Water and The Islamic Empire

Relgious Background

Water is a resource that is debatably the most important resource man kind has come across. Without water, life would be nonexistent. The Abrahmic religions knew that basic proposition and water became a keystone concept in their faith. For the Islamic Empire however, water was at the center.

At the time of conception, Islam was competing with paganism. The prophet Mohammad received revelations from god via the angel Gabriel and the main concept was, there is only one god. To the individuals that practiced paganism, that seemed absurd. When Mohamamd circled the Kabba-which was the house that idols were stored in-he told the tribe members to ask their gods to save themselves. When they couldn't save themselves from Mohamamad and his followers, he told them about his revelations and a new era of prosperity. He told them about Islam's main focus being there being one god, they seemed to hear a lot clearer now. He then went onto describe the religion and when he did, he uttered the notion of Jannah, or heaven. In the description Muhammad gave about heaven, water seemed to be a staple. "Truly! The Muttaqun (pious and righteous persons - see V.2:2) will be amidst Gardens and water-springs (Paradise). "(It will be said to them): 'Enter therein (Paradise), in peace and security.' "And We shall remove from their breasts any sense of injury (that they may have), (So they will be like) brothers facing each other on thrones. "No sense of fatigue shall touch them, nor shall they (ever) be asked to leave it." Quran 15: 45-48 . Mohammad gave the people vivid descriptions on heaven and the message sunk. Who wouldn't want endless rivers of water flowing and all you can see is lush green life coexisting with humanity? That afterlife was more appealing than the reality and it was just another reason people started leaving paganism to practice Islam.

Muhammad gave the people of the world Islam, but before their they could practice, he also taught them the state their bodies need to be in before they pray. The word muslim has an arabic background and it means one who submits to god. Muslims cannot submit their will to god without following a procedure first. The procedure is encompassed in three ablutions: "Firstly, ghusl, the major ablution, is the washing of the whole body in pure water, after declaring the intention to do so. Muslims are obliged to perform ghusl after sex which incurs a state of major ritual impurity. Ghusl is also recommended before the Friday prayer, the two main feasts, and before touching the Koran. Ghusl must be done for the dead before they are buried.The second ablution is wudu, the minor ablution, which is performed to remove minor ritual impurity from everyday life. This must be done before each of the five daily prayers and involves using pure water to wash the face with pure water, rub the head with water, wash the hands and arms up to the elbows and the feet up to the ankles. This comes from the Koran 5: 7/8 "O you who believe, when you prepare for prayer, wash your faces and your hand to the elbows; rub your head and your feet to the ankles" and is elaborated on in great detail in the Sunna. Every mosque has running water for wudu. The third type of ablution is performed when no water is available. In this case clean sand may be used." It is very important that the body and soul be on the same platform when worshiping in terms of cleanliness and purity, so that is where the "tahara", or ritual purity becomes mandatory. Water becomes a medium that washes the sin away and supplies a theraputic benefit as well.

Architecture and Agriculture

The lack of water forced the Islamic Empire to be innovative and find creative ways to bring water to them. Engineers thought of ingenious ways to accomplish the tasks, so they went back to the third century bc in Egypt. The created "The Saquiya" or Giant Noria Wheel which was a device that used an animal as a power source to extract water from a well, if the water table was too low. The device was predominantly used for agricultural and domestic purposes. Al-Andalus has mulitple similarities to architecture and culture to its syrian counterpart due to the previous islamic rulers coming from syrian descent. The similarites still remain in the southern portion of Spain and what used to be Damuscus. What is fascinating, that with water power, the Islamic Empire creates an unconvential use for water, clock making. Clock making goes back to 1050 AD in Toledo,Spain. "The illustrations clearly show gear-trains incorporating both these types of gearing. This is extremely important: we have met simple gears in mills and water-raising machines, but this is the first known case of complex gears used to transmit high torque. It is also the earliest record we have of segmental and epicyclical gears. In Europe, sophisticated gears for transmitting high torque first appeared in the astronomical clock completed by Giovanni de Dondi about AD 1365." Groundbreaking inventions were created with dire need of water and it forced the Empire to look in a unorthodox perspective. Another invention that created a plethora of uses, the astrolabe. The uses became notable to finding the time of day, knowing the time of sunset or sundown, and many other uses were created. "In the 10th century, Abd al-Rahmân b. Umar al-Sufī (d. A.H. 376/A.D. 986-7) wrote a detailed treatise on the astrolabe consisting of 386 chapters in which he described 1000 uses for the astrolabe." Another very important use navigating the sea. Taking into consideration a different type of astrolabe was used, the navigator's astrolabe, however, the idea was conceived from the original astrolabe.

Environmental Impact

Existence in a barren wasteland can provide a pessimistic outlook on life, therefore when water was presented, it was treated as a gift from god. Limited resources was an obvious hurdle, so raising awareness became a necessity. It started from the quranic verses to Imams informing the followers of Islam about the conservation of water. "Imams, then, have been properly trained on water issues so that during the Khutbah, the Friday sermon, they could instruct all the believers on new techniques for water conservation or just draw their attention on water scarcity and the means to alleviate the problem at least in their domestic environment. Imams would focus on Quranic and Sharaitic precepts thus providing a solid basis for their speech and would then shift to more up-to-date problems such as scarcity afflicting the surrounding environment or more modern subjects like wastewater reuse." This became an excellent location to lobby the important manifesto which stemmed from ablutions, when "wudu" was performed, to finding ways to reuse water. Water is an icon in Islam, where it is mentioned over sixty times in the quran and numerous times in hadiths, which are statements by the prophet Mohammad. Agriculture was important in the Islamic Empire because a food source was limited because of the harsh climate, so trade became a great crutch to alleviate the pain. New methods were created to alleviate the land and use the most effective amount of water for each plant, such as crop rotation and cash crops. "There are also hadiths which prove to be actual measures for preservation of water by prohibiting to defecate or urinate in the proximity of water sources thus to avoid pollution and spreading of diseases. This is probably the origin of the concept of harim, that is the buffer zone around a water source where human activities are prohibited in order to avoid corruption of this water body. " There is a wide cry for keeping the sanctity of water intact. The topics range from ethical dilemmas concerning the equallity of water; everyone on the plant has the right to water; water should not be sold or owned unless you are performing a labor to retrieve the water, to sanitation, where no should be defecating or urinating around a water source. Water is very glorified and thrown in a pedastal, but logically speaking, water deserves to be pampered.

The Arts

Water has expanded its reaches not only geographically, biologically, chemically but in so many other facets; art in particular became something reenvisioned. Islamic literature and poetry adheres to water as a bee would to pollen, showcasing its magnificence, due to Allah's grace.

"Think about the earth

And about the water in the wells

And about the sun in the sky

It does not burn us all".

Where humanity should be astonished by such a creation and be grateful to god that the water we drink doesn't come down in a harmful manner.

References

1. Drops of Faith: Water in Islam http://www.onislam.net/english/shariah/contemporary-issues/human-conditions-and-social-context/418062-water-islam-environment-green-christianity-ablutio.html?Social_Context=

2. Islamic Golden Age http://islamichistory.org/islamic-golden-age/

3.Islam: Empire of Faith http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/innoengineering.html

4. Islam Science and Math http://www.islamawareness.net/Maths/science4.html

5. Verses on Paradise http://www.muslimtents.com/aminahsworld/Verses_on_paradise.html

6. The Importance and Advantages of Ghusul http://www.questionsonislam.com/article/importance-and-advantages-ghusl

7. History of Science and Technology in Islam http://www.history-science-

technology.com/articles/articles%2071.html

8. Uses of the Astrolabe http://www.astrolabes.org/pages/uses.htm

9. Islam, Water Conservation and Public Awareness Campaigns http://www.greenfaith.org/files/Islam-

%20Water%20Conservation%20and%20Public%20Awareness%20Campaigns.pdf