History of Islam

Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon.

Belief in Islam and in prophet Muhammad.

It is important to note, though, that most Muslims do not consider the Taliban to be "following Islam correctly" due to their harsh literalist nature.

During the crusades

Iraq

This answer is divided into three main parts. Part A will discuss how, contrary to the general claim by Muslims, unity across all Muslims was not dominant in Islamic History. Part B will discuss particular reasons for disunity from a political perspective. Part C will discuss the religious, sectarian divide in the Islamic World and why that persists.

PART A) Unity Was Never Common in Islamic History

1) Union Makes Little Sense: The first issue is the implicit assumption that the Islamic World should be united as one megolith. This makes very little sense. Other than Islam, most Muslim-majority countries have nothing in common. They range climatically - from dense jungles to arid deserts, geographically - from inland mountainous regions to lowland islands, culturally - from modern societies to tribal regions, linguistically - containing over half of the world's different language trees, historically - with some being subject to European colonization and others remaining powerful independent empires, religiously - containing different sects of Islam and different degrees of moderation or fundamentalism, and ethnically - containing hundreds of distinct ethnic groups or tribes. There is no other religious group, even with less diversity, that is completely united.

2) Successive Political Fracturing: Muslims tend to stress the unity of the Islamic Caliphate in the early period of Islam, often claiming that this is the natural state of Islam. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Islamic Caliphate only held together as one empire for 120 years (630 C.E. to 750 C.E.). This is less time than the United States has existed and roughly the equivalent time of the worldwide British Empire (1830-1950). Therefore, it is not unrealistic or special that the Rightly-Guided Caliphate and its successor state the Umayyad Caliphate remained united. There was a strong intent to integrate the conquered populations and many in the territories wished to become Muslim due either to conviction or to financial incentive. When the Abbassids overthrew the Umayyads in the Middle East, the Islamic Empire broke up into numerous Caliphates and Sultanates (such as the Umayyads, Abbassids, Idrissids, Aghlabids), returning to the natural state of disunity. The Abbassid Caliphate would further break down into in the next two centuries into the Fatimid, Ayyubid, and Buyid Caliphates. The fact that the Ottomans became the spiritual successor State to the Rightly-Guided Caliphate by way of the Umayyads by way of the Abbassids by way of the Ayyubids by way of the Mamluks by way of the Seljuks, is purely incidental and only occurred because the central Middle East was consistently under the control of an Empire that was Islamic. These empires were held together by institutions such as the governates (wilayat), roads, and police/soldiers, just like every other empire. It just happens that track record of violence and repression is better for Islamic Empires.

PART B) Particular Issues Leading to Disunity

There are numerous things that prevent Muslim unity in the world.

1) Concerning Western Imperialism, Colonialism, and Warmongering: Many Muslims hold that the failure for Muslims to be united under one political banner has to do with western forces which divided and conquered them. There is certainly an extent to which that is true, but the Muslims had 25 separate Empires long before the Western regime of imperialism and colonialism. The first break in the unified Islamic State came only 120 years after its founding (The splitting off of Umayyad Spain and Idrissid Morocco). 50 years later saw the independence of the Aghlabids in Algeria, Tunisia, and Malta and the Buyids in Persia. 100 years after that saw the rise of the Fatimids in Western Libya, etc. By the mid-900s C.E. on (as Europe remained aloof from Islamic affairs except in Spain), Muslim-on-Muslim warfare and attempts for economic dominance persisted until the Ottomans conquered all major Islamic States in the Middle East. This was undone by separatist governors in the more distant provinces (like Algeria and Tunisia) and open rebellion in some of the closer provinces (like Hejaz and Syria). Some of these were supported by Western powers (like Hejaz). Others were crushed by them (such as the Syrians).

2) Concerning Historical Disunity: Muslims have gone to war with each other at numerous times and in numerous places. Nearly every border in the Arab World has played host to a military engagement of some type within the last 100 years. The Modern Arab World has never had anything even close to the European Union or the Schengen Border Agreement. (The Arab League is much more like the United Nations and has no superstate components.) Islam is an even weaker union that has no unified monetary policy, immigration policy, international policy (except perhaps Israel), and no unified interpretation of which version of Islam is the one worth supporting. Although Muslims, as individuals, may feel connected across borders, like those between Morocco and Algeria or those between Syria and Lebanon or those between Egypt, Sudan, and Libya, or those between Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, or those between Malaysia and Indonesia, their governments do not.

3) Concerning National Cultural Differences: Each Muslim nation has a different ethnic, religious, and tribal makeup. Take for instance the neighboring countries of Tunisia and Libya. President Bourghiba of Tunisia proposed a union with Muammar Qaddafi of Libya, but his own people made it clear that they were not interested. The reason for this was that Tunisia was (and still is) the most progressive state in the Arab World, embracing such concepts as "national identity", "freedom of religion", near-complete "freedom of speech", and a Western-Style Government. Libya was (and still is) one of the most conservative Arab States outside of the Arabian Peninsula. Its people were very tribal with numerous militias sprinkled across the country and a system of bribes and counter-bribes used to keep the tribes from breaking out in revolution. (It seems that this federal bribing system eventually failed but the Libyan government has not managed to eclipse the militas.) With national organizational and cultural differences that were that huge, Pan-Arabism could not begin, let alone Pan-Islamism.

4) Concerning Regional Superiority: Each leader in the Muslim World believes that they are smarter, more capable, and more deserving of leadership than every other. However, uniting under one banner requires that there only be one government. This means that every other state must subordinate their power to one leader. Many Arabs joke about this bemusedly because of a conversation between Nasser of Egypt and Assad of Syria where Nasser said, "I am proud leader of the United Arab Republic based out of Cairo." and Assad said the next day, "I am proud leader of the United Arab Republic based out of Damascus." Both were referring to the same state, but each refused to really cede all control to the other. The United Arab Republic fell apart after three years. (And this was the longest period for such a united state.)

5) Concerning Oil Wealth: The Leaders of the Persian Gulf States such as Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman have little interest in giving up all of their oil wealth and power to accede to a vague hope and dream of Islamic Unification. This is especially true because it can be assumed that the leaders of such small states would definitely not become the leader of a united Islamic government.

PART C) Persistence of Religious and Sectarian Issues

The Divisions between Sunnis and Shiites have persisted for the same reason that the divisions between Catholics and Orthodox Christians have persisted. Once a religious sectarian division comes into existence it is impossible to theologically heal it unless at least one side concedes that its position on the theological issues that the two sects disagree on is wrong.

However, since Catholics and Orthodox Christians have stopped killing each other and cursing each other as heretics for the last 400 years or so, it begs the question as two why Sunnis and Shiites continue to do this. (Note that the majority of Sunnis and Shiites do not feel this way, but a large vocal minority in each camp still do.) There are several reasons for this animosity.

1) Historical Grievances: The primary reason this division persists is that there has never been an atonement by either side for the pain and persecution that it has suffered when the other was in power over a given territory. Although, Shiites endured more persecution at the hands of Sunnis than the reverse, this is not to say that Sunnis have not endured persecution at Shiite hands. Both groups remain defiant that since they have the moral high-ground as granted from their faith, their actions in repressing the other sect, torturing its adherents, and murdering its leaders was progress towards removing the heresy. Compare this to the Catholics, who have apologized for the Rape of Byzantium, which was huge historical grievance between them and the Orthodox.

2) Ethnic Identities: In many countries, especially Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, people identify "ethnically" by their sect of religion. Therefore saying somebody is Shiite in Iraq is similar to how people view being Irish-American or Japanese-American in the United States. It marks you socially and it determines who your friends are, who you marry, what jobs you take, who you love, who you despise, etc. As a result, whenever conflict has broken out, each religious group comes together to defend its people's interests. This results in political and social hatred of the other religion in addition to any theological issues.

3) Rumors of the Other's Theology: Some Sunnis think that Shiites are deluded into believing that 'Ali was a second prophet, which would violate Mohammed being the final capstone of the Prophets, a huge theological issue. Some Shiites believe that Sunnis were paid off to accept the three Rightly-Guided Caliphs before 'Ali and that Sunni Islam was therefore corrupt and ineligible to continue the Islamic tradition. Both have alleged the other was deceived by Jews, which says more about how Muslims view Jews than each other. Of course, both of these are mis-characterizations of the actual theologies of these two sects, but the point remains that as long as these problematic rumors exist, the two sides cannot reconcile.

4) Approaches to Government: Ever since the abolition of the Caliphate in 1936, Sunni Islam has been leaderless and there has come to be an understanding that religion does not participate in actual governance. (This is not a separation of church and state since the two can cooperate closely, but this prevents direct theocracy.) Shiites, on the other hand, have religious leaders called Ayatollahs who do attempt to have terrestrial authority and in Iran have actually achieved it.

Under the Abbassid System, there was a clear inequality between religious groups that would today be considered a form of apartheid. However, it is worth noting that this system, which today would be unacceptable was actually very progressive for its time-period. In Europe, non-Christians in the 1000s and 1100s often lived fearing that they could be killed and maimed at a moment's hesitation.

The Dhimmi, or non-Muslim under Muslim occupation was required by the Pact of Omar to pay a number of taxes that were connected with his Dhimmi status. The most famous was the jizya, which was a tax that Dhimmi had to pay for Muslims for the right to not be killed where they stood for not acknowledging Mohammed's Prophecy; it was a form of humiliation. Additional taxes included the kharaj, which was a tax on non-Muslim land-holdings in the Muslim World. The kharaj was so untenable that most Dhimmi were forced to live in the cities where the tax would not be applicable. On paper, a Christian or Jew could testify against a Muslim, but in reality, such testimony was not acceptable and the attempt to defame a Muslim would receive retribution, creating a thoroughly unjust system. Christians and Jews were not allowed to build new houses of worship, restore old houses of worship, proselytize in any way (this included religious debate or dialogue), or allow wine or pigs to be shown in public. Dhimmi were also prohibited from serving in the government (except for certain particular positions) and were denied the ability to serve in the military or maintain weapons for self-defense.

The first Muslim Empire was located in Saudi Arabia Under the second Rightful Caliph Hazrat Umar (May Allah be pleased with him). Its capital was Madina Munawara. Later Muslim Empires had their capitals at Kufa, Baghdad, Cordova, Istambol.

Islamic achievementin andalusia:better quality of life for Jews (many of Jews migrate to this region in that time, see The Ornament of the World by María Rosa Menocal)

the invention of baculus for navigating in sea

inventions of musical instruments like: qitara(modern = guitar), rebec (ancestor of violin), exabeba/al-shabbaba (modern = flute), atabal/al-tabl (modern = bass drum), qanun/canon (ancestor of piano)

making of anti-earthquake palace al hambra in Spain(ironically when the britons defend themself from vikings only with wooden castle)

making of biggest irrigation system in that time

invetion of primitive parachute by Abbas Ibn Firnas at 852

first papermills in samarkand and Baghdad. they improved paper making technique from Chinese

establish of public library in Baghdad at 900

The earliest known treatises dealing with environmentalism and environmental science, especially pollution, were Arabic treatises written by al-Kindi, al-Razi, Ibn Al-Jazzar, al-Tamimi, al-Masihi, Avicenna, Ali ibn Ridwan, Abd-el-latif, and Ibn al-Nafis. Their works covered a number of subjects related to pollution such as air pollution, water pollution, soil contamination, municipal solid waste mishandling, and environmental impact assessments of certain localities (see L. Gari (2002), "Arabic Treatises on Environmental Pollution up to the End of the Thirteenth Century", Environment and History 8 (4), pp. 475-488)

founding of first diploma issuing university on bimaristan

founding of first full-fledged university, Al Azhar, Cairo

The Iranian born Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber) introduced the experimental method to chemistry. He established the chemical industry and perfumery industry.

For example, the first glass factories in Europe were founded in the 11th century by Egyptian craftsmen in Greece

Some of the inventions believed to have come from this time include the camera obscura, coffee, soap bar, tooth paste, shampoo, pure distillation, liquefaction, crystallization, purification, oxidization, evaporation, filtration, distilled alcohol, uric acid, nitric acid, alembic, valve, reciprocating suction piston pump, mechanized waterclocks, quilting, scalpel, bone saw, forceps, surgical catgut, vertical-axle windmill, inoculation, smallpox vaccine, fountain pen, cryptanalysis, frequency analysis, three-course meal, stained glass and quartz glass, Persian carpet, and celestial globe (see Paul Vallely, How Islamic Inventors Changed the World, The Independent, 11 March 2006)

and many more...........)

The first and most important "True Cross of Jesus" was allegedly found by Helena on a pilgrimage to Palestine, where she found the cross of Jesus and those of the two robbers, all still intact, as well as uncovering the places of Jesus' birth, crucifixion and burial, and various other important relics. When Helena left Palestine, she took several pieces of wood from the True Cross.

The custody of the True Cross was entrusted to the bishop of Jerusalem, who gratified the devotion of the pilgrims by the gift of small pieces, which they enchased in gold or gems and carried away to their respective countries. As the commerce would soon have depleted what remained of the cross, it was found convenient to suppose that the marvelous wood possessed a secret power of vegetation, and that its substance, though continually diminished, remained entire and unimpaired.

After an eventful history, the True Cross is believed to have been hidden by the Christians in 1009 CE and remained hidden until 1099, during the First Crusade. It is said that the Moslem leader Saladin captured the cross at the Battle of Hattin in 1187.

Was the True Cross that Saladin is reported to have captured really the same one on which Jesus was crucified, and which had somehow survived intact for so many centuries, even after large quantities of the wood had been traded with the pilgrims, was it an artefact of Helena's self-delusion, or was it a clever but fraudulent device intended at first to encourage Christian faith and later to sustain Church revenue?

Because her studied in England and he went to university. The Taliban do not wish of anyone to be smarter than them.

i don't know if it's right but Sunni and shiite stupit odessywire

True, they were allowed . #yourwelcome

Reconquista Is a Period During the Middle Ages. It Is Significied by Christian Kingdowns Which Were Successful in Conquering Lberian Peninsula From the Islamic Kingdoms.

No.

Saladin was Moslem.

Islam originated in Saudi Arabia but soon spread in Persia, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and many African countries. Islam does not restrict people to a particular culture, dress, traditions, customs etc. It absorbs all cultures and civilizations in its fold. Thus Islamic civilization is a broader term. It has its sources everywhere.

hes goal was to recapture Jerusalem from the christians to take back his holy land as yous all know it was important to him

These people acquired Islam by exposure and syncretism as opposed to being conquered by an Islamic State. As a result, they mixed the Islam they received from afar with local traditions, to create hybrid faiths.

If you were to look at the Arab World in the 1960s, you had a high degree of secularism. Most Egyptian women were uncovered, you had literary works that were critical of Islamic practices, you had countenanced discussions of minority rights, etc. You could actually believe that Conservatism was going to disappear. However, a vast number of changes occurred in the 1970s and 1980s, which led ultimately in a rise of Conservatism and increasing belligerence and fundamentalism. The change in the 1970s happened over the entire decade, such that the Islamic World of 1965 and the Islamic World of 1985 were quite different and the latter was much more conservative. Some particularly poignant events in my view were:

1) Saudi Investment -- Saudi Arabia helped to build mosques across the Islamic World and places in the West, helping to further disseminate a more fundamentalist understanding of Islam. By the 1970s, the Saudis had raised (internationally) the first crop of children who were, on average, more conservative than their parents.

2) Israel 1967-1973 - The Secular Arab States demonstrated that they could not remove Israel, which led many citizens to lose faith in the viability of these states to represent their will. When Egyptian President Anwar Sadat made peace with Israel in 1979, this really infuriated the Egyptian population (and that of the Arab World in general). When Islamists assassinated him in 1980, it helped gain them popular legitimacy.

3) Turkey 1969 - The creation of the Millî Görüş movement which sought to move Turkey away from Secularism and towards Islamism, eventually lead by Erbakan in the 1990s.

4) Iraq 1975 - While Saddam did not officially come to power until 1979, he was the primary actor in Iraqi politics as President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr was ill for much of his presidency. While the Ba'ath party was historically non-religious, Saddam was more religious than his predecessors and helped to stoke sectarian tensions, especially against groups that he considered to be Non-Muslims (such as the Kurds or Marsh Arabs, even though many of them were Muslims) using Islamic rhetoric. (This is why the Kurdish genocide in the early 1980s is called the Anfal Campaign, after the 8th Sura of the Qur'an which talks about taking the booty of Non-Muslims.)

5) Lebanon 1975 - The Lebanese Civil War strengthened the sectarian feelings of the various parties in Lebanon, which were divided along religious lines. As identities shifted from being common Lebanese citizens to Maronites, Sunnis, Shiites, Druze, Alawites, Melkites, or Orthodox Christians and the clerical leaders gained power in turn.

6) Pakistan 1978 - Zia ul-Haq, who had a strongly Islamizing political leadership became the President of Pakistan. It was under him that equal rights for women in Pakistan was rescinded in order to allow for the "Islamic" laws of Zinaa and Hudud. Blasphemy Laws were promulgated and Imams were given more power and more license to act on local levels.

7) Iran 1979 - The capture by Islamists of the Iranian Revolution (even though that revolution was actually caused by Communists and Feminists more than the Islamists). This capture set the tone for a new Islamist state and a modern Islamist State.

8) Afghanistan 1979 - When the Soviet Union co-opted the Afghanistan government, the only strong Afghan resistance were the religious Mujaheddin who came to embody the strength of the Afghan people in resisting the Communists. Investments by the US in these Mujaheddin allowed them to grow further and become dominant in regional politics.

not all of the Muslims are in the quraysh family.

The only ascendant Islamic Empire in the 1400s was the Ottoman Empire, which was expanding due to their impressive development of modern military tactics and technologies. As concerns tactics, the Ottomans were intelligent and strategic in the disposition of the armies and were very capable of defeating their enemies and expanding their power. As for weapons, the Ottomans had an incredible command of modern military technologies, using fast and decisive naval vessels to attack Greek islands. They also had modern cavalry formations, modern artillery such as cannons, uniforms, and flags to prevent friendly fire, generals who used innovative strategies, and incredible siege weapons.

Other than warfare and the science that went into that particular end, the Islamic Golden Age was long over and few other kinds of discoveries were taking place.

no. both of them are the same in principles such as divine unity or tawhid and resuurection and prophecy which these element compromised basic body of religion of islam. both Shiite and Sunni are similar in these principles.

Muhammad was also an (1) arbitrator in disputes (2) political leader (3) merchant - in his early life (4) a father (5) a general/soldier and a (6) diplomat in addition to being a prophet.

The "Taliban" did not exist in the 1800's.