Analyse the religious and social situation in Arabia When Muhammad began his work
Analyse the religious and social situation in Arabia When Muhammad began his work.
The period before Mohammad’s teachings in Arabia were uncivilised, lawless and brutal- these were known as Jahiliyyya, meaning “days of ignorance”. The laws of the land were only oral and usually varied from tribe to tribe. The Arabs used to indulge in adultery, gambling and drinking- known as Abul Ala Mawdudi.
Although Arabia is a vast one million square miles, most of it is barren desert with small oases and a small strip of proper land in the South bordering the Indian Ocean. For this reason the Arabs usually traded between the South and North by caravans of camels using traditional trade routes and using ships from India to Aden in the South. A lot of the caravans carrying goods would also be sent to and from Mecca and Syria to the Byzantine Empire in the North or the Sassanian Empire in the West, as these two towns were chief half-way points between them. Arabs trace their history to two sources, the Northerners and the Southerners. It is the Northerners who were classed s ‘uncivilized’, they were classed as untamed and “known to be fierce in defence of their territories”- Denny 2006, and they were farmers who moved their cattle from one spot to another and had a reputation of idolatry and practiced infanticide. Another tradition to gain wealth and honour in a tribe is to raid a caravan this sport was called ‘Razzia’ men would usually ambush passing caravans at night and steal spices, women, slaves and livestock; using swords and amour but the rule was you are not to kill anyone due to the ‘Code of Vendetta’ so if someone on tribe A was killed, a person from tribe B has to be sacrificed. It is interesting to think that even the prophet Mohammad played an active part in this sport when the message he was to spread was so peaceful.
Western Muslims believed life before Mohammad was the way it was because they thought if Europe was that way, the rest of the world must
The period before Mohammad’s teachings in Arabia were uncivilised, lawless and brutal- these were known as Jahiliyyya, meaning “days of ignorance”. The laws of the land were only oral and usually varied from tribe to tribe. The Arabs used to indulge in adultery, gambling and drinking- known as Abul Ala Mawdudi.
Although Arabia is a vast one million square miles, most of it is barren desert with small oases and a small strip of proper land in the South bordering the Indian Ocean. For this reason the Arabs usually traded between the South and North by caravans of camels using traditional trade routes and using ships from India to Aden in the South. A lot of the caravans carrying goods would also be sent to and from Mecca and Syria to the Byzantine Empire in the North or the Sassanian Empire in the West, as these two towns were chief half-way points between them. Arabs trace their history to two sources, the Northerners and the Southerners. It is the Northerners who were classed s ‘uncivilized’, they were classed as untamed and “known to be fierce in defence of their territories”- Denny 2006, and they were farmers who moved their cattle from one spot to another and had a reputation of idolatry and practiced infanticide. Another tradition to gain wealth and honour in a tribe is to raid a caravan this sport was called ‘Razzia’ men would usually ambush passing caravans at night and steal spices, women, slaves and livestock; using swords and amour but the rule was you are not to kill anyone due to the ‘Code of Vendetta’ so if someone on tribe A was killed, a person from tribe B has to be sacrificed. It is interesting to think that even the prophet Mohammad played an active part in this sport when the message he was to spread was so peaceful.
Western Muslims believed life before Mohammad was the way it was because they thought if Europe was that way, the rest of the world must