A REVIEW OF JONATHAN BERKEY'S THE FORMATION OF ISLAM

            Jonathan Berkey’s The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East 600 – 1800 is an account of the foundations and evolution of the Islamic tradition told in four parts. Asserting that Muhammad’s monotheism did not arise out of a historical or social vacuum, part one tells the story of the religious and social environment that served as the foundation for the development of Islam. The author asserts that while Christianity provided the basis for several elements of Islam as it evolved, it is best to view the foundations of Islam as influenced primarily by the various expressions of Judaism found in the Near East (10 – 12).

            Berkey describes the exodus of Palestinian Jews to Babylon and other areas in the Near East after the failed Bar Kochba revolt and Rome’s subsequent expulsion of the Jews from Jerusalem. The Rabbis who came to Mesopotamia claimed their authority through the “oral law,” which was traced back to Moses and was viewed in parallel with the written law, the Torah. The Rabbis established a series of schools that came to shape the Judaism of the region (14 – 15). Berkey describes a proselytizing impetus in Judaism that lasted into the fourth century, and was formed of Jewish followers of Jesus as Messiah who refused the label Christian. The author depicts the situation of the Jews in the region as much better than is popularly assumed, even describing an independent Jewish State, which existed for seven years (16 – 18). 

            Berkey asserts that the rise of Christianity was the tool that most developing religions in the region used to define themselves against. The author illustrates the fact that there were several Christianities who used Judaism, Paganism, and each other as tools for self-definition. The polemical tone of the inter-Christian debates both helped to define the various Christianities but also, according to Berkey, betrayed a deep uncertainty within the religious competition which inspired the debates in the first place (23). This uncertainty was felt across the spectrum of competing religions but in particular by the monotheistic and dualistic traditions.

Berkey claims that the foundation for this tension was the growing universalistic convictions of the monotheistic traditions and, in a slightly more limited way, the dualistic traditions. Berkey asserts that the rise of the “urban commercial economy” played a significant role in the evolution of religion from a parochial to universalistic tendency. The author maintains that “from monotheism, it is but a short step to an explicit, and potentially militant, universalism” (8). Berkey contends that the syncretistic and regional elements of Paganism diffused much of the tensions that arose along with the universalistic tendencies of the monotheistic traditions (8).

            Berkey then describes the religious and cultural milieu that existed within and around the Fertile Crescent prior to the rise of Islam. He acknowledges several problems with the traditional Islamic picture of life prior to Muhammad and attempts to give a reliable picture of the various tensions in the region. The author points to the Byzantine and the Sassanian empires as a significant cause of the regional tensions. Berkey describes several theological conflicts within the Christian tradition, identifying Christian perspectives that informed the Islamic tradition and illustrating the environment of religious competition. The author also describes the dualistic traditions of Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism and identifies several areas where dualism influenced the development and evolution of Islam. Berkey asserts that Christianity and Judaism were not the only forms of monotheism predating Islam and he recognizes the hanifayya as a distinctly Arabic form of monotheism that influenced Islam (39 – 49).

            The author briefly mentions the war between Rome and Iran as illustrating growing regional tensions. Berkey asserts that, by the seventh century, the evolving role that religion played in everyday life had extended to every aspect of personal identity, “social, political, cultural” (51). The author asserts that the early part of the seventh century was marked by widespread apocalypticism, messianism and general religious turmoil and that it was out of this environment that Islam arose (50 – 53).

In the second section, Berkey traces the evolution of Islam from an early state of flux through a long process of maturation. He asserts that Muhammad did not leave the Muslim community with a crystalline theology nor did he leave them with a securely organized society, rather the early Islamic community had to continually work to define themselves in the midst of a rapidly spreading and changing influence and polity.

The author briefly details the difficulties of the historicity of the traditional accounts of the production of the Quran, pointing to several conflicting accounts within the tradition. Berkey asseverates that it was 200 years after the death of Muhammad before the Quran would take on its final form, using this fact as an illustration of the “protracted and uneven” process whereby Islam matured. The author also maintains that, even though the foundations of Islam were found in Arabia, the self-identity of Islam was forged through the religious and social encounters between Arabic Islam and Syria and Iraq (59 – 60).

Berkey claims that previous scholarship supports his assertion that Islam grew out of the social and religious traditions that came before. The author states that the environment that Muhammad grew up in was saturated by apocalyptic and messianic sentiments. He also declares that the differences between the Christian, Jewish, and even Pagan ideologies were not as clear cut as the polemics would make it seem; that the stories and ideas from many variations of each of these traditions were available to be drawn upon by Muhammad and other early Islamic thinkers; and that the idea that the Arabs were children of Abraham through Hagar had long circulated before Islam used it to link itself with the other “Abrahamic” traditions.

The author goes on to trace the evolution of self-identity from kinship based to one based on religious affiliation. At the same time, the author emphasizes the tribal nature of such an identity, identifying this nature as the source of the impetus to survive through conquest. Berkey affirms, however, that Islam eventually moved away from this tribal orientation, and in doing so, it suppressed many of the attributes it inherited from its tribal roots (61 – 69).

Berkey briefly explains the differing accounts of the legitimate heir to the leadership of the community after the death of Muhammad. From the Sunni’s emphasis on Abu Bakr as the legitimate heir to the Shi’i’s emphasis on Ali as the legitimate heir, Berkey affirms the difficulty of the historicity of any of these accounts, asserting what can be understood from these accounts is that the community was in turmoil after the death of Muhammad, which may point to the community’s first civil war. The author reemphasizes the tribal nature of early Arabic Islamic identity and points to this nature as one of the only things that can be affirmed as a motivation for their inspiration to conquer (70 – 73).

            Berkey guides the reader through the early years of Islamic growth, which were marked by religious indeterminacy and sectarianism. From the Umayyad to the Abbasids, the author illustrates expansion and gradual settling of the Islamic community. The author explains the gradual move from a dominant but minority Islamic Near Eastern population to a primarily Islamic Near Eastern population. Along the way, Berkey elucidates the exchange of cultural and religious influences that are inevitable when cultures and religions live in close proximity (76 – 109).

The author demonstrates the theological maturity which resulted from the dialogue between, not only non-Islamic traditions, but the various Islamic sects which arose during these years. This theological maturity served to crystalize the Islamic traditions. Berkey describes how the Abbasids embraced the trappings of the imperial court, lending itself a sense of legitimacy through continuity with the past. The author also illustrates the influence of the Persian traditions in the shaping of Islamic identity as well as the persistent influence of Islamic converts. Berkey claims a primarily urban context for early Islam, emphasizing the merchant elements of the Islamic community, but also illustrating several “debilitating social customs,” such as female circumcision, that became part of the evolving Islamic culture during this period.

The author explores in some detail the development of Twelver Shi’ism, Isma’ilism, and the social and political implications of these movements within Islam. Berkey also explores the evolution of traditionalist Sunni Islam, which, from the beginning, was a form of fundamentalism and concisely illustrates the differences between Shi’i and Sunni Islam. He then briefly explains the development of Sufism and the inclusion of asceticism with Sufi Islam. The author explains that some forms of this tradition posed a threat to the hierarchy of the established Islamic community. He particularly points to the antinomian and individualist elements of some forms of Sufi Islam, whose very nature undermined the foundations of the hard won crystallization of the Islamic identity (130 – 158).

            Berkey describes the impact and response of the non-Muslim inhabitants of the Near East as they became the minority to the Islamic majority. However, the author emphasizes, once again, the mutual exchange of social and religious influence. Berkey emphasizes the magical elements of these influences; charms, incantations, and magic formulas to manipulate spiritual entities were present in ways that freely borrowed from the various religions present in the region. The author also mentions that the educated elite disparaged such low uses of the tradition that marked popular religion. Berkey explains that the Abrahamic traditions, particularly Judaism, were often allowed to operate with virtual freedom. This does not mean they were considered socially equal to the Islamic elite, but they did enjoy considerable autonomy (159 – 175).

            In part four, which Berkey reluctantly refers to as the “medieval Islamic Near East,” the author explores the fragmentation of the Islamic Near East and Islamic life under “alien,” often Turkic, regimes. The author argues that Sunni Islam provided these “others” with a path to legitimacy that would not have been present in Shi’i Islam. The author illustrates the bizarre and markedly apocalyptic directions that Isma’ilis went in response to growing Sunni power. The Christian issue was complex at this time. The author mentions the sizable Coptic Christian population in Egypt and the influence of the Arminian Christian soldiers under the Fatimid rule. Berkey also points out the effect of the crusades as focusing Islamic attention on Jerusalem in a way it had not been before, as well as a resurgence of the militant ideology of the jihad. The crusades caused new forms of community to arise in which the ruling military elite worked in greater cooperation with the religious scholars, which, in some ways, increased the influence of the Islamic jurists (189 – 199).

            According to the author, Sufism in the Middle Period blurred the distinctions between Islam and other traditions. The author also asserts that Sufism maintained a “puzzling” connection with Shi’ism, however, unlike Shi’ism, Sufism never crossed into blatant sectarianism. The author describes Sufism as kind of floating between the boundaries of normative Islam without quite crossing those boundaries. Nevertheless, the author asserts that Sufism had enormous influence on much of the Islamic world (231 – 247). Finally, the author once again raises the issue of popular religion. He concludes that popular religion, while illustrating just how complex and fluid the religious life in the Near East was, was central to Sunni Islam (248 – 257).

            Berkey’s Formation of Islam is a well written and enjoyable work. It is not, however, the best introduction to the study of the history of Islam. The author assumes prior knowledge and blurs the lines in several aspects of Islamic history. For example, the author lumps together asceticism with Sufism from the early days of Sufism on. This is not a given and should be treated with more care. While the author develops his argument for the complex nature of the evolution of the Islamic tradition, the flow of the narrative is sometimes interrupted by the need to modify his statements or brief tangents. All in all, this is a readable work that would well serve any student of the subject, but a certain degree of prior knowledge is necessary to fully understand the scope and importance of the work and to understand the validity of the author’s argument.