Ismailis 387overall tribal chieftain more powerful than the others.
This word also conveyed one of the fundamental Muslim
conceptions of human religious history, according to
which the prophets before Muhammad and their follow-
ers “submitted to God.” As such, Adam, Moses, and Jesus
were “Muslims.”
In the traditions or HADITHascribed to the Prophet, in
defining Islam the emphasis is submission to God
expressed by external works, mainly the prescribed acts of
worship, but also all good works. Further Muslim institu-
tions are the five pillars: confession of faith, canonical
PRAYER, legal almsgiving, the RAMADAN FAST, and pilgrim-
age or HAJJ. These are the five individual obligations of all
Muslims who have reached maturity. To these we must add
the communal obligation that is JIHAD, which comprises
the “effort” to defend or even propagate this religion, holy
war, and the internal struggle to be a good Muslim.
The interiority of Islam as a religion can be further
understood through six fundamental ideas. First, one
must have FAITHin the divine unity of Allah with his
divine attributes. Second, one must have faith in the
“prophets” and “messengers,” who have all delivered the
same message. Their message is now sealed and fulfilled
forever by Muhammad. There can be no new prophets.
Third, one must have faith in angels. Fourth, one must
believe in the “holy books,” particularly those revealed to
the JEWS and Christians before they “falsified” them.
Fifth, one must have faith in a Last Judgment (Yawm
ad-Din) and RESURRECTION. Finally, one must have faith
in predestination (qadar) with humans having a choice
between good and evil. These articles of faith have often
generated passionate theological debates and sects.
See also ARABIA;ARABS; ART AND ARCHITECTURE,
ISLAMIC;ISMAILIS; KALAM; SHIA,SHIISM, AND SHIITES;
SUNNA,SUNNIS,SUNNITES, ANDSUNNISM.
Further reading: Antony J. Black, The History of
Islamic Political Thought: From the Prophet to the Present
(New York: Routledge, 2001); Marshall G. S. Hodgson, The
Venture of Islam, Conscience and History in a World Civiliza-
tion,Vol. 1, The Classical Age of Islam(Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1974); Bernard Lewis, ed., Islam: From
the Prophet Muhammad to the Capture of Constantinople, 2
vols. (New York: Harper & Row, 1974); Seyyed Hossein
Nasr, ed. Islamic Spirituality,2 vols. (New York: Crossroad,
1987–1991); W. Montgomery Watt, The Formative Period
of Islamic Thought(Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1998).
Islamic art and architecture SeeART AND ARCHITEC-
TURE,ISLAMIC.
Islamic conquests and early empire After the death
of MUHAMMAD in 632, newly united and religiously
inspired Arabic armies moved north from the region
around MECCAand MEDINAto spread Islam and to gain
booty and land. They had an amazing success against the
BYZANTINEand SASSANIANEmpires, capturing DAMASCUS
in 636; Ctesiphon, the Sassanian capital, in 637; and
JERUSALEMin 638. Over the next several decades, they
conquered EGYPT,IRAN, parts of central Asia, North
Africa, and in 711 most of the Iberian Peninsula. They
almost captured the city of CONSTANTINOPLEon several
occasions. They did this with little destruction of local
cultures or economies, usually merely replacing the gov-
erning elites with Arabs and later with converts to Islam,
by which time these elites had often alienated much of
their subject populations.
Just how this was accomplished so quickly and so
permanently in most cases is not clear. Historians have
posited several causes: excellent military leadership,
especially by generals such as KHALID IBN AL-WALID; fast-
moving and inspired armies; exhausted military resources
and manpower among the Byzantines and Persians, who
had just finished fighting a long and devastating war; and
the discontent of local populations who welcomed the
Muslims as potential liberators from extortionate and
religiously intolerant monarchies. Religious historians
have asserted divine intervention because of the mission
of ISLAMor the moral decay of Christians. These newly
conquered regions were then subject to the CALIPHATE
AND CALIPH, who exercised temporal and spiritual leader-
ship. There was considerable political and religious con-
flict among Muslims over who should occupy this
position, leading to wars and the eventual founding of
permanent divisions within Islam.
See alsoABBASID DYNASTY;ABUBAKR;ALI IBNABU
TALIB;BAGHDAD;DHIMMI;AL-FUSTAT; AL-HASAN IBNALI IBN
ABITALIB; AL-HUSAYN IBNALI IBNABITALIB;KARBALA,
BATTLE OF;KHARIJITES;SHIA,SHIISM, ANDSHIITES;SUNNA,
SUNNIS,SUNNITES, ANDSUNNISM; AL-TABARI,ABUJAFAR
MUHAMMAD IBNJARIR;TOURS,BATTLE OF;UMAYYADS; AL-
WALIDABD AL-MALIK.
Further reading: Fred Donner, The Early Islamic
Conquests (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,
1981); Fred Donner, Narratives of Islamic Origins: The
Beginnings of Islamic Historical Writing(Princeton, N.J.:
Darwin Press, 1988); Gerald R. Hawting, The First
Dynasty of Islam: The Umayyad Caliphate, AD 661–750
(New York: Routledge, 2000); Hugh Kennedy, The Armies
of the Caliphs: Military and Society in the Early Islamic
State(New York: Routledge, 2001); Michael G. Morony,
Iraq after the Muslim Conquest(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 1984).Ismailis(Ismailiyya, Ismaili sect, Seveners) This was
a SHIITEsect that emerged in the ninth century and was
named after Ismaili Ibn Jafr al-Sadiq (d. 762), one of the
descendants of ALI, the nephew and son-in-law of
MUHAMMAD. The Ismailis believed that the office of the
IMAM, the “vicar” of the Prophet whom they worshiped as
a divine spirit, was reserved for Ismaili descendants and
particularly for Muhammad, his son. They believed that
this Muhammad was actually hidden away, the occultation