From: Tyagi@HouseOfKaos.Abyss.com Subject: Islam5:Mecca Date: Fri, 7 Jan 94 15:34:53 PST 940107 Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Assalam alaikum, my kin. This is part 5 in a continuing series on Islam and Sufism. ----------------------------------------------------- On Arabian conditions prior to Muhammad's birth, Moojan Moman writes: "The emergence of Muhammad and the religion of Islam must be seen against the background of the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh century AD. Whether nomads or settled in towns, the people of Arabia were divided into tribes and the individual's loyalty was first and foremost to the tribe or the clan within the tribe to which he belonged. Honour, marriage, social status and friendship were all determiend by one's tribe and one's position in the tribe. These tribes were frequently at war with one another and feuds could go on for generations with tribal honour demanding that blood revenge or blood money should be obtained for each death caused by the conflict. Bearing arms and fighting for one's tribe were the greatest marks of honour for men. If one did not belong to a powerful tribe, then it was necessary to obtain the protection of a powerful tribe, otherwise one's life was at risk. Sometimes one tribe would ally itself with another against its enemies. "The majority of inhabitants of the peninsula were engaged in pastoral or agricultural pursuits, either as nomads or settled in one of a small number of towns. The other important economic factor was the presence of a trade route along the western side of the peninsula linking India with Syria and Byzantium. "Most of the tribes had a prmitive form of worship and prayed to deities in the form of idols made of stone and wood. Both Christianity and Judiasm had, however, made some inroads in the peninsula and a number of Jewish tribes existed. "Among the Arab tribes there were certain places that were regarded as shrines and each had a sanctuary around it. Within the sanctuary, usually at a particular time of the year, the tribes would gather and put aside their feuding for a time while they celebrated a festival related to that shrine. These festivals were important occasions for trade, cultural activities such as poetry reading and for the setlement of disputes and feuds. The custodians of these shrines thus became prominent persons and were frequently used to settle blood feuds by acting as arbitrators. "One such shrine in Arabia was the Ka'ba in Mecca. The Ka'ba became the repository for the idols of many of the tribes and a yearly festival was held at 'Ukaz nearby. Muhammad himself came from the family of the custodians of the Ka'ba. His ancestor, Qusayy, was said to have seized the Ka'ba from its previous custodians and established his tribe, Quraysh, as the most important tribal group in Mecca and his family as the most important family in Quraysh. In his family was vested the custodianship of the Ka'ba together with the responsibility for providing with food and water the pilgrims who came to the shrines. "The sons and grandsons of Qusayy extended and increased the influence of their family and of Mecca. They instituted two great trade journeys, one in the winter to the Yemen in the south to trade with the ships coming from India on the Monsoon winds and one in the summer to the north to trade in Syria with the Byzantines. In order to do this, they had to establish a number of treaties and alliances with other tribes through whose territory they needed to pass. This process greatly increased the importance of Mecca as the focal point of the trade routes. "By the time of Muhammad's birth, Mecca was a very important centre and the power of the Quraysh tribe paramount. Muhammad's own family line, although retaining some of its ancestral priveleges, had, however, lost much of its power and influence to other clans within the Quraysh such as the Umayya and Makhzum families." _An Introduction to Shi'i Islam_, 1985, Yale University Press; pages 1-2. ---------------------------------------------------------------- On the atmosphere of Muhammad's revelation, John Alden Williams writes: "Muhammad's revelations began in the seventh century A.D. in the stony valley of Mecca, a well-watered stage on the ancient spice-and-incense road which connected South Arabia and the trade of the Indian Ocean with the civilizations of the Mediterranean world. It was a confused and lawless time. The ancient civilization of South Arabia had broken down, and its daughter-culture, Abyssinia, now Christianized from Egypt, had invaded South Arabia from across the Red Sea. In the North, the Christian Byzantine Empire was engaged in a centuries-old war with the Zoroastrian Persian Empire which was to bleed them both white. In the Arabian peninsula, dependent on the diminishing caravan trade between South and North, tribal wars, anarchy, economic decline and increasing camel-nomadism were the rule. Judaism, Manicheism, and Christianity were penetrating slowly into the peninsula, and scattered communities of Jews and Christians could be found there, but most of the Arabians clung to the idols of their ancestors. "In these lean times, one tribe, the Quraysh, held Mecca and exercised a loose hegemony over the tribes of Western and Central Arabia. They controlled what was left of the trade of the incense road, as well as one of the chief cultural centers of North Arabia - a little temple called the Ka'ba, where all the gods were honored, but which was especially sacred to the Creator, Allah (El), who was seen as the father and king of the other gods." _Islam_, J.A.Williams, pages 59-60. -------------------------------------------------------------- Part 5 in a continuing series. Alaikum assalam, my kin. Love is the law, love under will. Haramullah (Allah's Woman) Tyagi@HouseofKaos.Abyss.com