Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
NIAHOMMEDAN RELIGION
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: NEW-NUM
del.icio.us it!
|
NIAHOMMEDAN See also:RELIGION . The See also:law and usage of religious See also:foundations in See also:perpetuity (waqf, See also:mortmain) became as important in See also:Islam as monastic endowments in See also:medieval See also:Europe, and such foundations tended similarly to absorb the greater See also:part of the See also:national See also:wealth. It was the only safe way of providing for posterity. A pious See also:foundation could be erected in such a way that either so much from its funds would be paid yearly in perpetuity to the descendants of the erector, or those descendants would be employed as officials of the foundation. When it became impossible for the See also:caliph to See also:lead the See also:people personally in See also:prayer in the See also:mosque, he delegated that part of his The See also:Imam. duties to another, hence called imam (q.v.). Naturally, then, the See also:appointment of the imam would See also:lie with the supreme ruler. This holds of the daily prayers in the See also:principal mosque (al-masjid al jami') supported by the ruler where the See also:Friday service is held, but in the See also:separate smaller mosques built by each community the community chooses its own imam. With regard to the Friday service, the See also:schools of law disagree as to the See also:necessity of the presence of an imam appointed by the See also:chief ruler. But the imam should certainly make mention of the ruler in his See also:sermon and pray for him. At the occasional prayers, such as those for See also:rain, &c., the presence of an imam appointed by the ruler is not necessary. The imam appoints the muaddhin, the announcer of the See also:hour of prayer from the See also:minaret, and both have a claim on the See also:state See also:treasury. Another See also:office exercised when possible by the caliph, but very frequently delegated to some high dignitary, such as the See also:heir to the See also:caliphate or a See also:prince, was the leadership of the See also:pilgrimage See also:caravan to See also:Mecca and back. Sometimes this See also:official, called See also:amir-al-See also:hajj, was appointed imam as well. He then led all the pilgrimage ceremonies at Mecca. When outside of towns where there was a See also:cadi he exercised also over the caravan the rights of a See also:judge. See also:Mahommedan law (q.v.) is treated eparately. Here, again, as judging is a See also:duty of the caliph, a cadi is the delegate, or, when ap-The Gadl. pointed by a See also:vizier or See also:governor, a delegate of his delegate. He examines into disputes brought before him and enforces his judgments, he names administrators of the estates of minors, the insane, &c.; he supervises the waqf See also:property of mosques and schools in his See also:district and inspects highways and public buildings; he watches over the See also:execution of See also:wills; he inflicts the due legal penalties for See also:apostasy, neglect of religious duties, refusal to pay taxes, See also:theft, See also:adultery, outrages, See also:murder; he can inflict the penalties of imprisonment, See also:fine, See also:corporal See also:punishment, See also:death; if there is no imam, he can perform his duty, as in fact can anyone who has the requisite knowledge. But it should be noticed that all this holds only of the un-europeanized Moslem state. For the existence of an See also:army in Islam, there are two grounds, the See also:holy See also:war (See also:jihad, q.v.) against unbelievers without the state The Army, and the suppression of See also:rebellion within. Under the See also:ordinance of See also:Omar the entire community was pre- served and used as a weapon for the subduing of the See also:world to Islam, and every able-bodied male Moslem was theoretically a fighting See also:man, part of the national See also:militia. This army was divided into See also:corps situated in the conquered lands, as armies of occupation, where they eventually came to See also:form military colonies in See also:great See also:camp-cities. The occupied countries had to support them, and they were See also:bound to render military service at any See also:time. But as the ideal of Omar See also:broke down before facts the use of See also:mercenary and slave troops finally increased; although there has always continued in Moslem armies acting against unbelievers a proportion of See also:volunteers not paid a fixed wage but subsidized by the state from the poor-See also:rate and See also:alms funds. The generals were appointed by the caliph, and had either unlimited authority to See also:act as his representatives, concluding See also:peace, acting as cadi and imam, distributing See also:booty; or were restricted within limits, e.g. to See also:simple leading of the troops and carrying on military operations. They, in turn, appointed their subordinates; this principle of giving a See also:head full See also:powers and full responsibility was very generally applied in Islam. It was controlled of course by the espionage of the postal See also:system. As war by a Moslem See also:power is essentially sacred war, the regulations of jihad must be considered here. Unbelievers must first be invited to embrace Islam and, if they follow a sacred See also:book and are not idol-worshippers, are given a choice between (a) becoming Moslems; or (b) submitting to the Moslems and entering on a treaty with them of See also:protection and See also:tribute; or (c) fighting. If they accept Islam, their lives, families and property are secure, and they form henceforth part of the Moslem community. The ability of Islam to create a See also:common feeling between highly different races is one of its most striking features. If they submit and enter on treaty relations, they pay a See also:poll-tax, for which their See also:personal safety is assured, and assume a definitely inferior status, having no technical citizenship in the state, only the See also:condition of protected clients (dhimmis). If they elect to fight, the See also:door of repentance is open, even when the armies are See also:face to face. But after defeat their lives are forfeit, their families are liable to See also:slavery, and all their goods to seizure. It is open to the See also:sovereign either to put them to death; or to enslave them; or to give them their See also:liberty; or to See also:exchange them for See also:ransom or against Moslem prisoners. The sovereign will choose that which is best for Islam. As for their families and wealth, the sovereign can See also:release them only with consent of the army that has captured them. Apostates must be put to death. Four-fifths of the booty after a See also:battle goes to the conquering army. The technical See also:art of war seems to have been little studied among Moslems; they have See also:treatises on See also:archery but very little upon See also:tactics. Their writers recognize, however, the essential difference between the See also:European and See also:Persian methods of charging in solid lines and holding the ground stubbornly, and the Arab and See also:Berber method of flying attacks and retreats by clouds of See also:cavalry. Therefore, one explained, the See also:custom See also:grew of using a See also:mass of European mercenaries as a fixed See also:nucleus and rallying-point. The See also:early Moslem armies, too, had used the solid, unyielding See also:charge, which may have been the See also:secret of their success. For one of the greatest puzzles of See also:history is the cause which changed the erratic, untrustworthy swarms of Arab horsemen with their childish See also:strategy into the ever-victorious legions of the first caliphs. They certainly learned rapidly. See also:Byzantium and See also:Persia taught them the use of military engines and the entrenched camp. Before that they had been, at the best, single knights with See also:mail-See also:shirt, See also:helmet, See also:sword and See also:lance. Bowmen, too, they used, but the principal use of the See also:bow seems to have come with the See also:Turks. The See also:glory of Moslem See also:education was its university system, which fed the higher learning and did not serve every-See also:day needs. Its See also:primary system was very poor, almost non-existent'-; 6ducadon. and technical education has never been recognized in Islam. Primary teachers were despised as ignorant and foolish. Apparently, if we may See also:trust the many stories of how ignorant men set up for themselves, there was no See also:control of them by the state. Their pupils were See also:young only; they taught the rudiments of See also:reading, See also:Koran, See also:catechism, prayer, See also:writing and See also:arithmetic, but very little of the latter. Technical education was given by the See also:gilds through their apprentice system, teaching See also:mechanical arts and crafts. This was genuine instruction, but was not so regarded; it was looked upon rather as are the mysteries and secrets of operative See also:masonry. It produced artisans of See also:independent See also:character, but not artists. Thus there was no distinction between architect and builder; there was no See also:sculpture; and See also:painting, so far as it went, was like See also:carving, a See also:craft. All Moslem university education, like all Moslem See also:science, revolved See also:round See also:theology. There were, apparently, only two With the death of See also:Mahomet began the development and codification of Moslem law. It was at first entirely See also:practical. Cases had to be decided, and to decide them there was, first, the Koran; secondly, if nothing ad rem was found in the Koran, there were the decisions of the See also:Prophet; thirdly, if these failed, there was the common law of See also:Medina; and, fourthly, if it, in turn, failed, the common sense of the judge, or See also:equity. A knowledge of the decisions of Mahomet came thus to be of great importance, and records of such decisions were eagerly sought and preserved. But this was simply a part of a much wider See also:movement and tendency. As among See also:primitive peoples in See also:general, custom and usage have always been potent among the See also:Arabs. The ways of the fathers, the old paths, they love to tread. Very early there arose a See also:special reverence for the path and usage (sunna) of Mahomet. Whatever he did or said, or See also:left unsaid or undone, and how he did it, has become of the first importance to the pious Moslem, who would act in every way as did the Prophet. There is See also:evidence that for this purpose the immediate companions of Mahomet took notes, either in memory or in writing, of his table talk and See also:wise sayings, just as they took down or learned by See also:heart for their private use the separate fragments of the Koran. His sayings and doings, See also:manners and customs, his answers to questions on religious See also:life and faith, above all his decisions in legal disputes, came to be recorded on See also:odd sheets in private notebooks. This was the beginning of the enormous literature of traditions (hadith) in Islam. The See also:collecting and preserving of these, which was at first private, for personal guidance and edification, finally became one of the most powerful weapons of See also:political and theological propaganda, and coloured the whole method and fabric of Moslem thought. All knowledge tended to be expressed in that form, and each See also:element of it to be traced back to, and given in the words of, some See also:master or other through a See also:chain of transmitters. Above all there grew up an enormous mass of evidently forged sayings put into the mouth of Mahomet. At every important political or theological crisis each party would invent and put into circulation a tradition from him, supporting its view. By a study of these flatly opposed " sayings " it is possible to reconstruct the different controversies of Islam in the past, and to discover what each party regarded as the essence of its position. The first collecting of traditions was for private purposes, and the first publication dealing with them was legal. This was the Muwatla' of Malik See also:ibn Anas (d. 795), a corpus See also:juris based partly on traditions, and a protest in its methods against the too speculative character of the books of See also:canon law which preceded it. Thereafter came collections of two different types. The earlier See also:kind was arranged according to the companions of Mahomet, on whose authority the traditions were transmitted; after each See also:companion came the traditions going back to him. The best known example of this kind is the Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal. The other kind, called Mu.Fannaf (classified), contains traditions arranged in chapters according to their subject See also:matter. That of Bukhari is the most famous, and is arranged to give a traditional basis for a See also:complete system of canon law; its rubrics are those of such a system. Another is that of Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, who paid less atteption to legal aspects and more to See also:minute accuracy. There are many others of more or less See also:acceptance and canonicity. Bukhari's book enjoys a reverence only second to that of the Koran. But in all these publications the primary See also:object was to purify the mass of traditions of forged accretions and to give to the believer a See also:sound basis for his knowledge of the usages of the Prophet, whether for his personal or for public use. These two kinds were a natural development. In the Moslem community there were from the first students of tradition proper whose See also:interest See also:lay in collecting, testing and transmitting, not in combining, systematizing and elucidating; whose preference was to take a single statement from the Prophet and apply it to a See also:case, without reasonings or questionings. And there were students of canon law who were interested rather in the system and results, and who, while they used traditions, used them only to an end and insisted on the See also:free application of speculative principles. The conflict of the future was to be between these traditionalists, on the one See also:hand, and rationalists, on the other; and the result was to be a See also:compromise.
With the wide sweep of Moslem See also:conquest another element came into the development. This was See also:Roman law, which the Moslem jurist found at See also:work in the conquered Roman provinces and in the law courts of which they went to school. It is to be remembered that the Arab armies were not devastating hordes; they recognized the need of law and See also:order wherever
outstanding exceptions to this See also:rule, the See also:academy of See also:Mamun (813–833) at See also:Bagdad, and the See also: But the interpretation of the Koran involved grammatical and lexicographical studies of early Arabic, and hence of the early Arabic literature. Theology came to involve See also:meta-See also:physical and logical studies. Canon law required arithmetic and See also:mensuration, practical See also:astronomy, &c. But these last were strictly See also:ancillary; the object of the instruction was primarily to give know-ledge of value for the life of the next world, and, secondarily, to turn out theologians and lawyers. See also:Medicine was in Jewish and See also:Christian hands; See also:engineering, See also:architecture, &c., with their mathematical bases, were crafts. Then this instruction was gradually subsidized and organized by the state, or endowed by individuals. How early this took See also:place is uncertain. But the individual teacher, with his certificate, remained the object of the student; there was nothing corresponding to our general degrees. Thirdly, educational institutions came to be equipped with scholarships of See also:money or in kind for the students, The first instance of this is generally ascribed to See also:Nishapur (Naisabur) in 1066; but it soon became general in the system and afforded a means of control and centralization. A final, and most important, characteristic was the wide journeying of the students " in See also:search of knowledge." Aided by Arabic as the universal See also:language of learning, students journeyed from teacher to teacher, and from See also:Samarkand to the See also:Atlantic, gathering on their way hundreds of personal certificates. Scholars were thus kept in See also:touch all over the Moslem world, and intellectual unity was maintained. To the democratic equality of Islam, in which the slave of to-day may be the See also:prime See also:minister of to-morrow, there is one outstanding exception. The descendants of the The Prophet and of his relatives (the See also:family of Hashim) Sayyids. formed and form a special class, held in social reverence, and guarded from contamination and injury. These are the sayyids (lords), and genealogical registers of them are carefully preserved. They are of all degrees of wealth and poverty, but are guarded legally from mesalliances with persons of ignoble origin or equivocal occupation. Their See also:influence is very great, and in some parts of the Moslem world they have the See also:standing and reverence of See also:saints, See Von Kremer, Culturgeschichte See also:des Orients, based largely on Mawardi's Ahkam, trans. in part by Ostrorog; McG. de Slane's trans. of Ibn Khaldun, Prolegomenes; See also:Lane, Manners and Customs of the See also:Modern Egyptians; R. F. See also:Burton, Pilgrimage to Mekka; Snouck Hurgronje, Mekka; See also:Hughes, See also:Dictionary of Islam-; Juynboll, De Mohammedaansche Wet; See also:Macdonald, Development of Muslim Theology, &c. For See also:women in Islam, see See also:HAREM. (D. B. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] NIAGARA, FORT |
[next] NIALL GARVE |