RISE OF THE MUSLIMS: Writing on the wall

Islamic History

09 Aug 2008, NewAgeIslam.Com

RISE OF THE MUSLIMS: Writing on the wall

Ashok V. Desai on a book about how Islam changed the world     'A black meteoric stone there was the centre of a shrine. That stone is today's Kaaba'   Before the Industrial Revolution, the world was very sparsely settled. Akbar's empire is estimated to have had about 10 crore people — and it was a world power because it was so populous. The entire world's population might have been 50 crore, against 671 crore today.   The small population gave people greater choice of lands to settle down in; more people settled where life was easier — that is, where manual labour gave higher returns. Such areas were flat river beds, where the soil was easy to plough; they were warm, with temperatures between 20 and 40 degrees for long enough to grow a crop; and they were either periodically drenched by floods, like the plain of the Nile, or had enough rainfall for a crop — which could be as low as 10 inches in a cold region and 30 inches in a hot region. Such areas of high agricultural productivity supported a dense population.   Many people did not enjoy the life of unending toil that these fertile areas offered. They preferred to live in the hills or forests nearby and rob farmers in the valleys from time to time. Rather than be killed, raped and robbed by foreign marauders, the valley people preferred to have a regulated robber, otherwise known as king. His moderate robbery was called taxes; with taxes he maintained a band of anti-robbers — paid servants who fought foreign robbers and kept them at bay.   Farmers grew crops, and paid a share in taxes. But crops were difficult to carry to the capital. They were carried or hauled by animals, which too required food. So beyond a point it was uneconomic to collect taxes in grains. As kingdoms grew, kings started exchanging the crop revenue for something more portable; the more value it had per unit of weight, the better. More and more things came to be exchanged for these portable commodities; they thus became money.   There were as many currencies as kings. All could not get hold of metals when necessary, so they created different currencies depending on what metal they could get. Coins lasted for centuries. So soon there was bedlam; there were hundreds of denominations and weights. That led to the emergence of currency traders. As traders, they kept stocks of currency. When someone was short of currency, they would lend it to him.   Once currencies became convertible and loanable, commodities could be traded over vast areas. Thus Indian spices could be eaten by the English, and Chinese silk be worn by Indians. The kings along the way would collect taxes. All along the way came up traders, stockists, moneychangers, transporters, tax collectors — and robbers. These categories were fungible — often, robbers turned tax collectors, transporters or traders, and vice versa.   That is the sort of world in which Arabs lived. Arabs existed before Islam; they were tribes that inhabited the desert to the east of the fertile crescent that extends along the Mediterranean coast from Egypt through Palestine and Syria to Turkey. Outside Nemara, an ancient fort near Damascus (the capital of today's Syria), lies the grave of Imrul-Qays, son of Amr, described as king of Arabs, who died in AD 328 — much before Muhammad was born. Two hundred years later, this area was under Ghassanids, who were governors under the Romans. They held a fair every spring at the shrine of St Sergius where Arabs from the mountains and desert further east would come to pray and celebrate; at that time, those Arabs were obviously Christians sometimes. They were nomads; they kept camels, goats and sheep. They lived in tents. They rode horses. They traded wool and hides for grain, wine and olive oil. And they carried arms — swords and bows — to protect their herds from theft. So they were also equipped for robbery — and probably collected a tribute from the Byzantine settlements to their west in lieu of robbing them.   In the sixth century, gold was discovered in the mountains to the southeast of Palestine. It created purchasing power, and a number of trading centres developed. One of them was Mecca. A black meteoric stone there was the centre of a shrine; the Christians believed the shrine was founded by Abraham. It was managed by the tribe of Quraish, who grew rich on trade between the east and west coasts of the Arabian peninsula. That stone is today's Kaaba.   Muhammad was born in a Quraish family around 570. He is reported to have gone to Syria on a trading expedition, and discussed religion with Christian monks there. Then, around 600, he began to preach that there was only one god, and that god had sent a message to him through angel Gabriel. He also taught that after death, men would be judged; the virtuous would go to a heaven replete with material luxuries, and the wicked to a burning hell.   The Meccans did not relish this message. In 622, however, Muhammad received an invitation from Medina, 200 miles to the north. Medina was scoured by feuds; Muhammad was called as a peacemaker. Thus he acquired a fiefdom. The Quraish of Mecca were quite upset, and conflict soon began between Medina and Mecca. After a number of battles, Muhammad took over Mecca in 630. Two years later he died — before he could convert many beyond Medina and Mecca.   Islam was a great religion to belong to: it was simple and democratic. But it could not be an imperial religion, for it did not allow taxation of Muslims. That is why the Bedouin tribal armies spread out and conquered Syria, Egypt and Iraq under the first caliphs. They collected taxes from newly conquered territories, but did not convert the people to Islam; often they restored the defeated kings and made them pay tributes. Stories of conversion at swordpoint are misplaced; conversions came later, and were mostly voluntary because Muslims paid no taxes — and could, by joining the army, share in booty from conquered regions and become rich. India's partial conversion took seven centuries; and even at its end, many Hindu kings survived as tributaries. That is the beginning of the story told by Hugh Kennedy in The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In (Da Capo Press). There is more, but this is all there is space for.   Tuesday , July 29 , 2008 http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080729/jsp/opinion/story_9599868.jsp