Download islam and cultural encounter: a four way comparison

ISLAM AND CULTURAL ENCOUNTER: A FOUR WAY COMPARISON
By the tenth century, little political unity remained in the vast Arab Empire, and in 1258 Mongol forces
sacked Baghdad and killed the last Abassid caliph. Although the empire disintegrated, the civilization
that was born within it grew and flourished. The Islamic religion continued to spread both within and
beyond the boundaries of the original Arab Empire. The process differed from place to place, as
evidenced by what took place in India, Anatolia, West Africa, and Spain.
THE CASE OF INDIA
ROLE OF MIGRATION
In South Asia, Islam was spread by invaders - Turkic-speaking warrior groups from central Asia, recently
converted to Islam, who brought the faith to northern India. The Turks became the third major carrier
of Islam, after the Arabs and Persians. Ultimately, a series of Turkic and Muslim regimes governed
much of India from around 1000 until the British takeover in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The early centuries of this encounter were violent. Turkic invaders smashed Hindu and Buddhist
temples and stole Indian treasure. In 1206, the Sultanate of Delhi was established, and Turkic rule was
established, yet Islam only modestly penetrated Indian society – there had not been a mass migration of
Turks into India, and internal conflict among the Turks also hindered the growth of Islam there.
ROLE OF TRADE
Limited
ROLE OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE
There was a very sharp cultural divide between Hindu and Islam. Monotheistic Islam forbade images of
the divine and preached against overt sexuality while Hindu art was full of representations of thousands
of gods and sometimes depicted very sensual and even erotic scenes. Muslim belief in the equality of all
believers contrasted sharply with the hierarchical assumptions of the caste system in India. Muslims
generally lived separately from the larger population, remaining a distinct minority in a civilization they
governed but could not transform.
METHODS OF CONVERSION
Islam’s base was in the Northwest (Punjab, Sind) and East (Bengal) of India. Only 20– 25 percent of the
population converted, and the central and southern reaches saw little if any conversion.
Many converts came from Buddhists who had left their faith, lower-caste Hindus, and untouchables.
There were also those who converted to avoid the jizya tax.
As South Asia had a long tradition of mystics, Sufism had a great appeal to the common people. Sufi
veneration of saints and various festivals gave Islam a popular practice. Sometimes Sufism was very
similar to Hindu traditions.
UNIQUE CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS
Sikhism: Founded by Guru Nanak (1469–1539), this faith blended Islam and Hinduism in a monotheistic
faith that recognized reincarnation and karma.
THE CASE OF ANATOLIA
ROLE OF MIGRATION
At the same time that India was being subjected to Turkic invasion, so too was Anatolia (modern day
Turkey) The Anatolian Peninsula suffered a brutal Turkish invasion that destroyed Greek Christian
(Byzantine) rule. (Churches and monasteries were destroyed, and church land confiscated) Massacres,
enslavement, famine, and flight led to a sharp drop in the native population. When the existing state
system, social order, and identity were shattered, (by the eleventh century) large numbers of Turks
emigrated into the area.
ROLE OF TRADE
Limited
ROLE OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE
Much more profound than in India.
By 1500, the region had a distinctly Turkish Muslim character in terms of language and culture. Anatolia
became the heartland of the Ottoman Empire, which became the most powerful empire in the Islamic
world.
METHODS OF CONVERSION
When the existing state system and social order were shattered, large numbers of Turks emigrated into
the area and an increasing number of Christians converted. As both were monotheistic faiths, this made
conversion much easier than in polytheistic India. The population of Anatolia was 90 percent Muslim by
1500.
Conversion was not forced, but Christians suffered discrimination (special clothing, taxes, forbidden to
ride horses or carry swords) Converts were granted material rewards and opportunity for high office.
UNIQUE CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS
Sufism – Sufi teachers established schools, mills, orchards, hospices and rest places for travelers and
thus replaced the destroyed institutions of Christian Anatolia. Some Sufi practices derived from Central
Asian Turkic shamanism.
Turkish language, not Arabic, predominated.
Turkic traditions offering a freer, more gender-equal life for women, common among pastoral people,
persisted well after the conversion to Islam. (Ibn Battuta was critical)
THE CASE OF WEST AFRICA
ROLE OF MIGRATION
There was no large-scale Arab migration to West Africa.
ROLE OF TRADE
Islam came to West Africa by peaceful means. Muslim merchants traveled south across the Sahara and
spread the faith to the urban trading centers of West Africa.
METHODS OF CONVERSION
Islam was gradually accepted in West Africa in the centuries after 1000. Conversion was voluntary, not a
result of foreign conquest. Islam was an urban phenomenon – it was accepted in the urban centers of
the West African empires – Ghana, Mali, Songhay, Kanem-Bornu, and others - until the nineteenth
century. While rulers sponsored the building of mosques, libraries, and schools, there was little effort
converting the larger rural world. Nonetheless, the communities in the cities saw themselves as part of a
larger Islamic world.
ROLE OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE
For African merchants, Islam provided a link to Muslim trading partners, much as Buddhism had done in
Southeast Asia. Rulers found Muslim scholars to be useful, literate administrators. Islam had an appeal
as a connection to a wider world.
UNIQUE CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS
By the sixteenth century, a number of West African cities had become major centers of Islamic religious
and intellectual life, attracting scholars from around the Muslim world.
Ex – Timbuktu
150 lower-level Quranic schools, several major centers of higher education with thousands of students
from around the world, Libraries with thousands of books and scholarly manuscripts
Arabic – an important language of religion, education, administration, and trade, but it did not become
the dominant language of daily life
Remaining the culture of the urban elite, the villages of West Africa continued to practice their traditions
and rituals. Sometimes, elements of Islam were combined with existing faiths and practices but there
was no Islamicization of the region. (Ibn Battuta was critical)
THE CASE OF SPAIN
ROLE OF MIGRATION
In 711, Muslim Arab and Berber forces invaded Spain, called Al-Andalus in Arabic. They quickly
conquered the peninsula and established a Caliphate with a capital inn Cordoba; Islam spread widely in
the south of the Iberian Peninsula.
ROLE OF TRADE
Limited
ROLE OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE
By the tenth century, Muslim Spain was a vibrant civilization, often portrayed as a place of harmony and
tolerance between its Muslim rulers and its Christian and Jewish subjects. During the reign of Abd al—
Rahman (912-961), freedom of worship was declared as well as the opportunity for all to rise in the
bureaucracy of the state. Cordoba was among the largest and most splendid cities in the world.
Muslims, Christians, and Jews contributed to a brilliant high culture in which astronomy, medicine, the
arts, architecture, and literature flourished.
METHODS OF CONVERSION
By 1000, 75 of the population had converted to Islam. Even Christians who did not convert learned
Arabic, veiled their women, stopped eating pork, appreciated Arab music and poetry, and sometimes
married Muslims.
UNIQUE CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS
At its height, Muslim Spain was prosperous, culturally dynamic, and cosmopolitan. It was also a time of
tolerance with special taxes for Jews and Christians but general acceptance of them in society. The city
of Cordoba was the center of this golden age. In this time, Al-Andalus was a major center of learning. A
number of Greek and Arabic books were collected and translated in the libraries.
In the late 900s as Christian kingdoms in the north began a series of wars, the Muslims rulers became
increasingly intolerant of Christians, and social conflicts developed between the communities. Under
the rule of al-Mansur (981-1002), an official policy of tolerance turned to one of overt persecution
against Christians, which included the plundering of churches and the seizure of their wealth. Social life
also changed – devout Muslims avoided contact with Christians, Christian homes had to be built lower
than those of Muslims, priests were forbidden to carry a cross or a Bible.
In a series of wars, the Christians gradually re- conquered all of the peninsula, beginning in 1200, with
Granada, the last Muslim stronghold, falling in 1492 in the time of Ferdinand and Isabella. The new
Spanish monarchy forced many Muslims and some 200,000 Jews to emigrate. Converts, while initially
tolerated, were later forced out of Spain. Arab texts were translated to Latin. Christian churches were
constructed where mosques had once been, and incorporated Islamic artistic and architectural features.
Thus, Spain, unlike other regions incorporated into the Islamic world, experienced a religious reversal as
Christian rule was re-established and Islam eradicated from the Iberian Peninsula. Perhaps the chief
significance of Muslim Spain was its role in making the rich heritage of Islamic learning (philosophy,
mathematics, medicine, optics, astronomy, botany) available to Christian Europe, which played an
important role in the development of European civilization.