CrashCourse
Early Islamic History
00:00 - 04:49
John Green discusses early Islamic history and some of the beliefs of followers of the religion. Like Christianity and Judaism, Islam is a monotheistic religion and has religious texts, most notably the Quran. John some of the themes of the religion: strict monotheism and the importance in taking care of others that are less fortunate. Also, he covers the Five Pillars of Islam: Shahada, Salat, Sawm, Zakat, and Hajj.
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Video Transcript
0:00
Hi there, I’m John Green, this is Crash Course: World History and today we’re going
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to talk about Islam, which like Christianity and Judaism grew up on the east coast of the
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Mediterranean but unlike Christianity and Judaism is not terribly well understood in
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the West. For instance, you probably know what this is and what this is, you probably
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don’t know what that is. Google it.
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Mr. Green Mr. Green why do you think people know so little about Islamic history?
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Did you just ask an interesting non-annoying question, me from the past? I think we don’t
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know about early Islamic history because we don’t learn about it, me from the past,
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because we don’t learn about it, because we’re taught that our history is the story
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of Christianity in Europe, when in fact our history is the story of people on the planet,
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so let’s try to learn something today.
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[theme music]
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So in less than 200 years Islam went from not existing to being the religious and political
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organizing principal of one of the largest empires in the world.
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And that story begins in the 7th century CE when the angel Gabriel appeared to Muhammad,
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a 40-ish guy who made his living as a caravan trader and told him to begin reciting the word of God.
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Initially, this freaked Muhammad out, as, you know, it would—but then his wife and
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a couple of other people encouraged him and slowly he came to accept the mantle as prophet.
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A few things to know about the world Islam entered: First, Muhammad’s society was intensely
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tribal. He was a member of the Quraysh tribe, living in Mecca and tribal ties were extremely important.
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Also, at the time, the Arabian peninsula was like this crazy religious melting pot. Like
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most tribal Arabs worshipped gods very similar to the Mesopotamian gods you’ll remember from episode 3.
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And by the time of Muhammad, cult statutes of many of those gods had been collected in
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his hometown of Mecca in this temple-like structure called the Kaaba.
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But Arabia was also a home for monotheisms like Christianity and Judaism, even a bit
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of Zoroastrianism. So the message that there was only god wouldn’t have been like [censored]
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surprising to Muhammad as it was, for instance, to Abraham.
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Also, and this will become very important, the northern part of Arabia was sandwiched
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between the Byzantine Empire and the Persian Sassanian Empire—and you’ll remember,
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those guys were always fighting. They were like snowboarders and skiers, or like the
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Westboro Baptist Church and everyone else.
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At its core, Islam is what we call a radical reforming religion—just like Jesus and Moses
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sought to restore Abrahamic monotheism after what they perceived as straying, so too did Muhammad.
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Muslims believe that God sent Muhammad as the final prophet to bring people back to
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the one true religion, which involves the worship of, and submission to, a single and all-powerful God.
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The Quran also acknowledges Abraham and Moses and Jesus among others as prophets, but it’s
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very different from the Hebrew and Christian bibles:
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For one thing it’s much less narrative, but also its
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the written record of the revelations Muhammad received—which means its not written from
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the point of view of people, it is seen as the actual word of God.
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The Quran is a really broad-ranging text, but it returns again and again to a couple
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themes. One is strict monotheism and the other is the importance of taking care of those
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less fortunate than you. The Quran, says of the good person
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spends his substance—however much he himself may cherish it—upon his near of kin, and
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the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer, and the beggars, and for the freeing of human
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beings from bondage.
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These revelations also radically increased the rights of women and orphans, which was
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one of the reasons why Mohammad’s tribal leaders weren’t that psyched about them.
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To talk more about Islamic faith and practice, let’s go to the Thought Bubble.
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The five pillars of Islam are the basic acts considered obligatory, at least by Sunni Muslims.
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First is the shahada or the profession of the faith:
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There is no god but god and Muhammad is God’s prophet, which is sometimes translated [censored]
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“There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is Allah’s prophet”, which tries to make
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Muslims sound other and ignores the fact that the Arabic word for god—whether you are
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Christian or Jewish or Muslim—is Allah.
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Second, salat, or ritual prayer five times a day—at dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset,
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and late evening—which are obligatory unless you haven’t hit puberty, are too sick, or
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are menstruating. Keep it PG, Thought Bubble.
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Third, sawm, the month-long fast during the month of Ramadan, in which Muslims do not
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eat or drink or smoke cigarettes during daylight hours.
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Since Ramadan is a lunar-calendar month, it moves around the seasons, and obviously it’s
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most fun during the winter, when days are shorter, and least fun during the summer,
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when days are both long and hot.
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Fourth is zakat, or almsgiving, in which non-poor Muslims are required to give a percentage
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of their income to the poor,
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and lastly hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that Muslims must try to fulfill at least once
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in their lives, provided they are healthy and have enough money.
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And there’s also more to understanding Islam than just knowing the Quran. Like Judaism
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with its Talmud, and Christianity with its lives of saints and writings of Church fathers,
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Islam has supplementary sacred texts, chief among which is the hadith, a collection of
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sayings and stories about the Prophet.
