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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Saudi Arabia
Index
The vast majority of the people of Saudi Arabia are Sunni
Muslims. Islam is the established religion, and as such its
institutions receive government support. In the early seventh
century, Muhammad, a merchant from the Hashimite branch of the
ruling Quraysh tribe in the Arabian town of Mecca, began to
preach the first of a series of revelations that Muslims believe
were granted him by God through the angel Gabriel. He stressed
monotheism and denounced the polytheism of his fellow Meccans.
Because Mecca's economy was based in part on a thriving
pilgrimage business to the Kaaba, the sacred structure around a
black meteorite, and the numerous pagan shrines located there,
Muhammad's vigorous and continuing censure eventually earned him
the bitter enmity of the town's leaders. In 622 he was invited to
the town of Yathrib, which came to be known as Medina (the city)
because it was the center of his activities. The move, or
hijra (see Glossary),
known in the West as the hegira,
marks the beginning of the Islamic era. The Muslim calendar,
based on the lunar year, begins in 622. In Medina, Muhammad--by
this time known as the Prophet--continued to preach, defeated his
detractors in battle, and consolidated both the temporal and
spiritual leadership of all Arabia in his person before his death
in 632.
After Muhammad's death, his followers compiled those of his
words regarded as coming directly from God into the Quran, the
holy scripture of Islam. Other sayings and teachings of his and
his companions as recalled by those who had known Muhammad,
became the
hadith (see Glossary).
The precedent of his personal
deeds and utterances was set forth in the sunna. Together the
Quran, the hadith, and the sunna form a comprehensive guide to
the spiritual, ethical, and social life of an orthodox Sunni
Muslim.
During his life, Muhammad was both spiritual and temporal
leader of the Muslim community; he established Islam as a total,
all-encompassing way of life for individuals and society. Islam
traditionally recognizes no distinction between religion and
state, and no distinction between religious and secular life or
religious and secular law. A comprehensive system of religious
law (the
sharia--see Glossary)
developed during the first four
centuries of Islam, primarily through the accretion of precedent
and interpretation by various judges and scholars. During the
tenth century, however, legal opinion began to harden into
authoritative doctrine, and the figurative bab al ijtihad
(gate of interpretation) gradually closed, thenceforth excluding
flexibility in Sunni Islamic law.
After Muhammad's death, the leaders of the Muslim community
chose Abu Bakr, the Prophet's father-in-law and one of his
earliest followers, as caliph, or successor. At the time, some
persons favored Ali, the Prophet's cousin and husband of his
daughter Fatima, but Ali and his supporters (the so-called Shiat
Ali or Party of Ali) eventually recognized the community's
choice. The next two caliphs--Umar, who succeeded in 634, and
Uthman, who took power in 644--were acknowledged by the entire
community. When Ali finally succeeded to the caliphate in 656,
Muawiyah, governor of Syria, rebelled in the name of his murdered
kinsman Uthman. After the ensuing civil war, Ali moved his
capital to Mesopotamia, where a short time later he, too, was
murdered.
Ali's death ended the period in which the entire community of
Islam recognized a single caliph. Upon Ali's death, Muawiyah
proclaimed himself caliph from Damascus. The Shiat Ali, however,
refused to recognize Muawiyah or his line, the Umayyad caliphs;
in support of a caliphate based on descent from the Prophet, they
withdrew and established a dissident sect known as the Shia.
Originally political in nature, the differences between the
Sunni and Shia interpretations gradually assumed theological and
metaphysical overtones. Ali's two sons, Ahsan and Husayn, became
martyred heroes to the Shia and repositories of the claims of
Ali's line to mystical preeminence among Muslims. The Sunnis
retained the doctrine of the selection of leaders by consensus,
although Arabs and members of the Quraysh, Muhammad's tribe,
predominated in the early years.
Reputed descent from the Prophet continued to carry social
and religious prestige throughout the Muslim world in the early
1990s. Meanwhile, disagreements among Shia over who of several
pretenders had a truer claim to the mystical powers of Ali
produced further schisms. Some Shia groups developed doctrines of
divine leadership far removed from the strict monotheism of early
Islam, including beliefs in hidden but divinely chosen leaders
with spiritual powers that equaled or surpassed those of the
Prophet himself. The main sect of Shia became known as Twelvers
because they recognized Ali and eleven of his direct descendants
(see The Middle Ages, 700-1500
, ch. 1).
The early Islamic polity was intensely expansionist, fueled
both by fervor for the new religion and by economic and social
factors. Conquering armies and migrating tribes swept out of
Arabia, spreading Islam. By the end of Islam's first century,
Islamic armies had reached far into North Africa and eastward and
northward into Asia.
Although Muhammad had enjoined the Muslim community to
convert the infidel, he had also recognized the special status of
the "people of the book," Jews and Christians, whose scriptures
he considered revelations of God's word that contributed in some
measure to Islam. Inhabiting the Arabian Peninsula in Muhammad's
time were Christians, Jews, and Hanifs, believers in an
indigenous form of monotheism who are mentioned in the Quran.
Medina had a substantial Jewish population, and villages of Jews
dotted the Medina oases. Clusters of Christian monasteries were
located in the northern Hijaz, and Christians were known to have
visited seventh-century Mecca. Some Arabic-speaking tribal people
were Christian, including some from the Najdi interior and the
well-known Ghassanids and Lakhmids on the Arabian borderlands
with Constantinople. Najran, a city in the southwest of
present-day Saudi Arabia, had a mixed population of Jews,
Christians, and pagans, and had been ruled by a Jewish king only
fifty years before Muhammad's birth. In sixth-century Najran,
Christianity was well established and had a clerical hierarchy of
nuns, priests, bishops, and lay clergy. Furthermore, there were
Christian communities along the gulf, especially in Bahrain,
Oman, and Aden (in present-day Yemen).
Jews and Christians in Muslim territories could live
according to their religious law, in their communities, and were
exempted from military service if they accepted the position of
dhimmis, or tolerated subject peoples. This status
entailed recognition of Muslim authority, additional taxes,
prohibition on proselytism among Muslims, and certain
restrictions on political rights.
Data as of December 1992
Early Development of Islam
The vast majority of the people of Saudi Arabia are Sunni
Muslims. Islam is the established religion, and as such its
institutions receive government support. In the early seventh
century, Muhammad, a merchant from the Hashimite branch of the
ruling Quraysh tribe in the Arabian town of Mecca, began to
preach the first of a series of revelations that Muslims believe
were granted him by God through the angel Gabriel. He stressed
monotheism and denounced the polytheism of his fellow Meccans.
Because Mecca's economy was based in part on a thriving
pilgrimage business to the Kaaba, the sacred structure around a
black meteorite, and the numerous pagan shrines located there,
Muhammad's vigorous and continuing censure eventually earned him
the bitter enmity of the town's leaders. In 622 he was invited to
the town of Yathrib, which came to be known as Medina (the city)
because it was the center of his activities. The move, or
hijra (see Glossary),
known in the West as the hegira,
marks the beginning of the Islamic era. The Muslim calendar,
based on the lunar year, begins in 622. In Medina, Muhammad--by
this time known as the Prophet--continued to preach, defeated his
detractors in battle, and consolidated both the temporal and
spiritual leadership of all Arabia in his person before his death
in 632.
After Muhammad's death, his followers compiled those of his
words regarded as coming directly from God into the Quran, the
holy scripture of Islam. Other sayings and teachings of his and
his companions as recalled by those who had known Muhammad,
became the
hadith (see Glossary).
The precedent of his personal
deeds and utterances was set forth in the sunna. Together the
Quran, the hadith, and the sunna form a comprehensive guide to
the spiritual, ethical, and social life of an orthodox Sunni
Muslim.
During his life, Muhammad was both spiritual and temporal
leader of the Muslim community; he established Islam as a total,
all-encompassing way of life for individuals and society. Islam
traditionally recognizes no distinction between religion and
state, and no distinction between religious and secular life or
religious and secular law. A comprehensive system of religious
law (the
sharia--see Glossary)
developed during the first four
centuries of Islam, primarily through the accretion of precedent
and interpretation by various judges and scholars. During the
tenth century, however, legal opinion began to harden into
authoritative doctrine, and the figurative bab al ijtihad
(gate of interpretation) gradually closed, thenceforth excluding
flexibility in Sunni Islamic law.
After Muhammad's death, the leaders of the Muslim community
chose Abu Bakr, the Prophet's father-in-law and one of his
earliest followers, as caliph, or successor. At the time, some
persons favored Ali, the Prophet's cousin and husband of his
daughter Fatima, but Ali and his supporters (the so-called Shiat
Ali or Party of Ali) eventually recognized the community's
choice. The next two caliphs--Umar, who succeeded in 634, and
Uthman, who took power in 644--were acknowledged by the entire
community. When Ali finally succeeded to the caliphate in 656,
Muawiyah, governor of Syria, rebelled in the name of his murdered
kinsman Uthman. After the ensuing civil war, Ali moved his
capital to Mesopotamia, where a short time later he, too, was
murdered.
Ali's death ended the period in which the entire community of
Islam recognized a single caliph. Upon Ali's death, Muawiyah
proclaimed himself caliph from Damascus. The Shiat Ali, however,
refused to recognize Muawiyah or his line, the Umayyad caliphs;
in support of a caliphate based on descent from the Prophet, they
withdrew and established a dissident sect known as the Shia.
Originally political in nature, the differences between the
Sunni and Shia interpretations gradually assumed theological and
metaphysical overtones. Ali's two sons, Ahsan and Husayn, became
martyred heroes to the Shia and repositories of the claims of
Ali's line to mystical preeminence among Muslims. The Sunnis
retained the doctrine of the selection of leaders by consensus,
although Arabs and members of the Quraysh, Muhammad's tribe,
predominated in the early years.
Reputed descent from the Prophet continued to carry social
and religious prestige throughout the Muslim world in the early
1990s. Meanwhile, disagreements among Shia over who of several
pretenders had a truer claim to the mystical powers of Ali
produced further schisms. Some Shia groups developed doctrines of
divine leadership far removed from the strict monotheism of early
Islam, including beliefs in hidden but divinely chosen leaders
with spiritual powers that equaled or surpassed those of the
Prophet himself. The main sect of Shia became known as Twelvers
because they recognized Ali and eleven of his direct descendants
(see The Middle Ages, 700-1500
, ch. 1).
The early Islamic polity was intensely expansionist, fueled
both by fervor for the new religion and by economic and social
factors. Conquering armies and migrating tribes swept out of
Arabia, spreading Islam. By the end of Islam's first century,
Islamic armies had reached far into North Africa and eastward and
northward into Asia.
Although Muhammad had enjoined the Muslim community to
convert the infidel, he had also recognized the special status of
the "people of the book," Jews and Christians, whose scriptures
he considered revelations of God's word that contributed in some
measure to Islam. Inhabiting the Arabian Peninsula in Muhammad's
time were Christians, Jews, and Hanifs, believers in an
indigenous form of monotheism who are mentioned in the Quran.
Medina had a substantial Jewish population, and villages of Jews
dotted the Medina oases. Clusters of Christian monasteries were
located in the northern Hijaz, and Christians were known to have
visited seventh-century Mecca. Some Arabic-speaking tribal people
were Christian, including some from the Najdi interior and the
well-known Ghassanids and Lakhmids on the Arabian borderlands
with Constantinople. Najran, a city in the southwest of
present-day Saudi Arabia, had a mixed population of Jews,
Christians, and pagans, and had been ruled by a Jewish king only
fifty years before Muhammad's birth. In sixth-century Najran,
Christianity was well established and had a clerical hierarchy of
nuns, priests, bishops, and lay clergy. Furthermore, there were
Christian communities along the gulf, especially in Bahrain,
Oman, and Aden (in present-day Yemen).
Jews and Christians in Muslim territories could live
according to their religious law, in their communities, and were
exempted from military service if they accepted the position of
dhimmis, or tolerated subject peoples. This status
entailed recognition of Muslim authority, additional taxes,
prohibition on proselytism among Muslims, and certain
restrictions on political rights.
Data as of December 1992
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