Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

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The Prophet acknowledged the value of a collective community to mobilize armies to
spread the new religion. His success at uniting the pugnacious Madinah clans, and
winning the fealty of the fickle, and usually recalcitrant Bedouins has attracted scholarly
investigation. In his monumental study of medieval Muslim civilization, Ibn Khaldoun, the
14th century social thinker and Muslim historian, argued that Islam provided the most
important factor in the rise and the growth of Muslim urbanization. It substituted religious
affiliation for kinship as the rational for social organization. Ibn Khaldoun drew a
distinction between what he termed "primitive culture" (Bedouin/nomadic) and "civilized
culture" (hadara/civil). The primitive culture as he described it concentrated on cultivation
of land and domestication of animals in one locality, or while roaming the desert. Its life
was characterized by simplicity and the satisfaction of only the necessary needs. Pastoral
communities were small and self-sustaining; the food stuff was simple and was eaten
without processing; and clothes were made of animal products. Men found shelter in either
caves, tents or simple huts. All but the necessary tools and crafts were absent. Continuous
roaming necessitated minimum and light belongings. Finally, organized rational
knowledge was virtually absent.
Respect for authority, attachment to a certain locality and deference to the rights of
others were prerequisites to the civilized culture. Only through buttressing social
solidarity, could a transformation of 'primitive culture' to a 'civilized culture' take place.
An 'additional force' was required to spark such a process. In the Muslim civilization
case, Islam has served as the force behind the new loyalty, rooted in absolute belief in
Allah, and has become one of the most effective instruments for the rise of urbanization in
Islam. 19
The importance of a settled community, the town, to that of the pastoral, was
augmented by the introduction of the daily five mandatory prayers (with strong emphasis to
do them in group), structuring the daily routine, which served as a strong religious
gathering and social link at the neighborhood level. These prescribed daily prayers resulted
in the establishment of the neighborhood mosque, a Muslim institution and community
center that enhanced the social ties among the Muslim quarters' residents. The town's
status in society was induced vis-a-vis the village and nomadic folk life through the
indoctrination of mandatory Friday prayer, an obligatory worship for town people with a
fixed population of forty people or more. Such stipulation was sufficient to instigate urban
nucleus for future settlements. Though it seems felicitous by today's standards, such