The Spread of Islam: "The Ghazu"

Document B: "The Ghazu" Source: Karen Armstrong, "Islam: A short History", Random House, 2000. Content Notes: One of Umhammad's primary concerns was that the ummah, or Muslim community, would live up to the ideals of egalitarianism and social justice. Alms giving is central to Islam, as is the care of widows and orphans. (Muhammad was himself an orphan, so he empathized with their plight.) Later, when Muslim armies went on raids against non-Muslims, one-fifth of the plunder was turned over to the state so it could be used to support the ummah. Similarly, Muslim armies were not allowed to settle on the lands they won. Instead, the state collected various taxes from conquered peoples and used that revenue to support the ummah. One result of these policies was that Muslim armies became a professional fighting force that never settled down, and military expansion continued because the empire needed revenue to pay out salaries to the ummah.

EXCERPT: "The Ghazu" "For centuries...Arabs had [added to] their inadequate resources by means of the ghazu [raids against other tribes], but Islam had put a stop to this because the ummah [Muslim community] was not permitted to attack one another. What would replace the ghazu, which had enabled Muslims to scratch out a meager livelihood? ... The obvious answer was a series of ghazu raids against the non-Muslim communities in the neighboring countries. The unity of the ummah would be preserved by an outwardly directed offensive [attack]. There was nothing religious about these campaigns... The objective ... was plunder and a common activity that would preserve the unity of the ummah. For centuries the Arabs had tried to raid the richer settled lands beyond the [Arabian] peninsula: the difference was that this time they encountered a power vacuum. Persia and Byzantium had both been engaged for decades in a long ... series of wars with one another. Both were exhausted."

What was the ghazu? What was the ummah?

What was the purpose of the ghazu in the years before Islam?

How did Islam change the way the ghazu worked?

Why were the Arabs able to conquer much of Persia and parts of Byzantium?

How does this document explain how Islam spread so quickly?