12.07.2004
Yesterday I started very modest work.
This is a bit more than just Muslim-playable version of Heraclius.
Or at least that's what I will claim so that I could still tell that
I make a new scenario each year...
I ought to say a few words before I'll start making this scenario.
It concerns a part of history very important, not only for Muslims.
The history of Muhammad and creation of Muslim state can be very controversial.
I have doubts concerning some moral aspects of this history, but also about the
credibility of some its parts. Patricia Crown's work about Mecca convinced me,
and I think it would convince anyone who's read it, that belief about the grandeur
of Mecca and its shrine in pre-islamic times is false, and originates from one historian, whose
extravagant and not prooved judgements were taken for granted by the next ones.
Another work she dedicated to early Muslim history. I haven't read it, unfortunatelly,
but, as You may guess, she is convinced it is not as Muslim tradition wants to be.
I have my personal doubts about it, too. One originates from PC's work: if Mecca indeed
was a simple village, large part of the Muslim tradition makes no sense. And even earlier,
I had doubts concerning The Year of The Legations. After Mecca was subdued by him, Muhammad
was supposed to receive legations from entire Arabia, accepting his dominance. It was shortly
before He died. And when he did, the tribes were supposed to revolt against Muslim rules,
and a lot of self-claimed prophets appeared everywhere. While it seems acceptable that Muhammad's
example made follow the path of prophethood, I find it strange that during a year of nominal Muslim
dominance over various tibes, the idea of prophethood, doubtly understood, could leave such a deep
sign in people's hearts. Secondly, it seems that some of these prophets were independant from Muhammad,
and perhaps started their work even earlier. This wouldn't be suprising, the Muslim tradition itself
informs us about the hanifs. According to it, they were supposed to be descendants of monotheistic tradition
dating as far as from Abraham, who's built the shrine in Mecca. In my eyes, this theory is completely false,
and was made up to build up the prestige of the sacred city and the Prophet. Hanifs were more likely effect
of influence of Christians and Jews on pagan Arabs. Some treat simply
as Christians, but it's a bit more complicated. In my view, the example of Syrian monks of Syrian-Arabic deserts
is helpful to understand it. They had great influence over Arabic tribes to the extent that some of them were
actually converted to Christianity - but their belonging to the Church was a complicated matter. Though they
indeed thought of themselves as Christians and were building the image of Christianity ammongst Arabs, many of them
weren't at all aknowledged with Christian doctrine. Additional feature is that in Syria, also as close to Arabia
as Busra, there was a tradition of antitrinitarism.
Anyway, I think that at the start, Muhammad was one of many. But proving that wouldn't mean proving He was wrong.
it's a different question.
As I mentioned, after the death of Muhammad, the tribes of Arabia revolted, and self-claimed prophets appeared, but
caliph Abu Bakr pacified the entire penisula. That's the tradition. But I think it's more probable that either it was
Abu Bakr who was the actual conqueror of Arabia, and the story about acceptance of Muslim domination by Muhammad was
created of wrongly understood piety, or the other way round, it was Muhammad who had to fight with self-claimed prophets,
and in fact it's accepted that He did at least in one case. Of course, that doesn't mean the tradition is wrong - probably
there were revolts after Muhammad's death, if He indeed united the entire penisula.
Having all that written, I must say that these are just my thoughts, and even I am not sure of them. I'm no specialist.
And as long as the other version isn't systematically prooved, the traditional will remain the official one.
That's why the events and all the rest shall be based on the traditional Muslim point of view. I'll even call Muhammad
a prophet, though I think it's wrong for a non-Muslim to call him that way. 



Stefan Haertel gave me some Ctesiphon stuff.
Bernd Brosing - I still use his his ships idea
Alex Mor - I use his Byzantine Galley
Jesus Muoz - the fox!
Harlan Thompson - the mountains
Fratelli Goddi - the forests, the mountains
