Islam: Struggles for legitimacy - Essay Example

Islam Struggles over legitimacy of leaders have occurred many times throughout Islamic history. at least three instances of struggles for legitimacy and the effect chosen leaders had in the Islamic world.  It is debated until now, the legitimacy issues of Muslims that were some of the most issues that came up during the 6th and 12th century. These, however, are still being debated in the modern Muslim world. There has arisen various opposing opinions from different sects and groups of the Islam over the legitimacy of the leaders found within Islam and throughout the Islamic history. This can be dated back to the first civil war after Ahmad was assassinated, there was a huge incident and problem among the Islamic community. This went down in history as the first time a Muslim killed another fellow Muslim. This is an event that led to the first civil war over a leader with three parties. The first party was that of the Oman as a clan who wanted to take a revenge over the death of Ahman and at the same time take over the leadership of the Omous. The second party was Haisha and Zuwer who saw that the ruler of the Oman to be one of the nobles. The third party was that of Ali who the prophet’s cousin from the Asian clan. Ali argued that he wanted Prophet Mohamed to declare him his successor before the prophet died. The supporters of Ali were referred to as the second degree of Muslims who had no power at that time in the Islamic community from Egypt and Kufar. Ali ultimately worn the battle of Kamen and Sofin against Elfer’s party. This had an effect on the Islamic wars. This incident divided Muslims into groups. Awarj was one such group that acted on the opposition of the ideas of Ali and operated against him. After the second civil was, after Ali was assassinated, Azid, the son of Omai was appointed by his father as his successor before he died. When Azid became the ruler, many Muslims disagreed with his rule as Ali appointed his son as a successor without consulting the Muslim community. Hussein Ali and Abdullah Zuber opposed this claim. This led to their killing in the battle of Kelbelle where Haussein was killed by the Azid forces and Abdulla Zuber assassinated. This really affected the Muslim communities, hence the rule of the dynasties. The third example came by during the overthrow of the Omaids by the Abbasids. With help of the no-Arabs, the Abbasids took over the leadership from the Omaids. According to historians, the Abbasid period was referred to as the golden period due to the high development that was so pronounced in art, architecture, economy as well as education. 4. Discuss the role of Islamic frontiers in the development of Islamic civilization. Include three of the several frontiers that we have studies and compare/contrast them (Muslim-Christian Spanish, Islamic-Byzantine, Khurasan Persian-Turkish, West African) There are several frontiers such as the Muslim-Christian frontier in Europe, the Khurasan Persian-Turkish Frontier found in West Africa as well as the Islamic-byzantine frontier that receive credit for the Islamic civilization. There is a great development in Europe and other Western civilizations that have been achieved because of the Christian-Muslim frontier. There has been much about the development of Islam and its Europe entry, as well as its history of civilization that took place between the 8th and 13th century. There is a variety of skills in the field such as scientific as well as scholarly that have been developed for more than 200 years since Europe encountered Islam. Islam can be proudly associated with the influence in the development of medicine, mathematics, astronomy and philosophy in most parts of Europe. The spread of the Aristotelian concept in Europe is also associated with the Arab philosophers in Spain, which occurred as a result of their interaction with the locals, hence enhancing sharing of information. The growth of Islamic civilization in Spain as well as in other parts of Europe, for example, can be associated with the works of Ibn Roshd, who is an Arab philosopher. The civilization of Islam in Africa also emerged when the Byzantine Empire occupied various regions in Syria, Egypt, and North Africa. This occurred during the seventh territory. The territories are said to have recently been greatly influenced by Greco-Roman whose main religions were mainly Orthodox, Coptic as well as being members of the Syriac Christianity. Islam as a major religion grew faster with its laws that were taken up for use by the political as well as commercial rulers, mainly because of the emergence of the Byzantine into this region. There is also the contribution of the Red Sea route trade, directly from Mecca and Medina, which led to the growth of civilization in the region. 5. Describe the practice of slavery in the late ninth century in various Islamic civilizations. How did emerge? How was the practice viewed by Muslims? What were distinctive features? How was the African slave trade different from the Turkish slave economy? The Islamic civilization form of slavery was considered to differ from the American form of slavery where slaves were not entitled to property and rights. In this case, an ‘adoption’ form was mostly practiced. The Islamic Society integrated both the slaves from Turkey and Africa. Here, the Islamic society treated the slaves as human beings by allowing them to the basic human rights. Most civilizations were characterized by slavery in accomplishing most tasks leading to that civilization. Muslim civilization was not an exception. Slavery was considered by Islam to give their leaders a right over control of others especially the victims of war, concubines and women when they were successful in a war campaign. Slavery was majorly involved in the spread of Islam civilization brought about by various trade routes in which the slaves were used in merchandise transportation through the Mediterranean Sea shores that are in the North. The silk trade route, apart from many other trade routes in the world that were dominated by the Islam traders, was the major and the first to be used by Islam to slavery. In as much as theres not much information about Islamic slavery, it is almost known to all that the Islamic Prophet, Muhammad, had slaves of different sexes kept with him. Most of these slaves were war victims who were captured after a war defeat. Some of them were also captured in some of the military campaigns that emerged successfully. It is believed, for example, that there were men who were killed and the Islamic prophet used both men and women for slavery purposes after the success of the military campaign against the tribe of Jew in 627. People who were used much for slavery were the Turkish and Africans. They were treated in the same way as slaves during Islamic civilization in as much as they were used for different purposes in the civilization process. This can be illustrated by the use of the Black East African slaves known as Zanj, for agricultural purposes as they labored in the canal in Baghdad. This w in contrast to the Turkish slaves from the nomadic tribes of Turkey, who were used as soldiers in the empire of Abbasid. The Turkish slaves were also contracted by the Harams, apart from the Abbasid Empire. The economic growth in the Islamic civilization received a huge boost contributed by the involvement of slaves in jobs such as mining, architecture, military, agriculture and others. Read More