Glimpses of World History

by Jawaharlal Nehru

  But Christianity did something also to preserve learning and art. Monasteries like the Buddhist sangha were founded and spread rapidly. In these monasteries sometimes the old learning found a home. And here also the beginnings of a new art were laid down which was to blossom forth in all its beauty many centuries later. These monks just managed to keep the lamp of learning and art burning dimly. It was a service they rendered by preventing it from going out. But the light was confined to a narrow place; outside there was general darkness.

  In these early days of Christianity there was another strange tendency. Many people, fired by religious zeal, retired into the deserts and solitary places, far from the haunts of man, and lived in a wild state there. They tortured themselves and did not wash at all, and generally tried to bear as much pain as possible. This was especially so in Egypt, where many such hermits lived in the desert. Their idea seems to have been that the more they suffered and the less they washed the holier they became. One of these hermits sat on the top of a column for many years! These hermits gradually ceased to exist, but for a long time many devout Christians believed that to enjoy anything was almost a sin. This idea of suffering coloured the Christian mentality. There is not much of this in Europe today! Indeed, everybody there seems bent on rushing about madly and having what is called a good time. And the rushing about often ends in weariness and ennui and not in the good time.

  But in India we see sometimes even today people behaving to some extent as the Christian hermits did in Egypt. They hold up one arm till it dries up and atrophies, or sit on spikes, or do many other absurd and foolish things. Some do it, I suppose, just to impose on ignorant people and get money out of them, others perhaps because they feel that they become more holy thereby! As if it can ever be desirable to make your body unfit for any decent activity.

  I am reminded of a story of Buddha, for which again I go to our old friend Hiuen Tsang. A young disciple of his was doing penance. Buddha asked him: “You, dear youth, when living as a layman, did you know how to play the lute?” He said: “I knew.” “Well, then,” said Buddha, “I will draw a comparison derived from this. The cords being too tight, then the sounds were not in cadence; when they were too loose, then the sounds had neither harmony nor charm; but when not tight and not slack, then the sounds were harmonious. So also,” Buddha continued, “in regard to the body. If it is harshly treated, it becomes wearied and the mind is listless; if it is too softly treated, then the feelings are pampered and the will is weakened.”

  48

  The Coming of Islam

  May 21, 1932

  We have considered the history of many countries and the ups and downs of many kingdoms and empires. But Arabia has not yet come into our story, except as a country which sent out mariners and traders to distant parts of the world. Look at the map. To the west is Egypt; to the north Syria and Iraq, and a little to the east of this Persia or Iran; a little farther to the north-west are Asia Minor and Constantinople. Greece is not far; and India also is just across the sea on the other side. Except for China and the Far East, Arabia was very centrally situated so far as the old civilizations were concerned. Great cities rose on the Tigris and Euphrates in Iraq, Alexandria in Egypt, Damascus in Syria, Antioch in Asia Minor. The Arab was a traveller and a trader, and he must have gone to these cities frequently enough. But still Arabia plays no notable part in history. There does not seem to be as high a degree of civilization there as in neighbouring countries. It neither attempted to conquer other countries, nor was it easy to subdue it.

  Arabia is a desert country, and deserts and mountains breed hard people who love their freedom and are not easily subdued. It was not a rich country and there was little in it to attract foreign conquerors and imperialists. There were just two little towns—Mecca and Yethrib by the sea. For the rest there were dwellings in the desert, and the people of the country were largely Bedouins or Baddus—the “dwellers of the desert”. Their constant companions were their swift camels and their beautiful horses, and even the ass was a faithful friend valued for its remarkable powers of endurance. To be compared to the donkey or the ass was a compliment, and not a term of reproach, as in other countries. For life is hard in a desert country, and strength and endurance are even more precious qualities there than elsewhere.

  They were proud and sensitive, these men of the desert, and quarrelsome. They lived in their clans and their families and quarrelled with other clans and families. Once a year they made peace with each other and journeyed to Mecca on pilgrimage to their many gods whose images were kept there. Above all, they worshipped a huge black stone— the Kaaba.

  It was a nomadic and patriarchal life—the kind of life led by the primitive tribes in Central Asia or elsewhere, before they settled down to city life and civilization. The great empires which rose up round Arabia often included Arabia in their dominions, but this was more nominal than real. It was no easy matter to subdue or govern nomadic desert tribes.

  Once, as you may perhaps remember, a little Arab State rose in Palmyra in Syria, and it had its brief period of glory in the third century after Christ. But even this was outside Arabia proper. So the Bedouins lived their desert lives, generation after generation, and Arab ships went out to trade, and Arabia went on with little change. Some people became Christians and some became Jews but mostly they remained worshippers of the 360 idols and the Black Stone in Mecca.

  It is strange that this Arab race, which for long ages had lived a sleepy existence, apparently cut off from what was happening elsewhere, should suddenly wake up and show such tremendous energy as to startle and upset the world. The story of the Arabs, and of how they spread rapidly over Asia, Europe and Africa, and of the high culture and civilization which they developed, is one of the wonders of history.

  Islam was the new force or idea which woke up the Arabs and filled them with self-confidence and energy. This was a religion started by a new prophet, Mohammad, who was born in Mecca in 570 AC. He was in no hurry to start this religion. He lived a quiet life, liked and trusted by his fellow-citizens. Indeed, he was known as “Al-Amin”—the Trusty. But when he started preaching his new religion, and especially when he preached against the idols at Mecca, there was a loud outcry against him, and ultimately he was driven out of Mecca, barely escaping with his life. Above all he laid stress on the claim that there was only one God, and that he, Mohammad, was the Prophet of God.

  Driven away by his own people from Mecca, he sought refuge with some friends and helpers in Yethrib. This flight from Mecca is called the Hijrat in Arabic, and the Muslim calendar begins from this date—622 AC. This Hegira calendar is a lunar calendar—that is, it is calculated according to the moon. It is therefore five or six days shorter than the solar year which we usually observe, and the Hegira months do not stick to the same seasons of the year. Thus the same month may be in winter this year and in the middle of summer after some years.

  Islam may be said to begin with the flight—the Hijrat—in 622 AC, although in a sense it had begun a little earlier. The city of Yethrib welcomed Mohammad and, in honour of his coming the name of the city itself was changed to “Madinat-un-Nabi”—the city of the Prophet— or, just shortly, Madina, or Medina, as it is known now. The people of Medina who helped Mohammad were called Ansar—the helpers. Descendants of these “helpers” were proud of this title, and even to this day they use it.

  Before we start on Islam’s and the Arabs’ career of conquest, let us have one brief look around. We have just seen that Rome had collapsed. The old Graeco-Roman civilization had ended, and the whole social structure which it had built up had been upset. The northern European tribes and clans were now coming into some prominence. Trying to learn something from Rome, they were really building up an entirely new type of civilization. But this was just the beginning of it, and there was little of it visible. Thus the old had gone and the new had not taken its place; so there was darkness in Europe. At the eastern end of it, it is true, there was the Eastern Roman Em
pire, which still flourished. The city of Constantinople was even then a great and splendid city—the greatest in Europe. Games and circuses took place in its amphitheatres, and there was a great deal of pomp and show. But still the Empire was weakening. There were continuous wars with the Sassanids of Persia. Khusrau the Second of Persia had indeed taken away from Constantinople part of its dominions and even claimed a nominal overlordship over Arabia. Khusrau also conquered Egypt and went right up to Constantinople, but was then defeated by Heraclius the Greek Emperor there. Later, Khusrau was murdered by his own son, Kavadh.

  So you will notice that both Europe in the West and Persia in the East were in a bad way. Add to this the quarrels of the Christian sects, which had no end. A very corrupt and quarrelsome Christianity flourished in the West as well as in Africa. In Persia, the Zoroastrian religion was part of the State and was forced on the people. So the average person in Europe or Africa or Persia was disillusioned with the existing religion. Just about this time, early in the seventh century, great plagues swept all over Europe, killing millions of people.

  In India, Harsha-Vardhana ruled, and Hiuen Tsang paid his visit about this time. During Harsha’s reign India was a strong Power, but soon after, northern India grew divided and weak. Farther east, in China, the great Tang dynasty had just begun its career.

  In 627 AC Tai Tsung, one of their greatest emperors, came to the throne, and during his time the Chinese Empire extended right up to the Caspian Sea in the west. Most of the countries of Central Asia acknowledged his suzerainty and paid tribute to him. Probably there was no centralized government of the whole of this vast empire.

  This was the state of the Asiatic and European world when Islam was born. China was strong and powerful, but it was far; India was strong enough for a period at least, but we shall see that there was no conflict with India for a long time to come; Europe and Africa were weak and exhausted.

  Within seven years of the flight, Mohammad returned to Mecca as its master. Even before this he sent out from Medina a summons to the kings and rulers of the world to acknowledge the one God and his Prophet. Heraclius, the Constantinople Emperor, got it while he was still engaged in his campaign against the Persians in Syria; the Persian King got it; and it is said that even Tai Tsung got it in China. They must have wondered, these kings and rulers, who this unknown person was who dared to command them! From the sending of these messages we can form some idea of the supreme confidence in himself and his mission which Mohammad must have had. And this confidence and faith he managed to give to his people, and with this to inspire and console them, this desert people of no great consequence managed to conquer half the known world.

  Confidence and faith in themselves were a great thing. Islam also gave them a message of brotherhood—of the equality of all those who were Muslims. A measure of democracy was thus placed before the people. Compared to the corrupt Christianity of the day, this message of brotherhood must have had a great appeal, not only for the Arabs, but also for the inhabitants of many countries where they went.

  Mohammad died in 632 AC, ten years after the Hijrat. He had succeeded in making a nation out of the many warring tribes of Arabia and in firing them with enthusiasm for a cause. He was succeeded by Abu Bakr, a member of his family, as Khalifa or Caliph or chief. This succession used to be by a kind of informal election at a public meeting. Two years later Abu Bakr died, and was succeeded by Omar, who was Khalifa for ten years.

  Abu Bakr and Omar were great men who laid the foundation of Arabian and Islamic greatness. As Khalifas they were both religious heads and political chiefs—King and Pope in one. In spite of their high position and the growing power of their State, they stuck to the simplicity of their ways and refused to countenance luxury and pomp. The democracy of Islam was a living thing for them. But their own officers and emirs took to silks and luxury soon enough, and many stories are told of Abu Bakr and Omar rebuking and punishing these officers, and even weeping at this extravagance. They felt that their strength lay in their simple and hard living, and that if they took to the luxury of the Persian or Constantinople Courts, the Arabs would be corrupted and would fall.

  Even in these short dozen years, during which Abu Bakr and Omar ruled, the Arabs defeated both the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sassanid King of Persia. Jerusalem, the holy city of the Jews and Christians, was occupied by the Arabs, and the whole of Syria and Iraq and Persia became part of the new Arabian Empire.

  49

  The Arabs Conquer from Spain to Mongolia

  May 23, 1932

  Like the founders of some other religions, Mohammad was a rebel against many of the existing social customs. The religion he preached, by its simplicity and directness and its flavour of democracy and equality, appealed to the masses in the neighbouring countries who had been ground down long enough by autocratic kings and equally autocratic and domineering priests. They were tired of the old order and were ripe for a change. Islam offered them this change, and it was a welcome change, for it bettered them in many ways and put an end to many old abuses. Islam did not bring any great social revolution in its train which might have put an end to a large extent to the exploitation of the masses. But it did lessen this exploitation so far as the Muslims were concerned, and made them feel that they belonged to one great brotherhood.

  So the Arabs marched from conquest to conquest. Often enough they won without fighting. Within twenty-five years of the death of their Prophet, the Arabs conquered the whole of Persia and Syria and Armenia and a bit of Central Asia on the one side; and Egypt and a bit of northern Africa on the west. Egypt had fallen to them with the greatest ease, as Egypt had suffered most from the exploitation of the Roman Empire and from the rivalry of Christian sects. There is a story that the Arabs burnt the famous library of Alexandria, but this is now believed to be false. The Arabs were too fond of books to behave in this barbarous manner. It is probable, however, that the Emperor Theodosius of Constantinople, about whom I have told you something already, was guilty of this destruction, or part of it. A part of the library had been destroyed long before, during a siege at the time of Julius Caesar. Theodosius did not approve of old pagan Greek books dealing with the old Greek mythologies and philosophies. He was much too devout a Christian. It is said that he used these books as fuel with which to heat his baths.

  The Arabs went on advancing both in the East and the West. In the east, Herat and Kabul and Balkh fell, and they reached the Indus river and Sindh. But beyond this they did not go into India, and for several hundred years their relations with the Indian rulers were of the friendliest. In the West they marched on and on. It is said that their general Okba went right across northern Africa till he reached the Atlantic Ocean, on the western coast of what is now known as Morocco. He was rather disappointed at this obstacle, and he rode as far as he could into the sea and then expressed his sorrow to the Almighty that there was no more land in that direction for him to conquer in His name!

  From Morocco and Africa, the Arabs crossed the narrow sea into Spain and Europe—the Pillars of Hercules, as these narrow straits were called by the old Greeks. The Arab general who crossed into Europe landed at Gibraltar, and this name itself is a reminder of him. His name was Tariq, and Gibraltar is really Jabal-ut-Tariq, the rock of Tariq.

  Spain was conquered rapidly, and the Arabs then poured into southern France. So, in about 100 years from the death of Mohammad, the Arab Empire spread from the south of France and Spain right across northern Africa to Suez, and across Arabia and Persia and Central Asia to the borders of Mongolia. India was out of it except for Sindh. Europe was being attacked by the Arabs from two sides—directly at Constantinople, and in France, via Africa. The Arabs in the south of France were small in numbers and they were very far from their homeland. Thus they could not get much help from Arabia, which was busy then conquering Central Asia. But still these Arabs in France frightened the people of western Europe, and a great coalition was formed to fight them. Charles Martel was the leader
of this coalition and in 732 AC he defeated them at the battle of Tours in France. This defeat saved Europe from the Arabs. “On the plains of Tours,” a historian has said, “the Arabs lost the empire of the world when almost in their grasp.” There can be no doubt that if the Arabs had won at Tours, European history would have been tremendously changed. There was no one else to stop them in Europe and they could have marched right across to Constantinople and put an end to the Eastern Roman Empire and the other States on the way. Instead of Christianity, Islam would then have become the religion of Europe, and all manner of other changes might have taken place. But this is just a flight of imagination. As it happened, the Arabs were stopped in France. For many hundreds of years afterwards, however, they remained and ruled in Spain.

  The Arabs Conquer

  From Spain to Mongolia the Arabs triumphed, and these nomads from the deserts became the proud rulers of a mighty empire. Saracens they were called, perhaps from Sahra and nashin—the dwellers of the desert. But the dwellers of the desert took soon enough to luxury and city life, and palaces grew up in their cities. In spite of their triumphs in distant countries, they could not get rid of their old habit of quarrelling amongst themselves. Of course, there was something worth quarrelling about now, for the headship of Arabia meant the control of a great empire. So there were frequent quarrels for the place of the Khalifa. There were petty quarrels, family quarrels, leading to civil war. These quarrels resulted in a big division in Islam and two sects were formed— the Sunnis and Shiahs—which still exist.