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HIS 2125 The Silk Roads: Assignment 6 – Islam
This assignment is essential preparation for our workshop on Monday 9 March. It is due IN
CLASS and at no other time – hand in one copy and keep another to use in class.
NB. You will not be admitted to the classroom without your completed assignment.
Reading (In Robinson Library and on Blackboard):
 Foltz, Richard, ‘The Islamization of the Silk Road’, Religions of the Silk Road: overland
trade and cultural exchange from antiquity to the fifteenth century (Basingstoke:
Macmillan, 2000), pp. 89-109.
Introduction
In this section we have thought about how religions changed to accommodate to Silk Road
societies, and about who accepted new religions or heresies and why they did so. Now we turn
to look at the issue from the other direction: of how religion could change societies.
Islam is, of course, much talked about in our own day, especially since 2001, but there remains
a great deal of uncertainty, if not ignorance, about the main tenets of Islam and what the
religion requires of its adherents. As Foltz’s chapter makes clear, we should not expect Islam or
its history to be any less complex and varied than any other religion or its history. We have
already seen how Buddhism and Christianity fragmented for doctrinal, political and any
number of other reasons as they travelled along the Silk Roads. Islam was no different in these
general terms, although of course the details were specific to the case at hand, and sometimes
of great importance.
On one level, being a Muslim, then and now, is very simple. Just as Christians need only
believe that Christ’s sacrifice has saved them, so all Muslims have to do is to follow the Five
Pillars of Islam. Islam means ‘submission’ – to God – and the Five Pillars are:
 There is no god but God and Muhammed is his prophet.
 Pray five times a day.
 Observe the ramadan fast for purposes of self-purification.
 Give alms to those less fortunate than yourself.
 Make the haj pilgrimage to Mecca once in your life if you are able.
Notice the absence of rules about what you eat or drink, what you wear, what men and women
can do, etc. Notice, too, how practical, even down-to-earth, the Pillars are. Except for the first
one, they are all about practices: what people do in real life. Of course this was never all there
was. But as with other religions, all the rest is doctrine: rules and interpretation, old or new,
deriving from a complex mixture of historical precedent, social practice or cultural mores at the
time a doctrine was decided, as well as politics, economics and doubtless other factors too.
Foltz discusses some of the practicalities involved in being ruled by Muslims, for instance,
their impact on trade and taxation. It is also clear that the religion was disproportionately
adopted by nomadic peoples, starting with the Arabs themselves, who then spread Islamic
practices to those lands and societies they conquered. But Foltz makes a clear distinction
between being ruled by Muslims and adopting the religion of Islam. They were not the same;
what difference did that make to any given society?
Naomi Standen
HIS 2125 The Silk Roads
Assignment
6 May 2017
1
Your task
As you read, you should be thinking about how the principal beliefs and practices of Islam
wrought change (or not) in the societies they took over, whether politically, economically,
doctrinally or socially. To what extent did Islamic doctrine make a difference (for good or ill) in
the societies ruled by Muslim or which adopted Islam? What changes were brought about in
societies subject to Islamic regimes of trade or taxation? Did people behave differently but
keep their old beliefs, or vice versa, or something else? Did the intentions of the rulers make a
difference? Did rulers act for religious reasons or other reasons? What about ordinary Muslims
or sects or other groups within Islam? How did different groups of Muslims respond to similar
situations?
As you compile the evidence with which to support your point, you will need to think once
more about the quantity and nature of the primary sources. What do we have to go on? When
were they produced and why? What can we deduce and what can we never know? Make sure
you select examples that include specific information about when, where, and why events
occurred, and who did them. It is the specificities that make history the subject – the discipline
(think about the meanings of that word) – that it is. Without the specifics we are simply
presenting opinion based on generalisation. Without an argument we are just offering
interesting nuggets of information for no clear purpose. History creates meaning by making
arguments that can be supported by direct reference to specific things that we can be fairly sure
happened.
Once again you should be making a choice about what you think. You will not be held to that
choice forever, and new information or stronger arguments may lead you to change your mind
in due course, but it is important to practice being able to choose one reasonable interpretation
from the several you are always faced with, and to do so knowing that you do not – and never
can have – all the evidence.
How to do it
1. Read the chapter attending to the practical and social as well as the doctrinal, economic and
political changes brought by Islamic rule along the Silk Roads.
2. On a separate sheet, and in one short paragraph (no more than 250 words or one side of A4,
double-spaced), answer this question:
What was the greatest change brought by Islam to Silk Road societies?
 Be sure to support what you have to say with evidence.
3. Write one good paragraph, with one point supported with specific examples as evidence.
 Decide, make a point, back it with evidence, stop.
4. Copy your answer sheet. One copy is your ticket’ to get in; the other to work on in class.
Remember: no admittance without your completed assignment.
Problems or questions: e-mail me or come to my office hours.
Naomi Standen
HIS 2125 The Silk Roads
Assignment
6 May 2017
2