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L O S T I S L A M I C H I S T O RY
 F I R A S A L K H AT E E B

L O S T I S L A M I C H I S T O RY
R E C L A I M I N G M U S L I M C I V I L I S AT I O N
F R O M T H E PA S T

H U R S T & C O M P A N Y, L O N D O N
First published in the United Kingdom in 2014 by
C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd.,
41 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3PL
This revised and updated version published 2017
© Firas Alkhateeb, 2017
All rights reserved.

Distributed in the United States, Canada and Latin America by

Oxford University Press, 198 Madison Avenue, New York,
NY 10016, United States of America

The right of Firas Alkhateeb to be identified as the author

of this publication is asserted by him in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

A Cataloguing-in-Publication data record for this book

is available from the British Library.

978-1-84904-689-3 paperback

This book is printed using paper from registered sustainable

and managed sources.

www.hurstpublishers.com
 For the most important people in my life,
my mother Sanaa, my wife Hadeel, and my sister Huda.
 ‫بسم اهلل الرحمن الرحيم‬
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

‫من سلك طريقا يبتغي فيه علما سلك اهلل به طريقا إلى اجلنة‬
“If anyone travels on a road in search of knowledge, Allah will
cause him to travel on one of the roads of Paradise.”
Prophet Muhammad
 CONTENTS

P REFAC E xi

1. P R E -I SLA M I C A R A B I A 1
2. T HE L I FE OF T H E P RO PH E T 9
3. T HE R I GH TLY G UI DE D C A L I PH S 33
4. T HE E STA B L I SH M E N T OF TH E M USL I M S TAT E 55
5. INTEL L E CT UA L G O L DE N A GE S 75
6. T HE I SL A M I C S CI E N CE S 95
7. U PHEAVAL 113
8. A L -A NDA LUS 141
9. T HE E DGE 169
10. R EBI RTH 189
11. D EC L I NE 215
12. O L D AND N E W ID E A S 243

B I BLI OGRAPH Y 265

I NDEX 269

ix
 P R E FA C E

The aim of this book is to provide a short overview of the history of

Muslim civilization, from the inception of Islam in the early seventh
century to the modern day. To fully and accurately cover the depth
and breadth of Muslim history is of course a monumental under-
taking, one that perhaps no single volume could ever adequately
contain. My goal with this attempt is thus simply to introduce the
reader to the general narrative of Islamic history. It is not meant for
the specialist or the serious student of Islamic history, but rather for
the general reader who hopes to become somewhat more familiar
with the subject. I therefore hope that for many, this text will be a
jumping off point, from which a more thorough study of Muslim
history and civilization will spring. Considering that this is an intro-
ductory text, it contains little in the way of original research. The
vast majority of it is based on the research of others, whose works
are listed in the bibliography and can serve as a valuable starting
point for a deeper study of the subject.
I began the Lost Islamic History project in the early 2010s, after
I began teaching Islamic history to high school students. Due to
the structure of the American educational system (which is woe-
fully light on the humanities in general), most of my students had
only the most basic understandings of Muslim civilization. Their
textbooks placed much emphasis on the ancient Greeks and

xi
 P R E FAC E

Romans, and then the “rise” of Europe after the Dark Ages
through the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, but barely spoke
of Muslim, or other non-Western, civilization at all. One small
section on the Prophet Muhammad or half a page on the Otto-
man Empire in Eastern Europe might be all that most textbooks
devoted to the 1400 years of Islamic history.
My Islamic history class thus developed as a response to that
deficiency, with my goal being to expose students to the richness
of Muslim civilization that they didn’t get elsewhere. I aimed to
provide an alternative to the presentation of European history as
World history, focusing on the rise of Muslim civilization and the
many contributions of that civilization to humanity in general. To
my delight, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Most of my
students were the children of immigrants who had come from
various Muslim countries, and thus finally felt a connection with
something historical. Naturally, it was much easier for them to
identify with historical figures such as Abu Hanifa and Yusuf ibn
Tashfin than they ever could with John Locke and Napoleon.
The book Lost Islamic History then developed out of my teaching
notes. Considering that there was no high school textbook of
Islamic history available in English, Lost Islamic History became my
attempt to fill part of that gap. If people outside of my classroom
could similarly get a taste of what they missed in their high school
history courses, then this book would serve its purpose.
Since its initial publication in 2014, I’ve spent more time study-
ing in-depth myself, particularly the Islamic sciences. As such, for
this second edition, we have chosen to revise the text and include
a new chapter dedicated to the development and history of
Islamic thought. As the beating heart of Muslim civilization,
Islamic jurisprudence, theology, and spirituality deserve far more

xii
 P R E FAC E

discussion than the few pages in this text, but I hope that this new
chapter brings some light to the Islamic sciences that the first edi-
tion lacked. For this section of the book in particular, I am
indebted to Shaykh Amin Kholwadia and the rest of the teachers
at Darul Qasim, without whom my understanding of the Islamic
tradition would be elementary at best. Thanks must also be given
to the staff at Hurst Publishers, who have been incredibly helpful
and supportive during the writing and publishing process for both
the original text and this updated edition.

xiii
 1
PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA

The dry, mountainous landscape of the Hijaz is not an environ-

ment that gives much life. Situated in the western part of the
Arabian Peninsula, this land can be described with two words: dry
and hot. In the summer, temperatures regularly rise to well over
100 degrees Fahrenheit, with little precipitation. Further east, end-
less sand dunes mark a landscape devoid of greenery or perma-
nent settlements. Yet it was from this harsh landscape that, in the
early 600s, a new movement emerged; one that would change the
course of history in the Arabian Peninsula and beyond.

G eography

The Arabian Peninsula covers an area of over 2 million square

kilometers in the southwestern corner of Asia. Situated between
Asia, Africa and Europe, the land is unique in its connection with
all three continents of the Old World. Despite its position, it has
been mostly ignored by outsiders. The Ancient Egyptians chose to
expand into the Fertile Crescent and Nubia rather than venture

1
 L O S T I S L A M I C H I S T O RY

into Arabia’s deserts. Alexander the Great passed by it in the 300s

BCE on his way to Persia and India. The great Roman Empire
attempted to invade the peninsula through Yemen in the 20s BCE,
but could not adapt to the harsh landscape and thus failed to
annex the region.
One could hardly blame outsiders for ignoring the Arabian
Peninsula. Its dry climate is barely hospitable, even for the nomads
who live there. Monsoon winds bring seasonal rains to the south-
ern coast of the peninsula in the autumn, but these are stifled by
the quickly rising landscape and never make it deep into Arabia’s
deserts. Similarly, rains from the Mediterranean Sea barely touch
upon the northern extremities of the Arabian Desert. The result
is that the vast majority of the peninsula remains dry year-round.
Parched riverbeds known as wadis run throughout the land, yet
they are barely recognizable as rivers. When clouds gather and
rains fall, they become gushing and powerful waterways, essential
for the growth of the seasonal flora that manages to bloom in this
dry land. Once the wet season is over, however, the wadis return to
their usual, dry state, useless as sources of water. More reliable are
the oases—small fertile spots surrounded by the vast expanse of
the desert. They were capable of serving host to small communi-
ties, or as waypoints for travelers, but were hardly enough to sus-
tain an advanced and large society.

T he A rabs

Civilizations tend to be greatly shaped by the environments in which

they develop, and the Arabs are no exception. Everything about the
life of the Arab was based around the harsh environment in which
he lived. Due to the desert’s inability to support settled civilization,
the Arabs were constantly on the move in search of fertile land for

2
 PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA

their flocks. One theory of the etymology of the label “Arab” even
posits that the word itself comes from a Semitic root meaning “wan-
dering” or “nomadic”. The Arabs would spend the summer months
around whatever oases or wells they could rely on year after year,
trying to make supplies and water last by living on the bare mini-
mum. After months of enduring the summer heat, they would
migrate to the south, near Yemen, where rain fell in the autumn and
fertile land appeared for their herds. The rain-fed pastures gave their
flocks of sheep, goats and camels enough food to live off through the
winter months as they pitched their tents and temporarily settled. By
the time the rains stopped and the dry season began again in the
spring, the Arabs returned to their oases and wells to wait out
another summer. This harsh cycle had been the norm for the
nomadic Arabs since time immemorial, and it remains in place for
the Bedouin Arabs who still live in Arabia’s deserts.

In pre-Islamic Arabia, hospitality was of such importance that a guest

at the home of an Arab was guaranteed at least three days of total
security and protection before he would even be questioned about why
he was there. This tradition was further reinforced by the Prophet, who
stated that a guest has the right to be hosted for three days.

The desert was not a place to be alone. With so many threats to

the survival of the Arabs, community cooperation was essential.
Reliance on relatives was the first line of defense against famine
and the heat that constantly threatened survival. Families were
expected to share resources and shelter, and the concept of pure

3
 L O S T I S L A M I C H I S T O RY

individualism was strongly frowned upon. As such, the family (and

by extension, the tribe) served as the most important unit within
Arab society. Groups of families travelled together and were con-
sidered a qabilah, or clan. Several clans would constitute a tribe,
led by a tribal leader called a shaikh. Tribal identity and belonging
were vital in the pre-Islamic world. Belonging to a tribe brought
protection, support and economic opportunities. Tribes would go
to battle to defend one of their own, and tribal warfare was
unnervingly common before the arrival of Islam. Competition
over grazing lands and flocks regularly brought tribes into devas-
tating wars which could last years and extract a heavy human toll
on the participants. For the Arabs, struggle was a constant, against
both man and nature.
In a tribal, nomadic society like this, artistic expression becomes
difficult. The resources and time necessary to complete great sculp-
tures and paintings like the ancient civilizations of Egypt and Greece
were almost non-existent. Yet the natural human desire to search for
beauty could not be extinguished by the desert sands. Instead it took
on a new form: language. Perhaps more than any other language in
the world, Arabic itself is a form of artistic expression. Word and
sentence structure is fluid, creating many different ways for a person
to express the same idea. Poetry thus naturally became the de facto
art of Arabia; long, epic poems glorifying tribes and heroism in war
were their greatest works of art. The finest poets were revered celeb-
rities in every way. Their words were memorized by the masses and
repeated for generations. The seven most magnificent pre-Islamic
poems were known as the mu’allaqat, meaning “the hanging ones”.
They were so called because they were hung on the walls of the
Ka’ba in Mecca, or alternatively because they were hung in the
hearts of all Arabs due to their reverence for the poetic medium.

4
 PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA

Despite being an advanced literary society, writing was rare in the

Arabian Peninsula. While a written form of the language did exist
by the 500s, it was rarely learned. Memorization was enough for the
Arabs, who were capable of learning poems that were thousands of
lines long by heart so they could repeat them to future generations.
Memorization would prove to be a vital skill once Islam arrived in
the peninsula in the 600s.
When it came to religion, the pre-Islamic Arabs were almost
exclusively polytheistic. Islamic tradition holds that the Prophet
Ibrahim (Abraham) and his son, Isma‘il (Ismael), built the Ka‘ba in
the valley of Mecca in ancient times as a house of worship for one
God. The Ka‘ba was built as a plain rectangular building on a foun-
dation set by the first man—Adam. From this shrine, Isma‘il was
able to preach the monotheistic message to the Arabs, who adopted
him as one of their own. Over the centuries, however, the progeny
of Isma‘il distorted his monotheistic teachings. Stone and wood
idols were carved to represent attributes of God. Later, they would
go on to represent separate gods entirely. By the time of the Prophet
Muhammad, there were 360 gods in the Ka‘ba. The message of
Ibrahim and Isma‘il was not entirely lost on the Arabs, however.
The two prophets were still revered figures in the minds of the
Arabs and even some of their basic teachings still held weight in this
society. They certainly believed in the God of Ibrahim and Isma‘il,
called Allah in Arabic. But they believed he was one among many
different gods, represented by the idols. This belief system was far
removed from the strict monotheism those two prophets had
preached, and reflected influence from Sumerian religions to the
north. Isolated Christian and Jewish communities existed within the
Arabian Peninsula and also revered the prophets, but that was
where their similarities ended. The sparse monotheists of Arabia

5
 L O S T I S L A M I C H I S T O RY

tended to avoid complete assimilation with the polytheistic Arabs,

instead creating their own insular communities.

A rabia’ s N eighbors

In spite of being deep in the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula, far

from more advanced civilizations, the Arabs were not completely
isolated from their neighbors. The Romans had become a regional
superpower along the northern borders of the peninsula in the
early decades CE. By putting down numerous Jewish revolts in the
province of Syria Palaestina, the Romans stamped their control on
the area. For the Bedouin Arabs, this meant the presence of a
wealthy and strong trading partner to the north. Merchants regu-
larly traversed the western part of the peninsula from Yemen in
the south to Syria in the north, trading goods that came from
places as far away as India and Italy. The Romans were content to
remain in the more hospitable and familiar lands of the Fertile
Crescent and let the nomadic Arabs carry on the trade with more
distant lands.
To the northeast of Arabia lies the Iranian Plateau. The rise of
the Sassanid Dynasty in Persia in the 200s CE ushered in a centu-
ries-long struggle between the Romans and Persians, which would
have its effects on the Arabs. The border between the two great
Empires fluctuated, but was generally in the Syrian Desert, in the
northern part of the Arabian Peninsula. Both the Romans and the
Persians attempted to gain the upper hand by using Arab tribes
(usually ones that had converted to Christianity) as proxies. Keen
to use this conflict to their own benefit, two Arab tribal confedera-
tions developed into client states for the great powers. The Ghas-
sanids founded a kingdom in what are now the modern countries
of Jordan, Syria and Palestine, where they served as a buffer for

6
 PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA

the Roman Empire. Similarly, the Lakhmids controlled southern

Mesopotamia and served the Persians. Both Arab kingdoms were
greatly influenced by their overlords, who spent heavily on keeping
their vassals well equipped in the face of the enemy. Yet the con-
stant warfare between the two sides would slowly wear down all
four parties. By the early 600s, the Romans and Persians were
exhausted by decades of warfare and were weakening behind a
façade of militaristic power. The Ghassanids and Lakhmids too
felt the stress of war, as they were mere pawns in this constant
conflict. Most Arab tribes, however, avoided the external conflict
between the two imperial powers. They were more interested in
carrying on a profitable trade with the two warring Empires than
helping to decide the winner.
To the south of the peninsula was the powerful Kingdom of
Aksum in Abyssinia, modern Ethiopia. Based high in the Abyssinian
mountains, Aksum was a powerful trading state that connected
inland African kingdoms, the Indian Ocean sea routes and the
southern part of the Arabian Peninsula. As a crossroad for trade, it
had considerable influence on Arab merchants, who dealt with the
Aksumites in Yemen. Like Rome, Aksum was a Christian empire
that had tension with Persia on numerous occasions. Control of
trade routes running through Yemen was a constant source of fric-
tion, as both sides sought to turn local leaders into vassals.
In the increasingly globalized world of the early 600s, the Arabs
were aware of their neighbors and became affected by events out-
side the Arabian Peninsula. Being at a crossroads of three power-
ful states meant being aware of international politics and having
the skill to use rivalries to their advantage. Yet despite their pre-
carious location, the Arabs were safe in the depths of the desert.
They called their peninsula jazirat al-Arab, meaning “the island of

7
 L O S T I S L A M I C H I S T O RY

the Arabs” due to how isolated its inhabitants were. This isolation
proved to be greatly beneficial. The harsh environment meant that
none of the surrounding states could invade and occupy Arab
lands. The Arabs’ traditional cycle of wandering and their way of
life was mostly unaffected by regional politics and wars.
In this protected environment a movement would rise in the
early 600s that would have huge implications for the surrounding
states, and eventually the entire world. It would change the destiny
of the Arabs forever, building on and using their unique abilities
and doing away with the negative cultural traits that kept them as
wandering, warring nomads. Geography, climate, culture and
politics together all led to the perfect environment in which Islam
could rise to become a world power faster than any other move-
ment, religion, or empire in world history. It would sweep out of
the deserts of Arabia into the battered Roman and Persian
Empires, conquering territories and assimilating diverse peoples,
creating an empire that stretched from Spain to India by the early
700s—the world’s largest at the time. This exponential growth in
power and civilization would have been unfathomable to the
Arabs of the early 600s, who were struggling to survive. Yet all it
took was the arrival of a man who came with a revolutionary
message and a promise to the Arabs of a new destiny, one beyond
the sands of Arabia: Muhammad.

8
 2
T H E L I F E O F T H E P RO P H E T

The Prophet Muhammad was born in the town of Mecca around

the year 570 CE. He belonged to the Banu Hashim clan, a subset
of the Quraysh tribe that controlled Mecca—the trading and reli-
gious center deep in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula. About
eighty kilometers inland from the Red Sea, it benefitted greatly from
the north-south trade routes that connected the Romans in the
north and Yemen in the south. Yet, Mecca was far detached from
both these places. Hundreds of kilometers of desert surrounding the
valley town allowed it to develop independent of any foreign control
or influence. Mecca was at once both internationally connected and
isolated. But when it came to religion, Mecca was a focal point for
the entire Arabian Peninsula. It was the location of the Ka’ba and
the annual pilgrimage that attracted Arabs from all over the penin-
sula. So while Mecca was far away enough to elude imperial control
by the Byzantines or Persians, it was central enough to have a major
impact on the Arab people. Both of these characteristics would play
a major role when Islam began to spread.

9
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