The Spread Of Islam Culture

Islam today is regarded as a religion whose followers are known as Muslims. However, this religion only started in the early 600s, with the start of the Muslim era beginning in 622 (Armstrong 14). It is a topic of debate of whether Islam was more of a culture or religion from 600-1300. It is often noted that during this time it should not be considered fully formed, and even now any religion should not be considered as such, as they are constantly changing to fit the current era and beliefs of the peoples who practice these religions. I believe that during this period, Islam was both a culture and a religion.

Islam at its roots, was started by the Prophet Muhammad, who was instructed by God to form this “religion” and preach his (God’s) word.

“But it did entail a commitment to a life of spirituality and self-denial (zuhd) rather than one of indulgence and material comfort” (Gordon 75). This is a general idea of Sufism, or at least early Sufism as it changed with time. This excerpt gives some religious context as it mentions that this practice was based in spirituality. To build on this, it was to be closer to God, that denying worldly things it would help this effort (Karamustafa 62). Some Sufis would go as far as to become hermits, and live outside of society while still relying on some people, as they would get food from them. Later, Sufism began to spread in the tenth century as it was mostly in Iraq. With this Sufism began to change, and eventually split into two groups, traditionalists and academics. Within these groups there allowed to be dynamics of Master and disciple (64). In terms of culture, the appearance of these drastically different groups shows this. The academics were the ones who accepted and learned law and theology. This eventually lead to intellectual debates (66). This is a cultural facet of life as, within a culture there is philosophy and the questioning and discussion of things. The Sufis had a considerable amount of influence during their time. It was enough that the caliph Ma’mun saw it fit to placate them. This being about the story in the “Meadows of Gold” where he justifies his position. What he says to the Sufi is that he was appointed to his position by the previous Caliph regardless of what he believed, and that he could not in good conscious resign from the role as if he did he believed that chaos would befall, and so he was kept the position to protect the Muslims from this (Al-Masudi 196). Whether Ma’mun liked the Sufis, he realized that it would be better to placate them, instead of provoking them, so they clearly had an amount of influence on