Iran Before Islam - Background of the Birth of Islam [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Iran Before Islam

The starting point for our discussions has been chosen
from an aspect which in fact marks the origins of Islam,
and from another viewpoint, is inseparably linked to the
study of ideological, social and practical problems. This
approach is also more compatible with the natural course
for pursuing these studies. In order to study Islam in
its correct, historical perspective, for obtaining a
clearer understanding, it was appropriate to have begun
with a familiarisation with the region of its birth,
namely the Arabian peninsula incorporating Saudi Arabia
(Hejaz and Najd), Yemen, the sheikhdoms along the Persian
Gulf littoral and the Sea of Oman. We also generally
commented on the geographic, social, racial, lingual,
religious and economic conditions of that region.

Henceforth our discussion will be related to those
civilised regions which bounded the Arabian peninsula of
the time.

These civilised regions could basically be divided
into two parts: in one part consisting of small free
status , linked with the Arabian peninsula and possessing
small local governments, which should however be regarded
Arab settlements though most of them were installed by
great powers. One of these which had parts of Iraq under
its influence was the government of Hira (or the Nu'manis
and Munadherah) under the hegemony of Iran. Another was
Yemen which, being within the Arabian peninsula, had an
independent government. For about 150 or 200 years this
government had been installed either by Iran or Abyssinia
till about the time of the rise of Islam. In the other
part were the states in the western part which included
the present day Jordan and Israel. This was the Ghassani
government which was under the hegemony of Rome. We will
have a short and brief discussion about these three small
governments in their proper place, since these three
states happened to have a significant role in the
contemporary history of the rise of Islam which merits
particular attention.

A) Ancient Iran

The Arabian peninsula of that time was bounded by four
powerful, strong and civilised nations with rather well
established governments. Of these four countries, two
could be rated as first class and the other two as second
class powers. One of the first group was Iran which
extended on one side as far as the Tigris and Euphrates
and Shatt-al-Arab, namely upto the middle of the present
day Iraq and included the Caucasus and the present Iran
itself; and on another flank included Turkestan,
Afghanistan, a part of Pakistan as far as the Hindus
(Sind) River valley. In these regions there lived a
people with a long and civilised past which had undergone
many tribulations and change, and were regarded as the
great neighbours of the Arabian peninsula. The fact is
that if we wish to speak on the basis of common usage,
Arabian peninsula was just a stretch of desert to which
no one paid any attention, and the use of the word
'neighbour' could hardly apply to Iran with its immense
size and grandeur as compared with Arabia. But here the
discussion is not about great or small but only to become
familiar with the geographic neighbours of Arabia.

The second great neighbour was Rome which also
neighboured Iran. It was a great power including northern
Iraq, present day Turkey and the Balkans, and was known
as Eastern Rome. When we mention Rome in this discussion
it implies the Eastern Roman empire, since western Rome
with its seat in Italy neither remained a great power at
that time, nor had any relation with Islam. Of course
western Rome of that time included Italy, a portion of
Yugoslavia, Albania, some part of Spain and even a part
of France, thus Europe of that time was only one country
under Rome. Other peoples living beyond its limits were
called Berbers.[17] Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire
possessed such greatness at that time that it was far
above comparison with the other Rome. Western Rome rose
to greatness after the Muslims had overthrown Eastern
Rome, and the caliphs, namely the Ottoman rulers and
kings, had captured the city of Islambol or
Constantinople. It was then that in the 15th century A.D.
learned men of Eastern Rome fled to Western Rome and
became instrumental in causing the Renaissance and
provided the base for the present civilisation of Europe
and the western world, because during the period which we
are discussing, Western Rome was hardly great and indeed
was regarded as a second rate power.

These were the great neighbours of the Arabian
peninsula. The other two second-rate neighbours were,
firstly, Egypt which included the present day Egypt,
Libya, Tunis and some part of Sudan. Although this
country held some importance from Islam's viewpoint, yet
it was not considered a great power such as Iran and
Rome.

The next neighbouring country was Abyssinia which
included the present day Abyssinia and some part of the
Sudan, In this region, too, there was no powerful
government, though in Islam's times it was an empire with
a considerable past having a civilisation and
characterised by noteworthy social and religious
freedom.[18]

As is evident while surveying these countries, only
two other regions remained in the entire civilised world,
namely China and India, and beyond these two we do not
find any other place in the world which could be termed
civilised, This detail has been mentioned here because
certain people, especially among the educated class
whether in Iran or here in Germany raise the question
whether the prophet brought Islam as a universal
religion, and if so, how much did he know about the world
outside the Arabian peninsula? The answer is: firstly,
that we do not call a person 'prophet' on account of his
having been formally educated or having studied books and
maps etc. A prophet to us is a person who acquires all
the necessary knowledge through divine revelation, and
this is without bounds or limits. Secondly, the Prophet
(a.s.) in his own time, had sent communications to the
rulers of these regions and hence the question whether
the Prophet was aware of the other non Arab nations and
their basic needs would seem to be a childish question.
History has recorded that the Prophet (a.s.), in the
third year of his ordainment, was commanded by God to
make his call to Islam public and declare it to all his
neighbours, relatives and the Quraish. For this purpose
he issued an open invitation inviting all to his house,
and declared that they would soon have a religious code
which would open the gates of the palaces of (Khusrow,
the Emperor of Iran) and of caesar and other rulers. Also
in the sixth year of his ordainment, he sent letters to
the rulers of the three small regions of Hira, Ghassan
and Yemen; first to Bazan king of Yemen, then to Khusrow
Parviz emperor of Iran, then to the emperor of Eastern
Rome, then to the ruler of Egypt (Maquqass), and next to
Najashi (Negus) king of Abyssinia. All these letters have
been recorded in history, and there is no doubt or
question about them. What remains to be said is whether
the Prophet of Islam knew of such places as India and
China or not. Anyone who has the slightest acquaintance
with Arab's history would know that one of the principal
occupations of life for Arab merchants was the
transportation of goods. There they carried from China
and India via the Sea of Oman and Hejaz to Europe, i.e.
Rome. Thus, not only the prophet but Arab traders as well
were familiar with India and China and even their
products such as spices, perfumes, handicrafts and China
ware which were the industrial and agricultural products
of India and China at that time. Trade in such
commodities was a part of the commercial pre-occupation
of the Arabs of that time. Therefore in discussions
should someone raise the question whether the Prophet of
Islam was aware of human civilisations existing in the
world or not, becomes quite irrelevant. It is likely
someone may ask Prophet knew of the inhabited regions of
the earth, though we could not possibly answer this
question, since we do not believe that he know everything
but rather that whatever he needed to know was provided
to him through revelation. I really cannot imagine if the
Prophet (a.s.) needed to know about all these places in
those times.

Geographical Situation

The reason we brought up Iran for discussion is
firstly, there are certain pertinent points about the
Sassanid period such as the rise of the Mazdaki code of
life that needs be studied and emphasised. It is an
interesting discussion which will be pursued for a
comparative analysis subsequently. From the point of view
of natural environments, if we were to compare Iran with
Arabia, it could be said that Arabia as the birthplace of
Islam was a poverty stricken, dry and deprived region
whereas Iran or at least some parts of Iran were
populated, flourishing and affluent. Incidentally, the
areas of the great Iranian plateau which were contiguous
to Arabia were all green and included the western slopes
of the Zagross mountain range and parts of Lorestan,
Bakhtaran, Hamadan and present Kurdestan, as well as part
of Mesopotamia along the banks of the Tigris and
Euphrates, all of which are green and full of palm
groves, so that in those times the Arabs called these
lands the Black Land's. This was so because as of the
dry, sandy deserts came to this part, they would notice a
dark horizon which in fact was the palm groves and other
trees, whereas in their own dwelling places there were
only old trees in the rarely found oases. During one
journey which I happened to have undertaken I noticed how
poverty stricken the region was. Concerning the region
along the east coast of the Red Sea, one comes to realise
how unprivileged it is since despite its proximity to the
Red Sea, no habitation or even a tree could be seen from
Jordan right down to Jedda. The seashore, too, totally
barren, has nothing more to offer than sand and ground. I
don't know whether it is the soil that is bad or the wind
which blows in the direction of Africa and carries the
vapours of the Red Sea towards Africa because if there
were no winds, some of this vapour might have remained to
produce rain fall. However, all the vapour is carried
towards the opposite side of the sea, namely to Somalia
and Abyssinia which derive full benefit. In any case if
we were to make a relative study of the area, it will be
seen that the region which is adjacent to Arabia in the
east is the best part of Iran from the viewpoint of
natural environment next of course to the Caspian Sea
littoral shores which is a thriving and populous region.
It is interesting to know that the average population
density in the regions of Gilan and Mazandaran is 100
persons per square kilometer, whereas for the whole of
Iran the average is 16. The approximate area of these two
provinces is 30,000 square kilometers, and they are so
flourishing and populous that about three million people
live.[19]

Aside from this prosperous region which was not
contiguous to Arabia, the western regions of Iran and
eastern part of Iraq which neighboured Arabia, were
comparatively prosperous and utilizable from the aspects
of climate, vegetation and other environmental factors.

From the viewpoint of area, the border of Iran reached
the Sind River valley including the greater part of
Afghanistan as far as the Oxus and Jaxartes Rivers and
above the Araxes River which included the present
Caucasia upto and including the Shatt-al-Arab. There were
the boundaries of Iran then and hence Arabia stands no
comparison with Iran. At the time of the rise of Islam
and even before that, the eastern regions of Iran were
called Khorassan in general, a name which is derived from
'Khor-Assa' meaning the region of sun rise, owing to its
being situated in the east of Iran. Thus the eastern part
of Iran of those days included Khorassan, soutlhern
Turkestan, Afghanistan, Baluchestan and Sistan, all
ofthem together bearing the name Khorassan.

Civilisation

The Iranian civilisation is considered to be an Aryan
civilisation, having a precedent of eleven and even
twelve centuries prior to the rise of Islam, after having
evolved from a nomadic and tribal society to a central
authority, whereas Hejaz had not till then reached the
stage of a central government. The first government
established in Hejaz was under Islam, whereas the
government of media (Ecbatan) had been set up twelve
centuries before that of Islam, in Hejaz. It will be an
interesting example to quote from an inscription by
Darius at a public works project. This inscription is
naturally composed in a royal and a pompous style usual
in that imperial age, however the content of it is rather
interesting. Darius ruled in the years 550 to 529 B.C.
The first Iranian inscription dates back to his reign,
that is to say prior to him there were no such
inscriptions. After a short period of chaos and disorder,
Darius was able to establish a vast empire in Iran
extending as far as Egypt including the entire region of
Shaam, Syria and Egypt, and had thus become a neighbour
of Greece. At that time the Eastern Roman had not risen,
but there was the Roman Empire in the west which had not
till then gained any importance. In the time of Darius
the two countries of importance were Greece and Egypt.
When Iran conquered Egypt, it also brought Greece under
pressure. In the wars of that time, Darius frequently
waged against the Greeks, he had to employ the sea route
since the Greek territory consisted of a number of
islands and land campaign would not have been feasible.
As the Iranian ships had no access to the Mediterranean,
Darius decided to open a sea way for the Iranian warships
to reach the Greek shores. Thus he ordered a canal dug
which was the precursor of the Suez Canal linking the
Mediterranean Sea via the Nile River to the Red Sea.
Darius describes the history of this canal in an
inscription as follows:

"Ahura-Mazda, the great lord who created the
lofty sky, created Man, created Man's good fortune,
raised Darius to kingship, has assigned to King Darius
this great empire with all these precious horses and
multitudes of people.[20] I am King Darius, great king,
king over many varied races, king over extensive and
remote domains, son of Vishtasb of the Achaemnids; so
declares King Darius: I am a Parsi. I govern Egypt from
Pars. I decreed this canal be dug to link the between a
river called Nile which flows in Egypt to the sea which
reaches Iran.[21] This canal has been dug by my command
and the ships have sailed via this canal from Egypt to
Iran as I had desired."

Thus we see that twelve centuries before the rise of
Islam in Arabia, a great and powerful government existed
as its eastern neighbour. There is little doubt that
amongst the past rulers of Iran Darius was an outstanding
figure from the standpoint of ideas, capabilities and
policies. This is especially true in connection with his
attitude towards the conquered lands since, unlike other
great conquerors of the world, he gave more importance to