Background of the Birth of Islam [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Arabia of that time, namely Jewish culture which will be
discussed in detail later on.

Economic Situation

The leading aspect of the Arabs economy of that time
from the viewpoint of production was animal husbandry and
agriculture wherever it was possible. As far as trade and
exchange were concerned, their main trade was with
foreign lands. Both the Arabs of Yemen and Hejaz were
engaged in this activity, but since foreign trade must
have links with home trade in order to exchange home-made
products with foreign goods, the Arabs of that age
resorted to the same practice in keeping with the level
of their civilisation as they do in modern times. In the
developed world of today one of the most significant
essential and effective of economic practices is the
organising of commercial and industrial fairs. The Arabs,
too, at that time arranged fairs in the form of seasonal
bazaars In the same way that today in each season a fair
is held in a city or locality in relation to local
conditions, the Arabs, too, followed the same practice at
different times and in particular places. A few examples
of the extensive and famous exhibitions which were held
in Hejaz and Najd were as follows:

The 'Dumatul-Jandal Fair', held in the month of
Rabial-Awwal under the auspices of two local
tribes of Ghassan and Kalb near Shaam.

The Mashqar Fair' held in the month of
Jamadi-al-'Ula in a place of the same name, under
the auspices of Banu-Tim tribe.[8]

The 'Sahar Fair', held on the first of the month
of Rajab.[9]

The 'Ria Fair' following their Sahar Fair' in the
same month of Rajab, under the patronage of the
Jalandi tribc and its ruler.[10]

The 'Aden Fair', held at the beginning of the
month of Ramadhan, According to historians since
this fair dealt exclusively with perfumes and
scents, it was the great market of perfumers.[11]

The 'San'a Fair', held in the middle of Ramadhan

The 'Rabia Fair', held in the present Hadamut.

The 'Ukaz Fair', held in the month of Dhil-Qa'dah
near Ta'if

The 'Dhil Majaz Fair', held when all other fairs
had concluded and the merchants who had been busy
making a round of these fairs during those
months, finally headed to Mecca, making a
pilgrimage to the Ka'aba in the month of Dhil
Hajjah, and dispersed after performing the Hajj
ceremonies.

These fairs and seasonal bazaars were the most
valuable and cherished commercial events in Arabia of
those days. The merchant class who profited from those
fairs did their best not to let them become mere
exhibitions. They organised colourful ceremonies and
musical shows and other celebrations as well as exhibits
of literary works, poetry and arts. Thus these
exhibitions were show places worth a visit both for those
who intended to buy new and fineries and goods, or listen
to the latest and the finest pieces of verse, or fine
music. Thus the poets, too, were drawn to these
exhibitions to recite their poems before judges who
judged their poems. In this manner the fairs served both
as commercial shows and literary societies.

Form of Government in Pagan
Times

Sociologists say that in those days when man lived
alone (if indeed there were such days!) he had no need of
a master, since he was his own master and servant; his
own ruler, his own government and his own nation. But as
soon as he emerged from this solitary state and formed a
family, and as soon as their number rose to four, there
rose the question of who headed the family and who was
the chief. Sociologists claim that in most parts of the
world headship belonged to the men while in certain parts
to the women, that is to say the father acting as the
head in the former case, and the mother in the latter. As
the family grew larger, several families formed a group,
called tribe, the family then acquired a tribal form.
Thereby the question of the chief, the elder, the senior
and the 'grey-beard' of the tribe came up who should
settle the affairs of the group.

When several tribes took form, the issue became more
extensive and there came into existence national
government, and the issues in turn became international
though yet such a government has not appeared.

With the rise of several tribes, these tribes that
lived alongside each other neither knew their common
ancestors nor did they regard each other as kith and kin.
As they coexisted in one area and shared common
interests, they found that they had need for a government
in order to preserve their social system. Thus the
formation of a government from the viewpoints of history
and sociology began with the tribes' realisation of a
need for a guardian to safeguard their common interests
and social system. This guardian then became their
government.

From the viewpoint of political process, this was the
most critical phase, namely the transfer of power from
the tribal system and tribal chief to a central
government. This critical phase had been accomplished in
Yemen many centuries before Islam where a central
government in its true sense had been formed and this was
also the case in Ghassan and Hira where governments
ruled. On the other hand in the interior of Arabia such a
governments did not exist except in very rare instances.

Ya'qubi says in his book of history: "The tribal
disputes or problems between individuals were usually
settled by a number of persons known to be wise and
far-sighted as well as unprejudiced and impartial. They
settled the disputes through elderly intervention and
arbitration. Such arbitrators were called magistrates.
Ya'qubi mentions in his book of history (Vol. 1, p. 337)
the names of a large number of such magistrates, who were
not heads of a government but only arbitrators who
adjudicated in the matters of disputes. In the history of
the corresponding period in Arabia we come across only
one or two cases when government is mentioned in
connection with the interior of Arabia, namely in Hejaz
and Najd. Among these accounts a Jewish historian writes
that in the fifth century A.D., that is one century
before Islam, Abu Karab, king of Yemen had assigned his
son as the regent of Median. Since this governor had been
installed by the ruler of Yemen, it could hardly be
called the government of Medina.

Thus at that time while there existed governments
along the borders outside of Arabia, such as the
Chassanis and Mundherian, and those who had remained in
Yemen and in the coastal regions of the Persian Gulf, no
progress had been made from a tribal society towards a
central government in the central parts of Arabia.

Role of Judaism and
Christianity

In order to make a thorough study of the history of
Islam, we should also make a survey of the part played by
Judaism and Christianity in side Arabia.

We are not altogether certain of the date of the Jews
migration to Arabia, however the writer of the 'History
of Judaism' writes in this connection: "There are
different views concerning the migration of the Jews to
Arabia and its causes and factors, but there is little
doubt that most of the Jews abandoned their homes owing
to the oppression of Roman rulers and sought refuge in
Arabia. If the Jews had been denied peace and tranquility
in Palestine, Europe and in the Roman holdings, in Arabia
on the contrary their living conditions were
satisfactory, since there they were no longer subjected
to threats and persecution by Christian priests, being
treated kindly by their neighbours.

What is certain is that owing to the remoteness of the
Hejaz and Najd regions, a number of Jews had migrated to
Arabia centuries before the birth of Islam, and in all
probability concurrent with the appearance of Jesus (a
s.) Christ or in the second and third centuries A.D.

According to the existing books of history, their
migrations to the Hejaz must have begun at least about
five centuries before Islam, that is to say by the end of
the first century A.D. The Jews had realised that in that
region they could live freely far removed from the
oppression of Roman governors. The most important center
of Jewish settlements was Yathrib, the present Medina.
The Jews who came to Arabia, found that there was land
and water in the Yathrib region, so they built a fort for
themselves and settled down. In Mecca, too, the Jews were
present but in small numbers.

Those who migrated from the north to the south found
their way to Yemen, where the number of the Jews was not
so great, but there occurred an event as a result of
which Judaism became the official religion of Yemen. It
so happened that Abu Karab's son was the governor of
Yathrib, when his father was king of Yemen in the fifth
century A.D. The inhabitants of Medina rose in revolt
against this governor and killed him. Abu Karab, despite
being engaged in a war with the kings of Iran over Yemen,
on his way came to Yathrib and in order to punish the
Jews and Arabs of Yathrib who had risen against him, and
thereafter to proceed to the war with Iran. When he
reached Yathrib, the inhabitants went inside their forts
and shut the gates and took refuge within: Abu Karab
besieged the forts, and as the siege drew on, the people
in the forts were faced with acute shortage of food. At
this time a number of Jewish rabbis came out of the forts
and approached Abu Karab and declared that only four
foolish men had killed his son, and begged the king for
his forgiveness. In this meeting they started reciting
some Jewish teachings for Abu Karab who was a heathen;
their ardor so influenced him that he embraced Judaism
and at once returned to Yemen. When Abu Karab and his
courtiers accepted Judaism as their religion, they began
to propagate that faith. After Abu Karab died some time
later, one of his sons, named 'Dhunavas' or 'Dhunuvas'
became the king of Yemen and formally and zealously
propagated the Jewish faith in Yemen and so it became the
official religion of Yemen where they set about building
a number of synagogues for the Jews. This happened about
eighty or a hundred years before the rise of Islam.

Thus we witness that in the Arabia of that time, in
the north existed the Jews and Christians, in the east
the Zoroastrians and followers of Mazdak, the Iranians'
religion, in the south and in a part of Yathrib the Jews,
and in other parts were idolaters and Sabeans and
followers of numerous other religions.

Judaism in Arabia

The author of the 'History of Judaism' has recorded
that the Arabs treated the Jews kindly and associated
with them treaty resulting in frequent intermarriages
among them. On the whole the Jews exerted a great
influence upon the Arabs since, firstly, they were well
versed in economics and could hence manage the economy of
those regions and, secondly, compared to the Arabs
lettered and a people of the Book and consequently
possessed higher learning than the Arabs who were quite
illiterate. They could narrate tales and talk about many
topics with the Arabs and hence gained considerable
respect. While the Arabs could neither read nor write,
most of the Jews were familiar with reading and even
writing to some extent. Judaism exerted such a strong
influence that a group of the Quraish tribe, namely Banu
Kunanah had embraced Judaism.

Christianity in Arabia

The position of Christianity was a special one in
Hejaz and in the Arabian peninsula. This religion had not
made any inroads into Arabia till about the time of the
Prophet of Islam, that is to say about a century and a
half before the birth of Islam. Just as today the
Christian missionaries go to African and South American
lands and penetrate into the forests to propagate their
faith, at that time, too, they went to the dry deserts of
Arabia with the object of spreading their religion. The
first group of Christian missionaries went to the Najran
area. They so greatly influenced the people there that
the first Christian sector took shape in Arabia. The
Christians of Najran commenced their missionary work, and
alongwith other missionaries who arrived from outside,
founded a center of propagation in the interior of
Arabia. At this time, as it has already been stated,
Dhunuvas, the King of Yemen had embraced Judaism. Then
there occurred a collision between this Jewish king who
applied much pressure to spread Judaism in Arabia and the
Christians of Najran. This clash had a political
background in that the Emperor of Abyssinia coveted
Yemen, the neighbour across the sea. To retaliate this
clash, Dhunuvas came to Najran to wipe out the Christians
of Najran. Thhis episode has been narrated in the holy
Qur'an under the title of "the story of
Ukhdood"[12] where this deed has been condemned.
Dhunuvas killed many of the Najran Christians and burnt a
number of them alive. This roused the Christian Emperor
of Abyssinia as well as the Roman Emperor to come to the
aid of the Najran Christians. But as the Emperor of Rome
was too far from Yemen he asked the Emperor of Abyssinia
for help and asked him to take the revenge of this
massacre from Dhunuvas and the people of Yemen. That is
how the episode of Abraha and the Abyssinian campaign to
Yemen occurred. Abyssinian troops reached Yemen and
captured it. Dhunuvas and a large number of Yemenese were
killed, and thus Christianity replaced Judaism in Yemen
By the order of the Abyssinian governor officially
churches were built there, eventually resulting in the
story of Abraha and 'Amul-Feel.'

In this way, in Arabia at the time of the rise of
Islam, Judaism took the first place, Christianity the
second, Zoroastrianism third, Sabeans, who followed a
kind of idol worship reaching as far back as the creeds
of the time of the Prophet Abraham (a.s.) came fourth and
some local faiths followed fifth in place as mentioned in
the holy Qur'an.[13] Thus from the viewpoint of religion,
the Arabian peninsula of that time was under of influence
of multiple faiths.

To get better acquainted with the peculiar conditions
prevailing in Mecca, Medina and Ta'if, the three cities
closest to the birthplace of Islam, further explanations
are in order As already stated, in the second and third
centuries A.D. the Qahtani Arabs migrated to various
parts of Arabia, and a group of them named Banu Khuza'ah
went to Mecca and seized the reins of affairs there
however, before the arrival of Banu Khuza'ah group,
various Isma'ili tribes of the 'Adnani Arabs had
dominated that region, the most important of whom were
the Quraish tribe. Till that time however, this tribe had
not assumed the importance it gained later on. When Banu
Khuza'ah gained predominance in Mecca and secured control
over the affairs of the Ka'aba, a child was born in the
house of Quraish named Qussi bin-kalab, whose mother was
of Banu Khuza'ah and father from belonged a branch of the
Quraish tribe. As Qussi grew up, he decided to take back
from the non-Quraish all the positions which had been
taken away from the Quraish family at whatever the cost.
This included the custody of the keys and coverings of
the holy Ka'aba, positions that were highly esteemed and
which position should have been inhabited by his uncle on
the mother's side. Qussi's uncle was a drunkard and a
libertine.[14] Qussi as it happened, bought this position
from his own uncle for a wine skin and one camel to