The Indian Historical Period - Essay Example

In the hundreds of years between A.D. 632 and 732 the Arabs succeeded in conquering a tremendous area of the world surface, the Arab empire extended from southern France and Spain eastward along the shore of North Africa to the Near East and beyond to Central Asia and the Indus river. Fully half of the old Roman Empire fell under Arab control, and the entire areas of the ancient near eastern civilization were united once again. The Arabs did not destroy or significantly damage the society and culture which they found in those regions, but they did transform both, (McNeill, 1986) Varghese, (2008) argues that the Arabic language became a medium of literary communication throughout the areas which the Arabs conquered and in a relatively short time, Arabic displaced other tongues as the everyday speech of the population over most of North Africa and the Near East. Thought and learning flourished; trade and industry prospered; a brilliant and graceful civilization arose beside which Western Europe seemed barbarous and even Byzantium paled. According to McNeill (1986), the immediate stimulus to the Arab expansion was the appearance of a new religion; Mohammed was a native of the city of Mecca and as a young man, he made his living as a camel driver and petty trader and on his travels he picked up a smattering of Jewish and Christian religious ideas. He acknowledged the prophets of the Old Testament and Jesus of Nazareth as worthy predecessors of his own prophetic mission and as such prophets that he recognized had received divine plans for men but with time misunderstanding and corruption crept in. As one of the renowned leaders, Mohammed simply claimed to correct and restore the revelation of God and just after his death; his teachings were set forth, cast in poetic form, written down and became the Koran – a sacred book of the Moslem religion. On a political perspective, Mohammed’s preaching won a few converts at first but in A.D. 622, the neighboring city of medina invited him and his followers to come marking the beginning of a rapid success for the new religion. In a short period, he became the effective ruler of medina and by the time of his death, he had control of his native city, Mecca, and united most of the Arabs under the banner of the new religion. After his death, the expansion continued at a rapid rate and a series of prophetic successors united the Arab tribesmen for great raids into Syria and Mesopotamia. It was within an amazingly short time that they stripped the Byzantine empire of its eastern provinces and completely conquered the Persian empire; during the following generations, (Sowell, 2004). In the east the Arab expansion continued at a similarly rapid rate extending into India and the oases of central Asia. After A.D. 750 the capital fixed as Bagdad in Mesopotamia; but very soon sectarian differences became acute, outlying districts began to break loose from central control and a series of independent and often warring states, sometimes divided by a hard-fought religious differences gradually arose throughout the Arab world, (Varghese, 2008) The film Lawrence of Arabia depicts Lawrence's experiences in Arabia during World War I, in particular his attacks on Aqaba and Damascus and his involvement in the Arab National Council, the persuasive powers that come with being the leader of a powerful local tribe is depicted. The propagated themes include Lawrence's emotional struggles with the personal violence inherent in war, his own identity, and his divided allegiance between his native Britain and its army and his newfound comrades within the Arabian Desert tribes. The film brings about the persuasive nature of the Arabic leadership that can be traced back in the historical periods that enabled the conquering of the Arab world. On the other hand, being the general leader comes with the sole decision making privileges that may involve in justified murders in the Arabic traditions. As well, the social and economic perspectives of the Arab communities can be said to have been brought about by the rapidity of Arab conquest made possible by the fact that they displaced only a small ruling class. Their liberal policies towards the conquered population actually made the Arabs welcome the vast majority of the inhabitants of the near east. In general, the Arabs maintained the social and governmental system which existed before their advent as the city life flourished as trade extended a net from India and china to Spain and Africa. Renewed trade allowed a number of important inventions to spread westward, where they were in due course taken over by Europeans; chief among them were Arabic numerals derived from India as in addition the compass, block printing and fireworks were all known to the Arabs probably borrowing from the Chinese, (Zahlan, 2012). The industrial traditions of the ancient world were preserved and elaborated by Arab craftsmen who comprised muslin, damascene steel, apricots, tariffs and algebra that betray their Arabic derivation into English versions. Much of the Arabic culture is depicted in the film Lawrence of Arabia, and the work of philosophy and science up to the period of World War I seems to be a traditional narrative; Lawrence is able to unite various desert factions, the movie argues, as he is so obviously an outsider that he cannot even understand, let alone take sides with, the various ancient rivalries. On the other hand, because he is able to show the Arabs that it is in their own self-interest to join the war against the Turks, he is seen as the uniting factor of the Arab communities in the conquest efforts. Along the way he makes allies of such desert leaders as Sheriff Ali, Prince Feisal, and Auda Abu Tayi both by winning their respect and by appealing to their logic which serves as the main effort towards the creation of a strong Arabic empire for the purposes of trade and protection. References McNeill, W. H. (1986). History of Western civilization: A handbook. Chicago: University. of Chicago. Sowell, K. H. (2004). The Arab world: An illustrated history. New York: Hippocrene Books. Varghese, A. P. (2008). India: History, religion, vision and contribution to the world. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors. Zahlan, A. B. (2012). Science, development, and sovereignty in the Arab world. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Read More