Timeline of the Islamic Caliphate

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The Deal Between Haroun and Charlemagne

At the time of the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad, Haroun Al-Rasheed, in 772 A.D. the king of france, Charlemagne son of Pepin the short (i.e., Pepin III), Led his army of the Franks to hold a seige in order to submit Rome of Italy to his rule. The siege lasted until the spring of 774 A.D., when Charlemagne visited the pope in Rome. There he confirmed his father’s grants of land, with some later chronicles claiming—falsely—that he also expanded them, granting Tuscany, Emilia, Venice, and Corsica then he conquered Benevento in 787 A.D. to have all of Italy under his power. In 779 A.D. he led the army to conquer Lombardy and then he he conquered Saxonia and proceeded to convert the conquered to Roman Catholicism, using force where necessary. In 794 A.D., he was made to renounce any claim to Bavaria for himself and his family (the Agilolfings) at the synod of Frankfurt.

Frankish Power

Charlemagne in 793 A.D. had the desire of being more of a protector of Christian pilgrims going to the Holy Land than Byzantine. He had a deal with Haroun The Caliph to provide this protection, while the Franks would fight the Umayyads in Al-Andalus (in the Iberian Peninsula) until they are being demolished. Four years later in 797 A.D., the Caliph Haroun of Baghdad, the city of modern civilization at that time, sent gifts with the delegates of Charlemagne headed by a Jewish minister called Isaac. The gifts included rare Indian fabric, an Asian elephant called “Abul-Abbas”, and a clock. When the gift arrived, people of Charlemagne thought the clock was a sort of Eastern magic and they decided to break it down, yet Charlemagne heard about their decision and stopped them. Haroun in 798 A.D. sent to Charlemagne an offer of scholarships for the Franks to send their young students to study medicine, geometry, Algebra, and Astronomy in the schools of Baghdad and Khawarizm.

Abbasid Caliphate at its Fullest Extent

In 797 Barcelona, the greatest city of the region, fell to the Franks when Zeid, its governor, rebelled against Cordoba and, failing, handed it to them. The Umayyad authority recaptured it in 799. However, Louis of Aquitaine marched the entire army of his kingdom over the Pyrenees and besieged it for two years, wintering there from 800 to 801, when it capitulated. The Franks continued to press forwards against the emir. They took Tarragona in 809 and Tortosa in 811. The last conquest brought them to the mouth of the Ebro and gave them raiding access to Valencia, prompting the Emir al-Hakam Ito recognise their conquests in 812.

Umayyads Rule in Iberia by 1000 A.D.

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The Roots of Arabs

Arabs come from the Semitic origin that extends the tree from Noah and his son Shem with his son Aram. The son Aram was the one having descendants living in two parts of Arabia:

• People of Thamud son of Gether son of Aram in the northern west of Arabia.
• People of Aad son of Uz son of Aram in southern parts of Arabia.

The descendants of Aram were eradicated in old history. They have now the name (Arab Ba-ida) in Arabic, meaning “The Eradicated Arabs”.

The last branch of the tree that remained from Shem was the Arabs of Qahtan son of Uber son of Shalekh (Shaloh) son of Kenan son of Arpachshad (Arphaxad) son of Shem son of Noah. The descendant of this branch built up their kingdom later, that is well known as the Kingdom of Sheba (Saba in Arabic).

So the tree of Arab roots is as shown in the following figure:

Figure: Shem's Descendants

By The land of Arabia was out of human lives except in the furthest part of the south east. In the land of modern Yemen, the kingdom of Sheba existed for centuries until the great dam that used to hold water of rain collapsed and the flood drove the people of Sheba (who are considered the original Arabs) out to the wild desert in the North.

People of Sheba (Qahtan) are called in Arabic “Arab Ari-ba” (العرب العاربة), meaning the “Arabs by origin”.

They have spread all over Arabia, escaping the destruction of the great flood. Two tribes named (Aous) and (Khazraj) inhabited a small village named (Yathreb). Another tribe named (Jurhum) noticed a stream of birds running to a specific area, so they figured out that water is in that area. The moment they achieved the place, they saw a women with her baby all alone in the shallow land of sand and rocks. Yet, there was a borehole with water running out of it right there where the woman and her child stayed. Introducing themselves and asking for permission to have some water, people of Jurhum knew Hagar and her baby Ishmael son of Abraham the prophet.

Jurhum stayed in the place of the water and made it a little village. When Ishmael became a man, his father came to visit and tell him about God’s order to build a the house of God just right there beside the water well (Zamzam). Ishmael got married from an Egyptian woman and he divorced her for her bad attitude. He married another woman from Jurhum and had his child (Kedar) among eleven others from the same wife, the daughter of Midhadh son of Amr son of Jurhum son of Qahtan.

The descendants of Kedar are called “Arab Mus-ta-riba” (العرب المستعربة), meaning the “Arabs to be”.

They were called among the tribes (The Adnanis) which is the name of their great grandfather ((Adnan)) who was the grandson of Kedar. The Adnanis spread in the land of Arabia for many reasons, mostly business. Quraish,  the name of one of the descendants of Adnan, had a son who was praised among his people to be the one who is responsible for taking care of God’s house. Quraish was the name used for his descendants after him. The tribe is until this very day called Quraish (Qurashi for last name).

Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h) was a descendent of Quraish, who comes from the roots of Adnan the grandson of Kedar son of Ishmael son of Abraham (p.b.u.them).

Arabia

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Harun Al-Rasheed’s Care for Prophet’s Sayings

It was told that a guy from Baghdad was arrested under the conviction of making up lies that he claimed them being sayings of Prophet Muhammad. When his time came to an end at the castle, where executions take place, the Caliph Harun came before him and said “What did you gain by that? Now you will die and people will have their relief”.

“Where are you from all the lies I have spread?” He said, proud to have been spreading lies about the prophet that no one would end them.

“And where are you from Abu Isaac Al-Fazari and Abdullah Ibn Al-Mubarak who study the sayings of the prophet letter by letter?” He said and then he beheaded him.

** Abu Isaac Al-Fazari and Abdullah Ibn Al-Mubarak are Muslim scholars, who were studying and teaching Islamic studies in Baghdad at that time.

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Islam and The Jewish Rabbi

For starters, I feel myself obligated to narrate a story from the life of Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H). The story is about the Jewish Rabbi Abdullah Ibn Salam, who converted to

Islam after the arrival of the prophet to Yathreb (Madinah nowadays) from Makkah.

Reciting the saying of Anas Ibn Malik, servant of the prophet, who recorded the story:

When the news of the arrival of the Prophet to Yathreb reached him, Abdullah Ibn Salam was working on a land of his. He left the land and went to meet the prophet, and when he did he said: “I want to ask you about three matters that no man knows but a prophet. What is the first sign of the hour (Referring to the hour of the judgement day)? And what is the first of edibles people would have in paradise? And how a kid takes after his father or his mother?”

“Gabriel has informed me about them (The answers to the questions)” Said the prophet.

“Gabriel?” Amazed as he was, he asked.

“Yes”

“The enemy to Jews among angels”

“Say: Whoever is the enemy of Jibreel– for surely he revealed it to your heart by Allah’s command, verifying that which is before it and guidance and good news for the believers” The prophet said reciting the verse (2:97), then he answered the questions.

“About the first sign of the hour, it’s a fire that comes out from the east and drive people to the west. And about the first of edibles people would have in paradise is the liver of the whale. And about the kid, if the fluid of a man came before the fluid of his woman (At the time of intercourse) then he takes after the man, while if the woman’s fluid came first then he takes after the woman.”

“Then I bare witness that there is no God but Allah, and you are a messenger of God” He said.

“Oh messenger of God, the Jews are slanderous people. If they knew that I bacame a Muslim, they would slander my persona.”

And when the delegates of the leaders of Jewish tribes came to the prophet he asked them “How do you acknowledge Abdullah among you?”

“The best of us and the best of our decsents. He is our head and the son of our head” They said.

“What if I told you that he became a Muslim?” The prophet asked.

“God forbid he does so!” They said. Immedietly after that, Abdullah came from behind and uttered outloud “Then I bare witness that there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is a messenger of God”

“You are the worst of us and the worst of our decsents” They said to him.

“This is what I was afraid of, Oh messenger of God!” Abdullah said to the prophet.

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