The historical course of Islam 1

📚 Part 1 of 6 in the series on the history and civilisation of Islam.

This video opens the series of lectures with Gerdi Demneri on the history of the Islamic world, based on “The Venture of Islam” by the American historian Marshall Hodgson — a work that brought a major correction to classical orientalism. Gerdi sets out the methodology and the frame of reading he will follow across the six sessions, taking up the Western picture of history and the Islamic perspective as an alternative to it.

This session lays the foundations: the critique of orientalist myths, the situation of Afro-Eurasia and its civilisations during the Axial Age, the pre-Islamic context, the coming of the Prophet Muhammad, the making of the first Muslim community in Medina, and the period of the four rightly guided caliphs (Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali). It closes with the first three fitnas and the beginning of the Umayyad caliphate under Mu'awiya, down to the moment when the split between political power and religious authority begins to take shape.

Some of the points covered: 📌 The critique of orientalist myths, and Hodgson's methodology 📌 Afro-Eurasia and the civilisations of the Axial Age 📌 The pre-Islamic context and the potential of the Arabian peninsula 📌 The choice of Abu Bakr and the grievance of the Hashimites 📌 The caliphate of the four rightly guided, and the prophetic model 📌 The killing of Uthman and the beginning of the fitnas 📌 The battle of Karbala and the birth of Shiism 📌 The Umayyad caliphate and the separation of powers in Islam

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