The Middle East in Modern World History

Ernest Tucker

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781351031684
• Edition: 2
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

The Middle East in Modern World History examines how global trends over the last 200 years have shaped the Middle East and how these trends were affected by the region's development.

Covering a key period in the history of the Middle East, this book highlights three major trends within the region's development over the past two centuries: the role of the region as a strategic conduit between East and West, the development of the region's natural resources, especially oil, and the impact of a rapidly globalizing world economy on the Middle East.

This new edition extends coverage to the present day and includes more thematic and interpretive discussion on the impact of global migration and the evolution of the roles of women. It also provides more theoretical insights into current historical research and recent developments in the region, firmly placing these developments within their historical context.

Clearly written and supported throughout by maps, images, discussion questions, and suggestions for further reading, as well as including a comprehensive chronology and glossary that enable readers to develop a clearer picture of political, economic, social, and cultural life within the region, The Middle East in Modern World History is the perfect textbook for all students of the history of the modern Middle East within a global context.

1

The Middle East in Early Islamic History

Introductions

Civilization in the Middle East

To set the stage for discussion of modern developments, it is helpful to begin with an overview of the region’s deeper historical contexts. The origins of civilization in the Middle East can be found in Mesopotamia and the Nile River valley in Egypt around 3500 BCE. Mesopotamia (located in modern Iraq) was the center of a series of the earliest civilizations in human history. Possibilities for irrigated cultivation near the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia paralleled the agricultural potential of the steady flow of the Nile River in Egypt. The regular and constant water supply available in both places became the key ingredient for civilizations to flourish. From such beginnings, civilization spread along the shores of the Mediterranean and inland throughout the arable parts of the Middle East.

Sassanian Empire

By the sixth century BCE, the Achaemenid Empire controlled a large part of the modern Middle East, with its center in Mesopotamia and Persia. It was followed by several other empires that dominated a similar region, most recent of which before the rise of Islam was the Sassanian Empire. It arose in the second century CE and ruled over much of the eastern Middle East until defeated by the Muslim conquerors of Persia in the seventh century CE. The Sassanian state religion was Zoroastrianism, a dualistic monotheism with origins in the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster, who lived in Iran probably before the sixth century BCE. It focuses on the eternal struggle of good and evil, using water and fire as cleansing agents for ritual purification.

Another very important aspect of the Sassanian Empire was its use of elements of Greek and Hellenistic culture spread across Asia by Alexander the Great and his successors between the fourth and first centuries BCE. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the scientific and academic center of Gundeshapur. Located in modern southwestern Iran, Gundeshapur was founded by the Sassanians in the third century CE. It was described as a place where Iranian, Greek, Arab, Indian, and Roman scientists were encouraged to visit, do research, and exchange ideas. There, translations of many ancient scientific works were made into Pahlavi, a written form of the Persian language used by the Sassanian rulers.

Byzantine Empire

By the end of the first century BCE, Rome had taken control of all the coastal areas of the Eastern Mediterranean, including much of the western Middle East. Under Roman rule, this area became closely linked with Europe and North Africa in a single political and economic unit. Even areas not directly annexed became strongly influenced by the Roman Empire, the most powerful political and cultural entity in this region for centuries. It used two official languages, Greek and Latin, with Greek predominating in its eastern domains. When the Roman capital was transferred from Rome to Constantinople, founded in 330 CE on the site of the ancient city of Byzantium, the influence of Greek culture and language became gradually stronger. After the Roman Empire split into eastern and western halves late in the fourth century CE, the Eastern Roman Empire, now governed from Constantinople, developed into the Byzantine Empire. Over many decades in the sixth and seventh centuries CE, it continually fought the Sassanian Empire for control of the Middle East.

By the fourth century CE, Christianity had become the dominant religion in the Roman-ruled Middle East. From this time on, the state religion of the Byzantine Empire evolved into Orthodox Christianity. Christianity had emerged as an independent religion out of the complex milieu of first-century CE Jewish Palestine. As Roman imperial rule over Palestine was being consolidated at that time, Jews, as well as early Christians, were continually challenged by Roman authority at first because they could not recognize Roman pagan gods. By the Byzantine era several hundred years later, Christianity had become the official imperial Roman faith. The Byzantine emperor was also head of the church, joining secular and religious authority in a relationship sometimes called “caesaropapism.”

Muhammad ibn Abdullah

The Arabian Context

On the edges of the Sassanian and Byzantine empires, the Arabian Peninsula was an important trade conduit for both. Merchants from its cities did business with traders from many places, exporting and importing spices as well as other valuable commodities. Cities in the peninsula were also good places to bargain for goods coming from Africa and for slaves being imported from there. One of the main trading cities in the western part of the peninsula known as the Hejaz was Mecca.

According to Muslim tradition, Mecca’s history can be traced to Abraham (called in Arabic “Ibrahim”). He was believed to have built the Kaaba (a black stone structure surrounding a meteorite located in the center of Mecca) in ancient times helped by his eldest son Ishmael (corresponding to the Biblical Ishmael and called in Arabic “Ismail”), when the inhabitants of the place then called “Bakka” had fallen away from Abraham’s belief in one god. Apart from this tradition, little is known about the Kaaba before the 400s CE.

By Muhammad’s time, the Kaaba served as a place to worship deities revered by various Arab tribes. Its key god was Hubal, venerated there by the Quraysh tribe that had ruled Mecca for two centuries by the early 600s CE. The Quraysh made their money as merchants and traders as Mecca prospered under their rule. Arabia’s stark terrain meant that life there remained a constant struggle. Bedouin tribes engaged in continual low-level conflicts with each other. Each year, there was a temporary truce and pilgrimage to Mecca to pay homage to tribal gods and drink from the sacred well of Zamzam. The pilgrimage was also an occasion for major tribal disputes to be mediated, debts to be paid, and much trade to occur.

Muhammad’s Life

Muhammad was born into the Banu Hashim, an important subgroup of the Quraysh, in 570 CE. His father died before he was born, and his mother passed away when he was a young child, so he was raised in the household of his uncle Abu Talib, leader of the Banu Hashim. After he grew up, Muhammad became a merchant and at age 25 married Khadija, a widow 15 years older than him. He was married to Khadija for 25 years and took no more wives while she was alive.

Muhammad had several daughters and sons by Khadija, but the only one recognized by all Muslims to have survived him was his daughter Fatima. Descendants of Muhammad through her are given the honorific titles sharif (“noble”) or sayyid (“lord”). As Muhammad’s only universally recognized descendants, they are respected by both Sunni and Shii Muslims, but Shii Muslims value this lineage connection more highly.

Revelation

Muhammad would retire to a cave near Mecca by himself to meditate for several weeks each year. The Muslim belief is that in the year 610 CE, during one of these sessions, the angel Gabriel (called in Arabic “Jibril”) appeared and commanded Muhammad to recite the following:

Recite, in the name of your Lord who created man from a (mere) clot of congealed blood. Recite, and your Lord is the Most Generous. He, who taught [use of] the pen, taught man what he did not know. (Quran 96:1–5)

(Quran 96:1–5)

He received no more revelations for three years, but then they resumed. After Muhammad’s death, his revelations were compiled into the Quran, the foundational text of Islamic scripture. Quranic verses revealed to Muhammad when he was still in Mecca focused on man’s responsibility to believe in one god, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment followed by heaven and hell, and signs of God’s presence in daily life.

Muhammad’s wife Khadija was the first to recognize him as a true prophet. She was followed in this belief by his cousin Ali and then by Muhammad’s close friend Abu Bakr. When Muhammad preached in public about what had been revealed to him, he was ignored or ridiculed by most of his fellow Meccans, although a few became his followers. They became known as “Muslims” or followers of “Islam.” “Islam” can be defined as “submitting to God’s message as communicated to Muhammad.” Muhammad made some people angry when he recited verses condemning idol worship and polytheism.

His monotheistic message threatened Mecca’s city fathers, in particular those from his own Quraysh tribe. They were guardians of the Kaaba, focal point of Mecca’s polytheistic worship. It functioned as the center for pilgrimages upon which much trading wealth was based. A group of the city’s merchants offered to arrange a choice marriage for Muhammad, bringing him into the elite if only he would stop preaching, but he refused.

Early Muslim Community

Muslims under Pressure

In 615 CE, some of Muhammad’s followers took refuge in Ethiopia and two years later, leaders of other Quraysh clans declared a boycott against the Banu Hashim clan until it withdrew protection from him. Although this ended when the Banu Hashim refused to disown Muhammad, he continued to be a liability for his tribal group. Two more blows came in 619 (known later as the “Year of Sorrow”), when his wife Khadija and his uncle Abu Talib died, leaving him without financial or family support.

Islamic tradition records that just when his personal situation had reached this low point, Muhammad experienced in 620 the Isra and Miraj: two parts of a miraculous one-night journey. In the Isra, he was carried on a mystical winged horse (“Buraq”) from Mecca to “the farthest mosque” (Arabic: “al-masjid al-aqsa”), later identified by Muslims with the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. In the Miraj, Muhammad was reported to have been taken on a tour of heaven and hell, and spoken with earlier prophets such as Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Soon after this, a delegation from Yathrib (a town later called “Medina” located 200 miles north of Mecca) came to Muhammad and asked him to mediate between opposing tribes who had been at war there for years.

Hijra (Hegira)

Sensing a good opportunity to leave Mecca, Muhammad told his followers in 622 to go to Yathrib, which they did. When he learned of a plot against him, Muhammad slipped away with Abu Bakr and arrived in Yathrib himself soon after them. His Meccan followers who went there became known as the muhajirun (emigrants) or “those who made the hijra.” The importance of the hijra (hegira) in Islamic history is recognized by the fact that the Muslim calendar begins with the year when Muhammad and the muhajirun emigrants fled from Mecca.

Among the first things Muhammad did on arrival in Yathrib (soon renamed “Madinat al-Nabi” [“City of the Prophet” or simply “Medina”]) was to create a document later known as the “Constitution of Medina.” It specified rights and duties for all of Medina’s inhabitants and relationships between different groups there, including those between Muslims, Jews, and other People of the Book. The term “People of the Book” refers to other monotheists such as Jews and Christians, whom Muslims accepted as legitimate believers in God. The Constitution of Medina defined the community as the umma, an Arabic word that came to be used to describe the community of all Muslims in the world.

Sections of the Quran revealed at Medina focused on the creation of a Muslim community: a task that defined the Medinan period of Muhammad’s leadership. Muslim converts from among Medina’s natives became known as ansar (“helpers”), because they helped Muslim emigrants from Mecca find a home there. To transcend family loyalties and promote Muslim unity, Muhammad had his close companions among the “emigrants” and “helpers” choose spiritual brothers, with Muhammad himself choosing his son-in-law Ali as his own spiritual brother.

Meccans against Muslims

After the hegira, Mecca’s leaders confiscated the properties of those “emigrants” who had fled with Muhammad to Medina. These emigrants, in turn, began raiding Meccan caravans: acts legitimized by Quranic revelations Muhammad continued to receive. While the attacks interfered with Mecca’s trade, they provided needed wealth for the Muslims. Hostilities culminated in the March 624 Battle of Badr: a significant victory for Muslim forces against great odds. Muhammad and his followers saw this success as a confirmation of divine support, which strengthened the Prophet’s position in Medina.

The Meccan defeat at Badr committed them to go after Muhammad to regain prestige. When the two forces met again at the mountain of Uhud in 625, the Meccans did win a modest victory but were unable to crush the Muslim forces totally. New Quranic verses revealed to Muhammad that this defeat was partly punishment for disobedience to God and partly a test of Muslim determination. Mecca’s chief Abu Sufyan then assembled a large force to attack Medina directly and get rid of the Muslims once and for all.

Despite diplomatic efforts, Muhammad failed to prevent the formation of a tribal confederation against him. When the Meccans arrived at Medina with 10,000 men against the 3,000 Muslims there and began a siege, Muhammad tried a new tactic. Aided by a Persian convert to Islam with some engineering skills, Muslims dug a trench to supplement Medina’s natural fortifications against a cavalry attack. The Meccans were stymied by this new ditch and abandoned their siege after a few days.

Muhammad received Quranic verses calling for the hajj pilgrimage to be made to Mecca, but Muslims had not been able to perform it due to the existing state of hostilities. In 628, Muhammad ordered preparations to be made for a pilgrimage to Mecca despite this situation, saying that God ha...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Maps
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Chronology
• Note on Transliteration
• 1. The Middle East in Early Islamic History
• 2. Islamic Civilization: the Classical Era
• 3. Ottoman and Safavid Empires
• 4. The Middle East and Early Modern Europe
• 5. From “New Order” to “Re-Ordering”: the Tanzimat
• 6. Indirect European Influence in the Middle East
• 7. Responses to Increased European Presence
• 8. Experiments in Popular Sovereignty
• 9. World War I: the Last Ottoman War
• 10. Redefining the Middle East
• 11. Birth of New Nations
• 12. Making New Nations from Imperial Regions
• 13. World War II and Its Aftermath
• 14. War over Israel/Palestine
• 15. Impact of the 1948 War
• 16. Six-Day War
• 17. Turkey and Iran after World War II
• 18. From Six-Day War to October War
• 19. Arab Middle East in the 1970s
• 20. Revolution in Iran, Saddam, and the Iran–Iraq War
• 21. Middle East at the End of the Cold War, 1979–1993
• 22. The Middle East after the Cold War
• 23. The Middle East in World History after September 11
• Glossary
• Index