MUSLIMS: DOCTRINESBecause Muslims tended to cluster in newly founded settlements, there
was no continuity of sacred location at first. Muslims did not appro-
priate existing holy sites or buildings for use as masjids in Iraq, and
at first there were no objections to images in a place of worship. The
tribal Arab concepts of a leading family (ahl al-bayt), inheritance, the
responsibilities of a wa?t, revenge, the protection of the weak by the
strong, and the religious status of a siidin contributed to the earliest
political claims made on behalf of the family of 'Ali.
As Muslims they brought their own forms of religious law, doctrine,
worship, and a new, distinctly Islamic role for rulers in public worship.
Islamic concepts of equality and of the authority of the Book of God
and of the sunna of Mui:lammad contributed a justifying ideology to
the political opposition of both the Khawarij and the supporters of
'Ali's family. The latter also extended the example of Mui:lammad
into claims of continuing revelation and prophetic authority.
The incorporation of local forms of religious belief and practice
among Muslims was most successful when they were reinforced by
identical or similar beliefs and practices contained in the Qur'an or
known to the early Islamic community in the Hijaz. The currents of
other religious traditions were institutionalized in a distinctly Islamic
way because Muslims arrived in Iraq with built-in affinities to local
ritual and piety, which were provided by the pagan,Jewish, and Chris-
tian affinities in the Qur'an. At the same time, it is evident that Iraqi
converts to Islam brought their own religious background with them,
and the situation among Muslims was comparable to that created by
conversions from paganism among Nestorians. In particular, Magian
attitudes and practices were made available by Persian converts, and
Monophysite forms of Christian asceticism were brought by the pas-
toral Arabs of Iraq who settled in Basra and Kufa. As Muslims, such
converts continued to do those things which could be supported by
the Qur'an or by early Islamic practices in the Hijaz.
This process may be observed in the configuration of attitudes and
practices surrounding ritual worship as an act of personal piety. The
performance of the ?aliit combined with nocturnal vigils, liturgical
recitation, and weeping, in solitude or with others, and motivated by
fear of the last judgment and of the torments of Hell, came most
directly from contemporary Christian monasticism and had already
been introduced among Muslims in the Hijaz. The development of
such private pious practices was eased by their basic similarity to the
local forms of such practices already existing in Iraq. In much the