Page 218 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol III

islamic world 1037

A distinctly European view of Muslim
society in North Africa in the late 1800s.

part of the divine plan, the Quran asserts, that there
should be a multiplicity of religious communities, for “if
He had so willed, He would have made you a single
community” (Quran 5:48).
In the Constitution of Medina drawn up after the emi-
gration of the Prophet Muhammad to Medina from
Mecca in 622 CE, the Muslims and the Jews there are
described as constituting a single community (umma)
with mutual rights and obligations.After the death of the
Prophet in 632 CE, Islam expanded out of the Arabian
peninsula into the rest of western Asia and beyond. By
the third century of Islam (ninth century of the common
era), the Islamic realm stretched from the Indus River in
several of them are. It is a world of enormous diversity, South Asia to the Oxus in Central Asia to Andalusia in
including numerous ethnic groups, a wide variety of lan- southern Europe. In common, extra-Quranic usage, the
guages, cultural practices, and social customs. This fact term umma progressively came to refer exclusively to
appears to mirror the diversity promised in the Quran as Muslims residing in far-flung lands united by their faith
part of the divine design and as a manifestation of divine into one transnational and transregional community.
mercy: “And of His signs,” says the Quran, “is the cre- As far as umma may be regarded as having a political
ation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of dimension, some political theorists of the medieval
your tongues and colors. Surely there are signs in this for period conceived of this transregional Muslim polity in
the learned!” (30:22). the following way.Theoretically and ideally speaking, the
umma would be united under the rule of one ruler,
The Umma known as the caliph (Arabic khalifa, literally “successor”
The term “Islamic world” may be understood to be con- [to the Prophet]), sometimes known as imam.This ruler
gruent with the Arabic term umma, a nebulous, yet pow- was conceived of as the first among equals, appointed by
erfully emotive, concept that has existed since the advent at least the tacit consent of the people and granted legit-
of Islam itself. Umma means “community” or “nation,” and imacy through the formal allegiance of the people of emi-
in general usage came to refer to the worldwide collectiv- nence and influence.The caliph was expected to rule his
ity of Muslims, regardless of where precisely they lived. subjects through consultation with the learned among
The word umma is of Quranic provenance and occurs them, and his primary function was to uphold the reli-
sixty-two times in the Islamic scripture. In specifically gious law, maintain law and order in his realm, and fend
Quranic usage, umma does not always refer exclusively to off outside aggression.As far as their political duties were
Muslims but to the righteous and godly contingent with- concerned, the ruled in return were expected to pay their
in a religious community. Thus the righteous members taxes to the state treasury and be loyal to their ruler, so
within the religious communities of Jews and Christians long as he obeyed the religious law.The first four caliphs
comprise “a balanced nation” (in Arabic, umma muqtasida, after the death of Muhammad are idealized as the “rightly
Quran 5:66) and “an upright nation” (Arabic umma guided” because they are perceived to have observed the
qa’ima, Quran 3:113). The community of righteous tenets of good governance, particularly in holding them-
Muslims is described in the Quran as umma wasat (“a selves accountable to the people. The period of the
moderate or middle nation”) and one that summons to Rightly-Guided Caliphs and the constellation of virtues
the good and enjoins what is right (Quran 3:104). It is attributed to them had a lasting influence on the