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Sharia, Sufis, and Cultural Encounters in the Islamic World WHAP/Napp

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“At the other end of the Mediterranean, in Spain, Islam flourished and coexisted with the Christian and Jewish communities of the peninsula. Through a century of immigration, conquest, administration, and intermarriage, beginning in 711, Umayyad and Berber invaders brought Islam to a central position in Spain. They also revitalized trade by breaking the monopoly of Byzantine control over the western Mediterranean. They introduced new crops and new irrigation techniques from west Asia. Abd al-Rahman III (r. 912-961) asserted his separation from the Abbasids by declaring himself a caliph rather than just a sultan. A series of rulers expanded the ornate mosque at Córdoba, making it one of the architectural showcases of Islam.

Eastern scholars of law and philosophy immigrated to the flourishing court. Poets developed new styles, based in Arabic but also influenced by local Spanish and Latin styles. Greek philosophical and medical treatises were translated into Latin as well as Arabic, thus opening intellectual communication with the educated classes in Christendom. Although some Christians revolted against Islamic and Arabic inroads, and were killed in battle (850-859), many more adopted Arabic lifestyles.

By 1030, the caliphate in Spain had disintegrated. Various armed struggles broke out between the provinces and the capital, between townsmen and rural Berber immigrants, and between converts and Arabs. The conflicts did not, however, impede the spread of Islam. As in the eastern Mediterranean, provincial administrations replaced the central caliphate and brought the culture of their courts closer to the general population. Sufis spread their ascetic and devotional teachings.

The vacuum in the central government did, however, provide an opening to various Christian forces to begin the reconquista, the Christian reconquest of Spain. In 1085 Alfonso VI (r.1065-1109), king of Leon, then king of Leon and Castile, captured Toledo. By the mid-thirteenth century all of Spain with the exception of Granada was in Christian hands. During the years of the reconquista, culture continued to flourish. Until the mid-thirteenth century, Christian rulers in Spain patronized the rich, hybrid culture.”

~ The World’s History

1- Why and how did Islam flourish in Spain during the medieval period? ________________________________________________________________________

2- How did Abd al-Rahman III assert his independence from the Abbasids? ________________________________________________________________________

3- What was one of the architectural showcases of Islam in Spain? ________________________________________________________________________

4- What was translated into Latin as well as Arabic in Islamic Spain? ________________________________________________________________________

5- What change occurred in 1030 in Spain? ________________________________________________________________________

6- How did the reconquista change Spain? ________________________________________________________________________

|The Abbasid Dynasty (750-1258) |

|Splendid new capital in Baghdad(non-Arab Persians played prominent role |

|But political unity of Abbasid Empire did not last long |

|Fractured politically into “sultanates” with allegiance to caliph |

|Yet Development of Sharia |

|Extensive body of Islamic law (Sharia) |

|Work of the ulama or religious scholars in primarily 8th and 9th centuries |

|Based on Quran, teachings of Muhammad, deductive reasoning, and scholars |

|To the ulama, living as a Muslim meant following sharia |

|A Second Understanding of the Faith – Sufism |

|Saw the worldly success of Islamic civilization as a distraction and deviation |

|Sufis ( represented Islam’s mystical dimension, sought a direct and personal experience of the divine |

|Renunciation of material world, meditation on words of the Quran, use of dance |

|Sharply critical of scholarly and legalistic practitioners of the sharia |

|But for orthodox religious scholars, Sufism verged on heresy( Sufis claimed to be one with God, to receive new revelations |

|Al-Ghazali (1058-1111) |

|Major Islamic thinker(both a legal scholar and a Sufi |

|Rational philosophy alone could never enable believers to know Allah |

|Gender and Islam |

|On a spiritual level, the Quran was clear, men and women were equal |

|But in social terms, women were inferior and subordinate |

|Female infanticide was forbidden…Women had over their own property…Were granted rights of inheritance, although half the rate of male |

|counterparts |

|Women could sue for divorce if had not had sexual relations for more than four months(But a man was allowed multiple wives |

|But veiling and seclusion of women became standard practice |

|Also “honor killing” of women by male relatives for violating sexual taboos |

|Islam and Cultural Encounters |

|The Turks became third major carrier of Islam, after Arabs and Persians |

|Turkic and Muslims regimes governed much of India until the British |

|Disillusioned Buddhists as well as low-caste Hindus and untouchables found the more egalitarian Islam attractive |

|Islam’s equality of all believers contrasted with the Hindu caste system |

|But in Anatolia, the population by 1500 was 90% Muslim and largely Turkic-speaking(Anatolia was the heartland of the powerful Turkish Ottoman |

|Empire |

|But Islamization did not completely eliminate the influence of Turkish culture: tradition of a freer, more gender-equal life for women |

|persisted |

|In West Africa, Islam accompanied Muslim traders across the Sahara |

|By the sixteenth century, a number of West African cities had become major centers of Islamic religious and intellectual life (like Timbuktu) |

|Ibn Battuta, a fourteenth-century Arab traveler, was appalled that practicing Muslims in Mali permitted their women to appear in public almost|

|naked |

|The chief site of Islamic encounter with Catholic Europe occurred in Spain (called al-Andalus by Muslims) |

1- Where was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate located? ________________________________________________________________________

2- Why did the political unity of the Abbasid Caliphate not last long? ________________________________________________________________________

3- Define Sharia. ________________________________________________________________________

4- What is the basis for Sharia? ________________________________________________________________________

5- Define Ulama. ________________________________________________________________________

6- How did Sufism differ from mainstream Islam? ________________________________________________________________________

7- What did Sufis seek? ________________________________________________________________________

8- Why were the Ulama sometimes critical of Sufis? ________________________________________________________________________

9- How did Al-Ghazali bridge the divide between Sufis and the Ulama? ________________________________________________________________________

10- How are women and men viewed spiritually in the Quran? ________________________________________________________________________

11- How did Islam improve the status of women? ________________________________________________________________________

12- How did Islam maintain patriarchal restrictions? ________________________________________________________________________

13- Who were the third carriers of Islam? ________________________________________________________________________

14- Why did some Indians find Islam attractive? ________________________________________________________________________

15- How does Islam differ from Hinduism? ________________________________________________________________________

16- Where was Anatolia? ________________________________________________________________________

17- How did Islam transform Anatolia and yet how did it not transform it? ________________________________________________________________________

18- Why was Timbuktu significant? ________________________________________________________________________

19- Define syncretism [Previous Knowledge]. ________________________________________________________________________

20- Who was Ibn Battuta and how did he view cultural syncretism in West Africa? ________________________________________________________________________

21- Where was the chief Islamic encounter in Europe? ________________________________________________________________________

22- How was Spain referred to by medieval Muslims? ________________________________________________________________________

23- How did Islam stay the same yet also change as it spread beyond Arab lands? ________________________________________________________________________

|1. Timbuktu was renowned for its |4. All of the following are true statements about Islam EXCEPT |

|(A) gold and its role in opposing the slave trade |Muhammad was the messenger of God. |

|(B) salt reserves and Islamic scholarship |All are equal under the eyes of God. |

|(C) large harbor |Muslims should pray five times a day. |

|(D) glass and ceramic architecture |A clear line of succession was established after Muhammad’s death. |

|(E) many Gothic churches |The hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca. |

| | |

|2. Islam in India had a strong appeal to |5. Which of the following is an accurate statement about Islamic art |

|members of lower castes because |and architecture? |

|(A) conversion to Islam made them equal with other caste members. |(A) Islamic art focused on abstract geometric patterns and ornate |

|(B) Islam promised the spiritual equality of all believers. |calligraphy in Arabic. |

|(C) Allah was more competent than Shiva and Vishnu in terms of |(B) Elaborate miniatures of historical figures and historical battles |

|salvation. |were created during the Abbasid and Umayyad Dynasties. |

|(D) Islam was less dependent on the written word than other religions |(C) The most important architectural contributions were elaborate |

|were. |pyramids and sculptures. |

|(E) all of the above. |(D) Most Islamic art forms were derived from classic Greek and Roman |

| |examples. |

|[pic] |[pic] |

|3. The photograph above of a mosque (first erected in the fourteenth |6. The tenth-century structure in Córdoba, Spain, shown above |

|century) in the modern-day West African country of Mali best |exemplifies the |

|exemplifies which of the following historical processes? |(A) adoption of Gothic engineering techniques |

|(A) Imposition of religion through military conquest |(B) Islamic architectural style |

|(B) Spread of religion along trade routes |(C) Influence of Christian religious painting |

|(C) Abandonment of indigenous cultural styles in the face of |(D) Influence of Chinese art |

|colonization |(E) Incorporation of art and architecture of the Aztecs |

|(D) Conflict between local and universalizing religions | |

| | |

|Thesis Practice: Comparative | |

|Analyze similarities and differences regarding the cultural impact of | |

|Islam and Christianity beyond their lands of origin. | |

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