Culture And Shaped Islamic History

Silverstein’s second chapter talks about the peoples and cultures who created and shaped Islamic history. (Page 49) --> The chapter divides the people who contributed to Islam into the Arabs, the Persians, and the Turks . (pages 49-50) At first, it was believed that since Islam began as a chosen-people religion and was first aimed exclusively at the Arabs, one had to an Arab to be a Muslim. In the Quran (12: 2, and 43: 3) it is clearly stated that “ it is in the Arabic language ‘so that you may understand [its message]’, a statement that assumes its audience to be Arabic-speakers” ( page ). The Arabs and their culture have been central to all Muslims in a number of ways. As Islam spread, a Muslim’s first experience of literacy often involved learning to read and write God’s language. Arabic was being regarded as the language of God. Eventually by the mid 20th century , Arab ideologies and Islamic ones were in direct competition for the hearts

Although Persians gained monotheism and following the True Religion, they lost their empire and independence. And rather than attempting to reverse the effects of Islam’s arrival, Persians and the Persian culture were Islamicized which happened under the Abbasid’s rule who, by moving to Iraq, constructed their power-base from the Sasanid institutions. Not only was political and governmental organization inherited from Persian traditions, but much of Abbasid civilization – including literature, history, theology, religious sciences, Quranic studies, and even Arabic poetry and linguistics. (Page 57) The resistance of the Persian people to the spread of Arabic, together with Iran’s Shiite identity, have contributed to feelings of national uniqueness for centuries. Iran and the Persians have had a truly formative influence on the contours and contents of Islamic