Analysis of Islam in South Asia in Practice by Barbara D. Metcalf - Book Report/Review Example

Personal response Introduction This paper focuses on my personal response to Barbara Metcalf’s work. After reading the text, I understood why Muslims are so numerous in Sri Lanka and the Southern Coasts. I realized that these places were not the original land for the Muslims. They came to these regions in the eighth century because of trade with their numbers increasing after intermarrying with other people. Moreover, many individuals in the regions became Muslims through conversion. Although the region was not the original homeland for Muslims, Islam spread at a very high rate. Some of the factors that lead to the fast spread of Islam in the region entail the trans-boundary networking, well-structured political system, and the British colonization. Response The author reveals that at the beginning, Muslims were very few in the region since they were only 15 percent of the region’s total population (Metcalf 17). Their number increased after the Mughal era when they started spreading among the non-Muslim people (Metcalf 17). Based on my opinion, it seems that the southern people were converted because they were interested in the Islamic culture. Indeed, it is unlikely that they were forced to convert. Originally, the people in the South Asia were Buddhists, Jain, and Hindus. I also kept wondering why the Muslims in this area are referred to as Moors. After reading Metcalf’s work, I discovered that that the Portuguese who were colonizing the region at that time gave them the name (Metcalf 1). It is clear that the Central and the Southern Asia had cultural dissimilarities. The southern cultures were more connected with the Indian Ocean than with the Central Asia. The individuals in the South also practiced Arabic culture, and followed the Arabic traditions in settling disputes. This was instead of the Central Asia law called Hanafi law of Central Asia (Metcalf 3). I believe that the Islamic culture also spread because the Arabs had established a dynasty in the region, especially in the North West. During this time, the area was called Sindh, which is an Arabic name. The writer has successfully presented the well-organized political and social structure of Muslims in this area (Metcalf 4). The rulers of the dynasty had established a good relationship with the individuals at the lower ranks. The good relationship led to the formation of layered sovereignties, resulting into the stabilization of the alliances. The leaders of the dynasty respected the old local leaders and used them to strengthen the dynasty. The well-structured political system made the Arabs to rule even outside their regions. The Muslims had rules, which allowed them to live calmly. The rules also made the Islamic life to flourish. Most of the conflicts were solved in courts by the Islamic judges called the qazi (Metcalf 4). I could not understand why the Crescent moon plays a very significant part in the Islamic culture. I have Muslim friends and every year they start fasting after seeing the crescent moon. After reading the chapters, I realized that according to Muslims, crescent is one of Prophet Mohammed’s miracles. The king of Malabar witnessed the miracle and it is believed that all Muslims in the regions are his descendants (Metcalf 2). In my opinion, the literature contradicts with the common assumption that Muslims force people to convert their religions. According to the author, Muslims wanted to conquer, but they did not intend to change individuals’ religions. The Muslims used politics to improve the economy of the region. However, many individuals converted since they wanted to enjoy aspects that Muslims were enjoying. For instance, some Muslims were given shelter and were exempted from the military. Since everyone wanted to be protected and exempted from the military, most of the people had to covert (Metcalf 5). It is also interesting to discover that there are many categories of Muslims. I thought that Islam is the only religion that has no subdivisions, but after reading the text, I discovered that I was wrong. The author has mentioned many categories of Muslims such as the Zimmi who used to pay a different type of tax called jizya (Metcalf 7). Another category of Muslims mentioned in the texts is the Sufis. Individuals from this category are believed to be the descendants of the Prophet Mohammed. They also believe that they are very blessed, and they had acquired the blessings directly from the Prophet himself. They considered the blessings very essential especially for the rulers. The Sufi leaders were also the spiritual leaders who guided the moral way. There are also other Muslim sub segments like Sayyids and Lodhis (Metcalf 7). I did not like the way the Muslims in the Southern Asia destroyed the local culture. Before the Muslims migrated into the area, most people were Indians, and they practiced the Indian culture. Additionally, most people were Hindus or Buddhists. People from these religions have different religious practices that were changed after the introduction of Islam in the region (Metcalf 18). For instance, in the past, the regions had different forms of architecture. The buildings and the monuments were made using the local architectural styles. Examples of such buildings entail the Gujarati buildings, which were made using the traditional architecture styles to meet the religious requirements at that time. However, after the introduction of Islam, the forms of art in the region changed according to the Islamic rituals. Examples of the introduced forms of art are the mosques, which had different appearances from the Buddhists and Hindu tombs. Additionally, the pavilions and palace were made in different ways. The Muslims also introduced some paintings, recordings, and illustration especially in the Mughal court. Most of the paintings and pictures reflect the legendary stories of the Muslims (Metcalf 12) Other changes in the cultural aspects resulted from the introduction of Islam devotional style in the region. Individuals from other religions adapted the Islamic devotional style. The Muslims also introduced new forms of poetry that was meant to strengthen the religion (Metcalf 10). They introduced the Arabic poetry to reinterpret the human soul and divine. In Delhi courts, the images and painting were based on the Islamic poetic genre. Moreover, they introduced some events and rituals in the Southern Asia. One of the events they introduced is Muharram that is a mourning month. During this month, people performed rituals in special places called the imambara (Metcalf 10). During the Mughals time, the Muslims ruled the region and there was an improvement in the economy. Surprisingly, the rulers were not focusing on changing the local culture. They were only focusing on the improving the region financial status by expanding the agricultural sector and improving technology. The rulers emphasized on increasing the global contacts through networking. For effective networking, the leaders chose to continue using the Persian language that was widespread in the Southern Asia during that time instead of Arabic language. The use of the Persian language led to effective networking because other parts of Asia, which include the central and southwest Asia used the Persian language and had the same political and cultural traditions. Networking made the Mughal system to be successful because the regions could partake in trade, banking and other financial aspects (Metcalf, 13). The collaboration between Muslims and individuals from other individuals from other religion was strange. This is because, many people assume that Muslims are violent and they cannot live peacefully with people from other creeds. This made me think that Muslims are not as selfish as most people think. They accepted to unite with other people by using other people’s language and culture in order to improve the region’s economy (Metcalf 13). The author proves that British colonization is what led to the split of Islam and Hindu. The British colonized India by using law to justify their actions (Metcalf 4). The British introduced rules contradicted with religious practices of both the Indians and the Muslims. Hence, the rules had to be homogenized into two categories and this is what led to the creation of social categories. In my opinion, even though the Muslims and the Hindus had some differences, the British colonization made it worse. There was rivalry between the Hindus and the Muslims over the colonial authority seats and public employments. Apart from splitting the Hindu and the Islam, I think that the colonization made life harder for some people in the region. For instance, the peasant cultivators suffered because of market uncertainties. Weavers also lacked market for their goods after the initiation of the machine made fabrics. In addition, many people were forced to pay for the heavy land revenues in order to cover for the colonizers expenses (Metcalf 16). I think that the colonial periods also contributed to the rapid spread of Islam in the Southern Asia. This is because during the period, one of the Islamic leaders Abdul Aziz made an agreement with colonizers. In the agreement, the British were to allow the Muslims to practice their religion in their territories so that the Muslims would stop fighting against them. The Muslim leaders then used this time to renew the religion through teachings. They also used this time to correct the Islamic rules that had been hampered by the British (Metcalf 22). The Islamic leaders printed texts to spread religious messages to many people in order prevent personal relationships that could result into religious conflicts (Metcalf 25). The author is trying to show how Islam was spreading faster during that time in countries like Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Nizamuddin. I think the religion spread faster in many countries in South Asian because Muslims, unlike other religions, formed transnational networks (Metcalf 28). This is proved by the presence of many Tablighis in all the countries in the region. It is surprising to acknowledge that in the past when there were poor means of transport and communication the religion spread faster than religions compare to now when the modes of transport have improved. I think that currently, the Islam religion is spreading at a slower pace because other religions have also adapted the transnational networking and are competing against each other (Metcalf 37). Conclusion Conclusively, the Southern Asia was not an original land for the Muslims. They moved into the region because of trade and they started to spread very fast in the region. One of the factors that contributed to the fast spread of the religion was that Muslims had a well-organized political structure. The rulers of the dynasty cooperated with the local rulers resulting into a stronger dynasty. Additionally, the Muslims in the region grew because of conversion. Muslims were more aggressive in spreading their religion compared to people from religions during that time. For instance, unlike other religions, the Muslims leaders were spreading it through texts that influenced many individuals to convert. Additionally, they spread Islam across the borders by sending the Tablighis to spread the word in all countries in the southern Asia. Another factor that contributed to the fast spreading of the religion is the British colonialism in the region. This is because Muslims alone were given the authority to spread Islam in the British authority. This made them to influence many people to convert during that time. Even though the Muslims saw the colonialism as a great opportunity to spread Islam in the region, it led to rivalry between them and Hindus. The rivalry made it difficult to spread Islam in the region later. Work Cited Metcalf, Barbara D. Islam in South Asia in Practice. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009. Print. Read More