Ancient Egypt - Background of the Birth of Islam [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Ancient Egypt

As regards the environment attending the birth of
Islam we have already discussed brightly about the
Arabian peninsula, making a survey of the particular
conditions prevalent in the Hejaz and Najd region. Also
discussed were the eastern neighbour of Arabia, Iran and
the northern neighbour, Rome. It is now intended to deal
with its western neighbours, one of them being Egypt
which will be discussed in this chapter.

a. Civilisation

Egypt is an ancient land about which abundant
scientific research has been carried out owing to its
wealth of ancient monuments and archaeological treasures
that have survived intact and much has been written about
them. Among the many countries engaged in such studies,
Egyptology has become a leading branch in archaeology.

The monuments existing in Egypt reveals to a
considerable extent, the Egyptian history for about 6500
years, a condition which is hard to find in any other
part of the world. Some of the relies which are found in
the tombs and pyramids (which, too, are really tombs)
belong to 2000 to 4000 B.C. For instance it would suffice
to mention that the first calendar found in Egypt belongs
to the years 4241 to 4238 B.C. Such a find elsewhere is
unlikely.

The main point of this matter is related to the tombs
and the pyramids and the belief and desire of those
ancient people in Egypt for building massive tombs which
should remain undisturbed. The original name of this land
was not 'Egypt'. Likewise the name, Egypt, and 'Aegypten'
used in Persian, Arabic and European languages are not
the original names of this land. Its original name of
this land in local language had been 'Kemt' or 'Kemte'
which meant 'black land.[50] The name Egypt has a Hebrew
origin, and the Hebrews, namely the Israelis, gave it a
name which stuck and later on took the form of 'Egypt' in
Arabic. The name given to it by Europeans has a Greek
root from the word Aigyptos, given to it by the Greeks
after the name of one of the local kings.

In the territory of Egypt, as far as history reveals,
there had existed social units since ancient times, and
this condition prevailed in Egypt even in pre-historic
times since the beginning of history. Villages had
existed in pre-historic times as a unit of civilisation
in the Nile River valley.

What should be considered is the existence of higher
levels of social communities in Egypt. The central
government, according to available sources, had existed
for about 6500 years in Egypt, and these sources are
mainly the royal tombs. Thus 6500 ago Egypt was a state
having kings, rulers and a central government. Obviously
where ever a central government is formed, such thins as
architecture, large buildings, communications, writings,
script, industry, art etc. follow. All these things
existed in ancient Egypt, since ages ago so that even a
kind of medical science of a type existed in Egypt
comparable with the level of Greek medicine during the
years 2600 to 2400 B.C.; this information has been
discovered by historians from the scripts which have been
found. Chemistry, embalming and mummifying of bodies
around which the science of chemistry had developed, as
well as armoury, glazed tiles, ship-building and evidence
of arts' industry and technical trades have been the
other aspects of life about four or five thousand year's
ago in Egypt. The central government of Egypt of that
time possessed a regular army, so that king Ramses II who
ruled about one thousand years B.C.[51] had a regular
army and legions that he dispatched to various parts, and
even hired soldiers from such countries as Libya, Turkey
and Syria. It is interesting that in that age ministers
managed the affairs under a central government and the
king. The king was regarded as God, a god incarnated in
human body who appeared amongst the people, who regarded
themselves as his servants. The priests and ministers
were intermediaries between that god, or god-king and his
subjects. Accordingly the 'vizier' was the contact
between man and god. Of course the king was not the only
god, and there were numerous other gods in Egypt, such as
the god of man, god of life etc. to the extent that the
god-king himself was expected to repose his faith in
those gods. Some of these gods were human, and others
were non-human, the king belonging to the first group.
Non-human gods had idol-temples where a number of priests
served them. The priests possessed special powers; they
were regarded as the greatest power in Egypt, the power
of god-king included. Usually some rivalry existed
between these two power centers. In the following
discussions ('elated to the manner of spread of Islam in
this region, we will examine how Islam succeeded in
sweeping all these away, and replace them with entirely
new concepts.

b. Laws, Traditions and

Religion Laws and traditions that existed in Egypt
accorded the king a divine position, but no laws about
justice and equity Courts did exist which were however
held by the representatives of the minister and the
feudal lords to see to the claim of the subject.
According to Iranian writers at that time in Egypt no
laws existed even to compare with the 'Code in Chaldea
and Assyria.[52]

Among the traditions existing in ancient Egypt which
seem odd to us was the legitimacy of marriage with close
relatives, and even marriage between a brother and
sister. This was particularly in vogue in the royal
houses.

The religion prevalent in Egypt was idolatry, and,
like the present day India, there seems to have existed a
predisposition to idolatry which gave no ground to any
other beliefs to make headway. The deviational education
of the Egyptians had prepared them for receiving the
religion of idolatry. In the time of the pharaohs two of
these rulers who belonged to priestly families and
believed in the One God, wished to propagate this faith
in Egypt. This God was called 'Aton.[53] But they were
not successful in this task, and when the second pharaoh
died, the people and priests joined hands and revived
idolatry, and burnt the body of the second pharaoh for
heresy against their formal religion. This idol worship
persisted until the third century A.D. It is noteworthy
that in the third century as Christianity found its way
into Egypt, in the same century the concept of Christian
trinity took shape in the school of Alexandria. Thus the
best and the most comprehensive and scholarly[54]
analyses and definitions of trinity were formulated in
the third century A.D. in the scholarly and philosophical
seminary of Neo-Platonics of Alexandria.[55] Thus it
becomes apparent that even as Christianity spread into
Egypt, it accepted the form of plurality and trinity
already existent in that country.

C) Government in Ancient
Egypt

Egypt had passed through various periods of
government, most of which had been of local rulers.
Certain points here merit attention: For about one
century Egypt was ruled over by Iran and since Darius and
Xerxes conquered Egypt, Egypt was administered by a
governor appointed by Darius to represent the Iranian
government. After a time local governments took control
there. Next Egypt was conquered by the Greeks and
Alexander of Macedonia who built the port of Alexandria.
After Alexander's death, the Ptolemies who were his
followers governed Egypt for several centuries.[56] Then
once again local governments Greek ruler exchanged power,
and this struggle continued for a long time. In the time
of Anushirvan, Egypt was ruled for a period of ten years
by Iran. During all these periods that the imperialist
powers of the age, Iran, Greece and Rome conquered Egypt,
none of them were able to assert any influence there to
the extent that Islam and the Arab Muslims did. In this
historical survey, one of the essential aspects is to
show the degree of influence that Islam succeeded in
asserting in various regions including Egypt; for,
firstly the natural conditions for the acceptance of the
faith of monotheism were not favourable in Egypt, and
secondly in the different periods that Egypt had been
under the Iranian, Greek and Roman rule Egypt had not
accepted foreign domination and nor did those foreign
rulers find much stability in that land, or influence it
to any extent. How did it happen, then, that for the
first time when Omar dispatched only four thousand
soldiers Egypt succumbed readily in 641 A.D. when the
Muslims entered Egypt the prevalent religions was mainly
Christianity in the north, and idolatry with a small mix
of Christianity and Judaism in the south. Since Judaism
was a nationalistic faith, it did not easily spread into
non-Jewish regions. Thus at the time of the rise of
Islam, Egypt did not have a single faith. This was the
general state of affairs in Egypt, a neighbour of the
birth place of Islam. When the prophet of Islam began to
propagate his faith in Arabia, governors were ruling in
Egypt whose names are mentioned in our history books. One
of them was Maquqas to whom the prophet addressed a
letter in the sixth year of his migration; this point
will be discussed later in connection with the Prophet's
letters to various kings and rulers.

In brief, Egypt had an ancient civilisation and was
far ahead of Arabia from the viewpoint of science and
arts etc.

It should be borne in mind that, that part of Arabia,
namely Hejaz, was then at a tribal stage prior to the
birth of the prophet, and had not till then attained an
organised form of government, whereas Egypt had had such
a government for several centuries in addition to a
regular army, science, industry and was familiar with
different schools of philosophy It should be added that
Alexandria had been a great center of learning for nine
centuries before the rise of Islam, and how did a country
with such a background fell so easily to the army of
Islam will be discussed later.

d) Questions and Answers

Question:

It was stated that Judaism was a
nationalistic faith. What does that imply?

Answer:

You know that the Jews themselves claim
that Judaism was a faith brought by Moses (a.s.) to save
the Israelis and they don't normally say that he came to
save the people of the world. But we, Muslims, never
declare that Muhammad (a.s.) came to save the Arabs. We
never think like that. The Jews consider themselves as
one nation, and the word 'Jew' is a tribal word meaning
the nation of Jews.

Question:

What was the social environment
within Egypt from the viewpoint of class divisions before
the birth of Islam and during the rise of Islam?

Answer:

As it was explained briefly, the roots
of idolatry still dominated the life of the people. It
might appear that Idolatry had no effects on everyday
life, but in reality it plays an important role in
shaping social conditions. As one reads in history of
Egypt the Pharaohs who were named god-kings and their
high priests resisted so tenaciously against the concept
of monotheism. What was the motive behind this
resistance? They resisted because their vital interests
were threatened, since monotheism is not just a simple
idea but a new concept leading the way of human life.
Thus Egypt was typical idol-worshipping country in its
social life in which the rulers enjoyed absolute power
and besides them were the high priests and clergy, the
military and the feudal lords who exercised a relative
degree of power. Egypt was wholly feudal, and even till
recent times some of the towns were governed by local
lords. Slavery that existed there had the most inhuman
form which has even existed in the history of the world.
For every one of the stone blacks placed in the pyramids,
fifty slaves lost their lives. It has been narrated about
ancient Egypt bow earth works and pathways were laid out
and how huge blocks of stones were pulled by a thousand
slaves altogether under command of an overseer by means
of ropes and pulleys and beams. Why was all this trouble
taken? Only to build a tomb for the mummified corps of a
god-king and his accompaniments for the life in the
hereafter, so that the Pharaoh would face no problems in
his eternal life, and also to protect the tombs intact
from interference of times. So many lives were wasted for
the sake of a futile wish, while those slaves did not
even get enough food to perform such hard labour, just
enough to keep their bodies and souls together for the
performance of the labour as if so many flies had been
killed off Of course the social environment in Egypt was
not so severe during the last few centuries before the
rise of Islam, but anyhow these were the situations the
like of which, in so far as history can show, did not
exist in ancient Iran, even though exploitation of
deprived classes did exist there. Slavery had its most
inhuman manifestation in Egypt, whereas in Greece or Rome
it never reached such a cruel and violent degree.

At the time of the rise of Islam, the internal
situation in Egypt was chaotic with political unrest. The
social order was shaking, though this was not the first
time that Egypt was seized by such turmoil and
instability. Such periods in the history of the world are
discernible. We see this in the case of Iran which fell
under foreign domination several times. How far did
Alexander penetrate Iran? Was the influence of Greek
civilisation similar to the spread of Islamic
civilisation in Iran? Are they comparable at all? Is the
comparison conceivable? In the periods when Iran come
under the Turks and later the Mongols, it was weakened
socially and politically. From one side came the Qur'an
while from the other side came the code of Chengiz. But
has anything remained of the code of Chengiz? In this
context a small book has been written entitled "The
Rapid Spread of Islam"[57] is a highly readable book
by an Italian lady who is a university professor. Though
the subject has not been discussed at length in this
short work, yet the writer is a researcher of history who
has been impressed by the rapid expansion of Islam. This
point will come up for discussing later, but no other
factor but the universal nature of the teachings of Islam
could be the cause for its rapid spread. Even the
compilers of encyclopedia of Egypt have stated that the
Christians of Egypt welcomed the soldiers of Islam with
open arms.

Question:

Following the rise of Islam and its
movement, Christianity organised centralized authority
which had no precedence, and as Islam spread with such
unparalleled rapidity, was Christianity's centralisation
and mobilisation intended to be used as a check?

Answer:

The system of centralisation of
Christianity in the prevailing form dates back to the
period before Islam and is related to Constantine. The
councils held by the cardinals in our time are a reminder
of the great conventions which were held at that time by
religious leaders in order to propagate Christianity in
the world. They reached decisions and amended procedures
and all these activities were related to the days of
Emperor Constantine, several centuries before Islam.[58]

Of course as you have observed, Christianity organised
itself against the influence of Islam assuming a more
aggressive form. In the history of Egypt it has been
recorded about ancient Rome, that the Roman Emperors
during their domination of Egypt for several centuries,
used Egypt as the granary for the empire. Of course
Europe of that period was a different Europe altogether.
Today Europe lives in very odd conditions: it is a
continent which cannot provide subsistence for all its
inhabitants at the level they are used to. If the doors
of Europe were to be closed so that its own inhabitants
would have to provide for themselves by the strength of
their own scientific and technological efforts, and could
not estimate how far their standard of living would be
lowered. They employ all means fair and foul, to maintain
and raise their standards of living. In my view, a
realistic view about them is that they are an active and
a determined people equipped with the weapons of science
and technology for raising their standards of living and
protecting their position in the world by using all fair
or foul means. They employ their perseverance and
initiative in the most profitable manner. This is my view
of Europe, a picture that you can see reflected in the
past history of Europe in different shapes. For example,
the Greek were a people equipped with science and
technology who invaded other lands in order to secure
what they could not find in their own country to suffice
their needs. Rome had a different aspect, but there, too,
a similar situation existed. I have not studied the east
extensively to be able to express my views about
aggressive tendencies from that quarter. On the face of
it the Mongol invasions would appear to be of this type,
but a superficial view is not enough, especially as
historians have ascribed other causes for the Mongol
invasions.