What was the world like when Islam came into being.

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5697

Is it possible to capture and slice time and visualise what was the state of the world then.

Here is a bit of a background.

http://www.islamicity.com/educati...estination=/education/ihame/1.asp

THE MESSAGE:

In or about the year 570 the child who would be named Muhammad and who would become the Prophet of one of the world's great religions, Islam, was born into a family belonging to a clan of Quraysh, the ruling tribe of Mecca, a city in the Hijaz region of northwestern Arabia.

Originally the site of the Ka'bah, a shrine of ancient origins, Mecca had with the decline of southern Arabia (see Chapter l ) become an important center of sixth-century trade with such powers as the Sassanians, Byzantines, and Ethiopians. As a result the city was dominated by powerful merchant families among whom the men of Quraysh were preeminent.

Muhammad's father, 'Abd Allah ibn'Abd al-Muttalib, died before the boy was born; his mother, Aminah, died when he was six. The orphan was consigned to the care of his grandfather, the head of the clan of Hashim. After the death of his grandfather, Muhammad was raised by his uncle, Abu Talib. As was customary, Muhammad as a child was sent to live for a year or two with a Bedouin family. This custom, followed until recently by noble families of Mecca, Medina, Tayif, and other towns of the Hijaz, had important implications for Muhammad. In addition to enduring the hardships of desert life, he acquired a taste for the rich language so loved by the Arabs, whose speech was their proudest art, and learned the patience and forbearance of the herdsmen, whose life of solitude he first shared and then came to understand and appreciate.

About the year 590, Muhammad, then in his twenties, entered the service of a widow named Khadijah as a merchant actively engaged with trading caravans to the north. Sometime later Muhammad married Khadijah, by whom he had two sons - who did not survive - and four daughters.

During this period of his life Muhammad traveled widely. Then, in his forties he began to retire to meditate in a cave on Mount Hira outside of Mecca, where the first of the great events of Islam took place. One day, as he sat in the cave, he heard a voice, later identified as that of the Angel Gabriel, which ordered him to:

Recite: In the name of thy Lord who created, Created man from a clot of blood.

Three times Muhammad pleaded his inability to do so, but each time the command was repeated. Finally, Muhammad recited the words of what are now the first five verses of the 96th surah or chapter of the Quran - words which proclaim God the Creator of man and the Source of all knowledge.

At first Muhammad divulged his experience only to his wife and his immediate circle. But as more revelations enjoined him to proclaim the oneness of God universally, his following grew, at first among the poor and the slaves, but later also among the most prominent men of Mecca. The revelations he received at this time and those he did so later are all incorporated in the Quran, the Scripture of Islam.

Photo: The sun rises over Jabal al-Rahmah, the Mount of Mercy, where Muhammad in his farewell sermon told the assembled Muslims, "I have delivered God's message to you and left you with a clear command: the Book of God and the practice of His Prophet. If you hold fast to this you will never go astray."

Not everyone accepted God's message transmitted through Muhammad. Even in his own clan there were those who rejected his teachings, and many merchants actively opposed the message. The opposition, however, merely served to sharpen Muhammad's sense of mission and his understanding of exactly how Islam differed from paganism. The belief in the unity of God was paramount in Islam; from this all else followed. The verses of the Quran stress God's uniqueness, warn those who deny it of impending punishment, and proclaim His unbounded compassion to those who submit to His will. They affirm the Last Judgment, when God, the Judge, will weigh in the balance the faith and works of each man, rewarding the faithful and punishing the transgressor. Because the Quran rejected polytheism and emphasized man's moral responsibility, in powerful images, it presented a grave challenge to the worldly Meccans

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5697

Let us jump to America at that period.

http://www.earth-history.com/America/index.htm

500 AD - 1000 AD
Permanent settlements increase in number and size, probably the result of greater contact with peoples from the north—Mesoamerica—and the south—Colombia in northern South America. Trade and communication networks appear to be well established. Impressive quantities of luxury goods in elite burials indicate growing distinctions of social class, with a concentration of valued objects in fewer hands. Several new polychrome ceramic styles appear. Jade and greenstone carvings, important status markers for over a thousand years in north-central Costa Rica, cease to be made, and gold, abundant in alluvial deposits in the region's rivers, becomes the preferred material for the manufacture of prestige items.

Events
• ca. 500 Goldworking is fully established in the region and gold objects remain locally significant until the coming of Europeans in the mid-sixteenth century.

Polychrome ceramic traditions begin to blossom in many regions of both Costa Rica and Panama. Bowls, jars, ollas, and figurines are colored in vivid yellows, reds, oranges, maroons, and blacks.

• ca. 550 A.D. The populations of the islands of the Greater Antilles—Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, and Cuba—are increasing. The islands have been inhabited by people who centuries, perhaps millennia, earlier migrated from various mainland locations in Mexico and northern South America.

• ca. 600 Improved stone carving techniques lead to extraordinary detail on Costa Rican effigy metates (grinding tables). Complex human, animal, and composite beings, often part of multifigure scenes, embellish the stone "tables." The metates go out of favor by about 900 A.D.

The boldly drawn Conte polychrome ceramics of central Panama feature creatures that may relate to myths, shamanism, or cosmology.

Worked jade from the Maya area is traded to Costa Rica, where it is recarved.

• ca. 700 A shift in house shape away from the preferred rectangular plan to circular dwellings, as seen in the site of La Fábrica in the central highlands of Costa Rica, is thought to be evidence of contact with Colombia to the south.

Along Panama's Parita River, an important cemetery comes into use at a center today known as El Hatillo. Many spectacular gold objects—embossed plaques, flange-footed frogs, bat- and saurian-human figure pendants—come from its burials.

• ca. 750 A powerful chief dies and is buried at Sitio Conte on the banks of Río Grande de Coclé in central Panama. The chief is laid to rest with twenty-two sacrificed companions and a wealth of gold finery, including large pectoral plaques embossed with sacred images. It is the richest Precolumbian tomb documented for Central America.

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5697

Arabia circa 550CE

Procopius of Caesarea
History of the Wars, Book I.xix.1-16, 23-26; xx.1-13:
c. 550 CE,
The boundaries of Palestine extend toward the east to the sea which is called the Red Sea. Now this sea, beginning at India, comes to an end at this point in the Roman domain. And there is a city called Aelas [modern Aqaba] on its shore, where the sea comes to an end, as I have said, and becomes a very narrow gulf. And as one sails into the sea from there [i.e., sailing Southwest, from Aqaba to the Red Sea], the Egyptian mountains lie on the right, extending toward the south; on the other side a country deserted by men extends northward to an indefinite distance; and the land on both sides is visible as one sails in as far as the island called Iotabe, not less than one thousand stades distant from the city of Aelas. On this island Hebrews had lived from of old in autonomy, but in the reign of this Justinian they have become subject to the Romans. From there on there comes a great open sea. And those who sail into this part of it no longer see the land on the right, but they always anchor along the left coast when night comes on. For it is impossible to navigate in the darkness on this sea, since it is everywhere full of shoals. But there are harbors there and great numbers of them, not made by the hand of man, but by the natural contour of the land, and for this reason it is not difficult for mariners to find anchorage wherever they happen to be.

This coast immediately beyond the boundaries of Palestine is held by Saracens, who have been settled from of old in the Palm Groves. These groves are in the interior, extending over a great tract of land, and there absolutely nothing else grows except palm trees. The Emperor Justinian had received these palm groves as a present from Abochorabus, the ruler of the Saracens there, and he was appointed by the emperor captain over the Saracens in Palestine. And he guarded the land from plunder constantly, for both to the barbarians over whom he ruled and no less to the enemy, Abochorabus always seemed a man to be feared and an exceptionally energetic fellow. Formally, therefore, the emperor holds the Palm Groves, but for him really to possess himself of any of the country there is utterly impossible. For a land completely destitute of human habitation and extremely dry lies between, extending to the distance of a ten days' journey; moreover, the Palm Groves themselves are by no means worth anything, and Abochorabus only gave the form of a gift, and the emperor accepted it with full knowledge of the fact. So much then for the Palm Groves. Adjoining this people there are other Saracens in possession of the coast, who are called Maddeni [in modern Madyan] and who are subjects of the Omeritae. These Omeritae dwell in the land on the farther side of them on the shore of the sea [modern Yemen]. And beyond them many other nations are said to be settled as far as the man-eating Saracens. Beyond these are the nations of India.

For the sea which one traverses beyond this point as far as the shore and the city of Aelas has received the name of the Arabian Gulf, inasmuch as the country which extends from here to the limits of the city of Gaza used to be called in olden times Arabia, since the king of the Arabs had his palace in early times in the city of Petrae. Now the harbor of the Omeritae from they are accustomed to put to sea for the voyage to Ethiopia is called Bulicas [modern Al-Hudaydah?]; and at the end of the sail across the sea they always put in at the harbor of the Adulitae. But the city of Adulis [near modern Asmara] is removed from the harbor a distance of twenty stades (for it lacks only so much of being on the sea), while from the city of Auxomis it is a journey of twelve days.

All the boats which are found in India and on this sea are not made in the same manner as are other ships. For neither are they smeared with pitch, nor with any other substance, nor indeed are the planks fastened together by iron nails going through and through, but they are bound together with a kind of cording. The reason is not as most persons suppose, that there are certain rocks there which draw the iron to themselves (for witness the fact that when the Roman vessels sail from Aelas into this sea, although they are fitted with much iron, no such thing has ever happened to them), but rather because the Indians and the Ethiopians possess neither iron nor any other thing suitable for such purposes. Furthermore, they are not even able to buy any of these things from the Romans since this is explicitly forbidden to all by law; for death is the punishment for one who is caught. Such then is the description of the so-called Red Sea and of the land which lies on either side of it. . .

At about the time of this war Ellesthaeus, the king of the Ethiopians, who was a Christian and a most devoted adherent of this faith, discovered that a number of the Omeritae on the opposite mainland [modern Yemen] were oppressing the Christians there outrageously; many of these rascals were Jews, and many of them held in reverence the old faith which men of the present day call Hellenic [i.e., pagan]. He therefore collected a fleet of ships and an army and came against them, and he conquered them in battle and slew both the king and many of the Omeritae. He then set up in his stead a Christian king, an Omeritae by birth, by name Esimiphaeus, and, after ordaining that he should pay a tribute to the Ethiopians every year, he returned to his home. In this Ethiopian army many slaves and all who were readily disposed to crime were quite unwilling to follow the king back, but were left behind and remained there because of their desire for the land of the Omeritae; for it is an extremely goodly land.

These fellows at a time not long after this, in company with certain others, rose against the king Esimiphaeus and put him in confinement in one of the fortresses there, and established another king over the Omeritae, Abramus by name. Now this Abramus was a Christian, but a slave of a Roman citizen who was engaged in the business of shipping in the city of Adulis in Ethiopia. When Ellesthaeus learned this, he was eager to punish Abramus together with those who had revolted with him for their injustice to Esimiphaeus, and he sent against them an army of three thousand men with one of his relatives as commander. This army, once there, was no longer willing to return home, but they wished to remain where they were in a goodly land, and so without the knowledge of their commander they opened negotiations with Abramus; then when they came to an engagement with their opponents, just as the fighting began, they killed their commander and joined the ranks of the enemy, and so remained there. But Ellesthaeus was greatly moved with anger and sent still another army against them; this force engaged with Abramus and his men, and, after suffering a severe defeat in the battle, straightway returned home. Thereafter the king of the Ethiopians became afraid, and sent no further expeditions against Abramus. After the death of Ellesthaeus, Abramus agreed to pay tribute to the king of the Ethiopians who succeeded him, and in this way he strengthened his rule. But this happened at a later time.

At that time, when Ellesthaeus was reigning over the Ethiopians, and Esimiphaeus over the Omeritae, the Emperor Justinian sent an ambassador, Julianus, demanding that both nations on account of their community of religion should make common cause with the Romans in the war against the Persians; for he purposed that the Ethiopians, by purchasing silk from India and selling it among the Romans, might themselves gain much money, while cause the Romans to profit in only one way, namely, that they be no longer compelled to pay over their money to their enemy (this is the silk of which they are accustomed to make the garments which of old the Greeks called "Medic," but which at the present time they name "Seric" [from Lat. serica, as coming from the Chinese (Seres)]). As for the Omeritae, it was desired that they should establish Caïsus, the fugitive, as captain over the Maddeni, and with a great army of their own people and of the Maddene Saracens make an invasion into the land of the Persians. This Caïsus was by birth of the captain's rank and an exceptionally able warrior, but he had killed one of the relatives of Esimiphaeus and was a fugitive in a land which is utterly destitute of human habitation.

So each king, promising to put this demand into effect, dismissed the ambassador, but neither one of them did the things agreed upon by them. For it was impossible for the Ethiopians to buy silk from the Indians, for the Persian merchants always locate themselves at the very harbors where the Indian ships first put in (since they inhabit the adjoining country), and are accustomed to buy the whole cargoes; and it seemed to the Omeritae a difficult thing to cross a country which was a desert and which extended so far that a long time was required for the journey across it, and then to go against such a people much more warlike than themselves. Later on Abramus too, when at length he had established his power most securely, promised the Emperor Justinian many times to invade the land of Persia, but only once began the journey and then straightway turned back. Such then were the relations which the Romans had with the Ethiopians and the Omeritae.

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obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5697

Recurrence of the 551 AD Middle East Tsunami
August 3 | National Geographic

The coast of Phoenicia (now Lebanon) was struck by a powerful tsunami in 551 AD. A fault has been discovered that is believed to have caused the earthquake that launched this tsunami and it could have a recurrence interval of about 1500 years. This means that the next earthquake - and possibly tsunami - could happen at any time.

http://daeron.fr/downloads/elias-geology-2007.pdf
ABSTRACT
On 9 July A.D. 551, a large earthquake, followed by a tsunami, destroyed most of the coastal cities of Phoenicia (modern-day Lebanon). Tripoli is reported to have “drowned,” and Berytus (Beirut) did not recover for nearly 1300 yr afterwards. Geophysical data from the Shalimar survey unveil the source of this event, which may have had a moment magnitude (Mw) of 7.5 and was arguably one of the most devastating historical submarine earthquakes in the eastern Mediterranean: rupture of the offshore, hitherto unknown, ~100–150-km-long active, eastdipping
Mount Lebanon thrust. Deep-towed sonar swaths along the base of prominent bathymetric escarpments reveal fresh, west-facing seismic scarps that cut the sediment-smoothed seafl oor. The Mount Lebanon thrust trace comes closest (~8 km) to the coast between Beirut and Enfeh, where, as 13 14C-calibrated ages indicate, a shoreline-fringing vermetid bench suddenly emerged by ~80 cm in the sixth century A.D. At Tabarja, the regular vertical separation (~1 m) of higher fossil benches suggests uplift by three more earthquakes of comparable
size since the Holocene sea level reached a maximum ca. 7–6 ka, implying a 1500−1750 yr recurrence time. Unabated thrusting on the Mount Lebanon thrust likely drove the growth of Mount Lebanon since the late Miocene.

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5697

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripuarian_Franks

Ripuarian Franks

The Ripuarian Franks (Latin: Ripuari) were Franks that lived in along the middle-Rhine River during the Roman Era.

Etymology
The name Ripuarian, and variants Ripaurii and Riparii, may have come from the Roman word Ripa, (Latin for "river bank"), to mean people from the Rhine according to Perry[1], although the connection to "Ripa" is considered "doubtful" to other historians.[2] Generally it meant river-dwelling along the Rhine, as opposed to the Salian Franks, the Franks of the Sal (the IJssel River)[3], or the Franks of the salty sea.[4] The first obscure reference to the Ripuarians has been attributed to the historian of the Goths Jornandes (aka Jordanes)[3]. Jordanes alludes to them in Getica (The Origin and Deeds of the Goths), dated approximately 551 AD, where he listed the "Riparii" as one of the Aetius' allies in the Battle of Chalons with other tribes:

"Hi enim affuerunt auxiliares: Franci, Sarmatae, Armoriciani, Liticiani, Burgundiones, Saxones, Riparii, Olibriones ..."[5]

[edit] Culture
See also: Ripuarian (language)
Ripuarian was also the name of this people's language, it was known as one of the Central Franconian dialects.

This short section requires expansion.

[edit] Mythology and religion
Main article: Frankish mythology
Ancient mythology and religion was pagan and Germanic in nature. Their polytheistic beliefs are thought to have flourished among the Franks until the conversion of Clovis to Christianity, after which paganism withered slowly.

[edit] History
The people who came to be known as the Ripaurians probably composed the Frankish army that was defeated by Emperor Maximianus (250-310) in the battle at Treves.[6] They began to populate the regions of Andernach down the Rhine through the 5th Century and took possession of Cologne, where they held the left banks of the Rhine in the area known as Germania Secunda.[7] They also spread into Belgica Secunda as far south as the Moselle River, although without taking the City of Treves.[7]

The Ripuarians appear in written history in the first half of the 7th century, when they received their Ripuarian laws (Lex Ripuaria) from the dominating Salian Franks.[8]

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5697

China can be further sliced from here

http://www.grifterrec.com/coins/china/ancientchina3.html

maybe we should come back and tackle china because of its size and prominence during that period?

How was Japan Then.

Was there a Russia?

Mongols?

Persia?

India?

Malays?

French?

Hungary?

Australia?

Questions questions questions.

If you all can help me built the picture of the period the better.