The Champions’ of the True Faith

Copyright © 2016 by Farid Adel.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2016916237

ISBN:      Hardcover         978-1-5245-4710-3

                 Softcover          978-1-5245-4709-7

                  eBook              978-1-5245-4708-0

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Rev. date: 10/27/2016

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Contents

Introduction

Chapter One

The Men

Land of the Champions

Sumayyah bint Khayyat

Persecution and Death

The First Migration

In Abyssinia

Hamza: The Uncle of the Prophet

Assassination of Hamza bin ‘Abdul Muttalib

Ali Ibni Abi Talib

How Ali Accepted Islam

Self-Sacrifice of Ali

Military Career of Ali

Mubahala: A Beautiful Historical Incident

Declaration

Ali After the Prophet

Why the Battle

Deployment of Troops

The One-On-One Fights

The Fate of the War

The Reflection of the Battle in Medina

Another Version

The Battle

The Battle of Uhud

Killing the Quraysh Standard-Bearers

The Battle

Background

Reason for Battle

Battle of Khandaq

Ali and Amr

Battle of Khaybar

The Battle

Fall of Al-Qamus Fort

Battle with Marhab

The Battle in Classic Islamic Literature

Battle of Hunayn

Championship of Ali

The Battle of Mu’tah

Another Version

The Battle of Karbala

Husain and His Infant Child

The Only Man Standing

Chapter Two

Champions of Science Khwarizmi

Astronomy

Trigonometry

Geography

Other Works

Abu Rayhan al-Biruni

Accomplishment

Maimonides

Islamic Classical Worlds Alchemy and Chemistry

Islamic Chemistry and Medieval Western Sciences

Alchemists and Works

Jabir ibn Hayyan

His Contribution to Chemistry

Abu Bakr al-Razi

Al-Razi, the Clinician

Muhammad ibn Umayl al-Tamimi

Al-Tughrai

Al-Jildaki

Science in the Medieval Islamic World

Physics

Astronomy

Avicenna or Ibn Sina

Drugs

Surgery

Rumi

Major Works

Religious outlook

Farid-uddin Attar

Omar Khayyam

Ibn al-Baitar

Chapter Three

Mahmud of Ghazni

Nizam al-Mulk

Early life and service to the Ghaznavid of Afghanistan

Battle of Dandanaqan

Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad

Lodi Dynasty

Fall of the Empire

Afghan Factionalism

Battle of Panipat, 1526 CE, West of Old Delhi

Mahmud Lodi

Battle of Sammel

Third Battle of Panipat

Chapter Four

Ahmad Shah Durrani

Formations

Maratha Revenge

Khushal Khattak

Taqi ad-Din Muhammad

Sultan Salah ad-Din

Battle of Hattin

Siege of Tiberias

The Battle

Capture of Jerusalem

Qutuz

Mongol Threat

Battle of Ain Jalut

Chapter Five

Khwaja Abdullah Ansari

Abu Ayyub al-Ansari

Last Military Campaign

Ali-Shirr Nava’i

Sultan Husain Mirza Bayqara

Anarchy

Goharshad Begum

Background

Battle of Mohacs

Second Siege of Vienna in 1683 CE

Chapter Six

Babur

Babur at Kabul

First Battle of Panipat

Battle of Khanwa

Akbar the Great

Hotak Dynasty

Siege of Isfahan

Shah Mahmud Hotaki

Mahmud’s Reign as Shah

The Battle

Ashraf Hotak

Jews in Turkey

Kamal ud-Din Bihzad

Wazir Akbar Khan

First Anglo-Afghan War

Battle of Jamrud

The Battle of Kandahar

The Siege of Kandahar

Ayyub Khan’s Position

Battle Plan

The Battle of Maiwand

The Battle of Maiwand

Introduction

The Champions of the True Faith is composed of brief historical facts of the last fourteen centuries, events that shaped the history of the entire world and were like a bright light shining from the horizon. The effects of this beautiful era are still visible all around us. However, in total, this writing may seem like a religious book; nevertheless, it does not contain a religious ideology and one-sided opinion. Furthermore, in the pages of this book, we may feel the strong and profound influence of the Islamic faith, which will be felt, and it may not reflect the personal feeling and ideology of the author. In this book, there has been a particular effort exhorted to exclude religious and a particular ideology. Therefore, this book has been compiled in a unique way to represent the historical events of this particularly beautiful and colorful era of Islamic culture. And within its illustrated pages, you will learn the actual events of history and the people of the Middle East, and Central Asia specifically, during the era known as the golden age, to include number of extraordinary individuals, such as warriors, scientists, and discoverers. These individuals, the champions of the true faith, were instrumental to the advancement of human development and, ultimately, the scientific discovery of today’s technologies.

In this book, you will learn the fabulous and exclamatory achievement of these individuals who never hesitated in challenging any obstacles to their search for the truth. For example, the original discoverer of coffee was first introduced by the knowledge seekers of Islamic scientists who intended to be able to stay up late in the night to continue their search for knowledge and scientific discussions. Coffee was primarily consumed in the Islamic world where it first originated and was directly related to theological and scientific research and of the practices of their experiments for the discovery of new knowledge.

There are several legendary accounts of the origin of the drink itself. One account involves the Yemenite Sufi mystic Ghothul Akbar Nooruddin Abu al-Hassan al-Shadhili. When traveling in Ethiopia, the legend goes, he observed birds of unusual vitality and, upon trying the berries that the birds had been eating, experienced the same vitality.

In addition to that, this book contains reliable documentation and accurate events that had been accurately recorded and preserved, and fortunately, the author has been suspicious enough that it enables him to pursue compiling the contents of this book. The author tried to concentrate on historical perspective rather than on religious ideology.

And of the men who were directly responsible for the spread of monotheism in all three continents and, ultimately, caused to change the history of human civilization forever. Furthermore, they were the ones who preserved and expanded this beautiful way of belief, and in the process of doing so, they were endured countless turmoil of the region and confrontation from the people of the Middle East and surrounding countries.

In the Middle East, the rise of this new faith not only encouraged and directed people to believe in the philosophy of monotheism but also created a new form of government of law and justice. The establishment of the schools of philosophy under the command and direction of its Heavenly Revelations (the Quran), such as the Sufis or mysticism, to which its followers created a beautiful school of thought. In the process, the Sufi philosophy taught tolerance, inharmonic, and coexistence among all people regardless of their origin and beliefs. To simplify this claim, we must not forget that all human beings desire to live in an environment of peace and harmony, free of conflict and ignorance.

Throughout their struggle against tyranny and injustice, these men lived in the land where, for centuries, there were always conflicts and wars. The new faith brought about a renewal of peace and prosperity in the region. Under such circumstances, this new faith encouraged the growth of private capital that resulted in acquiring knowledge, and that included science, music, poetry, arts, and medicine; Avicenna of Balkh of Afghanistan was known as the father of medicine.

Early Islamic philosophy or classical Islamic philosophy was a period of intense philosophical development beginning in the ninth century CE and lasting until the twelfth century CE. The period was known as the Islamic golden age, and the achievements of this period had a crucial influence in the development of modern philosophy and science.

The golden years of Islamic empire from the ninth to the end of twelfth century CE created the foundation of today’s science and technologies around the world. As such, the foundation of math, physics, astronomy, medicine, music, and arts was all laid by the followers of this new faith yet very old because of the fact that the ideology of this new faith was, in effect, the same principles and beliefs as the father of this monotheistic religion, Prophet Abraham.

In addition, the efforts, sacrifices, and researches of men of this period preserved the histories of Western Europe by translating the ancient history of Greeks into Arabic. Throughout the history of the Greeks and Europeans, most of their writings were destroyed, but thanks to the preservation of these knowledge by the Islamic scholars that enabled the Renaissance to reestablish the lost knowledge in developing the advancement of today’s science.

In this book, we will examine the events and the sacrifices of such individuals who put their lives and personal gains in the line of their obligations and selfless duties. We will be informed of the life of the original champions of the true faith and their accomplishments in the way of God. Their attempt to provide for the well-being of all humans, their courage, their sacrifice, and their faith were the force that caused them to be the champions of the true faith.

We need to acknowledge the time and the circumstances to which they lived. For example, during dawn of Islamic civilization, particularly in the ancient city of Mecca, one of the most recognized ancient cities, there were only thirteen people who knew how to read and write. School did not exist. There were no government and no systematic law and, above all, no justice was known to be administered among the Arabs.

In an environment such as that, there arose a civilization solely based on true revelation from the heavens. In this book, we will get to know the effects of such powerful messages to the communities of human beings. In addition to what we are to consider is the human factor, which, whether we like it or not, men will always be fighting among each other. What makes a great difference is the level of civility between rivals, and this is and will be the goal of every civilized individual.

Chapter One

The Men

During this period, beginning in the ninth century through twelfth century CE, the Muslims showed a strong interest in assimilating the scientific knowledge of the civilizations that had been conquered. As it was mentioned in the previous pages, many classic works of antiquity that might otherwise have been lost were translated from Greek, Roman, Persian, Indian, Chinese, Egyptian, and Phoenician civilizations into Arabic and Persian and later, in turn, translated into Turkish, Hebrew, and Latin.

In particular, Christians (particularly Nestorian Christians) contributed to the Arab Islamic civilization during the Umayyad and the Abbasid periods by translating works of Greek philosophers to Syrian and afterward to Arabic. During the fourth through the seventh centuries, scholarly work in the Syrian and Greek languages was either newly initiated or carried on from the Hellenistic period. Centers of learning and of transmission of classical wisdom included colleges, such as the School of Nisibis and later the School of Edessa, and the renowned hospital and medical academy of Jundishapur; libraries, such as the Library of Alexandria and the Imperial Library of Constantinople; and other centers of translation and learning functioned at Merv, Salonika, Nishapur, and Ctesiphon situated just south of what later became Baghdad.

Nestorians played a prominent role in the formation of Arab culture, especially at Jundishapur school. Notably, eight generations of the Nestorian Bukhtishu family served as private doctors to caliphs and sultans between the eighth and eleventh centuries.

In this particular era, the major events in the Middle East, in the start of the tenth century CE. We are to learn personalities of this period starting with al-Kindi who was the first of the Muslim peripatetic philosophers and was unanimously hailed as the father of Islamic or Arabic philosophy for his synthesis, adaptation, and promotion of Greek and Hellenistic philosophy in the Muslim world.

Begin in the ninth century and ends with Averroes known as Ibn Rushd at the end of twelfth century. The death of Averroes effectively marks the end of a particular discipline of Islamic philosophy usually called the Peripatetic Arabic School, and philosophical activity declined significantly in Western Islamic countries, particularly in Islamic Spain and North Africa, though it persisted for much longer in the Eastern countries, in particular, Persia and India, where several schools of philosophy continued to flourish: Avicennism, illuminationist philosophy, mystical philosophy, transcendent theosophy, and much more.

Here, we are to examine some of the significant achievements of early Muslim philosophers below:

• The development of a strict science of citation, the isnad or backing; the development of a method of open inquiry to disprove claims, the ijtihad, which could be generally applied to many types of questions

• The willingness to both accept and challenge authority within the same process

• Recognition that science and philosophy are both subordinate to morality and that moral choices are prior to any investigation or concern with either

• The separation of religious theology and law during the early Abbasid period, a precursor to secularism

• The distinction between religion and philosophy, marking the beginning of secular thought; the beginning of a peer-review process; early ideas on evolution

• The beginnings of the scientific method, an important contribution to the philosophy of science

• The introduction of temporal modal logic and inductive logic; the beginning of social philosophy, including the formulation of theories on social cohesion and social conflict

• The beginning of the philosophy of history, the development of the philosophical novel and the concepts of exercise or practice and relish of documentation, and distinguishing between essence and existence.

The genius of Maimonides and Thomas Aquinas, to name a few, knew of at least some of the Mu’tazilite, which was one of these schools of thought works, particularly Avicennism and Averroism, and the Renaissance and the use of exercise methods were inspired, at least in part, by Arabic translations of Greek, Jewish, Persian, and Egyptian works into Latin during the Renaissance of the twelfth century.

Early Islamic philosophy can be divided into clear sets of influences, branches, schools, and fields as described below:

• Avicennism in the field of contemporary medicine

• Averroism

• Modern Islamic philosophy

• Sufi philosophy

• Transcendent theosophy

• List of Muslim philosophers

• Illuminationist philosophy

• Islamic ethics

• Islamic metaphysics

• Sufi metaphysics

• Sufism

In addition to these, we need not forget the effect of their work in the field of science, which we are appreciative of:

• Timeline of Islamic science and engineering

• Alchemy and chemistry in medieval Islam

• Astronomy in medieval Islam

• Islamic astrology

• Sociology in medieval Islam

• Mathematics in medieval Islam

• Medicine in medieval Islam

• Ophthalmology in medieval Islam

• Physics in medieval Islam

• Psychology in medieval Islam

• Islamic art

• Islamic calligraphy

• Islamic pottery

• Local music

• Islamic literature

• Arabic literature

• Arabic epic literature

• Islamic poetry

• Arabic poetry

• Persian poetry

In the pages of this book, we will be informed of these personalities and of their sacrifices and achievements throughout their lives.

Land of the Champions

In a vast desert and mostly uninhabited land, a place where there can be found little signs of life, a land that contains limited natural resources, and finally, a land that contains only mountains, stones, and sand, there arose a magnificent heavenly force that immediately created an environment that changed the history of mankind all over the world, a land to which throughout history, men and its invasion armies dared even thinking stepping a foot in its territory or invading this land. This land and its people contain a small trading or economical influence in the great ancient travel roads. The Egyptian, the Greek, the Roman, and the Persian empires knew that it was not worth losing a single life. And if they did that, and doing so, it might bring great risk of lives and financial resources in this land, which in the final result, they achieve little benefit. It is well established that there is a very limited source of water and very few resources for human needs. The year was 572 CE, and the world was in dark and long sleepy period. There were no new discoveries and no human advances in the Western world. Historians called this period as the Dark Ages because there were little historical records kept. And people generally were unaware of events and were only occupied with daily struggles. And in situation such as that, there was a man arose by the greater force, meaning Heavenly Revelations, from the above and was chosen to lead the dead societies of the world to a new advance and prosperous societies.

We begin with the founder of such champions whom God had chosen to lead these ancient and backward people. This man was none other than Muhammad, the Prophet of God, and this new faith was called Islam. The definition of the word Islam is someone surrendering himself to the will of his Creator. His rise to this position was not of his choice. He never ever expected to be chosen a Messenger of God. However, he had no choice but to obey the command of his Lord. This man was born to a mother whose husband died before her first child was born, and then this child lost his mother at childhood, and since he was the only child, he was totally alone.

One can imagine a child who had no father, no mother, no brother, and no sister. Muhammad grew up in a society where the status of father figure was a central part of family. In such a condition, he grew up and was able to obtain a life of virtue with a perfect character and personality. This type of personality had always been the same, since they were chosen by the heavenly force for delivering messages to human beings and obviously among their people were flawless and above all, at the top of their highly known character.

At the time of his demise, 632 CE, Muhammad was able to unify the entire Arabian Peninsula, and for the first time, the entire population of the region lived under the same banner and the same voice. Unity of all people was a new change where the majority of population accepted this ideology with open arms. Therefore, this new political and sociological development created an ideology of scholarly championships.

Here, we are to start with the very first champion of the dawn of this new civilization.

Sumayyah bint Khayyat

A black Ethiopian woman, she is known in the Islamic traditions as the first person in history to be martyred for having adopted the faith of Islam in premigration to Medina from Mecca. Sumayyah was the wife of Yasir ibn Amir and the mother of Ammar ibn Yasir, both well-known early entrants. She was a slave of Abu Hudhaifah ibn al-Mughirah, who later gave her in marriage to Yasir ibn Amir. She bore Yasir three sons: Horayth, Ammar, and Abdullah. They were later freed by Abu Hudhaifah.

Persecution and Death

By 615 CE, five years after Muhammad’s declaration of prophethood, persecution of followers of the new faith came to an active phase when the most steadfast members of the young community, such as the African slave Bilal, were subjected to torture and the local leaders proclaimed a ban of trade with the Muslims, prohibiting citizens of Mecca from providing food and medicine to members of the new movement. These were followed by the murder of Sumayyah by a Meccan tribal chief, Abu Jahl, and others.

The Makhzum clan used to take out Ammar ibn Yasir with his father and mother, who were Muslims, in the heat of the day and expose them to the heat of Mecca, and the Apostle passed by them and said, so I have heard, ‘Patience, O family of Yasir! Your meeting-place will be Paradise.’ They killed his mother, for she refused to abandon Islam. The date assigned to Sumayyah’s death is 615 CE. Muslims will always honor her status as the first martyr of Islam.

The First Migration

The condition of the lives of the early converter in Mecca was beyond human capacity, and finally, they were forced to seek refuge in another country. The first group of emigrants, comprising eleven men and four women, was granted asylum in the year 615 CE according to other sources under Ashama ibn-Abjar, the ruler of the Ethiopian kingdom of Aksum. This group included Uthman ibn Affan, who later became the third caliph. Muhammad chose Uthman bin Maz’oon, one of his most important companions, as the leader of this group. After a year, the exiles heard rumors that the Quraysh, the starch enemy, had accepted Islam, which prompted them to return to Mecca.

Confronted with the reality, they set out to Abyssinia again in 616 CE, this time accompanied by others, eighty-three men and eighteen women in all. The decision to return was motivated by a change of Meccan strategy toward the Muslims, which temporarily created a more favorable environment for them in Mecca, as well as by a rebellion against the Abyssinian king.

In Abyssinia

When the Quraysh learned that Muhammad’s companions could safely practice their religion in Abyssinia, they decided to send an embassy to the negus to demand return of the fugitives. They selected two envoys and gave them gifts for the king and his generals. The Meccans appealed to the generals, arguing that the emigrants were foolish youths who invented a new religion, the likes of which neither the Meccans nor the Abyssinians had heard of, and that their relatives were asking for their return. The king granted them audience, but he refused to hand over people who had sought his protection until he heard their side of the story.

The leader of this migrant was Ja’far ibn Abī Tālib, who acted as the leader of the exiles and spoke in their defense. The Muslims were brought in front of the negus and his bishops. Ja’far described to the king how they lived before Islam, what Muhammad’s prophetic mission was, and what he had taught them. He also spoke of the persecution they had faced at the hands of the Quraysh. The king asked if they had with them anything that had come from God. When Ja’far confirmed, the king commanded him to read it. Ja’far then recited a passage from the sura (chapter of the Quran) of Mary. When the king heard it, he wept and exclaimed, Verily, this and what Jesus brought has come from the same source of light. He then affirmed that he would never give up the Muslims.

However, one of the envoys, ‘Amr ibn al-’As, thought of another tactic. The following day, he returned to the king and told him that the Muslims had said a dreadful thing about Jesus. When the Muslims heard that the king summoned them again to question them about their view of Jesus, they tried to find a diplomatic answer but finally decided to speak according to the revelation they had received. When the king addressed Ja’far, he replied that they held Jesus to be God’s servant, His prophet, His spirit, and His word which He cast upon the virgin Mary. Upon hearing these words, the negus declared that Jesus was indeed no more than what he had said. He turned to the Muslims and told them, Go, for you are safe in my country. He then returned the gifts to the envoys and dismissed them. Many of the Abyssinian exiles returned to Mecca in 622 CE and made the hijra, meaning migrant, to Medina with Muhammad, while a second wave came to Medina in 628 CE, about six years later.

Hamza: The Uncle of the Prophet

He was