Transcript Part 2: Islam in the Middle Period

Islam in the Middle
Period 1000-1500 CE
Islam as World Civilization
Can religions exist outside of history?
Between 945 and 1250 CE we see the
development of institutions that would
replicate themselves throughout
Islamic civilization – they are the bond
that unifies ‘Islam.’
Ibn Battuta (d.circa 1370): travels from
Tangier to China and Mali working as
scholar and judge in Shariah court
Expansion of ‘Islam’/Muslim Practice
Africa:
• 1010 CE King of Gao in Niger converts
to Islam
• 1325 Mansa Musa of Mali makes his
famous pilgrimage
Southeast Asia:
• 1200’s some Sumatran port cities
become Muslim, the straits of Malacca
Islamized
• By 1500 Islam a major force in
Malaysian archipelago
map
Islamicate Institutions in the MP
Intellectual and Social: Shariah based
• Madrasa: centers of religious learning
• Madhhabs: the 4 Sunni schools of law (Ex.Mamluks)
• Waqf: pious endowments that fund mosques,
madrasa, public fountains, hospitals etc. Large
portion of Muslim lands are waqfs (1/3 post Mongol)
• Sufi Tariqa’s
• Culture of Masculine honor/Institutionalized sexual
jealousy – well, sort of…
Political: military dynasts (hot), caliphs (not - or dead)
• Military Patronage State: we see it beginning with
the Seljuq Turks in the 1000’s, comes into its own
under the Mongols: nomad military dynasty
patronizes high culture
• Amir/A’yan System: system of power sharing; the
military rule (Amir) holds ultimate power, but the
nobles (a’yan) run society (sword, pen, turban)
Major Features of Islam in the MP
By
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1300 the Late Sunni Tradition had formed:
Guild-like loyalty to 4 madhhabs
Speculative Theology: Ash’ari school
Existing Interpretive Traditions enjoy consensus
and are thus correct
Sufi Tariqas (politically powerful)
‘Alid Loyalism: ‘confessional ambiguity’ and
devotion to the family of the Prophet (Sultan
Husayn Bayqara & wife in Herat builds massive
shine for 8th Imam at Mashhad)
This institutional stability prompts reaction:
1) Salafism: iconoclastic return to roots of Islam –
fundamentalist… more later
2) ‘Alid apocalypticism
Salafism
From the word for ‘The Righteous Early
Community (Salaf)’, generally understood to be
the first three generations of Muslims
• Rejection of total loyalty to one Sunni school of
law – all legal arguments must be proven by
recourse to the Quran and Sunna… most ijma’ is
false!
• Later scholars can be just as able as early ones!
• Muslims have gone astray because:
– Influence of foreign knowledge (philosophy,
speculative theology (khawd), theosophy
– Innovation in religion: Sufi practices, pilgrimages
to graves etc.
Ex. Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328), Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi
(d. 1348), Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1351)
‘Alid Apocalypticism
Movements from the 1300’s to the
1500’s with several common
characteristics
- Notion that God had taken human form
(hulul /‫)حلول‬
- Transmigration of Souls (tanasukh /
‫)تناسخ‬: an imam/ Ali/ Adam had returned
- Shariah no longer valid: since mahdi
has come, all is freegame.
Famous Examples 1
• Hurifism: late 1300’s and 1400s in Syria and
Anatolia. Fadlallah al-Hurufi of Isfahan is
moved by Ibn ‘Arabi’s writings, claimed that
he was the mahdi and “Lord of the Era
(sahib al-zaman)” In 1386 he declared his
coming out as the manifestation of God’s
majesty on earth and that he was the True
Imam with hidden knowledge. He was
executed by the Timurid ruler in 1394. His
followers, the Hurufiyya, said that there was
no God but him and expected his imminent
return as Mahdi (again?). The sect spread in
Iran and eastern Anatolia and parts of
Syria… its remnants appeared to have
merged with the Bektashi Sufi order.
Famous Examples 2
Badreddinism: Shaykh Badr al-Din is an
Ottoman Islamic scholar who goes to
study in Cairo. He becomes a master
of the Islamic sciences but also a
devotee of Ibn ‘Arabi’s writings. He
returned to the Balkan coast of the
Black Sea and announced that endtime had come, preaching a message
of common-property and universal
religion among Muslims and Christians
alike. He rebelled against the
Ottomans and was executed for
sedition in 1418.
Famous Examples 3
The Safavid Empire in Iran… that’s for next
time!
Antinomian Sufi Orders in the 13 16th centuries
Qalandars: Persian, Egyptian, Syrian
mendicant dervishes
• Many would wander around in loincloths
and pierce their [expletive deleted] with
iron rings. Totally shaved look.
Malamatis: “blame seekers”, rejecting
worldly interest of Sufism; engage in
deliberatively blameworthy practices
 Influence on mainstream Sufism (yes!)