The endurance of the "Islamic World" from the seventh century to the nineteenth century

Résumé du document

The expansion in Islam was a long process, occurring through centuries. The conquests were led in the name of the Prophet Muhammad. However, these victories were also the expression of the triumph of a people over the first Empires dominating the Middle East. From the seventh century and the rise of Islam, to the nineteenth century, the "Arab world" or "Islamic World" was one of the major cultural regions. These expressions refer to the Muslim civilization, sharing an Islamic identity which is a "vast network of interacting people and groups, with considerable diversity and some sufficiently common elements so that it is possible to speak of these diverse communities as being part of the Islamic world" . For many westerners, this conception of the Middle East is really new. As Julia Clancy-Smith points out, the West has to "de-exoticize" its perception of the Eastern culture and history . The issue is to understand how it has been possible for this culture to endure such a long time? To answer this question, this paper will further examine the idea announced by Voll in the previous quotation.

Extraits

[...] But it was not a Islam, varying from Sunni Islam to Shi. Many agree on the fact that Islam was taken as official religion only for opportunist reasons. These invasions were a threat for the Islamic culture as the Mongols destroyed heritages of the past and annihilate the Muslim population living on that lands. However, central Islamic lands, despite of what they had been through, always belonged to the Arab world. The experience of the fourteenth century's traveller Ibn Battuta perfectly illustrates this assertion. [...]

[...] The cultural boundaries linking Muslim people gave the identity of the Islamic World and its cohesion. Ibn Battuta, the Muslim traveller of the fourteenth century, is the evidence of these boundaries. He was able to travel from North Africa to Middle East, going through Africa and Asia; without leaving the Islamic culture. He stayed inside the Dar al-Islam or “Abode Islam”. The communication inside that world is “built on the shared sources of the Islamic experience, which provide the basis for mutually intelligible discourse among all who identified themselves as Muslims within the Dar al- Islam”[16]. [...]

[...] In that region, women used to have an egalitarian status with men. When Ibn Battuta went to visit the Emperor Ozbeg Khan, he was surprised to see that his wives were sitting around him, as well as his daughters[19]. Mongol and Turkish women did not have the same status than in Arab countries and they behaved more freely. For instance they did not were veil. What is more, men as well as women drank alcohol, which was forbidden according to the Islamic principles. [...]

[...] The conversion of the population mostly occurred between the eighth and tenth Christian centuries. According to A. Hourani, the study of Muslim names stands for a good indicator. The majority of converts were members of the lowers ranks of the society. During the tenth century, most people of the Empire were Muslim. This increase can be explained by the fact that “Islam had become more clearly defined, and the line between Muslims and Non-Muslims more sharply drawn”[3]. The construction of an identity is often elaborated through the differentiation from the others. [...]

[...] The endurance of the “Islamic World” from the seventh century to the nineteenth century The expansion in Islam was a long process, occurring through centuries. The conquests were led in the name of the prophet Muhammad. However, these victories were also the expression of the triumph of a people over the first Empires dominating the Middle East. From the seventh century and the rise of Islam, to the nineteenth century, the “Arab world” or “Islamic World” was one of the major cultural regions. [...]