Religious identity could replace blood kinship as a bonding principle in Arabia

Evidence

Prophet Muhammad (570–632 CE) unified scores of warring Arab tribes into a single religious polity (ummah, community) under Islam (which means to submit, surrender). For a concise history of Islam, see Karen Armstrong (2000), who writes: “Muhammad had become the head of a collection of tribal groups that were not bound together by blood but by a shared ideology, an astonishing innovation in Arabian society” (14). Nobody was forced to convert, but all Muslims belonged to one ummah, they could not attack one another, and they vowed to give one another protection. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1055

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Islamic ummah as a bond overriding blood/tribe echoes the reader’s interest in how group identities are constructed and could be re-fused — parallels caste’s blood-based ascription being challenged by alternative solidarities.
• XREF: connects to: Middle Eastern national identity derives from religious communality rather than ethnicity — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3470; Religion rather than nationality has been the primary basis of identity in Islam; Close religious kinship intensifies rather than softens interfaith hatred (+9 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Middle Eastern national identity derives from religious communality rather than ethnicity — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3470; Religion rather than nationality has been the primary basis of identity in Islam; Close religious kinship intensifies rather than softens interfaith hatred (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Close religious kinship intensifies rather than softens interfaith hatred #complicates (0.74)