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The following three phases are the
foundation for social and diplomatic Arab History, and the nucleus
of Arab expansion, thought and culture.
1- The phase of Ignorance and High Literature. (750 B.C.-634 A.D.)
The three phases of Arab history made a coherent philosophy and a
literary continuity for Arab learning and culture, beginning with
the first phase of the Age of Ignorance and High Literature. That
was the age of tribal Arab nationalism when that national spirit was
based on the sacred foundation of the tribe, on its origin and
kinship, and on its honor and dignity. The tribes fought each other
for these same reasons and objectives, and the poets and men of
literature then wrote in defense of these same sacred reasons and
objectives. Many tribal knights and warriors died in defense of
their tribes, and many tribal States or Kingdoms grew and developed
in South Arabia and succeeded each other in the struggle for
supremacy, and all flourished on agriculture and trade in the region
of northern Arab Tribes on the Peninsula's Red Sea coast all the way
to the Mediterranean shores.
The tribal kingdoms of those Arabs reminds us of the ancient city
States of Greece and of those medieval City States in Italy. In each
of those locations these States or Kingdoms were centers of culture,
trade and international commerce. They were organized and
independent governments; there met men of literature who produced
unmatched literary products, and they had armies to defend them and
their seat of government. These tribal States fought each other for
whatever cause there was. Their knights fought on Arabian horses and
using the Yamani swords. These tribes also gathered annually for a
literature competition in Souk Okath to compete with each other for
the finest orations or poems by men of literature represented in the
Seven Odes which were and still are of the highest Arab literary
production and which compelled me to give it the name ‘The age of
Ignorance and High Literature.’
It was called the Age of Ignorance because the People were
paganistic and worshiped many idols. I am adding ‘High Literature’
because of the high literary production ever produced in that space
of time, and on the belief that authors of all kinds of literary
production misinterpreted and mistreated that age. This phase of
Arab history began after the fall of the last civilization of our
kinsmen, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Chaldians, the
Phoenicians and Cananites, to whom we are indebted and stand as
representatives, and we connect this to Christianity and the rise of
the two Christian Arab Kingdoms, the Ghassanids and Montherits.
2- The Phase of Christianity and The Monarchy
(First Century A.D. to 650 A.D.)
This second phase of Arab history survived as Christian Arab
monarchies in both Syria and Iraq for approximately six centuries.
Those were Christians in religion and Arabs in conviction, and were
neighbors to the Christians of Rome and Byzantine. Their conviction
was separated from their religion of Christianity in running and
administering the affairs of their states, for Christianity was
already spread and already settled by then. Their relation with Arab
tribes of the Peninsula were based on good kinsfolk relation and
with mutual understanding. The Arab tribes had political and
military respect and awareness for these two monarchies, the
Ghassanids in Syria, the Montherits in Iraq.
Their spirit of nationalism was Arabic in its forms and functions,
it was represented in the person of the king in both kingdoms. It
was an upstage in the science of politics and a fine grade of
monarchy and one of the finest advancements in the history of the
Arabs. It was an age of enlightenment and of justice. It was a time
of growth and development in all fields of study. Schools were
opened and great teachers and philosophers lectured on students of
boys and girls who came to study in their separate schools. The
royal courts were opened for poets from inside and outside the
kingdoms, and most of all from the Arab tribes of the Arabian
Peninsula. And religiously those Christian Arabs belonged to the
Syrian Church, to either the Jacobites or Nestorians, and those
tried to Christianize the Arabs and had already missionary posts
spread all over the region.
These two Arab Kingdoms were secular in their make-up and behavior,
and this secularity of the state in both kingdoms was organized
properly and administrated well. On this secularity, they based
their relations with their southern Arab neighbors, and as well with
the Roman, Byzantine and Persian Empires. From these Empires they
acquired the administration of the state, the government set-up and
function, the system of education and became part of these
civilizations of these same Empires, but remained Arab in soul and
spirit, and preserved the ideals of Arab nationalism and Arab
culture and their influence endured throughout the Ummayyad Empire.
Those Christian Arabs of Ghassanids and Montherits were brothers and
came from the largest Arab tribe of Qahtan, they relate to the Arab
tribes of Aws and Kazraj. Also they and the Christians of the
ancient Semites were parents of those translators, men of medicine
and sciences, and of the learned in all fields of study, meaning,
the great scholars to whom Muawiyah Ibn Abu Suffian, builder of the
Arab Umayyad Empire, entrusted the administration of the state and
enrichment of its culture and learning process. On the shoulder of
those Christians, Muawiyah, this king and caliph and his successors,
built the foundation of the Arab Golden Age which reached its zenith
in the days of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Ma'moun.
All of those ancient Semites who built great Empires converted to
Christianity, and too, from their kin, the Arabs converted to Islam
and earlier a very few converted to Judaism. This phase ended
politically when the Arabs defeated the three existing empires of
Rome, Byzantine and Persia. Literally the impact of this phase
extended throughout the Arab Empire, and it is felt at present in
the transformation of Arab nationalism and modern Arab literature
and philosophy.
3- The phase of Islam and the Caliphate
(632-1798)
The advent of Islam in Arabia unified and strengthened the Arabs.
They joined under one Arab Caliph and all under the banner of tribal
traits, Arab nationalism and the spirituality of the new religion of
Islam. Thus the Arab Muslim armies advanced to both Syria and Iraq
and defeated the Byzantines and Persians, and brought to an end the
two Christian Arab Kingdoms of the Ghassanid and Montherits.
Meanwhile, and in this ‘Phase of Islam and the Caliphate’,
nationalism was based on Islam, it was religious nationalism and
tribal too, and this only time was combined with Arab nationalism
and Arab convictions, and for that genuine combination and reason
proved to be working well and very advantageous to the new Arab
conquerors.
Nevertheless, beginning with the Umayyad Caliph Muawiyah, the spirit
of Arab nationalism became strongly entrenched in the whole system
of this greatest period of Arab history and Arab glory. Muawiyah was
a real Arab Caliph and the Ummayads built a vast Arab Empire and
Arab national spirit grew and developed proportionately and Arab
nationalism was motto and banner of this united happy Empire. But
history has its own mysteries and unpredictable events which may
lead to different and opposite directions and to new growth and
developments. Now with the Umayyads being Arabs and the spirit of
their nationalism being Arab too, the Abbasids had no national
ground to build on their power, they looked, therefore, for and used
the religious issue solely as their nationalism in building their
caliphate and thus acquiring power by appealing to Muslims of
non-Arab origin.
The Abbasid replaced the Arab Ummayad Caliphate in 750 A.D. when
they slaughtered the Ummayads near Jaffa in Palestine. Religious
nationalism took course in Christian Europe in medieval times and as
far as the seventeenth century, and took national and international
forms throughout these centuries of religious wars and persecutions.
The Abbasids used religious nationalism to come to power through the
same nationalism which caused their coming to power, meaning as the
foreign Muslims who were not Arabs had helped them earlier to build
their Abbasid Caliphate. Those destroyed and divided the caliphate,
too was destroyed the nucleus of the Arab nation, its spirit of Arab
nationalism and its advanced learning process and high culture. The
Arab people were intoxicated and their land was flatly opened to the
many savage conquerors who humiliated the Arab personality and
destroyed Arab civilization, for they were non-Arabs and used the
governing system to suit their interests and that was all they
worked for. The spirit of Arab nationalism was put to death, the
boundaries of the Empire were dislocated and were unprotected from
all invaders of all sorts of people. They were Persians, Mongols and
their tribes of Seljuk Turks, the Kurdish, the Crusaders, and
thereafter the Ottoman Turks who also were from the Mongol race, and
who ruled and oppressed the Arab people of other races used to rule
the Arab people, destroying their identity and their national entity
and convictions and subduing them for hundreds of years leaving Arab
minds asleep and unconscious from an intolerable anaesthetic
inhalation which reversed the Arab forward march.
But years later and encouraged by the weakness of Turkey, the
European nations began dividing its domain and destiny, and the
spirit of Arab nationalism began to revive. It was only in 1798 when
another mystery of history brought with it the Napoleonic expedition
to Egypt and Syria carrying in its folds the seeds of Liberty,
Equality and Fraternity of the French Revolution of 1798, and the
teaching of Rousseau, Voltaire and Montesquieu, and the Declaration
of the Rights of Man, and later but not last the Napoleonic Code of
Laws. All of these principles of the expedition grew and developed
in both Egypt and Syria, and developed too the spirit of Arab
nationalism represented in the person of King Hussain I, King of the
Arabs and the champion of the the Great Arab Revolution. This growth
of Arab nationalism began gradually shaking Turkish rule in the
area, and by the end of the first World War Britain and France
replaced Turkey and thereafter British mandated policy in Palestine
created the chronic Arab - Israeli conflict at a time when most of
the Arab states were free and independent, and Arab nationalism
began and still is coping with internal and international problems
due to foreign challenges and conspiracies, for these external
powers fear Arab unity and solidarity as an outcome and as a fact.
Therefore these challenges and conspiracies may continue taking
different profiles and dress to suit the time and space, and
simultaneously Arab nationalism may define and refine itself to suit
time and space and remains fully alert in the course of events.
Modern Arab movements and parties represent this fact. And before
ending, we should also remember that the expedition of Napoleon to
Egypt and Syria in 1789, and its cultural and legal impact revived
the spirit of Arab nationalism based on Arab convictions and Arab
historical background and heritage, and consequently the Arabs began
the search and formulation of the Arab personality and its
historical national identity.
Interpretation of the contents of these three phrases will always
extend through Arab history and will always revolve around it, but
the spirit of Arab nationalism will always be the victorious and the
only dominant factor in Arab societies all the way. Culturally, the
second phase remained the basic ground for Arab learning throughout
the centuries, for it was rich in all human endeavors and fields of
study and appealing to Arab mind and spirit. The Arab of the third
phase entrusted its scheme and programs, and remained faithful to
them. However, from then until now and perhaps for tomorrow, the
Arab world may remain divided as it is for sometime to come. But it
is my sincere hope to see a positive Arab approach towards
cooperation and unity upcoming, so that Arabs build again as a
highly cultural theatre for the benefit of Humanity and peace in the
world.
By Dr. Wajih I.
Saadeh - An Arab American Scholar -
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