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- Newsgroups: soc.culture.arabic,soc.religion.islam
- From: lhermi@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Lotfi Hermi)
- Subject: Developement of religious strata Judaism and Christianity (related to Islam)
- Organization: Oberlin College Computer Science
- Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 04:36:31 GMT
- Message-ID: <1992Dec18.041028.29184@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
- Lines: 318
-
- Here is a glimpse in Ibn Khaldun's Muqadimah in which he describes the
- development of the Jewish and Christian religions he also points to the
- relationship the three monotheistic religions have with political autho-
- rity and leadership.
-
- Save for analysis.
-
- Lotfi
-
-
- [31] Remarks on the words "Pope" and "Patriarch"
- in the Christian religion and on the word "Kohen"
- used by the Jews.
-
- It should be known that after the removal of its
- prophet, a religious group must have someone to take care
- of it. (Such a person) must cause the people to act according
- to the religious laws. In a way, he stands to them in the
- place (khallifah, caliph) of their prophet, in as much as (he
- urges) the obligations which ( the prophet) had imposed
- upon them. Furthermore, in accordance with the afore-men-
- tioned need for political leadership in social organization,
- the human species must have a person who will cause them
- to act in accordance with what is good for them and who will
- prevent them by force from doing things harmful to them.
- Such a person is the one who is called ruler.
-
- In the Muslim community, the holy war - Jihad - is a religious
- duty, because of the universalism of the (Muslim) mission
- and (the obligation to) convert everybody to Islam either by
- persuasion or by force. Therefore, caliphate and royal au-
- thority are united in (Islam), so that the person in charge
- can devote the available strength to both of them at the
- same time.
-
- The other religious groups did not have a universal mis-
- sion, and the holy war was not a religious duty to them, save
- only for purposes of defense. It has thus come about that the
- person in charge of religious affairs in ( other religious
- groups) is not concerned with power politics at all. (Among
- them,) royal authority comes to those who have it, by acci-
- dent and in some way that has nothing to do with religion.
- It comes to them as the necessary result of group feeling,
- which by its very nature seeks to obtain royal authority, as
- we have mentioned before, and not because they are under
- obligation to gain power over other nations, as is the case
- with Islam. They are merely required to establish their re-
- ligion among their own (people).
-
- This is why the Israelites after Moses and Joshua re-
- mained unconcerned with royal authority for about four hun-
- dred years. Their only concern was to establish their re-
- ligion. The person from among them who was in charge of
- their religion was called the Kohen. He was in a way the
- representative (caliph) of Moses. He regulated the prayers
- and sacrifices of the Israelites. They made it a condition for
- (the Kohen) to be a descendant of Aaron, as it had been
- destined for him and his children by divine revelation.
-
- For (supervision of the) political matters which naturally
- arise among human beings, the Israelites selected seventy
- elders who were entrusted with a general legal authority.
- The Kohen was higher in religious rank than they and more
- remote from the turbulent legal authority. This continued to
- be (the situation among the Israelites) until the nature of
- group feeling made itself fully felt and all power became
- political. The Israelites dispossessed the Canaanites of the
- land that God had given them as their heritage in Jerusalem
- and the surrounding region, as it had been explained to them
- through Moses. The nations of the Philistines, the Canaan-
- ites, the Armenians [!], the Edomites, the Ammonites, and
- the Moabites fought against them. During that (time), po-
- litical leadership was entrusted to the elders among them.
- The Israelites remained in that condition for about four
- hundred years. They did not have any royal power and were
- annoyed by attacks from foreign nations. Therefore, they
- asked God through Samuel, one of their prophets, that He
- permit them to make someone king over them. Thus, Saul
- became their king. He defeated the foreign nations and
- killed Goliath, the ruler of the Philistines. After Saul,
- David became king, and then Solomon. His kingdom flour-
- ished and extended to the borders of the Hijaz and further to
- the borders of the Yemen and to the borders of the land of
- the Romans ( Byzantines) . After Solomon, the tribes split
- into two dynasties. This was in accordance with the neces-
- sary consequence of group feeling in dynasties, as we have
- mentioned before. One of the dynasties was that of the ten
- tribes in the region of Nablus, the capital of which is Samaria
- (Sabastiyah), and the other that of the children of Judah
- and Benjamin in Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of
- Babylon, then deprived them of their royal authority. He
- first (dealt with) the ten tribes in Samaria (Sabastiyah),
- and then with the children of Judah in Jerusalem. Their royal
- authority had had an uninterrupted duration of a thousand
- years. Now he destroyed their temple, burnt their Torah,
- and killed their religion. He deported the people to Isfa-
- han and the 'Iraq. Eventually, one of the Persian Kayyanid
- ( Achaemenid) rulers brought them back to Jerusalem,
- seventy years after they had left it. They rebuilt the temple
- and re-established their religion in its original form with
- priests only. The royal authority belonged to the Persians.
-
- Alexander and the Greeks then defeated the Persians,
- and the Jews came under Greek domination. The Greek rule
- then weakened, and, with the help of (their) natural group
- feeling, the Jews rose against the Greeks and made an end
- to their domination over them. (Jewish) royal authority was
- in charge of their Hasmonean priests. (The Hasmoneans)
- fought the Greeks. Eventually, their power was destroyed.
- The Romans defeated them, and ( the Jews) came under
- Roman domination. (The Romans) advanced toward Jerusa-
- lem, the seat of the children of Herod, relatives by marriage
- of the Hasmoneans and the last remnant of the Hasmonean
- dynasty. They laid siege to them for a time, finally conquer-
- ing (Jerusalem) by force in an orgy of murder, destruction,
- and arson. They laid Jerusalem in ruins and exiled (the Jews)
- to Rome and the regions beyond. This was the second de-
- struction of the temple. The Jews call it ''the Great Exile.''
- After that, they had no royal authority, because they had lost
- their group feeling. They remained afterwards under the
- domination of the Romans and their successors. Their re-
- ligious affairs were taken care of by their head, called the
- Kohen.
-
- The Messiah (Jesus) brought (the Jews) his religion, as
- is known. He abolished some of the laws of the Torah. He
- performed marvelous wonders, such as healing the insane
- and reviving the dead. Many people joined him and believed
- in him. The largest group among his following were his
- companions, the Apostles. There were twelve of them. He
- sent some of them as messengers (Apostles) to all parts of
- the world. They made propaganda for his religious group.
- That was in the days of Augustus, the first of the Roman
- emperors, and during the time of Herod, the king of the
- Jews, who had taken away royal authority from the Hasmo-
- neans, his relatives by marriage. The Jews envied (Jesus)
- and declared him a liar. Their king, Herod, wrote to the
- Roman Emperor, Augustus, and incited him against (Jesus).
- The Roman Emperor gave ( the Jews) permission to kill
- him, and the story of Jesus as recited in the Qur'an oc-
- curred.
-
- The Apostles divided into different groups. Most of them
- went to the country of the Romans and made propaganda for
- the Christian religion. Peter was the greatest of them. He
- settled in Rome, the seat of the Roman emperors. They
- then wrote down the Gospel that had been revealed to Jesus,
- in four recensions according to their different traditions.
- Matthew wrote his Gospel in Jerusalem in Hebrew. It was
- translated into Latin by John, the son of Zebedee, one of
- ( the Apostles) . ( The Apostle) Luke wrote his Gospel in
- Latin for a Roman dignitary. (The Apostle) John, the son of
- Zebedee, wrote his Gospel in Rome. Peter wrote his Gospel
- in Latin and ascribed it to his pupil Mark. These four
- recensions of the Gospel differ from each other. Not all of
- it is pure revelation, but (the Gospels) have an admixture
- of the words of Jesus and of the Apostles. Most of (their
- contents) consists of sermons and stories. There are very
- few laws in them.
-
- The Apostles came together at that time in Rome and
- laid down the rules of the Christian community. They en-
- trusted them to Clement, a pupil of Peter, noting in them
- the list of books that are to be accepted and in accordance
- with which one must act.
-
- (The books which) belong to the old religious law of the
- Jews are the following:
-
- The Torah, which consists of five volumes.
- The Book of Joshua.
- The Book of Judges.
- The Book of Ruth.
- The Book of Judith.
- The four Books of Kings.
- The Book of Chronicles.
- The three Books of Maccabees, by Ibn Gorion.
- The Book of Ezra, the religious leader.
- The Book of Esther and the story of Haman.
- The Book of Job the Righteous.
- The Psalms of David.
- The five Books of David's son, Solomon.
- The sixteen Prophecies of the major and minor prophets.
- The Book of Jesus, the son of Sira, the minister of
- Solomon.
-
- (The books of) the religious law of Jesus that was re-
- ceived by the Apostles are the following:
-
- The four recensions of the Gospel.
- The Book of Paul which consists of fourteen epistles.
- The Katholika (General Epistles) which consist of seven
- epistles, the eighth being the Praxeis (Acts), stories
- of the Apostles.
- The Book of Clement which contains the laws.
- The Book of the Apocalypse (Revelation) which contains
- the vision of John, the son of Zebedee.
-
- The attitude of the Roman emperors toward Christianity
- varied. At times, they adopted it and honored its adherents.
- At other times, they did not recognize it and persecuted its
- adherents and killed and exiled them. Finally, Constantine
- appeared and adopted Christianity. From then on, all (the
- Roman emperors) were Christians.
-
- The head of the Christian ( community) and the person in
- charge of ( Christian religious) institutions is called Patriarch.
- He is their religious head and the representative (caliph) of
- the Messiah among them. He sends his delegates and rep-
- resentatives to the remote Christian nations. They are called
- "bishop," that is, delegate of the Patriarch. The man who
- leads the prayers and makes decisions in religious matters is
- called ''priest." The person who withdraws from society and
- retires into solitude for worship is called ''monk." The latter
- usually seek solitude in (monastic) cells.
-
- The Apostle Peter, the chief Apostle and oldest of the
- disciples, was in Rome and established the Christian religion
- there. Nero, the fifth Roman emperor, killed him. Successor
- to Peter at the Roman see was Arius.
-
- Mark the Evangelist spent seven years in Alexandria and
- Egypt and the Maghrib making propaganda. After him came
- Ananias, who was called Patriarch. He was the first Patriarch
- there. He appointed twelve priests to be with him, and it was
- arranged that when the Patriarch died, one of the twelve
- should take his place, and one of the faithful be elected to
- take his place as the twelfth priest. Thus, the patriarchate fell
- to the priests.
-
- Later on, dissension broke out among the Christians with
- regard to the basic principles and articles of their religion.
- They assembled in Nicea in the days of Constantine, in order
- to lay down (the doctrine of) true Christianity. Three hun-
- dred and eighteen bishops agreed upon one and the same
- doctrine of Christianity. They wrote it down and called it
- "the Creed.'' They made it the fundamental principle to
- which they would all have reference. Among the things they
- set down in writing was that with respect to the appointment
- of the Patriarch as the head of Christianity, no reference
- should be made to the independent judgment of the priests,
- as Ananias, the disciple of Mark, had prescribed. That point
- of view was abolished. The Patriarch was to come from a
- large group and to be elected by the leaders and chiefs of the
- believers. It has been so ever since. Later on, other dis-
- sensions arose concerning the basic principles of Christianity.
- Synods concerned with regulating (the religion), were as-
- sembled, but there was no dissension with regard to the
- basic principles (of the method of selecting the Patriarch).
- It has remained the same ever since.
-
- The Patriarchs always appointed bishops as their dele-
- gates. The bishops used to call the Patriarch "Father" as
- a sign of respect. The priests similarly came to call the
- bishop "Father,'' when he was not together with the Patri-
- arch, as a sign of respect. This caused confusion in the use
- of the title over a long period, ending, it is said, with the
- Patriarchate of Heraclius in Alexandria. It was considered de-
- sirable to distinguish the Patriarch from the bishop in the
- matter of respect (shown to him by style of address) . There-
- fore, the Patriarch was called "Pope," that is, "Father of
- fathers." The name (of ''Pope") first appeared in Egypt,
- according to the theory expressed by Jirjis b. al-'Amid
- in his History. It was then transferred to the occupant of the
- most important see in (Christianity), the see of Rome, which
- was the see of the Apostle Peter, as we have mentioned
- before. The title of Pope has remained characteristic of the
- see of Rome down to this day.
-
- Thereafter, there were dissensions among the Christians
- with regard to their religion and to Christology. They split
- into groups and sects, which secured the support of the
- various Christian rulers against each other. At different times
- there appeared different sects. Finally, these sects crystallized
- into three groups, which constitute the ( Christian) sects.
- Others have no significance. These are the Melchites, the
- Jacobites, and the Nestorians. We do not think that we should
- blacken the pages of this book with discussion of their dogmas
- of unbelief. In general, they are well known. All of them are
- unbelief. This is clearly stated in the noble Qur'an. (To) dis-
- cuss or argue those things with them is not up to us. It is
- (for them to choose between) conversion to Islam, payment
- of the poll tax, or death.
-
- Later on, each sect had its own Patriarch. The Patriarch
- of Rome is today called "Pope." He is of the Melchite
- persuasion. Rome belongs to the European Christians. Their
- royal authority is established in that region.
-
- The Patriarch of the (Christian) subjects in Egypt is
- of the Jacobite persuasion. He resides among them. The
- Abyssinians follow the religion of (the Egyptian Christians).
- The Patriarch of Egypt delegates bishops to the Abyssinians,
- and these bishops arrange religious affairs in Abyssinia. The
- name of ''Pope" is specially reserved for the patriarch of
- Rome at this time. The Jacobites do not call their patriarch
- "Pope." The word (Pope) is pronounced Pappa.
-
- It is the custom of the Pope with respect to the European
- Christians to urge them to submit to one ruler and have
- recourse to him in their disagreements and agreements, in
- order to avoid the dissolution of the whole thing. His pur-
- pose is to have the group feeling that is the strongest among
- them (concentrated upon one ruler), so that (this ruler) has
- power over all of them. The ruler is called "Emperor"
- (Emperador), with the middle letter (pronounced some-
- how) between dh and z. (The Pope) personally places the
- crown upon the head of (the emperor), in order to let him
- have the blessing implied (in that ceremony). The emperor,
- therefore, is called "the crowned one." Perhaps that is the
- meaning of the word ''emperor."
-
- This, briefly, is our comment on the two words Pope and
- Kohen.
-
- ''God leads astray whomever He wants to lead astray,
- and He guides whomever He wants to guide."
-
-
-