The Worlds Religions: Islam (the World's Religions)

THE WORLD’S RELIGIONS: ISLAM The World’s Religions: Islam London First published in 1988 as part of The World’s Religions This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002. © Routledge 1988 and 1990 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. ISBN 0-415-05814-7 (Print Edition) ISBN 0-203-19815-8 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-19818-2 (Glassbook Format) Contents 1. Introduction Peter Clarke 2. Early Islam Julian Baldick, King’s College, London 3. Islam in North Africa M.Brett, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 4. Islam in Iran Julian Baldick 5. Islam in the Indian Sub-Continent F.A.Nizami, Centre for Islamic Studies, University of Oxford 6. The Turks and Islam J.D.Norton, University of Durham 7. China’s Muslims R.Israeli, Hebrew University, Jerusalem 8. Islam in Indonesia E.U.Kratz, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 9. Islam in the Middle East Denis MacEoin, University of Durham 10. Islam in Tropical Africa to c. 1900 J.O.Hunwick, Northwestern University 11. Islam in Tropical Africa in the 20th Century Peter Clarke 12. Islam in Contemporary Europe Peter Clarke 13. Islam in North America S.S.Nyang, Howard University Index 1 7 23 48 62 84 102 119 150 164 180 192 214 225 v 1 Introduction Peter Clarke Since its introduction in the Arabian peninsula in the early years of the seventh century CE Islam has come to embrace over onesixth of the world’s population and stretches almost continuously over wide and diverse areas from, for example, Mauretania in the west to China in the east. This makes it easier to point to those parts of the world, such as Australia and South America, where to date Islam has had little or virtually no impact, than to enumerate the numerous regions where it is the religion of a majority or a substantial minority of the population or those, such as the Iberian peninsula, where it once had a strong presence and has left a very distinctive mark on the culture and history. One of the most striking aspects of this religion as it has travelled and developed beyond its original homeland is, to use the biological concept of homogenesis, the likeness of the offspring to the parent body, and this sameness is in the words of one scholar ‘all the more puzzling in the theoretical absence of a Church, and hence of a Central authority on Faith and Morals’, for ‘There is no obvious agency which could have enforced this homogeneity.’1 While this is so, the fact that Islam is a religion of a book, the Qur’an, dictated to the Prophet Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel and which is for Muslims in a most literal sense the word of God, and that it has in Mecca a focal point to which believers throughout the Muslim community are linked by prayer and the hadj or pilgrimage, make for a considerable degree of unity and cohesion. However, while the idealist portrait of this faith is inclined to leave things there, stating that Islam is one and the same thing wherever it is found, it is also clear, as contributions to this section of the volume show, that the reality is somewhat different. Islam is not some kind of seamless, monochromatic garment-like entity without either variation or 1 Introduction division, nor did the Prophet Muhammad ever imagi