Annals of the early Caliphate from the death of Mahomet to the Omeyyad and Abbaside dynasties A.H. XI-LXI (A.D. 632-680) from original sources

by Sir William Muir

Tendency of revivals among Orthodox and Shîyas.

The countries in which the native Arabs mostly spread and settled, and where, consequently, the Arab spirit longest survived (by far the largest part of the Mahometan world), are still, on the whole, the most devoted to the Orthodox faith; while Persia and a few smaller principalities continue loyal to the Shîya creed. Revivals follow a corresponding course. Amongst the Orthodox, the quickened spiritual sense even in the present day shows itself in an implicit return to the letter of the Corân; in a Puritan protest against all forms and superstitions inconsistent with the sacred text; in outbursts of zeal for ‘fighting in the ways of the Lord,’ and generally in a tendency towards the ancient tenets of Khârejite theocracy.[611] Among the Shîyas, on the other hand, the spirit of revival breaks out in wild and mystical devotion, in the excesses of Soofeeism, and in the profane extravagances engendered by a belief in the Divine Imâmate and emanations of the Deity.

Turkey, Persia, and India.

Persia remains still the only important kingdom given up to the Shîya faith. In India, the emperors, being of Turkish blood, were generally orthodox in their profession. They encouraged the immigration, by grants of land and other privileges, of vast crowds of Arab followers drawn directly from their native soil. And so throughout Hindostan, the Soonnie has always overshadowed the Shîya faith. At the same time, Islam in India (as in Persia and other Shîya lands) has been, from the failure to convert the millions of its heathen subjects, less intolerant of idol temples and alien worship, than elsewhere. While, on the other hand, in India, as in all Soonnie countries, revivals of the Faith have run in the lines of puritanical reform, rather than, as in Persia, into mystical excess.[612]

Enmity between Soonnies and Shîya.

Between Turkey and Persia, there is a broad distinction as to tolerance. The Osmanlies, notwithstanding their close territorial contact with Christianity, are, in virtue of their orthodoxy, intolerant of the least divergence from the Faith; while the more distant Persia (following the example of the Motázilite Caliphs) is less impatient of other creeds, and more amenable to outer influence.[613] In other respects, too, the ancient sentiment dividing the Soonnie and the Shîya is as bitter now as in the days when Aly cursed Muâvia, and Muâvia cursed Aly, in the daily public service. The hopeless schism has tended to slacken the progress of Islam, and abate its aggressive force. Thus recently, when a deadly blow was aimed at the head of the Moslem Empire on this side of the Bosphorus, the sectarians of Persia, through hate and jealousy of the Soonnie creed, declined to rally round the banner of the Crescent; and, indeed, so far as any help or even sympathy from Shîyas went, Islam might have been blotted out of Europe altogether. The Soonnie scorns the Shîya; and the Shîya, in his turn, spits on the graves of those great Caliphs, Omar and Abu Bekr, to whom they owe it that Islam spread thus marvellously, nay even that it survived its birth.

Political and economical outlook of Islam.

The Islam of to-day is substantially the same as the Islam which we quitted at the close of this history. By the middle of the third century it had completed its circuit, and had rung all the changes which seem to lie within the range of its potentiality. Swathed in the rigid bands of the Corân, Islam is powerless, like the Christian dispensation, to adapt itself to the varying circumstances of time and place, and to keep pace with, if not to lead and direct, the progress of society and elevation of the race. In the body politic, the spiritual and the secular are hopelessly confounded; and we fail of perceiving any approach to free institutions, or any germ whatever of popular government. The nearest approach to it was in the brotherhood of Islam; but that, as a controlling power, was confined strictly to the Arab races, and with their fall it has entirely disappeared. The type and exemplar of Moslem rule is the absolute and autocratic monarch, alternating at times with the will of lawless soldiery; and the only check on the despot’s power is the law of the Corân, as expounded by the learned, and enforced by the sentiment of the nation.

Obnoxious social ordinances.

Nor has there been anywhere change or advance perceptible in the state of society. Polygamy.Polygamy and servile concubinage are still the privilege, or the curse, of Islam; the worm at its root, the secret of its fall. By these the unity of the household is fatally broken, and the purity and virtue weakened of the family tie: the vigour of the dominant classes is sapped; the body politic becomes weak and languid, excepting for intrigue; and the throne itself liable to fall a prey to doubtful or contested succession. Female slavery.As to slavery, and more especially female slavery, we look too exclusively at its effect on the wretched subject of the institution. Its influence on the owner is infinitely more disastrous. However much the condition of slavery may be ameliorated by the kindly influences which, in Moslem lands, surround it as a domestic institution, still, servile concubinage fixes its withering grasp with more damaging effect even upon the master, than on the miserable slave of his enjoyments.