The Arab Culture was located in Arabia, a peninsula located between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, in southwestern Asia. Due to its arid climate, Arabia is a desert where agriculture is only possible in some places on the coast and in the interior oases.
Until the seventh century, the Arabian Peninsula was isolated from the great historical centers:it was only a place of passage of the caravan routes that came from the East bringing spices, silks and other merchandise.
The Arabs who inhabited the peninsula was of the Semitic race. Most were Bedouin :nomads dedicated to herding goats and camels. That is why there were few cities in Arabia:Yathrib and Mecca were the most important commercial centers.
Organized into rival tribes, the Arabs did not form a country . Each tribe had its own interests and its own beliefs; some were fetishists; others, on the other hand, polytheists. However, most worshiped a mysterious stone:the Piedra Negra , in the sanctuary of the Kaaba , in Mecca. This rude town was destined to spread a brilliant civilization since it was united by a common religion preached by a prophet:Muhammad .
The birth of Islam
In the year 570 AD was born in Mecca Muhammad . Orphaned at a young age, Muhammad worked as a young man in a caravan company owned by a wealthy widow named Khadija, whom he later married.
Thoughtful and well versed in Judaism and Christianity, Muhammad began to preach a new religion from the year 610. This religion recognized the existence of a single god:Allah .
At first, the inhabitants of Mecca were against the doctrine of Mohammed. Therefore, the year 622 they forced him to flee to the city of Yathrib, which was later called Medina. This flight is known as the Hégira and with it began the Islamic era :Arabic years are counted from that date.
Shortly thereafter, Muhammad recruited an army and conquered Mecca (year 630). So, most of the citizens embraced Islam. Two years later Muhammad died; yet all Arabia was united by his doctrine.
The doctrine preached by Muhammad is Islam , which in Arabic means submission to God , and the followers of him are called Muslims . Islam is a simple doctrine, whose dogma main thing is faith in one God , of which Mohammed is his prophet. In the holy book of Muslims, the Koran , the basic precepts of this religion were established:
- Alms to the brother in need.
- The prayer , which should be done five times a day.
- Fasting during the month of Ramadan.
- The pilgrimage to Mecca, at least once in a lifetime.
- The Holy War against the infidel, to defend Islam.
Allah and the Koran in Arab culture
Although tradition has credited Muhammad with devout piety from a very young age, Muhammad did not have a decisive religious inspiration until he was 40 years old. At that age, tradition tells that the Archangel Gabriel communicated the revelations of Allah to him. These revelations were made to him in rhymed prose and at intervals until his death. Then, all together, they received the name of Koran . The Koran, which is the holy book of Muslims, is divided into 114 chapters, called suras or suras. They contain the dogmas that believers must accept and the laws that form the basis of Islamic law. Among other things, the Koran prohibits drinking alcoholic beverages, eating pork, gambling and the use of images.
The Holy War
The Qur'an established the Holy War as the spread of Islam. The expansion of Islam occurred in a short period of time:in just over a hundred years, Muhammad's conquests spread throughout much of Asia, North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, where the Muslims arrived in 711 AD. Q>
Road to Mecca
At a crossroads, near a rich spring, the Arabs built a small city:Mecca. In this city, a black stone on which the father leaned is venerated to this day. of all the Arabs:Ishmael, son of Abraham. The story goes that this stone is found in a construction called the Kaaba, which means the square house . In ancient times, it was customary for all Arabs to make an annual pilgrimage to Mecca to visit the Kaaba. Nowadays, every Arab who appreciates himself goes at least once in his life to this sanctuary.
Formation of the Arab, Islamic Empire
Islam united the Arab people and launched them into rapid military expansion between the 7th and 8th centuries.
At the death of Mohammed, the direction of Islam was exercised by the caliphs or successors of Muhammad. The first caliphs, called Orthodox, were chosen from among the relatives of the prophet. Under his rule, the capital was the city of Medina and the Muslims took over North Africa, Syria, Palestine, and the Persian Empire.
After the death of Caliph Ali (year 661), the Umayyad family took over the caliphate and converted Damascus in your capital. At this time, the Muslims conquered Morocco and the Iberian Peninsula. In the east they spread to the Indus River and Turkestan.
In the middle of the 8th century, after bloody fights, the family of the Abbasids displaced the Umayyads and moved the capital of the caliphate to Bagdad .
From the 10th century, Islam underwent a process of political disintegration due to religious conflicts, the rise of independent regional dynasties in Spain, Morocco and Egypt, and the invasions of the Turks and Mongols.
The Economy of Arab Culture
The trade it was the main factor of unity that linked the Arab Empire. From the 8th century, the Muslims dominated the sea routes of the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, with its extension to the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. They also controlled the main land routes from Africa and Asia.
In this way, the Arabs monopolized the most precious merchandise:spices from East Asia, precious stones from India, silk from China, and gold and ivory from Sudan. They also had the best fleet of its time and the busiest ports .
The use of their own currency, the gold dinar, made the Arabs independent of the Byzantine economy. On the other hand, to avoid carrying numerous sacks of currency, the Muslims devised two new forms of payment:the bill of exchange and the cheque .
Despite the great importance of commercial activities, agriculture was the main resource of the Arab Culture and reached a remarkable development between the 8th and 10th centuries.
Agriculture was developed, above all, in the western areas of the Mediterranean, because there the Arabs introduced new irrigation techniques :ditches and waterwheels, among many others.
They also introduced new crops , such as sugar cane, apricot, cotton and saffron.
The administration of an Empire
At the head of the huge Islamic or Arab Empire was the caliph, who was the successor of Muhammad and the representative of Allah.
The Qur'an instructed the caliph to order good and forbid evil . His authority was total in the religious aspect and also in the political.
The position of caliph was elective at first:later, the Umayyads made it hereditary.
The great extension of the empire made it necessary to create a broad administration , which was inspired by Byzantine and Persian models:
- In the provinces, the governors, called valies or emirs , they had civil authority and with time, even military.
- The central administration, the viziers or ministers were in charge of directing the main services and collaborated with the caliph. In Spain there existed, between the caliph and the vizier, an intermediate figure, that of the hayib or prime minister.
- For the administration of justice, the caliphs appointed judges or kadis in all the cities of the empire.
The army ensured the great conquests:they enjoyed an excellent organization, in which the cavalry was the main contingent. Under the Umayyads he recruited strictly from the Arabs. The Abbasid caliphs already introduced foreigners and, from the 10th century, mercenary soldiers. .
The Arab cities
After religion, the second characteristic of Arab culture was its enormous urban development. Despite their nomadic origin, the Arabs quickly got used to urban life. Therefore, in contrast to what happened in Christian Europe, in Arab culture cities flourished everywhere. The Arab cities were fundamentally mercantile centers. His life revolved around the mosque, which was the place where he prayed, and the souk or market. Near the mosque was the alcaicería, where precious products from abroad were stored, and in the most important cities there was the mint and the exchange market. Around this nucleus the colorful and labyrinthine commercial streets and also the houses intersected.
Baghdad
The Abbasids moved the capital to Baghdad. From that moment on, Baghdad became the most splendid and populous city in the Arab Empire, only comparable to the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople. Baghdad, the current capital of Iraq, is on the banks of the Trigris River, in a very fertile area where the great trade routes of Asia intersect. It was, at that time, an important river port. Baghdad had two walls and was defended by 28 towers. It was accessed through four doors located at the four cardinal points.
Arab Culture, a culture of synthesis
The Arab culture assimilated different cultures, of the subjugated peoples. In this way they created their own culture, a synthesis of oriental values (Persian, Indian, Chinese) and classical-Hellenistic (collected from Byzantium)
The Arab culture contributed to this synthesis its own mentality, impregnated by its religion and its language, which became the universal expression of its civilization, since all the conquered countries adopted Arabic.
The most important works of Eastern and Greek thinkers were translated into Arabic. On that basis, the Muslim sages carried out their own creations in schools and study centers established in large cities such as Baghdad, Damascus and Cordoba.
Thanks to the translations of the Arabs, the Europeans rediscovered the old roots of their civilization, but they also benefited from the new contributions brought by the Muslims.
This was the case with the use of gunpowder, paper and the compass, which they had learned from the Chinese. Passionate about alchemy Muslim scientists discovered alcohol, potash, and sulfuric acid, among other materials.
Doctors like Rhazes and Avicenna greatly promoted this science. The same thing happened with geography and astronomy . The Arabs contributed to mathematics the number system based on zero, and algebra.
Essential was also the development that thinkers like Averroes gave philosophy , and the dissemination of the thought of Aristotle, who was the most widely read author by the Arabs.
On the other hand, its literature it was brilliant. Influenced by India, they enthusiastically cultivated short stories and stories. An excellent example of this are the stories of the The Thousand and One Nights , written in prose and based on stories and legends of Persian or Hindu origin.
Arab art
Among other things, the Koran prohibited the use of religious images. And although not all the caliphs complied with this prohibition, Arab art was mostly reduced to the field of architecture .
The need to perform common prayer on Fridays, ordered by Mohammed, originated the key monument:the mosque , which was the place where community prayer was held.
In all Arab mosques width predominates over length and columns abound, but there is no unity of styles in the elements used (arches, capitals, decoration), which vary in each country.
However, certain characteristics stand out:
- The use of the dome , learned from Byzantium.
- The use of the horseshoe arch , used by the Persians and the Visigothic kingdom.
- The predominance of decorative elements that were applied to the walls:stone plates, plaster boards or glazed ceramics.
The Mosques
In Arabic mosque is said masdchid , meaning place of worship . And it is that unlike Christian temples, Muslim sanctuaries are centers of prayer, and not the house of God. The ordinary mosque was a simple patio, in which a wall called quibla was marked. facing Mecca, with a small apse, the mihrab , indicating that address. Later, part of this patio was covered and the minbar was added. , which is the pulpit for the imam , in charge of leading the prayer; and the minaret , a tower from which the muezzin, a Muslim priest, summons to prayer. To avoid idolatry, Islam prohibits any human or animal representation in mosques.
Rock Mosque
The oldest surviving monument of Islam is the Mosque of Omar in Jerusalem. Built in the 7th century by Caliph Omar, Muhammad's successor, it is also known as the Mosque of the Rock. This is due to the fact that a rock is venerated inside that tradition relates to the place of sacrifice of Isaac, the son of Abraham, honored by Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. Over the centuries it was also the one from which the Prophet Mohammed had effected his miraculous ascension to heaven.