Lecture 5B: Early Islam

M181 S94 5 Th 5/5/94

Well, this video may be a kind of anachronism. It appears to be a letter home from a young Pakistani woman in London -- I'm just guessing. From our perspective on dynamical historiography we see one theme that predominates on every level in this film, including the cinematic graphic technique, which is the theme of the fractal. We have layers upon layers upon layers of visuals, also in the sound. The reality appears to be that this woman is in a fractal boundary between different cultures, which is the situation for practically everybody these days. The name minority, immigrant, and so on, actually refers to the majority. Superficially, maybe because it's projected by the Islamic metaphor as an indictment of Islamic society, but I would think it's more the oppression of women as universal global phenomenon, and I've heard from some people, experts of feminist history and so on, that likely should there ever be a successful liberation of women, a successful feminist movement, then probably it would originate in Egypt. Anyway, something to think about. [What metaphor???]

In that connection there's just one comment I managed to find in the Muslim literature on women, it's in this book. I'd like to give you a lot of information on the early (Califatis), they are so fascinating and important to the understanding of the entire transmission of Greek learning, but there just isn't time, so I'll just show you this one book. I've warned you about reading books on Islam written by Western scholars, it's really a dangerous thing to do. It's hard to find works on Islam by Islamic scholars in English. This happens to be one Islamic history of the early Califate available to us in English, it actually comes from Pakistan. A Califate is the kingdom of a Calif, a Calif from Califa. Califa (?) Allah, the successor of the servant of the god. The successors of the prophet are called Califs, but only the early Califs, the first four Califs, were actually successors in the sense of the original spirit of Islam as formulated by the prophet. The Calif, or the king, was responsible to God and also to the people. The idea of the Calif was pure, but it worked only for the first four Califs, and after that we have dynasties where the kings choose their relatives to follow them.

This huge book describes it in abundant detail. Here is the table of contents: The First True Calif, Abu Bakar. Every detail of his life. This is the second Humar we meet. Humar was the one who precided over the second burning of the Alexandrian library. Hutman the Third, and Ali the Fourth and Final.??? Particularly interesting are the transitions between them. Let me read you one section of prose by the author, Milana Mohammed Ali, another Ali, descendent of this Ali. This is a paragraph called Condition of Women in the Time of Humar the Second True Calif:

"Women in Arabia were the subject of much harsh treatment, and Humar had a special reputation for this failing of his race. Long before the revelation of the Koranic Verse enjoining the seclusion of women, he urged that the females of the prophet's household must observe seclusion. But it was the seclusion that was invoked now.

Humar's own example shows that women did all necessary work. Once, it is recorded, a certain guest was putting up as a guest at his house, and Humar's wife in person served the food. It was Humar again who placed the supervision of the market in the hands of a woman. During his reign, women actually enlisted and went to the theater of war to tend the wounded, dress their wounds, and do similar relief work. Some even participated in fighting. Women were also free to attend lectures, sermons, and similar functions. Once when Humar delivered a sermon against the practice of giving large sums as dollar[?] money, it was a woman who stood up and objected, saying, 'Oh Son of Katab, how darest thou deprive us when God says in the Koran that even a heap of gold may be settled upon a wife as dower.' Far from resenting this, Humar appreciated this courage of conviction and complimented the objector saying, 'The women of Medina have more understanding than Humar.' When at Akalush, he made education compulsory in Arabia. It was made so for both boys and girls. In short, consistently with the requirements of their household functions, women were seen side by side with men in almost every walk of life."

He goes on to discuss the gradual abolition of slavery. The culture existing in the Arabian peninsula before the Prophet was one of independent tribes who acted like American businessmen, saying "I can do anything I want on my own property," so tribes collected in clans and cooperated similar to gangs in the inner city. A business that required a transit of gates through the property of a clan had to pay -- or how would you survive in the deserts? The traffic of goods through these territories paid taxes of safe transit, sort of insurance money, and that is indeed how people lived there. When one tribe encroached on the territory of the other, there would be a border war, and usually the victorious tribe would annihilate the other tribe completely. That meant killing all the men and throwing all the women and children into slavery.

Part of the cultural transition, the social transformation of the time, is the gradual abolition of slavery and also the equality of men. I'd like to show some maps here. It's hard to find a map small enough to go on this gadget. This one, the (Acre?) Atlas of the World, is a pocket book. Let me show you in this atlas what was going on at the time we're talking about. First of all, before the Prophet, here is Justinian's empire. We read the story of Theodora, the wife, the empress or the queen of Justinian. Her empire, here in this booklet, is called Justinian's empire, down here. Here again is the Mediterranean, here is Italy. The colors mean -- the darker color is imperial territory at the beginning of Justinian's reign, and the lighter color is imperial territory at the end of his reign. What's implied here is the increase of the kingdom from this half circle to this complete circle during the reign of Justinian and Theodora.

So here is Greece, the Island of Crete and Cypress, the Agean Sea with all the famous Greek islands, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia here, and Constantinople just at the point where Europe and Asia kiss, and then here's Anatolia, Ephesus here, and this Arabian peninsula goes down this way another couple of inches to the right. Here's the Nile, and of course Alexandria, and this part is North Africa, annexed by the Byzantine Empire, and this part of Spain is likewise taken over the Byzantine Empire. Here is the neo-Persian, the empire of the (?), and here is the boundary, the fractal boundary wavering back and forth which I have shown on various occasions on various maps. So that's before. And here is after, the green is also a couple of different shades. The darker green is the conquest of Islam up to the time of the death of Muhammed, 632 A.D., slightly lighter green, the conquest of the first four Califs, thus the early Califate, and in the still lighter green, the conquest of the Humaid, that's the dynasty that represented the final fall of the political virtue of the prophet.

The Arabian Peninsula is not all desert. You have mountains down here in Levin and Argin and Oman where incense is grown, frankensense and muhrr and so on. Also there is a sea traffic from India. India is over here on this side and (?) at this point we see the mouths of two or three large rivers. The sea traffic went up these rivers a distance of about 100 miles to huge storehouses like the Medieval equivalent of shopping malls at seaports in the river. The sea traffic carried the products of India, especially the spices of the famous spice trade, by ship, down along the edge of Yemen. This is the Red Sea, this is the Persian Gulf of the famous Gulf War -- by sea, up the Red Sea. The Ptolomes actually had built a canal from the Red Sea to Alexandria, so that would be a good route, except for the fact that this Red Sea was so infested by pirates that it was impossible to travel by ship. The reason why it was infested by pirates is that the Arabs had found it profitable, because the cargo from India had to be carried by camels on trade routes through the territories of these various clans and tribes. This black dot represents a mosque, and there is the birthplace of the Prophet, and here is Medina where he fled in the hejra, the flight, in 623. These were both very wealthy towns thanks to their habit of raiding or demanding taxes of the camel traffic carrying spices from India up this way to Damascus and Antioch where they embarked for the Roman Empire and so on.

The darker green, the Islamic world at the death of the Prophet, is just this Arabian peninsula. And then here is a boundary between two colors of green, it may be hard for you to see. And then up here we have Syria, still part of the Byzantine Empire until a little bit later. Then later, lighter green, the (Fassinid?) Empire has been captured by the Muslims, and then a little later by the Umines in a further push toward India. Further expansion in North Africa following the previous holdings of the Byzantine Empire up to Spain and the South of Spain. We'll get to the detailed stories later, but there is the map. So the Byzantine Empire, vastly reduced in size, still managed to hold the line here in the Eastern edge of Anatolia.

In this Islamic expansion of course many cities were captured. As you read in the biographies of Muhammed and the early Califs, their attitude toward Jews and Christians was quite lenient. All that was required was to pay a tax. We have taxes. I think I pay around 30% income tax, and for the Jews and Christian villages in early Islam, the tax was 50%. A lot of Western historians claim this is outrageous, but Islamic historians explain that this was necessary because Jews and Christians were not required to do military service. I guess the tax was lower or maybe zero for the Arabian citizens who did military service. Anyway, that was the situation, therefore there was kind of a boundary froth where Christian and Jewish communities were imbedded as little bubbles of froth within the ocean of Islam. Greek knowledge began a kind of diffusion or penetration, like water percolating through gravel as it were, in this border region, formerly Syria, which, after the period of the first four Califs became the Califate in Medina.

As part of the conquest by the Humad Dynasty, the capital was moved to Damascus, which is up here close to that important border for military purposes. The fact is that the early Califate in Medina had to maintain a very strong garrison here. Eventually a clever commander of that garrison seized the power and became the first Hmayed Calif who established the Humayan Dynasty in Damascus, in an essentially Syrian region speaking Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, a Semitic language like Hebrew and Arabic and only two or three other languages that you probably never heard of.

Well, that's the map. I want to show you about four books that are on reserve in the sci lib. I feel I have to advertise them, otherwise nobody will ever check them out. Our chapter on Islamic mathematics is coming up next week. You'll be reading in CATS about the mathematics in Islam. He does very well, I think, for a book that's essentially a universal text of the history of mathematics. There is a chapter on Islamic mathematics that's more complete than in any other like book. Nevertheless, many important mathematicians are not mentioned there. If you really wanted to cruise Islamic mathematics written by a European from the Norwegian tradition, this [what?] is phenomenally complete and very sympathetic to Islam.

This is neat because it has so few cities, not as confusing as some other maps. Here is Bagdad that will figure in our story soon because we are now on the way to Bagdad. And here is Bazra, an important academy at the time, and Nishipur, the source of some of the mathematicians we'll be reading about next week. Likewise Quasin and Maru. Maru or Marv will have a very important role in our story as a main station for information from India, which was called Singh at that time. The sea traffic for the spice route, the ones up here, of course brought Greek text to India, and those of you who do read Chapter 6, which I've removed from the compulsory list, will see that there was a phenomenal development of Greek mathematics and astronomy in India, particularly way up in the northeast of India. Due to religious conflict in India, this information was carried by Buddhist schools to Marv. From Marv emanated a great influence upon the early Califate in Bagdad, which we'll talk more about next week. Anyway, this book does not take the point of view that Islamic scholarship was merely responsible for the more or less complete transmission of the Greek heritage, but also added greatly to it. It has a chapter on Arabic language and Arabic names, which is extremely helpful in reading and trying to pronounce these names. The author treats Islamic mathematics by subject, arithmetic and so on, so it's similar to our text, but he discusses approximately twice as many Islamic mathematicians, including two or three people who are very important to our story.

Here's another book on reserve called The Muslim Contribution to Mathematics. It's very thin, but was written by a Muslim, Ali Abdala Algafa. I'll read a little of this in a minute, under the heading Historical Setting. It has a remarkably well-balanced history of early Islamic culture, and, like our text in Belgrin, it discusses, organized by subject matter, the content of Islamic mathematics, therefore the names of people are kind of out of order.It has something I like a lot and want to share with you: it's an actual map, a space-time map of Muslim learning. It's called Figure 1.2 -- Muslim Learning and the Western Minds of Influence. Here it shows all these arrows coming in, and afterwards the transmission through Islam. We're looking at the top here. The first item is the most important, and this is part of the story that I want to tell in detail next time, the translation. It shows Greek, Babylonian and Aramaic-Syriac texts arriving from the Muslim west, that means Syria and the Byzantine Empire and so on. From the Muslim east, that means Marv and Costan and so on, texts arrive in Persian, in Sanskrit and in Coptic, and then translations into Arabic starting around the year 815, then the Muslim Golden Age, Muslim containment and decline, translation into Latin -- this is the story I'm trying to tell in these lectures, ending up in the great renaissance of the years 1300 to 1500.

I'll show one more map, then we'll turn the lights on. Here is another book on reserve. This is the best author that I know who is available in English, on the history of science and mathematics in Islam. This unique person, Sahib Hussain Nasir, a Persian, grew up in the Islamic tradition in Iran. He came to the United States for education, studied science at MIT, got an American Ph.D. in the History of Science, then went back to Iran as Professor of the History of Science at the University of Teheran where he's been ever since, writing on a very very high standard of academic scholarship and a strong sense of justice on both sides of the question on the virtues of Islam. I'll read a little bit of the preface by his teacher, Georgio de Santiana, author of one of the most revolutionary texts in the history of consciousness, who presents the origins of culture in the contemplation of the sky and meditation on the stars.

But before I start reading, I want to show you the map. This is a great map. Although it shows a lot of cities that are fundamental to the story of the history of science and mathematics in Islam. Here's Yemen, here's Mukah, Medina, Jerusalem, which was the site of the Califate very briefly before it moved to Damascus. Bagdad -- here's the name Bagdad, but the arrow points to a dot up there, so that's a confusing feature. A very important city for our story, besides Bagdad, is Bagdooldalo, an ancient town dating back to before the advent of Islam. Near it is Kufah, sometimes spelled with an h on the end, Kufah is just a wee bit south of Bagdad. Then there's Bazra, which figured in the news in the Persian Gulf War. The Persian Gulf is here unfortunately obliterated by names of cities, but it goes right up there to Bazra. Bazra is a coast city that ships oil and so on. Not too far from Bagdad, right there under the R and A of Iraq and just a tiny bit northeast of Bazra, is Jindi Shapur. I've only mentioned it once, but it's very important to our story, because early on, by Christians originally, an academy was established that was modeled on the academies of Athens and Alexandria. Up here is Marv, Sumarkand, and over here is Deli and Lahor in India. Alexandria, Cairo, which in the time of our story was called Fustap and was the main (gulf?) of Arabic troups in North Africa.

Is anybody awake? These manipulations here are so complex that I never get a chance to look at you. The one book I didn't show you was O'Leary, How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs. That is the main source of the details of our story. I'll just say a couple of words for introduction to this book, Science and Civilization in Islam, by Nasir, the American-trained Iranian historian. First, the introduction by his teacher, the revolutionary de Santiana who says:

"The portrayal of Islamic science which follows may surprise some readers, both West and East, if for very different reasons. There can be no question as to the author's qualifications or his familiarity with our Western point of view. Sahib Hussain Nasir, an Arabian by birth (?) an early education, also studied in Europe and graduated in Physics from MIT, where he developed in his undergraduate years a strong interest in the history of scientific thought as I was teaching. He went on then to Harvard for graduate studies in Geology and Geophysics, but soon decided to make history (?)and planned a career and obtained a PhD in the subject in 1958. He has been teaching it ever since at the University of Tehran. His text is a new departure in many ways. Islamic culture is too often presented as the indispensible link between antiquity and our Middle Ages, but the achievement of its historic mission was implied when it has handed on the text and techniques of the Greeks. This is a way of turning a great civilization into a service department of Western history. It is the (?) of Dr. Nasir to have shown convincingly that the mind and contributions of Islam embraced a far wider arc."

More than that, he has a very interesting perspective on the history of science in the West, in Europe and the United States, having studied here while seeing it all through the perspective of Islam. The text by Nasir begins with an introduction to Islam.An introductory section is called "Perspectives within Islamic Civilization," and these perspectives include the classical Greek perspective. I'll just read a paragraph or two of this introductory material by Nasir.

Islam came into the world at the beginning of the 7th century A.D. Its initial date, the journey of the Prophet from Mukah to Medina being 622 A.D., it had spread over all the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain by the end of that same century. Just as the Islamic religion is one of the middle way, so too did its territory come to occupy, in fact still occupies, the middle belt of the globe from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

In this region, the home of many early civilizations, Islam came into contact with a number of sciences which it absorbed to the extent that these sciences were compatible with its own spirit and were able to provide nourishment for its own characteristic cultural life. The primordial character of its revelation and its confidence that it was expressing the truth at the height of all revelation, permitted Islam to absorb ideas from many sources historically Aryan, yet inwardly related to it. This was especially true in regard to the sciences of nature, because most of the ancient cosmological sciences -- Greek, Cardain, Persian, Indian, Chinese -- had sought to express the unity of nature and were therefore in conformity with the spirit of Islam. Coming into contact with them, the Muslims adopted some elements from each, most extensively perhaps from the Greeks, but also from the (Cardains?) Indiana, Persians, and perhaps in the case of alchemy, even from the Chinese. They united these sciences into a new corpus which was to grow over the centuries and become part of the Islamic civilization integrated into the basic structure derived from the revelation itself.

The (reins destined) become parts of the Medieval Islamic world from Transoxiania to Andonesia, were consolidated into a new spiritual universe within a single century after the death of the prophet. The revelation contained in the Koran and expressed in the sacred language Arabic, provided the unifying pattern into which many foreign elements became integrated and absorbed in accordance with the universal spirit of Islam. In the sciences, especially those (?) with nature, the most important source was the heritage of Greek civilization. Alexandria, by the first century B.C., had become the center of Greek science and philosophy, as well as the leading place of Helenism, with oriental and ancient Egyptian influences, out of which came Hermeticism and Neoplatonism. The Greek heritage is felt to a great extent in assemblage of ancient mediterranean views, systematized and put into dialectical form by the peculiar discursive power of the Greeks, passed from Alexandria to Antioch, and from there to Nissibus and Odessa, by way of the Christian Monocruxites and Nestorians.

The latter were particularly instrumental in the spreading of Greek learning, chiefly in Syriac translation, to lands as far east as Persia. In the 3rd century A.D., Shapur I founded Jindi Shapur at the site of an ancient city near the present Persian city of Awaz. As a prisoner of war camp for soldiers captured in the war with Valerian. This camp gradually grew into a metropolis which became a center of ancient scientists, studied in Greek, Sanskrit and Syriac. A school was set up on the model of those in Alexandria and Antioch in which medicine, mathematics, astronomy and logic were taught, mostly from Greek text translated into Syriac, but also element of the Indian and Persian sciences were included. This school, which lasted long after the establishment of Ahabasid Califate, became an important source of ancient learning in the Islamic world.

These Abassids went on until 1258. When they were overrun by the Mongols under Hulagi, and Hulagi then carried a large amount of Islamic learning back to Mongolia and along with the more famous Islamic mathematician whose name figures in our text, namely Altussi. So the dates here, from 623 or earlier, maybe 613, as you like, beginning of the Prophet's prophecy, from 632 the death of the Prophet, the first Calif, Abu Bakar, and 661, beginning of the Uyamed Dynasty, and 749 or 750, the beginning of Abahasid Dynasty. And the location of the Calafete or the capitol city, Medina, Jerusalem, then Damascus, and Bagdad.

I'll give you the briefest capsule story of these that I've found, maybe I'll start by reading this in Adalpha, kind of blurs over these bifrications, but these are all fairly interesting and important stories, what happens, which causes -- of course it was the death of the prophet -- led to a Calif or follower, a successor, naturally enough. There were four of these, one through four, and all of their transitions were difficult and in a certain pattern, and I'll skip the details up til the final one. We have the boundary between R and U, that's important. Now the Habassids, the first Habassids ruler, Abarabas, he was known as The Butcher, because following more or less the Arabic cultural pattern, his method to stabilize the kingdom after taking over power from the Umayeds was to kill them all, and so he is called The Butcher. Every single one, every relative, all families, all ages, every single one put to the sword as they say. There was however, one survivor, one person escaled, Abdul Raman, and he went to Spain. And he set up a continuation of Umayed Dynasty in Spain which will be important in our story later on.

So let's have a little bit of this story in the text of an Islamic author. This -- one of our books on reserve, The Muslim Contribution to Mathematics. I like these books by Muslim writers, because you can get a feeling for the culture in the marked contrast to the story that we've been told in European history. I'll start with his Chapter 2, Historical Setting, a section called The Ruling of Islam, and then there's one half a page about each of these periods.

The beginning of Islam. Mohammed, born in Mecca in 570 A.D., was the posthumus son of Abadallah, an esteemed merchant of moderate means, and of Amina. The death of His mother left the child an orphan when He was barely 6 years old. [His is capitalized; see we're talking about the Prophet here.] The boy first grew up under the care of His paternal grandfather Abd'al Mutarib and was later entrusted to an uncle, Abi Talib. The later was the father of Ali, who was to become one of the faithful companions. His son-in-law and finally his fourth successor of Calif. What is certain among the facts of the youthful life of Mohammed prior to his calling to prophethood was his marriage to the rich widow Cadija. It was for her that he had traveled and traded. His contacts had been with Christian peoples of the desert and with the Hanif.

The Prophet Mohammed initiated the preaching of Islam, which professes monotheism as expounded in the most ancient Koranic verses. It is the same god who transmitted the subsequent revelations. In the beginning Mohammed had great difficulty in convincing the people of Mecca of His divine vocation and He is forced to flee to Medina, barely escaping with His life. The situation changed rapidly, however, and with valient and influential (koresh?) members of His tribe were converted by Mohammed and went to his support. These included his most faithful companions of the first hour, namely Ali Abubaker and Omar, as well as the future great captains, namely Calib and Amir Ininalas and Sab Ibin Abuwakas. From Medina, where Mohammed had returned after His Mukan triumph, He reappeared once more in His native city during the tenth year after Hijira, the night flight to Medina, in order to conduct personally the Muslim pilgrimmage. Where before He had been presented by the faithful Abubaker.

This was the pilgrimmage of farewell where with solemn words of the last revelation the Prophet declared His mission accomplished and proclaimed that the grace of Allah had not entirely descended on his people with Islam. Shortly after the Prophet died. He had not designated anyone to succeed Him, but left it to the discretion of His own people to determine who would be the next Calif, the Califate. For a short period of time, the disappearance of Mohammed plunged the Medinese community, which continued to form the directing nucleus of young Islam into a crisis. It was necessary to provide a successor who, without being able to inherit the untransmittable religious prerogatives of the prophet, would be his successor as the political leader of the society of believers. But that organization which Mohammed had formed under the sign of Islamic faith would not die with Him. After stormy periods due to competing individuals, Kumal's energetic intervention prevailed. At the tumultuous council held in the headquarters of the Banusada in Medina, Omar endorsed Abu Bakar as Califat (Rufulala?).

Abu Bakar, the oldest and most faithful Mukan companion of the Prophet, rose to the leadership of the Muslim community. Here is a man of balance, honesty, loyalty, as indicated by the epithet, Astabit, the voracious, which tradition had bestowed upon him. The humbling spirit, he is inflexible in keeping custody over the precious legacy that had been entrusted to him. In 623 the Arabs penetrated Palestine and Transtravania, and entered Syria in 644 in the flank of the Byzantines who were engaged in a confrontation with the Arabians. Abu Bakar designed Humar Al Katab as his successor when he died. Humar ruled the Islamic Empire from 634 to 644, the crucial decade of its formation. By his impressive personal traits, he was considered by later Muslim generations as one of the more emminent of the four well guided. This how the Arab (Russabern) is usually rendered, califs who formed the golden age of Islam.

During the time of Humar, the Muslims penetrated Egypt, and from there they moved toward North Africa. Humar continued the expansion not only by conquering the Roman dominions outside Europe, but also the entire domain of the Sasalian Empire. While on his deathbed, Humar entrusted the nomination of a successor to a council of six eminent Muslims. They had all been companions of Mohammed. Hutman became Calif. He was a member of the aristocratic Koresh family of the Banu Amir Clan, and the only member of it who had embraced Islam in the years of the Vigil. After the election of Hutman, the noble and (?) Banuramaya had one of their own at the (center) of the Muslim community. Despite the Calif's very weak personality, the twelve years of Hutman's Califate witnessed the development and the continuation of the expansionist policies of Islamism which was begun during Omar decade. After Hutman's death, Ali became Calif. He was the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet and ruled the Arabian empire from 656 to 661.

With Humar as governor of Syria, was Mualia, with the same understanding between Mualia and Ali. Mualia, the son of Abu Sufian, inherited his father's intelligence, energy, and flair for politics. By his outstanding leadership he had transformed Syria into a province to be used by the entire Muslim Empire as amodel. Mualia succeeded in founding a dynasty in his family, the Banu Umaya, who had the Califate and the empire for 90 years. Mualia was proclaimed Calif in 651 and ruled until 680. With his excession the seat of the provincial government of Damascus became the capitol of the Muslim Empire.

The reign of Al Malig was begun by an official changing of language of the public registers from a multitude of tongues to Arabic. From this, the translation of different scientific material started. So this is around 700 A.D.

In 747, open revolt against the Humayeds was proclaimed by their cousins the Habassids, descendents of an uncle of the Prophet, Al Abis. After the success of the Habassids, the Humayid house was exterminated.

The Humayed Empire was Arabian in nature. The Habassid was more international. The Habassid was an empire of newer Muslims in which the Arabs (?) only one of the component races. Like other dynasties in Muslim history, the Habassid dynasty attained its most brilliant period of political and intellectual life seen after its establishment. The Bagdad Califate, founded by Al Safah [that's The Butcher] and Al Monsur, reached its height in the period between the reign of the third calif, Al Madi, and the ninth, Al Watik, and more particularly, in the days of Haruba Roshib and his son Al Mamun. It was mainly because of the illustrious and (?) califs Haruba Roshib and Al Mamun that the Habassid dynasty acquired a halo in popular imagination and became the most celebrated in the history of Islam.

If we made a list of academies, we must consider these minor ones, in Kufah, Bazit, Maru, and Jindi Shapur. The major ones were in Alexandria, Antioch, Byzantium, and Bagdad, namely the Bit Al Hikma in 815. Next week I'll consider exactly what events and what influences from East and West led up to the inspiration to found this Alexandrian Museon in Islam. The story is quite amazing and replete with a lot of detail. Last year I devoted several weeks to it, and now I'm trying to compress it into a half-hour story or so. I left out a wealth of interesting detail about these transitions. The Porphet died and he chose Abu Bakar, so that was that. And then Abu died and there was sort of a committee that selected Humar. Humar and Abu were approximately the same age as the Prophet himself. They were the original gang, as it were. It was more difficult to choose Hutman, because several qualified people were around, but none of them was really the outstanding one. Hutman apparently wanted it the most, so he was chosen and then cricitized throughout his reign of 10 years or so.

Together with the Prophet from the Hijra is only 40 years,[?] until the purer time of Islam is over, and this dynasty begins in 623 and ends in 661, a 38-year period. When the purest succession ends and the dynasty begins is an interesting moment. The time span of Ali is very short. He was assassinated by a gang, and this assassination was originally blamed on Ibn Saba. His followers were called the Sabaites, and the Sabaites were constantly raising a fuss over the fact that in the time of Hutman, Ali should have been chosen. They were trying to get Hutman killed and Ali put on his throne. Hutman did not die a natural death. He was slain, apparently by a slave he had insulted who pulled out his sword, and that was the end of Hutman. The Sabaites were blamed for the huge insurrectionist movement throughout the empire and particularly in Egypt, in Cairo. Ibn Saba was a very convenient scapegoat, due to the fact that he was first of all a Jew and secondly black. But as the story unraveled, after the assassination of Ali, it became clear that Ali's brother-in-law was the leader of the gang. He was the husband of the prophet's daughter or something. He was definitely in the inner circle and part of this gang of people who perform more or less like (?), dressing in black in the middle of the night, dropping down from the roof of a neighborhing house and so on, and killed Ali at his prayers. They not only killed Ali, but kept the entire town of Medina captive and proclaimed themselves the successor, the Calif. And so the beginning of the Humayed Dynasty was more or less robbed of the natural successorship. Any pretense of responsibility by the leadership to the will of the people ceased, and today this is still characteristic of Islamic leadership.

The more you get into the details of the story, the more peculiar it seems that these inclusions ever happened. It's something like the food chain. As a vegetarian I hate to see a cat eat a mouse, but they eat the mouse and when they're finished there's nothing left. In a similar way, the scholarly communities of Christians and Jews and Persians who maintained an ancient illuminationist religion that preceded Islam were engulfed and digested by Islam, and the contents(?) actually were nourished and thrived and grew and eventually transformed the whole thing from inside. On an acid trip, some books have psychedelic power, you just take the book in your hand and then you're transformed for once and forever; and that's kind of what happened.

Not such a long time passed between the original inspiration which its rise in 38 years, (?) I.ve shown you a huge territory on the map.What was magnetic and appealing was the morality, the practical value of the moral message, just like in Christianity. If we stopped fighting each other and killing each other all the time and started working together, imagine what we've accomplish! They (the Moslems?)tried it a little bit and it really worked. It was an idea whose time had come, and during that period, the Arabian peninsula was swept into the modern, that is to say the Medieval world, as a world power equal to others, but without the tradition of learning, and yet these bubbles were there. By huffing and puffing on them they lit up like sparks in the fireplace, leading to an intellectual conflagration that, within a mere 200 years, could truly compete with the ancient civilizations.