MARRIAGE, JEWISH
In the Hebrew Book of Genesis 2:18, God says:
‘‘It is not good for man to be alone; I will make a fitting helper for him.’’ Furthermore,
Genesis 2:24 says: ‘‘Hence a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his
wife, so that they become one flesh.’’ In later Israel, Jews had to leave their
land and spread through much of the world, living in many lands: the Middle
East, North Africa, Europe, and eventually across the seas to the Americas.
Marriage traditions were based on the Pentateuch and other fields of the Bible,
such as the prophets of Israel, and they were later solidified by the many
rabbis. Early traditions of marriage came from rabbinic leaders in areas such
as Iran, Mesopotamia, Syria, Yemen, and North Africa, who accepted polygamy,
whereas among the northern and Eastern European Jews, it became prohibited to
have more than one wife. All Jews tended to marry early, and, although divorce
could be obtained, it was not common, because the family had been established
as the basis of Jewish life.
Traditionally, kiddushin was a sacred relationship in which the wife was
consecrated to her husband and forbidden to all others throughout the duration of
marriage. This was not merely a legal contract; although the husband acquired
rights over her ‘‘wifehood,’’ he undertook duties toward her: supplying her
with food and clothing and denying himself to provide for his wife and
children.
Weddings were often performed out of doors,
but they were often held indoors because of problems with non-Jews. The
following was and is the traditional format of a Jewish wedding: four family
members or friends hold up the wedding canopy under which the bride and groom
stand. The rabbi recites a blessing with a cup of wine from which the groom and
bride drink. The groom then places a ring on the bride’s finger, and he states
the following: ‘‘Behold, you are consecrated to me by this ring, according to the
laws of Moses and Israel.’’ The ketubah
(marriage contract) is then read, after which the rabbi or other leaders
then recite seven marriage benedictions. Often, the groom crushes a glass under
his right shoe; this is seen by some as a sign of mourning the destruction of
Jerusalem or as a token of seriousness even in the happiest moment.
Today, Jewish marriage customs depend on
different traditions—especially in the United States among the Orthodox,
Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist Jews and several newer groups.
Further Reading
Davidovitch,
David.The Ketuba: Jewish Marriage Contracts Through the Ages. New York, 1985. Lewittes,
Mendell.Jewish Marriage: Rabbinic Law, Legend, and Custom. 1993.
Satlow,
Michael L.Jewish Marriage in Antiquity. Princeton, NJ, 2001
MAS‘UDI, AL
Al-Mas‘udi was an Arab/Muslim historian,
geographer, and belletrist who died in 956 CE. The available information about
his life is limited to brief entries in later biographical dictionaries and
comments on alMasu‘di’s part in his two surviving works (see below). Born at
the end of the ninth century to a respected Baghdadi family of Kufan origins,
he probably died in al-Fustat. The range of his scholarly interests and his
association with a number of prominent early tenth-century scholars point to a
thorough education in Arabic, the Islamic sciences, and related disciplines.
His writings evince a lifelong appetite for reading and extensive travel (to
which al-Mas‘udi makes frequent reference). There is no evidence, however, of
the manner in which he sustained his career (C. Pellat, a modern biographer,
has suggested a personal fortune). Imami (Twelver) authors to the present day identify
him as one of their own. Sunni sources, most notably al-Dhahabi, refer to him
only as a Mu‘tazili.
A prolific author, al-Mas‘udi contributed
perhaps as many as thirty-six works about an impressive range of topics,
including history, geography, theology, heresiography, philosophy, and various
fields of science. Much debated among modern scholars is the extent to which he
is to be considered a historian given his extensive use of material generally
defined as cultural and literary (i.e., as properly belonging to adab [belles-lettres]). Al-Mas‘udi
appears to have been largely avoided by later generations of Muslim scholars;
Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406), who cites him frequently, was an important exception.
This has been attributed to al-Mas‘udi’s eschewal of the traditionist style of
history writing promoted by, most notably, al-Tabari (d. 923), the hallmark of
which was contained in narratives supported by isnads (chains of transmission;
see Hadith). Like al-Ya‘qubi (d. 897), al-Mas‘udi made no use of isnads. More
to the point is that he defined history in far more expansive terms than did
his contemporaries.
His principal surviving work is the ambitious
Muruj al-Dhahab (The Fields of Gold ),
which was written in Egypt around 943 and revised several times thereafter (the
surviving version is early, dating to the mid-940s). Modern editions of the Murujrun to some half dozen fat volumes,
and it is divided into two parts. The first part, whihc is encyclopedic, includes
sections about the unfolding of monotheism (sacred history) during the
pre-Islamic period; surveys of India and China; material about oceans, seas,
and rivers; lists of the kings of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and other regions; and
ethnographic data about Slavs, Africans, and the Franks. For this reason, the
Muruj is often cited, alongside al-Ya‘qubi’s earlier Ta’rikh (History), as a notable
example of Arab-Islamic world history. The second and longer part consists mainly
of a detailed account of Islamic history. A section about the Prophet’s life is
followed bybaccounts of the reigns of the Rightly Guided Caliphs and those of the
Umayyad and ‘Abbasid houses. Introductory comments on al-Mas‘udi’s part
indicate that these were excerpted from a far longer work, the Akhbar al-Zaman, of which no trace
survives.
The second surviving work, Kitab al-Tanbih Wa-lishraf, brings together,
in highly concise fashion, much of the information contained in the Muruj and,
apparently, other works. It is, in this sense, a supplementary work. It appears
to have been the last of al-Mas‘udi’s books, completed just before his death.
Further Reading
Khalidi,
Tarif.Islamic Historiography: The Histories of alMas‘udi. Albany, NY: State
University of New York Press, 1975.
Pellat,
Charles. ‘‘Al-Mas‘udi.’’ In The Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed.
Shboul,
A.Al-Mas‘udi and His World. London, 1979.
MATHEMATICAL GEOGRAPHY
The Muslims inherited Ptolemy’s lists of
longitudes and latitudes of cities from one end of the known world to the other
as well as his maps of the world and of various regions. Tables displaying the
geographical coordinates of numerous localities are found in several Islamic
works about mathematical geography as well as in the more numerous (approximately
two hundred and twenty-five) astronomical handbooks known as zıjes. A minority of tables also display
the qibla for each locality. Such tables are often engraved on astronomical
instruments, especially those from Safavid Iran.
The maps prepared by Muslim scholars based on
this geographical data and fitted with coordinate grids represent a tradition that
is quite distinct from the better-known (and more colorful) tradition of maps without
scales. Alas, most of them have not survived the vicissitudes of history.
The tables of al-Khwarizmı (Baghdad; ca.
825), with 545 pairs of entries, incorporated already a correction of the
length of Ptolemy’s Mediterranean. The Caliph al-Ma’mun patronized the
measurement of the diameter of the earth; his astronomers measured the number
of miles corresponding to one degree of the meridian. The world map prepared
for al-Ma’mun, which had a square coordinate grid, has not survived.
Abu ‘l-Rayhan al-Bırunı (ca. 1025) presented
a new table of coordinates of some 604 localities. He also prepared maps based
on these coordinates and discussed several cartographical projections known
otherwise only from Renaissance European works. A late copy of a much-corrupted
version of his world maps has recently been discovered. In his book Tahdıd Nihayat al-Ama kin (The Determination
of the Locations of Cities), al-Bırunı set out to establish the geographical
coordinates of Ghazna to compute the qibla there: the result was the most
valuable work on mathematical geography from the medieval period.
Some anonymous Iranian scholar, probably
during the eleventh century and possibly in Isfahan, prepared a monumental
geographical work featuring more than 450 localities; the title of this work
has been transmitted as Kitab al-Atwal
Wal-‘urudli-‘lFurs (The Book of Longitudes and Latitudes of the Persians),
and it originally included a map that has
not survived. This underlies most of Islamic mathematical geography in Iran
after the thirteenth century, because
it was used by al-Tusıin Maragha during the
mid-thirteenth century, al-Kashı, and Ulugh Beg in Samarqand during the
mid-fifteenth century. Shortly thereafter, apparently in nearby Kish, another
scholar whose name is unknown produced yet another monumental geographical
table; this one, however, was different. In addition to the coordinates of some
274 localities, values of the qibla and distance to Mecca were given in the
main, accurately, to the nearest few seconds—for each locality. The compiler(s)
used the earlier Persian geographical tables and those of al-Tusi and Ulugh
Beg. This was the source for virtually all of the geographical information on
Safavid instruments.
Since 1989, three seventeenth-century Safavid
world maps engraved on brass have been discovered. These are centered on Mecca,
and the highly sophisticated mathematical grid enables the user to read off the
qibla and distance to Mecca. The geographical data for 150-odd localities is
taken from the fifteenth century Kish tables, but the underlying mathematics has
been discovered in two texts from tenth-century Baghdad and eleventh-century
Isfahan.
Further Reading
Ali,
Jamil.The Determination of the Coordinates of Cities by al-Bıˆru ˆnıˆ. Beirut:
American University of Beirut Press, 1967.
Kennedy,
Edward Stewart. ‘‘Mathematical Geography.’’ In Encyclopedia of the History of
Arabic Science, 3 vols., eds. Roshdi Rashed and Re´gis Morelon, vol. I,
185–201. London: Routledge, 1996.
———.A
Commentary Upon Bıˆru ˆnıˆ’s Kita ˆb Tahdıˆd [Nihaˆyaˆt] al-Ama ˆkin, An 11 Th
Century Treatise on Mathematical Geography. Beirut: American University of
Beirut Press, 1973.
Kennedy,
Edward Stewart, and Mary Helen Kennedy. Geographical Coordinates of Localities
from Islamic Sources. Frankfurt am Main: Institut fu ¨r Geschichte der
Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften, 1987.
King, David
A.World-Maps for Finding the Direction and Distance to Mecca: Innovation and
Tradition in Islamic Science. Leiden: E.J. Brill and Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage
Foundation, 1999.
MATHEMATICS
Mathematics and astronomy were the two most
important exact sciences in Islamic civilization between 700 and 1700 CE.
Henceforth, the termIslamic mathematicswill be used, with the adjective Islamic
referring to civilization. Although a few mathematical problems were motivated
by Islam, most mathematics had no relation whatsoever to religion. The majority
of the mathematicians were Muslims, but notable contributions to the Islamic
mathematical tradition were made by Christians, Jews, and followers of other religions.
These mathematicians belong to the Islamic mathematical tradition because they
wrote in Arabic, which developed into the language of science during the
translation period during the eighth and ninth centuries CE. After 1000 CE, a
few mathematical texts were written in Persian, but these texts are full of Arabic
mathematical terms. The termArabic mathematicsis sometimes used, but it should
be remembered that many mathematicians of medieval Islamic civilization were
not Arabs; Iranian mathematics account for an estimated one-third of the
discoveries.
Most of the current knowledge about Islamic mathematics
is based on Arabic manuscripts that are found in libraries all over the world.
The most important collections are in Istanbul, Tehran, Cairo, Paris, London,
and Leiden (Netherlands). Almost all surviving manuscripts are copies made by
scribes who did not have advanced mathematical training. Less than one-third of
these manuscripts have been edited in Arabic or translated into a Western
language or Russian. Information about Islamic mathematics can also be found in
manuscripts about astronomy and optics, and, to a much lesser extent, in texts
about astrology, law, and linguistics. A few treatises havebeen lost in the Arabic
original but survive in a medieval Latin or Hebrew translation. Astronomical
instruments, sundials, and Islamic mosaics demonstrate the practical skill of
some of the mathematicians.
Islamic mathematics can be schematically
subdivided into arithmetic, algebra, and geometry. Many treatises were written
about commercial arithmetic, with detailed explanations of number systems and computations
involving fractions. Algebra was mainly used for recreation and had few
practical applications. For algebraic computations, a certain amount of
training and mathematical talent was necessary. Geometry was studied at
different levels. Some texts contain practical geometrical rules for surveying
and for measuring figures. Theoretical geometry was a necessary prerequisite
for understanding astronomy and optics, and it required years of concentrated work.
Many mathematicians and astronomers produced handbooks of astronomical tables
so that the astrologers, who did not understand the geometrical background in
detail, could predict the positions of the planets by a few easy additions,
subtractions, and multiplications. Some geometers seem to have prepared manuals
explaining the practical construction of mosaics for craftsmen.
The early history of mathematics in medieval Islamic
civilization is intimately connected with the history of astronomy. Soon after
the establishment of the ‘Abbasid caliphate and the founding of Baghdad during
the mid-eighth century CE, some mathematical knowledge must have been
assimilated from the pre-Islamic Iranian tradition in astronomy, which had
survived until that time. Astronomers from India were invited to the court of
the caliph during the late eighth century, and they explained the rudimentary
trigonometrical techniques that were necessary in Indian astronomy. Around 800
CE, the astronomers in Baghdad turned to the more sophisticated astronomy of
the Greeks. The fundamental work of Greek astronomy was the Almagestof
Ptolemy (c. 150 CE), which was translated into Arabic several times.
Because theAlmagestwas impossible to understand without an intimate knowledge
of theElementsof Euclid and other Greek geometrical works, these works were also
translated into Arabic during the early decades of the ninth century. During
the second half of the ninth century, Islamic mathematicians were already making
contributions to the most sophisticated parts of Greek geometry. Islamic
mathematics reached its apogee in the Eastern part of the Islamic world between
the tenth and twelfth centuries CE.
Little is known about the biographies of most
Islamic mathematicians. It is clear that many mathematicians and astronomers
had difficulty finding support for their work. Some of the best mathematicians of
the Islamic tradition worked at the courts of kings, such as the Buwayhid dynasty
in Iran during the tenth century CE and Ulugh Beg in Samarkand around 1420 CE.
From the late tenth century on, mathematical knowledge
was transmitted from the Western part of the Islamic world to Christian Europe.
The Romans had not been interested in science. As a result, the knowledge of
mathematics in Christian Europe was very limited, and the notion of a
mathematical proof was nonexistent. During the twelfth century, many Arabic
mathematical and astronomical texts (including Arabic translations of Greek
texts) were translated into Latin in Spain and, to a lesser extent, in Sicily
and other areas. This was the beginning of the development of science in Medieval
Europe. Many achievements of Eastern
Islamic mathematicians remained unknown in the West, until the European
orientalists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries turned their attention
to Arabic scientific manuscripts.
Some important discoveries of Islamic
mathematicians are discussed in articles about algebra and geometry. The mathematicians
also worked on the theory of numbers and magic squares. Thabit ibn Qurra proved
a general formula for finding amicable numbers, using the example 17296, 18416.
Each of these numbers is the sum of the divisors of the other number. A magic
square of order nis a square in which the numbers 1, 2,..., n2 are written in
such a way that the sum of the numbers in each row, in each column, and in each
of the two diagonals is the same. During the ninth through twelfth centuries,
several Eastern Islamic mathematicians (including Ibn al-Haytham) invented
elegant methods for finding magic squares
of arbitrary order. The name magic squareis modern, and the medieval Islamic
mathematicians, who were generally uninterested in magic, talked about
‘‘harmonious dispositions of numbers.’’
Three problems in Islamic religion can be
solved by means of advanced mathematics:
1. The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar.
The day begins in the evening, at sunset, and a new month begins when the lunar
crescent is first sighted on the Western horizon. Whether or not the crescent
is visible depends on its perpendicular distance to the horizon at sunset, the
distance along the horizon between the sun and the moon, the ripeness of the
crescent, and also on atmospherical phenomena. From the ninth century onward, Islamic
mathematicians and astronomers proposed a multitude of visibility criteria, theories,
and tables for the prediction of the first visibility of the lunar crescent.
2.
It is a religious duty of the Muslim to pray five times a days towards the
qibla (i.e., the direction of Mecca). From the ninth century onward, Islamic
mathematicians began to interpret this problem mathematically. In their view,
the qibla should be taken along a great circle on the spherical earth through
the locality of prayer and the Ka’ba in Mecca. Approximate methods were used in
the ninth century, but, from the tenth century onward, exact methods became
popular among the mathematicians and astronomers in the Eastern Islamic world.
Exact solutions were proposed by al-Biruni, Ibn al-Haytham, and others. The
exact determination of the qibla by crude methods from the early Islamic tradition.
They did not understand the mathematical methods, and they generally ignored
the results of the exact computations.
3.
The times of the five daily prayers are determined by the height of the sun
above the horizon or its depression under the horizon. From the ninth and tenth
centuries onward, Islamic astronomers computed prayer tables, determining the
times of prayer in equinoctial or seasonal hours. For these computations, one
needs difficult spherical trigonometry. A large amount of material about prayer
tables written by the tenth-century Egyptian astronomer Ibn Yanus is still in
existence.
Because most Arabic mathematical manuscripts have
not yet been published and investigated, the preceding survey is necessarily
incomplete, and it may turn out to be misleading in the light of future research.
Important new discoveries have been made during the last decades, and there is
no evidence that this process has come to an end.
Further Reading
Berggren,
Len.Episodes in the Mathematics of Medieval Islam. New York: Springer, 1986. Hogendijk,
Jan P., and A.I. Sabra, eds.The Enterprise of Islamic Science: New
Perspectives, Cambridge, Mass: M.I.T. Press, 2003.
King, David
A.Islamic Mathematical Astronomy. London: Variorium, 1986.
———.Astronomy
in the Service of Islam. London: Variorium, 1987.
———.In
Synchrony with the Heavens: Studies in the Astronomical Timekeeping and
Instrumentation in Medieval Islamic Civilization. Leiden: Brill, 2004.
MAWARDI, AL
Abu ‘l-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Habib
alMawardi was a Muslim polymath who was born in Basra around 975 CE and who
died in Baghdad on May 27, 1058.
Mawardi studied Shafi’i law in Basra and
Baghdad. He was appointed to various judgeships but probably appointed deputies
to do the actual work. He carried out diplomatic missions on behalf of the Caliph
al-Qa’im (r. 1031–1075) to the Buyids, who actually controlled Iraq and Iran,
and also once to their rivals, the Seljuks.
In modern times, Mawardi has become most
famous for al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyya,a treatise describing the Islamic polity. The
‘Abbasid caliphs of his own time were in fact fairly weak figures, although they
slowly regained power as part of the Sunni Revival; almost their only means of
influencing politics was refusing to confirm appointments and titles made or
claimed by the warlords and threatening to call in other warlords from further
afield, such as the Ghaznavids. Accordingly, Mawardi stresses that all
authority flows by delegation from the caliph; he appointed military commanders
to maintain order and judges to maintain justice. There is a close verbal parallel
to Mawardi’sAhkamunder the same title by the Hanbali judge Ibn al-Farra’ (d.
1065), probably a rebuttal of Mawardi’s work. The chief substantial difference
between the two is that Ibn al-Farra’ does not allow an incompetent caliph to
be deposed, whereas Mawardi does.
During the Middle Ages, Mawardi’s most famous
work was al-Hawi al-Kabir,of which
only recently has a full text been published. Formally a commentary on the Mukhtasar of al-Muzani,it rehearses and
defends the ordinances of Shafi’i law at great length (see Law and
Jurisprudence). Mawardi systematically adduces Qur’an, prophetic sunna
(precedent), consensus, and analogy, in that order. He expressly commends Shafi’i
law as the best combination of revelation with reason.
Mawardi’s style of argument is notably
uneven, and he continually piles flimsy evidence and reasoning on top of
apparently sound arguments. It thus marks the transition from a tradition of
legal writing that aims to establish the correctness of one school’s doctrine
to one that aims to establish only its plausibility; this demonstrates that
there will always be multiple schools. Implicitly, the different Sunni schools
of the eleventh century had become somewhat like modern Protestant denominations;
the adherents of each sect may think theirs is the best, but they recognize
that theirs is not the only one that is adequate.
Also currently in print is Mawardi’s
commentary on the Qur’an, al-Nukat
Wa-l-‘uyun. It goes through the entire Qur’an in order, quoting a few
verses at a time and then providing short glosses, mainly from exegetes of the
eighth century; occasionally textual variants are also used, and there are
examples of usage from poetry. It usually presents a range of possibilities and
seldom asserts that any one is the best interpretation. Mawardi’s views
sometimes agree with those of the Mu‘tazilites (e.g., the rejection of
predestination); however, he does not seem to be a systematic advocate of Mu‘tazilism.
Finally, there are also several shorter works in print about law, politics, and
adab (belles-lettres).
Further Reading
Gibb, H.A.R.
‘‘Al-Mawardi’s Theory of the Khilafah.’’ Is
lamic Culture11 (1937): 291–302.
Laoust,
Henri. ‘‘La Pense´e et L’Action Politiques D’AlMawardi.’’Revue des E´ tudes
Islamiques, 36 (1968): 11–92.
Mawardi.The
Laws of Islamic Governance, transl. Asadullah Yate. London: Ta-Ha Publishers,
1996.
———.The
Ordinances of Government, transl. Wafaa H. Wahba. Reading, UK: Garnet, 1996.
———.The
Discipline of Religious and Worldly Matters, transl. Thoreya Mahdi Allam, rev.
Magdi Wahba and Abderrafi Benhallam. Morocco: ISESCO, 1995.
MECCA
The city of Mecca lies in the western area of
the Arabian peninsula, and it is situated in an infertile valley of the
geographical region traditionally known as the Hijaz. Muslim sources relate
that the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w was born
in Mecca in the year 570 CE. He belonged to one of the clans of the tribe of
Quraysh; the Quraysh were the respected elders of this oasis town, which prospered
as a center of commerce because of its strategic location at the midpoint of an
established trade route. The city also had its markets and fairs. Quraysh organized
caravans that traded in territories both south and north of the Arabian
peninsula. Mecca was also home to the sacred shrine known as the Ka’ba and the
ancient spring of Zamzam. The Ka’ba was located in an area known as the masjid
al-haram. The precincts of Mecca, which are defined by a number of miqat
(stations), are considered haram (inviolable). As custodians of the Meccan shrine,
Quraysh provided water for visiting pilgrims, regulating rituals and practices
associated with the hajj (pilgrimage). Islamic sources record that these ceremonies
had assumed an idolatrous and somewhat animistic bent. The perversion of the
monotheistic symbolism of the shrine and the pilgrimage provided the setting
for the emergence of Islam.
The first verses of the Qur’an were revealed
to Muhammad at Mecca in 610 CE. The Prophet preached there for twelve years,
encountering determined opposition. He was compelled to leave the city in 622
CE, migrating with his companions to Medina. The Prophet and his followers did
return triumphantly in 630 CE, taking the city without bloodshed. The Ka’ba was
purged of its idols, and the monotheistic motif of the rituals associated with
the pilgrimage was restored. However, the city of Medina became the political
center of the fledgling Islamic state, although Mecca retained its importance
as the spiritual capital of the Muslim world: it serves as the qibla
(direction) that Muslims face to perform their ritual prayers, and it is the
focus of the annual pilgrimage. It preserves these religious distinctions until
this day, with only Muslims being permitted to enter its sacred boundaries.
Further Reading
Francis,
Peters.Mecca: A Literary History of the Muslim Holy Land. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1994.
Montgomerry,
Watt.Muhammad s.a.w Mecca: History in the Qur’an. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 1988.
MEDICAL LITERATURE, HEBREW
Jewish communities, which during the Middle
Ages were largely settled throughout the Mediterranean area, enjoyed under Islamic
rule a cultural expansion that, paradoxically, was associated with the adoption
of the Arabic language and cultural model. Social tolerance and the influence
of a flourishing Arabic cultural development resulted in a complex and rich Jewish
intellectual life, the achievements of whichwere easily transmitted among the
Jewish communities that shared the same cultural milieu (i.e., those established
within the extensive Islamic territories).
This long chapter of Jewish history is
divided into two main periods in terms of time and location: the Islamic East
and al-Andalus (as the Islamic part of the Iberian Peninsula was known at the
time). During this extensive interlude, Arabic became for Jews not only an
adopted mother tongue but also a vehicle for learning and cultural
transmission; Hebrew was reserved during this period for writings of a
religious and literary character.
Arabic medical knowledge, which flourished
from the middle of the eighth century and was available through Arabic translations
from the Greek as well as from their own original production, was assimilated, learned,
and even taught by Jews. Furthermore, they participated in the task performed
under the auspices of the Islamic cultural expansion of preserving, transmitting,
and commenting on classical philosophical and scientific texts, thereby
partaking in the creation of a distinct corpus of Greco-Arabic medicine.
The art of medicine was learned from books,
but it was also acquired through the relationship established between a student
and a particular master (generally a prominent physician) who transmitted to
the student (usually a male, but occasionally a female) both theoretical and
practical knowledge. Prospective physicians were trained under the supervision
and guidance of the master and, as far as is known, Jews and Muslims without
distinction enjoyed the benefits of this system.
According to the sources, medicine seems to
have been a favorite occupation among Jews, because the number of Jewish medical
practitioners providing care for both the Jewish and the Muslim populations was
considerable. Apparently, this professional choice was stimulated by the fact
that physicians enjoyed an enhanced social and economic status, which was
obviously a desirable aim for a religious minority living under the domination
of another people.
Nevertheless, the number of practitioners
does not seem proportional to the number of medical authors or, more
accurately, known medical texts authored by Jews, whose figures are
substantially inferior. This contrast, however unusual it might seem at first sight,
is not so if the above-mentioned fact that ews’ proficiency in Arabic made the
rich corpus of Greco-Arabic medicine available to them is recalled. The very
availability of texts, together with the assumption of the theoretical
framework developed by Islamic medicine, seems to have acted as a deterrent for
original production.
However scant, Jewish textual production was
not unimportant. Some medical authors succeeded in attracting the general
acknowledgment of their contemporaries, which secured a place for their works within
the corpus that circulated at the time. Among them, two outstanding figures
deserve special mention. The first is Isaac ben Solomon Israeli, or Isaac Judaeus
(born in Egypt c. 855 CE, died in Kairawan c. 955 CE), who was a leading Jewish
philosopher, physician, and medical author. The uncontested acknowledgment of
his work resulted in its early translation into Hebrew and Latin, which allowed
for its dissemination in the West. Israeli’s works on fevers, urine, foods and
simple remedies, and medical conduct were extensively read and quoted
throughout the Middle Ages and beyond.
Undoubtedly the best-known Jewish figure in
the field of medicine, Moses ben Maimon, or Maimonides (born in Cordoba in 1138,
died in Egypt in 1204), was a highly prestigious philosopher, exegete, and
physician. His medical works were deeply embedded in the Islamic medical
tradition, and they shared and transmitted notions of physiology, etiology, and
therapeutics that were common to that tradition, bearing a strong influence of
what has been called the ‘‘Galenization’’
of Islamic medicine. Maimonides was a prolific author, and at least nine
medical works were ascribed to him. He wrote some minor monographs devoted to asthma,
hemorrhoids, sexual hygiene and aphrodisiacs, diet, and pharmacology. He also
produced three major medical works: a commentary on the Hippocratic Aphorisms, a
book on Extracts from Galen,and his own Aphorisms,known as[Medical] Aphorisms
of Moses. This last work was an extensive synthesis of contemporary medical knowledge (Galenic for the most part) that was apparently
conceived as a practical tool for
learning or to be carried during practice.
At the end of the twelfth century, there was
an upsurge in Hebrew, and it began to
be used as a vehicle of science. This
prompted the translation into and the
original production in this language of medical
texts. However, both in and outside Islamic lands, Jews continued to write and
read medicine in Arabic up to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In Christian
territories, a learned minority who had emigrated from Islamic regions but who
still maintained intimate links with Arabic language and science committed
themselves to the translation into Hebrew of Arabic medical books, thus
contributing to the dissemination and transmission of the bulk of Greco-Arabic
medical knowledge to the West.
Further Reading
Ferre, Lola.
‘‘The Place of Scientific Knowledge in Some Spanish Jewish Authors.’’Micrologus.
Natura, Scienze e Societa` Medievali, IX, Gli Ebrei e le Scienze, The Jews and
the Sciences(2001): 21–34.
Friedenwald,
Harry.Jewish Luminaries in Medical History. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press,
1946.
Garcı´a-Ballester,
Luı´s, ‘‘A Marginal Learned Medical World: Jewish, Muslim and Christian Medical
Practitioners, and the Use of Arabic Medical Sources in the Late Medieval
Spain.’’ InPractical Medicine from Salerno to the Black Death, eds. Luı ´s
Garcı´a-Ballester et al., 353– 94. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,
1994.
Goitein, S.
D.A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as
Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza, 6 vols., vol. 2, 240–61.
Berkeley, Los Angles, and London, University of California Press.
Jacquart,
Danielle, and Franc¸oise Micheau. La Me´decine Arabe et L’Occident Me´die´val,
Editions Maissonneuve et Larose. Paris, 1990.
Meyerhoff,
Max.Studies in Medieval Arabic Medicine: Theory and Practice, ed. Penelope
Johnstone. London: Variorum Reprints, 1984.
———.
‘‘Medieval Jewish Physicians in the Middle Ages.’’ Isis28 (1938). Reprinted in
Sezgin, Fuat, ed.Mu¯sa ¯ ibn Maymu¯n (Maimonides) (d. 601/1204): Texts and
Studies, 140–68. Frankfurt am Main: Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic
Science at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, 1998.
Muntner,
S.Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides). Medical Works, 3 vols. Jerusalem, Mosad ha-Rav
Kook, 1957– 1961.
Rosner,
Fred, and Samuel Kottek, eds.Moses Maimonides: Physician, Scientist and
Philosopher. New Jersey, 1993.
Sezgin,
Fuat, ed.Is_ ha¯q ibn Sulayma¯n al-Isra¯’ı ¯lı ¯ (d. c. 325/ 935): Texts and
Studies. Frankfurt am Main: Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science
at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, 1996.
———,
ed.Mu¯sa ¯ ibn Maymu ¯n (Maimonides) (d. 601/ 204): Texts and Studies. Frankfurt
am Main: Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science at Johann Wolfgang
Goethe University, 1998.
Sirat,
Collete.A History of Jewish Philosophy in the Middle Ages. Cambridge, UK, and
New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
MEDICAL LITERATURE, PERSIAN
Given the impact of Arabic as the language of
religion and the paramount vehicle of learning, even in the Iranian linguistic
area, it may not be amiss to recall the commonplace fact that Persian medical
literature is at the same time less and much more than the medical literature
of Iran. It is considered less because Arabic writing about medicine flourished
well before and then alongside (at times overshadowing) its Persian counterpart
in medieval Iran; and it is considered more because of the expansion of Persian
as the language of learning into non-Iranian primarily Turkic and Indic linguistic
regions.
This discussion will neglect vernacular in
favor of academic writing and will be divided into the following sections: (1)
Background; (2) Formative Period, c. AH 340–440/950–1050 CE; (3) Consolidation,
Elaboration, and Islamic Naturalization of
Persian Galenism, 440–620/1050–1220; (4) Avicennism, Literary
Differentiation, and Inter-Asian Exchanges, 620–900/1220–1500; and (5) After
900/1500.
Background
Given the literary dominance of Arabic in
Iran that ensued upon the Muslim/Arab conquest around the middle of the
first/seventh century, the middle-Iranian, pre-Islamic tradition of writing
survived only within the ever-decreasing Zoroastrian community. Thus, Arabic
models, naturally by themselves of multiple derivation (e.g., Arabian,
Hellenistic, [Middle] Iranian), had an obvious impact on the emergence of
(Neo-)Persian as an Islamic literary language during the fourth/tenth century.
With regard to Persian medical literature in particular, the question presents itself
of whether, in addition to Arabic Galenism and the so-called prophetic
medicine, it was also informed by direct scholastic transmission from Middle
Iranian, without an Aramaic–Arabic intermediary; at the level of vernacular healing
craft, such survivals were to be expected. Further, the geographic proximity of
India facilitated exchanges that left a more noticeable imprint in Iran than further
west, whether during the Sasanian period or later, after ca. 300/900.
Formative Period, ca.
340–440/950–1050
Practical utility readily explains the fact
that medical works are to be found among the earliest witnesses to Persian
literature. Although this period saw a veritable outburst of medical writing in
Arabic in the very regions of Persian literary activity, the three incunabula
of Persian medicine attest to the diffusion of superior and diverse learning
among a readership that was unable or unwilling to acquire Arabic. A student of
Abu Bakr al-Razı (d. 313/925) at one remove from the Bukhara
region, Abu Bakr Akhawaynı, composed a textbook for his son and other adepts of
medicine, the first such compendium in Persian (Hidayat al-Muta‘Allimınfı
l-Tibb [Learners’ Guidance to Medicine]). Other genres of Arabic
scholarly writing were similarly adopted, such as the didactic versification
and the alphabetically arrangedmateria medica; the former is represented by Hakım Maysarı’s Danishnama (Book of
Knowledge) of 370/980, and the latter is demonstrated by Abu
Mansu r Harawı’s Kitab al-Abniya ‘an Iˆaqa’iq al-Adwiya (Book of
Foundations Concerning the True Essence of Medicines;ca. 380/990), which
also drew on near-contemporary Indian
scholarship. At the same time,
Maysarı’s and Harawı ’s works illustrate the integration of medicine into
general education, at least among courtly society and in Samanid dominions,
where Persian letters as such first developed.
Nevertheless, the privileged position that
Arabic generally maintained in scholarship is, for example, reflected in Avicenna’s
(before 370/980–428/1037) medical writings; although his magisterial Canon (Kitab al-Qanunfıl-Tibb) is in Arabic,
he only composed a brief treatise on phlebotomy in Persian (Andar Danish-i Rag [On the Knowledge of the
Veins])
Consolidation, Elaboration,
and Islamic Naturalization of Persian Galenism, 440–620/1050–1220
The lasting impact of Avicenna’s Canon was
not limited to Arabic domains; its Persian by no means slavish reception found
monumental and, in turn, similarly influential expression in the medical
encyclopedia Dhakhıra-yi Khwarizmsha hı
(The Khwarizmsha h’s Treasure) by Isma‘ıl Jurjanı (ca. 434–535/ ca. 1042–1140),
an author of vast erudition and, by the breadth of his writings, acute attention
to the varied needs of laymen, learners, practitioners, and complete scholars.
Further, he vividly illustrated theIslamic naturalization of Hellenistic
science (i.e., in the present context, Galenism). As examples of rather humble
and practice-oriented writing, two other works deserve mention here: a
catechetic survey of ophthalmology, Nur
al-‘Uyun (Light of the Eyes) by Abu¯ Rawh Jurjanı‘Zarrındast’ (in 480/1087
inscribed to the Seljuq Sultan Maliksah) and a practitioner’s manual of
theoretical and curative medicine, Mukhtasar
Andar ‘ilm-i Tabıb (Abridgment on the Physician’s Science) by the Jewish physician Abu Sa‘d ‘Zardgilım’ (c. 550/1155).
Both Zarrındast’s Ophthalmology for a
Seljuq sultan and Isma ‘ıl Jurjanı’s activity in Khwarizm (on the frontier to
Turkic) during this period illustrate the afore mentioned expansion of Persian
into non-Iranian linguistic realms.
Avicennism, Literary Differentiation,
and Inter-Asian Exchanges, 620–900/1220–1500
As a result of Cinggis Khan’s and his
successors’ invasions of the Islamic Middle East (c. 618–660/ 1220–1262) as
well as Tamerlane’s (1370–1405) campaigns, the region’s demographic balance further
changed in favor of Turkic and Mongol nomadic pastoralists. Their eventual
Islamic acculturation consolidated and territorially exnded the position of
Persian (e.g., the medical author Shihab al-Dın Nagawrı from India
[790–794/1388–1392]). In medicine, increased communication across Asia under shared
Mongol rule even resulted in Persian adaptations from the Chinese (Tansuqnama-yi Ilkhanı [The Ilkhan’s Book of
Precious Knowledge] by Rashıd alDın Fadlallah [c. 645–718/1247–1318).
Demand for translations from Arabic also rose, as did generally the writing of
commentaries and abridgments. Apart from the ‘‘medicine of the Prophet’’ or of
the Shi‘i Imams in academic medicine, Avicennism continued to hold sway as is
witnessed by, for example,Qanunja (Little
Canon) by Mahmud Caghmını (d. 745/1344)
and the Persian version of Ibn al-Nafıs’s Mujiz
al-Qanun (Abridgment of the Canon) by Qutb Muhammad (c. 906/1500); it is
also seen in ostensibly independent works such as Ghiyathıya (To Ghiyath al-Dın) by Najm al-Dın Mahmud Shırazı (before
720/1320) and Kifaya-yi Mujahidıya
(Adequacy for Mujahid al-Dın (c. 787/1385).
The thematic range of specialized treatments kept increasing, and
eventually included reproductive and sexual medicine. Materia medica for centuries
found its authoritative Persian formulation in Ikhtiyarat-i Badı‘ı (Selections for Badı‘ al-Jamal’) by Zayn al-Dın
‘Alı Ansarı (770/1368–1369); in anatomy, the just-mentioned Mansu¯ r
supplemented his TashrıI ˆ-i Mansurı (Mansur’s Anatomy) with a series of five illustrations; Abu Zayn Kahhal included even
highlighting it in the title surgery in his otherwise conventional survey Sharayit-i Jarrahı (Requirements of Surgery;mid-ninth/fifteenth
century). New manuals of basic
curative medicine continually appeared
as well. In addition, medicine was included
in general encyclopedias of arts and sciences (e.g.,) Danishna
ma-yi Jahan [Book of Knowledge of the World] by ‘Ali ibn ‘Ali Amıran
Isfahanı, c. 880/1475).
After 900/1500
Although no caesura in medical theory marks
the turn of a new period around this date, contemporaneous events and processes
did eventually effect Persian medicine. The rise and consolidation,
respectively, of new dynasties the Turkish Ottomans, the Safavids of Iran, the
Shaybanids of Uzbekistan, and the Mughals of India boosted literary activity in
Persian and won it new territory. For example, renewed interest in Hindu
medicine resulted in Persian versions of Sanskrit texts (Ma‘din al-Shifayi Sikandar-Shahı [The Healing-Mine of Sikandar-Shah] by
Miyan Bhuwa ibn Khawass Khan, 918/1512); medical handbooks and monographs met
with unceasing demand; and, more remarkably, diseases and substances of American,
European, and Far Eastern origin called for discussion. Syphilis (a tishak
[‘‘firelet’’] or a bila-yi farang [Frankish pox]) was instantly noted, at times
correctly diagnosed as transmissible and treated by the supposed panacea smilax
(c ˇubic ˇını [Chinese wood]) if not
by mercury (e.g.,Khulasat al-Tajarib
[Choice Experiences]by Baha’ al-Dawla Nurbakhshı, 907/1501–1502 ; Risala-yi Atishak [Essay on Firelet]; and
Risala-yi Cˇu¯b-i Cˇını[Essay on Chinese
Wood] by ‘Ima ¯d al-Dın MaIˆmud Shıra zı, ca. 978/1570). Coffee (qahwa),
tea (c ˇay), and tobacco (tanbaku ) were not ignored, either.
Further Reading
De Crussol
des E´pesse, Thierry, transl.Discours sur L’Oeil d’Esma¯‘ı ¯l Gorga ¯nı¯. Teheran:
IFRI & PU d’Iran/Louvain: Peeters, 1998.
Elgood,
Cyril.A Medical History of Persia and the Eastern Caliphate. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 1951.
———.Safavid
Medical Practice. London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1970.
Keshavarz,
Fateme.A Descriptive and Analytical Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the
Library of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine. London: Wellcome
Institute, 1986.
Klein-Franke,
Felix, and Zhu Ming. ‘‘Rashı¯d ad-Dı¯nasa Transmitter of Chinese Medicine to
the West.’’Le Muse´on109 (1996): 395–404.
Richter-Bernburg,
Lutz. ‘‘Iran’s Contribution to Medicine and Veterinary Science in Islam, AH
100–900/AD 700– 1500.’’ InThe Diffusion of Greco-Roman Medicine into the Middle
East and the Caucasus, eds. John A.C. Greppin, E. Savage-Smith, and P.
Gueriguian, 139–68. Delmar, NY: Caravan, 1999.
———.Persian
Medical Manuscripts at the University of California, Los Angeles. Malibu:
Undena, 1978.
Sabra,
Abdelhamid I. ‘‘The Appropriation and Subsequent Naturalization of Greek
Science in Medieval Islam: A Preliminary Statement.’’History of Science25 (1987):
223–43.
Storey,
Cyril A.Persian Literature: A Bio-Bibliographical Survey, vol. 2, 2. London:
Royal Asiatic Society, 1971.
MEDICAL LITERATURE, SYRIAC
Syriac Christians first gained notoriety for
their medical skills in Gundaishapur in southwest Persia, where they came into
contact with classical Greek medical thought and began translating the works of
Dioscorides, Galen, Hippocrates, and
Paul of Aegina into Syriac. The Alexandrian-educated Sergius of Resh‘aina (d.
536) was one of the earliest Syriac Christians to distinguish himself both as a
translator and a medical practitioner. The Boktishu‘ family of physicians were
among the earliest East Syriac Christians to contribute to the intellectual and
scientific efflorescence of ‘Abbasid Baghdad. Girgis Boktishu‘ (ca. 770), dean
of medicine in Gundaishapur, was personal physician to the Caliph al-Mansur.
Gabriel, the son of Girgis, translated extracts from leading Greek medical
theorists from Syriac to Arabic, and he compiled them in a work that he
titledal-Mujaz (The Compendium). The renowned Hunayn ibn Ishaq (d. 873), court
physician to the Caliph al-Mutawakkil, revised and expanded the Syriac
translations of Sergius of Resh‘aina and translated them into Arabic; medical
treatises by his nephew, Hobaysh ibn alHasan, often circulated under the name
of Hunayn.
Syriac continued to be used as a medium for
scholarship, although its scope and impact were much reduced well after Arabic
had established itself as the language of life and letters throughout dar al-Islam
(the empire of Islam). A particularly wellexecuted and lavishly illustrated
text (Glasgow University Library, Sp Coll MS Hunter 40) entitled Taqwim al-Abdan fi Tadbir al-Insan (The Arrangement of Bodies
for Treatment) by the eleventh-century scholar Abu ‘Ali Yahya ibn ‘Isa ibn
Jazla is written in Syriac, Arabic, and karshuni (Arabic in Syriac characters).
The work of translation from Greek, through Syriac, and into Arabic was carried
on most intensively from the eighth through the tenth century, and it had an
immediate as well as a long-term impact on Arab culture. In the first instance,
Syriac translations of Greek scientific and philosophical works made available
a synthesis of the classical heritage of Greece to an increasingly literate and
intellectually sophisticated Arabic-speaking populace. In a broader sense, Syriac
translations of classical works into Arabic expanded the vocabulary, level of
diction, and intellectual range of the Arabic language and helped it develop
into an adequate medium for intellectual life.
Further Reading
Brock,
Sebastian.A Brief Outline of Syriac Literature. Kottayam, India: St. Ephrem
Ecumenical Research Institute, 1997.
Hourani,
Albert.A History of the Arab Peoples. Cambridge, Mass: The Belknap Press of
Harvard University Press, 1991.
MEDICAL LITERATURE, TURKISH
Turkish medical literature, being spread in a
wide territory and written in various dialects, is still a field that is not
studied sufficiently. According to research that has been performed so far,
examples of the first written Turkish literature, the Orkhonand Yenisei engravings,
are from the fifth to the ninth century; however, the earliest Turkish medical
literature that was recorded in forty-five rolls and found in Turfan, Central
Asia, was started during the tenth century in Uigur Turkish. The medical
prescriptions described in Uigur medical texts, translated from Indian and
Chinese medical literature, consist mainly of materia medica,and some are local drugs.
After the conversion to Islam in large groups
from the tenth century on, Turkish peoples favored writing in Arabic, which was
accepted to be the literary language of the Islamic world. If Turkish
literature in which medical terminology is used is disregarded (e.g., the Divan-i Lughati’t Turkof the eleventh
century; 581 medical terms are used), the start of Turkish medical
literature that came to be continuous was withTuhfa-i Mubariziby Hakim Barakat,
dedicated to Mubaruziddin Khalifat Alp Ghazi, the governor of Amasya. The first
Anatolian Turkish medical work known so far, this volume was compiled during
the first quarter of the thirteenth century, during the Seljuk period. The rapid
accumulation of the Turkish medical literature written during the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries was realized through the support of the rulers of the
Anatolian Seljuk states (who expected books to be written in Turkish) and paid importance
to knowledge and art; hence, this protected and motivated scholars and
physicians. These books were written in a simple style that the common people
were familiar with; therefore, this is the best literature to be studied as
interesting linguistic material. The subjects studied in Turkish medical work were
mainly practical applications of the same character as classical Islamic
medicine in theory and practice. For example, the classification of illnesses
(e.g., fevers, tumors) and their etiology, signs, and symptoms were described
in accordance with the humoral theory. Examinations (e.g., feeling for the
pulse,
performing
uroscopy) and treatments such as vomiting, bloodletting, purgation, as well as
simple and complex drug therapies were also based on the humoral theory.
The Turkish medical literature of this period
was influenced by the preceding literature: the
Al-Qanun fi’-t Tıbof Ibn Sina; the Zahire-i Kharezmshahi of Jurjani; and the
Kitab al-Jami‘i fi-al-Adviyatu alMufrada of Ibn Baytar were the most
favored Islamic sources used, whereas Hippocrates, Galen, and Dioscorides were
the most frequent references. However, some writers and translators quoted new
information and described their own practices and experiences. Such information
that was assumed to be original can be evaluated only by comparing it with the
preceding works. The examples that are best known for their contributions are
the following: Ishaq ibn Murad’s book that consists of Turkish drug names (Adviya-i Mufrada,1389), which was the first Turkish medical work
of the Ottoman period; Mehmed ibn Mahmud of Shirvan and his exhaustive book on eye diseases (Murshid,1438); Sharafaddin Sabunjuoghlu’s
illustrated book about surgery (Jarrahiyatu’l-Haniya, 1465); a translation of
alTasrif’s part on surgery by Abu’l-Qasim al-Zahrawi and his book of medical
prescriptions describing his own experiences (Mujarrabnama,1468); and Akhi
Chalabi’s (d. 1524) work on kidney and urinary bladder stones and their
treatment (Risala-i Hasatu’lKilya).
The most favored Turkish medical books that comprised all subjects of classical
Islamic medicine were the Muntahab-ı
Shifa of Hajy Pasha (d. 1424); the
Yadigar of Ibn Sharif (1425); and the
Manafi‘u’n-Nas (1566) of Nidai. Turkish medical compilations and
translations of the known and anonymous writers from between the fourteenth and
the sixteenth centuries (known so far) comprise about fifty works, most of
which have not yet been studied.
Further Reading
Adivar,
Adnan.Osmanli Turklerinde Ilim, IV. Baski, Remzi Kitabevi. Istanbul, 1982.
Bayat, Ali Haydar.Tip
Tarihi. Izmir, 2003.
Sehsuvaroglu,
Bedii. ‘‘Anadolu’da Turkce I˙ lk Tip Eserleri.’’ Istanbul Universitesi Tip
Fakultesi Mecmuasi 1 (1957): 79–93.
Sesen,
Ramazan. ‘‘Ortacag Islam Tibbinin Kaynaklari ve XV Yuzyilda Turkce’ye Tercume
Edilen Tip Kitaplari.’’ Tip Tarihi Aras¸tirmalari5 (1993) :11–20.
Suveren,
Kenan, and Ilter Uzel. ‘‘Ilk Turkce Tip Yazmalar-ına Genel Bir Bakis.’’ Tip
Tarihi Aras¸tirmalari2 (1988): 126–42.
MEDINA
The oasis settlement of Medina, Islam’s
second most holy city, lies in the western region of the Arabian peninsula. It
was originally called Yathrib, and it is located 385 kilometers northeast of Mecca in the geographical region known as the
Hijaz. Medina provided the platform from which the Prophet was able to place
the Islamic faith firmly on the landscape of Arabia and beyond. It is situated
on an elevated plain of predominantly fertile land that is renowned for its
abundant date palms and vineyards. It was close to the trade routes that passed
along the western coast of the Arabian peninsula. Arab and Jewish tribes had settled there over the centuries that
preceded the emergence of Islam. The Aws and the Khazraj were the settlement’s
two main Arab tribes. The Jews of Medina, who constituted a sizable element of
the city’s population, were influential landowners and merchants. Members of
the Arab clans, who were mostly pagans, performed the annual pilgrimage to the Meccan
sanctuary. During one such occasion, several individuals from Medina were
persuaded to convert to the new faith, paving the way for the promulgationof
the Prophet’s message in the oasis settlement.
When the Prophet was compelled to leave Mecca
in 622 CE, he and his followers were welcomed in Medina; the Muslims there were
known as the Ansar (Helpers). The
Prophet purchased a plot of land, constructing a modest mosque (masjid) with adjoining apartments in which he lived. It
served as the seat of government for him and his immediate successors. The migration (hijra) to Medina marked a
turning point in the religion’s history and development. The Prophet assumed
greater political and personal authority in the city, drawing up a constitution
that governed relationships among the city’s communities. He was also able to
challenge Quraysh by threatening their trade caravans.
Islam as a religious institution evolved
decisively. Qur’anic revelation in Medina covered themes of a legislative
nature; furthermore, ritual prayers, alms giving, fasting, and pilgrimage were
made obligatory. When the Prophet passed away, he was buried in the mosque
where he had lived. The mosque serves as an important shrine for visiting
pilgrims.
Further Reading
Lecker,
M.Muslims, Jews and Pagans: Studies on Early Islamic Medina. Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 1995.
Watt,
Montgomerry, W.Muhammad Prophet and Statesman. Oxford, UK: Oxford University
Press, 1961.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
Islamic sources refer to the Mediterranean
asBahr alRu¨m(the Sea of the Greeks),
Bahr al-Shamoral-Bahr al-Shami (the Sea of Syria), and/or Bahr al-Maghrib (the
Sea of the West). The Byzantines’ loss of Syria and Egypt to Muslims during the first half of the seventh century
CE marks the beginning of Islamic expansion in the Mediterranean arena. Taking
advantage of experienced Greek and Coptic sailors, shipwrights, and former Byzantine
maritime installations in Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, Mu‘awiya, who was then
the wali (governor) of Syria (640–661
CE), commandeered the first Islamic maritime expedition against Cyprus in AH
28/648 CE. During the subsequent year, he launched a second attack on Arwad (Arados), an island located off
the Syrian coast, and he burned the island’s city. Islamic fleets the Syrian
one in particular intensified their activities against Byzantine targets in the
eastern basin of the Mediterranean and Aegean and assaulted Crete, Cos, Cyprus,
and Rhodes in 33/653–654, ultimately scoring their first naval victory against
the Byzantine navy at Phoenix (Dhat al-Sawari) in 34/655. With the
establishment of the Umayyad Caliphate and the transfer of the capital from
Kufa to Damascus in 40/661, Muslims intensified their naval activities and targeted
Byzantine strategic positions on the Mediterranean as well as the Aegean seas.
During the spring of 49/669, they launched an unsuccessful attack against
Constantinople. During their second attempt to capture the Byzantine capital,
they laid an enduring siege to it that lasted for eight years (53–60/673–80),
with no success. The third fruitless effort was in 99–100/717–718, which ended with
the destruction, capture, and burning of Islamic ships. In addition to these
major attacks, Muslims carried out annual expeditions to different targets on the
Mediterranean. Although Byzantine supremacy at sea was shattered, the Islamic
naval triumph had no immediate overarching results because of the domestic complications
in the caliphate itself.
In separate, spontaneous, and uncoordinated
expeditions, Muslim sea powers launched attacks against Sicily and Crete during
that same year. Although the Aghlabid fleet commandeered by Asad Ibn al-Furat (an
old Maliki jurist of Khurasani origin) raided Sicily, an Andalusian flotilla
led by Abu Hafs ‘Umar al-Balluti landed and held sway over the island of Crete.
The assaults on and conquest of Sicily
and Crete mark a turning point in Islamic naval history in the Mediterranean.
Within a few decades, Islamic fleets captured the Mediterranean islands of
Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza, Sardinia, Pantelleria, Malta, and Cyprus. Their
military expeditions extended to Christian coastal frontiers and hinterland. A
series of more advanced and permanent military and pirate bases were established
along the northern shores of the Mediterranean Sea at Fraxinetum in Provence, Monte
Garigliano near Naples, and around Bari in Apulia. Navigation in the Adriatic
Sea became controlled by independent Islamic flotillas, whereas Byzantine
navigation in the Aegean was threatened by the Syrian and Cretan Arabs, who
sacked and captured Thessalonica in 904 CE and invaded and landed on several
other strategic islands. The Islamic control of the Mediterranean did not,
thus, begin during the seventh or eighth century CE but rather during the first
half of the ninth century CE, when the Muslim world was fragmented into
political entities governed by dynasties of both Arab and non-Arab origin.
The Islamicimperium over the Mediterranean
Sea lasted for more than two centuries despite the recapture of Crete by Byzantium
in 351/961. The actual degeneration of Muslim naval power in the Mediterranean
began by the late fourth and early AH fifth centuries/eleventh century CE and
continued into the early AH sixth century/twelfth century CE; this resulted
from inter-Islamic military struggles and the penetration of Bedouin tribes. In
442/1050, the Hilalis (Banu Hilal) who had ravaged the province of Barqa (Libya)
and left it to the Sulaymis continued their advance toward Gabe`s, Be`ja,
Qayrawan, al-Mahdiyya, Bougie (Bijaya), and the Central Maghrib. This invasion
had formidable impact on the socioeconomic and political life of the region. In
addition to destroying the basis of Tunisian agriculture, industry, and sub Saharan
trade, the resulting deterioration of the port cities led to a decline in
maritime commerce. Navigational activity along the coast between Gabe `stoBu¨na
(Bo ˆne) seems to have been paralyzed, and therefore the port cities were
exposed to hostile attacks by Sicilian and Italian flotillas. Ibn Khaldun
(733–809/ 1332–1406) summarizes that decline as follows:
‘‘Then, the
naval strength of the Muslims declined once more, because of the weakness of
the ruling dynasties. Maritime habits were forgotten under the impact of the strong
Bedouin attitude prevailing in the Maghrib and as a result of the discontinuance
of Spanish habits.... The Muslims came to be strangers in the Mediterranean.
The only exceptions are a few inhabitants of the coastal regions. They ought to
have had many assistants and supporters, or they should have had support from
the dynasties to enable them to recruit help and work toward the goal of
[increasing seafaring activities].’’ (Ibn Khaldun,Muqaddimah, vol. 1, 268–9.
English edition, 212.)
Further
Reading
Al-‘Abbadi,
Ahmad, and Al-Sayyid Salim.Ta’rikh al-Bahriyya al-Islamiyya fi Misr wa-l-Sham.
Beirut: Dar alNahda al-‘Arabiyya, 1981.
Ahrweiler,
He´le `ne.Byzance et la Mer: La Marine de Guerre, la Politique et les Institutions
Maritimes de Byzance aux VIIe –XV e Sie`cles. Paris, 1966.
Arslan,
Shakib.Ta’rikh Ghazawat al-‘Arab fi Faransa waSwisra wa-Italya wa-Jaza’ir
al-Bahr al-Mutawassit. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyya, 1933.
Aziz Ahmad.A
History of Islamic Sicily. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1975.
Bury, John
B. ‘‘The Naval Policy of the Roman Empire in Relation to the Western Provinces
from the 7th to the 9th Century.’’ Centenario Della Nascita di Michele Amari2
(1910): 21–34.
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