arabic
philosophies. Meanwhile, al-Farabi tried to show that the ideal
political system envisaged in Platos utopia and in the divine
law of Islam were one and the same.
Not
merely translators, the Abbasids collected, synthesized and advanced
knowledge, building their own civilization from intellectual gifts
from many cultures, including the Chinese, Indian, Iranian, Egyptian,
North African, Greek, Spanish, Sicilian and Byzantine. This Islamic
period was indeed a cauldron of cultures, religions, learning and
knowledgeone that created great civilizations and influenced
others from Africa to China. This Golden Age has been hailed for
its open embrace of a universal science, no matter the sourcebelieving
that there was not a Christian science, Jewish
science, Muslim science, Zoroastrian science
or Hindu science. There was just one science for the
Abbasids, who were apparently influenced by numerous Quranic
references to learning about the wonders of the universe as a way
to honor God. Thus, reason and faith, both being God-given, were
combined, mutually inclusive and supportive. Islam was anything
but isolationist, and Abbasids connected to all cultural traditions,
believing as they did that learning was universal, and not confined
to their own domain. Non-Muslimsas well as todays doctrinaire
Muslims who preach against Western values and Western
sciencemay be shocked by the Abbasids receptiveness
to science and philosophies that challenged orthodoxy.
According
to Ismail Serageldin, The search for Knowledge (Ilm)
and Truth (Haq) are an integral and undeniable part of the Muslim
tradition. The pursuit of knowledge is the single most striking
feature in a system of great revelation such as Islam. The word
Ilm (knowledge) and its derivatives occur 880 times in the
[Quran]. But knowledge is not perceived as neutral. It is
the basis for better appreciating truth (Haq), which is revealed
but which can be seen by the knowledgeable in the world
around them. Indeed, believers are enjoined to look around and to
learn the truth. The Prophet exhorted his followers to seek knowledge
as far as China, then considered to be the end of the earth. Scientists
are held in high esteem: the Prophet said that the ink of scientists
is equal to the blood of martyrs.51
The
Abbasids were not alone in the Islamic pursuit of knowledge. Rival
Muslim dynasties known as Fatimids in Egypt and Umayyads
in al-Andalus, or Islamic Spain, were also intellectual and cultural
centers during parts of this period.52
Al-Andalus, captured from its Gothic rulers, became part of the
Islamic empire in 714 and rivaled Baghdad and Cairo in scholarship.
Córdoba, Andaluss capital, is believed to have had
70 libraries, including one in the Alcázar with 400,000 volumes.
Religious freedom, although limited, helped attract Jewish and Christian
intellectuals and, interestingly, spawned the greatest period of
creativity in philosophy during the Middle Ages as 11th- and 12th-century
networks of Muslim, Jewish and Christian philosophers interacted.53
Andalus was a great literary center, and its poetry about courtly,
chaste and chivalrous relationships has even been credited with
helping shape European ideas about romantic love.54
Together,
Abbasid, Fatimid and Andalusi scholars opened up new fields of study
and significantly advanced the knowledge of astronomy, architecture,
art, botany, ethics, geography, history, literature, mathematics,
music, mechanics, medicine, mineralogy, philosophy, physics and
even veterinary medicine and zoology. During the Abbasid period,
mathematicians pioneered integral calculus and spherical trigonometry,
promoted the use of the Arabic numerals 0 through 9,
and gave the world al-jabr, our algebra. In science, the
Abbasids revised Ptolemaic astronomy, named stars, developed al-kemia,
our chemistry, and demonstrated that science was, well, a science.
Some may also thank, or damn, Abbasids for al-kuhl, our alcohol,
which they learned to distill but were subsequently forbidden to
drink.
Education
was a high priority in Muslim empires during this period. By the
10th century, there were thousands of schools at mosques,
places for kneeling, including 300 in Baghdad alone. A number of
libraries gathered manuscripts from around the world, and schools
that would become universities were established. Under the Fatimids,
a Cairo mosque that opened for prayers in 972 eventually grew into
the University of Al-Azhar, the oldest university in the Mediterranean.55
The
Abbasids great learning centers were not confined to Medina,
Basra, Kufa and Damascusand while Baghdad remained the cultural
capital of Islamic realms from the 11th century to the middle of
the 13th century, we see the proliferation of cultural and intellectual
centers in such cities as Jerusalem, Cairo, Kairouan, Fez, Córdoba,
Toledo and Sevilleas well as in many cities of Iran, Afghanistan
and Central Asia, such as Nishapur, Merv, Bukhara, Samarkand, Balkh,
Herat, Ghazna, Rayy, Shiraz, Hamadan and Isfahan. In other words,
Islam never organized itself for action as a civilization except,
perhaps, in its formative period.
Fragmentation
of Political Power
But
even in Islams Golden Age, we witness fragmentation of political
power. For there was not one, but three CaliphatesAbbasids,
Fatimids and Umayyads in Spainthat ruled Muslim societies.
In
909, Shii Muslims of the Ismaili denomination established a Caliphate-Imam
in Tunisia under leaders who claimed descent from the Prophets
son-in-law, Ali, and his daughter, Fatimahence their name,
Fatimids. As mentioned earlier, the Fatimids and Umayyads
sponsorship of science and education helped make this period Islams
Golden Age. The Fatimids captured Egypt in 969 and established their
capital, al-Qahirathe Victorious CityCairo.56
The dynastys rule at one time extended to the Mediterranean,
North Africa, Syria, Iran and India, and it lasted until 1171, when
the last Fatimid Caliph was deposed.57
It was Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub, a Kurdish general known in
the West as Saladin, who defeated the Fatimids in Egypt and brought
the regions population back into the fold of Sunni Islam.
Later, Saladin gained fame for defeating the Crusaders and recapturing
Jerusalem in 1187. Saladins Ayyubid dynasty (11711250)
ruled over Egypt, Syria and Yemen, and it ended when members of
its army, predominantly slaves called Mamluks, revolted and
created their own empire in the Near East.58
In
929, 20 years after the Fatimid Caliph-Imam was established, another
Caliphate sprang up in al-Andalus, Islamic Spain. Abd al-Rahman
III, who traced his ancestry to the Umayyad Caliphate that the Abbasids
had overthrown, proclaimed himself Caliph. He assumed the title
Commander of the Faithful and asserted independence
from the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad and the newly independent
Fatimid Caliphs. He and his descendants ruled as Caliphs in Córdoba
until 1031, when the Caliphate was officially abolished as the central
government collapsed amid infighting among regional leaders.59
In
addition to Caliphates, other regional dynastieskingdoms unto
themselvesrose, fell and reconstituted themselves again and
again over the centuries under new rulers. Notable among them in
the early centuries of Islam were various Iranian and Turkic dynasties,
including the Samanids and the Shii Buyids. The latter
conquered Baghdad but maintained the Abbasid Caliphate.60
West
and East Clash over Territory
Much
has been made of the early encounters between Muslim armies and
the Crusaders and the wars impact on the course of history
in the Middle East and subsequent relations between Christians and
Muslims. The facts, however, do not fit easily into ideological
patterns. We know that the Seljuq Turks invaded the Christian empire
of Byzantium, setting off a chain of events that led to the Crusadeswhich
history shows were mostly territorial wars camouflaged in religious
garb and language and carried out under the symbol of the cross.
Initially, the Byzantine emperor sought help fighting off the Seljuq
Turks from Pope Urban II, who in turn wanted to strengthen his moral
and political authority by capturing Jerusalem. Muslims had conquered
the city in 638, and though they were generally tolerant of non-Muslims,
one Caliph-Imam, al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, had ordered the destruction
of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and some other
churches and convents in Egypt and Sinai during his 25-year reign,
which ended in 1021.61
In
launching the holy war against Muslims, the Pope declared,
God wills it! The Church promised Christian soldiers
fighting in this war that, win or lose, they would have all sins
forgiven and a welcome in heaventhe kind of blanket guarantees
that encouraged, and continues to encourage, holy warriors
of every religion to commit crimes and atrocities. At the time,
the Crusaders were known to Muslims for what they were: Franks,
a German-speaking Christian empire that ruled present-day France.
They led their armies into what would later be called the First
Crusade. They captured Jerusalem in 1099, massacring, enslaving
or expelling its non-Christian inhabitantsJews and Muslims
alike. But as we know, the Crusades rapidly degenerated into intra-Christian
wars,62 for Europeans were just as
eager to seize and plunder the lands of Christian Byzantium as the
Muslim Turks had been. Its ironic that, in doing so, the Christian
West set the stage for the eventual collapse of the Byzantine empire
and its loss to the Ottoman Turks. In 1187, Saladin defeated the
Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin and recaptured Jerusalem.63
As we know, in the Third Crusade, Saladins troops surrendered,
in a stalemate, to Richard I (the Lion-Hearted) in 1191
on the Mediterranean at the city of Acre. They divided up the territory,
with Muslims keeping Jerusalem but promising to accommodate Christian
pilgrims.
The
fact is that the Crusaders did not terminate the Abbasid Caliphate
and its Golden Age of Muslim civilizations. It ended, finally, in
1258, when Baghdad was destroyed by the Mongol hordes, one of the
worlds most brutal conquerors, who created the biggest empire
in history. Their territory extended at various times to Eastern
Europe, China, Korea, Mongolia, Persia, Turkestan, Armenia, Russia,
Burma, Vietnam and Thailand. Before reaching Baghdad, the Mongols
had already destroyed many Muslim cities under the ruthless and
skilled leadership of Genghis Khan and his descendants. To encourage
their foes to surrender without a fight, the Mongols used state-of-the-art
military strategies that included the destruction of all stored
grain, the obliteration of irrigation systems, the razing of cities
and towns, the systematic massacre of local populations, the stacking
of victims skulls in huge pyramids and the use of civilian
prisoners as human shieldsand even as human bridges, to enable
Mongols to cross moats of newly besieged cities.
The
Mongol invasion was so catastrophic, it created a sense of doomsday
for Muslimsafter all, the faithful were being crushed by infidels,
creating a great crisis of confidence. At the same time, some historians
have argued, the Mongol invasions, after initially paralyzing Muslim
societies, subsequently provided a long stretch of peacethe
so-called Pax Mongolicaacross a vast stretch of territory
that allowed the resilient Muslim societies not only to reemerge,
but to flourish.64 Following their
conquests, the Mongols rebuilt many Muslim cities, created dazzling
courts and, to some degree, picked up where the Abbasids, Fatimids
and Umayyads left off in promoting science, art and scholarship.
Indeed,
it is one of historys great landmarks that the Mongols converted
to Islama conversion that saved the Muslim power and realms,
changing the course of history. Their conversion was also relatively
swift. By the early 14th century, all four of the Mongol realms
had adopted Islam.
Rise
and Fall of the Ottomans
The
emergence of European commercial and political power in the Mediterranean
in the 15th century coincided with the rise of the Muslim Ottoman
empire. The Ottomans became the most powerful of western Muslim
rulers, capturing Constantinople in 1453. They won battles with
a highly trained corps of converted slaves and new weapons that
used gunpowder. In their march through the 15th and 16th centuries,
the Ottomans conquered Egypt, Syria, Hungary, Cyprus and Rhodes,
eventually creating one of the largest empires in history.
Coinciding
with the rise of the Ottoman empire, from the 15th century through
the 17th century, two other empires emerged: the Safavids in Iran
and the MughalsIX (Persian for Mongols)
in India. Other emergent powers included the sultans of Morocco
and the Uzbeks in Central Asia. Actually, even within these realms,
we see the emergence of semi-independent dynasties in the regions
of the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea, Central Asia, Afghanistan, India
and equatorial Africa. The key point is that even at this height
of Muslim power, there was no single Muslim umma, or community,
and the Turkish, Arabic, Iranian and Indian realms had divided the
unity of Islam politically, culturally and economically while retaining
only the unity of the fundamental precepts and Five Pillars of Islam.
The
first major manifestation of Muslim military weakness occurred in
1571, when Spanish and Venetian fleets defeated the Ottomans in
a naval battle off Lepanto, Greecea victory that was captured
in heroic paintings by Tintoretto and Veronese. The second major
loss was the Turks unsuccessful siege of Vienna, in 1683.
However, the empires actual disintegration began with its
first territorial concession in the 1699 Treaty of Carlowicz, when
it ceded Hungary to Austria,65 followed
by a treaty with France and the Treaty of Küçük
Kaynarca in 1774, imposed on the empire by Russia.66
It was not the loss of territory so much as the fact that, beginning
with the treaties, European powers began to obtain economic, commercial
and political concessions from the Ottoman empire as well as from
the Iranian and Mughal Indian empires. These concessions, known
later as capitulations, became the engine of Europes political,
economic and military domination of the Muslim realms. European
nation-states were also gaining dominance by modernizing their economies,
using new military technologies and centralizing their political
authorities.
From
the 18th century on, then, we see the gradual stagnation or decline
of all three remaining Muslim empires, which were hamstrung by their
increasing insularity, their inability to control the flow of trade
along international trade routes and their limited ability to take
advantage of technological innovation during the Industrial Revolution.
Through invasion, colonization or economic dominance, the British
controlled much of India, the Russians defeated the Ottomans in
Crimea, and France occupied Egypt.67
The first two major challenges against the Ottoman empire in the
Middle East were Napoleons invasion of Egypt in 1798 and the
French occupation of Algeria in 1830.X
There
are many other factors that contributed to the decline of the Ottoman
empire and a number of theories about why it eventually fell. Among
them:
-
A decline in the effectiveness of the sultans and the quality
of their administrations. While the early centuries of the Ottoman
empire were marked by some extremely able and sometimes brilliant
leaders, this was not the case in the empires later years,
when individuals who lacked the ability and strategic foresight
of their predecessors came to power. Among Ottoman rulers, there
also developed a sense of complacency and a belief in the infallibility
of Ottoman institutions and the inferiority of the infidels.
A population explosion, which could not be supported by the land
available for cultivation, along with the failure of land reforms
that resulted in peasant unrest and social and economic disruptions.
- The
failure of the empire to integrate various nations, peoples and
regions into a cohesive whole. As a result, the empire remained
a collection of different ethnic and religious populations (millets),
such as Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Jewish, as well as semiautonomous
regions (Arabia, Lebanon, North Africa and the like) without a
common, unifying identity or unity of purpose.
- Financial
and economic crises at the beginning of the 16th century, which
led to the depreciation and debasement of currency, high inflation
and unemployment.
- The
inability of native merchants in the empire to compete effectively
with European joint stock companies that had long-term strategies
as well as reserves and the political muscle of the European powers
behind them.
- The
decline of the empires military forces.
- The
lack of development of cities to serve as economic centers and
a base for the rise of a middle class.
- Perhaps
most important of all, the rise of 19th-century nationalism in
all the regions of the Ottoman empire, involving Christians at
first and then, later, even Muslim peoples within the empire,
such as Arabs and Turks.68
By the early 20th century, Britain, France, Russia and the Netherlands
ruled over nearly all Muslim societies, with only Afghanistan, Iran,
and a much reduced Ottoman empire retaining their independence.69
The
Big Debate: Herodians vs. Zealots
The
decline of Muslim realms created another crisis of confidence and
raised many questions. How should Muslims challenge European colonialism
so as to regain, or retain, their independence and political and
economic viability? The debate divided along two basic lines: On
one side, some argued that the decline was caused by moral laxity
and departure from the true path of Islam; these traditionalists
called for an Islamic revival. On the other side, there were those
who claimed that Islamic societies had not suddenly declined, but
had long faltered owing to a chronic failure to modernize their
societies and institutions; these reformers said Muslim societies
could be rescued only by modernizing and challenging the West on
its own terms. Each option had its risks. Looking to the past for
answers risked greater stagnation. Looking to the future risked
the loss of indigenous culturewas it possible to modernize
without Westernizing? The contest between these two responses still
shakes the Muslim world.
Historian
Arnold Toynbee attempted to encapsulate the essence of this conflict
between modernists and traditionalists not only in Muslim societies,
but in all societies. In his 12-volume Study of History,
Toynbee refers to modernists and traditionalists as Herodians
and Zealots, terms borrowed from the Jewish experience.
In his theory of history, civilizations rise when people make creative
responses to a variety of challenges, including geographic, economic,
political and spiritual; and their continuing creativity sustains
their civilizations. He theorizes that civilizations fall in a downward
spiral, with creativity faltering, challenges not being met, anarchy
developing and tyrants taking charge. Ultimately, these declining
civilizations are threatened by more creative and dynamic ones.
In response, Toynbee says, the threatened people typically follow
one of two basic paths: If the Zealot leaders prevail, the civilization
responds by isolating itself and trying to revive ideas and practices
from an idealized past. If Herodians take the lead, the civilization
responds by borrowing its opponents best tools, synthesizing
their best ideas and using the new tools and ideas to compete and
regain strength and control. Naturally, in his view, successful
civilizations are those that accept the Herodian challenge, while
the others ossify or decline.
Of
course, not everyone agrees with Toynbees crystallization
of history into two forcesand certainly Zealots or traditionalists
do not. But Toynbee is insightful in describing the intense struggles
between modernism and traditionalism in Muslim societies that have
been occurring, off and on, for more than a century. Moreover, both
modernists and traditionalists look at the entire history of Islam,
rationalizing past successes and failures in ways that bolster their
current theological, ideological and political stances.
Clash
of Modernists and Traditionalists
Until
the 19th century, the Muslim struggle against colonial powers was
considered the domain of secular political authorities, but gradually
the struggle was joined by so-called national liberation movements.
For while Europe exported colonialism and imperialism to Muslim
realms, it could not avoid exporting also the ideas and legacies
of the Enlightenment, nationalism, European institutions and political
movementsliberal, conservative and radical. As such, the colonialists
sowed the seeds of anticolonial movements, which used European ideologies
against European dominance. Indeed, generations of nationalist leaders
in the Middle East and North Africa were educated in European and
even American institutions of higher educationincluding the
American University of Beirut, founded in 1866, and the American
University of Cairo, founded in 1919.
It
is also not surprising that Muslim nationalists attempted to use
Islam and the ulama as organizing tools to mobilize their societies
against the colonial powers. (After all, the colonial powers themselves
used religion as an effective tool to undermine nationalist and
anticolonial movements.) Naturally, these alliances proved to be
only temporary and expedient, especially because nationalism was
then a new and not well understood conceptand a secular one
at that. The idea of a secular nation, separate from the religious
community, the umma, was, in theory, alien to Islam. But even though
religion and state were not distinctly separated, they had been
administered separately by Caliphs and the ulama for centuries.71
Yet in their shared effort to combat colonialism and imperialism,
the ulama and other traditionalists marched, off and on, under the
banner of nationalism. As a result, across colonized Muslim societies
Islamic revivals proliferatedand while they energized nationalist
movements, the revivals also empowered the ulama, positioning them
to assume greater authority. Hence, anticolonialism sometimes took
on a religious fervor, one that Muslim reformers have often been
unable to moderate; mobilizing the ulama was easy, demobilizing
them has proven difficult.
Muslim
history and theology provided both the necessary language and the
justification for a struggle against the European intruders. Muhammad
had preached that the umma, the Muslim community, must be totally
focused on jihad, meaning to struggle, to live in the
way God intended, as laid out in the Quran. Throughout Muslim
history, the concept of jihad has been used to encourage
piety among individuals as well as to wage war to defend the faith
or convert infidels, or both.XI
If there was prosperity in the umma, it indicated that Muslims were
living according to His will; if the umma declined, it was a sign
that they had strayed from the Quran. Any attack on this religious
community, from within or without, was considered an act of blasphemy
or an act of aggression that must be checked through jihad.72
At
the same time, some 19th-century Islamic movements were more interested
in reviving Islam than in overthrowing colonial rule elsewhere.
Such was the case with Sunni Wahhabis, members of a puritanical
denomination in the Arabian peninsula. Named after the 18th-century
reformer Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, they also called themselves
Muwahhiduns, Unitarians. They condemned many modern innovations73
and advocated a strict and literal adherence to the Quran
and hadith in an effort to practice Islam as they believed it was
practiced in the seventh century and, thus, experience the strength
Islam had given to early Muslims.74
The teachings of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab represent the strictest
interpretations of the Hanbali school.
In
India, the most influential advocate of traditionalism was the Deoband
school of thought. Known formally as Darul Uloom Deoband and named
after its location in the Delhi region of northern India, the school
is considered by some to be second only to Al-Azhar in Cairo as
the most important center of traditional Islamic studies. Deoband
was established in 1866 by Maulana Mohammed Qasim Nanauti to preserve
the Muslim heritage against the encroachments of British colonialism.
Yet the school grew from its orthodox Wahhabi beginnings into a
more modern school, exhibiting sharp differences with other Muslim
traditionalistsand even with its own offshoots in other countries.
The Deoband, for example, supported Indias secular constitution
and religious pluralism. The school also opposed the partition of
the Indian subcontinent and the creation of a Muslim homeland in
Pakistan. As Marghboor Rahman, the seminarys vice chancellor,
recently put it, We are Indians first, then Muslims.XII
Self-Determination
Movements of All Kinds
Nationalist
movements in the 19th century were not confined to ruling ethnic
majorities in Muslim empires, and minorities soon became enthused
with their own nationalist aspirations as well. It is not surprising,
therefore, to see Greeks, Albanians, Armenians, Macedonians, Serbs
and Bulgarians adopting nationalism as a revolutionary movement
in pursuit of a national reformation, autonomy or even independence
from the Ottoman empire. Nationalism was an equal opportunity ideology.
It was welcomed not only by non-Muslim ethnic groups, but also by
minority ethnic groups of Muslims who attempted to find autonomy
or independence. Following the Greeks success in winning independence
in 1830, we see all the others heading toward autonomy.
What
was far more controversial, however, was the rise of nationalism
among Arabs, Turks and other majority ethnic groups of Muslims.
Such a development posed a great challenge to the traditional concept
of the Muslim umma as a theocracy, with the ulama as its proponentfor
here was an ideological movement that was breaking Muslims
political ties to the umma, leaving behind only the religious bonds.
Thus, nationalism became not only a unifying force, but a fragmenting
one as well. For these ethnic Muslim groups were attempting to recreate
their own ummarecognizing national independence
both as a national right and as a Muslim right.
Moreover,
in some of these nationalist struggles we even see Christians and
Muslims joining together to transcend their religious differences
and form new states or secular political parties. We witness a growing
awareness of their past glories and talk about their historical
missions, their destiny and the uniqueness of their languages.
People saw themselves not just as a religious community, but as
a community that shared distinct cultural, ethnic, geographic and
historical bonds. In Syria, Christians and Muslims cooperated in
forging a national identity based on their common Arabic language
and culture; similarly, in Egypt, Coptic Christians and Muslims
collaboratively created a nationalist identity based on their love
of the land and centuries of overlapping pharaonic, Christian and
Muslim cultures.
Even
conservative Muslims were reminded that there were historical precedents
for bringing together such heterogeneous communitiesafter
all, the Prophet Muhammads first umma in Medina included pagan,
Jewish and Muslim members. In India, too, we see interfaith, nationalist
coalitions: the Hindu-dominated Congress political party included
many prominent Muslim leaders who shared the aspirations for an
independent India and opposed partition.
Secular
Efforts to Create Unity Flounder
Not
only do we see the emergence of secular nationalist movements that
challenged European colonialists, but we also see the emergence
of secular Pan- movements in Muslim realms between the
1870s and 1918. These movements were similar to the Pan-German and
Pan-Slav movements in that they attempted to unite ethnic groups
that shared a common blood, language or culture for
a common purpose. The Muslim Pan- movements included
Pan-Turkism, which was an effort to unite all Turkish-speaking peoples,
and Pan-Iranism, which was a movement to unite all Persian-speaking
peoples. Reaching still further, others called for a Pan-Islamism,
a secular movement that could bridge both secular and religious
aspirations of Muslims worldwide.75
To Muslim modernists, these movements were organizing tools to promote
political freedom and create large ethnic units that might give
them access to natural and other resources for greater strength,
economically and militarily. But to the ulama and other traditionalists
who supported these movements, they were merely expedient vehicles
for unifying the religious community, to recreate the umma as a
theocracy.
Sayyid
Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani, an Iranian scholar and political activist,
was the first theoretician of Pan-Islamism and Muslim modernism,
which was a blend of Pan-Islamism, secularism and nationalism.76
Al-Afghani had seriously challenged the authorities, both Muslim
and European, since the 1870s.77 He
had warned about the danger of European intervention, the
need for national unity to resist it, the need for a broader unity
of the Islamic peoples [and] the need for a constitution to limit
the rulers power. He ascribed the decline of Muslim
power to a combination of European imperialism, autocratic Muslim
rulers and a retrogressive ulama that saw no place for Islam in
the modern world. Al-Afghani called for engaging as well as confronting
the West, creating Muslim-style democracies and reforming Islamto
encourage the creation of new ideas, much as it had done during
the Golden Age of science and learning in the Abbasid period.78
In a Lecture on Teaching and Learning, given in 1882
in Calcutta, al-Afghani said:
The
strangest thing of all is that our ulama these days have divided
science intotwo parts. One they call Muslim science, and one European
science. Because of this they forbid others to teach some of the
useful sciences. They have not understood that science is that noble
thing that has no connection with any nation, and is not distinguished
by anything but itself. Rather, everything that is known is known
by science, and every nation that becomes renowned becomes renowned
through science.
The Islamic religion is the closest of religions
to science and knowledge, and there is no incompatibility between
science and knowledge and the foundation of the Islamic faith.79
These
modernist ideas were not confined to the Ottoman empire or to the
Indian subcontinent, Iran or Russia; they even flourished in such
isolated lands as Afghanistan. There, Mahmud Tarzi, a modernist
who published the first Afghan newspaperSiraj al-Akhbar
Afghaniyah (the Lamp of the News of Afghanistan)argued
in 1911 that European colonists were pursuing policies that propagated
materialism and were designed to sap the strength of Islam. To this
end, he said, colonists supported the activities of Christian missionaries,
capitalized on and even promoted divisions among the Muslims, and
instituted educational programs in their colonies that were aimed
at stifling the revival of Islam.80
In
Tarzis view, Muslims needed to protect their common heritage
by closing ranks behind unified political, cultural, economic and
military strategies. He and others were inspired by Japans
stunning defeat of its far more powerful adversary in the Russo-Japanese
War of 19041905. They reasoned that if a nation like Japan,
which lacked many natural resources, could nearly annihilate the
Russians Baltic fleet and defeat its army in Manchuria, then
there was hope that Muslim nations, working together in a disciplined
way, could recapture their autonomy and power from the Europeans.
The
Postcolonial Struggle
During
the colonial period, Muslim elitesthe rationalists, secularists
and modernists, however one might describe themattempted to
build an infrastructure for modern statehood in anticipation of
the eventual liberation of their lands. But they had an uphill struggle.
Efforts to modernize Muslim economies during colonial periods were
skewed by the needs of the Europeans, who sought raw materials for
European factories and a growing colonial market for finished products.
In addition, there were internal conflicts, such as the ulamas
opposition to modern banking, based on the Quranic ban on
charging interest. As a result, Muslim countries, not unlike others
in Asia and Africa, were not able to successfully meet the multiple
challenges of the Industrial Revolution and its aftermath. Muslim
nations lacked the capital, among other things, to modernize rapidly.
In one instance, Egypt was headed for insolvency after completing
an ambitious programwhich included building the Suez Canal,
900 miles of railway and vast irrigation projects. Its precarious
financial situation gave Britain, which had a controlling interest
in the Suez Canal, a reason to protect its investments by occupying
the country in 1882.81 It was not until
1956 that Britain removed all of its troops from Egypt.
Since
the 19th century, in spite of the debates between modernists and
traditionalists about developments in Muslim societies, we have
seen the emergence of many modern Muslim statescomplete, of
course, with museums, libraries, hospitals, schools, universities
and urban skyscrapers, including the worlds tallest buildings
in Kuala Lumpur.XIII The record shows
that Islam is not averse to science or technology. The problem is
that there are not enough resources to provide Muslim populations
with equal opportunities in education and employment and not enough
political resilience in many governments to allow the people to
participate in the political process. The debate is also about valueshow
to protect a societys traditional cultural heritage and practices
in an age of globalization and how to develop a creative coexistence
between modernism and traditionalism without Westernization.
Overall,
though, most Muslim nations are considered developing
nations. Despite countless attempts at modernizing along Western models
through the 20th century, most Muslim societies have not been able
to surmount barriers in worldwide economic competition. A major problem
for modernizers, right up to the present day, has been the structure
of their education systems. While colonial governments established
some Western-style schools, many traditional Muslims responded by
expanding religious schools, often with strictly religious curricula.82
Most rudimentary Muslim religious school systems have long relied
on rote learning and concentrated on the fundamentals of Islamic culture
and religion, often excluding from the curriculum math, science, history,
languages and foreign literaturein short, anything considered
Western or foreign.
To
put the problems faced by Muslim societies in perspective, then,
one should be reminded that the problems they confronted, and still
do confront, were not endemic to Muslim societies. Japan, Korea,
China and other societies in the 17th through the 19th centuries
faced similar challenges. They blamed their decline in power on
the West, rejected modernism and sought isolationism as the best
way to preserve their independence as well as their historical legacies.
In Japan, for example, it was not until the Meiji Restoration in
1868 that modernization and Westernization began to take place.
It is also interesting to note that Japans intellectual dependence
on the West lasted for only a generation after European-style universities
had been imported.83
Today,
many Muslims are cognizant of the shortcomings in their institutional
development, economies, social progress and systems of education.
Referring to primitive religious education in Muslim countries,
Mohamed Charfi writes, The consequences of such teachings
on the minds of young people in most Muslim-majority countries have
been disastrous. Charfi is a former minister of education
in Tunisia, which began modernizing its educational system and curricula
in 1989.XIV Also excluded from these
schools in some societies are girls and women, which, of course,
deals a major blow in their respective countries to economic and
social developmentnot to mention to womens rights and
the stewardship of the next generation of children.
Muslim
countries have also been hamstrung by a shortage of quality institutions
in higher education, especially their lack of modern universities
with state-of-the-art scientific laboratories and appropriate faculty
to train scientists.XV The combination
of these factors has resulted in a woefully inadequate number of
scientists in Muslim countriesby one recent estimate, less
than 1 percent of the worlds scientists are Muslims, even
though Muslims account for almost 20 percent of the worlds
population.84 The situation is aggravated
by Muslim countries that send students abroad to study, as most
of these students do not return, causing a brain drainas well
as lost opportunities for bringing new ideas back to their Muslim
homelands. There is no doubt that the educational systems of all
Muslim countries need to be strengthened and modernized, which includes
encouraging academic freedom for teaching and research.XVI
A group
of Muslim scholars has recently issued a landmark study about the
dire situation in Arab societies. The study, The Arab Human
Development Report 2002, was published in June by the United
Nations Development Program and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social
Development. It is important to note that the study represents the
unbiased, objective analysis of a group of distinguished
Arab intellectualsnearly 30 scholars in Islamic sociology,
economics and culture. It was written by Nader Fergany, a prominent
labor economist in Egypt. The projects advisory board included
Thoraya Obaid, a Saudi who heads the UN Population Fund; Mervat
Tallawy, an Egyptian diplomat; and Clovis Maksoud, who heads the
Center for the Global South at American University in Washington.
Some of the scholars assessments about the status of 22 Arab
nations:
-
Intellectual and cultural isolation: Arab publishers translate
into Arabic only about 330 books a year, or one-fifth the number
that the Greeks translate into Greek. To put this in perspective,
during the past 1,000 years, the entire Arab world has translated
into Arabic only as many books as Spanish publishers now annually
translate into Spanish. There is also a severe shortage
of new writing by Arabs. Filmmaking is declining. Internet use
is low, lower even than in sub-Saharan Africa, and only about
1 in 100 Arabs has a personal computer.
- Research
and development is minimal: With Arab nations spending less than
one-seventh of the world average annual investment in research,
in relation to the size of overall national economies, Arab achievements
in science and technology are very limited.
-
Productivity is declining: The growth in per capita income has
stalled for two decades, to a level just above that of sub-Saharan
Africa. About 15 percent of the labor force was unemployed. Forty
years ago, Arab productivity was 32 percent of the North American
level; by 1990, it had fallen to 19 percent.
- Education
is inadequate: While Arab nations spend more on education than
elsewhere in the developing world, more than one in four Arabs
is illiterate, and half of Arab women cannot read or write. About
10 million children (6 to 15 years old) do not go to school. Worse
still, There is evidence that the quality of education has
deteriorated.
-
Wasteful of human resources: Women are routinely denied advancement
in the workplace. Sadly, the Arab world is depriving itself
of the creativity and productivity of half of its citizens.
- Poverty
of opportunities: Due to its overall oil wealth, the Arab region
has the (developing) worlds lowest level of abject poverty
(measured as incomes of less than $1 a day), yet more than one
in five Arabs lives on less than $2 a day. The Arab region
is hobbled by a different kind of povertypoverty of capabilities
and poverty of opportunities.
- Freedom
denied: According to two international indices that are widely
used to compare levels of freedomincluding free speech,
civil rights, political rights, free press and government accountabilitythe
Arab region has the lowest level of freedom of any of the worlds
seven regions. The attitudes of public authorities range
from opposition to manipulation to freedom under surveillance.
- Social
and political stagnation: The wave of democracy that transformed
governance in most of Latin America and East Asia in the 1980s
and early 1990s has barely reached the Arab states. This freedom
deficit undermines human development.
- High
maternal mortality rate: Four times worse than in East Asia.
- Population
explosion: Currently, the 22 Arab states have a total population
of 280 million; that is projected to grow to between 410 million
and 459 million by 2020. Today, 38 percent of Arabs are under
14 years old.
- Brain
drain: Half of Arab youths say they want to emigrate.
In the study, the scholars conclude: What the region needs to
ensure a bright future for coming generations is the political will
to invest in Arab capabilities and knowledge, particularly those of
Arab women, in good governance, and in strong cooperation between
Arab nations.... The Arab world is at a crossroads. The fundamental
choice is whether its trajectory will remain marked by inertia...and
by ineffective policies that have produced the substantial development
challenges facing the region; or whether prospects for an Arab renaissance,
anchored in human development, will be actively pursued.85
Flashback:
The Impact of World War I on Muslim Realms
World
War I, in a dramatic way, once again confirmed the answer to the
big question: Is there a single, unified Muslim worldwith
one umma, under one Caliph, that transcends political and religious
divisions in all Muslim realms? The stage was set in 1914, when
the Young Turks of the Ottoman empire joined the Central Powersthe
German and Austria-Hungary empiresagainst the Allied PowersBritain,
France and Russia.
On
November 25, 1914, shortly after declaring war against the Allied
Powers, the Caliph, Sultan Mehmed V (18441918), called for
Muslims worldwide to join the Ottomans in their own jihad, or holy
war. The proclamation stated, The Muslims in general who are
under the oppressive grasp of the aforesaid tyrannical governments
in such places as the Crimea, Kazan, Turkestan, Bukhara, Khiva,
and India, and those dwelling in China, Afghanistan, Africa and
other regions of the earth, are hastening to join in this Great
Jihad to the best of their ability, with life and property, alongside
the Ottomans, in conformity with the relevant holy Fatwas.86
The
Caliphs fatwa, legal decree, failed. The monolithic unity
of Islam appeared to be only an idealistic abstraction. National,
ethnic, dynastic, regional, cultural, class and tribal interests
proved stronger than the majestic appeal of the Caliph. Not only
did Muslims outside of the empire fight against the Ottomans
in the ranks of their enemiesthe British and French forces
and their alliesthere was also a revolt of Muslims within
the empire itself. Pursuing ethnic, dynastic and even religious
agendas, Muslims in Arabiaincluding Hashemites, the
traditional guardians of Islams holy sites, and puri |