Page 9 - Pakistan Link - March 23, 2018
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OPINION MARCH 23, 2018 – PAKISTAN LINK – P9
n By Prof Dr Nazeer Ahmed, PhD Signs from Allah: History, Science and Faith in Islam so, many perished on the road,
Concord, CA caught in the unpredictable desert
sand storms, or attacked by ban-
airo at that time had a pop- 50. The Rehla of Ibn Batuta - Part 2 of 3 dits. It took almost a year to per-
ulation in excess of half a form the Hajj and from some parts
Cmillion, which was more of Africa, such as Mali, it took al-
than fifteen times that of the city most two years. Yet they came, the
of London, three sons and daughters of Adam, from
times that of the all corners of the earth, to the hal-
city of Tabriz, twice lowed sanctuary of Mecca, to cel-
that of the city of ebrate the Name of the Creator and
Delhi. It was the to cement the pristine brotherhood
capital of the Mam- of humankind.
lukes. The rites of Hajj have not
The Mamlukes, like their changed in the fourteen hundred
counterparts in India, originated years since the Prophet perfected
from European and Central Asian them. A pilgrim today would ex-
slaves who were bought and ad- perience the same emotions and
opted by the Turks, accepted Is- express himself the same way, as
lam, married into noble families did Ibn Batuta in the year 1326.
and through their sheer resilience Approaching from the north,
rose up to become kings. The the caravan from Damascus first
Mamlukes of Egypt were called stopped in Madina, the City of the
Bahri Mamlukes because some of Prophet. There, surrounded by the
them inhabited the islands in the radiance of the Prophet’s Mosque,
River Nile. They displaced the ail- Ibn Batuta prayed, remember-
ing Ayyubid dynasty in 1250 and ing often the name of the beloved
brought Egypt, Syria and the Red Apostle of God. At Dhul Halifa, he
Sea coasts of Arabia and the Sudan discarded his urbane attire, donned
under their control. The Mamlukes teachers gave lectures, and eager schools and felt that the Qur’an had 200 years, since the advent of Euro- the Ihram and marched forth with
proved themselves to be excellent students learned the Qur’an, Fiqh, to be understood in its literal sense, pean colonialism, that the Islamic his companions reciting Talbiya:
administrators and outstanding Arabic grammar, mathematics, as emphasized by Imam Shafi’i. Ibn world has once again turned to “Here I am, O Lord, Here I am!
patrons of learning. Ibn Batuta ar- medicine and philosophy, although Taymiyah fought a life-long strug- the ideas of Ibn Taymiyah to find Indeed, Thee alone is worthy of all
rived in Cairo during the reign of the study of more secular sciences gle to alert his generation against some answers to the challenge of Praise. Thine is the Bounty. Thine
Sultan Al Nasir Muhammed ibn such as mathematics, medicine and the risks that he felt lurked in the the West. is the Sovereignty. Here I am at
Qalawun who ruled from 1293 to philosophy was not available in all Sufi approach. He urged Muslims Damascus was the second your Command, O Lord!”. Emo-
1341. A great builder, Al Nasir built schools. capital of the Mamlukes and was tions swelled in him as he first
more than thirty mosques and nu- The hajj caravan with whom a great city in its own right. Dur- saw the Haram (the word Haram
merous schools and hospitals. The Ibn Batuta was traveling was de- Madrasas (schools) ing the struggle between the Mam- is used only for the sanctuaries
great mosque of ibn Qalawun still layed. Impatient to reach the Hejaz, were attached to the lukes and the Il Khans of Persia- around the Ka’ba in Mecca, the
stands in the old city of Cairo. The Ibn Batuta took the southern route mosques. The concept Iraq (1258-1315), Damascus had Prophet’s Mosque in Madina and
Mongol plunders in Persia, Iraq down the River Nile and through suffered. With the onset of peace the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem),
and Central Asia had pushed a the desert to the Sudanese port of of a mosque-madrasa between the two dynasties in 1315, circled by thousands, invoking the
large number of scholars, Sufis, po- Aydhab. He described the Nile val- grew out of Masjid al the city had regained its former name of God in a hundred different
ets, linguists, architects, fuqahah, ley as a veritable garden, full of life preeminence as a pivotal station tongues. He melted into the human
mathematicians, philosophers and and vitality, serving as the bread- Nabawi, the mosque in the trade routes linking Egypt mass, completing the circles.
doctors into Cairo. basket for the Mamluke Empire. of the Prophet, in and North Africa to the Black Sea, Thereafter, he marched forth
Cairo had become the pre- Aydhab was a sultry harbor town, Persia, China and India. It had a to the hills of Safa and Marwa, re-
eminent center of culture, art and dusty, hot, without water, crammed Madina. The idea population of over 250,000 and was calling the struggle of Hajira to find
learning in the Islamic world. Af- with import-export merchandise. found patronage at the known for its high-quality steel, water in the desert, after Prophet
ter the destruction of Baghdad Forced by inhospitable weather, called Damascus steel, which was Ibrahim left her there with her in-
(1258), a surviving member of the Ibn Batuta turned back to Cairo highest level during valued and sought after the world fant son Ismail. He remembered
Abbasids had been installed as the and from there he traveled through the intense rivalry over. that moment when Divine mercy
Caliph in Cairo and the city had the Sinai to Palestine and Syria. He The trade in iron and its pro- intervened to answer the supplica-
become the seat of the Caliphate prayed at the mosque of Abraham between the Fatimids cessing provides one illustration tion of a mother and caused wa-
and hence the focus of Islamic po- in al Khalil (Hebron) and spent and the Abbasids (969- of how Islam had welded together ter to gush forth from a rock. The
litical life. The hospital (maristan, several days at Masjid al Aqsa in the old world into a single trading mother, Hajira, cried out, “Zumi,
as it was called) of Qalawun was Jerusalem. By 1326, Jerusalem had 1100). Both Cairo and block. Iron ore was exported from Ya Mubaraka” (Stop! O, blessed
a marvel of the age. It contained ceased to be a bone of contention Baghdad became great East Africa to Gujrat in India where water!). After traversing the hills of
more than 300 wards for patients between the Christians and the it was smelted into pig iron and re- Safa and Marwa seven times, Ibn
and was equipped with the most Muslims. The Crusades in Palestine centers of learning. Al exported to Syria. In Damascus, it Batuta drank to his heart’s content
advanced surgical tools of the era. had ended and the chief attraction Azhar grew in Cairo was re-smelted, alloyed and formed from the well of Zamzam. (The
The hospital was well staffed with of the city was its pilgrimage sites into steel, using a process that was word Zamzam derives from Zumi,
doctors, surgeons and attendants. for Muslims, Christians and Jews. and the Nizamiya only re-discovered in the 1960s and the exclamation of Hajira when she
There were lecture rooms, baths, Ibn Batuta spent several nights in College flourished in is referred to as super-plasticity. saw water burst forth from a rock).
libraries and dispensaries attached prayer at Masjid al Aqsa and at the Ibn Batuta records that the bazaars From Mecca, he proceeded to
to the building. Recitations from Dome of the Rock, recalling the Baghdad. The example of Damascus were thriving with Mina and on to the great gathering
the Qur’an soothed the soul. Music events of Isra and Meraj. He also of these two capital imported goods which included at Arafat. On this plain stood the
was played to help the healing pro- spent many days at the zawiyah of spices, gems, embroidery, per- children of Adam, black and white,
cess. Treatment was free. Rich and Sufi Shaykh Abdul Rahman ibn cities was copied by the fumes and medicinal herbs from rich and poor, Arabs and Turks,
poor were treated alike. Mustafa who belonged to the Rifai provincial centers of India, porcelain from China, furs Persians and Spaniards. Where in
Madrasas (schools) were at- order. from the Black Sea area and Turk- this gathering were the kings and
tached to the mosques. The concept After receiving his ijazah (lit- Merv, Nishapur, Bukhara, ish horses from Central Asia. The where the mendicants? All were
of a mosque-madrasa grew out of erally meaning permission, also a Samarqand, Damascus, nobility in Damascus, emulating equal in the sight of God and equal
Masjid al Nabawi, the mosque of diploma) from Shaykh ibn Musta- the example of the Sultan in Cai- in the sight of man, in supplication
the Prophet, in Madina. The idea fa, Ibn Batuta moved on to Damas- Fez, Timbuktu and ro, had built numerous mosques, before the Creator, celebrating only
found patronage at the highest level cus, where he met the well-known Cordoba, as well as schools, hospitals, rest houses for His Name, invoking His mercy and
during the intense rivalry between reformer Ibn Taymiyah (d. 1328). travelers, canals and public baths. His munificence. From Arafat, Ibn
the Fatimids and the Abbasids The two were on different wave- the cities that came He spent a great deal of time at the Batuta returned to Muzdalifa and
(969-1100). Both Cairo and Bagh- lengths. Ibn Batuta was a man of under Islamic influence magnificent Umayyad mosque of on to Mina and Mecca to complete
dad became great centers of learn- the new Sufic age. Indeed, wherever Damascus, learning among other the rites of the Hajj and joined
ing. Al Azhar grew in Cairo and he went, he sought the company of in later centuries subjects, the Hadith according to h i s fellow Hajjis in celebration
the Nizamiya College flourished in well-known Sufis. By contrast, Ibn such as Delhi, Tabriz, Shaykh Bukhari. of this blessed opportunity. He had
Baghdad. The example of these Taymiyah foresaw inherent dangers In September 1326, Ibn Batuta now fulfilled the goal he had set for
two capital cities was copied by the in the Sufic approach, which had Istanbul and Lahore finally set out to perform his Hajj. himself when he set out from Tang-
provincial centers of Merv, Nisha- no empirical proofs and lent itself Modern conveniences that Hajjis ier, but farther horizons beckoned
pur, Bukhara, Samarqand, Damas- to exploitation by pretenders. The to return to what he felt was the vi- take for granted these days did not him.
cus, Fez, Timbuktu and Cordoba, Sufis would respond to this charge brant, outward, empirical Islam of exist and the 800 miles from Da- (The author is Director, World
as well as the cities that came under by asserting that the best empirical the Umayyad and the Abbasid pe- mascus to Mecca were a trial for Organization for Resource Devel-
Islamic influence in later centuries proof of their approach was the no- riods. Needless to say, the two men the hardy. Pilgrims usually traveled opment and Education, Washing-
such as Delhi, Tabriz, Istanbul and ticeable transformation of human did not see eye to eye. As history in large caravans, some as large as ton, DC; Director, American Insti-
Lahore. Ibn Batuta records that the character that it brings about. Ibn would have it, the Islamic world 30,000, with full provisions for the tute of Islamic History and Culture,
schools in Cairo were too numer- Taymiyah was very much against embraced the Sufis and relegated journey, led by an emir (leader), ac- CA; Member, State Knowledge
ous to count. Each mosque-madra- the allegorical interpretations giv- Ibn Taymiyah to scholars respected companied by imams, judges, doc- Commission, Bangalore; and
sa had courtyards wherein great en to the Qur’an by certain Sufi but forgotten. It is only in the last tors and protected by soldiers. Even Chairman, Delixus Group)
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