The Islamic Empire

Islamic theology postulated a sharp break between the era of the revelation of Islam and what came before, but in fact the coming of Islam did not wipe the slate of history clean or oblige its adherents to build a new society from the ground up. The Circle of Justice survived the Arab conquest and re-emerged in the political culture of the conquerors. Although Islam is often described as the religion of the desert Arabs, both peninsular Arabs and the peoples of their empire, especially the Fertile Crescent region, were involved in developing Islamic ideas and practices. Viewed from the Fertile Crescent rather than the Arabian Peninsula, the conquest brought into the region another ruling group from a peripheral pastoral society with a new faith and new customs to begin the process of acculturation once again. ¹ Like the Achaemenids, the Muslims kept their own religion after conquering Mesopotamia, but they learned many of their governing concepts from those they conquered. Reconceptualizing the ancient Near Eastern legacy within the framework of Islam, Arabs and non-Arabs together created the civilization we call Islamic or Islamicate (associated with Islam even in its non-religious aspects). ² As Islamicate political culture developed, kingship within a Circle of Justice reappeared in Arabic political literature, just as it had in Persian writings after the Achaemenids conquered Mesopotamia. ³