DIPLOMACY IN ISLAM

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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.