With supplementary discussions on Monotheism and Southwest Asia

I. PREFACE: Inheritor of Two Traditions

A. Axial Age and the Monotheistic Revolution
B. The Shifting States and Empires of Southwest Asia

II. Ibn Khaldun’s Constant: Asabiya

III. The Prophet

IV. Rise of Islam

A. The Question of Succession
B. The Golden Age of Islam
C. Fragmentation and Consolidation
Being our last lecture for the semester, this presentation also
aims to do the following:

1. Tie in and synthesize a lot of previously mentioned

concepts together that will enhance your understanding
of Indian and Chinese history, and civilization in general.

2. Present Asia as a coherent and connected whole that will:

3. Provide a foundation for our activities in the 3rd Quarter

which focuses on the Asian continent as a modern and
thriving civilization even before the coming of the West.
 INHERITOR OF TWO
TRADITIONS (I):

AXIAL AGE AND THE

MONOTHEISTIC REVOLUTION
1. All occurred in or near the original river valley civilizations.
This meant that the material preconditions were present for
the development of religion and thought.

2. Each revolution in thought was born during a period of crisis

or instability. Old orders were breaking down and there was a
demand for a new standard of behaviour – ethics.

3. Axial Age revolutions can be counted on the fingers of one

hand. This does not mean that religion and thought stopped
evolving, but that most breakthroughs and advances either (a)
occurred within the original tradition, or (b) is a combination
of several other traditions.
Monotheism is the belief in
one God.

It is an idea that is older than

the Hebrews, but it is in them
we see the earliest and
clearest expression.

Moreover, the Hebrew

traditions would pave the way
for Judaism, Christianity and
Islam.
The Hebrews belong to the Semitic language group of people.
Other semitic people include: Akkadians, Aramaeans, Amorites,
Phoenicians, and the early Arabs. (Semites = son of Shem, one of
Noah’s sons)

“Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, son of

Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son
Abram, and brought them out of Ur of the Chaldeans,
to go to the land of Canaan.” (Gen. 11:31)

This suggests a migration of the Hebrew people from

Mesopotamia to Syria around 1900 to 1500BCE.
Around 1250BCE, the Hebrews found a leader in Moses. His story
would end in the forging of the Hebrew’s covenant with Yahweh.

“Thou shalt not have other gods before me.”

In terms of Hebrew religious development, this is the first major

shift: from polytheism to monolatry.

Characteristics of monolatry:
1. transcendent theology
2. moral precepts, rituals, and tabus
1050 Invasion of the Philistines

1025 Saul unites the tribes of

Israel into one kingdom

The kingdom then reaches its peak

under David (1000 – 961) and
Solomon (961 – 922).
Solomon’s demise fractured
the kingdom into two:
Kingdom of Israel (north)
and Kingdom of Judah
(south).

Relatively weak as a whole,

the kingdoms were weaker
apart.

In 722, Israel fell to the

Assyrians. In 586, Judah fell
to the Babylonians.
Prophetic Revolution
As the kingdom of Israel was under threat, a new generation of
preachers began to speak of a new message.

1. Thorough-going monotheism
2. God is righteous
3. He demands ethical behaviour

Justice and ethics were put at the forefront of Hebrew life.

Their message is similar to the Buddha’s commentary on Hindu

materialism, and Chinese philosophy’s arguments about social
chaos and disorder.
PSALM137
1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
2 There on the poplars
we hung our harps,
3 for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of
joy;
they said, "Sing us one of the songs of
Zion!"
4 How can we sing the songs of the LORD
while in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill .
6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my
mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem
my highest joy.
7 Remember, O LORD, what the Edomites
did
on the day Jerusalem fell.
"Tear it down," they cried,
"tear it down to its foundations!"
8 O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to
destruction,
happy is he who repays you
for what you have done to us-
9 he who seizes your infants
and dashes them against the rocks.
Post-Exilic Age
Upon being liberated by the Persians in 539BCE, the Israelites
rebuild the Temple. They last until 332BCE.

Message of the Post-Exilic Age:

1. Eschatological doctrines, or thoughts on the end of time.
o The coming of a Messiah

These beliefs complete the doctrines of Judaism. They hold on

tightly to their faith as they wait, committing their learnings and
experiences to writing.
SUMMARY

1. The Hebrew experience with Monotheism eventually leads

to the three primary monotheistic religions in the world:
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

2. There are four stages in the development of Hebrew religion

that correspond to key events in their history
a. Polytheistic stage
b. Monolatry
c. Prophetic revolution
d. Post-exilic age
 INHERITOR OF TWO
TRADITIONS (II):

THE SHIFTING STATES AND

EMPIRES OF SOUTHWEST ASIA
Islam was born in a desert
town, but its story stretched
far beyond the borders of the
Arabian peninsula.

Understanding its history will

require a comprehension of
the size and scale of the Asian
continent.

The following section is an overview of the history of Southwest

Asia up until the major empires that surrounded Arabia at the
dawn of Islam.
NORTHERN ZONE
A complex recorded history of
states and empires revolving
NORTHERN ZONE
around Mesopotamia.
Mesopotamia
Persian Empire
SOUTHERN ZONE
Home to smaller empires that
SOUTHERN ZONE
traded across the Red Sea to
The Incense Road
the Arabian Sea, interacting
with Egypt and Greece.
ARABIAN PENINSULA
The Bedouin
ARABIAN PENINSULA
A tribal desert society that
flourished through trade
between north and south.
Mesopotamian civilization (3200 to 539BCE) is
founded between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
It is a succession of nations that built on the
achievements of the one before.
People Highlights
Sumerians • Had the earliest cities
3200 – 2000 BCE • Invented: the wheel, writing (cuneiform), lunar
calendar, the ziggurat as the city center
• Introduced irrigation
Amorites • Also called Old Babylon
2000 – 1600 BCE • A Semitic people that conquered Akkad
• Hammurabi (ruled 1792-1750BCE)
• Known for: The Epic of Gilgamesh, mathematics,
division of time: duodecimal system
Assyrians • Splendid city of Nineveh
1300 – 612 BCE • Superb and unmatched warriors of the time
Chaldeans • Also called New Babylon
612 – 539 BCE • Advances in architecture and astronomy
1. Cities were planned and
administered by a
pateshi (priest king).

2. Believed in
anthropomorphic gods.

3. Legally had social

classes: nobles,
commoners, and slaves.

4. Had a rich written

tradition.
Mesopotamia came to an end in 539BCE
by the hand of the Persian Empire.
 Persia is modern-day Iran.

It’s earliest inhabitants are the Elamites (2800 – 550BCE) who

would often feud with the Babylonians and Assyrians.

More influential, however, have been the Aryans who came into
Iran around 1100BCE. Of these people, the Medes and the
Persians were most prominent.
Achaemenid Empire (550 to 330 BCE) founded by Cyrus the Great
Parthian Empire (247 BCE to 220 CE)
Contributions to World History

1. Zoroastrianism – Often considered the earliest monotheistic

religion, it speaks of a conflict between asha (truth, order) and
druj (the lie, chaos).

2. Universalism – Incredibly tolerant of other cultures (at least

by standards of their time), followed a ‘One World Policy’, and
called their king the Shahanshah or King of Kings.

3. Effective Imperial Administration – They divided their lands

into satrapies (governed by a satrap), a monarchy with a noble
class, professional armies, taxation systems, and even banking.
Trade in aromatics (such as frankincense and myrrh) and spices
connected ancient Arabia, Egypt, India, and Africa.

Note: Mecca was one of the

key cities along this route.
The Incense Road connects with the Silk Road.
TRIVIA: Who were the ‘Three Wise Men’?
From the Gospel of Matthew: “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time
of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, Where is the one who has
been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him...
On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down
and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of
gold and of incense and of myrrh.”
A Magi was an astronomer
and a follower of Zoroaster.

To the east of Judea is

Persia.

Gold, frankincense and

myrr were all goods traded
along the Incense Road.
 II

IBN KHALDUN’S CONSTANT:

ASABIYA
He is the father of modern-day historiography
and the social sciences.

Lived a storied life from 1336 to 1406. He

travelled extensively throughout the Muslim
world, serving different courts in different
capacities.

In two key points in his career, he witnessed the

instability and chaos caused by two warring
dynasties in North Africa, the Marinids and
Hafsids.

Up until the end of his life, he was lecturing and

teaching about his theories on history. One of his
last students was Timur (aka Tamerlane), the
great Asian empire builder.
Ibn Khaldun noticed that the rise and fall of dynasties followed a cycle.

The city reaches a

period of prosperity and
prominence
Leaders grow either
weak, lax, corrupt, or all
three; Primary cause is
luxury

A dynasty establishes its

power in a city
Tribes in the periphery
gather in strength and
number

At its weakest, the city is

overrun by invading tribes
Asabiya is often translated as “group feeling” and as a
quantity it determines how well one group can work
together.

It is a feeling of belonging to something that is expanding, and

expansion can only come about through effective leadership.

Ibn Khaldun observed:

Desert tribes have higher asabiya than city dwellers

Groups with higher asabiya will dominate groups with

lower asabiya

There are factors that can increase or decrease asabiya

Band Tribe Chiefdom State
Band Tribe Chiefdom State
 WHY A TRIBE HAS HIGHER ASABIYA
Share common blood ties
Driven by the shared need to survive
Have to utilize fewer resources
Encounters competition from other tribes

WHY A CITY HAS LOWER ASABIYA

Not everyone is related by blood

Job specialization and diversification
Thriving intellectual life allows for a variety of views
Luxury, wealth, status, and class set people apart
Band Tribe
Government is more distant and decisionChiefdom State
making is delegated to a few

Asabiya is indirectly proportional to the increasing complexity of society.

So how can asabiya be increased or improved?

Ibn Khaldun suggests two ways:

1. Religion This creates a group feeling among people who are

not related by blood.
2. Royal authority This directs the energies of a people
towards a common purpose.

What do YOU think are other ways asabiya can be enhanced?

My own suggestions:
 Political ideology
 National identity
The next two slides were real scenarios in history.
I’d like you to think of how the concept of asabiya
can explain what happened in these.

I am leaving these to you for independent use. I

encourage group discussion on this since there
are many possible ways to analyze and use
asabiya.

I’ll be asking for your insights here in either

Special Essay #2 or the Periodic Exam, or both.
By 600CE, at the dawn of Islam’s birth,
The Christian Byzantine Empire in Europe and the Zoroastrian
Sasanid Empire were exhausting each other through a rivalry that
would end by 627.

In the Arabian peninsula, the caravan town of Mecca was quickly

becoming a prosperous trading center, ushering in urban and
commercial changes that put pressure on traditional institutions.

Throughout Arabia were the Bedouin tribes who lived on herding

and sporadic raids (ghazu) on settlements and caravans.
Pre-Islamic Arabia

Tribes were bound together by the muruwah spirit which

emphasized courage in battle, patience in suffering, and vengeance
to protect the tribe.

Most of the tribes were polytheistic, and Mecca served not only as a
trading center but a place for the different tribes to house their idols
in the Kabah.

Tribes living closer to the Byzantine and Persian empires were

exposed to Judaism and Christianity, thus the concept of a
monotheistic faith is not alien to the Arabs.

The Bedouin were gifted poets; oral recitation was a sacred ritual.
Just three things:
1. What was Arabia like before the coming of Islam?

2. What was Muhammad like as a person?

3. How was monotheism a radical idea at that time?

Muhammad (570 to 632BCE) was raised an orphan in
a less well-to-do tribe called the Quraysh.

He married Khadija and exposed himself to the

commercial lifestyle in Mecca.

However, he grew increasingly troubled by the idolatry,

worldliness, and lack of social conscience around him.

This opened him up to a profound religious experience

that would change his life when he was 40 years old.
First of all, Muhammad wasn’t well
received in his home town of Mecca.

His preaching against their traditional

gods and goddesses threatened both
(a) their ancestral ways and (b) the
Meccan pilgrimage shrine and the
lucrative trade it attracted.

He fled Mecca in 622 for the town of

Yathrib (later Medina) who requested
his wisdom in helping them resolve a
conflict.
The migration to Medina in 622 is
called the hijrah. It is the start of the
Muslim calendar and the beginning of
the first ummah.

Allegiance to the ummah

Honesty in public and personal affairs
Modesty in personal habits
Abstention from alcohol and pork
Fair division of inheritances
Improved treatment of women
Careful regulation of marriage and
divorce
Muslim faith is concretized in the Five Pillars of Islam
which had an underlying social justice message.

I. Shahadah (profession of faith)

II. Zakat (charity)
III. Sawm (fasting)
IV. Salat (ritual prayer)
V. Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca)

Muhammad made faith and harmony among people

accessible so long as they ‘submit’ to Allah.
In addition, Muhammad did not see himself as the
initiator of a new tradition, but the ‘restorer’ of the
original message of God.

I. The unity of God

II. Angels
III. Scriptures (the Quran)
IV. Prophet-messengers
V. The Last Day

They regarded Jews and Christians as ‘The People of the

Book’ who were spiritually superior over the polytheists.
In 630, Muhammad
triumphantly returns to
Mecca.

He casts out idols from

the Kabah, declaring the
supremacy of the one
true God.

A tribal confederation is
bound by personal
allegiance to Muhammad
and submission to God.
After Muhammad dies in 632, the question
immediately turns to who will succeed him.

Abu Bakr, his most gifted student, assumes command

of the ummah. He is called the caliph.

“O Men, if you have been worshipping Muhammad,

then know that Muhammad is dead. But if you have
been worshipping Allah, then know that Allah is
living and never dies.”

With this, the ummah transcends loyalty to a

particular person, but to God himself.
However, some contested that the successor should
be a relative of the prophet.

His closest relative, his cousin Ali, became the caliph

in 656 but was largely contested by rival parties.

He was murdered in 661 and his bloodline was

eradicated when his son, Husayn, was murdered at
Karbala, in Iraq, at the year 680.

Loyalists (partisans, Shia) of Ali claim he is the true

imam. Other claimants to the title imam soon
followed.
 Jihad is mistakenly
translated as ‘holy
war’. It simply means
‘struggle’.

It can refer to a
person’s internal
struggle against
temptation and sin.

It can also refer to an external struggle against those

who may invade or harm the Dar al-Islam (the Abode of
Islam).
1. The Byzantine and Persian empires were weak and vulnerable.

2. Islam bound the once separated tribes together. Coupled with

their experience in warfare, this contributed to incredibly high
asabiya.

3. Other people were ready to accept Islam, especially with its

emphasis on having no clergy and focus on social justice.

4. Muslims were tolerant and protected their subjects. They did

not force conversion and allowed others to continue with their
own faith and laws provided they pay a tax (jizyah).

5. Muslims adopted existing systems of government and trade.

The Umayyad and Abbasid periods are considered “The
High Caliphate” where a politically strong, culturally
vibrant, and economically wealthy system led to a
“Golden Age” for Islam.
During the Abbasid dynasty, the following emerged:

1. Ulama (“persons of right knowledge”) argued that Muslim

law must be derived from the practices (sunnah) and sayings
(hadith) of the Prophet Muhammad, the Perfect Man.

2. Shariah law became the Muslim’s definitive guide for legal,

social, commercial, political, ritual and moral concerns.

3. Sunni Islam was concretized, following three prinicples

1. The umma is a theocracy, ruled by shariah law
2. The caliph is charged with administering the ummah and
protecting the Dar al-Islam.
3. A person who professes the shahadah is a Muslim, and those
who commit a mortal sin is excluded from the ummah.
Note these three things as you watch:
1. What is the significance of Baghdad?

2. How did the House of Wisdom bring people together?

3. What were some of the achievements in Baghdad?

We will be watching a clip of President Barack
Obama’s speech to the Muslim world delivered
last June 4.

Observe how he uses history to express his

respect for the Muslim world and reaffirm their
common ties.
We will be watching a clip of President Barack
Obama’s speech to the Muslim world delivered
last June 4.

Observe how he uses history to express his

respect for the Muslim world and reaffirm their
common ties.
In the final years of the Abbasid, the caliphate weakened as
power devolved to local leaders such as the amir and religious
authorities such as the ulama.

One can argue that Islam has a historical tendency to be

fragmented (as opposed to China which had a tendency towards
unification).

1. Islam is egalitarian; the Quran never really talks about

centralized authority.
2. Muslims were an inherently mercantile people. Trade and
commerce would flourish with or without the state.
The Muslim world was embroiled in a In 1216, Genghis Khan leads the
conflict with Christianity. From 1095 Mongols into Persia and
to 1291, the Holy Roman Empire Mesopotamia. By 1258, Baghdad is
fought to seize control of Jerusalem. burned and looted.
Between 1450 and 1650, Islamic culture and statecraft
blossomed. Instead of one universal empire however, there
emerged three, distinctively “Islamic” states.

I. Ottoman Empire in the Middle East

II. Safavid Empire in Iran
III. Mughal Empire in India

By 1700, Islamic civilization was as strong and vital as Europe, Ming

China, and Tokugawa Japan.
I. Introduction to Civilization

II. History of India

III. History of China

IV. History of Islama