Introduction

What events lie in store for the much-troubled Middle East region? Bible prophecy reveals the answers! The problems confronting the world in the Middle East will trigger a sequence of events so staggering as to shake the very foundations of today's civilization!

The Middle East has been a troubled region throughout history. Since earliest antiquity, it has been a focus of conflict and confrontation. Invaders without number have swept across its sands, leaving a grim legacy of death and destruction. Today, the region is again an area of vital concern to nations around the globe. It is widely recognized as ''the most likely flash point for World War III."

The continuing arms buildup in the Mid-East region is far and away outdistancing the search for peace. As weapons continue to pour in, the potential destructiveness of a future Mideast war is being raised to unparalleled new heights. And now, the involvement of nuclear weapons is a growing possibility.

Military analysts have rightly labelled the Middle East ''the most militarized region in the world" and "the world's most dangerous hot spot."

Many are concerned. Many have asked, "Where will it all lead?" Will there be another Middle East war? Will events there spark a nuclear World War III? Newscasters describe the region as ''volatile" and "unpredictable."

To many in the modern Western world, the Middle East remains strange and remote. It is probably the most misunderstood region on earth. Myths, misconceptions and stereotypes abound. Yet few topics are as vital to understand during this momentous last quarter of the 20th century! Superficial understanding of this explosive part of the world will no longer suffice.
 

Yes, the Middle East is an enigma, a mystery, for many.

The reason?  It is impossible to fully understand what is happening in the Middle East today on the basis of the morning's news alone. Newspapers concentrate on day-to-day developments. But today's events-and tomorrow's headlines-have deep historical roots.

Travelers often remark that in the Middle East, the past and present seem to be "all jumbled up." And what they perceive is true! Current attitudes in the Middle East spring from deep-rooted spiritual and emotional foundations. The present and future of the Middle East cannot be understood apart from its past. Only against the broad sweep of history can we fully appreciate today's fast-moving headlines-and the unexpected turn of events that lies ahead.

It is also crucial that we understand the biblical prophecies for the Mideast region. Prophecy is history written in advance. If we know, in general, where events are leading, today's headlines will take on greater meaning.

A tempest is brewing in the Middle East. A storm is approaching of such magnitude that it will engulf all nations in its wake!

Bible prophecy reveals that the pivotal Mideast region will be at the center of a nightmarish confrontation that will plunge the entire world into a crisis without parallel in all of history. The region will become the vortex of a struggle for world control!

 

You need to understand what Bible prophecy reveals before it is too late! Powerful forces are even now at work in the Middle East that will shape the destiny of mankind for the next 1,000 years! Your future is being determined now by what is happening there.

Yet there is good news beyond the cataclysmic events that lie just ahead!

We begin with a survey of essential background events that give insight into this complex region. Return to Index

Part One - The Seed of Abraham
Today's Mideast con­flict involving Arabs and Jews is actually a relatively recent phenomenon. Civi­lizations of the distant past waged wars there long before the Jews and Arabs ex­isted as a people.

In fact, Western civilization began there-in the region commonly called the Fertile Crescent, renowned as "the Cradle of Civilization"-the birthplace and battle­ground of civilizations since the dawn of history.
The term Fertile Crescent refers to the well-watered crescent­ shaped area extending from the Persian (Ara­bian) Gulf up the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. westward over Syria to the Mediterranean, then curving down along the coast of Palestine to the Nile Valley of Egypt. It was in this mighty semicircle that the first great civilizations appeared.
 

The eastern portion of the Fer­tile Crescent- an alluvial plain encompassed by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers-was anciently known by the Greek name Mesopotamia, meaning "land between the rivers."  Some of the most influential cultures in the history of the world flourished on the banks of those rivers: the Sumerian, As­syrian, Babylonian and others.
 

Enter the Hebrews

Turn back the pages of biblical history nearly 40 centuries - to the early second millennium B.C. - and you discover an impor­tant people coming onto the scene in the Fertile Crescent. A people destined for greatness. The Bible calls them Hebrews.

The Hebrews derived their name from their ancestor Eber or Heber (Gen. 11:16), a great­ grandson of Shem, the son of Noah. The Hebrews were thus a Semitic people.

Prominent among the Hebrews was the family of Terah, first men­tioned in Genesis 11:26.  Terah lived in a city of southern Meso­potamia (Iraq today), a great metropolis the Bible calls "Ur of the Chaldees." Powerful Ur was a flourishing economic and cultural center of that day.

About 1900 B.C.-just before the Elamites sacked and destroyed Ur-Terah and his household left the city and relocated 600 miles northwest to the thriving commer­cial city of Haran, in the fertile Balikh valley of northern Syria (Gen. 11:31).

Among Terah's sons was Abram (meaning "high father"), who would later be renamed Abraham (Ibrahim in Arabic). Abram was a descendant in the ninth genera­tion from Shem, the son of Noah.
 

Centuries later, the three great religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam would all trace their spiritual beginnings back to this great patriarch. Abraham would also become the physical progeni­tor of several great nations, as we shall see.

And significantly, the great fig­ures of three world religions­ Moses, Jesus and Muhammad­ would all be lineal descendants of this great man of God!

Abram was one of the few men of his time who did not take part in pagan idolatrous worship. When he was about 75 years old, God commanded him to travel "unto a land that I will show you" (Gen. 12:1; Acts 7:2-4). God promised, "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great" (Gen. 12:2).

"So Abram departed" (Gen.12:4). Obeying God's command, Abram left Haran after the death of his father Terah. On faith, he journeyed to a land he had not seen. Abram and his family followed the southward curve of the Fertile Crescent, "and into the land of Canaan they came" (Gen. 12:5).
 

When Abram arrived in Canaan, God promised him that the land would one day be­come the possession of his descendants (Gen. 12:7; 13:14-17). It would therefore come to be known as the Promised Land.

As a result of his obedience, Abram ultimately became the pro­genitor of numerous tribes and peoples - peoples who would be­come the chief actors in the Mideast drama being played out in our day! If we are to understand today's Middle East, it is crucial that we know something of these children of Abraham and their eventful history.  Abraham's nephew Lot became caught up in a rebellion of the city - kings of southern Canaan against their Mesopotamian over­lords. Lot was taken captive. Abram responded by destroying the enemy kings and rescuing his nephew. Details are recorded in Genesis 14. It was the forerunner of innumerable hostilities that would take place on that contested soil in the centuries to follow.

History shows that most of the military activity in the Middle East through the millennia of time has focused on that very area, the region popularly called Palestine or the Holy Land. In fact, histori­ans label that blood-soaked soil as the most fought-over strip of land on earth!

In a sense, the fate of this land had been sealed at creation. Geo­graphically, it was made the key­stone in the arch of three conti­nents. It was the ancient crossroads between East and West, the strategic land bridge ly­ing astride the traditional routes of trade and communication be­tween Europe, Africa and Asia. And as such, it became the object of perennial struggle.
 

Son of the Bondwoman

The battle of Genesis 14 was fol­lowed by a momentous event: the conception of Ishmael, and his birth when Abram was 86 years old (Genesis 16).

Ishmael (Ismail in Arabic) was the son of Abram by Hagar the Egyptian, whom Pharaoh Sesostris II had given to Abram and Sarai as a maidservant (Gen. 12:16).  Why was Ishmael's birth signifi­cant? Because Ishmael would be­come the progenitor of most of today's Arab world. The Arabs are essentially an Ishmaelite race!

Today, the Arab world is an area of vital concern to nations around the globe. Both political and economic considerations place that vast region-stretching from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean-at the very focal point of world attention! The Arab peo­ples - today numbering over 120 million, in over 20 countries - are destined to play a significant role in the development of future events, as shall be shown.

The biblical story of Isaac, Ja­cob and their descendants is known to many. Most readers are familiar with the accounts of their enslavement in Egypt, the Exodus under Moses, the period of Joshua and the Judges, the reign of King David, the construction of Solomon's temple. Not nearly as familiar is the story of Ishmael and his offspring. Yet to under­stand today's complex events in the Middle East, we must know something about those peoples.
 

First, notice the circumstances of Ishmael's birth: Abram's wife Sarai was barren. Despairing of bearing children herself, Sarai suggested that Abram obtain an heir by Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid. Sarai would thus have a child by proxy. Abram agreed, and Hagar con­ceived a child (Gen. 16:1-4).

But friction soon developed be­tween Sarai and Hagar. Sarai began to treat Hagar harshly. When she could endure it no longer, Hagar fled into the desert. There God in­structed her to return to Sarai, promising, "I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be num­bered for multitude" (Gen. 16: 10).  God further informed Hagar: "Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael [meaning "God shall hear"]; because the Lord hath heard thy affliction. And he will be a wild man [Hebrew pere adam, literally, "a wild ass of a man"]; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren [literally, "he shall defy all his kinsmen"]" (verses 11-12).

Here is an important prophecy about the Arab peoples!

The phrase "a wild ass of a man" is not an insulting one. On the contrary, the wild ass was the "aristocrat" of animal life in the desert. It was the choicest beast of the hunt. It led a noble, free and untamed existence in the desert south and east of Canaan.

The description aptly befits the proud and free descendants of Ishmael, known for their wandering and sometimes lawless and free booting lifestyle. The Arabs' unconquerable love of liberty and in dependence is well known. And indeed, their hand has been frequently against those peoples who would deprive them of their free­doms. Throughout its long his­tory, Arab culture has successfully withstood all assaults, though po­litically the Arabs have at times found themselves temporarily un­der a foreign yoke. And they have defied their neighboring kins­men-and continue to do so to this day!

Hagar obeyed God's command to return and submit herself to Sarai. Soon afterwards she pre­sented Abram with a son. Abram was 86 years old (Gen. 16:15-16).  Thirteen years went by. During that time, ac­cording to Islamic tradi­tion, Abram and Ishmael built the cube-shaped shrine called the Kaaba (Ka'bah) at Mecca.  In later centuries, the Kaaba would become Is­lam's foremost holy place - the most sacred spot on earth - believed to rest directly beneath the heavenly throne of God. Muslims would turn their faces toward it during their five daily prayers, and visit it on the required pilgrimage or Hajj.

When Abram reached 99 years of age, God ap­peared to him (renaming him Abraham, meaning "father of many na­tions" and announced that his wife Sarai (henceforth to be called Sarah, meaning "prin­cess") would bear him a son!

Abraham and Sarah were incredulous. Moreover, Abraham had grown to love Ish­mael dearly, and desired that he be his heir and receive the birthright blessings. "0 that Ish­mael might live before thee!" Abraham entreated God (Gen. 17:18). But the birthright was de­nied to Ishmael.

God replied, "Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him" (Gen. 17:19). But God understood Abraham's concern for Ishmael's future, and assured him: "And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation" (verse 20; emphasis added).

After the birth of Isaac, Hagar and Ishmael were sent away at Sarah's insistence. "Cast out this bondwoman and her son," Sarah demanded (Gen. 21:10). The rea­son? Ishmael had mocked little Isaac at a feast celebrating his weaning (verse 9; see also Gal. 4:29). He had belittled whom the others were praising.
 

Ishmael's was not a spirit of im­placable hatred and murder against Isaac, simply one of envy and rivalry. Ishmael's position in the family had been radically altered by Isaac's birth. This had wounded his proud spirit, and provoked him to jealousy. Angered by his blighted hopes, Ishmael had resorted to insulting expressions of mockery.

Time has not softened this spirit of envy. Attitudes and his­torical perspectives are often transmitted by father to son from generation to generation. The ef­fects of the domestic rivalry in the household of Abraham are being felt to this day in the ongoing Arab-Israeli confrontation. Again today, rights and precedence have become issues between the de­scendants of Ishmael and Isaac.

Sarah was adamant that Ish­mael should not inherit along with Isaac. God instructed Abraham to do as Sarah desired, but he rea­ssured Abraham that "also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed" (Gen. 21:13).

Ishmael, too, was destined to become a great nation!

God looked after Ishmael, this half-Hebrew, half-Egyptian son of Abraham. "And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran [the Negev Desert]: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt" (verses 20-21).

Family Quarrel

In time, Ishmael became the fa­ther of 12 sons-Abraham's grandchildren-whose names are recorded in Genesis 25:13-16. (Muhammad, prophet of the Is­lamic faith in the seventh century A.D., would rightly claim descent from Ishmael's son Kedar.) Ish­mael also had a daughter, called Mahalath or Bashemath, who would later marry Esau, a grand­son of Abraham. The descendants of Ishmael and Esau would re­main closely associated through­out their history.  As God had foretold, a great people sprang from Ishmael. To­day's Arabs are the family of Ish­mael grown great!
 

The relationship between the Ishmaelite Arabs and the biblical Israelites is thus clear: Ishmael was the elder half-brother of Isaac, son of Abraham and Sarah. Isaac, in turn, had twin sons, Esau and Jacob. From Jacob-later re­named Israel-descended the Jews and the other tribes of Israel.
 

The Israelites and the Arabs are cousins!
 

Consider the additional fact that Edomites intermarried with the stocks of Ishmael and Canaan. The Edomites were descendants of Esau (who was also called Edom), the elder son of Isaac and Rebekah.

Earlier, when Jacob and Esau were yet in Rebekah's womb, "the children struggled together within her" (Gen. 25:22). God explained that "two nations are in thy womb" (verse 23) - the nations of Edom and Israel. Both brothers were destined to father a great nation.

As firstborn, Esau was the legal inheritor of the birthright, which fell to the eldest son in each gener­ation. But Esau undervalued it and sold it to Jacob for a bowl of red lentil soup (Gen. 25:28-34). Later, Jacob-disguising himself as Esau-tricked Isaac into be­stowing upon him the blessing confirming the birthright (Gen. 27). By this piece of deception, Jacob earned Esau's implacable anger. Bitterness and vengeance filled Esau's heart. "And Esau hated Jacob" (Gen. 27:41).

Forty centuries have not suf­ficed to wipe out the effects of this deep-seated enmity between Esau and Jacob! The two peoples have continued in their antagonism up to this present day!  Historically. the Edomites-especially the Amalekites, the chief tribe of the Edomites-have been bitter foes of Israel.
 

Significantly, descendants of Esau mingled and intermarried with Ishmaelites and their neigh­bors. As kinsmen, a close affinity existed between them. Some yes­hivas (rabbinical schools) in Israel today teach that the Palestinian Arabs-the most ardent adver­saries of the Israeli state-are Amalek. There may indeed be some validity to this notion, in view of the prophecy of conflict between Amalek and Israel from generation to generation (Ex. 17:16).

A mixture of Edomite with Ish­maelite in the Palestinian blood­line would shed further light on the ancient roots of today's bitter conflict over the land of Palestine.   East of the Jordan River the Moabites and Ammonites-descendants of the daughters of Lot, Abraham's nephew (Gen. 19:37­38)-also merged their interests with the Ishmaelites. The descen­dants of the ancient Moabites and Ammonites today live in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Another line with which the Ish­maelites intermarried was that of the Keturahites. Those peoples were descendants of Keturah, whom Abraham married after the death of Sarah. Abraham and Ke­turah had six sons (Gen. 25:2), some of whose progeny-which included the renowned Midianites-became closely associated with the house of Ishmael (Gen. 37:25-28; Judg. 8:22-24).

Geopoliticians have generally overlooked the part human nature plays in family quarrels. And as we have now seen, today's Middle Eastern conflict is a family squab­ble! This understanding gives the Arab-Israeli dispute a dimension of historical depth unrealized by most observers today.
 

Origin of the name Arab

Ishmael died at the age of 137 (Gen. 25:17). As God had promised, his 12 sons grew into "a great nation." In subsequent centuries, these Ishmaelites intermin­gled with related peoples living near them, as has been shown. But Ishmael was clearly the preemi­nent forefather of the Arab world.

Why, then, are not Ishmael's de­scendants called "Ishmaelis" or "Ishmaelites" today? How did the Ishmaelites acquire the name "Arab"?

The answer may come as a sur­prise: There were "Arabs" long be­fore Abraham and Ishmael!

The peninsula between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf was al­ready known as "Arabia" before Ishmael was born. The word "Arab" is derived from an ancient Semitic root meaning "west" or "dusk". It was first applied by the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia to designate the peoples to the west of the Euphrates val­ley. The same word can also mean "sterile," implying a desert region.

Thus, anyone who dwelt in the vast arid peninsula west and south of Babylonia came to be known as Aribi or Arabu -"Arabs"!

Arabian history begins with the life of the biblical Joktan, whom the Arabs call Kahtan or Qahtan.

In our modern 20th century, skeptics dismiss the Bible as myth and legend. In doing so, they dis­card the only accurate source of information about the origins of today's nations and peoples. No­tice what the Bible reveals about the family of Joktan and its rela­tionship to the Ishmaelites, sup­plemented by the careful records of Arab historians: Joktan was one of the sons of the patriarch Eber (Abir in Ara­bic), mentioned earlier as father of the Hebrews (Gen. 10:25). Arab scholars consider this Joktan the ultimate forefather of the southern Arabs, those living on or near the southern coast of the Arabian peninsula.

One of Joktan's 13 sons was Jerah (in Arabic, Yarab), men­tioned in Genesis 10-26.  Jerah is believed to have founded the kingdom of Yemen at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.  Jerah's brother Hadoram (Jorham to the Arabs) is believed to have founded the Hejaz, an im­portant kingdom along the west­ern coast of Arabia, where Jorhamite princes reigned until the days of Ishmael. (The holy Is­lamic cities of Mecca and Medina are located in this Hejaz region.) According to Arab genealogists, the daughter of a Jorhamite prince named Mudad later married Ish­mael. From that marriage was born Ishmael's illustrious son Kedar (Qaidar in Arabic). This marriage alliance bound tightly the destinies of the Ishmaelites and Jorhamites.
 

Kedar, in turn, was the ancestor of Adnan (or Qais), considered the progenitor of all the tribes claiming origin in northern Ara­bia. Adnan's line would become the more important family of the Arabs. Many descendants of Jok­tan would migrate into northern Arabia before the coming of Islam and intermarry with the more nu­merous Ishmaelites of Adnan's line. Adding even greater honor to this line, Arab genealogists would list Adnan as a forebear of the prophet Muhammad.

Thus, after making due al­lowance for intermarriage with Joktanites, Edomites and other re­lated stocks, the Arab peoples of today may still be regarded as largely an Ishmaelite race.

In Bible usage, the name Kedar is often employed as the collective name of the Arabs generally, as Kedar apparently had been the largest and most conspicuous of all the Ishmaelite tribes. The tribe's importance can be inferred from the mention of the rich "princes of Kedar" in Ezekiel 27:21 and elsewhere.

The prophet Isaiah, in his "bur­den [or proclamation] upon Ara­bia" (Isa. 21:13-17) prophesied the demise of the "glory of Kedar"-a reference to the inva­sion of Arabia by the Assyrian king Sargon in 716 B.c., during the wars between Egypt and Assyria. The glory of Kedar did fade, and the Arabs slipped for many cen­turies into obscurity.
 

Israel Scattered

Meanwhile, the tribes of Israel were also caught up in national up­heaval. The northern 10 tribes (called the "House of Israel") were taken into captivity by the Assyri­ans in the late eighth century B.C. and disappeared from history. Early in the sixth century B.C. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon over­ran the southern tribes (the "House of Judah" or Jews).  Jerusalem was captured and Solomon's Temple destroyed. The city was burned and its inhabitants carried to Babylon. Some decades later, the Persians per­mitted the Jews to re­turn to their homeland and rebuild the Temple and Jerusalem.

Later, Judah came within the orbit of the Roman Empire. In A.D. 70-about four decades after Jesus' crucifixion-Jeru­salem was again destroyed, by le­gions under the command of the Roman general Titus. Seeking to obliterate the Jewish identity of the land, the Romans changed its name to Palestine, derived from the Philistines (Peleste) who lived there in early times.

The Jewish people were dis­persed, driven from nation to na­tion, scattered over the known world, with no home of their own. But wherever they went, they car­ried with them an undying love for their Promised Land. For nearly 1,900 years, that land would be ruled by foreign governments. Those centuries of exile outside of Palestine would come to be known as the Diaspora or Dispersion.

Meanwhile, as the Holy Land lay under Roman and Byzantine rulers, the sons of Ishmael were growing in numbers and strength. The stage was being set for a ma­jor upheaval-a violent and unex­pected eruption of the Arabs out of their ancient desert homeland.
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Part Two - Banner of Islam
Through the period of the Medo-Persian kingdom and on into Roman times, the sons of Ishmael lived in semi-isolation from the rest of the world, breeding camels, goats and sheep in the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula and warring among themselves. Divided, they had little impact or influence on the world scene. When it came to religion, the Arabs were idol worshipers.

The great temple in Mecca-overseen by the high-ranking Koreish (or Quraysh)tribe-is said to have contained 365 idols, one for each day of the year. Mecca's main sources of revenue were the profitable pilgrimages to this ancient shrine.

At the beginning of the seventh century A.D.-nearly six     centuries after the death of Jesus the curtain again rises on Ishmael's descendants. Onto the stage strides the most illustrious of all Ishmael's progeny the prophet Muhammad. He was a member of the Hashemite family (Beni Hashim in Arabic) of the powerful Koreish tribe.  According to Muslim belief, the archangel Gabriel appeared to Muhammad at Mt. Hira near Mecca, first in A.D. 610, and imparted to him revealed wisdom from God. This and later revelations would be collected to form the Koran (Quran), the Islamic holy book.

Muhammad (meaning "highly praised") became a zealous and courageous preacher of monotheism-the belief in one God. The old Koreish aristocracy feared that Muhammad's new religion might threaten their leadership and cut into their revenues from the pilgrimages to the shrine of idols. Their plots against his life proved unsuccessful.

Despite stiff opposition,Muhammad succeeded in abolishing the idolatry that had long held sway over pagan Arabia and bringing his fellow Arabs a new monotheistic faith called Islam (meaning "submission to God"), based on belief in a single, allpowerful God, Allah.  (Islam is pronounced Is-LAM, stressing the last syllable. Allah, the Arabic word for God, is pronounced ahl-LAH, again placing stress on the final syllable. A follower of the Islamic faith is called a Muslim or Moslem, meaning "one who submits." Muslims should never be referred to as "Muhammadans," for this implies they worship Muhammad. Contrary to popular opinion, Muslims do not venerate Muhammad as a divine being, nor do they worship him in any way.)

Muhammad's preaching forged the divided Arab tribes into a   socially, culturally and religiously united people. Islam provided them for the first time with a powerful unifying force, making it possible for them to aspire to greatness as a nation.

The one-sentence Islamic creed, called the shahadah ("testimony"), summarizes the core of Muslim belief: La illaha ila Allah, wa Muhammadun rasul Allah" There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God." A solemn, heart-felt recitation of this profession of faith (just eight words in Arabic) is the sole requirement for becoming a Muslim.

 

800 Million Muslims!

In the eyes of his followers, Muhammad held a lofty office. He was the "Seal of the Prophets"the last and greatest in a series of messengers from God which had included Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus.

Muslims believe that Muhammad completed the work begun by his predecessors, bringing God's final and absolute word to all mankind. They claim he was the Paraclete or Comforter, whom Jesus prophesied would guide men into "all truth" (John 16:7, 13).  And through the centuries since Muhammad's death, multiple millions have believed this message!

Today's Islamic world encompasses more than 40 countries. Geographically, the Islamic world represents fully 15 percent of the world's land mass. There are over 800 million Muslims in the world today-one person in six!

Here is a power bloc that cannot be ignored-an enormous bloc with great potential influence, holding in its hands the economic fate of many nations. Today's much-publicized "Islamic revival"- a resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism-has sparked concern among Western observers who forsee enormous implications should hard-line Islamic conservatives gain further influence in the strategic Middle East region. Yes, even today-nearly 14 centuries after Muhammad-Islam remains a force to be reckoned with on the world's geopolitical and diplomatic fronts!

 

Unrealized by many in the West, the majority of Muslims are not Arabs. Islam was born among the Arabs, but it has spread far beyond Arab lands. In fact, over three fourths of the Islamic world lies outside the Arabic-speaking heartland!

Besides the Arabs, there are today hundreds of millions of nonArabic-speaking peoples who also follow the Muslim faith, including the inhabitants of Indonesia (the world's most populous Islamic nation, with 150 million Muslims), Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Turkey and Iran. Muslims in India number 82 million; in China, about 40 million.

Even in the Soviet Union, Islam is deeply entrenched. A Muslim population explosion in the Soviet Central Asian republics is becoming a major concern to Kremlin planners, worried over the implications of shifting ethnic balances. It is estimated by the early years of the 21st century, every second child born in the Soviet Union will be of Muslim parentage!

A survey of the turbulent history of Islam will be useful in showing how the stage was set for the crucial events of our 21st century-and for prophetic events that lie ahead.
 

Succession Crisis

The death of Muhammad (June 8, A.D. 632) came as an unexpected shock, and led to confusion and uncertainty within the Muslim community. The Prophet-master of the Arabian peninsula-had left no sons. Neither had he dictated a political or religious testament to provide clear guidelines for succession to the leadership of the Muslim Empire, by then fully one third the size of today's continental United States.

Muhammad's beloved first wife, Khadija, had given him two sons, Qasim and Abdullah, and four daughters: Zainab, Ruqayyah, Fatima and Umm Kulthum. But both sons had died in infancy, and of the daughters only one-the beautiful Fatima-had survived her father and produced children who lived. (None of the many wives Muhammad married after Khadija's death bore children who survived infancy.) It is thus through Fatima that all Muhammad's present-day descendants (who are called sharifs and sayyids) trace their descent.

Fatima's husband was Ali ibn Abi Talib, Muhammad's first cousin and adopted son. In the early days of the faith, the teenaged Ali had been the Prophet's second convert to Islam after Khadija, Muhammad's wife.

Ali and Fatima had two sons, Hasan and Hussein (Husain). These were Muhammad's only grandchildren, and he was profoundly devoted to them. He called them his "two precious plants," the chief treasures of his life. At Muhammad's death they were but six or seven years old.

Many Arabs felt that Ali - nearest in blood to the Prophet - should succeed Muhammad as head of the Muslims. He was. after all, Muhammad's adopted son. son-in-law, cousin and the father of the Prophet's only grandchildren. But other Arabs supported alternate candidates, men of wealth and position in the Koreish tribe.
 

Clearly, someone had to take charge. But who?

After much disputation. a wealthy Meccan cloth merchant named Abu Bekr was elected. A devout and humble man, Abu Bekr had been the Prophet's closest friend and adviser. One of the first to believe in the new religion, Abu Bekr had been the Prophet's sole companion on the Hijra (anglicized as Hegira), Muhammad's epoch-making camel-back flight from hostile Mecca to Medina in A.D. 622. The Hijra had marked the start of Islam as a world force, and from that event Muslims date time.

(To Muslims, the year A.D. 622 is A.H. 1 [Latin, anno hegirae, "in the year of the hijra."] The Islamic calendar is based on a lunar year of 354 or 355 days. Because a lunar year is eleven days shorter than a solar year, Islamic months gradually "move" through the Gregorian calendar, working their way backward through the seasons. As a result, conversion    tables must be consulted to determine corresponding "A.D." years for the Islamic "A.H." years.)

Moreover, Abu Bekr had been appointed to take the place of the Prophet as leader of public prayer during Muhammad's last illness. And he was the father of Muhammad's favorite wife, the beautiful black-eyed Ayesha.

Abu Bekr thus assumed the leadership of the Muslim community, succeeding to Muhammad's political and administrative functions. He was accorded the title Khalifah rasul Allah, "Successor to the Messenger of God." (The title is usually anglicized as "caliph.") He successfully consolidated the support of the tribes within the Arabian peninsula.

Ali-Fatima's husband was bypassed, to the chagrin of his supporters.

With Abu Bekr's election began the historic institution of the Islamic Caliphate (the office or dominion of a caliph). It would endure nearly 1,300 years, until abolished in March, 1924, by the Turkish Republic. The caliph was Head of State of the Muslim community, successor to the temporal (secular) authority of the Prophet. (As the "seal" or last of the  prophets, Muhammad could have no spiritual successor.)

Commander of the Faithful

Just before his death, Abu Bekr appointed Omar ibn al-Khattab as his successor. Caliph Omar (also spelled Umar) was the first to assume the illustrious title Amir alMuminin, "Commander of the Faithful." It was during Omar's decade-long reign that the first great wave of Islamic territorial expansion occurred. The children of Ishmael began to push outward from their ancient desert homeland.  Early in the seventh century A.D., much of the known world was divided between two great rival powers. To the north and west of Arabia was the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire, centered at Constantinople (Byzantium). The Byzantine Empire controlled Asia Minor and much of North Africa and the Near East. To the northeast of Arabia was Byzantium's longtime adversary, the Sasanid Empire of Persia.

Byzantium and Persia were the two "superpowers" of the day. But the protracted rivalry between them had sapped their strength.

Exhausted by long and destructive conflicts, the two warring monarchies had become "sitting ducks" for the vigorous new Islamic power storming out of the trackless deserts of Arabia.

An able general and superb strategist, Caliph Omar proved a formidable foe against both empires. To cries of Allahu Akbar! ("God is Great!")-the Islamic call to arms-camel-mounted Arab warriors swept with lightning speed into vulnerable neighboring territories, carrying the Divine Word-and the sword.
 

Not since the days of Alexander the Great had such swift and far reaching conquests been seen. The world marvelled at the astonishing vitality of these scimitar-wielding followers of a deceased Arab prophet. The new religion of Islam was in the full strength of its youth. "The Believers smote and slaughtered till the going down of the sun," recorded one early Arab historian, "and the fear of the Arabs fell upon all kings." Even the Arabs themselves were astonished at the rapidity of their conquests.
 

And a century of conquest lay yet ahead!
 

Neighboring lands fell like dominoes. Syria and Palestine were taken in 635-6. Iraq was next to succumb, in 637. Egypt and Persia (Iran) were brought under Muslim rule by 641. Muslim armies moved relentlessly on toward ever-distant horizons. Onceinvincible armies fell like ripe fruit before the saber of Allah. Arabia moved into the forefront of history.

As Yazdegerd, the Sasanid Persian emperor, faced oncoming Muslim forces, he declared to the Arabian ambassadors in a now-famous exchange: "I have seen and known many nations, but none so miserable as you! Mice and serpents are your food! How dare you call upon me to surrender and worship your God when it is evident that you have been driven to your exploits not by the desire for Paradise, but by hunger for bread and dates?"

To this the Arab ambassadors replied: "It is true, we were miserable men; but God took pity on us and sent us a Prophet who taught us to value men not according to their wealth or arrogant nobility but according to their rectitude before God and his commandments.... We are poor, and we have come to cast our poverty on you, stripping you of all your goods in the name of the one true God."   When his capital, Ctesiphon, was occupied by the Arabs, Yazdegerd fled and was slain.
 

Possibly the greatest prize of all in the eyes of the Muslims was the conquest of Jerusalem, early in 638. Called Al-Kuds-"the Holy"-by the Arabs, Jerusalem is the third holiest city of Islam after Mecca (Muhammad's birthplace and site of the Kaaba) and Medina (Muhammad's burial site). It was from Jerusalem that Muhammad is said to have ascended to heaven by night on his winged steed, Burak. And Muslims believe it was there that Abraham (Ibrahim) had prepared to sacrifice Ishmael (not Isaac, as in Jewish and Christian belief).

After 10 years of conquest, the caliphate of Omar met an abrupt end. In November, 644, while leading prayers in the mosque of Medina, Omar-Commander of the Faithful-was assassinated by a Persian slave. A body of electors bestowed the caliphate on Othman ibn Affan, an early convert to Islam and a close companion of  the Prophet. Again, Ali's claim to rulership was rejected.
 

It was during Othman's 12-year reign (A.D. 644-656) that the Koran was completed in its present form. Eighteen years earlier, many of the best Koran reciters-those who knew the scriptures by heart-had fallen in battle. Fearing that the knowledge of the Koran might be lost, Caliph Abu Bekr had ordered the scholar Zayd ibn Thabit to collect the sacred verses from all available sources. Zayd copied down on sheets whatever he could find at the time.

In subsequent years, many diverse texts and variant versions had appeared in different parts of the Islamic empire. To erase all doubt as to the correct reading, Othman resolved to establish an official version. In 651 he asked Zayd to head a learned committee to produce an authoritative written version by comparing all the available written source materials and consulting the "living texts" (i.e., Koran reciters). By this means an official text, today known as the "Othmanic recension," was established.

Muslims believe the Koran (meaning "reading" or "recitation") to be the final revelation of God, for all times and all peoples, superseding all previous revelations (including the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures-the Bible) and correcting the alleged errors and textual corruptions that had crept into Christianity and Judaism.

The Koran is, to Muslims, the literal Word of God (Kalimat Allah). Its author, they believe, was God himself, not Muhammad. In length the Koran is about the size of the Christian New Testament. It consists of 114 chapters or suras. The first words of the Koran are Bism'illah ir-Rahman irRahim-"In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate."

Othman was assassinated in Medina, the seat of the caliphate, in June, 656. His death was significant in that it marked the start of open religious and political conflicts within the Islamic community.
 

Origin of the Shiites

With the passing of Othman, leadership of the Faithful fell, at last, to Muhammad's aging son-in-law, Ali. During the reigns of the first three caliphs, Ali had lived in quiet retirement as a religious scholar. Now the high-risk office devolved to him.

By his longtime supporters, Ali was regarded as the first rightful caliph. Most Muslims accepted him as the fourth caliph. Others bitterly opposed his succession.

Ali's caliphate was plagued by continual uprisings and rebellions. The five tragic years of his reign ended in his assassination by a fanatic. Muawiya, head of the Omayyad (or Umayyad) branch of the Koreish tribe and nephew of the late Caliph Othman, immediately assumed the leadership of Islam, wresting the office from the sons of Ali.

This development brought to a head the longstanding dispute over the right to leadership. Some Muslims continued to maintain that the leadership of Islam had to remain within the family of Muhammad. They asserted that Ali and his descendants only had the right to rule. These supporters of Ali's family were called the Shiat Ali ("party of Ali"), or Shiites for short. (They are also called Shiis or Shiahs.)

The majority of Muslims, however, believed that a leader could be chosen from among all qualified candidates, regardless of their ancestry. This majority became known as Sunni Muslims-a reference to the sunna, the "path" or "way" of the Prophet, the orthodox code of Islamic practice based on Muhammad's acts and sayings. Unlike the Shiites, the Sunnis have historically accepted the temporal authority of the caliphs.

The more numerous and powerful Sunnis won out, and the minority Shiites grudgingly endured the rule of the Sunni "usurper" caliphs who were not of Muhammad's bloodline through Ali and Fatima. But the Shiites did not abandon belief in the preeminence of Ali's family.

Then, in 680, Ali's son Hussein-Muhammad's grandson and 72 of his relatives were massacred by foes of Ali's family at Karbala (in modern Iraq). The bloody incident triggered an uproar in the Muslim world.

It was a black day for the Shiites-but now they had a martyr. Nurtured by Hussein's blood, the Shiite sect would grow in number and resolve, laying up a store bitterness that would be drawn upon time and again in succeeding centuries.

Since that time, numerous political, theological, philosophical, and ritual differences have further widened the breach between Sunni and Shiite, though they agree on almost all the basic essentials of Islam. Of the 800 million Muslims in the world today 85 percent-about 680 millionare Sunnis. Fifteen percent-120 million-are Shiites. Shiism, turn, has split into an array subsects and offshoots.
Shiite communities are sprinkled throughout the Muslim world. Shiites are most heavily concentrated in non-Arab Iran. Shiites are also found in large numbers in southern Iraq. In multifaith Lebanon the Shiites-with a million members-constitute the largest religious community.

Though known for their fiery enthusiasm, the majority of the world's Shiites are not terrorists as many in the West seem to believe. Ruthless, religiously motivated violence is limited to a frustrated minority and is repudiated by most Shiites. Westerners, Muslims urge, should not judge the followers of Islam by their worst examples.  

 

Golden Age of Islam

The supreme office of caliph, originally elective, soon became hereditary-first in the Omayyad family (from A.D. 661 to 750) and later in the Abbasid family (750 to 1258). The dynamic Omayyad dynasty of caliphs, ruling from Damascus, was responsible for the conquest of the remainder of North Africa and most of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal).

In the East, Omayyad armies swept over Central Asia toward India and China.  In less than 100 years, the Omayyads had built an empire larger than that of Rome at its height. Millions were added into the fold of the Islamic faith.

It was also during the Omayyad period that the world-renowned "Dome of the Rock" was constructed in Jerusalem (between 688 and 691) by the Omayyad caliph Abd al-Malik. A half-century earlier-shortly after the conquest of Jerusalem by Caliph Omar in 638-a modest place of worship had been erected on the site previously occupied by the Second Temple. But Omar's small mosque was only the forerunner of this larger structure-Abd alMalik's magnificent "Dome of the Rock" (Qubbat as-Sakhrah), still standing today after 13 centuries. The oft-heard name "Mosque of Omar" is thus inaccurately applied to the current structure.

The subsequent Abbasid Dynasty, ruling from opulent Baghdad on the Tigris River, consisted of 37 caliphs. Among them was the famous Harun ar-Rashid (786-809) of Arabian Nights fame, who enjoyed friendly relations with the Frankish ruler Charlemagne. The first two or three centuries of Abbasid rule marked the "Golden Age" of Islamic culture and literature. Arabs kept the torch of knowledge burning throughout their far-flung domains.  Islamic scholars excelled in mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, geography and medicine.

But eventually the flame died.

Increasingly, the Abbasid caliphs grew soft, abandoning themselves to leisure and sensual pleasure. The dynasty fell into stagnation and decay. Cracks began to appear in the empire's

fiber. The deterioration of central authority led inevitably to a breakdown of the political solidarity of the Muslim world, and its disintegration into autonomous or semi-autonomous states.  The unity of Islam was shattered.
 

During the first few centuries after the death of Muhammad, Islam had been politically united as a single world empire, extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indus River. With the collapse of the Abbasid caliphate, those glory days became but a vague memory. Despite a deep and abiding desire among Muslims to re-create the political and theological unity of the early Islamic caliphate, all such efforts have, to date, met with utter failure.

Finally, in 1258, the Mongols under Hulagu Khan sacked
Bagh dad and murdered the city's last Abbasid caliph. For a time, the foot of the Mongols lay on the neck of Islam.

 

Cross vs. Crescent

It was during the waning years of the Abbasid caliphate-on July 15, 1099, to be exact-that Jerusalem was wrested from Islam by Christian-professing Crusaders from Europe. It was the beginning of a long and debilitating contest between the Christian West and the Muslim East.

Amid cries of Deus le vult-"God wills it!"the Crusaders slaughtered the holy city's defenders and inhabitants in a frenzy of carnage virtually unparalleled in history. In their lust for blood, the spirit of Christ was forgotten. "Christians" pillaged, raped and enslaved. Through the blood of the conquered, the Crusaders came at last to pray at the Holy Sepulchre. The Dome of the Rock was converted into a Christian Church, called Templum Domini-"Temple of our Lord."

The Western world rejoiced. Jerusalem was regained for Christianity! But the grisly European victory triggered immediate Muslim counter-campaigns to recover the city and its Dome of the Rock from the Christian "infidels," as they were labeled.

The Muslim leader who succeeded in retaking Jerusalem from the Crusaders was the great Saladin (Salah ad-Din, meaning "Righteousness of the Faith"), the medieval Sultan of Egypt and Syria. Saladin proclaimed jihad, or holy war, to retake Palestine for the Muslim world. His campaign was successful.

It was a major blow to Christendom. After nearly nine decades in the hands of the Crusaders Jerusalem surrendered to Saladin's Muslim army on October 2 1187. The golden cross surmounting the Dome of the Rock was torn down. But in stark contrast to the terrible carnage of the Christian-professing Crusaders late in the previous century, the compassionate Saladin-called the "chivalrous enemy" by European treated both the defeated Crusaders and the city's civilian population with exemplary mercy and kindness.

Jerusalem was back in Muslin hands. Christendom's loss of the holy city again roused Europe The monumental Third Crusade (1189-1192) was mounted in an attempt to free Jerusalem from Saladin's army. Despite the valiant efforts of England' Richard the Lion-Heart and others, the Crusaders were unable to retake the holy city. A truce was concluded with Saladin that granted access to the Holy Sepulchre to Christian