Arabs are one of the greatest nations on Earth, despite the fact that their faith is quite conservative in nature. Nevertheless, it was the Arab scientists who gave the world medicine, mathematics, an example of an effective state system.
Today, the number of people professing Islam is 1.5 billion, or 23% of the total population of the planet. It is impossible not to be surprised at the deep awareness of an ordinary Arab, remote from his native home, his individuality as part of a single and indestructible people. Such a connection can be explained by various factors: religion, worldview, special social environment. It is difficult to imagine that once this people was a bunch of scattered tribes on the territory of the
Arabian Peninsula. The social machine that arose after their unification was comparable to the most prominent empires that are only known in the entire history of mankind. We will try to figure out what exactly caused the unification of constantly warring Arab tribes.
Geographical features of the region
Many historians have a question about what contributed to the unification of Arab tribes. The answer to it consists of several factors, each of which will be considered below. From history, we know that initially the largest cluster of Arabs was on the Arabian Peninsula. The climate on this territory of the planet is rather unfriendly: deserts, low humidity, lack of fertile land, etc. All these factors already indicate that in such conditions it is very difficult to survive, especially alone. Understanding this for many years pushed the Arabs to unite. However, there was a lot of disagreement between the tribes: the difference between religions, traditions, rites, and much more. In fact, every Arab tribe considered itself special among all the others. Of course, the difficult geographical position pushed to join forces, but in the end, the religion contributed to the unification of the Arab tribes.
Muhammad and his teachings
Already in the interval between the 5th and 6th centuries AD, the under-civilization of the northern and southern Arabs fell into complete decline. At the turn of the century, the great prophet Muhammad appeared. This man made a lot of efforts, which contributed to the unification of the Arab tribes.
The Prophet preached Islam - a monistic religion, backed by the Qur'an and faith in Allah. Religion is presented as a hybrid of Judaism, Christianity and pagan beliefs of the Arabs. At first, all the dogmas preached by Muhammad were perceived extremely negatively, but already in the VI century the prophet created his own community - the ummah. Thus, faith in a single god is what contributed to the unification of the Arab tribes.
Caliphate Origin
It should be noted that the caliphate did not appear immediately. The stumbling block was the lack of Islamic forces. Only after the assumption of faith in the one God of Allah by the Aus and Hazraj tribes did the prophet Muhammad openly talk about his teachings. From this time begins the development of the caliphate as a single Arab state. In this case, Muhammad no longer appears as a prophet, but as a leader who preached his own, authoritative ideology.
The peak of the development of the Arab state
The death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632 entailed many negative events for the newly created Arab Caliphate . By this time, the state already owned a decent territory that extended to the entire Arabian Peninsula.
In parallel, a war begins between apostates who renounced Islam immediately after the death of the prophet and commander Khalid ibn al-Walid.
After the victory over all infidels, the struggle between the heirs of Muhammad and others claiming power begins. In 661, the last of the great prophet Ali ibn Abu Talib was killed. Muapiya of the Umayyad clan became the new lord of the Arab caliphate. At this stage, we can talk about the end of the formation of statehood on the territory of the Arabian Peninsula, which contributed to the unification of Arab tribes.
So, religion has become that necessary “explosion”, thanks to which a truly great Arab people appeared. The person of Muhammad to this day causes a lot of controversy and discussion. Many scholars believe that Islam was literally invented by him to seize power in Arabia. However, all his actions became what contributed to the unification of the Arab tribes, so the goals do not matter, only the result is important.