Origins

Although modern anthropologists are not entirely in agreement about what the term 'Arab' means, this book assumes that it refers either to those who trace their genealogy to historic tribes on the Arabian peninsula, speak Arabic as their first language, or inhabit one of the nations where Arabic is either the national language or one of the official languages. As peoples travel and mix in the modern age and as populations grow, the term is becoming increasingly inclusive.

In ancient history, the Arabs also had a distinct identity, formed almost a millennium before the current era and long before the rise of Islam. On the Arabian Peninsula, in the Syrian Desert, and in the Red and Arabian Seas, Arabs interacted with all civilisations and ethnicities around them, including the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Jews, Indians, Hittites, Persians, Ethiopians and other Africans, Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines.

Until the 7th century, many faiths competed for the allegiance of the Arabs. Despite the absence of large cities like Constantinople or Damascus, a vibrant Arab culture arose, anchored by extended families and their allies. This culture developed a rich tradition of social interactions, of commerce, of storytelling ranging from the sacred to the profane, of poetry and music, of debate and discussion, of diplomacy and negotiation between tribes as well as occasional conflict and of political structure built on a process of consultation.

It was into this rich mix of history, landscape and ritual that a young man of exceptional talents and vision arrived more than 1,400 years ago. Within the space of his 62-year lifetime, not only did he rise to become the prophet of his new faith - Islam - and leader of his Arab people, he set off a process of expansion, assimilation, and innovation that within 100 years of his death in 632 CE had carried Arab-Muslim civilisation and the faith of Islam from Arabia across North Africa, northward into Spain and Southern France, across the Middle East, across half Byzantine Anatolia, across Persia and into Central Asia towards the gates of China, even south into India.

This was one of the most exceptional developments in human history. It can be compared only to the rises of Alexander the Great, the Roman, Mongol and Turkish conquests, and the European domination of the Americas.

Within little more than a century, an entirely new way of living, worshipping, thinking, and organising society had arisen. And over the next 800 years, this new Arab-Muslim civilisation would rise to become the most progressive, modernising force in the world of the time. Arab-Muslim civilisation would borrow from, and become the equal of, ancient Chinese and Indian and Graeco-Roman culture. And even as Europe slumbered for centuries in the poverty and chaos after the fall of Rome, Arab-Muslim civilisation would slowly filter into Europe, so that one day Europe would take the innumerable contributions of Arab civilisation and build on them to become even greater. The irony is that with the passage of centuries, the innovations of the Arabs and Muslims would be largely forgotten or ignored.

What was it that enabled this phenomenal rise of a proud but inexperienced people, into rulers of part of the world?

Those who over-focus on the element of Arab military conquest will be misled. Impressive as it was, it was brief. Within two centuries of the Prophet's death (pbuh), the caliphate was fragmenting; multiple power centres were beginning to arise within Arab-Muslim civilisation, some Arab-led, some not. So the military phenomenon was impressive, but not the most important factor.

That factor was the breadth of social innovation and intellectual achievement that continued in places as far-flung as Spain, Syria, Iraq, Persia, Afghanistan, and India. The power of Arab civilisation lay in its intellectual quality, and how widely and deeply that influenced the larger world. And what was most amazing is that it flourished in competing centres of learning, under rulers who may have disagreed over Islamic theology or caliphal succession, but who all believed in the importance of acquiring knowledge, of creating humane and charitable societies, of building great cities, of healing the sick, and making commerce and government run more fairly and efficiently.

This intellectual flowering expressed itself in mathematics, in astronomy, in the origins of chemistry and physics and the empirical scientific method, in medical care and research that really cured people, in the social sciences that began to explain human behaviour, and in the evolution of societies.

So, while the Arabs were clearly brave warriors and pious in their faith, how can we explain this phenomenal intellectual outpouring that lasted so long? Some historians point to the early Arab-Muslim process of inclusion and assimilation; of improvisation leading to invention. As they incorporated older, richer, more sophisticated peoples into their state, Arab leaders had two choices. One was to try and impose their ways on the new citizens. The other was to accept the reality of all this human diversity, and use it for creative purposes. This meant using the skills, experience, and talent of other nationalities, and those who followed faiths other than Islam.

For some centuries after the rise of the Arab Islamic caliphates in Damascus and Baghdad, Muslims and Arabs remained minorities in places they ruled. The result was the evolution of a tacit Arab policy of both tolerance of diversity - within the limits of the supremacy of Islam - and a widespread process of assimilating new ideas, new peoples, and new ways of thinking. As the first great Arab-Muslim philosopher-scientist Al Kindi would later write:
"We ought not to be embarrassed about appreciating the truth and obtaining it from wherever it comes, even if it comes from races and nations different from us. Nothing should be dearer to the seeker of truth than the truth itself, and there is no deterioration of the truth, nor belittling either of one who speaks it or conveys it."

This modernistic philosophy, very close to today's concept of diversity as a driving force for innovation and creativity, would find its first expression in the area of Arab politics, government, and warfare.

Another element of this phase of expansion was improvisation. One reading of Arab history suggests that the early Arab campaign of conquest and expansion was really quite accidental. Rather than a grand strategy laid out in Mecca, Arab Muslims simply sought to safeguard their borders against the Byzantines and Persians. But as they pushed outward, their foreign enemies receded, and so a dynamic of expansion took shape, fuelled by war booty and tax collections.

While the ways of Arab tribes and the teachings of the Prophet (pbuh) provided a framework for later Arab leaders, many new situations swiftly arose that required quick decisions based on local circumstances. This process of social, political, and military improvisation seems to have established a method of problem solving that would apply itself in the future sciences and other intellectual endeavours.

By 732, the 100 years of Arab expansion had reached a turning point. That year, the outnumbered Franks turned back the Andalusian Emir Abd Al Rahman al Ghafiqi at the Battle of Tours, giving rise to the European dynasty of Charles Martel and Charlemagne and the anti-Arab military campaigns that kept Europe independent and Christian.

Though some might see this as a setback for the Arabs, the end of Arab conquest ignited a fierce period of intellectual ferment that would last for another 800 years - one which would have much more lasting impact on the world than the century of warfare.

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