History of Islam @OpenPagesIslam

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Ramadan started as a celebration of an impossible victory. On on 17 Ramadan 623, Muhammad and 300 men attacked a Meccan force of 950 men. The Battle of Badr. This event was seen as one that was only possible thanks to divine interference. But Ramadan is more 👇

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@HistContent We barely have texts from ancient Persia and therefore have learned to look at it through Ancient Greek eyes, a.k.a. the enemy.

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The Jewish roots of Ramadan In the first decade of Islam (610-622), fasting wasn’t regarded as specifically Islamic. As so many things in early Islam, things changed when Muhammad needed to leave Mecca for fear of his life. His new home-to-be was an oasis named Yathrib, today’s Medina, which was host to a large Jewish population. This was a new situation for Muhammad and his followers. In Mecca, they faced pagan Arabs. Here, in Medina, they needed to handle their relationship with a religious community which also claimed to possess the words and commands of God. When those Jews told him they fast on Yom Kippur to commemorate the divine rescue of Moses and the Israelites at the Red Sea, Muhammad said: ‘I am closer to (or: I have more rights on) Moses than you’ and ordered that a fast should be held on that day. Elements of Jewish prayers found their way into the Quran and even the method to determine the beginning of fasting is Jewish. Jews have a custom of determining when to start their fast. They use the black and white in their shawls. Once there is enough sunlight to distinguish the black from the white, the fasting begins. The same tradition found its way into the Quran (2:187): “and eat and drink until the white thread becometh distinct to you from the black thread of the dawn.“ Next up: what triggered a genuine Muslim fasting.

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The pre-Islamic roots of Ramadan Ramadan didn’t start with Islam. Its roots go back to pre-Islamic times. Paganism and Judaism each influenced this month of fasting. Before Islam, pagan Arabs would actually fast for a whole month. However, the primary month of fasting for pre-Islamic Meccans wasn't Ramadan; it was Rajab. During Rajab, the "spring month," life in Arabia transformed. It was a sacred time where blood feuds were forbidden and pilgrimage thrived. It functioned as a "festival of spring thanksgiving". Arabs would climb the Hira mountain to engage in al-taḥannuth, a practice of secluded meditation. One Arab who appreciated this practice was Muhammad himself. Later sources report that he liked spending time in solitude and only climbed down the mountain to get provision for a few more nights. During one of these nights, Muhammad is said to have received the first Quranic relevations. Rajab was so deeply rooted in pre-Islamic Arabia that the second caliph Umar (ruled between 634 and 644) had people fasting in the month of Rajab flogged. Umar even made them eat as “Rajab should not be like Ramadan”. To find out how Jews contributed to Ramadan and what triggered fasting to become part of the Muslim identity, follow and subscribe 👇

@sajjadkaswani Correct 🤝

Who are the Druze? Before they were known as a mysterious mountain sect, the Druze were an apocalyptic Ismaili movement (a Shiite group). It began in Cairo in the early 1000s under the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim, a ruler so enigmatic some claimed he was… God. A young Turkish missionary known as al-Darzi preached this new doctrine. But the real architect was a Persian named Hamza ibn Ali. In 1017, he declared: – The End Times had begun. – Caliph Al-Hakim was the divine Qa’im (savior). – The Quran & Sharia? Abrogated. Only one thing remained: the radical unity of God (Tawhid). No rituals, no laws. Ismaili scholars rejected the movement. One wrote: “Many more Imams will follow al-Hakim. Islam hasn’t ended.” Still, Hamza sent missionaries across Egypt, Syria, even India. When al-Hakim mysteriously vanished in 1021 during a night ride, the Druze believed that God had hidden Himself once again from humanity. But the movement fractured. By 1034, its public preaching had stopped. Persecuted in Egypt, it survived only in the mountains of Lebanon, southern Syria, and Palestine. There, each Thursday, a secretive priesthood still studies Hamza’s scriptures. Most Druze today remain uninitiated. Hence, until this day, the exact teachings of the Druze remain a mystery. We only know that they don’t consider themselves Muslims.

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In 2016, I struck up a conversation with a fruit seller in Iran. He was eager to talk. And, as a devout Shiite, he insisted on one thing: that I study the genealogy of the Prophet Muhammad. Because in his eyes, that’s where the root of the Muslim split lies - between Sunni and Shia. To keep it brief: The divide goes back to the question of who should lead the Muslim community after the death of the Prophet. - For Shiites, the answer was clear: Muhammad’s closest relative, his cousin Ali, and Ali’s descendants. - For Sunnis, any member of Muhammad’s tribe - the Quraysh - could be a legitimate leader. To understand how deep this conflict runs, we need to go back to Muhammad’s great-grandfather, Hashim, and his twin brother Abd Shams. One of Abd Shams’ sons, a man named Umayya, is said to have challenged his uncle Hashim to a duel. The duel never happened - but Umayya was sent into exile. That’s where the rivalry began. But the feud didn’t end there. Generations of tension followed among Muhammad’s ancestors. Fast forward to the time of the Prophet. One of his fiercest opponents was a man named Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, a descendant of Umayya, and the leading political figure of Mecca. So fierce was his opposition that even his own daughter had to flee when she embraced Islam. Only later, after marrying one of his daughters to Muhammad - and perhaps realizing that the tide had turned - did Abu Sufyan finally accept Islam. He would eventually play a key role in Muhammad’s peaceful reentry into Mecca. Twenty-nine years after the Prophet’s death, Abu Sufyan’s son Muawiya declared himself Caliph. Before that, he had waged war against Ali, the Prophet’s cousin. After arbitration ruled in Muawiya’s favor, Ali was assassinated by one of his own disillusioned supporters. His sons were defeated. The split was complete. From then on, the descendants of one of the Prophet’s early enemies would rule the Islamic world. They were known as the Umayyads.

@grok @baste_goose @ancientorigins @grok Why hasn’t there been another expedition? Lack of funding?

Before the Prophet Mohammed changed the world, his ancestors had already shaped the heart of it: Mecca. Their legacy would later extend even further, giving rise to the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties. This is the story, as told in Islamic tradition, of the men who built Mecca - and laid the groundwork for Islam. After Qusayy ibn Kilab (see earlier post) established Quraysh dominance over the city of Mecca, legends began to gather around his descendants. His son, Abd Manaf ibn Qusayy, first had to assert his authority against other relatives. With his own sons Hashim and Abd Shams, Abd Manaf would become the forefather of Islam’s two great dynasties: the Umayyads and the Abbasids. Hashim - the great-grandfather of the Prophet Mohammed - and his brother Abd Shams, along with two other brothers, earned renown by transforming Mecca into a major trade hub on the Arabian Peninsula. Their caravans connected Mecca to Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and even Abyssinia. Within Mecca, the four brothers were also responsible for the Kaaba and for providing food and water to pilgrims, a sacred duty inherited from their father’s line. One generation later, Abd al-Muttalib, the son of Hashim and Mohammed’s grandfather, would become a key figure in his own right. He is credited with rediscovering the Zamzam well, which had long been lost beneath the sand. Mohammed is said to have known his grandfather. Abd al-Muttalib reportedly died when Mohammed was around eight years old. The story of the Prophet’s ancestors is inseparable from the story of Mecca itself. Rivalries and power struggles did emerge - but without this lineage, the sacred connection between Islam and Mecca would be hard to imagine.

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@africanae9732 African history. Let’s fine tune the algorithm

@archeohistories Gives me the jitters…

@AndrewBrace12 @LandsknechtPike Here’s an idea for a thread @LandsknechtPike: the military history of bicycles

@africanae9732 Finally some context as to what brought Caesar to Egypt. Thanks! I wasn’t aware of the complexities

@HistoriaJack Nothing beats a good book.

North Koreans and Chinese nicknamed Turkish soldiers “the screaming devils“. They were known to be brave and hospitable. Here’s what a Korean orphan said: “They didn’t speak our language, but they smiled, patted our heads, and shared everything - even when they had little. We called them ‘big brothers.’”

Rome had Romulus. Athens had Theseus. Mecca had Qusayy ibn Kilab. The little known architect of a holy city, and an ancestor of the Prophet Mohammed. Qusayy ibn Kilab was more than just an ancestor of the Prophet: he was the man who transformed Mecca into the city it would become, both politically and spiritually. Around five generations before Mohammed’s birth, Qusayy united the scattered clans of the Quraysh and established their dominance over Mecca. Born into a time of disorder, Qusayy returned to Mecca as a young man. Through political skill and a well-calculated marriage, he secured the city’s most powerful offices. But he was not content with power alone. Qusayy reorganized the sacred cult of the Kaaba, brought the Quraysh clans together, and laid the foundations for their future influence. This culminated in the leadership of their most famous descendant: Mohammed. Qusayy was not only a political unifier; he was also a city-builder. He constructed permanent housing in Mecca, formalized the service of pilgrims, and introduced rituals that would endure for centuries. It was by his initiative that the Black Stone of the Kaaba was recovered and repositioned. Even the boundaries of Mecca’s sacred precinct, as we know them today, are said to trace back to Qusayy. His legacy shaped the very identity of Mecca. As both a tribal patriarch and an urban visionary, Qusayy laid the groundwork for the city’s religious and political centrality - without which Mecca may never have become the birthplace of Islam.

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