A Day in 'The Holy City'

Here is a short essay I wrote for my Islamic Thought and Practice class.

Essay 1: The Islamic Revolution

            During the time of Muhammad, around 570-632 AD, the Arabian Peninsula was introduced to a variety of cultures and religious ideas, via the trade routes running from the Spice Road to the coast. The main Empires towards the north of the Arabian Peninsula both practiced monotheism, Christianity in Byzantium and Zoroastrianism in Sassanid. To the south west, Arabia was influenced by the country of Yemen, which was polytheistic.

            Arabia, populated largely by Bedouin or tribal clans of “Camel Nomads,” practiced a polytheistic paganism which held that the gods manifested themselves in natural objects, such as trees or rocks. An example of this is the worship of the Ka’aba stone in Mecca, which was being performed before the rise of Islam. The first major change that Muhammad’s religion brought to the Arabian Peninsula was to denounce polytheism, and to propose the idea of monotheism towards one of the local gods, Allah. This was borrowed largely from the Jewish population in the area, as well as from the two monotheistic empires to the north.

            A second significant change Islam brought was a social one, which drew the tribally independent Arabs into a common Umma, or nation. Islam taught that all Muslims shared a common identity, as well as a common law, Sharia, which “encompassed all relationships.”

This formation of an Umma also resulted in a political change. The Byzantine and Sassanid empires had been engaged in warfare from 450-629, and both nations were in a state of weakness. As Gatje states, within a few years after the military exertions of the Arabs, Byzantium was weakened, and the Sassanid Empire disappeared altogether.

            In these three ways, Islam shaped history within the Middle East, causing revolutionary changes in the Arab People’s religion, as well as their social and political structure.

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