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Islamisation
The term ‘islamisation’ refers both to the extension of the area under
Muslim rule and to the acceptance of Islam as their religion by
peoples of different faiths, but in the Umayyad period the question is
further complicated by the fact that Islam itself was developing from
its still to us not completely understood origins into something
approaching the religion with which we are familiar. One should not
imagine that Islam as we know it came fully formed out of Arabia
with the Arabs at the time of their conquest of the Middle East and
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Introduction
was then accepted or rejected, as the case might be, by the non-Arab
peoples. Although many of the details are obscure and often
controversial, it seems clear that Islam as we know it is largely a result
of the interaction between the Arabs and the peoples they conquered
during the first two centuries or so of the Islamic era which began in
AD 622.
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During the Umayyad period, therefore, the spread of Islam
and the development of Islam were taking place at the same time, and
a discussion of islamisation has to begin with some consideration of
the importance of the Umayyad period for the development of Islam.
In the first place, it was under the Umayyads that there began to
emerge that class of religious scholars which eventually became the
leading authority within Sunni Islam and which is chiefly responsible
for shaping the historical and religious tradition which has come
down to us. In effect, it was this class which led the development of
Islam as we know it, and it is important to remember that it emerged
largely in opposition to the Umayyad government. The Umayyads had
their own conception of Islam, itself developing with time and
different circumstances, but on the whole we see the religion from the
viewpoint of the religious scholars.
In the emergence of this class the most important region was Iraq,
and in Iraq Kufa was the leading centre. Other regions tended to
follow its lead. Building on and reacting against the ideas and
practices available in Kufa and other centres, from the second half of
the Umayyad period onwards groups of Muslim scholars tried to
develop and put on a sound footing what they saw as a true form of
Islam. In doing so they frequently accused the Umayyads of impious
or unislamic behaviour.
The main concept which these scholars developed and worked with
was that of the
Sunna
. This idea went through several stages but
increasingly came to be identified with the custom and practice of the
Prophet Muhammad, which was to serve as the ideal norm of
behaviour for his followers, and was eventually accepted as the major
source of Muslim law alongside the Koran. Increasingly, Muslim
ideas, practices and institutions came to be justified by reference to
the
Sunna,
the words and deeds of Muhammad as transmitted by his
companions to later generations. The proponents of the
Sunna
as thus
understood became increasingly influential, and political and
religious developments after the Umayyads had been overthrown
resulted in the final crystallisation of the Sunni form of Islam with the
religious scholars, the guardians of the
Sunna,
as its leading
authority.
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Introduction
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Not all Muslims, though, accepted the primacy or even the
legitimacy of the
Sunna,
and the Umayyad period also saw the
emergence of the two other main forms of Islam, Shi‘ism and
Kharijism. Tradition dates the fragmentation of a previously united
Islam into the three main forms which we know today (Sunnis,
Shi‘ites and Kharijites) to the time of the first civil war (656–61),
which ended with the accession of Mu‘awiya to the caliphate.
However, just as the development of Sunni Islam was a slow process
which only began under the Umayyads, so too Shi‘ism and
Kharijism were not born in one instant. They too developed in
opposition to the Umayyads, in a number of distinct movements
which each had individual characteristics, and again Iraq was of
prime importance.
Kufa was the centre of the development of Shi‘ism in the
Umayyad period. As early as 670, but especially after the revolt of
Mukhtar in 685–7, Kufa saw a number of movements aimed at
overthrowing the Umayyads and appointing a relative of the
Prophet, usually a descendant of his cousin and son-in-law ‘Ali, as
imam, which title the Shi‘ites tend to prefer to caliph. Where these
Shi‘ite movements differed from one another was in the particular
member of the Prophet’s family whom they favoured and in certain
other doctrines they developed; what they had in common was
devotion to the Prophet’s family and insistence that membership of
it was a sine qua non for the imam. Some of them developed more
extreme beliefs, such as acceptance of the imam as an incarnation of
God and a doctrine of the transmigration of souls. It seems that from
an early date the conquered non-Arab peoples were attracted to the
Shi‘ite movements, and it may be that some of their doctrines were
influenced by the previous beliefs of these non-Arab supporters.
Shi‘ism has a long and complex history which extends well beyond
the Umayyad period, but it was then that its basic character was
established.
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The basic principle of Kharijism was a demand for piety and
religious excellence as the only necessary qualification for the imam,
and a rejection of the view that he should belong to the family of the
Prophet, as the Shi‘ites demanded, or to the tribe of the Prophet
(Quraysh), as the Sunnis required. Like Shi‘ism, Kharijism too was
manifested in a number of movements, some relatively moderate and
others more extreme. The extremists tended to insist on the rejection
of all other Muslims, regarding them as infidels and therefore liable to
be killed unless they ‘repented’ and ‘accepted Islam’, that is, unless
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