Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 119 Imams in Sunni Islam
Although it is said that the Catholic Church played an important role in grassroots governance in the Middle Ages, it is actually a little lacking compared to Islam.

The Catholic Church is actually more centralized, with a clear bureaucratic color, which makes it easier for the Roman Curia to convey its will.

But Islam is different. Strictly speaking, Islam does not have a central government modeled after the Roman Catholic Church.

There is usually no direct subordinate relationship between mosques. Each mosque in Islam usually operates independently, which can be said to be quite spontaneous and flat.

Moreover, the Imams of local mosques come from a variety of sources, including community elections, official appointments, and recommendations from religious scholars.

But in general, the Imam of Sunni Islam exists more as a position, is often rooted in the local area, and lacks unified management.

Bureaucracy has its advantages, and flat structure has its advantages.

The Catholic Pope can use the bureaucratic church structure to transform his will into the will of the church and mobilize Europe to launch the Crusades.

The Sunni sect of Islam, because of its flattened spontaneity, is more deeply rooted in the grassroots, more widely distributed, and more meticulous.

In the flattened Islam, these Sunni Imams play the role of grassroots organizers and undertake a large number of functions similar to those of later neighborhood committees.

From officiating at marriages to officiating at funerals, from officiating at festivals to officiating at prayers, from mediating conflicts to helping the poor, from educating knowledge to selecting the next Imam...

It can be said that it is they who maintain the existence of the Islamic community.

This model, in Garys's opinion, is actually quite good.

At least compared to the Catholic side, they are worried that if they beat the younger one, the older one will come.

He is unifying the Sunni Muslims in his territory, and no one will be able to control him in the short term.

Those who want to unify the Muslims in the territory must firstly start from the perspective of financial resources, that is, zakat, and secondly, they must overwhelm the original Muslim scholars at the ideological level so that they are willing to obey them.

In terms of financial resources, Gairis plans to reorganize the zakat system in the territory, and in terms of ideology, it is necessary to start from the perspective of Gairis's self-declaration.

At present, the investigation into the blood debts of tax farmers has been almost completed.

Gailis felt that he needed to take action, as it could be regarded as killing a chicken to scare the monkeys. He hoped that the imams of the mosques would be more sensible.

……

On June 632, 6 in the Gregorian calendar, Prophet Muhammad passed away, leaving behind an Arabian Peninsula that was about to be unified.

After his death, the Muslim community established the orthodox caliphate system through elections after him.

A new empire was born on the earth, and then began to conquer the east and the west.

In 638 AD, the second orthodox caliph captured Jerusalem from the Eastern Roman Empire and incorporated the Jordan region into the Arab Empire a year earlier.

Since then, the land that Gellis now stands on has been dyed with the colors of the black and white flag.

When the era of the four orthodox caliphs ended, the Umayyad family established their own empire, brought the Arab Empire into their own hands, and ushered in the era of hereditary system. They were called the White Caliphs by their contemporaries.

Then in 750, the Abbasid family overthrew the Umayyad Caliphate and established the Second Arab Empire, which was called the Black Caliphate by the Tang Dynasty.

From this time on, the Arab Empire reached its peak and began to collapse on that mountain top. However, with the disintegration of the empire and the raging of war, Arab science and culture entered its "Golden Age".

It's ridiculous and seems outrageous, but it really happened.

When Gairis turned the corner with a caravan, another 12th-century Muslim village appeared in Gairis's sight.

The village is nestled among dry hills, with low, dilapidated mud-brick houses and creaky walls.

A few skinny sheep were foraging in the haystack at the entrance of the village, and the air was filled with dust and sand.

During the Arab "Golden Age", Alexandria had a population of 70,000 to 80,000, Cairo and Damascus had a population of over 100,000, and Baghdad had a population of at least 200,000.

These cities embody the crystallization of Arab science and culture and are considered the torch of civilization of this era.

However, the village in Gelis's vision is the true background of the Islamic world of this era.

In the 12th century, more than 80% of Muslims lived in rural areas rather than in cities.

If Gairis wants to truly mobilize the Muslims in this land, he will have to go deep into the countryside again and again.

"Sir, we are almost there." The leader of the caravan whispered to Gailis.

In response, Garys lowered his head slightly to indicate that he understood.

As early as a month ago, while Simon and Khalid were conducting their inspection and investigation, Gailis also began to form the small caravan he is in now.

This caravan was very small, with only 8 carriages and 15 camels in total.

The caravan's trading post is located in Alhadi Town. On weekdays, it is responsible for transporting the output of Skarl to Alhadi Town for external sales.

They also purchased materials needed for the development of the territory from the large caravans that passed by. In addition, they often organized small teams to go to various villages in the territory to sell various goods.

The ecological niche they occupy is only half a level higher than that of ordinary rural peddlers.

Generally speaking, they sell ironware, needles and thread, pottery, salt, cloth and the like.

Of course, some children's toys are also included.

Such a team can help Garys connect the territory into a whole, and can also pass on information from closed rural areas to Garys.

In most cases, rural residents would welcome the arrival of this peddler-like team.

But the village in front of Gellis had shown its hostility towards the caravan a few days ago.

"Tell me more about what happened then." Gailis asked the person next to him.

"Yeah." The leader of the caravan re-described the situation at that time.

As usual, they came to the village ahead to sell some goods and inquire about the local situation.

Since many Muslim farmers are not very wealthy this year, Gairis has instructed the caravans to trade farm tools on credit.

After all, a large-scale war is about to break out next year. If iron farm tools can be promoted more, it means that the harvest in the territory will be better next year.

From a global perspective, there is really no need to be too fussy.

But such a strategic policy that was popular in every village was like stirring up a hornet's nest when it came to the village ahead.

"We had already negotiated several deals and were planning to ask the village imam to witness them, but suddenly a group of people came and chased the farmers away. If we hadn't brought weapons with us, we would have been beaten too."

"Although there is no loss, after all this trouble, the business is obviously not going to continue. I can feel that the farmers here do not have a close relationship with that group of people. Instead, they have a strong hatred for them."

Garys listened to the introduction of the person next to him and nodded.

The situation of this village is actually very clear when combined with the report Simon handed to him not long ago.

This is the lair of another tax farmer. Unlike Ahmed's, the area controlled by this tax farmer is a completely Muslim village.

Therefore, compared with Ahmed, the tax farmer here behaves more like a local tyrant.

He was no longer satisfied with simply exploiting the peasants through taxation, but was truly transforming himself into a feudal lord.

They had the power of life and death over the people in their "territory", monopolized commercial trade, and usually engaged in the business of selling high and buying low. Even the zakat was forcibly collected by the tax farmers here.

The caravan sent by Gellis obviously affected the interests of the local tyrant, so he was violently expelled by the other party.

"Do those people know that the lord is behind you?"

"They probably don't know yet. We are just doing business and not doing anything out of line."

Garys nodded. He was quite satisfied with this. At the moment, this village was just a good entry point to help him penetrate into the Muslim rural community.

On this autumn day, two horse-drawn carriages and five or six vendors staggered into the village again, but the only difference from the previous time was that their carriages were carrying Garys.

Therefore, half an hour later, those guys who jumped out again and tried to maliciously drive away the vendors all fell to the ground, groaning constantly, unable to utter even a harsh word.

However, after the other party's interference, the business still couldn't be done. The farmers on the side, looking at the abundant martial virtues of the caravan, all seemed to be trembling.

They were worried that the local tax farmers would settle scores with them later, and they were also a little scared when they looked at Garys.

Garys had anticipated this, and the reason for this was simply to verify the local situation.

After making sure that the business could not be done, Gailis took his men away from the place and went to a mansion next to the mosque, where he asked the servants to pass on a letter.

After a while, the owner of the mansion came out in a hurry to greet Gailis personally.

"Don't draw too much attention to yourself," Gaillis ordered.

After hearing this, the other party looked as if he understood, but did not act exaggeratedly. Instead, he politely led Garys and his group into his yard.

When the others were taken to the living room by the servants, the owner of the mansion came to Gaillis with great humility and led him into the living room.

Garys could see that the living room had been carefully decorated. Although there were not many luxurious decorations, it was at least spotless.

"I heard about your situation from Khalid. Please accept my condolences." Gailis didn't say much in greeting.

The man in front of him was the Imam of the village. He was an old acquaintance of Khalid. An accident happened in his family not long ago. He tried to ask Garys for help, but in the end, nothing was done.

"Sir, I am very surprised that you can come." A bitter smile appeared on the other person's lips.

(End of this chapter)