Historical Sociology at the Early Period of Islam

Historical sociology, as a comparative study of social groups, leads to the understanding of the structure of a society, its background and its composition in the past and these serve as the setting for the historical events. It also provides an insight which bridges the gap in the evidence and claims of the historians and contributes to the improvement and promotion of historians' mode of thought about the various societies in the past. It offers certain evaluations of the course of history in terms of the basic elements and impersonal forces which form a challenge to the traditional view of history. This article attempts, in a sociological manner, to investigate the role of social institutions and organizations, the relations between individual and religion, the social structure of Mecca and Medina (Yathrib), the social cohesion, and so on.