The Rise of Islam and the Threat of Iconoclasm

Lecture 23

I

n 540, Justinian had accomplished what he thought was an “eternal
peace” with the Persian Empire through the payment of tribute. But the
peace won by Justinian was illusory: There was constant war with the
Persians from 572 to 591, and the Byzantine Empire progressively found
its earlier gains taken away. Between 614 and 625, the Persians took over
Damascus and Jerusalem, overran Egypt, occupied the Hellespont, and
attacked Constantinople itself. The Byzantine army decisively defeated the
Persians at Nineveh in 627. But a new religious and political challenge arose
that would eventually conquer Byzantium—the religion of Islam.

The Emergence and Spread of Islam
• The prophet Muhammad was born in 570 C.E., had his initial vision
on Mt. Hira in 610, fled to Medina in the Hijra in 622, and died
in 632.
o From the time of his first vision, the prophet recited aloud in
Arabic the words he received by dictation from Allah; these
words, organized into suras (“chapters”), were posthumously
gathered into the Qur’ān.

o The confession of Islam that “Allah is One and Muhammad

is his Prophet” is simple and compelling; the most grievous

offense against islama (“submission”) is to shirk, to fall

away into idolatry, by “giving partners to Allah.” In the

time of its origin and today, part of the appeal of Islam is its

utter simplicity.

o Although the Qur’ān builds on—and recasts—the biblical story

and expresses admiration for Jews and Christians as “people

of the book,” Muslims consider both Jews and Christians

to have given partners to Allah and, therefore, to be in need

of submission.