Islamization

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Islamization (also spelt Islamisation, see spelling differences) or Islamification means the process of a society's conversion to the religion of Islam, or a neologism meaning an increase in observance by an already Muslim society. The English synonyms, mohammedanisation and muslimization, in use since before 1940 (e.g., Waverly Illustrated Dictionary) convey a similar meaning.

Contents 1 Controversy of the Term 1.1 Prevailing Stereotypes 2 Conversion 2.1 Phase I: Early Caliphs and Umayyads(610-750) 2.2 Phase II: Abbasids (750-1258) 2.3 Phase III: Dissolution of Abbasid Empire and Reconquest by Ottomans (950-1450) 2.4 Phase IV: Ottoman Empire 13th Century - 1918 2.5 Phase V: (Post-Ottomans - current) 3 Islamization by region 3.1 Spain/Al-Andalus 3.2 Persia 3.3 Inner Asia 3.4 Southeast Asia 3.5 Balkans 3.6 Africa 4 Modern day 5 Notes 6 References 7 See also

[edit] Controversy of the Term

The term, as with its antecedents, may be considered derogatory by some.^{[citation needed]} Critics sensitive to usage of these terms claim that they were coined by modern Orientalists^{[citation needed]} in light of the historically dominant Christian attitudes; both popular and scholarly that colored the views towards Islam; of fear and hostility and regarded it as a rival^[1] in what was seen as a Muslim-Christian conflict. Medieval Europe was building a concept of a "great enemy" in the wake of the quickfire success by the Muslims, through a series of conquests shortly after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, as well as the lack of real information in the West on a mysterious East.^[2] The attitude was seen as condemning and tritely explaining away Islam's rapid growth as due to "forced conversions through the sword", whilst disingenuously ignoring the expansion of their own civilization by means of military conquest and events such as the Crusades^[3] and the Inquisition.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Prevailing Stereotypes

Although Islamic history has been studied extensively, the early expansions and the nature of these has remained a poorly studied field in relation to its social, historical, affective or psychological aspects according to some historians.^[4] The conceptualization is dominated by two stereotypes; the first popularized and captured by Gibbon in the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is of a fanatical Arab horseman riding forth from the desert with a sword in one hand and the Quran in the other offering victims a choice between one of the two^[5], however such "old notions of forced conversions have been abandoned, at least in scholarly literature".^[4] The other image is one of an interfaith, interracial utopia where different races and peoples lived together in harmony has also been discredited for more shaded and complex views^[5] such as; an acculturation of Arab-Islamic social norms and language,^[6] or a process of dialog between the monotheistic Arabs during the Muslim conquests with other faith traditions ^[7].

[edit] Conversion

Conversion to Islam followed the rapid growth of the Arab Empire in the first centuries after Muhammad's death. Muslim dynasties were soon established in North Africa, the Middle East and Iran and the conversion of the population was a protracted process. Non-Muslims were not excluded from the economic elite during the Caliphate. Politically, non-Muslims suffered from certain restrictions in participating in political life.

[edit] Phase I: Early Caliphs and Umayyads(610-750)

This is the time of the life of Prophet Mohammed and his early successors, the four rightly-guided caliphs, as well as the dynasty of the Umayyad Caliphs (550-661).

In the first century the establishment of Islam upon the Arabian peninsula and the subsequent rapid expansion of the Arab Empire during the Muslim conquests, resulting in the formation of an empire surpassed by none before.^[8] For the subjects of this new empire, formerly subjects of the vanishing Byzantine and Sasanian Empire, not much changed in practice. The objective of the conquests was more than anything of practical nature, as fertile land and water were scarce in the Arab peninsula. A real Islamisation therefore only came about in the subsequent centuries.^[9]

Ira Lapidus distinguishes between two separate strands of converts of the time: one is animists and polytheists of tribal societies of the Arabian peninsula and the Fertile crescent; the other one is the monotheistic populations of the Middle Eastern agrarian and urbanised societies.^[10]

For the polytheistic and pagan societies, apart from the religious and spiritual reasons each individual may have, conversion to Islam "represented the response of tribal, pastoral population to the need for a larger framework for political and economic integration, a more stable state, and a more imaginative and encompassing moral vision to cope with the problems of a tumultuous society."^[11] In contrast, for sedentary and often already montheistic societies, "Islam was substituted for Byzantine or Sasanian political identity and for Christian, Jewish or Zoroastrian religious affiliation." ^[12] Conversion initially was neither required nor necessarily wished for: "(The Arab conquerors) did not require the conversion as much as the subordination of non-Muslim peoples. At the outset, they were hostile to conversions because new Muslims diluted the economic and status advantages of the Arabs." ^[13]

Only in the subsequent centuries, with a development of the religious doctrine of Islam and of the understanding of the Muslim ummah, mass conversion took place. The new understanding by religion and political leadership in many cases led to a weakening or breakdown of the social and religious structures of parallel religious communities such as Christians and Jews. ^[14]

The caliphs of the Umayyad dynasty established the first schools inside the empire, called madrasas, which taught Arabic language and Islamic studies. They furthermore began the ambitious project of building mosques across the empire, many of which remain today as the most magnificent mosques in the Islamic world, such as the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. At the end of the Umayyad period, less than 10% of the people in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Tunisia and Spain were Muslim. Only on the Arab peninsula there were substantially more Muslims among the populations. ^[15]

[edit] Phase II: Abbasids (750-1258)

This is the time of the Abbasid Dynasty (750-1258), the second great dynasty with the rulers carrying the title of 'Caliph'.

Expansion ceased and the central disciplines of Islamic philosophy, theology, law and mysticism became more widespread and the gradual conversions of the populations within the empire occurred. Significant conversions also occurred beyond the extents of empire such as of the Turkic tribes in Central Asia and regions south of the Sahara in Africa through contact with Muslim traders active in the area and sufi missionaries. In Africa it spread along three routes, across the Sahara via trading towns such as Timbuktu, up the Nile Valley through the Sudan up to Uganda and across the Red Sea and down East Africa through settlements such as Mombasa and Zanzibar. These initial conversions were of flexible nature and only were only later purified of their traditional influences.^[8]

The reasons why, by the end of the 10th century AC, a large part of the population had converted to Islam are diverse. Part of the reasons may be that

"Islam had become more clearly defined, and the line between Muslims and non-Muslims more sharply drawn. Muslims now lived within an elaborated system of ritual, doctrine and law clearly different from those of non-Muslims. (...) The status of Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians was more precisely defined, and in some ways it was inferior. They were regarded as the 'People of the Book', those who possessed a revealed scripture, or 'People of the Covenant', with whom compacts of protection had been made. In general they were not forced to convert, but they suffered from restrictions. They paid a special tax; they were not supposed to wear certain colours; they could not marry Muslim women; their evidence was not accepted against that of Muslims in the law courts; their houses or places of worship should not be ostentatious; they were excluded from positions of power (althought in various places Jews and Christians worked as secretaries or financial officials for Muslim rulers)."^[16]

It should be pointed out that most of these laws were elaborations of basic laws concerning non-Muslims (dhimmis) in the Quran. The Quran does not give much detail about the right conduct with non-Muslims, in principle recognising the religions of the book and demanding a separate tax for them.

American historian Ira Lapidus points towards "interwoven terms of political and economic benefits and of a sophisticated culture and religion" as appealing to the masses.^[17] He writes that

"The question of why people convert to Islam has always generated intense feeling. Earlier generations of European scholars believed that conversions to Islam were made at the point of the sword, and that conquered peoples were given the choice of conversion or death. It is now apparent that conversion by force, while not unknown in Muslim countries, was, in fact, rare. Muslim conquerors ordinarily wished to dominate rather than convert, and most conversions to Islam were voluntary. (...) In most cases worldly and spiritual motives for conversion blended together. Moreover, conversion to Islam did not necessarily imply a complete turning from an old to a totally new life. While it entailed the acceptance of new religious beliefs and membership in a new religious community, most converts retained a deep attachment to the cultures and communities from which they came."^[18]

The result of this, he points out, can be seen in the diversity of Muslim societies today, with varying manifestations and practices of Islam.

Conversion to Islam also came about as a result of the breakdown of historical religiously organised societies: with a weakening of many curches, for example, and the favouring of Islam and the migration of substantial Muslim Turkish populations into the areas of Anatolya and the Balkans, "social and cultural relevance of Islam" were enhanced and a large number of peoples were converted. This worked betterin some areas (Anatolya) and less in others (e.g. Balkans, where "the spread of Islam was limited by the vitality of the Christian churches.")^[14]

Along with the religion, the Arabic language and Arab customs spread throughout the empire. A sense of unity grew among many though not all provinced, gradually forming a consciousness of a broadly Arab-Islamic population: something which was recognisably an Islamic world had emerged by the end of the 10th century.^[19] Throughout this time, as well as the following centuries, divisions occurred between Persians and Arabs, Sunnis and Shiites, and unrest in provinces empowered local rulers at times. ^[20]

Conversion within the Empire: Umayyad Period vs. Abassid Period

There are a number of historians who see the rule of the Umayyads as setting up the "dhimmah" to increase taxes from the dhimmis to benefit the Arab Muslim community financially and by discouraging conversion.^[6] Islam was initially associated with the ethnic identity of the Arab and required formal association with an Arab tribe and the adoption of the client status of mawali.^[6] Governors lodged complaints with the caliph when he enacted laws that made conversion easier, depriving the provinces of revenues.

During the following Abbassid period an enfranchisement was experienced by the mawali and a shift was made in political conception from that of a primarily Arab empire to one of a Muslim empire^[21] and c. 930 a requirement was enacted that required all bureaucrats of the empire be Muslim.^[6] Both periods were also marked by significant migrations of Arab tribes outwards from the Arabian Peninsula into the new territories.^[21]

Conversion within the Empire: Conversion Curve

Richard Bulliet's "conversion curve" and relatively minor rate of conversion of non-Arab subjects during the Arab centric Umayyad period of 10%, in contrast with estimates for the more politically multicultural Abassid period which saw the Muslim population go from approx. 40% in the mid 9th century to close to 100% by the end of 11th century.^[21]. This theory does not explain the continuing existence of large minorities of Christians in the Abbasid Period. Other estimates suggest that Muslims were not a majority in Egypt until the mid-10th century and in the Fertile Crescent until 1100. Syria within its modern borders may have had a Christian majority until the Mongol Invasions of the 13th century.

[edit] Phase III: Dissolution of Abbasid Empire and Reconquest by Ottomans (950-1450)

Expansion in the wake of Turkic conquests of Asia Minor, Balkans, the Indian subcontinent.^[8] The earlier period also saw the acceleration in the rate of conversion in the Muslim heartland while in the wake of the conquests the newly conquered regions retained significant non-Muslim populations in contrast to the regions where the boundaries of the Muslim world contracted, such as Sicily, Al Andalus, where Muslim populations were expelled or forced to christianize in short order.^[8] The latter period of this phase was marked by the Mongol invasion and after an initial period of persecution, the conversion of these conqueror's to Islam.

[edit] Phase IV: Ottoman Empire 13th Century - 1918

The Ottoman Empire defended its frontiers initially against threats from several sides: the Safavids on the Eastern side, Byzantine in the North which vanished with the fall of Constantinople 1453, and the great Catholic powers from the Mediterranean Sea: Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, and Venice with its eastern Mediterranean colonies.

Later, the Ottoman Empire set on to conquer territories from these rivals: Cyprus and other Greek islands (except Crete) were lost by Venice to the Ottomans, and the later conquered territory up to the Danube basin as far as Hungary. Crete was conquered during the 17th century, but lost Hungary to the Holy Roman Empire, and other parts of Eastern Europe, edning with the Treaty of Carlowitz (1699).^[22]

[edit] Phase V: (Post-Ottomans - current)

Through commerce, Sufi's, Missionaries, and migrations; especially in South-East Asia.^[8]

[edit] Islamization by region

[edit] Spain/Al-Andalus

The Arabs first began their conquest of southern Spain or al-Andalus in 710 and created a province under the Caliphate which extended as far as the north of the peninsula.^[23] A large number of Berbers from Morocco migrated to Andalus, adding towards the Muslim population of converts. At the end of the 10th century, possibly a majority of the population was thus Muslim. But there also existed large numbers of Jews and Christians lived alongside Muslims, mainly as traders. These subjects were "held together by the tolerance of the Umayyads towards Jews and Christians, and also by the spread of the Arabic language, which had become that of the majority, Jews and Christians as well as Muslims, by the 11th century." ^[24]

"Toleration, a common language and a long tradition of separate rule all helped to create a distinctive Andalusian consciousness and society. Its Islamic religious culture developed on rather different lines from those of the eastern countries, and its Jewish culture became independent of that of Iraq, the main centre of Jewish religious life."^[25]

During the 11th century, the Umayyad kingdom of al-Andalus broke down into small kingdoms, which in the end created the preconditions for the Christian reconquest. ^[26] The latter re-established Christian rule more and more southwards, ending all Muslim rule in 1492 with the reconquest of the kingdom of Granada. Virtually all Muslims and also Jews found themselves forced to either convert to Christianity or leave the country - the result was an exodus of both Muslims and Jews to North Africa, resulting not only in a loss of business but also in a massive brain drain for the time being.^[27]

[edit] Persia

Main article: Islamicization in post-conquest Iran

It used to be argued that Zorastrianism quickly collapsed in the wake of the Islamic conquest of Persia due its intimate ties to the Sassanid state structure.^[28] Now however, more complex processes are considered, in light of the more protracted time frame attributed to the progression of the ancient Persian religion to a minority; a progression that is more contiguous with the trends of the late antiquity period.^[28] These trends are the conversions from the state religion that had already plagued the Zorastrian authorities that continued after the Arab conquest, coupled with the migration of Arab tribes into the region during an extended period of time that stretched well into the Abbassid reign.^[28] While there were cases such as the Sassanid army division at Hamra, that converted en masse before pivotal battles such as the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah, conversion was fastest in the urban areas where Arab forces were garrisoned slowly leading to Zorastrianism becoming associated with rural areas.^[28] Still at the end of the Umayyad period, the Muslim community was only a minority in the region.^[28]

[edit] Inner Asia

Little is known about the timeline of the Islamicization of Inner Asia and the Turkic peoples who lay beyond the bounds of the caliphate. Histories merely note the fact of pre-Mongol Central Asia's Islamicization.^[4] The Bulgars of the Volga are noted to have adopted Islam by the 10th century ^[1]. When the Friar William of Rubruck visited the encampment of Batu Khan of the Golden Horde, who had recently completed the Mongol invasion of Volga Bulgaria, he noted "I wonder what devil carried the law of Machomet there".^[1] Another contemporary known to have been Muslim, was the Qarakhanid dynasty of the Kara-Khanid Khanate which lay much further east.^[4] However, the modern day history of the Islamicization of the region - or rather a conscious affiliation with Islam - dates to the population of the ulus of the son of Genghis Khan, Jochi, who founded the Golden Horde.^[29] Tatars, Uzbeks and other Muslim populations of the Russian federation trace their Islamic roots to the Golden Horde^[4] and while Berke Khan was the first Mongol monarch to officially adopt Islam and even oppose his kinsman Hulagu Khan^[1] in the defence of Jerusalem at the Battle of Ain Jalut, it was only much later that the change became pivotal and the mongols converted en masse^[30] when a century later Uzbeg Khan converted - reportedly at the hands of the Sufi Saint Baba Tukles.^[31]

Some of Mongolian tribes became Islamized. Following the brutal Mongol invasion of Central Asia under Hulagu Khan and after the Battle of Baghdad (1258) Mongol rule extended across the breadth of almost all Muslim lands in Asia, the caliphate was destroyed and Islam was persecuted by the Mongols.^[30] In 1295 however the new Khan of the Ilkhanate, Ghazan converted to Islam and two decades later the Golden Horde followed suit.^[30] The Mongols had been religiously and culturally conquered, this absorption ushered in a new age of Mongol-Islamic synthesis^[30] that shaped the further spread of Islam in central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.

In the 1330s the Mongol ruler of the Chagatai Khanate converted to Islam, causing the eastern part of his realm called Moghulistan to rebel.^[32] However during the next three centuries these Buddhist, Shamanistic and Christian Turkic and Mongol nomads of the Kazakh Steppe and Xianjing would also convert at the hands of competing Sufi orders from both east and west of the Pamirs.^[32] The Naqshbandi's are the most prominent of these orders, especially in Kashgaria where the western Chagatai Khan was also a disciple of the order.^[32]

[edit] Southeast Asia

Islam came to Malay Archipelago, first by the way of Muslim traders along the main trade-route between Asia and the Far East, then was further spread by Sufi missionaries and finally consolidated by the expansion of the territories of converted rulers and their communities.^[33] The first communities arose in Northern Sumatra (Aceh) and the Malacca's remained a stronghold of Islam from where it propagated along the trade routes in the region.^[33] There no clear indication of when it first came to region, the first gravestone markings date to 1082.^[34] When Marco Polo visited in 1292 he noted the urban port state of Perlak was Muslim^[34], Chinese sources record a Muslim delegation to Chinese emperor from the Kingdom of Samudra (Pasai) in 1282^[33], other accounts provide instances of Muslim communities present in the Melayu Kingdom for the same time period while othersrecorded presence of Muslim Chinese traders from provinces such as Fujian.^[34] The spread of Islam generally followed the trade routes east through the primarily Buddhist region and a half century later in the Malacca's we see the first dynasty arise in the form of the Sultanate of Malacca at the at the far end of the Archipelago form by the conversion of one Parameswara Dewa Shah into a Muslim Muhammad Iskandar Shah^[35] after his marriage to a daughter of the ruler of Pasai.^[34][33] In 1380 Sufi missionaries carried Islam from here on to Mindanao.^[36] Java was the seat of the primary kingdom of the region, the Majapahit Empire, which was ruled by a Hindu dynasty. As commerce grew in the region with the rest of the Muslim world, Islamic influence extended to the court even as the empires political power waned and so by time Raja Kertawijaya converted in 1475 at the hands of Sufi Sheikh Rahmat, the Sultanate was already of a Muslim character. Another driving force for the change of the ruling class in the region was the concept among the increasing Muslim communities of the region that only the descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad (Sayyid) were fit to rule them causing the ruling dynasties to attempt to forge such ties of kinship by marriage.^[36] By the time the colonial powers and their missionaries arrived in the 17th century the region up to New Guinea was overwhelming Muslim with animist minorities.^[34]

[edit] Balkans

[edit] Africa

[edit] Modern day

Historians such as Ira Lapidus have concluded that since the 1970s, the Islamic world has witnessed a phenomenon called "Islamic revival" - often associated with Islamic Fundamentalism, Islamism and other forms of re-Islamisation. Although one can never speak for an entire community or people, a reorientation towards Islamic values, in contrast to the Westernisation moves by various Arab and Asian governments in the 1950s and 60s, appears to be taking place. Only a small part of this results in religious extremism; The main effect appears to be a return of the individual to Muslim values, communities, and dress codes, and a strengthened community feeling.^[37]

Another development is that of Transnational Islam, elaborated upon by the French Islam researchers Gilles Kepel and Olivier Roy. It includes a feeling of a "growing universalistic Islamic identity" as often shared by Muslim immigrants and their children who live in non-Muslim countries:

"The increased integration of world societies as a result of enhanced communications, media, travel, and migration makes meaningful the concept of a single Islam practiced everywhere in similar ways, and Islam which transcends national and ethnic customs."^[38]

This doesn't necessarily imply political or social organisations:

"Global Muslim identity does not necessarily or even usually imply organised group action.Even though Muslims recognise a global affiliation, the real heart of Muslim religious life remains outside politics - in local associations for worship, discussion, mutual aid, education, charity, and other communal activities."^[39]

A third development is the growth and elaboration of transnational military and terrorist organisations. The 1980s and 90s, with several major conflicts in the Middle East, including the Arab-Israeli conflict, Afghanistan in the 1980s and 2001, and the three Gulf Wars (1980-89, 1990-91, 2003) were catalysts of a growing internationalisation of local conflicts. Figures such as Osama Bin Laden and Abdallah Azzam have been crucial in these developments, as much as domestic and world politics.^[40]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Devin De Weese, Devin A, "Islamization and Native Religion in the Golden Horde", Penn State Press, Sep 1, 1994, ISBN 0-271-01073-8
• Bernard Lewis, "The Jews of Islam", Princeton University Press, Sep 1, 1987, ISBN 0-691-00807-8
• Fred Astren, "Karaite Judaism and Historical Understanding", Univ of South Carolina Press, Feb 1, 2004 ISBN 1-57003-518-0
• Tobin Siebers, "Religion and the Authority of the Past", University of Michigan Press, Nov 1, 1993, ISBN 0-472-08259-0
• Jonathan Berkey, "The Formation of Islam", Cambridge University Press, Jan 1, 2003, ISBN 0-521-58813-8
• Goddard, Hugh Goddard, "Christians and Muslims: from double standards to mutual understanding", Routledge (UK), Oct 26, 1995 ISBN 0-7007-0364-0
• Hourani, Albert, 2002, A History of the Arab Peoples, Faber & Faber, , ISBN 0-571-21591-2
• Lapidus, Ira M. 2002, A History of Islamic Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Timothy M. Savage, Europe and Islam: Crescent Waxing, Cultures Clashing, The Washington Quarterly, Summer 2004. http://www.twq.com/04summer/docs/04summer_savage.pdf

[edit] See also

• Christianization
• Converts to Islam
• Devshirmeh
• Islam
• Islamism
• Janissary
• Muslim conquests
• Muslim history