History of Africa

Arab Civilization - The history of the Arabs

The Arab or Islamic civilization emerged in the Middle East, on a desert peninsula located between Asia and Africa. It is an area of ​​approximately one million square kilometers, with hundreds of thousands covered by a huge desert, dotted with a few oases and a mountain range to the west. Only a narrow strip on the southern coast of the peninsula has land suitable for agriculture.

Until the sixth century, Arabs lived in tribes, without a centralized state. In the interior of the peninsula there were nomadic tribes of Bedouin, who lived mainly from herding and commerce. Sometimes they fought over the possession of an oasis or the leadership of a trade route. It was also common to attack caravans carrying items from the East to be traded in the Mediterranean Sea or the Red Sea.

Despite being dispersed over a large territory, the Arabs built some cities, among which the most important were located to the west, in the mountainous part of the Arabian Peninsula. They were:Latribe, Taife and Mecca, all at the confluence of the caravan routes that reached the Red Sea. The city of Mecca was, without a doubt, the most outstanding, because, as the religious center of all the Arabs, thousands of believers gathered there, which made their trade even more intense.

Although they were polytheists and worshiped several deities, the idols of all the tribes were gathered in a temple, called the Kaaba, located in the center of Mecca. The building, which still exists today, resembles a cube and, like the administration of the city, was under the care of the Quraysh tribe.

Mohammed the Prophet

Muhammad, who would cause enormous transformations in his people and in the world, was born around 570, in the mighty tribe of the Quraysh.

Having been a caravan guide for a long time, Muhammad traveled through Egypt, Palestine and Persia, discovering new religions such as Judaism and Christianity. The great transformation of his life took place when, already well established economically, he divulged that he had had a vision of the angel Gabriel - an entity of the Christian religion - in which he had revealed to him the existence of a single god. The word god in Arabic is Allah.

He then began to preach Islam, that is, total submission to Allah, with the consequent elimination of all other idols. Believers in the new religion were called Muslims or Mohammedans.

The revelation made to Mohammed and all his preaching are gathered in the Koran, the holy book of Muslims and the first text written in Arabic. In addition to total submission to Allah, the Qur'an records the following fundamental rules for Muslims:pray five times a day facing Mecca; fasting regularly; give alms; make a pilgrimage at least once in a lifetime to Mecca. With the teachings of Mohammed, other rules of individual and social behavior were also installed, such as the prohibition of consuming pork, playing games of chance and reproducing the human figure, in addition to defending the father's authority in the family and the permission of the male polygamy.

The Meccans, fearful of losing trade, the caravans of believers heading to the Kaaba, began to persecute Muhammad, and most of the city's Arab population did not adhere to their monotheism. Mohammed was then forced to flee to Latribe, which became Medina, a name that means the "city of the prophet". This flight, which took place in 622, is called heregy and indicates the beginning of the Muslim calendar, having for these people the same meaning as the birth of Christ has for Christians.

Gradually, the number of believers in Allah increased and, supported by this force, Mohammed began to preach the Holy War, that is, the expansion of Islam, through force, to all "infidel" peoples. The great stimulus was given by the belief that Allah's warriors would be rewarded with paradise if they perished in the fight, or with a share in the plunder of conquered cities if they survived. The Holy War served to unify the Arab tribes and became one of the main factors in allowing the further expansion of Islam.

Muslim Expansion

After Muhammad's death, he was replaced by the caliphs - the "successors of the prophet" - who were religious and political leaders. With the caliphs began the expansion of Muslim civilization, motivated mainly by the need for fertile land that the population increase in the Arabian Peninsula after the unification of the tribes demanded.

Islamic warriors, driven by a belief in an afterlife and earthly rewards, advanced quickly, taking advantage of the weakness of their Persian and Byzantine neighbors. Characterized, in general, by respect for the customs of the vanquished peoples, Muslims dominated the entire Arabian Peninsula. Expanding eastwards, they reached India and, extending towards the Mediterranean Sea, conquered North Africa and part of the Iberian Peninsula.

Although the Muslim advance in Europe was stopped at the Battle of Poitiers, in 732, by the Frankish Charles Martel, the Arabs still managed to conquer the Balearic Islands, Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia. The spread of Muslim dominions across the Mediterranean hampered Western European trade with the East. This was one of the factors that contributed to the isolation of the Christian barbarian kingdoms that returned even more to an agricultural and rural economy, which contributed to the formation of feudalism.

The tolerance of Muslims towards the conquered peoples allowed them to achieve great economic and cultural progress, because, using elements of their own and other cultures, they developed valuable knowledge and techniques until today. This was the case with the use of the compass and the manufacture of paper and gunpowder, learned from the Chinese and introduced to the West. Due to the enormous extension of their empire, the Arabs established the cultivation of agricultural products, such as sugar cane, cotton, rice, oranges and lemons. In the field of science they developed Mathematics, with many contributions to Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry and Astronomy. The numerals that we use today are a transformed Indian heritage and transmitted to Westerners by the Arabs, hence they are called Arabic. Even the word numeral derives from the Arabic language. The Medicine they developed was based on the knowledge of the Greeks.

Centuries later, the Turks, originally from Central Asia and followers of Islam, conquered most of the Muslim domains. They formed in the 14th century the Turkish Empire, which encompassed these domains and ended up, after several attempts, conquering the Byzantine Empire, with the capture of Constantinople in 1453.

Arab Civilization