As the revelations granted to Muhammad became known in Mecca, they attracted a small following of some close relatives, a few prominent Meccan leaders, and an assortment of lower-
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How was Arabia transformed by the rise of Islam?
The new community, or umma, that took shape in Medina was a kind of “supertribe,” but very different from the traditional tribes of Arab society. Membership was a matter of belief rather than birth, allowing the community to expand rapidly. Furthermore, all authority, both political and religious, was concentrated in the hands of Muhammad, who proceeded to introduce radical changes. Usury was outlawed, tax-
In Medina, Muhammad not only began to create a new society but also declared his movement’s independence from its earlier affiliation with Judaism. In the early years, he had anticipated a warm response from Jews and Christians, based on a common monotheism and prophetic tradition, and had directed his followers to pray facing Jerusalem. But when some Jewish groups allied with his enemies, Muhammad acted harshly to suppress them, exiling some and enslaving or killing others. This was not, however, a general suppression of Jews since others among them remained loyal to Muhammad’s new state. But the Prophet now redirected his followers’ prayer toward Mecca, essentially declaring Islam an Arab religion, though one with a universal message.
From its base in Medina, the Islamic community rapidly extended its reach throughout Arabia. Early military successes against Muhammad’s Meccan opponents convinced other Arab tribes that the Muslims and their God were on the rise, and they sought to negotiate alliances with the new power. Growing numbers converted. The religious appeal of the new faith, its promise of material gain, the end of incessant warfare among feuding tribes, periodic military actions skillfully led by Muhammad, and the Prophet’s willingness to enter into marriage alliances with leading tribes—
Thus the birth of Islam differed sharply from that of Christianity. Jesus’ teaching about “giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s” reflected the minority and subordinate status of the Jews within the Roman Empire. Early Christians found themselves periodically persecuted by Roman authorities for more than three centuries, requiring them to work out some means of dealing with an often-
The young Islamic community, by contrast, constituted a state, and soon a huge empire, at the very beginning of its history. Muhammad was not only a religious figure but also, unlike Jesus or the Buddha, a political and military leader able to implement his vision of an ideal Islamic society. Nor did Islam give rise to a separate religious organization, although tension between religious and political goals frequently generated conflict. No professional clergy mediating between God and humankind emerged within Islam. Teachers, religious scholars, prayer leaders, and judges within an Islamic legal system did not have the religious role that priests held within Christianity. No distinction between religious law and civil law, so important in the Christian world, existed within the realm of Islam. One law, known as the sharia (shah-
In little more than twenty years (610–
All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-