The oxford history of Islam pdf download

The oxford history of Islam

THE OXFORD HISTORY OF ISLAM

Islam as a religion and civilization made its entry onto the world stage with the life and career of the Prophet Muhammad ibn Abd Allah (ca. 570- 632) in west­ ern Arabia. After his death, a series of successors called caliphs claimed political authority over the Muslim community.

During the period of the caliphate, Islam grew into a religious tradition and civilization of worldwide importance. A properly historical view of Islam’s appearance and early development, however, demands that these processes be situated against the cultural background of sixth-century Arabia and, more generally, the Near East.

The Near East in the sixth century was divided between two great empires, the

Byzantine or Later Roman Empire in the west and the Sasanian Empire in the east, with the kingdoms of Himyar in southern Arabia and Ax.um in the Horn of Africa consLiLu Ling smaller players in the political arena.

This Byzan tine-Sasanian rivalry was merely the most recent phase in a long struggle between Rom e and Persia chat that had lasted for more than five hundred years.

The two empires not only raised competing claims to world dominion, they also represented different cultural tra­ditions: the Byzantines espoused Hellenistic culture, while the Sasanians looked to ancient Iranian and Semitic cultural traditions and rejected Hellenism as alien.