Submission 1


 * Submission 1: The Arab Awakening
 * by Anthony Mayer
 * 3 October 2001


 * "In the desert the Baptist warned us
 * God is coming.
 * But I'm telling you its too late.
 * He's already here,
 * I'm here...
 * And I'm going baptise everybody
 * With fire... "


 * - The Prophet (CJ Bolland), samples from The Last Temptation of Christ

Arabia, history of ... The period 150 BSE to 50 BSE [622 to 722 CE] is often called the Arab Awakening, an era when the quiet backwater of the Arabian peninsula was ravaged by social upheaval, internecine wars and the emergence of an eclectic mix of religious and mystical movements. This coincided with the extensive raiding and looting of the wider Near East by nomadic Arab armies, ending with the establishment of Christianised Arab monarchies around the Eastern Mediterranean. Traditionally this movement has been viewed almost entirely in a negative fashion. While contemporary accounts testify to the bloodthirsty actions of many of the raiders, and it is difficult to argue with the short-term impacts of the raiders on the stability of the region, in hindsight many historians believe these tribal movements may have led to a new lease of life for the Near East. Arabian culture, while often absorbed into the richer backdrop of the Mediterranean, added to the blend of cultures and peoples and gave something of the energy of the desert nomad to the Christian east.

This social dynamism resulted from the tensions inherent in the economic and demographic growth within the region, the increased contact with the outside world, and the beginning of a breakdown in the traditional clan structure. However it is impossible to be sure what root cause there might have been for the extraordinary energy the Arabs showed during this period. It is likely that the causes were composite, and the lack of written evidence makes detailed analysis difficult.

Of special interest is the growth of monotheist movements in a previously pagan area. Much of this could be ascribed to the presence and influence of Jewish clans, and perhaps even Christian travellers, but there is much in both the Mohammedan and Shi'at Ali religions that is novel and interesting. Very influential at the time, but less so after the period of expansion, was the Sajdian cult, notably led by a woman (Sajda, who was allied with another monotheist prophet, Musaylima). The Gnostic Sabeans and Mandaeans also gained great influence during this time...

... in his groundbreaking but controversial essay "The Abortive Birthright of the Arabian Monotheist Civilisation", Toynbee suggests that at least some of these religious movements had the potential to form a unifying social and political structure, a structure that might have provided a continuity and dynamic to the more obvious and well documented energies and expansionist raids of the nomadic tribes. An interesting historical counter-factual supposes that a single tribal doctrine could have been imposed upon the entire peninsula, and from such a base extended into the Levant or Egypt, perhaps enduring as an empire for many centuries. While the more outlandish "What-If?"s describing such a doctrine becoming a world religion or are clearly specious, such doctrines were clearly far in advance of the typical paganism evinced by other barbarian conquerors.

What might have been achieved can only be imagined, but some indication is given by the career of Khalid ibn-al-Walid, the so called "Sword of God", an eminent Meccan who was introduced to various themes of monotheistic thinking during the battles with the Mohammedans around Mecca in the early 140s BSE, and later with the Sh'iat Ali and the Sajdians. Khalid's fame as a general spread far during these struggles, and he was contacted and eventually converted by the long-established Jacobite Christians of Syria, wishing to utilise his skills in revolt against the Byzantine Empire. Marching through the desert with a strong army (many of whom were attracted by the prospect of loot) he surrounded and took Damascus in 137 BSE [635 CE], defeating the main Byzantine army at the Battle of Yarmak. That this was possible was due not only to the Arabs' martial prowess but Byzantine weakness.

This fragmentation of the eastern Byzantine Empire can be ascribed to inherent weaknesses of the bureaucracy and administration following the exhausting wars with the Persian Empire, together with the complex interplay of various Christian movements throughout the East. The strongest indicator of this pressure is the edict of 112 BSE [660 CE], establishing the Orthodox Church. Such an edict would have been unthinkable before the loss of Syria and Egypt, with Jacobite and Coptic Christians still widely represented within Imperial territories (see Byzantium, history of).

Following the revolt of Syria, the entire region, from Egypt to Antioch, became subject to raiding parties of Arab nomads, many carrying their own personal tribal religion or doctrine - some Mohammedan, Shi'at Ali, Mandean or Sajdian, many others pagan, or (increasingly over time) Christian. These raids may be seen as extensions of the traditional tribal razzia, but on a grander scale. Such attacks continued well into the 1st century BSE. The expansionist drive behind them has been long debated, but it may be assumed that the same demographic and economic pressures that lead to the period of religious enthusiasm also pushed many tribes into looking outside their traditional areas for both trade and booty.

While records of the usually Christian victims emphasises the "Terrible Arab Raider", trade was often the motivating issue in these great journeys. On many occasions the two were closely related (the sale of booty, and the stealing of trade goods). The collapse of the overland route between Persia and Byzantium during the destructive wars of the period 180-150 BSE [592-622 CE] led to increase in carriage across the southern desert, and thus to opportunities for both enterprise and piracy.

The period of raids and expansion came to a climax with the decision by the Egyptian governor to allow Arabs to settle around the Bitter Lakes. These Arabs of the Qurash tribe converted to Coptic Christianity and acted as a barrier to further Arab raiding, in a very real sense poachers turned gamekeepers. Nevertheless, by 119 BSE [655 CE], ibn az-Zubayr overthrew the Byzantine Governor at the behest of the Patriarch, reputedly with wide support amongst the Coptic population. He was made King of Egypt and was crowned by the Patriarch in Alexandria. The establishment of a separate (if rival) eastern Christian Kingdom lent some weight to the claims of independence made by the Syrians, and soon the Levant was in the hands of the Damascenes, who adopted the Patriachate of Jerusalem as their own religious figurehead.

During this later period the various Arabian monotheist religions appeared throughout the region as cults or in small communities. The isolated nature of the predominantly rural population, together with the lack of any central religious authority (apart from the Greek Orthodox, who still looked to the Empire for protection) resulted in the deep penetration of many obscure doctrines. We can see this in a number of Byzantine chronicles in which it is reported that Mandean and Mohammedan sages were expelled from Constantinople for trying to convert the Orthodox. Influences of these doctrines appears in the spread of dualist and monophysite Christian heresies in Armenia and Georgia during the period following the fall of Antioch. It is also thought that the peculiarly stark interpretation of Christianity adopted by the Bulgars during the 1st century BSE was heavily influenced by Mohammeden or Sh'iat Ali mystics, who travelled widely throughout the eastern Mediterranean area at that time, a cultural exchange facilitated by the highly fluid borders, the shared Arab-Greek-Semitic cultural synthesis in the Christian Kingdoms, and the freedom of the seas from Arab raids -- for the only Arabs who wielded strength at sea were the Christian elites of Egypt and the Levant, who had too much to lose ...

The Arab Awakening can be said to have ended by 50 BSE, marked by both the revolt of Antioch (led by Banu Amar Arabs, long established Christians of the Syrian community), and the Ghassanid conquest of Persia (see Persia, history of). With a new found stability trade returned to the upper Euphrates, and the Christian Kingdoms gradually lost their ties to Arabia, reorienting themselves to trade with rather than opposition to the empire. In Arabia itself the ending of the period of expansion returned the Hejaz to its previous backwater status - only the Mandaean Kingdom of Yemen continued to have some success as a trading partner with an Egypt increasingly interested in southern expansion.


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