DIPLOMACY IN ISLAM

The purpose of writing this chapter is to present a
brief historical background dealing with the origins and development
of diplomacy from the earliest times to the modern days and to
discuss the problems surrounding diplomacy. It may be asked
however, that while the diplomacy of Prophet Muhammed was not
possibly derived or influenced, on account of the relative isolation of
Arabia, by the ancient and early medieval diplomacy what the
relevancy of it is for the Prophet's diplomacy? There may perhaps
be more than one answers to this question. But the one that appears
to be more pertinent here is that we may study it not as the one
that influenced the prophet 1 s diplomacy or to take it as a frame of
reference to his diplomacy but as a source from where to generate
analytical insights for the diplomacy of any country or any
responsible ruling elite. Moreo·.rer, a study of the history of
diplomacy in other contexts and other parts of the world and other
ages will illuminate our path towards a better understanding of the
Prophet 1 s diplomacy because, after all, diplomatic practices in
substance may traverse the same general path as their purposes are
believed to be more or less the· same in a normal state. This view
has also been supported by Nicolson. While dealing with the history
of diplomacy Nicolson asserts, "Diplomacy is neither the invention nor
the pastime of some particular political system, but is an essential
element in any reasonable relation between man and man and between
nation and nation". 1 This does not however mean that the special
spatialtemporal and civilizational conditions of Arabia and the
surrounding countries during the days of the prophet will be ignored.