Encounters with Islam (Volume C)

Encounters: 640–700 C.E.

• economic revolution • Arab tribes unite• presence extends beyond Persian Empire

Trade Routes

• exchange of ideas and artistic styles

• multicultural blend of myths, literary traditions

• Dede Korkut

Constantinople, 1453 C.E.

Constantinople, 1572 CE Constantinople, 1422 CE

• cultural elite = new converts from Christianity

• linguistically and religiously diverse

• languages: Turkish, Arabic, Persian

• nomadic origins resigned to character tales

• slave-based political and military elite

• feudal army

• religious tolerance did not mean equality

Ottoman Empire, 1300 C.E.

• sultan, millets, and local jurisprudence

• infidels and “People of the Book”

• Sufism

• travelogues

Islam and Ottoman Culture

• 1526: Delhi Sultanate overthrown by Mughals

• Islamic monotheism versus Hindu polytheism and idol worship

• Islamic Sufism resonates with Hindu concepts

• poets and cross-cultural tensions

• questioning caste hierarchy/ discrimination

Hinduism

• Mande bards assimilate Islamic traditions

• Sunjata and the Prophet Muhammad

• The “nomad” as a literary character

• Bhakti (devotional literature)

Literary Developments

Thieves plunder his homeand bring him much grief,but he won’t give a coin

to a poor brahman.

He treats his son-in-lawlike a guest of honor

but he turns his back uponhis real guests.

Tukaram: “The Rich Farmer”

The lord of the Hindus and Turks

is one and the same—

why become a mullah

Why become a sheikh?

(lines 13–16)

Kabir: “Mosque with Ten Doors”

Çelebi: “Book of Travels”

• Vienna from the perspective of an Islamic foreigner

• lack of proper and righteous behavior (Ayanta festivals of the infidels)

• infidels and mistreatment of Muslim slaves

“Afterward, they indulged in such wickedness and debauchery, jollity and drinking in the gardens of Schwechat that it is beyond description….Their men and women do not avoid each other; even when their wives sat together with us Ottomans in jollity and drinking, the husbands did not say anything” (pp. 88–89).

Çelebi: “Book of Travels”

Western Africa

The Ottoman Empire

India

The exchange of goods, artistic styles, and ideas was facilitated by which of the following?

 

a. a unified Arab culture

b. nomads

c. the growth of cities

d. Arab trade routes

Test Your Knowledge

Which of the following is true of the Ottoman Empire?

a. It was linguistically diverse.

b. It imposed a single religion on inhabitants of the empire.

c. It tolerated diverse religions and treated each equally.

d. It encouraged a common language among the rich and poor.

Test Your Knowledge

The political and commercial influence of the Arab world extended into the seventh century to include ______________.

 

a. parts of North America

b. all of the Indian subcontinent

c. Spain and Central Asia

d. South Africa

Test Your Knowledge

Which of the following introduced Islam to West Africa?

a. missionaries

b. soldiers

c. traders

d. magi

Test Your Knowledge

Prior to the arrival of Islam, economies of North and West Africa tended to be _____________.

 

a. disparate

b. industrial

c. unified

d. thriving

Test Your Knowledge

Visit the StudySpace at:http://wwnorton.com/studyspace

For more learning resources, please visit the StudySpace site for

The Norton Anthology Of World Literature.

This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for

The Norton Anthology

of World Literature