- Karen Armstrong
Hellenism from Greek and Syriac into Arabic. Building on the
learning of the past, which had thus become available to them,
Muslim scholars made more scientific discoveries during this
time than in the whole of previously recorded history. Indus-
try and commerce also flourished, and the elite lived in refine-
ment and luxury. But it was difficult to see how this regime
was in any way Islamic. The caliph and his entourage lived in
splendid isolation, which could not have been in more marked
contrast to the asceticism of the Prophet and the rashidun. Far
from confining themselves to the four wives prescribed in the
Quran, they had vast harems like Sassanian monarchs. Never-
theless, the religious reformers had no choice but to accept the
Abbasids. Islam is a realistic and practical faith, which does not
normally encourage the spirit of martyrdom or the taking of
pointless risks.
This realism was especially evident among the Shiis. Afier
the tragic death of Husain in Kerbala, his immediate descen-
dants had lived secluded and devout lives in Medina, even
though many regarded them as the rightful imams of the
u m m a h. Husain's oldest son, Ali Zayn al-Abidin (d. 714), who
was known by Shiis as the Fourth Imam, since he had followed
Ali, Hasan and Husain, was a mystic and left behind a beauti-
ful collection of prayers.3 Muhammad al-Baqir, the Fifih
Imam (d. 735 had developed an esoteric method of reading
the Quran: each word, each verse had a hidden (batin) mean-
ing, which could only be discerned by means of mystical tech-
niques of concentration, similar to those developed in all the
world faiths to give the contemplative access to the inner re-
gions of their being. This batin meaning probably expounded
al-Baqir's new doctrine of the Imamate. His brother Zayd ibn
Ali was a political activist and was eventually killed in an up-
rising against the Umayyads in 740. To counter Zayd's claim to
be the i m a m of his time, al-Baqir argued that the unique i l m of
the Prophet was passed down the line of Ali's immediate de-