Islam
Chapter 963 History of Islam
Preliminary Questions
For an explanation of the ten divisions of the "ten finger history grid" see Chapter d21 Overview of the History of the Liturgy
Preliminary Observations
Bibliography
1. Apostolic [0-399]
30 Death of Jesus
30-60 Preaching of Peter and Paul
40 I THESSALONIANS – II THESSALONIANS
48 GALATIANS – I CORINTHIANS – II CORINTHIANS – ROMANS
50 "Q" written
56? Death of Paul (or 60?)
60 PHILIPPIANS – PHILEMON – Gospel of Thomas. Death of Peter
69 Ignatius become bishop of Antioch
69 Clement of Rome (69-70? 96?)
70 Major revolt – fall of Jerusalem – Titus destroyed the temple –
Judaism founded
70 MARK – LETTER TO THE HEBREWS – Epistle of (Pseudo-) Barnabas
(70-135?)
85 COLOSSIANS – EPHESIANS
90 Council of Jamnia – MATTHEW – LUKE/ACTS – JOHN – I PETER.
95? I II III JOHN
100 I TIMOTHY – II TIMOTHY – TITUS – JOHN Chapter 21 – REVELATION
105 Didache – II PETER
107 Ignatius of Antioch written
120 Shepherd Hermes
125 Earliest surviving gospel fragments P52
150 Polycarp of Smyrna
200 Earliest surviving fragments of Matthew and Luke
300 Codex Sinaiticus – earliest surviving complete New Testament
(discovered 1844)
313 Edict of Constantine
2. Patristic [400-799]
AD 570 – Mohammad was born in Mecca.
AD 610/611 – Mohammad’s first religious revelations. Few people are told of them.
AD 613 – Mohammad is speaking more publicly of his revelations.
AD 619 – Mohammad and his followers face a bleak future as the great merchants intensify opposition to his mission.
AD 620 – Men from Medina meet Mohammad at the pilgrimage and moot the idea of his going to Medina.
AD 621 – The first Pledge of Aqaba when Medinese clan leaders at the pilgrimage declare themselves ready to accept Mohammad as the Prophet.
AD 621 – The second Pledge of Aqaba when Medinese pilgrim swear to fight for Mohammad.
AD 622 (16 July) AH 1 [AH = Anno Hegirae = year of the Hijra] – Mohammad’s emigration – Hegira – from Mecca and the first day of the new Islamic calendar. [In AD 2003 was the start of AH 1424. Note that although only 2003-622=1381 years have passed in the Christian calendar, 1423 years have passed in the Islamic calendar, because its year is consistently shorter (by about 11 days) than the tropical year used by the Christian calendar.]
AD 622 (24 September) [AH 1] – Mohammad and Abu Bakr reach Medina having eluded the Meccans by hiding in a cave.
AD 624 (March) [AH 3] – The battle of Bedr. Mohammad’s first great political and religious success against the Meccans.
AD 625 (March) [AH 4 – Battle of Uhud where the Meccans fail to completely avenge the defeat of Bedr but leave the Moslems dismayed.
AD 628 (Spring) [AH 7] – Mohammad tries to make the lesser pilgrimage to Mecca. Meccans block his way but will negotiate with him.
AD 630 (January) [AH 9] – Mohammad marches on Mecca after a breach in the truce made with Mecca. He enters the city in triumph.
AD 632 (March) [AH 11] – Mohammad leads the farewell pilgrimage to Mecca. Already in ill health, he dies on 8th of June 632 (at age 62/63)
3. Early Medieval [800-1199]
973 - 1048 Abu Rayhan Biruni Persian mathematician, physicist, scholar, encyclopedist, philosopher, astronomer, astrologer, traveler, historian, pharmacist, and teacher. He was a colleague of Ibn Sina. Traveled to India, learned Indian languages, and studied the religion and philosophy of its people; he also knew Greek and Sanskrit and possibly also Syriac and Berber. At the age of 17 he could calculate the latitude of cities using the maximum altitude of the sun. By the age of 22, he had written several short works, including a study of map projections and a method for projecting a hemisphere on a plane. By age 27 he had written books on the astrolabe, the decimal system, astrology, and history. He refined the ancient estimate of the Earth’s radius from approximately 6,314 km (measured by Eratosthenes in 240 AD) to 6,339.6 km. This feat was not repeated or surpassed in the Western world until the sixteenth century! (For the complete article see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Biruni )
980 [370 AH] – 1037 Avicenna Ibn Sina was a Persian physician, philosopher, and scientist born in Uzbekistan (then Persia) in 980 and died in 1037 in Iran. The author of 450 books, he was one of the most famous scientists of all times. An exceptional intellect, he had memorized the entire Qur’an by the age of 7 and a great deal of Persian poetry as well. Next he studied Aristotle – he read the Metaphysics more than 40 times. At 16 he turned to medicine and achieved full status as a physician at age 18. His 14 volume The Canon of Medicine was used as the standard medical text in Western Europe for seven centuries. His metaphysical works influenced the scholastic philosophers. (For the complete article see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avicenna )
1126 - 1198 Averroes Ibn Rushd, known as Averroes was an Arab philosopher, physician, lawyer, and mathematician, born in Cordoba, Spain in 1126 and died in Marrakesh, Morocco in 1198. Averroes is most famous for his translations and commentaries of Aristotle's works, which had been mostly forgotten in the West. Before only a few translated works of Aristotle existed in Latin Europe, and they were not studied much or given much credence by monastic scholars. It was through the Latin translations of Averroes's work beginning in the 12th century that the legacy of Aristotle was recovered in the West. Famous scholastics such as Aquinas believed him to be so important they did not refer to him by name, simply calling him "The Commentator" and calling Aristotle "The Philosopher." Averroes also greatly influenced philosophy in the Islamic world. (For the complete article see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Averroes )
1135-1204 Moses Maimonides a Jewish rabbi, physician, and philosopher. Born in Cordoba, Spain in 1135, he studied in Morocco, and then moved to Egypt where he was doctor of the Grand Vizier Alfadhil and also possibly the doctor of Sultan Saladin of Egypt. Educated by reading the works of Arab Muslim philosophers he acquired an intimate acquaintance with the doctrines of Aristotle. Maimonides exerted an important influence on the Scholastic philosophers, especially on Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, and Duns Scotus. (For the complete article see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maimonides )
1182-1226 Francis of Assisi
4. Medieval [1200-1299]
1193 - 1280 Albert the Great
1210 Francis of Assisi visits the Sultan Al-Kamil of Egypt in Damietta
1225 - 1274 Thomas Aquinas
1266 - 1308 John Duns Scotus
5. Late Medieval [1300-1499]
6. Reformation [1500-1699]
7. After Trent [1700-1899]
8. Before Vatican II [1900-1959]
9. Vatican II [1960-1975]
October 28, 1965 Second Vatican Council. Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions Nostra Aetate
10. After Vatican II [1975-2050]
Islam Today in the USA
For statistics on Islam in the USA today see http://www.pluralism.org/resources/statistics/tradition.php#Islam
U.S. Muslims Divided Over America
Results of First Comprehensive Survey Unveiled
WASHINGTON, D.C., APR. 26, 2001
[The following is reported from Zenit] The More than one in four U.S.
Muslims strongly believes that "America is an immoral, corrupt society," a new
poll shows. The poll, the first comprehensive survey of the faith’s presence in
the United States, found that American Muslims comprise are a growing community,
with 1,209 mosques nationwide, according to an Associated Press report. The
results were released here today.
There has been disagreement over U.S. Muslim numbers, and reliable figures were
scarce. AP said the new study, led by professor Ihsan Bagby of Shaw University
in Raleigh, North Carolina, offers these figures:
--6 million to 7 million is a reasonable estimate for Americans who would
consider themselves ethnic Muslims. (That compares with an ethnic count of 6.06
million for U.S. Jews.)
--2 million Muslims are religiously involved to varying degrees with local
mosques, for example by attending the two yearly Eids (festivals). That
projection was based on a survey of 416 mosque leaders.
--411,000 Muslims, 78% of them men, nationally attend the Friday Jum’ah prayers
in an average week, judging from mosque leaders’ reports.
The statistics excluded Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam, the Ahmaddiya
movement and other groups that mainstream Islam has regarded as heterodox, Bagby
said.
About 87% of the local mosques in the survey were founded since 1970.
The survey is the latest sign of the demographic changes remaking the United
States. Recent U.S. Census figures showed that Hispanics may have surpassed
blacks as the largest minority.
Historically, black Americans have operated their own mosques and immigrants’
mosques were divided by national origin. The new survey showed blacks remain
dominant in 27% of mosques, South Asian immigrants in 28% and Arab-Americans in
15%. The others were more pluralistic. "Our mosques are much more diverse than
we think,’‘ Bagby said, though falling short of Islam’s multiracial ideal.
"Muslims are very divided on how they view America,’‘ Bagby said. Heavy
majorities of mosque leaders strongly agreed that believers can learn from the
nation’s technological advances and should be involved in politics and American
institutions.
However, when asked whether America "is an example of freedom and democracy that
we can learn from,’‘ only 35% strongly agreed. Some 28% strongly agreed that
"America is an immoral, corrupt society,’‘ and 15% strongly agreed that
"American society is hostile to Islam.’‘
Among other highlights of the survey:
--Among regular Muslim worshippers, 47% were reported to be 35 or younger.
--Among the regulars, 29% were converts to Islam. Among 19,700 annual converts,
an estimated 14,000 were black and 13,000 were men.
--There were no paid full-time employees at 55% of mosques, and 45% had no paid
staff even on a part-time basis. The typical imam or other mosque leader is a
part-time volunteer who makes a living elsewhere.
--21% said their mosques maintain a literal interpretation of the faith drawn
directly from the Koran and Sunnah (practices of the Prophet Mohammed); 71% said
they take into account the purposes of revelations in light of "modern
circumstances.’‘ The rest followed other Muslim traditions or did not respond.
The survey’s sampling margin of error was 5 percentage points.
To Think About
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