Muhammad in Pre-Islamic Arabia

Albert Hourani (14) commented that, by the early seventh century, there existed a combination of a settled world in Arabia, which had lost something of its strength and assurance, and another world on its frontiers, "which was in closer contact with its northern neighbors and opening itself to their cultures." The decisive meeting between these groups took place in the middle years of that century when a Meccan merchant known as Muhammad of the Quraysh tribe began revealing the Word of Allah as had been given to him. Muhammad's new prophetic teachings, derived from a path leading back to the Prophet Abraham, represented a very real challenge to the tribal system of authority developed by the Arabs, who were originally nomads (Nasr, 173). Inevitably, Muhammad's vision of an Islamic community or ummah "dominated by the truth of the Quranic revelation" threatened tribal allegiances in general and the authority system developed under the leadership of the most powerful branch of the Quraysh in Mecca (Nasr, 173). The resulting clash was inevitable.

John Esposito (6) notes that Muhammad was born in Mecca at a time when the city had become a prosperous center of trade and commerce. At the same time, it was a society "in which traditional tribal ways were strained by Mecca's transition from a semi-Bedouin to a commercial, urban society" (Esposito, 6). The ruling tribe in Mecca from which Muhamma

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t was a rejection of the tribal blood group and the Quraysh rulers in Mecca could not tolerate such a defection. Essentially, Muhammad had become head of a collection of tribal groups that were bound not by blood, but rather by a shared ideology, which was a dramatic innovation in Arabian society (Armstrong, 14). In Medina, Muhammad began the process of establishing the pattern of what would become the perfect Muslim society. It was through the mosque and not the palace of a ruler that the entire ummah would meet to discuss all of the group's concerns, including those that were social, political, military, and religious. There was to be no dichotomy between the sacred and the profane "and the aims was tawhid (making one), the integration of the whole of life in a unified community, which would give Muslims intimations of the Unity which is God" (Armstrong, 15). A number of critical battles between the ummah of Islam and the Quraysh began to occur. Though Muhammad and his followers struggled to create a sense of community and in 625 endured a severe defeat at the battle of Uhud, Muhammad's forces would eventually vanquish the Quraysh and convince the nomadic tribes that Muhammad was the most viable leader available to th
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Authority Islam, Quraysh Allegiance, Essentially Nasr, Mecca Muhammad, Medina Muhammad, Uhud Muhammad's, Albert Hourani, Quraysh Mecca, John Esposito, Judaism Muhammad, arab people, authority derived, nasr 173, muhammad followers, prophetic tradition, brought prophetic tradition, prophet abraham, history arab, quraysh tribe, islamic community, armstrong 14,
Approximate Word count = 1453
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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