Contents
I. Ancient,
Christian, and Muslim historiographers
II. Oversights and errors
attested in the existing bibliography
A. 'Battle techniques'
B. 'Two great empires
exhausted and weakened'
----------
EXCURSE I: HISTORICAL FOCUS ----------------
Borders, fronts,
rebellions, divisions and fights
1- Post-conquest
Iran
2- Eastern Roman
Empire
3- Upper Egypt and
the Sudan (: historical Ethiopia)
4- Internal
conflicts transported from Hejaz to Syria and Mesopotamia
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
C. 'History of states'
and not of peoples and cultures
D. Poor
conceptualization of the early Islamic conquests by modern scholars
------ EXCURSE
II: ETHNO-LINGUISTIC & RELIGIOUS FOCUS ---------
Ethno-linguistic
groups
Religious groups
i- the Christian
Aramaeans of the Syriac Orthodox Church (Monophysites)
ii- the Christian
Aramaeans of the Great Church of the East (Nestorians)
iii- the Gnostic
Aramaeans
iv- the Manichaean
Aramaeans
v- the Copts
(Monophysitic Christian Egyptians)
vi- the
(Aramaic-speaking) Jews, followers of Rabbinical Judaism
vii- the Persians and
other Iranians followers of various Iranian religions
viii- the Eastern Roman
Orthodox Christians, who sided with the Patriarchate of Constantinople
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E. The demographic
structure of the eastern provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire and of the
Western Iranian provinces: the Aramaeans
F. The central
provinces of the Islamic Caliphates: the lands of the Aramaeans.
G. Lack of historical
criticism in Islamic Studies and Interdisciplinary Studies
III. The astounding
scarcity of contemporaneous sources
IV. Critical
incidents during the Battle of Yarmouk
V. The true
dimensions of the Battle of Yarmouk and of its outcome
The battle that led to
the withdrawal of the Eastern Romans ('Rum' – therefore not 'Greeks') from
Syria, Palestine, and North Mesopotamia has been the object of numerous
studies, essays, chapters of books, and treatises. Modern Orientalist historiographers
distorted and/or concealed the historical realities that determined the fact.
They impacted their writings with unnecessary astonishment, unsolicited
admiration, bizarre bewilderment, and at times childishly subjective
descriptions. It is as if they are either blind or predetermined to disorient
readers from the historical truth. It is most unfortunate that this situation
prevails, despite numerous military experts delving into historical texts, many
philologists scrutinizing posterior sources, and several historians publishing
the corpus of the textual evidence as regards the event.
The confusion of the
average reader and learner is completed with the modern, definitely
unscholarly, Islamist pamphleteering as per which 'the faith in the only true
God' gave the victory to the less-experienced, numerically inferior, and surely
ill-equipped and poorly armed (if compared with the Eastern Romans) Muslim
armies. I will not expand on this nonsense, because it would only prove that all
victors and conquerors were true believers and all the defeated armies belonged
to disbelievers – which is absurd.
I. Ancient,
Christian, and Muslim historiographers
At this point, I have
to highlight that, when it comes to the attitude toward History and
historiography, there is a deep chasm between our modern world (after 1500) and
past generations that lived in the Antiquity or during the Christian and
Islamic times. The modern theories that History can 'teach' and that, by
studying History, one can avoid past mistakes did not exist before the modern
world; these theories are wrong, insane, inhuman and disastrous.
'History' does not
'teach', and not one Muslim, Christian, Manichaean, Gnostic, Zoroastrian,
Babylonian or Egyptian ever thought or expected that History could possibly
'teach' him anything. In their perception of the world, there was clarity
whereas modern minds are terribly confused about a critical issue: recording
facts (historiography) is not History. History is what happened. No one can
reconstitute it in its entirety, except by living in the past and being present
in the events.
Historiography, i.e.
simple recording of facts, did indeed happen for more than five millennia, but
not for the purpose of 'teaching' or being 'taught'. This reality determined
all ancient historical records, be they Ancient Egyptian Annals, Babylonian
Chronicles, Assyrian Annals, Greek and Roman history writing, Christian and
Muslim Chronography or other. And for the purpose of objectivity, in most of
the cases, the authors eliminated their personal views and considerations; and
this is quite normal, as we all understand that a fact is always a fact per se,
irrespective of the author's (or narrator's or historian's) personal favor
and/or understanding.
For the above reasons, serious,
decent and valuable ancient authors did not include in their narratives what
was evident to all: the historical context. Contextualization would be
tantamount to self-devaluation for an historian like Tabari or Theophanes or the
anonymous, 7th c. CE, Aramaean author of the Syriac Chronicle of Kirkuk, which
is mainly known as 'History of Karka de Beth Selok'. About:
https://syriaca.org/place/108
https://iranicaonline.org/articles/bet-selok
http://www.csc.org.il/db/browse.aspx?db=sb&sL=H&sK=History%20of%20Karka%20de%20Beth%20Selok&sT=keywords
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Karka
(Throughout the present
article links to the Wikipedia are included only for further research and
access to historical sources and bibliography – not for the contents of the
entries that are often impertinent and biased and the ensuing conclusions
misplaced)
Saint Sophia: the Eastern Roman Empire’s greatest cathedral was not a holy shrine for the Monophysitic and Nestorian Aramaeans and the Copts (Egyptians), because they viewed the Patriarchate of Constantinople as heretic. This played an enormous role and impacted the historical developments back in the 630s.
II.
Oversights and errors attested in the existing bibliography
Contrarily to Ancient,
Christian and Muslim authors and people, who did not expect 'History' (but
their holy books) to teach them the correct path in life and who did not repeat
past mistakes by delving into moral depths (and not into useless historical
manuals), we need extensive contextualization to accurately perceive and
correctly understand epochs that totally differed from ours. This is what is
terribly missing from the studies of almost all the scholars who were interested
in the Battle of Yarmouk.
Yarmouk battlefield in Jordan today
A. 'Battle
techniques'
Many scholars focused
on the battle techniques of Khalid ibn al-Walid (592-642 CE). But however successful
these techniques may have been, military dexterity does not explain why the
bulk of the indigenous populations of the eastern provinces (North Mesopotamia,
Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Cyrenaica) of the Eastern Roman Empire did not
rebel against the early Muslim rule. The battle of Yarmouk may have been won by
the Muslims, but 10 or 20 years later a violent local rebellion could have
eventually terminated the foreign rule. But this did not happen.
Typical samples of
worthless bibliography and lectures:
https://ospreypublishing.com/yarmuk-ad-636-pb?___store=osprey_rst
https://networks.h-net.org/node/73374/announcements/182545/battle-yarmuk-636-ce-rethinking-%E2%80%98conquest%E2%80%99-late-antique-near
https://online.ucpress.edu/SLA/article-abstract/5/2/241/117317/The-Battle-of-Yarmouk-a-Bridge-of-Boats-and?redirectedFrom=fulltext
This type of diagrams can never explain historical processes; it is therefore wrong, confusing and disorienting.
B. 'Two
great empires exhausted and weakened'
Several authors explained
the early Islamic victories by referring to the exhaustion of the then known
world's two greatest empires, namely the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sassanid
Empire of Iran. This is correct and true, but still it does not help us
understand why the outright majority of populations of the western provinces of
Iran and the eastern provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire did not rebel
against the foreign invaders in the first 2-3 decades of Islamic rule. However,
this fantasy is reproduced even in serious UNESCO documentation on the Silk
Road:
https://fr.unesco.org/silkroad/sites/default/files/knowledge-bank-article/vol_III%20silk%20road_the%20arab%20conquest.pdf
The Sassanid Empire of Iran and the Eastern Roman Empire at the time prophet Muhammad was born
----------
EXCURSE I: HISTORICAL FOCUS ----------------
Borders,
fronts, rebellions, divisions and fights
In this regard, it is
noteworthy to point out a quadruple phenomenon that took place in the first
decades of Islamic rule in the Caliphate's central provinces:
1-
Post-conquest Iran
The first rebellions
against the new rule started early in Iran, but they occurred in remote
provinces (Gilan, Mazandaran, Azerbaijan) that were inhabited by nations other
than those living in the former western provinces of Iran. In any case, both
great empires, the Eastern Romans and the Iranians, were multi-ethnic imperial
structures.
2-
Eastern Roman Empire
The first line of
Eastern Roman defense against the Islamic Caliphate was created alongside the
Taurus and Anti-Taurus mountains, whereas the upper flow of Euphrates became
the border between the two empires. This is the location where the formidable
Akritai appeared to fight and stop every advance of the Omayyad or Abbasid
armies to the West, apparently coordinating with the Islamic opposition to the
pseudo-Islamic rule of the caliphs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akritai
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digenes_Akritas
3-
Upper Egypt and the Sudan (: historical Ethiopia)
Upper Egypt totally
escaped the Islamic rule, as Nobatia was incepted as Christian Coptic kingdom
with capital at Faras (almost on the present Egyptian-Sudanese borderline). The
Islamic rule in Masr (Egypt) did not exceed beyond the region between Al Minya
and Assiut (ca. 350 km south of Cairo), and while Seville, Cordova, Sicily,
Crete, Samarqand and the Delta of Indus belonged to the Islamic Caliphate,
Coptic monasticism flourished in Thebes of Egypt (today's Luxor; from Al Uqsur,
'the military camps') where all ancient Egyptian temples and antiquities,
notably Deir al Bahri and Deir al Madina, had become monastic cells. Two other
Christian Sudanese kingdoms rose further in the South: Makuria and Alodia,
limiting the Islamic presence in Eastern Africa to the Red Sea coastland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobatia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makuria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alodia
4-
Internal conflicts transported from Hejaz to Syria and Mesopotamia
The only conflicts that
took place in the early Islamic Caliphate's central provinces (i.e. the lands
that belong today to Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, SE Turkey, Iraq, SW
Iran, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar and the northern parts of Saudi Arabia) were those
related to the 'new' faith, prophet Muhammad's preaching, and the
interpretation of this faith's prescriptions as regards the governance of the
state. This means, in other words, that the Arabs of Hejaz, brought with them
to Syria-Mesopotamia the deep divisions that characterized their society
(acceptance, rejection and/or distortion of prophet Muhammad's religious
revelation) even before prophet Muhammad's death (632 CE). These divisions were
ferocious and the bloodshed tarnished irrevocably the History of Islam, although
it really paled if compared with the bloodshed caused after the official
imposition of Constantinopolitan-Roman Christianity as the sole religion
throughout the Roman Empire. And the early converts from the newly occupied lands
that earlier belonged to the Eastern Romans and to the Sassanid Iranians
vividly participated in these divisions, debates, polarizations, conflicts and
civil wars.
This quadruple
phenomenon was never studied per se until now, and to duly investigate it one
needs to delve in the ethnic and religious/theological conflicts that took
place in the two great empires (the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sassanid
Empire of Iran) for about 300-400 years before the Battle of Yarmouk. This
clearly demonstrates that not one specialist of the Early Islamic History can
be taken seriously without the knowledge of at least two among the following
languages and religious/literary traditions: Coptic, Syriac Aramaic, Middle
Persian, Medieval 'Greek' ('Roman': the official language of the Eastern Roman
Empire), Manichaean, and Jewish Babylonian Aramaic (: the language of
Rabbinical Judaism).
------------------------------------------------------
C. 'History
of states' and not of peoples and cultures
Numerous authors write
on the topic, while focusing on State History (Eastern Roman, Sassanid Iranian,
Omayyad and Abbasid Islamic); this is one way ticket to misperception, misunderstanding,
and distortion. States are not representative of subject nations and peoples,
but of ruling elites and their doctrines; in their effort to secure their
interests, states destroy all historical, literary, religious or theological
documentation that would challenge them. States are to some extent the reason
for the scarcity of documentation that characterizes the 7th and the 8th
centuries CE (or, to put it otherwise, the first 100-150 years AH/anno
Hegirae).
D. Poor
conceptualization of the early Islamic conquests by modern scholars
Most researchers failed
to contextualize the early Islamic conquests, because they were unable to
properly conceptualize the historical developments in the first place. Battles
are undertaken by social groups or eventually states, but socio-cultural
processes and historical developments are generated by peoples and nations. So,
the proper manner to approach the topic is to view it as an affair of various
nations and ethno-linguistic and religious groups that lived in the wider
region between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, from the Taurus Mountains
to the Indus River Delta, and in-between the Nile and Syr-Darya (Iaxartes
River) in Central Asia.
-
EXCURSE II: ETHNO-LINGUISTIC & RELIGIOUS FOCUS -
In this regard, it is
essential to conclude from the aforementioned that the only pertinent manner to
tackle the topic is via interdisciplinary studies. Until now, no effort was
displayed in this direction; and yet, there can be many combinations of interdisciplinary
studies applying to this case.
Ethno-linguistic
groups
During the 6th–7th c.
CE, the main nations which lived in the lands that, after the Islamic
conquests, became the central provinces of the Islamic Caliphate were:
i- the Aramaeans,
ii- the Copts,
iii- the Persians and
other Iranians, who manned the imperial administration at Tesiphun (Ctesiphon)
and controlled the Iranian military outposts,
iv- the
(Aramaic-speaking) Jews, and
v- the Eastern Romans,
who were organized in small communities living in the major cities of the
eastern provinces of the empire, notably around the Chalcedonian patriarchates
of Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria.
This means that at
those days the outright majority of the populations living in lands belonging
to today's SE Turkey, Syria, Iraq, SW Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Kuwait,
Qatar, UAE and the North of Saudi Arabia were Aramaeans.
And the outright
majority of the populations living in the Nile Valley were Copts.
Religious
groups
When it comes to
ethno-religious and linguistic groups existing at those days (6th–7th c. CE) in
the aforementioned region, we enumerate the following:
i- the Christian Aramaeans
of the Syriac Orthodox Church (Monophysites) Although entirely
anti-Constantinopolitan, the Christian Aramaeans were divided into Miaphysitic
(Monophysitic) anti-Chalcedonian Christians and Nestorian anti-Ephesine
Christians (see below no ii).
https://syriacpatriarchate.org/
http://www.jacobitesyrianchurch.org/
https://gedsh.bethmardutho.org/Malankara-Syriac-Orthodox-Church
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syriac_Orthodox_Church
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalcedonian_Christianity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Chalcedonian_Christianity
Christian Aramaeans of
the Syriac Orthodox Church (Monophysites) formed the outright majority of the populations
living in the Eastern Roman provinces of Syria, North Mesopotamia, and
Palestine.
The term Monophysitic
(Monophysitism/Monophysites) being quite pejorative, it is currently replaced
by Miaphysitic (Miaphysitism/Miaphysites). The most common appellation of the
church is Jacobite, after St. Jacob Baradaeus (also known as Jacob bar Addai).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Baradaeus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monophysitism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miaphysitism
Deir Zafaran (also known as Mor Hananyo) Monastery, near Mardin (SE Turkey): a high place of Syriac Jacobite (Miaphysitic/Monophysitic) Christianity
It is also necessary to
underscore that the noun/adjective 'Syriac' is totally unrelated to the land of
Syria (in such case the adjective is 'Syrian'), but denotes a late phase of
Aramaic that survived down to our days, being one of the main liturgical
languages in the History of Christianity. Syriac alphabet derived from Aramaic
alphabet (in the 1st c. CE) and, similarly, Arabic alphabet derived (in the 4th
c. CE) from Nabataean Aramaic alphabet; Aramaic and Hebrew were the two
original languages in which the Old Testament was written.
https://www.syriaca.org/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syriac_alphabet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syriac_language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syriac_literature
Syriac Aramaic in Estrangelo writing
Monophysitic Aramaeans
were essential for the formation and the diffusion of historical Islam. Their
overwhelming rejection of the Constantinopolitan theology and of the anti-Aramaean
policies of the Eastern Roman Empire totally alienated the Aramaeans from the authorities
that ruled them. For Monophysitic Aramaeans, the Eastern Roman Empire was ruled
by heretics. And as the illustrious Aramaean theologian, historian and erudite
scholar Tatian (112-185 CE) demonstrated in his magnificent opus Oratio ad Graecos
(Address to the Greeks), the enormous cultural gap between Aramaeans and Greeks
played a considerable role in the destabilization of the eastern provinces of
the Roman Empire (and subsequently of the Eastern Roman Empire), because the
Constantinopolitan authorities cooperated basically with the Greek-speaking
minority.
The determinant role
played by the Monophysitic Aramaeans in the formation and the diffusion of
historical Islam is highlighted by the case of Sergius Bahira, the Syriac
Jacobite (Monophysitic) monk, who encountered prophet Muhammad in young age,
when he accompanied his uncle Abi Taleb ibn Abd el Muttalib to Syria and other
provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahira
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_Christian_views_on_Muhammad#Early_Middle_Ages
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Talib_ibn_Abd_al-Muttalib
ii- the Christian
Aramaeans of the Great Church of the East (Nestorians)
These Aramaeans
followed Nestorius in his doctrine that was a radical form of what is called
Diophysitism (belief in two natures/hypostases of Jesus); they are called
Nestorians, although the term is not regarded as correct (being tantamount to
calling the Muslims 'Muhammedans'). Nestorians rejected the Council of Ephesus
(431 CE), pretty much like the Monophysites/Miaphysites rejected the Council of
Chalcedon (451 CE).
https://www.assyrianchurch.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrian_Church_of_the_East
https://saint-adday.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaldean_Catholic_Church
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_East
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyophysitism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestorianism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Ephesus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Chalcedon
Christian Aramaeans of
the Great Church of the East (Nestorians) formed the outright majority of the
Sassanid Iranian provinces of Central and South Mesopotamia, South
Transtigritane, and Arabia, namely Huzistan, Meshan, Asurestan, Nodshiragan
(Adiabene), and Arabestan.
Nestorian Aramaeans
were essential in the formation and diffusion of historical Islam. Their
staggering rejection of both, Constantinopolitan Christianity and Sassanid
Mazdeism (the official Iranian imperial religious dogma that consisted only in
a later form of the Achaemenid Zoroastrianism), was highly determinant for the
early success of the caliphs. At this early point, I only state the well-known
(but not deeply understood) fact that, for ca. 180 years before the arrival of
the Islamic armies in Syria, Palestine and Mesopotamia, the Nestorians called
Virgin Mary 'Mother of Christ' and not 'Mother of god', in striking opposition
to the Constantinopolitan theologians, monks and courtiers. In this manner,
Nestorian Aramaeans proved to be the real precursors of prophet Muhammad and
his teachings. As a matter of fact, at the beginning of the 7th c. CE, the
Nestorians were closer to the early Quranic text, which may have reached them
through hearsay (before the early Islamic armies), than to the Nicene Creed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicene_Creed
Constantinopolitan
theology and the anti-Aramaean religious and economic policies of the empire
totally alienated the Aramaeans from the ruling authorities. Even worse, in
Iran, the Nestorian Aramaeans were persecuted in definitely crueler manner than
the Monophysitic Aramaeans were in the Eastern Roman Empire. And the ceaseless
Eastern Roman – Sassanid Iranian wars devastated -more than any other
territories- the lands inhabited by the Aramaeans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman%E2%80%93Persian_Wars#Byzantine%E2%80%93Sasanian_wars
iii- the Gnostic
Aramaeans
Their surviving remnants
are nowadays the Mandaeans. There are about 100000 Mandaean Aramaeans
worldwide, but due to the ongoing persecution and oppression, most of them live
currently in the Diaspora, and not in their historical land, i.e. Central and
South Mesopotamia (Iraq) and South Transtigritane (SW Iran).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandaeans
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandaeism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandaic_language
http://www.mandaeanunion.org/
Gnostic Aramaeans were
essential in the formation and diffusion of historical Islam. Their participation
in Muslim spiritual life is at the origin of the formation of groups like the
legendary Ikhwan Safa, whose rituals have been later reproduced by numerous
Islamic mystics, spiritualists, occultists and scholars from the Qarmatians and
the Isma'ilis to all types of Batiniyya ('esoterism') wise elders and great spiritual
scientists, like Muhammad al Fazari, Al Ghazali, Abu 'l Qassim ibn al Saffar,
Maslam al Majriti, and Muhyieldin ibn Arabi.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brethren_of_Purity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qarmatians
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isma%27ilism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batiniyya
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batin_(Islam)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu%E1%B8%A5ammad_ibn_Ibr%C4%81h%C4%ABm_al-Faz%C4%81r%C4%AB
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ghazali
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslama_al-Majriti
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_al-Saffar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Arabi
Even the communication
manners and literary style of the Ikhwan Safa's treatises and manuals appear to
be Gnostic in their essence. What is nowadays erroneously called 'Encyclopedia
of the Brethren of Purity', which is in fact the compendium of their wisdom,
consists of letters or 'messages' (رسائل), being thus a reminiscence of the typically
Gnostic manner of sharing knowledge, wisdom and spiritual practices.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_of_the_Brethren_of_Purity
iv- the Manichaean
Aramaeans
The religion composed,
proclaimed and propagated by Mani was displayed in 242 CE in front of the
formidable Sassanid shah Shapur I to whom the prophet of Manichaeism dedicated
one of his books, titled Shabuhragan. Shapur I did not adhere to the new
religion, but he realized its imperial importance for the Sassanid state and supported
the young prophet (born in 216 CE) in his mission. It is not wrong to consider
Manichaeism technically as a type of Gnosticism, but it was indeed a Gnostic
system apart from the rest.
Aramaeans, Persians,
Iranians, Sogdians, Turanians, Mongolians, Indians, Chinese, Egyptians, Romans,
Armenians and many other nations wholeheartedly accepted Manichaeism, which was
the first religion in the world to have adepts from the Atlantic to the
Pacific. The last Manicheans performed their rites in China's eastern coastland
before 150-100 years. Following the rise of Mazdeism (a later form of Iranian
Zoroastrianism) and the prevalence of Kartir among the Sassanid courtiers,
Manichaeism was persecuted and Mani was tortured to death, but the diffusion of
Manichaeism was not impacted; quite on the contrary! Mani's faith spread and many
Manichaean communities existed at the times of the Islamic conquest in both,
the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sassanid Empire of Iran. Aramaean Manichaean
communities in Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine greatly impacted Islam in many
dimensions.
Almost 400 years before
prophet Muhammad postured to be the last of the prophets, the prophet of
Manichaeism claimed to be the 'seal of the prophets'. Manichaean hierarchy
seems to have been diffused among many Muslim esoteric spiritual orders. Some
of the greatest historians and chronographers of Islamic times, like Tabari, al
Biruni, and al Nadim, expanded on Mani and the Manicheans. The five prayers
that a Muslim must perform daily seem to have been a compromise between the
four daily prayers of the Manichaean 'hearers' (laymen) and the seven daily
prayers of the elects (ecclesiastical hierarchy). Prophet Muhammad's
discussions with earlier prophets, during the Isra and Mi'raj nocturnal voyage
to the Celestial Jerusalem, seem to exactly reflect similar considerations.
Furthermore, the ablutions before the prayer appear to be a repetition of
Manichaean practices. In addition, the Ebionite and Elcesaite impact on Manicheans
seems therefore to have been passed on to the Muslims.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isra_and_Mi%27raj
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Isra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_prophet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebionites#Judaism,_Gnosticism_and_Essenism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcesaites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mani_(prophet)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabuhragan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartir
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manichaeism
The religion of Mani
may have by now gone extinct, but its impact on Islam was tremendous. Many scholars
tried to retrace fundamental concepts of Islam to the beliefs of several Jewish
or Christian groups and notably the Nazarenes, but it would make more sense to closely
examine how some of Mani's innovative concepts found their way into prophet
Muhammad's cardinal tenets and world conceptualization.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazarene_(sect)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_the_Nazarenes
Although Christianity
accepted the Ancient Hebrew prophets as such, Islam is characterized by a
definitely different approach, as it makes of Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham,
Isma'il, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, David and Solomon prophets as well (also
extending the status of prophet to John the Baptist and Jesus). Furthermore, it
is noticeable that Islam's position on prophethood is flexible enough to
encompass other historical figures or outstanding persons not directly known to
the small Meccan community of the times of Muhammad ibn Abdullah. However, this
fresh approach to World History, which is a novelty for Christianity and
Judaism, was absolutely Manichaean or origin. Mani first introduced the concept
by accepting Zoroaster, Buddha and Jesus as earlier prophets and by thus giving
to his religious system a universal-imperial dimension that was badly needed
for a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-religious empire.
Manichaean Aramaeans
were systematically persecuted in both, the Eastern Roman Empire and the
Sassanid Empire of Iran; it was therefore quite normal for them to support the
replacement of the double yoke with an Arab state and administration that they
would be able to fully staff and operate (along with other Aramaeans who were
followers of other religions, notably Christianity), taking into consideration
the fact that the uneducated, uncultured and primitive Arabs of Hejaz, who had
never formed any kind of proper state, would be definitely and absolutely
unable to face such a challenge.
In the early Islamic
times, there have been many notable Manichaean scholars, who prospered in the
Islamic Caliphate; as Abbasid Baghdad became a center for either Manicheans or
Manichaean converts to Islam, many Manicheans of other origin flocked there to
contribute to the illustrious Beit al Hikmah (بيت الحكمة/House of the Wisdom) university, library, archival organization,
academic center of translations, research center, botanical garden, and observatory.
Abu Hilal al-Dayhuri, a Berber from Maghreb, was one of them. On the other
hand, elements of the criticism that Abu Isa al Warraq addressed to Islam and to
prophet Muhammad seem to be Manichaean of nature.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ab%C5%AB_Hil%C4%81l_al-Dayh%C5%ABri
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Isa_al-Warraq
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Wisdom
However, one must admit
that, despite similarities, loans and impact, Islam and Manichaeism soon became
rival systems and most of the Islamic erudite scholars portrayed Mani in a
rather negative manner. This approach made of Muslims the major opponents of
the Manicheans, after the Christians and the Jews; but this situation is
attested in rather later periods (9th–10th c.). However, this is not quite
strange, if we take into consideration the fact that the Old Testament god
Yahweh was portrayed as the Demiurge (i.e. the Satan) by Mani.
v- the Copts
(Monophysitic Christian Egyptians)
As close allies of the
Monophysitic Aramaeans (see above unit i-), they were ferocious enemies of the
oppressive Constantinopolitan administrative hierarchy and Patriarchate.
Similarly with the Monophysitic Aramaeans, who belonged to the Syriac Orthodox
Patriarchate of Antioch and rejected the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch
(which sided with Constantinople), the Monophysitic Copts followed the Coptic
Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and rejected the Greek Orthodox
Patriarchate of Alexandria.
Similarly with what
happened in North Mesopotamia, Syria and Palestine where the followers of the Constantinopolitan
doctrine-related patriarchates (in Antioch and Jerusalem) were not numerous, as
they constituted the Greek-speaking minority of those regions, in Egypt, the
followers of the Constantinopolitan doctrine-related patriarchate (in
Alexandria) were few, and they constituted the Greek-speaking minority of
Egypt.
This leads to a
detrimental conclusion as regards the Eastern Roman Empire and its chances to
maintain control across its eastern provinces, namely North Mesopotamia, Syria,
Palestine, Egypt and Cyrenaica; both, the Constantinopolitan authorities and
their local stooges were loathed and reviled by the outright majority of the
local populations that would certainly do all that it took to get rid of the heretical
rulers at Constantinople. All they needed was an opportunity, and prophet
Muhammad's preaching in Hejaz was apparently more important for them (as a
tool) than to Arabs (as a faith).
vi- the
(Aramaic-speaking) Jews, followers of Rabbinical Judaism
After the destruction
of Jerusalem (70 CE) and the failure of the Bar Kokhba (136 CE) rebellion, the
Sadducees, the Essenes and the Zealots did not have a chance to survive as
religious-spiritual-intellectual systems among the Judaic Jews. Ever since, Judaism
has revolved around the Pharisees, who thus formed what is now known as
'Rabbinical Judaism'. As Ancient Hebrew was already a dead language, all Jews
were already speaking Aramaic. Expelled from Aelia Capitolina (former
Jerusalem), Jews could stay in Palestine or preferably settle in Arsacid (and
after 224 CE, Sassanid) Iranian Mesopotamia.
They then (and over
several centuries) elaborated a new religious book that marks a clear line of
separation between their ancestors' religion (Ancient Hebrew religion based
exclusively on the Old Testament) and their new religion; this book is the
Talmud, which is the product of the criminal priests who never repented for
having killed the ancient prophets of Israel. Today, most scholars hide the
critical fact that Judaism (i.e. Rabbinical Judaism or Talmudic Judaism) is
totally different from and diametrically opposed to the Ancient Hebrew
religion. As priestly literature and theological exegesis, the two different
Talmud collections, namely the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalemite Talmud,
were written in Aramaic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmud
Contrarily to the
Judaic Jews, who were marked by the composition and the diffusion of the Talmud
among them, the Aramaean Jews in their totality turned to Early Christianity;
this concerns the Samaritans of the time of Jesus and many other Aramaean
Jewish communities that prospered in Syria and Mesopotamia, notably in Dura
Europos where the Synagogue fully reveals the impetus and the magnificence of
Aramaean Art. By the time of prophet Muhammad there was no Aramaean Jew.
Although late 6th c.
and early 7th c. CE Jews wholeheartedly supported the Sassanid Iranians in
their wars against the Eastern Roman Empire (in striking contrast with the
early Muslims of the period 610-628/629, who clearly regretted the early
Iranian advance and conquests, and later rejoiced with the final Eastern Roman
victories) and in spite of many unfortunate incidents that occurred between the
early Muslims and the Hejaz Jews (during prophet Muhammad's lifetime), the early
(634-651 CE) Islamic conquests were enthusiastically accepted by the Jews of
the wider region, who found their ally and protector in the ominous figure of
Omar ibn al Khattab, as he allowed them to enter Jerusalem, no less than 568
years after they were kicked out of there by the Romans. Jews actively
supported the early Islamic Caliphates, notably the Umayyad state of Damascus,
the Abbasid Empire of Baghdad, and the Umayyad caliphs of Córdoba (Andalus).
vii- the Persians
and other Iranians followers of various Iranian religions
Being only one of the
Sassanid Empire's nations, the Persians lived in the province of Fars, which in
Ancient Greek was translated as Persia; there cannot be confusion between
'Persian' and 'Iranian'. Persians were/are only one of the Iranian nations.
https://www.academia.edu/43365931/Iran_is_not_Persia_and_Persia_is_not_Iran
The Persians controlled
the administrative machine of the Iranian Empire during the Achaemenid times
(550-330 BCE) and during the Sassanid times (224-651 CE), whereas the
Parthians, another Iranian nation of Turanian origin, controlled the
administrative machine of the empire during the Arsacid times (250 BCE-224 CE).
The Iranian Empire had
always many imperial capitals, notably Pasargadae, Persepolis, Susa, Babylon,
Ecbatana, Nisa (Mithradatkirt/Parthaunisa), Qumis (Hecatompylos), Ray (Ragae), Tesifun
(Ctesiphon), and Istakhr; on the other hand, Praaspa (Adur Gushnasp/Takht-e
Suleyman), at an elevation of 3000 m, in the northern part of Zagros Mountains,
was permanently the Zoroastrian religious capital of the empire.
In the Mesopotamian
provinces of the Sassanid Empire of Iran, there were few and rather small
Persian communities; in these western provinces of Iran were also settled
people originating from other Iranian nations that were indigenous in the
central, eastern and northern provinces of the empire. They were dispatched to
the imperial administration at Ctesiphon and they served in the army. But they
were a minority among the indigenous Aramaeans of Central and Southern
Mesopotamia, Transtigritane, and the Persian Gulf's southern coastlands.
This reality has not
been either assessed or revealed by any type of specialists who studied and
wrote about the topic of the early Islamic conquests. Yet, it is uniquely
determinant and utterly explanatory. It changes drastically our scholarly
approach to the topic (see below unit E).
Another critical
dimension that impacted greatly the fate of the Sassanid Empire of Iran was its
religious multi-division. If we leave the Nestorian Aramaeans, the Gnostic
Aramaeans, the Manichaean Aramaeans, other Manichaean Iranians (notably the
Sogdians), and the Aramaic-speaking Jews aside, the Persians and the other
Iranian nations of the Sassanid Empire were spiritually and religiously
divided. Among them, there were adepts of the following religious systems:
1- Mazdeism: the
imperial religion and Zoroastrian doctrine established by Kartir;
2- Mithraism: the
popular religion that made of Mithra a god of polytheistic features;
3- Zurvanism: Mithra
broke away from Zoroastrianism and Zurvan from Mithraism;
4- Mazdakism: the
subversive socio-religious system of rebellious mobedh (priest);
5- Gayomardism: an
offspring of Mazdeism and Mithraism, with monotheistic traits;
Sassanid Iranian relief with representation of the high priest, mystic and reformer of Zoroastrianism Kartir, a primary initiate who can be viewed as the founder of Mazdeism, i.e. the late form of Zoroastrianism that was instituted as official dogma in Sassanid Iran. Possibly Turanian (Turkic) of origin, Kartir (or Kerdyr) can be held as main responsible for the execution of Mani and the persecution of Manicheans in Iran until the end of the Sassanid times. Long before the Arabs of Hejaz heard of the Mi’raj story (prophet Muhammad’s nocturnal, transcendental travel to the Temple Mount and thence to the Celestial Jerusalem), the Iranians learned about Kartir’s celestial journey in the Heaven. There is also another (parallel?) Middle Persian story about the celestial journey of the sublime initiate Arda Viraf in the Heaven; however, the Middle Persian manuscripts of Arda Wīraz namag seem to date back to the 9th c., although the entire narrative echoes Sassanid traditions. About: https://iranicaonline.org/articles/kartir / https://www.academia.edu/37850211/The_nature_of_spiritual_journeys_in_Zoroastrianism_based_on_Kartir_and_Arda_Viraf_trips
The Mithraic temple of Anahita at Bishapur near Kazerun
The heroic elements of the Sassanid times’ Mazdeism were preserved in the Iranian epics of Islamic times, thus leading to a very different form of Islam than what Muhammad preached in Mecca; Esfandiyar faces Simurgh. Without Iranian epics composed 300 years after the death of prophet Muhammad, one cannot possibly identify correctly the cultural-spiritual-intellectual-artistic-educational environment of Iranian, Turanian, Central Asiatic, Caucasus and Indian Muslim societies. In fact, Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh became the second Quran for Ottoman sultans, Mughal emperors, Iranian shahs and Eurasiatic Muslims.
Gayomard (Keyumars) fighting evil spirits; a reminiscence of Gayomardism of the Sassanid times was preserved in the Iranian epics of Islamic times.
The execution of Mazdak, the preacher of the world’s first religion which evangelized a communist social structure without property, as represented in Islamic times’ miniatures of manuscripts
Representation of Zurvan, the all-consuming ‘god’ of time
If one adds to the
numerous aforementioned religions, several religious systems prevailing among
nations of the Iranian periphery and border regions, notably Buddhism, Turanian
Tengrism, and other Central Asiatic and Indus River valley religions, one gets
a complete picture of the internal divisions that existed in the Sassanid
Empire of Iran and finally lef to its destruction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zurvanism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazdak
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazdakism
https://iranicaonline.org/articles/gayomart-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyumars
viii- the Eastern
Roman Orthodox Christians, who sided with the Patriarchate of Constantinople
As I already said, the
few Greek-speaking Eastern Roman Orthodox Christian communities, settled in
Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria and several other cities in North Mesopotamia,
Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Cyrenaica, supported the Patriarchate of
Constantinople and the Constantinopolitan imperial administration, but they
were largely outnumbered by the local Aramaean (in Asia) and Coptic (in Africa)
populations (which rejected the Patriarchate of Constantinople and its local
stooges). That is why the few Greek-speaking Eastern Roman Orthodox Christian
communities were greatly loathed: they ultimately functioned as tools of the
imperial oppression and persecution of all those who disagreed with the
Constantinopolitan theologians.
These populations and
their ecclesiastical authorities, namely the Patriarchate of Constantinople and
its dependencies in the East, i.e. the three minor institutions at Antioch,
Jerusalem and Alexandria that were unrepresentative (as they were accepted as
'patriarchates' only by the tiny local minority of the Greek-speaking
populations of the respective cities), wanted to monopolize the term
'Orthodox', but this was merely their propaganda, against those whom they
called 'Monophysites'. It would be however wrong to imagine that there was
concord within the sphere of influence of the Patriarchate of Constantinople;
there was discord and division instead.
The new
theological-Christological dispute revolved around the 'energy' and the 'will'
(thelesis) of Jesus, in the sense of whether they were one or two (human and
divine) and, if two, what the relationship of the two energies or two wills
was. As a matter of fact, it was the resurgence of the old dispute (about the
'nature' (physis) of Jesus), which had given birth to what we now call
Miaphysitism/Monophysitism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoenergism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monothelitism
This new division
concerned mainly vast populations living in the central provinces of the Eastern
Roman Empire, namely Anatolia (Turkey), Constantinople, the Balkan Peninsula,
southern and eastern Italy, Sicily, and Carthage. The division had already
reached the top of the imperial structure, as Emperor Heraclius and Patriarch
Sergius of Constantinople were accused of Monoenergism and Monothelitism. And
the fact that Heraclius got married with his niece Martina (as second wife)
unleashed an abysmal hatred against him from the part of the uncompromising
'Orthodox' theologians, monks and priests, as they viewed the marriage as
incestuous.
This, briefly
presented, was the situation in which the two great empires, the Eastern Romans
and the Sassanid Iranians, found themselves in the eve of the battles that ended
with the loss of the eastern provinces of the former and the final dissolution of
the latter. As I said in the last paragraph of the EXCURSE I: HISTORICAL FOCUS,
there has to be an academic focus on interdisciplinary studies and research,
which will certainly unveil many points and elements of common faith shared by
Muslims and followers of other religions (notably Manicheans) or Christian
denominations (notably Miaphysitic/Monophysitic and Nestorian). This will
greatly impact our understanding of the Eastern Roman and the Iranian defeats,
because it may reveal that these early battles (and the Battle of Yarmouk was
only one) had been already won before they were fought; furthermore, it will
also explain why the situation, which arose as a consequence of these battles,
proved to be irreversible for many long centuries.
-------------------------------------------------------------
E. The demographic
structure of the eastern provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire and of the
Western Iranian provinces: the Aramaeans
No scholar examined in
detail the demographic structure of the populations that inhabited the central
territories of the early Caliphate outside Hejaz and Yemen. This has much to do
with the above EXCURSE II: ETHNO-LINGUISTIC & RELIGIOUS FOCUS. A detailed
demographic study covering the period 224-750 CE would reveal that the bulk of
the Aramaean populations living in the Western Iranian provinces and in the
eastern provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire were
1- ethnically different
from the nations that ruled both empires (the Greek-speaking Eastern Romans and
the Persians);
2- religiously opposed
to the official imperial religions of both empires;
3- systematically persecuted
and marginalized by both imperial administrations and armies;
4- detrimentally
devastated by the incessant wars fought between the two empires, because the
ordinary battlefield was precisely located in their own lands, namely the Western
Iranian provinces and the eastern provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire (and
consequently the bulk of the populations of the ruling nations, namely the
Greek-speaking Eastern Romans and the Persians, was not significantly affected
by these wars); and
5- linguistically very
close to the Arabs of Hejaz, because in fact Arabic was a southern Syriac
dialect and the Arabic writing derived from Syriac Aramaic.
F. The central
provinces of the Islamic Caliphates: the lands of the Aramaeans.
No scholar noticed
that, in addition to the aforementioned points, for about five (5) centuries
(661-1258), the central regions of the Islamic Caliphates (Umayyad or Abbasid)
were exactly the lands of the Aramaeans. The first Islamic capital was at
Madinah, but this was soon terminated, as the Umayyad dynasty was based in the
Aramaean city par excellence: Damascus. The determinant impact of the Aramaean
universities, academies, monasteries and scriptoria (notably those of
Urhoy/Edessa, Nisibis/Nusaybin, Tur Abdin, Mahoze/Ctesiphon, and Kerkha/Kirkuk)
on the formation of the Islamic educational, academic, intellectual and
scientific life changed totally the backward, uncivil and primitive environment
in which prophet Muhammad's preaching was undertaken.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_of_Edessa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephrem_the_Syrian
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abgarid_dynasty
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edessa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urfa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_of_Nisibis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nusaybin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_of_Gondishapur
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tur_Abdin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ctesiphon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Mada%27in
https://iranicaonline.org/articles/ctesiphon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beth_Garma%C3%AF_(East_Syriac_ecclesiastical_province)
This historical process
and development made of the early Arab fighters, the so-called Sahaba, a
marginal element that played almost no role in the History of Islamic
Civilization. In other words, the Islamic Civilization in its early stage was clearly
an Aramaean – Iranian civilization with significant Coptic, Yemenite and Jewish
contributions; at a later stage, Berber, Turanian, African and Indus River
Valley contributions to the Islamic civilizations have also been attested.
However, there was never an 'Arab civilization' or -as per the French
Orientalist forgers- "une civilisation arabo-musulmane".
This automatically
cancels the theoretical importance of the early Islamic conquests that are
absurdly amplified and incommensurately over-magnified by both Western scholars
and Islamic terrorists; in fact, the real winners were the inhabitants of the
central regions of the Islamic Caliphates, i.e. the Aramaeans, who saw others
fighting for their cause (to get rid of the double, Eastern Roman and Sassanid
Iranian, yoke), for the transfer of the imperial capital into their land, and
for the establishment of an imperial elite manned basically by them. In
addition to the Aramaeans, the Persians and other Iranians and Turanians
managed also to make their way into the new imperial administration. But
prophet Muhammad had never spoken about an … 'Islamic' empire….
G. Lack of
historical criticism in Islamic Studies and Interdisciplinary Studies
Taking all the
aforementioned determinant parameters into account, reading the historical
sources from the viewpoint of historical criticism, and viewing the historical
facts in the light of the hitherto unevaluated critical factors, modern
scholars can come up with a totally different interpretation/interrelation of
sources and a dramatically contrasting reconstitution of the historical past,
which would be diametrically opposed to the nonsense of military experts, who
focus exclusively on battle techniques, and to the absurd and paranoid,
pseudo-religious belief, as per which 'god' was involved in the events that
took place in the 630s and 640s and shook the world between the Mediterranean,
the Indus River valley, and Central Asia. Historical criticism of all sources
relating to these events is indispensable and inevitable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_criticism
III.
The astounding scarcity of contemporaneous sources
The first serious
difficulty that every modern historian faces, when dealing with the early
Islamic conquests, is the extreme scarcity of contemporaneous historical
sources. A recent and highly commendable scholarly publication, titled 'Seeing
Islam as Others saw it: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish and
Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam' (by prof. Robert G. Hoyland), enumerates
ca. 140 different authors, manuscripts, texts or inscriptions (categorized as
a. sources; b. apocalypses and visions; c. martyrologies; d. chronicles and
histories; and e. apologies and disputations) that involve various narratives
in Syriac Aramaic, Coptic, Greek, Armenian, Middle Persian, Christian Arabic,
Jewish Aramaic, Latin and Chinese primary sources, which date back to the
period between 620 and 780 CE.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeing_Islam_as_Others_Saw_It
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_G._Hoyland
As it can be easily
understood, most of the above mentioned texts were not written with the
specific purpose to detail the battles and the events that took place in the
area under study in the 630s and the 640s; consequently, their mention of facts
and their references to episodes were rather brief, because the main scope of
the narrative was other. The Eastern Roman chronicler and monk Theophanes the
Confessor (758-817) presented the longest description of the events by an
Eastern Roman author. His text is to be found in Medieval Greek and Latin
translation: J. P. Migne's Patrologia Graeca, cviii (vol.108, col.55-1009). But
when Theophanes wrote his venerated Χρονογραφία (Chronographia), at least 150
years had passed after the Battle of Yarmouk was fought. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theophanes_the_Confessor
https://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/04z/z_0700-0800__Theophanes_Abbas_Confessor__Chronographia_(CSHB_Classeni_Recensio)__GR.pdf.html
https://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/03d/0700-0800,_Theophanes_Abbas_Confessor,_Chronographia_(CSHB_Classeni_Recensio),_GR.pdf
Still this is fine if
compared with the Muslim Arabic sources; the scarcity of 7th c. CE Islamic
sources is spectacular. The Islamic sources of that period are much scarcer
than the non-Islamic sources. Even worse, as the Arabs of Hejaz were not civilized
and kept no historical records of their otherwise primitive and therefore
dreary societies, a long formative period had to first pass, until -under clear
Aramaean, Persian, Coptic and Jewish guidance- some rudiments of historiography
be formed.
Most of the first,
important historians of Islamic times were of non-Arab origin:
1- Muhammad ibn Ishaq (704-767)
was the grandson of an Aramaean young boy held captive in a Christian monastery
in Shetata (Ayn al Tamr) in Mesopotamia;
2- Al Waqidi (747-823)
was the son of a Persian lady of noble ancestry whose family introduced
letters, arts and music to uncivil and primitive Hejaz;
3- Tabari (or rather
Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari/ محمد بن جرير الطبري; 839-923) was an Iranian born in the southern coastlands of the
Caspian Sea (Tabaristan), a location to which he owes the name by which he
became widely known. Tabari's Chronography was not different from the Eastern
Roman historiographical tradition, as he started his narrative from the
Creation. Tabari accumulated an enormous, unprecedented documentation, and he
mentioned explicitly his sources for each and every part of his colossal text
(a recent, unilingual English translation needed 40 volumes of ca. 300 pages
each to be published), making it unattractive to the non-specialists. But
Tabari wrote no less than 230 years after the Battle of Yarmouk was fought.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Ishaq
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Waqidi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Tabari
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Prophets_and_Kings
https://archive.org/details/HistoryAlTabari40Vol/History_Al-Tabari_10_Vol
The situation is even
worse, when it comes to Islamic religious, theological, biographical, and
hagiographical literature. The earlier manuscripts that survived down to our
days date back to the 8th, 9th and 10th c., while few existing exceptions are
in truly fragmentary condition and cannot be taken as 'proofs' properly
speaking.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historiography_of_early_Islam
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Muslim_historians
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_biographies_of_Muhammad
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagiography#Islamic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith_manuscripts
https://hadithnotes.org/an-overview-of-ten-manuscripts-of-%E1%B9%A3a%E1%B8%A5i%E1%B8%A5-al-bukhari/
https://hadithnotes.org/on-the-manuscripts-of-%e1%b9%a3a%e1%b8%a5i%e1%b8%a5-al-bukhari-discrepancies-and-disappearance-of-the-original-copy/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Quranic_manuscripts
The scarcity of the
contemporaneous sources makes the interdisciplinary research imperative for the
case of the early Islamic conquests and for the study of the first decades of
caliphs' rule. The contrast or the agreement between two different sources and
the often divergent perspectives offered can help drastically stimulate the
research orientation and push scholars toward hitherto unidentified areas,
which may then grant a far better understanding of the historical facts than
present-day clichés do.
The Teaching of Jacob (Διδασκαλία
Ἰακώβου/Didaskalia Iakobou; Doctrina
Jacobi) is an example in this regard; preserved partially in Medieval Greek
manuscripts and integrally in Latin, Arabic, Ge'ez and Slavonic translations,
the text consists in a debate among Jews as regards their eventual conversion
to Christianity. It seems to be dated back to 634 CE, and it provides some of
the earlier references to the Islamic conquests. In fact, it contradicts all
Islamic sources, because it describes prophet Muhammad (without naming him) as
waging wars in Palestine. However, the brief excerpt that concerns these facts
makes state of an alliance between Palestinian Jews and the Arab armies. On the
other hand, those among the Palestinian Jews, who had converted to Christianity
(or rather were forced to), saw in the person of the 'warrior prophet' the
Antichrist and even expected the imminent return of the Christ, also regretting
that it took them long to identify Jesus with the Biblical Messiah.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teaching_of_Jacob
The Teaching of Jacob, Slavonic translation
The Syriac 'Chronicle
of 640', written by Thomas the Presbyter, consists in a particular Christian Chronography
down to the year 640 CE; the scribe, who copied the manuscript ca. 85 years
later (724 CE), added an extra text containing the list of the Umayyad caliphs,
who had reigned until that year. The Chronicle contains critical references to
the early Islamic attacks and conquests, also stating that an enormous bloodshed
followed the battle "between the Romans and the Tayyaye of Muhmd (the
Arabs of Muhammad)", which took place on 4th February 634 CE in Palestine,
east of Gaza. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_the_Presbyter
Two years later (636
CE), the Syriac 'Chronicle of 640' mentions explicitly the Sassanid Iranian
debacle (without however naming the Battle of Qadissiyyah) and the subsequent
arrival of the Islamic armies in NE Mesopotamia and notably Mardin (today in SE
Turkey), which was the religious capital of the Tur Abdin Aramaean Miaphysitic/Monophysitic
monasticism; these events also caused great bloodshed there. However, by dating
these events in 636 CE {year 947, indiction 9, of the Seleucid Era (starting
312-311 BCE)}, the author makes it impossible for us to date the Battle of Yarmouk
in 636, which is nowadays the tendency of several scholars who rather follow
Theophanes' text. On the contrary, Tabari makes it very clear that the Battle
of Yarmouk occurred days after the death of Abu Bakr in August 634 CE.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_al-Qadisiyyah
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_conquest_of_Persia
https://www.academia.edu/40350196/The_Capture_of_Jerusalem_by_the_Muslims_in_634
https://c.worldmisc.com/read/when-was-the-battle-of-yarmouk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Yarmuk
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/14273/20391
Another brief and
fragmentary inscription written on a blank page of a 6th c. Syriac copy of the
Gospel of Mark makes state of the failure of the Eastern Roman army to properly
defend the eastern regions of the empire; the same expression is used in Syriac
(Tayyaye of Muhmd), but the dating is arbitrary. The inscription may well have
been written in the 630s, but we cannot specify when exactly. Modern scholars
have the tendency to deliberately mistrust the historical authors in order to
fabricate the version of historiography that pleases them, and that is why
several specialists assumed that the inscription's author mistook Gabitha for
Yarmouk; the inscription mentions a battle between the Eastern Romans and the
Muslims in Gabitha (Jabiyah, in Syria) and the modern scholars translate it as
'Yarmouk' (in Jordan). It would be however more interesting to focus on
similarities and dissimilarities between Syriac and Arabic, because practically
speaking the same noun (Gabitha, Jabiyah) ended up having two totally different
meanings. If one applies Syriac reading to the Quranic text before vocalization,
the surprises may be phenomenal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragment_on_the_Arab_Conquests
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabiyah
http://www.allinjordan.com/index.php?cGc9Q2l0aWVzJmN1c3RvbWVyPUJhdHRsZStvZitZYXJtb3Vr
IV.
Critical incidents during the Battle of Yarmouk
Tabari starts his
narration of the events of the year 13 AH (634-635) with the Battle of Yarmouk;
it expands on the illness and the subsequent death of Abu Bakr later. This
cancels automatically the falsely reconstructed entry of the Wikipedia that
dates the event back to 636 CE. Tabari's two previous units are:
- Those who say Abu
Bakr led the pilgrimage
- Those who say Umar
led the pilgrimage
It is quite interesting
that, in the introductory text for the events of the year 13 AH (before the
description of the Battle of Yarmouk), Tabari states clearly that Abu Bakr,
after his return from Mecca to Madina (when the hajj was completed), prepared
the armies to be sent to Syria. Tabari narrates the developments, based on many
different chains of earlier sources. There were many recruits of Yemen, because
the Yemenites had recently accepted Islam (630 CE). So, even in these early
battles, we cannot speak of 'Arab armies', but of Arab and Yemenite armies; the
Yemenites are a Semitic nation, but as different from the Arabs as the Jews are
from the Aramaeans, and pre-Islamic Yemenite languages and writings were very
different from Arabic.
At this point, one has
to point out that, before and after the death of prophet Muhammad (632), the
early Islamic state in Hejaz, Yemen, Oman and the desert was in a tumultuous
situation and incessant rebellions were exploding every now and then here and
there, which means that the Islamic army units were in continuous readiness.
However, despite this fact, the preparations for the dispatch of the army to
the southern confines of Palestine and Syria, as narrated by Tabari, seem to
have been rudimentary. In other words, I want to state that, for an event of so
cataclysmic importance, the preparations were minimal.
This can only mean one
thing: there were ongoing communications and coordination with Aramaeans based
in Syria, Palestine and Mesopotamia as regards a) attrition activities that
they would possibly undertake against the Eastern Roman armies, b) defection of
Aramaean soldiers from the Eastern Roman armies, and c) public opinion
preparation for the forthcoming arrival of the Islamic armies and for the
acceptance of the early Islamic faith (which was not what people think today
that Islam is). And these developments (in Syria, and not in Hejaz) are exactly
what made the difference, irrespective of the battle outcome. Otherwise, an
early Islamic victory and invasion could be met with local population
resistance and then the dispatch of another imperial army from Constantinople or
Cappadocia would demolish once forever the initial state structure that the
Arab and Yemenite armies may have imposed for a year or two in Damascus, Emessa
(Homs), Caesarea Maritima, and Jerusalem.
Four separate armies
were dispatched from Madina at the same time and each of them took a different
road, but when they reached the region of Yarmouk River, they decided to unite,
because the Eastern Romans outnumbered them. The same tactic was followed by
the Eastern Romans. In some early skirmishes a Muslim force under Khālid ibn Saʿīd was defeated. Tabari states that
the two armies encamped at a relatively close distance from one another without
fighting for several months.
At that point, Tabari
gives the date of Abu Bakr's death, namely in the middle of the month Jumadah
al Akhirah of the Islamic calendar (16 August 634), and specifies that the
event took place "ten days before the victory (in the battle of Yarmouk River)".
It is noteworthy that prophet Muhammad's worst enemy and late convert to Islam
Abu Sufyan bin Harb accompanied the army and was appointed as the 'preacher'
(qass). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q%C4%81%E1%B9%A3%E1%B9%A3
During the description
of the battle, Tabari mentions the arrival of the messenger from Madinah,
namely the rider who announced the death of Abu Bakr only to Khalid bin Walid,
the army leader, keeping it secret from all the fighters for obvious reasons. Tabari
narrates also discussions that took place in intervals between Khalid bin Walid
and George (Jurjah bin Budhiyah; also mentioned as Jarajis), one of the commanders
of the Eastern Roman armies, who finally accepted Islam, performed a brief
Islamic prayer (only two prostrations; rak'atayn), and then fought with the
Muslims against the Eastern Roman army.
At another point,
Tabari mentions an incident between Al-Ashtar (Malik bin al Harith al Nakha'iy,
also known as Malik Al-Ashtar; a Yemenite origin Muslim) and 'a man of the
Romans', who suggested a single combat with any Muslim fighter – a challenge
that Al-Ashtar accepted. After the two combatants exchanged many blows,
Al-Ashtar said to the 'Roman' opponent: "Take that, because I am a
youngster from the Iyad tribe"! The 'Roman' fighter responded: "May
God increase the number of people like you among my people; because, by God, if
you were not of my people, I would have supported the Romans (meaning the
Eastern Romans), but now I will not help them". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malik_al-Ashtar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iyad_(tribe)
The hills around the Yarmouk river
Incidents like the
aforementioned totally change the image that modern scholars have created as
distortion of the historical reality. The Islamic army did not actually need to
be numerous; the battlefront would not be the most critical location as regards
the battle outcome. Even more so, because if the first battle had been lost,
the second would have been victorious in any case!
V.
The true dimensions of the Battle of Yarmouk and of its outcome
The linguistic affinity
between Aramaeans and Arabs was such that we can easily infer that most of the
Islamic fighters could easily communicate in the language of a sizeable part of
the Eastern Roman army (the Aramaean soldiers recruited from the lands of
today's SE Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine). There is no doubt
about the knowledge and use of Syriac Aramaic among Arabs, due to their long
professional involvement across the frankincense and spice trade routes. Even
more importantly, the well-documented diffusion of Christianity among the Arabs
bears automatically witness to their great skills of Syriac Aramaic in terms of
reading comprehension, listening comprehension, written composition, and usage.
How close to prophet Muhammad may this situation have been? Extremely close!
The cousin of his first
wife, a learned man named Warraqah (: lit. 'paper') ibn Nawfal was a Christian
convert. The religiosity of those days was such that we can safely claim that
Khadijah's cousin was reading every day excerpts from the Peshitta (the Syriac
Bible). To all those, who discuss issues pertaining to prophet Muhammad's
education, knowledge and familiarity with Christological disputes, although it
is certain that Khadijah's husband -in young age- traveled repeatedly to
territories of the Eastern Roman Empire (where he may have had month-long
discussions with monks, theologians and learned merchants), the easiest
response would be:
- Already in Mecca,
there were Peshitta copies of the Bible, in the small houses of prophet
Muhammad's relatives!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waraqah_ibn_Nawfal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peshitta
Peshitta manuscripts with miniatures
Also many Aramaeans
involved in the trade between Yemen and the Mediterranean could communicate in
the provincial Hejaz dialect that we now call 'Quranic Arabic'. Language issues
are mentioned in the Quran, and not without reason. In fact, Arabic sounded
like a rough and uncouth dialect to the Aramaeans of Damascus or Antioch, two
great cities each of which had larger population than the totality of the
(Hejaz and desert) Arabs. On the other hand, the lexicographical poverty of
pre-Islamic Arabic, if compared to the treasure of Syriac Aramaic (which also
contained loans from other languages), was viewed by the Hejaz Arabs as
'linguistic purity'; this situation led them to the aberration that their
dialect was more 'ancient' or more 'original', whereas in fact it was more
'isolated' and more arid than Syriac Aramaic. And this situation is reproduced
nowadays when people, who are well versed in the Quranic text (which stays
close to the pre-Islamic Arabic's 'purity', although it is far more elaborate),
try to read Ibn Sina's Al-Isharat wa al-Tanbihat; they fail to grasp anything.
The religious-cultural
similarity between the Arabs, who had just accepted prophet Muhammad's
preaching, and the Christian Aramaeans (either Nestorian or
Miaphysitic/Monophysitic) was even more stupendous. Of course, when it comes to
religion, tiny differentiations are known to have been reasons of terrible
strives and wars, but in this case, there was a tremendously different issue.
The Arabs had already rejected their idolatry and polytheistic concepts in
order to adopt a faith that had a great number of common points with both,
Nestorian and Miaphysitic / Monophysitic Christianity. In other words, they had
made the first step in the direction of Miaphysitic/Monophysitic and Nestorian
Christianity, and this was how the Christian Aramaeans viewed them; of course,
to some Aramaean monks, the Arabs were perceived as heretic, but still this is
far 'better' than just 'heathens'.
The truly negative view
of Islam was particular only to Constantinople and to Rome; but this detrimental
judgment of Islam had basically imperial and material motives; in other words,
Muhammad 'was' for the imperial ruling class the Antichrist, because his
religious system was effective in seriously and irreversibly damaging their
imperial posture, material benefits, and ecumenical appeal. Suddenly, the major
challenges of 300 years of Christian imperial rule (namely Arius, Eutyches and
Nestorius) that the Constantinopolitan theologians had managed to overcome
appeared to be extremely weak and minor compared with the latest:
Muhammad.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arius
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eutyches
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestorius
The difference was
simple; the earlier challenges (namely Arius, Eutyches and Nestorius) emanated
from within the Roman Empire, and the Constantinopolitan elite proved to be
able to squelch them, oppressing and persecuting leaders and followers of the
'heresies'. But Muhammad emanated from outside the Roman Empire. He early
managed to secure an independent basis for his faith, and thence he attacked
the Eastern Roman provinces that were inhabited by populations, which
overwhelmingly rejected the Constantinopolitan doctrine; it was only normal for
these populations to massively opt for the standard bearers of the new faith.
In fact, they perceived
the arrival of the Muslim armies as liberation from the Roman –
Constantinopolitan tyranny. The Anti-Muhammadan rhetoric of the Medieval Latin
sources is merely an evil propaganda of the losers; the reality is simple:
either they accepted Islam or remained Monophysitic, Nestorian, Gnostic or
Manichaean, the Aramaeans, who constituted the quasi-totality of the local
populations in Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and the southern coastland of the
Persian Gulf, did not rebel against the rule of the Caliphate. And the Arab
rulers accepted the importance of the lands of the Aramaeans, and that's why they
abandoned their marginal towns and sketchy villages in Hejaz and set up their
capitals in the lands of the Aramaeans.
After all, this new
doctrine appeared at the time as merely a new Christological dispute and heresy,
and its followers were few and originated from lands that had never been
historically important and which remained historically unimportant. But the
loss for the theological elites of Constantinople and Rome was abysmal; in
fact, pretty much like Constantinople was the New Rome, Damascus and Baghdad
were meant to be the Final Rome. That is why Arius, Eutyches and Nestorius were
never called 'the Antichrist', but prophet Muhammad was!
At this point, I
terminate the present, first article of the series; in a forthcoming article, I
will reveal other critical points explicitly mentioned in the historical
sources that modern Western scholars sulphurously disregard, conceal or
misinterpret only to advance their historical forgery and intellectual fallacy;
in this they are imitated and followed by the disreputable, ignorant and
vicious, pseudo-Muslim sheikhs, imams, professors, muftis, qadis and preachers,
who have been fabricated and put in place by the English and French colonials in
full disruption of the Islamic historical continuity. Yet, these -widely unknown-
points help us first achieve a deep and comprehensive understanding of the
facts that took place in the 620s-630s and then get the real picture of the
entire historical process without the smokescreen of today's misplaced version
of historiography.
In fact, what most
people believe today as History of Islamic Conquests and Early Islamic History
is entirely false. It is a fairy tale that turns a) most of the Westerners into
absurd Muhammad-haters and Islam-deniers and b) most of the Muslims into
useful-idiots and naïve believers of a pseudo-Islamic theological doctrine that
has nothing in common with the religion preached by prophet Muhammad and ever
since advocated by hadhrat Ali and his descendants. It is not a matter of
Westerners accepting Islam and Muslims accepting Christianity as faith, but as
historical process. Islam was not preached by prophet Muhammad in order to be
imposed worldwide. That's why both groups need to first interpret Emperor Heraclius'
evident reluctance to fight against the Islamic armies. This was the only man
in the world who, before meeting with prophet Muhammad's personal envoy Dahyah
al Kalbi, encountered his worst enemy.
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