The netpaper about Elftowners, by Elftowners, for Elftowners.
An Arabian History
written by [The Red Baron]
Whenever we think of Arabian Nights, our thoughts drift to magic carpets, the genie of the lamp, the glamourous palaces of Baghdad, the bustling marketplace of Damascus, Caliphs and their harems… but how many of us think of the way such things came to be? For this issue, I have taken the liberty to wander off my usual column to tell, as concise as can be, the story of the great Arabian State of old; its rise, its glory, and its downfall. So, have a seat by the brazier and a cup of Arabian coffee and let us go way back in time to the Arabian Peninsula, to a time long ago, a time of paganism, of warring nomadic tribes, the period known unto Arabs as “Al-Jahiliyya” (the word is a derivative from the noun “Jahl”; which is Arabic for ignorance).
In the Jahiliyya people didn’t believe in God, they had a pantheon of gods which they worshipped, they took slavery for granted, they partook in rampant orgies, the strong tribes raided the weak ones, slaughtering the men and taking the women prisoners. A brutal and shocking practice that arose from the need for strong males for work and battle was the live burial of newborn girls; a deplorable practice known as Wa’d (they thought that a girl was a handicap, as resources were scarce and she would just be one more hungry mouth to feed). However, not al the practices of Jahiliyya were barbaric, fine poetry was composed by poet warriors who battled with verse as well as the sword, not to mention that there were strict codes of chivalry and tribe/family solidarity.
Time passed and a man appeared unto the people of the Arabian Peninsula, a man who would change the region’s history, that man was the Prophet Mohammed (peace to him), the last of God’s prophets (peace to them all). Mohammed (peace to him) invited people to set aside the corrupt ways of Al-Jahiliyya, to embrace a new faith that banned slavery, that protected the weak, that strictly forbade Wa’d, that urged people to improve themselves and to accept one another. In short, he invited them to embrace the Islamic faith. Many followed, while many more declared war on him and strove to kill him. Mohammed (peace to him) and his followers traveled throughout the land which is known today as Saudi Arabia. After much travel and fighting (it should be noted that there were powerful people who plotted against Mohammed (peace to him) and gathered armies to see him dead, the battles he fought were to defend himself from them. He never declared war for the sake of fighting).
Mohammed (peace to him) died, but Islam lived on, and people embraced it. Soon, an Arabian state flourished, consisting not only of Muslims, but of others as well, mainly Christians and Jews, who were equals in every way to their Muslim counterparts. This state expanded (after a relative state of isolation) and mingled with other cultures, such as the Greeks, Indians, Chinese, and Spanish to name a few.
The Greeks in particular had a dramatic impact on the Arabs; with their sciences, literature, and philosophy. Greek books were translated to Arabic and the Arabs strove to add contributions of their own in all the fields of knowledge. Philosophers as Ibn Rushud, doctors as Avicenna and Al-Razi, men of science as Ibn’ul Heitham (optics), Khawarizmi (mathematics), Jaber Bin Hayyan (chemistry) and many many more learned and taught throught the Arabian state, a vast empire stretching from Egypt to as far as India and even extending to Andalusia in Spain. It should be noted that poetry remained an integral part of the Arabian society throughout the state’s history.
Throughout its history, this Arabian state was governed by a Caliph, and the Arabian state which we know was the centre of the Arabian Nights was the Abbasid (as it was governed by the Abbas dynasty) state with Baghdad being the capital (it was preceded by the Umayyad state whose capital was Damascus).
Though the Arabian state was centre of knowledge and freedom of speech (something unheard of in Dark Age Europe back then), there was political corruption. Caliphs focused on hoarding treasures and harems (which they filled with concubines; charming women skilled in the arts of music, song, dance, love, as well as deception. Many of them played important political parts as well). Regional governors put personal gain as a priority, and petty struggles for positions of power came to exist between the squabbling candidates.
While the body of the Arabian state seemed sound, the head was deranged, and the fearsome Mogul hordes loomed in the east, poised to strike at the now-decadent Arabian state. The Caliph at the time was soft, inexperienced, and apathetic to all except his own amusement; so he didn’t bother to fight the enemy, who overran the nation, burning, killing, and plundering everything in his wake. The Caliph said, “Let the Moguls take whatever they want, Baghdad is enough for me.”
Sure enough, the Moguls reached Baghdad and sacked the great city, they took all the riches they can take, gold, precious stones, fine Persian rugs, and anything they could lay their hands on. Sadly, the greatest treasure of them all, knowledge, was wasted. Libraries were of no use to the Moguls, so they were destroyed. Innumerable manuscripts were lost; and it is said that the rivers ran black with ink, not red with blood. This was followed by 400 years of occupation under the yoke of the Turkish Ottoman Empire.
Now, our story comes to an end, and I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. So if you’ll excuse me, my magic carpet is waiting outside and I must get going.
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