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Islam in the Middle Period 1000-1500 CE

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.’

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Islam in the Middle Period 1000-1500 CE

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  1. Islam in the Middle Period 1000-1500 CE

  2. 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

  3. 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 archipelagomap

  4. 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)

  5. Major Features of Islam in the MP By 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: • Salafism: iconoclastic return to roots of Islam – fundamentalist… more later 2) ‘Alid apocalypticism

  6. 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)

  7. ‘Alid Apocalypticism Movements from the 1300’s to the 1500’s with several common characteristics • Notion that God had taken human form (hululحلول/) • Transmigration of Souls (tanasukh / تناسخ): an imam/ Ali/ Adam had returned • Shariah no longer valid: since mahdi has come, all is freegame.

  8. 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.

  9. 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 end-time 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.

  10. Famous Examples 3 The Safavid Empire in Iran… that’s for next time!

  11. 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!)

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