Islam in the Middle Period 1000-1500 CE

Islam as World CivilizationCan 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 pilgrimageSoutheast 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• Waqf: pious endowments that fund mosques,

madrasa, public fountains, hospitals etc.• Sufi Tariqa’s• Culture of Masculine honor/Institutionalized

sexual jealousy – well, sort of…

Political:• 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

Major Features of Islam in the MPBy 1300 the Late Sunni Tradition had

formed:• Guild-like loyalty to 4 madhhabs• Existing Interpretive Traditions enjoy

consensus and are thus correct• Sufi Tariqas• ‘Alid Loyalism: ‘confessional ambiguity’

and devotion to the family of the Prophet

This institutional stability prompts reaction:1) Salafism: iconoclastic return to roots of

Islam – fundamentalist… more later2) ‘Alid apocalypticism

SalafismFrom 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 / an imam/ Ali/ Adam had :(تناسخreturned

- 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 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.

Famous Examples 3

The Safavid Empire in Iran… that’s for next time!

Slide 3Slide 2

Across the Rooftops of Jenne

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The Grand Mosque in Jenne

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Settling Differences in Jenne

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