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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