scholarly journals Entangled Narrative Biographies of the Colossal Sculptures of Bāmiyān: Heroes of the Mythic History of the Conversion to Islam

Author(s):  
Deborah Klimburg-Salter
Author(s):  
Jack Tannous

In the second half of the first millennium CE, the Christian Middle East fractured irreparably into competing churches and Arabs conquered the region, setting in motion a process that would lead to its eventual conversion to Islam. This book argues that key to understanding these dramatic religious transformations are ordinary religious believers, often called “the simple” in late antique and medieval sources. Largely agrarian and illiterate, these Christians outnumbered Muslims well into the era of the Crusades, and yet they have typically been invisible in our understanding of the Middle East's history. What did it mean for Christian communities to break apart over theological disagreements that most people could not understand? How does our view of the rise of Islam change if we take seriously the fact that Muslims remained a demographic minority for much of the Middle Ages? In addressing these and other questions, the book provides a sweeping reinterpretation of the religious history of the medieval Middle East. The book draws on a wealth of Greek, Syriac, and Arabic sources to recast these conquered lands as largely Christian ones whose growing Muslim populations are properly understood as converting away from and in competition with the non-Muslim communities around them.


Author(s):  
Noel Malcolm

This book of essays covers a wide range of topics in the history of Albania and Kosovo. Many of the essays illuminate connections between the Albanian lands and external powers and interests, whether political, military, diplomatic or religious. Such topics include the Habsburg invasion of Kosovo in 1689, the manoeuvrings of Britain and France towards the Albanian lands during the Napoleonic Wars, the British interest in those lands in the late nineteenth century, and the Balkan War of 1912. On the religious side, essays examine ‘crypto-Christianity’ in Kosovo during the Ottoman period, the stories of conversion to Islam revealed by Inquisition records, the first theological treatise written in Albanian (1685), and the work of the ‘Apostolic Delegate’ who reformed the Catholic Church in early twentieth-century Albania. Some essays bring to life ordinary individuals hitherto unknown to history: women hauled before the Inquisition, for example, or the author of the first Albanian autobiography. The longest essay, on Ali Pasha, tells for the first time the full story of the role he played in the international politics of the Napoleonic Wars. Some of these studies have been printed before (several in hard-to-find publications, and one only in Albanian), but the greater part of this book appears here for the first time. This is not only a contribution to Albanian and Balkan history it also engages with many broader issues, including religious conversion, methods of enslavement within the Ottoman Empire, and the nature of modern myth-making about national identity.


1964 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher H. Wake

The sources for the early history of Malacca are so meagre, and often so contradictory, that not only is the detail in some doubt but the whole framework of events rests on an uncertain foundation. Dates ranging from the middle of the fifteenth century back to the eighth have at various times been proposed for the foundation of Malacca, and considerable uncertainty has surrounded both the identity and sequence of the early kings and the time and manner of their conversion to Islam. As a result of evidence which has come to light within the last thirty years, notably the Suma Oriental of Tomé Pires and a partially deciphered inscription, from Sumatra, the current view of the early history of Malacca differs materially from that which was generally held before the second world war. Whereas it was then believed that there were four kings before Sultan Muzaftar Shah and that two or three of them were severally converted to Islam, it is now held that there were only three kings and only one conversion, and that this took place in the reign of the first king, about the year 1414. In view of the nature of the evidence upon which this latest interpretation rests it will be useful to review the king-list and the question of the conversion in some detail.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 740
Author(s):  
Ibsa Ahmed Hassen ◽  
Seyfettin Erşahin

<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>The reign of Lij Iyasu was one of the most controversial periods in the history of Ethiopia. Iyasu came to power because of an absence of a direct male line from the reigning King, Menelik (1889-1913). He was the product of the crisis of the last quarter of the 19<sup>th</sup> century. He was the son of Michael, the ex-Muslim, who was converted to Christianity by force after the council of Boru Meda in 1878. He was the descendant of the two largest ethnic groups in the country, the Oromo, and Amhara. His background was helpful to stop the creeping inequality developing in the country at that time, however; it was the same background that contributed to the demise of Iyasu. He was also involved in the politics of the First World War. He had a good relationship with the Ottoman and the Somali nationalist, Sayyid Abdalle Hassen. His relation to the Ottoman and conversion to Islam irritated the European powers. Those factors contributed greatly to his downfall. This article will put light on the period of Lij Iyasu including the question of his conversion to Islam and political events based on available oral and written sources.</p><p><strong>Öz</strong></p><p>Lic Iyasu’nun dönemi (1913-1916) Etiyopya tarihinin en tartışmalı dönemlerinden birisidir. Iyasu, hükümdar olan Kral Menelik’in (1889-1913) bir erkek evladı olmaması sebebiyle iktidar şansını elde etti. Bu sebeple de kendisi 19. yüzyılın son çeyreğindeki Etiyopya kraliyetindeki taht krizinin bir parçası oldu. Iyasu, daha önceden Müslüman iken 1878 yılındaki Boru Meda Konseyi’nden sonra zorla Hristiyanlığa geçirilen Michael’in oğluydu. Iyasu, ülkedeki en büyük iki etnik grup olan Oromoların ve Amharaların soyundan geliyordu. Kökeni, bir yandan o zamanlar ülkede büyümekte olan eşitsizliği durdurması için yardımcı olurken, bir yandan da tahttan indirilmesine sebep olmuştu. Iyasu aynı zamanda Birinci Dünya Savaşı’na da siyaseten müdahil olmuştu. Osmanlılarla ve Somalili milliyetçi Seyyid Abdallah Hassan ile iyi ilişkileri vardı. Bu durum Avrupalı güçler için son derece rahatsız edici bir durumdu. Iyasu’nun bu teşebbüslerini etkisiz kılmak için Avrupalı güçler, Iyasu karşıtı Etiyopyalı yerel güçlere destek vererek onu tahttan indirdiler. Bu makale, sözlü ve yazılı kaynaklara dayanarak Iyasu’nun İslamiyet’e geçişi dâhil olmak üzere, dönemin siyasi olaylarına ve yönetimine ışık tutmayı amaçlamaktadır.</p>


Author(s):  
Igor A. Spivak

The beginning of diplomatic relations between the Golden Horde and Mamluk Egypt and the conversion to Islam by Khan Berke (1257–1266) are reflected in written sources. The most important of these is the Garden of Flowers in the Biography of al-Malik al-Zahir, compiled by Muhyi d-Din Abu-l-Fadl ’Abdallah ibn ‘Abd az-Zahir, the secretary of the Sultan al-Malik al-Zahir Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Bunduqdari (1260–1277). This work became the basis for later books of those who represented Arabic-speaking historical tradition. The excerpts from these works uncovering the history of the Golden Horde were published in 1884 by V. G. Tizengausen. It should be noted that the translation of the sources made by V. G. Tizengausen at a high level is not a word-by-word translation. The literary translation leaves room for various historical interpretations of the texts. In 2020, V. A. Sidorenko published an attempt of interpretation of the kind. The aim of the present research is grammatical, historical, and religious analysis of the conjectures given by V. A. Sidorenko and the conclusions drawn against this background. The results of the research undertaken support the conclusion that the most likely date of conversion to Islam by Khan Berke reflected in the written sources is 1263. Moreover, the author criticises the conjectures of Ibn Abd al-Zahir’s text suggested by V. A. Sidorenko. The greatest objection is the translation of the content of the first letter of the Egyptian Sultan to Khan Berke. The conclusion is made that, at the moment when the letter to Berke was written, al-Malik al-Zahir Baybars had no doubts about the religion of the Khan. This conclusion suggests doubts concerning the chronological sequence of diplomatic missions and exchange of letters between Egypt and the Golden Horde suggested by V. A. Sidorenko. One should search for the reason for the contradictions between the content of the Sultan’s message to the Khan of the Golden Horde and the content of the letters delivered to Egypt by Berke’s ambassadors among the features of religious policy of Mongolian rulers. Taking the Khan’s sympathy for Islam into account, the reason behind the letter to Berke probably was the misinterpretation of the information concerning his religion received in Egypt.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-126
Author(s):  
Yahya Yahya

The role of Arabic-Indonesian community in Islamic da 'wah in Indonesia is quite important. However, there are few studies of their role that have been conducted It is for this reason that the writer would like to observe the role and the existence of this community from the social-historical perspective. There are two theories in understanding their relationship with indigenous people. The first is identical theory which perceives that historically Islam is identical with Arab and therefore cannot be separated from Arabic people. The second theory is that the arrival and the development of Arabic community in Indonesia, on the perspective of anthropological history, is closely related to the history of conversion to Islam and the development of Islam in society. The writer tries to observe their social life and their active role in the development of Indonesian society.


After formally announcing his conversion to Islam in the late 1880s, the Liverpool lawyer William Henry Abdullah Quilliam publicly propagated his new faith and established the first community of Muslim converts in Victorian Britain. Despite decades of obscurity following his death, with the resurgence of interest in Muslim heritage in the West since 9/11, Quilliam has achieved iconic status in Britain and beyond as a pivotal figure in the history of Western Islam and Muslim–Christian relations. In this timely book, leading experts of the religion, history and politics of Islam offer new perspectives and shed fresh light on Quilliam’s life and work. Through a series of original essays, the authors critically examine Quilliam’s influences, philosophy and outlook, the significance of his work for Islam, his position in the Muslim world and amongst other Western Muslim communities, and his legacy. Collectively, the authors ask pertinent questions about how conversion to Islam was viewed and received historically, and how a zealous convert like Quilliam negotiated his religious and national identities, practiced his faith and sought to indigenize Islam in a non-Muslim country.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document