Advent Of Islam Research Articles

The Philosophy of Persian Garden Design: The Sufi Tradition

Abstract The peoples of Persia began constructing formal gardens as early as the Achaemenid era (500-300 B.C.); these efforts reached their apex during the Sassanian era (A.D. 226-641) when magnificent gardens were laid out according to the Mandala design. After the advent of Islam in Persia in the 600s, basic concepts of garden design were developed and refined, arm many noteworthy Persian gardens were built. This article concentrates primarily on these later Persian gardens, and includes a discussion and exploration of ideas about their location, design, and elements, although such gardens are not presented in gazetteer fashion. Primary attention is given to the general concept of gardens in Islamic Persia and to design philosophy according to the Sufi tradition.

Turkish Contributions to Scientific Work in Islam

Mesopotamia and Egypt are the cradles of our present-day civilization. The origins of our science can be traced back to these two civilizations of four or even five thousand years ago. The Greeks inherited the science of these countries, appropriated it eagerly. They also endowed it with greater power of articulation and imparted fresh momentum to scientific work. In their hands scientific knowledge was not only considerably enriched, but it also gained substantially in refinement and theoretical stature. But with the advent of Christianity a period of stagnation gradually set in, and the era called the Dark Ages with all its superstitions and dearth of wellfounded scientific enlightenment began to weigh heavily upon the old classical Mediterranean world and the Near East. The situation changed with the advent of Islam. The history of Islam starts with the Hijra in 622 A. D. In that year Muhammed transferred the scene of his activities from the city of Mekka to Medina. The Prophet died ten years later, but before 650 the Arabs had managed to conquer Syria, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Persia, and in these rapid conquests religious faith had served remarkably as a motive power for building a gigantic empire.

New Light on the Story of Banū Qurayẓa and the Jews of Medina

It is well known that at the advent of Islam there were three Jewish tribes who lived in Yathrib (later Medina), as well as other Jewish settlements further to the north, the most important of which were Khaybar and Fadak. It is also generally accepted that at first the Prophet Muḥammad hoped that the Jews of Yathrib, as followers of a divine religion, would show understanding of the new monotheistic religion, Islam. However, as soon as these tribes realized that Islam was being firmly established and gaining power, they adopted an actively hostile attitude, and the final result of the struggle was the disappearance of these Jewish communities from Arabia proper.

Poetry as a Social Document: The Social Position of the Arab Woman as Reflected in the Poetry of Nizâr Qabbânî

No other people in the world, perhaps, have given more information in their poetry on their cultural and social life than have the Arabs over the centuries. Many years before the advent of Islam and long before they had any national political organization, the Arabs had developed a highly articulate poetic art, strict in its syntax and metrical schemes and fantastically rich in its vocabulary and observation of detail. The merciless desert, the harsh environment in which the Arabs lived, their ever shifting nomadic life, left almost no traces of their social structure and the cultural aspects of their life. It is only in their poetry – these monuments built of words – that we find such evidence, and it speaks more eloquently than cuneiform on marble statues ever could.

The Detribalization of Arabic Poetry

The forms, themes and patterns of classical Arabic poetry were laid down in the Arabian Peninsula before the advent of Islam. Indeed the oldest poem of which we have any record dates back to the period of Jâhiliyya, a derogatory term meaning ‘ignorance’ coined by the early Muslims to denote the state of religious and moral depravity of pre-Islamic Arabs. This period covers scarcely more than a century and a half (c. a.d. 500–622). Yet when the Arabs first sprang onto the stage of world history to carve an empire for themselves, they already had an extremely complex and refined poetic art. This remarkable phenomenon has baffled the student of Arabic literature and history: ‘The most striking feature in Arabic literature is its unexpectedness’ remarks Gibb, while Goitein refers to it as ‘the miracle of pre-Islamic poetry and literary language’. The Jâhili poets, though springing from primitive and illiterate nomadic tribes, were no beginners declaiming shaky lines in a mixture of dialects in prevalence at the time. These were a host of poets erupting all over northern Arabia, from Syria to Yemen and from the fringes of Iraq to the borders of Egypt, masterfully reciting highly developed qasîdas (odes) in one and the same language, betraying little of the dialects of their region. Above all, their poetry, vigorous and vivid as it was in general, was cast in the same, steel structure of a set of complex metrical schemes.

Constitutional Development in Ethiopia

The origin and character of Ethiopian central institutions can be understood by reference to at least four main factors: the religious history of the country; its geography; its internal wars; and the advent of Islam, which cut it off from the World outside for several centuries, and affected the course of its history.

The Impact of Mohammedanism On Paganism in the Liberian Hinterland

Perched on rocky ground, like little colonies of limpets, the villages and hamlets of the Gbandi, Kisi and Loma tribes of the Liberian Hinterland are scattered on densely wooded hills or in jungle clearings. Gbandi and Kisi are sometimes symbiotic, sharing the same village in different sections, each with its own chief or headman. In Masambolahun, the Mandingo are symbiotic with the Gbandi. In trying to study the complexity of the religious beliefs and practices in this backwash of tribes, the first question which occurs to one, is whether or not there was any original monotheism, perhaps running parallel with paganism before the advent of Islam. A little confirmatory evidence may be found in the language and folklore. I gather from information kindly given me by Father Bessom, O.H.C., that there is a word for God among the Gbandi, Loma and Mendi, which is thought to be pre-Islamic. The Gbandi term is Ngele-wolongwala, Sky-Great-Body. The corresponding Loma word is Gele-wologwala. The Mendi term is a contraction: Gwo or Gewo waa. The terms which are now in use are evidently derived from the Arabic, namely Ngala (Gbandi) and Gala (Loma). The Kisi word is Meleka. Professor Guillaume, of the School of African and Oriental Studies in London, informs me that Meleka is the Arabic for Queen; Melek being King. The Kisi have also a word for Sky, which is Hala. One Kisi youth translated Meleka for me as God the Creator. Another gave me both words Hala and Meleka for Sky, but decided that Meleka was the one I wanted.

Influence of Islamic Culture on Indian Life

FROM immemorial times, India has been the meeting place of conflicting races and civilizations. From immemorial times, it has tried to achieve a unity for the heterogeneous elements which make up the totality of its life. Different races have met and fought and fraternized on its soil. Conflicting cultures have struggled for supremacy and in the end been fused in new syntheses that have marked new levels of achievement for the human spirit. They all appeared on the scene as victors, but were soon absorbed in the ranks of the vanquished. Each fresh incursion of race or idea found the Indian temperament more malleable than before, and accelerated the process of assimilation and synthesis. At its worst, the process led to a mechanical juxtaposition; at its best, it brought to birth a new and organic way of life. The seething caldron never cooled, for new ingredients were continually added and in turn added to the richness and complexity of Indian life. The same process of conflict and synthesis, but intensified a thousand times, occurred with the advent of Islam in India.