1 / 11

PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA

PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA. THE AGE OF JAHILIYYA. THE MECCAN SYSTEM. Arabian Peninsula hosted two categories of indigenous populations: Nomadic Arabs or Bedouin and settled Arab agriculturists. South and North Arabia were experiencing a period of decline.

libitha
Download Presentation

PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA THE AGE OF JAHILIYYA

  2. THE MECCAN SYSTEM • Arabian Peninsula hosted two categories of indigenous populations: Nomadic Arabs or Bedouin and settled Arab agriculturists. • South and North Arabia were experiencing a period of decline. • A shift in power and influence away from sedentary communities and toward dominant nomadic tribes

  3. MECCA, THE BACKDROP TO EMERGENCE OF ISLAM • Mecca, as a religious shrine, sacred spring Zamzam in an unlikely place • Commercialism along with pilgrimage • Diverse cultural and religious peoples intemingled • Domestication of the camel along with cultivation of the date palm provided the transportation and nourishment for travel

  4. BEDOUIN CULTURAL VALUES • Fate: qadar, qada are associated with the sense of decree; dahr associated with the meaning of time as destiny; • Death is preordained, patience is the best attitude to be taken; destiny is capricious, impersonal; • The sense of dislocation affected Arabia.

  5. MURUWWA OR MURU’A • Harsh conditions and few resources in desert engendered survival traits known as the Code of Honor: • HOSPITALITY and GENEROSITY, STRENGTH and BRAVERY, GOOD JUDGMENT, and an intense LOYALTY to one’s kin and clan part of Muruwwa • `IRD = Honor of warriorship

  6. TRIBAL SOLIDARITY AND ORGANIZATION • No concept of law in political-juridical sense • No authority to legislate or enforce universal rules beyond kinship group • Notion of universal justice or abstract legal principles was absent • Protection under family and extended kinship relations

  7. INDIVIDUAL WITH KINSHIP • Primary loyalty to closest relations • Feeling of Tribalism = to be aware of one’s close relationship to the “other” to determine quality of interaction and mutual responsibility • Solidarity = protect one’s tribal members from constant threat of predatory raids from outsiders.

  8. RAIDING (al-ghazw) • Raiding practiced against outsiders as an important means of gaining or redistributing resources • Raiding practiced during certain periods of the year, “rules of engagement” honored • The Sayyid (tribal leader) received one-fifth of any spoils

  9. REVENGE (qisas) • Lex talionis (retaliation or retribution) when blood was spilled • The system of mutual revenge (tha`r), as a preventive to reckless killing • The system of diya (paying a bloodwit) evolved as a less honorable substitution • “Fighting” a natural part of Bedouin life

  10. RELIGIOUS LIFE • Hanifiyya = Arabian monotheism • No religious wars were fought in north Arabia, although such wars were fought between Jews and Christians in southern Arabia (Dhu Nuwas converted to Judaism) • Sacred Time and Sacred Space necessary for pilgrimage, killing prohibited (ahram)

  11. SIGNIFICANCE OF JAHILIYYA • “IGNORANCE” as opposed to “KNOWLEDGE” a less important meaning • J.h.l. and h.l.m. Hilm opposite of Jahl = conveys the meaning of gentility and civilization. • Halim a civilized person. • Jahil a barbarian, cruel, violent person • Pre-islamic Arabian culture shows both

More Related