Cultural History of the Muslims

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The words Musalman and Arab as adjectives are generally used to qualify the culture of the Middle Ages, in the countries known to the Europeans as the East, though this culture was not wholly created by the followers of Islam, nor by the Arabs. The only fact that can be affirmed is that the people of Western Asia and North Africa, who played the leading role in culture were united under Islam, and Arabic was their common language. Many works have been written on Islamic culture but none of them has brought out the cultural unity which pervaded the Islamic world.

This small volume, written by a Russian savant who was held as one of the greatest authorities on Islamic subjects can dain a unique place among books on the same subject; for it studies the history and development of the Islamic culture in its true spirit and entirely. Earlier works have dealt with specific countries and given exclusive emphasis on the contributions of the Arabs and the Persians. The author of the present work has studied the Islamic culture as developed in Turkestan, Syria, Iraq and countries in Russian possessions. He has, with remarkable brevity and erudition, unturled before the eyes of his readers the pageant of great culture and emphasized on the interrelations of its protagonists.

The chapter on the Mongol invasion is of special interest, where the author has attempted to reiute the theory that the Islamic culture never recovered from the shattering below dealt it by the Mongols at Bagdad in 1258.

While attempting to explain the cultural interrelations which had existed between the territories of the Musalman world, the author has insisted on the importance of international contacs of the world trade routes and on the significance of social factors, industry, agriculture, and historico-geographical conjunctions.

The work has been translated from original Russian by Shahid Suhrawardy, former Professor of Fine Arts in the University of Calcutta and a scholar of Islamic culture and history.

It seems to me that of all periods the present is most suited to the study of the history of cultures. The sudden changes that we have been witnessing in political and social life due to man's creative and destructive activities in recent times bear out the theory, long held by a certain class of historians, of a rhythm which governs the shifting of cultural centres from one country or one continent to another. The idea of nationalism based on the notion that ethnological units are best capable of finding the surest way of governing themselves, which apparently had been one of the most inspiring slogans of the Great War, has given place in some parts of the world to that of internationalism of the classes and in others of international collaboration. At no other time the interrelation of countries for political, economic and even cultural ends have been so emphasized. Therefore all attempts in history to transcend ethnological and political boundaries in the name of a great confederation are of special interest to us to-day. The vast conglomeration of peoples belonging to a dozen countries of the Old World which were united under Islam affords the imposing spectacle of how a leading idea can reform to its ends all seeming differences of outlook. It has often been contended that there has been no Islamic culture but a culture of the Islamic peoples, that is, those who had been converted to Islam brought with them their own cultural baggage and that historians have arbitrarily given a generic name to what were but particularist manifestations. Whilst one cannot doubt the contribution of each ethnical group, nor that all the peoples united under one religious idea from the Pyrenees to the Assam Hills contributed in an equal degree to Islamic culture, it is something apart and much greater than the culture of the various bodies of Mussulmans that participated in its creation, even as a corporation has a personality distinct from the members composing it. We now know sufficiently well that all parts of the Mussulman world were connected among themselves either through large empires including many countries or by religious movements or by travels and that there was always a quick interchange amongst the different territories of cultural values.

Usually "Mussulman " or "Arab" is the adjective employed to qualify the culture of the Middle Ages in what is called "the East." This culture, however, was not wholly created by the followers of Islam nor by the Arabs. The only fact that can be affirmed is that those peoples of Hither Asia and of Africa, who, during a long period, played the leading role in culture after it had been lost to Europe, were united under Islam, and that the Arabic tongue was their common language for the expression of thought.

The word "East" when used in the history of cultures does not always entirely correspond with the geographical position of the countries which are described as lying in that direction. For example, in relation to Russia, the cultured pro- vinces of Hither Asia stand towards the south. In the same way though Northern Africa, as a part of the Mussulman world, is described as "East," it is really situated towards the south of Western Europe.

**Contents and Sample Pages**