History and effects of the “greatest political revolution of the ancient world.” The founding of Islam and the first Arab conquests, the Islamic kingdoms in Egypt, Spain, and Sicily. At the beginning of the 7th century, Mohammed(SW)(the Italianized name of Muhammad) began his preaching in Mecca and founded a new monotheistic religion: Islam. From this context, you will know, What was the first religion? So, let’s have a look.
Getting know: what was the first religion?
At the time, the Arabian peninsula not very urbanized. The population that lived there was organized in tribal clans and mainly engaged in pastoralism and commercial activities. The arm was, in fact, a transit place for goods between Asia and the Mediterranean. Mecca was the most important commercial center, dominated by the Qurayshite clan. Who had elected the Ka’ba as a place of worship for all the divinities of the peninsula and a pilgrimage destination?Â
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Various religions, polytheisms, and animisms coexisted in the Arabian peninsula, together with some Christian and Jewish communities.
What next about ISLAM
In this context, when Muhammad proposed a new monotheism and an act of submission to Allah as the only God. It was not well received by the Meccan oligarchy, interested in keeping the political-religious situation of the city unchanged. Together with his first followers, in 622, Muhammad, therefore, moved to Yathrib (later renamed Medina). There the Prophet became a real political leader, and the first nucleus of the Islamic community (the umma ) was forming. Later Muhammad returned to Mecca. In 624, he replaced it in Jerusalem as an orientation point for prayer. There too, after a few years of conflict and diplomatic negotiations with local clans, most of the tribes converted to Islam.Â
Important things we should know about what was the first religion
From that moment on, the spread of the new monotheism and the territorial conquests of the Arabs were rapid and vast. Upon Muhammad’s death in 632, Islam now united Arabs in common religious faith and a politically cohesive community. Â
In the years immediately following the Prophet’s death, the leadership of the Islamic community was assumed by four caliphs who, quickly succeeding one another. Began the construction of what would become a great Islamic empire, extending from Persia to the Iberian Peninsula. The first Arab conquests brought about the end of the weakened Persian empire led by the Sassanid dynasty and a radical downsizing of the Byzantine empire, which lost Egypt and Syria.
The speed and effectiveness of Islamic expansion have some main historical reasons:
- the Arab army was well organized; several of its generals had fought and trained in the armies of Byzantium and the Sassanid empire;
- the Persian and Byzantine empires were weak and divided ;
- some of the populations who lived under previous empires, tired of the tax burden, welcomed the Arabs as liberators.
At the beginning of the expansion, the Arabs kept the administrative and fiscal organization inherited from the previous empires in the conquered territories. Christians and Jews were able to preserve their religious traditions in exchange for the payment of a tax. In the beginning, the Arabs were a military elite, partially separated from the rest of society.
The process of mutual assimilation began between the newcomers and the local populations.Â
Therefore In the eighth century, non-Arabs who converted to Islam were admitted to the army. At the same time, Arab militias began to settle in the provinces. The Arabic language spread as a common language, and the new religion, embraced by most locals, formed a central element of the political and cultural unity of the new empire.
Umayyad dynasty (660-750) and Abbasid dynasty (750-945)
Let’s take a step back and return to the 7th century, at the beginning of the history of the caliphate. During the reign of the first four caliphs, the government of the provinces entrusted to governors (emirs), assisted by a guard and a judge. Through the emirs, the caliphs maintained a firm central government of power.Â
Therefore The office became hereditary, and with Othman (644-656) began the dynasty of the Umayyad clan (660-750). Under the Umayyads, the Arabs continued expansion by conquering North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, often finding a good reception from the local population. Therefore They moved the capital to Damascus and attacked Constantinople, but defeated by the Byzantines in 678. Under the Umayyad dynasty, the Arabs reached the Indus.
Support of the Shiites – what was the first religion
Therefore The Abbasids seized power in the mid-8th century, killing the last Umayyad caliph. In 762, Caliph Al-Mansur founded Baghdad, making it the capital of an empire reorganized on the model of the absolute Eastern monarchy. Therefore The adequate power was concentrated in the hands of the officials, who also managed to make their own offices hereditary, founding dynasties. The composition of the army had changed again. Therefore The soldiers were then mostly mercenaries, mainly Turks. With the Abbasids, Baghdad became a thriving cultural center, where doctors, philosophers, and scientists from all over meet.
A final word on what was the first religion
Therefore The conquest of Sicily was particularly slow. After the landing in Mazara and the victory against the Byzantines near Corleone. The Islamic army made up of Arabs, Berbers, and Andalusians headed for Syracuse. Therefore Which would have resisted the conquest for decades. In 831, Palermo also fell, which in a short time would become one of the great metropolises of Islam. Thanks for reading. I hope you are enjoying this article.
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