Sunday, November 24, 2013
The Culture of the Muslim World
During the past week we've looked at the history of Islam and the emergence of the Muslim World. We've had the chance to consider a number of aspects of this religion and culture. Which feature of Muslim culture during this era did you find most intriguing? Why? Compare it to a similar set of ideas, concepts and cultural practices in the earlier Roman Empire and Greek World. Please respond to this prompt in AT LEAST TEN SENTENCES of thoughtful reflection and cite the textbook or your notes on it at least twice.
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A feature that I found interesting in all of these civilizations was the political divides throughout them. In each there is a pair of a type of people, each wanting a different political organization. In Muslim culture there was the Shi'ites and the Sunni, in Rome the Plebeians and Patricians, and in Greece there was Athens and Sparta. In Greece it was more subtle, where Athens was a democracy, while Sparta was more of a monarchy. Each of these political divides were major, not having many others that ever became as supported. It is especially interesting that these groups continued over most of the civilization, never really going away. They stayed as the most powerful movements and influence man leaders. They even chose leaders. Each also focused on a matter that was extremely important to the specific civilization. Rome had giant power divides that went with the social divides. Islam had political divides with the religious divides of the family v. the descendant. Finally, Greece had political divides that went with the divide of the two places, Athens and Sparta.
ReplyDeleteThe thing I found most intriguing about the Muslim empire and religion was the difference in religious beliefs between the two factions of the same religion. In other cultures such as the Greeks and Romans, this was nonexistent. The Romans, while having two different state religions, didn’t have a divide in beliefs on the same religion. The same goes for the Greeks. Philosophers may have dreamed up logical circumstances that went against some of their pagan beliefs, but they never encouraged a divide in religions to occur. In both of these cultures all pagans shared very similar beliefs and the Christians all shared very similar beliefs. The Muslims on the other hand had two very different factions of Islam. The Shi’ites believed that the Caliph should be designated by the former Caliph, and all Caliphs must be related to Muhammad. The other faction (majority), the Sunni, believed that the Caliph should be elected. While these differences may have been small at first, the two factions slowly began moving apart to the point where, nowadays, there are different countries for each faction, and revolts take place between these two factions.
ReplyDeleteI think that the most interesting feature of Muslim Culture is the collection of stories “A Thousand and One Nights”. I really enjoy the fact that it is a compilation of stories, and I love the legend behind it. Generally, I think that the literature aspects of a culture are very interesting and I believe they are essential to expressing the culture, and possibly even spreading it. Every major civilization (except maybe when the Dorians occupied Greece – as far as I remember) has had at least one major literary record – whether it is a book or a compilation of stories or what have you. For example, during the 700s B.C. Homer wrote about the Trojan War in the Iliad and I also consider the dramas and comedies written during Greece’s golden age literature as well as entertainment. I believe that literature is still one of the most important cultural aspects of any civilization – books or other forms of stories can convey society in funny ways, serious ways, or in a satire (like The Lysistrata) and they can provide entertainment as well as insight.” A Thousand and One Nights” is still important to Muslim culture because it was one of the things that unified the empire.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that really interested me is the difference in the architecture in all the different cultures. The structure of the pillars on buildings is different. The architecture of Islam is very intricate on the whole pillar whereas roman pillars are simple until the top or bottom and Greek pillars changed from very simple during the Dorian era to similar to the roman style during the Corinthian era. Even the way they decorate their buildings is different. In mosques the designs are incredibly geometric an aspect that Greek and roman buildings don't have. Greek temples had lots of marble while a lot of mosques are very colorful. In Spain you can see the difference, you can tell which buildings were built or influenced by the Muslims and the buildings that weren't. The difference in architecture from culture to culture still exists. In Amsterdam a lot of the buildings that are on the canal have hooks coming out of the house. In Dublin Ireland the doors of Ireland are all different colors so that the fisherman coming home could tell which house was his. If you travel around the U.S. You can tell the difference in the architecture of houses based on location and class.
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting aspect of Muslim culture is their art. Islamic art doesn't portray Allah or Muhammad, and since Allah is the only one who can create life, they didn't create images of any living things. Because of this, muslims focused on calligraphy and arabesque designs. Their geometric designs are found on mosques and pottery, and it's still a mystery how they achieved near mathematical perfection in their mosaics. However, Greek and Roman art was almost entirely depictions of people. The Greeks sculpted beautiful and idealized beings. Romans were influenced by Greek art, but created realistic portraits of people and gods. Art, as well as architecture and writing, indicates the values of a specific society. By studying ancient art, we can discover the wealth, religion, and social conflicts in a civilization.
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting thing to me about Muslim culture is their notion of an "ideal man" (p. 279). This is a concept I've only seen elsewhere with the Spartans. They trained their boys to become soldiers (p. 131). All men who were not cast to die due to being weak were expected to serve in the army until the age of 60, and individual expression was discouraged. Given that the lifespans were not long back in those times, this could be all of a man's life, in which they could never express individuality. This is a way of trying to shape every man in the society into being the same as his peers. The Muslims also had an idea of what every man should be shaped into, but unlike the Spartans' view of this, the Muslims' is much more diverse and unstructured. It is more about morals than skill-building, and it is a combination of the different other religions and peoples the Muslims shared their lands with. This allows you to follow guidance paths while pursuing the life you wish to live. That being said, it definitely seems like the Muslims valued individuality more than the Spartans.
ReplyDelete- Jordan Valdés #44
I find literature to be a very interesting factor in Muslim society and especially the story “One Thousand and One nights” I found it very interesting how I have heard that story before and now I know its origin. I think of literature and the arts as a way to keep a culture alive and thriving even if it is destroyed or forgotten and this was an amazing way to keep this culture alive and to remember important stories and events. I am also very interested in art and architecture and I found the descriptions of both of these topics to be fascinating. I found it intriguing how the Muslims expressed themselves through art even though they were not allowed to depict Allah or Muhammad in their art; they stayed faithful to their religion and created amazing pieces of art and architecture. I found it fascinating how their geometric designs in their art pieces and mosaics. The feature of the Muslim culture that I find most intriguing is Muhammad’s message to his follows and to all the converts about helping the needy and the less fortunate and how through religion he unifies a community that was so broken up. Though I also really find the idea of tolerance to be very intriguing as well and how the other reason for Muslim success was that other peoples had been previously persecuted that suffered under Byzantine and Sassanid rule because they did not practice their religions of Christianity or Zoroastrianism. I found it interesting how they welcomed the invaders and accepted Islam because of the message it gave attracted them, the message of hope and equality. I love the idea of tolerance and even the conquered peoples are allowed to practice their religion and have their own Ideas, it seems that we have seen this before. That just allowing people to have their own Ideas and practices seems beneficial and avoids conflict and revolt. On the more religious side of things I find the five Pillars of faith to be very interesting and I really like what the messages are, I especially like the idea of the Alms and the social responsibility that all Muslims have to take care of each other. I also found it quite interesting how this empire seemed to evolve around religion while the Greeks and the roman practiced different religions though this empire seems to be built on religion.
ReplyDeleteI think the most interesting thing about Muslim religion is that there are so many different variations of it. There's no one right or wrong variation of Muslim religion and I think the diversity that exists within the religion is incredible. And it's a detail that I do not think exists or existed in any other religion as intensely as it did and still does in the Muslim religion. In the Roman empire they allowed freedom of religion, and freedom of speech and all that good stuff, but Muslims basically slaughtered anybody who wasn't Muslim. That was a huge difference between the two empires. A similarity though, between the two empires, was that they both had many different religions, or at least variations of religion. The Roman empire had many different religions that people believed in. Although the Muslim empire only had one, they still had many different variations and interpretations of the Muslim religion which were practiced throughout the empire. And that, I think, is the most intriguing thing about Muslim religion, and also the most unique and distinct detail of it. Islam is a different to other religions and cultures in lots of ways, but it's also very similar to other cultures and religions at the same time.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I find extremely incredible considering that this is the opposite of what the Muslims are known for now is their amazing level of tolerance for other religions. One of the main reasons that the Islamic people protected the Jews and Christians was because they were "People of the Book", and they too sprouted from Abraham. However, the Muslims didnt tolerate their religious practices only out of obligation. They did it out of their own volition. They did it with a level of tolerance like that of the great Persian emperor Cyrus. The Greeks were not known to be tolerant of other religions and people. When I mean they werent tolerant I am only referring to their perception of the Persians. The Greeks had a strong disdain for the Persian peoples, and mocked their religious practices and their lifestyle, calling them "barbarians" and such. The Romans, on the other hand, were fairly accepting of other people's religions, so long as the adherents also worshipped Julius Caesar as a god. But back to the Muslims. One must remember that despite the fact that the Muslims respected other people and their religions, it didn't necessarily mean that they there equals socially, hence the Christians and Jews being in a lower class than those who were Muslims.
ReplyDeleteI find religion and art the two key difference between the Greek and Muslim culture. The Greeks had many gods and goddesses, whereas the Muslim culture had one and only god: Allah. I enjoy learning about Muslim culture more because it is more relatable. I am Christian and also do believe in one god. The creations of Christianity and Muslim are also similar.
ReplyDeleteGreek art has evolved throughout its time. It has depicted civilians and gods. Colosseums were also a major part of Greek architecture Muslim art was expressed through calligraphy (a type of writing) and couldn't have images of Allah or Muhammad. Muslim architecture was very precise and had many domes.
this was written by me, Sophie. I messed up when signing on
DeleteI think that the defining factor of almost any of the empires that we have studied has been the way in which it treats its conquered subjects. In the past we have studied empires that are very oppressive to people who they conquer and empires who treat them in almost the same why in which they treat their own people. It is commonly very hard to actually tell which one of these approaches is the better one. Many would say that it is the one where the conquered can basically just go on living their lives because the people would be less resentful of the empire and would therefore not rebel. This is not consistently the case. It seems like people either rebel or they don’t. It does not really seem to matter how they are treated. When the Muslim empire was powerful, it treated the people that it conquered fairly well. It says this on page 270. The book says that the Muslims treated their conquered people so well because the Koran said that there could be no forced conversion to Islam. The way in which Rome treated its conquered peoples was similar. It seems like they also did almost nothing to them after conquering them. Many of them were allowed to become citizens of Rome and were even allowed to vote (p.158), while others were simply allowed to do basically the exact same thing that they were doing before (unless the romans needed help in any way). It is very interesting to me that both of these empires should have had such closely related ways of dealing with people. As I said, the Muslims did it because of what the Koran said about it. The romans did it because that is what they decided that they should do. There have been other empires with similar policies, but the fact that these had similar policies is particularly interesting. The Byzantine Empire was directly adjacent to the Muslim empire. This leads me to believe that some of the practices of the Muslim empire (in this respect) may have come not from the Koran, but from the romans and their descendants.
ReplyDeleteI think that the most intriguing part of the Islamic religion is that there are so many different types of Muslims. According to my notes, there are the Sunni, the Shi'a, the Sufi, and the Ahmaddiyas. Each type of muslim has its own set of beliefs and prophets. The ideas remain similar, but each separate group has a certain difference to individualize itself from the other groups. This reminds me of rulers in Greek and Roman Empires who, according to my notes, allowed people to follow their own religion instead of forcing them to change their religion. This way it diversifies the community and allows for more freedom. I think the Muslim empire diversifies its own people through a single religion. I believe that diversity is important even in religion. Many different religions have diversity in them including Christianity and Buddhism. The Muslim religion uses its four groups of religion to expand the muslim community.
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