A historical overview on buddhism and islam indian society before the birth of buddhism and arab society before the birth of islam share several characteristics, such as polytheism, the worshipping of idols and the existence of great social inequalities. The impact of the silk road and islam on world history overview. Johan elverskogs book, buddhism and islam on the silk road, challenges this perception by giving us a new perspective on buddhist and islamic interaction along this extensive trade route. For much of this time, most silk road traders coming from western eurasia were muslim, and they brought their beliefs and rich culture to millions of people. How did buddhism spread along the silk road youtube. The impact of the silk road and islam on world history. No religious tradition in history favored trade to the extent islam did. Feb, 20 the 10 cheapest countries to live or retire in 2019 you might not need to work duration.
Cultural hegemony along the silk road in the year 1985, there was a marvelous exhibition to be visited at the david and alfred smart museum, chicago. Buddhism and islam on the silk road encounters with asia johan elverskog on. As such, people have come to accept as true that buddhists and muslims never enjoyed good relations after coming into contact with each other. Arab and persian traders were very successful in expanding islam, due in part to their trade practices. Xinru liu the silk road was the contemporary name for a complex of ancient trade routes linking east asia with central asia, south asia, and the mediterranean world. Buddhism and islam on the silk road johan elverskog. Sep 28, 2010 religions of the silk road looks behind the romantic notions of the colonial era and tells the story of how cultural traditions, especially in the form of religious ideas, accompanied merchants and their goods along the overland asian trade routes in premodern times. During the time of dar al islam, there were many advances in various areas such as mathematics, pottery, medicine and astronomy. Dec 19, 2019 for much of this time, most silk road traders coming from western eurasia were muslim, and they brought their beliefs and rich culture to millions of people. The aryan trade routes would come to be known as the silk roads.
Islam would be more than seven centuries in the future. The silk road was a network of trade routes which connected the east and west, and was central to the economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between these regions from the 2nd century bce to the 18th century. From the seventh century ad, arab muslims traveled to china by the silk road or the sea route to spread islam. The spread of buddhism and islam, journal of world history on deepdyve, the largest online rental service for scholarly research with thousands of academic publications available at your fingertips. Unwind the silk threads of their cocoons and then prepare the threads. Map of central asia illustrating silk road economic belt. Several etymologies have been suggested for the word radhanite. Buddhism and islam on the silk roaddemonstrates that the history of buddhistmuslim interaction is much richer and more complex than many assume. Silk road, taklamakan desert, bactrian camel, mogao caves, greater afroeurasian silk road, age of the four empires, sogdians, second chinese empire, religions along the silk road, dar al islam, song era, pax mongolica, great eurasian pandemic, timurids, new world silver, qing dynasty, indian diaspora, orenburg line, the cotton. Main idea political heavy taxes implemented by conquering islamic armies convinced many people to convert jiyza islamic empire expanded all the way to tarim basin central asia after receiving submission of nonmuslim arab clans, muslims reached out across the arabian. The silk road 731 making up only 5% of the total world trade and it was not going through anatolia on its path. Buddhism and islam on the silk road is a scholarly work, but one that provides enough background to be accessible to those without specialist knowledge, of the region or of either religion. This groundbreaking book covers inner asia from the eighth century through the mongol empire and to the end. Should you need to install the adobe acrobat reader free, which is necessary to read pdf files, click here.
Buddhism and islam on the silk road demonstrates that the history of buddhistmuslim interaction is much richer and more complex than many assume. Islam came to china via the silk road, the great trading route beginning in the ancient chinese capital of xian. This historic exchange dates from the ages of the silk road 4 bce1400 ce and the age of commerce 14501680 ce. Buddhism and islam on the silk road by johan elverskog, 2010. There is a myth that has the end of buddhism in india a result of the destruction of the buddhist monastery of nalanda by muslim raiders in 1202. Islam depicting it as a religion of extremism and violence.
Spread of islam through the silk road by tim strickman on. Buddhism and islam on the silk road encounters with asia. In her first chapter professor sonn creates the ideal model of islam. While the silk road was a twoway route, most of its movement was eastward, carrying buddhism, zoroastrianism, judaism, and later, islam. Abdallah of mecca in westcentral arabia, was himself a businessman by profession. He is the author of several books and articles including religions of the silk road, mughal india and central asia, and conversations with emperor jahangir.
The spread of islam along the silk route uw departments web. Afghanistan, peoples republic of china, republic of india, islamic republic of iran. Religions of the silk road tells the story of how religions accompanied merchants and their goods along the overland asian trade routes of premodern times. Women had known complicated methods needed to raise silk worm. Harsh repressive measures were employed against the rebellious muslims of the qing dynasty. It explores the journey from silkroad to beltroad by analyzing topics. The unesco nomads route expedition retracing the silk road across mongolia. The myth that islam destroyed buddhism in central asia, india, etc. Johan elverskog buddhism and islam on the silk road. East asian studies center, the ohio state university 2,557 views.
Sep 08, 2017 similar to yourself, i am particularly interested in coins that reflect a strong multicultural and multilingual roots. The early meetings were followed, in some cases, by. The journey of the belt and road initiative started from historic silk road and created venue for cultural interaction and exchange apart from transporting and. The economics, politics and spirituality of the religions along the greatest highways on earth. Remote work advice from the largest allremote company. But it was buddhism, travelling the trade routes of the silk road, which became the common factor uniting the different. Five college center for east asian studies buddhism along the.
The silk road journey with xuanzang by sally hovey wriggins and buddhism and islam on the silk road by johan elverskog could be used for additional class discussions or writing assignments. Many great processes of world history had their origins in central asia. It has given us images of fabled cities and exotic peoples. Initially raw silk was imported along the silk road from china to the near east, mainly to persia and byzantine. The peoples of the silk road in its early decades followed many different religions. In fact during this time there was even a silk road of the sea. This groundbreaking book covers inner asia from the eighth century through the mongol empire and to the end of the qing dynasty in the late nineteenth century. The spread of buddhism and islam xinru liu the college of new jersey since andre gunder frank published the centrality of central asia1 in 1992, world historians have paid more attention to the dynamic forces radiating from central asia during the last few thousand years. Silk road was a major trade route of its time that retained its importance for 2,000 years. In fact, much of the knowledge we have today about the spread of buddhism comes from documents that have survived at sites such as dunhuang on the silk road.
Many religions, including christianity, buddhism, hinduism, islam, zoroastrianism and manichaeism, gained new followers. This introduction chapter tries to conceptualize chinas belt and road initiative through analyzing history and culture. Students will use technology to explore the social, cultural, religious, and economic impact of the silk road and other transcontinental trade routes between the classical era and gunpowder empires of world history. Islam and buddhism relations from balkh to bangkok and tokyo.
The silk road transmission between eastern and indian buddhism thus came to an end in the 8th century, on one hand because islam in central asia repressed buddhism along the silk road itself, but also because buddhism in both india and china were in decline by that time. Islam spread across central asia and into china via along the silk road, as well as to the islands of southeast asia in what is now malaysia, indonesia, and the southern philippines via the indian ocean trade routes. Religious tensions, conflicts, and tolerance such as those between christianity and islam or between christianity and. In her book the silk road journey with xuanzang, sally hovey wriggins writes, it was from monasteries that the teachings of buddhism radiated from india as far as china, a country that was enlightened by the new religion in much. Belief systems along the silk road religious beliefs of the peoples of the silk road changed radically over time and was largely due to the effects of travel and trade on the silk road itself. Abstract islam came to china via the silk road, the great trading route beginning in the ancient chinese capital of xian. Particularly the pre islamic silk road is particularly interesting as it was a true melting pot between east and west. The history of interreligious relations and exchange between islam and buddhism extends over their meetings in west, central, south, southeast and far east asia. Baghdad was in the center ofclose to all the main trading routes such as the silk road, royal road, etc. This fall, i invite you to join me on a journey to explore the northern silk road, including the oasis cities of urumqi and kashgar in northwest china and the hunza valley of far northern pakistan. Serial transnational world heritage nominations of the silk roads. In documents discovered in turfan at the beginning of this century 17. For over two thousand years the silk road was a network of roads for the travel and dissemination of religious beliefs across eurasia.
With the spread of islam into the regions around the silk road, many of the stupas and temples were destroyed or left abandoned in the desert. Johan elverskog is exceedingly well read in the relevant literature, and his book is fascinating and thoughtprovoking. Of the 18 buddhist schools of interpretation, five existed along the silk road. As early as three thousand years ago hebraic and iranian religious ideas and practices traveled eastwards in this way, to be. Buddhism and islam on the silk road by johan elverskog article in bulletin of the school of oriental and african studies 752.
Spread of islam through the silk road by tim strickman on prezi. In the contemporary world the meeting of buddhism and islam is most often imagined as one. In western countries, the skill of producing silk remained largely unknown until the 12th century however once this changed, the route began to lose its major significance. Environmental education resources to commemorate earth days 50th anniversary. The influence of sasanian persia sinoplatonic papers, 206 august 2010 5 of the two forms of production, silk was probably the more influential.
Please only access these files with our permission. The international dunhuang project is a groundbreaking international collaboration to make information and images of all manuscripts, paintings, textiles and artefacts from dunhuang and archaeological sites of the eastern silk road freely available on the internet and to encourage their use through educational. The silk road provided a network for the spread of the teachings of the buddha, enabling buddhism to become a world religion and to develop into a sophisticated and diverse system of belief and practice. Religion constitutes a longlasting and inspiring field in world history, let alone interactions among world religions. The persian church became the church of the east in 424 and adopted nestorianism. Note that all pdf files are low resolution for optimal speed in downloading, but the complete volume file is large. This road also functioned as a bridge in between people and cultures for centuries. The important silk road trading routes began at the chinese western capital of xian, where there. Five college center for east asian studies buddhism along. Islam came to china via the silk road, the great trading route beginning in the ancient. Islam flourished during the brutal but religiously. After about the first century ad, the spread of buddhism among learned people was helped by the practice of writing down and translating buddhist scriptures or sutra into different languages. Silk roads spiritual identity a historical overview on. Islam and islamic empires indelibly stamped the history of eurasia and the silk roads.
Aryan trade extended from china in the east, to asia minor and mesopotamia in the west, to the iranian plateau and the indus valley in the south, an eastwest distance of nearly ten thousand kilometres. The widespread adoption of islam beyond the arab peninsula is recorded in some older histories as starting as early as the midseventh century, but in fact, this probably did not occur until at least a century later. Some maintain that their center was the city of ray rhages in northern persia. Reviewing beliefs and practices a religious and secular. In the century since its invention as a concept, the silk route has captured and captivated the western imagination. Buddhism and islam on the silk road by johan elverskog. The silk roads in central asia, showing ancient kingdoms and empires. If they indeed did read the book, they would of known that buddhism did not cease to exist on the silk road. Ancient and medieval history online, facts on file, inc. Islam flourished during the brutal but religiously tolerant mongol yuan dynasty. The arabs invaded central asia under the flag of islam in 711, capturing the cities of. Thus to me the silk road is one of the best representations of the theme.
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