UNDERSTANDING THE MIDDLE EAST:
History, Religion, and the Clash of Cultures
400 pages
Copyright © 2007 by Beechmont Crest Publishing
First edition, 2007
0-9748330-6-1
C H A P T E R 2:
The Birth and Rise of Islam
Islam arose in the seventh century A.D. on the Arabian Peninsula, the land mass that is today Saudi Arabia, and the smaller countries of Oman, Yemen, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. None of these nations existed in the time of Mohammed, the Holy Prophet and founder of Islam. Traditionally, the Arabian Peninsula had been referred to simply as “Arabia”----a term that persisted well into the twentieth century.
Mohammed was born into a violent and unforgiving environment. The Arabia of the Middle Ages was a sparsely populated, lawless land. The harsh climate kept the peninsula’s Bedouin nomads constantly on the move, in search of the basic resources needed for sustenance in the desert. Life in Arabia’s scattered cities was also difficult. Throughout the land, mortality rates were high, even by the standards of the seventh century.
With no central authority and few institutions, Arabia was dominated by the independent clans that established themselves in the open desert as well as in the cities. The clans eyed each other with constant suspicion. Most clans existed in a state of constant or intermittent war. For a young man, participating in his first raid against a rival clan could be an important rite of passage into adulthood.
Despite its brutality, however, clan life was the individual’s only hope for survival. The clan provided food, protection, and when necessary---revenge. When a member of the clan was killed by a member of another group, the victim’s leaders would respond by killing a random member of the murderer’s clan. The fusion between the clan and the individual was so complete that a punishment against the specific perpetrator of an offense was seldom deemed necessary, as long as the individual’s clan was punished. All actions were taken in the context of the group.
Copyright 2005 Beechmont Crest Publishing
