Jahilia

In the Arabic-Russian dictionary of Kharlampiy Baranov , the following meanings of the word Arab are given. جاهلية : 1) ignorance; 2) paganism; Arab. الجاهلية or Arab. الجهلاء pre-Islamic era ^[1] .

Before the rise of Islam, there were communities of Jews, Christians, and Gentiles on the Arabian Peninsula, whose representatives were mainly local Arab tribes. Initially, the inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula were mainly polytheists, worshiped the spirits of their ancestors, practiced astral cults, there was fetishism (worship of trees, rocks, stones), totemism . The Kaaba black stone was perceived as the highest divine symbol. Each tribe had its own idol, and the territory had its own deity. There were no priests, and each pagan could perform rituals independently. At the same time, there were guardians of sacred places who solved important issues of the life of tribes and tribal associations. There were also soothsayers of kahina. In IV – V centuries, “Yemeni” monotheism took shape in Yemen; a single deity there was simply called God, the Merciful, the Lord of heaven and earth. In the 5th – 6th centuries, other monotheists, Hanifs, who worshiped the one God Rahman the Merciful appeared in Inner Arabia ^[2] .

According to the Qur'an, pagans believed that idols would bring them closer to Allah:

According to Islamic historiography , at first the Arabs (the descendants of Ismail , the son of Ibrahim ) were monotheists, but then they borrowed idols from Amalics . From that religion, they preserved the Hajj rite and the tradition of worshiping the Kaaba , the protection and maintenance of which was entrusted to the Quraish tribe , from which the prophet Muhammad came. Most pagans were extremely conservative in relation to their religion, finding the reasons for such conservatism in the fact that their fathers believed in the same idols.

Pre-Islamic Arabs widely revered ^[3] eloquence, hospitality and loyalty to their contract. Among the primitive qualities of pre-Islamic society, the following can be distinguished ^[3] : there was a blood feud , in some tribes sometimes newborn girls were buried alive if their parents were afraid not to feed them.

In the society of pre-Islamic Arabia, poets formed public opinion, for example, expressing protest against the decaying tribal system.

In the V century, the distinction between the concepts of “poet” and “soothsayer” was only outlined, but over time there was a gradation, as a result of which the magical functions passed to the so-called kyakhins, and the poetic and historiographical aspects of activity - to, actually, poets ( Arabic. الشعر الجاهلي , ignorant poetry).

Mecca, in which Mohammed lived, was the commercial and financial center of Arabia. The city was located at the intersection of routes from Yemen to Syria and from Ethiopia (Abyssinia) to Iraq . The currency used in circulation at that time was the dinar, which is also mentioned in the Qur'an. According to the Quranic verses, it was a 24-carat gold coin, or 4.25 grams. Muslims are instructed to use such money in transactions, the payment of a cleansing tax (zakat), and for savings. The Prophet Muhammad is the founder of the Islamic economy , which, with all its inherent features, has not practically changed to this day. In particular, the statements of the Prophet Muhammad condemn usurious practice ( riba ), and also speaks of gold and silver. These statements (hadiths) were reflected in the modern economies of the Islamic world. In particular, after the 1997 economic crisis, in contrast to the paper money and the instability of the modern financial system that they carry, a project of the golden dinar appeared , since during the time of the Prophet Muhammad unsecured paper money did not exist. Although in the Muslim world, various types of negotiable documents, such as Sufadjah , Saqq and others, were accepted for payment along with ordinary metal money.

Mecca was located among barren rocks, agriculture in it was impossible. Agriculture was common only in oases , one of which was Yasrib ( Medina ). There is an opinion that the spread of Islam and Arab expansion into Persia, Syria and North Africa was due to the drainage of the Arab steppes and, as a result, famine. Moreover, there is no reliable information on any significant climate changes ^[4] , which casts doubt on such conclusions. In addition, there is evidence that Muslims returned after aggressive campaigns back to the desert.

Mecca, as the main center of southern Arabia, was the scene of a constant struggle for power. The Arabic sources contain a lot of information about family and tribal feuds, however, some Western critics emphasize the legendary nature of these traditions. Due to the fact that Mecca was a large trading city, the political groups that received power were involved in relations with various Arab tribes, as well as the states with which Mecca's trade was associated.

Jahil ( Arabic: جَاهِلٌ - rude, savage, ignoramus) - a term used to refer to people who lived in the days of jahiliya. The medieval Islamic theologian Takia d-Din Ibn Taymiyyah was probably the first to use the term "jahil" to describe the apostates in modern Muslim society. ^[five]

• Ali-zade, A.A. Jahiliya // Islamic Encyclopedic Dictionary . - M .: Ansar , 2007 .-- S. http://slovar-islam.ru/books/d.html#Dzhahiliya28 .
• Branitsky A.G. , Kornilov A.A. Religions of the region . - N. Novgorod : NNGU named after N.I. Lobachevsky , 2013 .-- 305 p. Archived July 28, 2014. Archived July 28, 2014 on Wayback Machine
• Panova V.F., Vakhtin Yu. B. Life of Muhammad. - M .: Politizdat , 1990 .-- 493 p.

• “A Prophet Sent by Grace for All Worlds” - about jahiliya on the site of Shamil Alyautdinov umma.ru
• Are we back in the days of jahilia?