خلاصه ماشینی:
After suggesting that Islam suited the interests of Makkah's merchants, the author surveys early Islamic history using commerce as his point of reference.
He argues that already during the reign of 'Uthrnan, the pre-Islamic merchant class (the "Traditional Segment") had virtually monopolized the state machinery and made it an instrument for promoting its commercial interests.
However, while Ibrahim's reconstruction of the process whereby the Barn} 'Umayyah gradually acquired economic and political power in Makkah and then used it to establish the 'Umayyad caliphate is noteworthy, his attempt to link the advent of Islam with the development of merchant capital is rather unconvincing.
did they so bitterly oppose it until the end?2 Perhaps more importantly, as Patricia Crone pointed out in her current polemic against Watt's view on the nature of Makkah's trade, if Islam was a product of Makkan commerce and its attendant problems, why was it first accepted in Medinah, a city in which Makkah's economic conditions did not exist?' Ibrahim's account of the first civil war is, on the whole, disappointing.
While Crone's argument that if Islam emerged in response to the needs of Makkan trade it would not have been accepted first in Medinah (where economic conditions were very different) is valid, her further assumption that because Makkah's merchant class rejected Islam because it could not solve those very problems is not valid.
This can be shown by pointing out the fact that the solutions provided by Islam were opposed by the rich Makkan merchants who were intent upon maintaining their current status at the expense of solving Makkah's larger economic problems.