Islam

Chapter 9: Islam
Islam’s impacts on Each Afro-Eurasian Civilization:
Civilization
Extent of Conversion
Reasons for Conversion & Impacts
India
  • Mostly Northern India
  • No more than 20-25% of the population (minority)
  • Not many converted because the prevailing polytheistic Hinduism was so different from the strictly monotheistic Islam; minority Muslims lived separately
  • Some converted because they thought of Islam as more egalitarian than Hinduism
  • Sikhism formed: blending of Islam and Hindu elements
Anatolia
  • By 1500, 90% became Muslim
  • Turkish Islam
  • Was previously governed by Christian Byzantine Empire, so the monotheism was not new to them
  • They had a small population, so it was easier to influence
  • Christianity was already decaying and could make room for Turkish Islam
Africa
  • Usually for the upper classes; lower class not forced to convert
  • North Africa already Islamic
  • West African cities became major centers for Muslims
  • Arabic had many uses in Africa: in trading, schooling, and religion.
  • Not many Arabs immigrated into Africa
  • Conversion was mixed with African culture: dancing w/masks, sprinkling of dust on head
Spain
  • Accepted Islam (75%), but reverted back to Christianity
  • Although it was harmonious at first, Muslims became less tolerant of other religions and started persecuting Christians and treating them as lower human beings
  • Ferdinand and Isabella take Granada → Muslims become free but unable to make converts
  • Islamic learning became available to Christian Europe
I’ve noticed some people using their notes as their blog so for this entry, so I decided to make a chart that shows how I would organize the impact of Islam on Afro-Eurasia. Hopefully, it helps some of you who are trying to be more organized with notes. Sometimes organizing notes into tables like this is more helpful than going by the sections in the chapter.

A Few Thoughts on the Chapter:
I’m lucky now to learn at least this much about Islam. I never really take the time to educate myself on history (may it be from 200,000 years ago or what happened yesterday in the news). I know very little about the Middle East in particular, only that their government is highly fragmented and that assassinations are common. Although I’m still highly uneducated on the topic, I now understand at least a little more about why there are warring factions in the middle east. Religion is a great driving force. Jihad sounds very scary to me. And all of these thoughts coming from one man who we don’t even know is trustworthy. All prophets could be making things up or could be schizophrenic. We don’t even know.
I could argue that we need to be critical thinkers and analyze every piece of information we’re given, but honestly, that’s so hard. Spending our entire lives questioning everything won’t leave us any time to do anything else! Being a philosopher is a full-time job. Besides, without religion, early societies would have a difficult time reigning in their people, helping them find common values, conform to laws and keep order, keep them happy in hopes of an afterlife, etc. My brother is an atheist and I frequently have to defend the importance of religion. So I hope everyone knows I’m not bashing on religion because I’m very grateful for it. I feel like I always say this every time I blog about this topic so I’m sorry. I’m Catholic by the way.


Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day! :)

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