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One of
the central themes in world history texts and classes is the history of "world" religions: their doctrine and
practices; their ties to political and social change; their spread over space
and time. In one sense, teaching about world religions offers students an
entry into past experience that for many may offer an empathetic interaction
with the past, "Ah, they were
Buddhist/Christian/Muslim like me." In another sense,
the world historical processes that created those religions, the making new
believers, or conversion, may be alien to those twenty-first century students
who are born into their religion and/or live with little close knowledge of how
conversion lies at the roots of the massive faith-based cultural formations we
have today.
What
follows in an effort to provide a means to do so through a Micro-Reader
designed to support World History survey and seminar courses. A
concordance indicating its utility in the Advanced Placement World History
course is incorporated into the Micro-Reader. In survey courses, the lack
of time impedes coverage of even "the basics" and because of this tight
window, the bulk of the primary documents employed to meet curriculum standards
are statements of belief or doctrine, often excerpts from scripture.
While these subjects are important—sometimes for understanding the choices of
historical actors—this kind of selection often leaves the student reader an
incomplete conceptualization of what religions are or were. Focusing on purely
doctrinal documents obscures change over time, downplays the complexities of
believers performing a religion, and tends to overemphasize cultural difference
and exclusivity.
How
does studying conversion in particular help in the classroom? Conversion
puts change over time in the analysis; it historicizes religion. The
examination of methods/means of conversion allows students to see it as a
historical process. It also opens up comparative history, allowing us to
see how people shared historical experience, even when they were not directly
connected. At the same time, examining conversion gets at the blurry
lines and the messiness of the processes of cultural change. When we, as teachers,
show maps about the rise of religion,
the accompaniment of conversion materials complicates the changes shown by the
colors of those maps. At some level, conversion analysis reveals why people
made the choice to do new, different, confusing, tedious, and difficult beliefs
and rituals, to follow rules about giving up pleasures and wealth, or to open
up the dangerous possibility of personal persecution. This is one way to get at
the "flesh
and blood humans defining and enacting the requisite cults and rites."1
Aside from
the standard practice of investigating the reliability of sources, primary
sources addressing the issue of conversion allow readers to see some of the
unusual (to them) nature of past viewpoints, particularly with regard to
syncretic cultural strategies and the assumed reality of magic in the world.
They also can provide a glimpse of the religious experiences of both the elite
and the masses and address assess the options/volition of converts. Through
them readers can also examine social history, what historical actors did
on an intimate scale in response to grand, sweeping forces. The documents
offered below speak to the importance of narrative to the processes of
conversion, and how identity has been constructed.2 Finally, and most importantly, I think, for grasping global scale history,
these sources illuminate the multiple varieties/aspects of Buddhism,
Christianity, and Islam, past and present. Their brevity sharpens the focus on
the topic, while the comparative framing allows students to draw connections
quickly across time and space. The subject itself allows for a broad
geographical coverage, including most of Afro-Eurasia. Certain documents might
act as a springboard for further research, or a set or two might be extracted
for use in a particular classroom lesson.
The
Micro-Reader only includes what I am calling "universalist" religions, which are sometimes
labelled as the "salvation," "missionary," or "evangelical" religions. This choice partly
stems from a presentist viewpoint arising from the successes of Buddhism,
Christianity, and Islam as borne out in twenty-first century populations
(together over half the world's population of believers).
Clearly, the Micro-Reader neglects universalist religions with limited numbers
of adherents today, like Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism, whose historical
import was far greater at certain historical junctures. Moreover,
religions with grand conversion successes based on Vedic and Chinese texts are
absent, in part, because their exportation to distant populations was much more
limited. Early Modern and Modern conversions, namely the Christianizing
of the Americas and Southern Africa, are also not addressed. The motivations of
the documents' authors—usually
advocates of the particular universalist religion with an interest in
exaggerating conversion successes—were not necessarily conducive to describing
what actually occurred. Finally, the documents here are intended to stimulate
debate in a comparative World History context, and instructors should employ the
sources with care considering the multitude of doctrinal milieus they emerged
from. Student readers should be directed to these limitations, as well to the
following very brief discussion of scholarly approaches to conversion.
Scholarly
Approaches to Conversion
Recent
religion historiography has been concerned with the "complexity
and diversity of motivations that engage converts."3 Jerry Bentley argues that,
generally speaking, there are three types of conversion, largely framed by the
choice, or lack thereof, for the convert: voluntary, assimilationist (a
selective adoption of belief and practice), and pressured.4 Marc David Baer argues for
four styles of conversion: acculturation (pressured conversion by a
dominant or conquering culture); adhesion (new beliefs and practices added on
top of old); syncretism (a fusion of belief and practice that creates a new
synthesis); and transformation (complete replacement of systems).5 The documents below tend to
illuminate tactics of evangelism, but also show some of the choices made by
historical actors, and some of the patterns of cultural adoption. Students
should be reminded to approach the material with some skepticism: "More
recently … historians
have doubted the totalizing experience of conversion …. they
argue instead that religious conversion entails both an event or events and a
gradually unfolding, dynamic, yet often incomplete process."6 Richard Bulliet notes the
caveat that Islamic "conversion stories themselves
reinforce the impression that change of religion may not have been particularly
momentous for the convert," and this certainly applied at times to
converting Buddhists and Christians as well.7
The Micro-Reader
Each of
the following sections is based on a strategy or type of conversion, with at
least one selection from Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, in that order. A
few of the document sections include doctrinal statements from scripture
regarding the subject at hand. Each source is provided with a date and location
of the construction of the document in the naming line, and a date when and
location where the event purportedly happened. In some of the documents,
conversion is implied rather than claimed outright. The sources for the
documents are contained in the endnotes. The issues raised by these
documents would relate to the following parts of the AP World History
curriculum as outlined in the AP World History Curriculum Framework
(Effective 2011) https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ p-world-history-and-description.pdf. These
are:
2.3.III,C. Religious and
cultural traditions were transformed as they spread.
3.1.III. Cross-cultural
exchanges were fostered by the intensification of existing, or the creation of
new, networks of trade and communication.
4.1.VI. The increase in
interactions between newly connected hemispheres and intensification of
connections within hemispheres expanded the spread and reform of existing
religions and created syncretic belief systems and practices.8
Preaching9
Although
the earliest forms of Buddhism did not attempt to acquire converts from the
masses, Christian missionaries rarely looked beyond cities in the first half of
the first millennium of the Common Era, and during the first few centuries of
Islam, Muslims were not particularly evangelical toward non-Arabs, eventually
each of the three religions became focused on public proselytization.
Lotus
Sutra, Chapter
27, Kashmir (South Asia), 2nd Century CE
Ganges
Basin (South Asia), 5th Century BCE
[The
Buddha spoke to his followers] "Into your hands, young men of good family, I
transfer and transmit, entrust and deposit this supreme and perfect
enlightenment arrived at by me after … incalculable Æons. … do your best that it may grow and spread. … Receive it, young men of good family, keep, read, fathom,
teach, promulgate, and preach it to all beings. … follow my example; imitate me in liberally showing this
knowledge … to the young men and young ladies of good family who
successively shall gather round you. And as to unbelieving persons, rouse
them to accept this law." |
Shi
Baochang, Biqiuni
Zhuan (The Lives of Nuns), China, ca. 516 CE
Huang
He Basin (China), mid-4th century CE
[When
her husband did not behave properly, Miao-hsiang, a woman from the very
wealthy Chang family, left him with her father's permission to become a Buddhist nun.] She
lived … in a shady forest facing the open countryside, where she
and her many disciples led a life of joyful resolve in the quiet retreat [for
over 20 years]. Whenever she preached the [Buddhist] teaching, she saved
people. Because she often feared that those listening to her would be unable
to concentrate their resolve to attain freedom from birth and death, she
would at times weep to exhort them to greater efforts. Thus her preaching
always brought about great benefits. |
New
Testament, Matthew
28:18–20, Levant, late 1st Century CE
Levant,
early 1st Century CE
Then
Jesus came to [his apostles] and said, "All authority in heaven and on
earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father [God] and of the Son [Jesus] and of
the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." |
Bede, The
Life and Miracles of St. Cuthbert, Northumbria (England) ca.
730 CE
Isle
of Britain, 7th Century CE
Chapter
9: HOW
CUTHBERT WAS ZEALOUS IN THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD
Many
of [the neighboring people], indeed, disgraced the faith which they
professed, by unholy deeds; and some of them, in the time of mortality,
neglecting the sacrament of their creed, had recourse to idolatrous remedies,
as if by charms or amulets, or any other mysteries of the magical art, they
were able to avert a stroke inflicted upon them by the Lord. To correct these
errors, [Cuthbert] often went out from the monastery, sometimes on horseback,
sometimes on foot, and preached the way of truth to the neighboring villages
.… It was at this time customary for the English people to
flock together when a clerk or priest entered a village, and listen to what
he said, that so they might learn something from him, and amend their lives. … He was mostly accustomed to travel to those villages which
lay in out of the way places among the mountains, which by their poverty and
natural horrors deterred other visitors. Yet even here did his devoted mind
find exercise for his powers of teaching, insomuch that he often remained a
week, sometimes two or three, nay, even a whole month, without returning
home; but dwelling among the mountains, taught the poor people, both by the
words of his preaching, and also by his own holy conduct. |
Qur'an, ("The Bee") Surah
16: 125–126, Late 7th Century-8th Century
Hijaz
(Arabia), 7th Century CE
Invite
[all] to the way of your Lord [Allah] with wisdom and beautiful preaching;
and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious…. [I]f you show
patience, that is indeed the best for those who are patient. |
Attar,
[The Life of]"Abu 'l-Hosain
al Nuri," Persia, Early 13th Century CE
Baghdad
(Mesopotamia), ca. 900 CE
When
Gholam Khalil declared hostilities against the Sufis, he went to the caliph
[of Baghdad] and denounced them. "A group have appeared on the scene," he announced, "who sing songs and dance and utter
blasphemies. They parade about all day, and hide themselves in catacombs, and
preach. These men are heretics." |
Conversion By Force10
Although
peaceful methods of evangelism can be found occasionally in universalist
scripture, violent methods and forced conversion were common in practice. Over
time, the descendants of people who faked their conversion sometimes became
devout followers.
Majjhima
Nikaya #35 ("Cula-Saccaka
Sutra"), South
Asia, 1st Century BCE?
Ganges
Basin (South Asia), 5th Century BCE
[Much
of the scripture about the Buddha and his teaching has him engaging in
debates with non-believers to illuminate a particular point about the
religion, in this case Aggivessana.] What say you, Aggivessana? Would a Noble
[Kshatriya] being an anointed King … have power—within his
own realm—to put to death … or to exile those of
his own subjects who deserve those respective punishments?
[Although
he agrees with this proposition, Aggivessana is then quiet about a follow-up,
and the Buddha said,] "Answer [now]; this is
no time to be silent. If thrice a person is asked a doctrinal question by the
Truth-finder and answers not, his skull is then cloven into seven pieces."
At
that moment [the Thunderbolt Spirit Vajirapanin] took his stand in the air
[ready] to cleave his head into seven pieces if he failed the third time [to
answer the Buddha]. |
Ashoka's Thirteenth Rock Edict,
South Asia, 3rd Century BCE
Multiple
Sites in South Asia, 3rd Century BCE
The Beloved of the Gods [Ashoka, a Mauryan emperor recently-converted to
Buddhism] conciliates the forest tribes of his empire, but he warns them that
he has power even in his remorse and he asks them to repent, lest they be
killed. For the Beloved of the Gods wishes that all beings should he
unharmed, self-controlled, calm in mind, and gentle. |
Old Testament, II
Chronicles 15: 10–14, Mesopotamia, ca. 400 BCE
Levant,
ca. 900 BCE
They [Hebrews] assembled at Jerusalem in the
third month of the fifteenth year of Asa's reign. At that time
they sacrificed to Yahweh [God] seven hundred head of cattle and seven
thousand sheep and goats from the plunder they had brought back. They entered
into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their
heart and soul.All who would not seek
the Lord, the God of Israel, were to be put to death, whether small or great,
man or woman.They took an oath to
the Lord with loud acclamation, with shouting and with trumpets and horns. |
Charlemagne,
"Capitulary
Concerning the Regions of Saxony," Northwestern
Europe, 782 CE
If
any one of the race of the Saxons hereafter concealed among them shall have
wished to hide himself unbaptized, and shall have scorned to come to baptism
and shall have wished to remain a pagan, let him be punished by death. |
Qur'an, ("Repentance") Surah
9: 5, Late 7th Century-8th Century CE
Hijaz
(Arabia), 630 CE
But
when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever
you find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in
every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers
and practice regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is
Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful. |
Severus
ibn al-Muqaffa', History of the
Patriarchs, Egypt,
late 10th century CE
Egypt,
750 CE
Then
[Umayyad caliph Marwan II] gave orders to his subjects, the natives of the
land, saying: "If any of the people
of Egypt refuse to enter into my religion, and to pray as I do, and to adopt
my creed, I will slay him and impale his body. But whoever shall enter with
me into my religion I will clothe with a robe of honour, and I will mount him
upon a horse, and will place his name in my Divan, and make him rich." In consequence of these words he was soon followed by a
thousand persons, who recited his prayer; and accordingly he gave to each one
ten dinars [coins]. Then two thousand Muslims of Egypt joined him, besides
those whom he had released from prison, and those who served him of the
troops of the army of the empire. |
Targeting Leaders11
Because
monarchs and chiefs were not shy about using their power to create new
converts, universalist believers often chose them as missionary targets. State
sponsorship of religion (when leaders required the conversion of their
subjects) mattered immensely at certain times and places: with Ashoka, the
South Asian Mauryan Empire, and Buddhism (to some degree) in the 3rd century
BCE; Theodosius, the weakening Roman Empire, and Christianity in the 4th
century CE; and the conversion of Seljuk, the Oghuz Turkish chieftain, and
Islam in the 10th century CE. Powerful states not only actively enforced
conversion, a leader's public conversion worked more
gradually as well. As Ibn Khaldun, the Muslim scholar reported in 1377, "Allah
has the power to command. In this light, one should understand the secret of
the saying, 'The common people follow the religion of the ruler.' (This
saying) belongs to the subject under discussion. The ruler dominates those
under him. His subjects imitate him, because they see perfection in him,
exactly as children imitate their parents, or students their teachers."12 (As we
can see from the first source, this was not always true.)
Kakhun, Haedong
Kosung-Chon (Lives of Eminent Monks), Korea, ca. 1215
CE
Korea,
372 CE
[Shundao]
possessed great virtue, and was of an outstanding character. With a
compassionate mind, he attempted to redeem the beings of this world. Having
vowed to spread widely the teaching of Buddha, [he] traveled throughout
China. … [During 372 CE] the monarch Fu-chien of Chin [a post-Han
kingdom] dispatched an envoy and the monk Shundao with images of the Buddha
and Buddhist scriptures [to the Korean court of the Kingdom of Koguryo]. With
appropriate ceremony, the king Sosurim and his courtiers greeted [them] at
the gate to the city. … Their thankfulness and happiness overflowed. … Gradually, in this way, the teachings of the Buddha began
to spread like the fragrance of an orchid or the mist. However, as society
was too unprepared and the people too simple-minded, the faith did not take
root. |
Gregory
of Tours, History
of the Franks, late
6th century CE, France
France,
ca. 500 CE
…Queen Clotilda [the
wife of Frankish king Chlodweg or Clovis] wished to consecrate [the king] in
baptism, she tried unceasingly to persuade her husband, saying: "The
gods you worship are nothing, and they will be unable to help themselves or
any one else. For they are graven out of stone or wood or some metal. …" … [T]he king was by no
means moved to belief, and he said: "It was at the command of our gods
that all things were created and came forth, and it is plain that your God
has no power and, what is more, he is proven not to belong to the family of
the gods." … The queen did not
cease to urge him to recognize the true God and cease worshipping idols. But
he could not be influenced in any way to this belief, until at last a war
arose with the Alamanni [another Germanic people], in which he was driven by
necessity to confess what before he had of his free will denied. It came
about that as the two armies were fighting fiercely, there was much
slaughter, and Clovis's army began to be in danger of destruction. He saw it
and raised his eyes to heaven, and with remorse in his heart he burst into
tears and cried: "Jesus Christ, whom Clotilda asserts to be the son of
the living God, who art said to give aid to those in distress, and to bestow
victory on those who hope in thee, I beseech the glory of thy aid, with the
vow that if thou wilt grant me victory over these enemies, and I shall know
that power which she says that people dedicated in thy name have had from
thee, I will believe in thee and be baptized in thy name. For I have invoked
my own gods but, as I find, they have withdrawn from aiding me; and therefore
I believe that they possess no power, since they do not help those who obey
them. I now call upon [you, God], I desire to believe [you] only let me be
rescued from my adversaries." And when he said thus, the Alamanni turned
their backs, and began to disperse in flight. And when they saw that their
king was killed, they submitted to the dominion of Clovis ….Then the queen asked
saint Remi, bishop of Rheims, to summon Clovis secretly, urging him to
introduce the king to the word of salvation. And the bishop sent for him
secretly and began to urge him to believe in the true God, maker of heaven
and earth, and to cease worshipping idols, which could help neither
themselves nor any one else. But the king said: "I gladly hear you, most
holy father; but there remains one thing: the people who follow me cannot
endure to abandon their gods; but I shall go and speak to them according to
your words." He met with his followers, but before he could speak the
power of God anticipated him, and all the people cried out together:/ "O
pious king, we reject our mortal gods, and we are ready to follow the
immortal God whom Remi preaches." |
Hikayat
Raja Pasai (Chronicles of the Kings of Pasai), Insular
Southeast Asia,
story recorded 1815
Sumatra
(Southeast Asia), 15th century CE
In
due course Shaikh Ismail's [a Muslim holy man responding to a prophecy
made by Muhammad] ship arrived [in Sumatra]…. The next day Shaikh Ismail went ashore and
made his way to the city to find Sultan Maiku'l-Saleh. He came into
the presence of the Sultan and said 'Oh Sultan, recite the two statements of the
profession of faith.' The Sultan then
recited them, saying 'I testify that there
is no god but God, alone with no companion, and I testify that Muhammad is
His Servant and His Apostle.'
… The next day the holy man came bringing thirty
sections of the Qur'an
… to the Sultan who accepted it with reverence. …
Then
Shaikh Ismail ordered an assembly of the chiefs and the people great and
small, old and young, male and female. When they were all together they were
taught by Shaikh Ismail to recite the profession of faith. The whole
population willingly recited the profession of faith, in all sincerity and
with true belief in their hearts. Therefore the city of Semudera was given
the name of Daru'l-Salam
(abode of peace)… |
War Magic (Empirical Religiosity I)13
As can
be seen in the example of Clovis above, one of the things that leaders desired
from the supernatural world was assistance on the battlefield, and successes
attributed to the Buddha, Jesus, or Allah won powerful converts. Generally
speaking, religious practices were sought out by persons looking for tangible
rewards: health, success, protection, or prosperity awarded by properly
interacting with the supernatural world.14
Huijiao, Gaoseng
Zhuan [Biographies of Eminent Monks], China, 530 CE
Huang
He Basin (China), 310 CE
[In
310 CE, the monk Fotudeng] came to Luoyang [a major city in China, sometimes
an imperial capital] with the purpose of spreading the Great Teaching
[Buddhism]. He was proficient at intoning magic spells and could make the
spirits his servants ... [seeing] events more than 1000 li distant
[300 miles] ... as if he were face to face with them. … Fotudeng, out of his compassion for the people, wished to
bring Shi Le [a Xiongnu warlord/governor] under the influence of Buddhism.
[He began teaching one of Shi Le's generals, who, thanks to Fotudeng] always
knew beforehand whether [a battle] would be a victory or a defeat. [When Shi
Le learned of this] he summoned Fotudeng and enquired, "What miraculous
efficacy does Buddhism have?" [Fotudeng] took his begging bowl, filled
it with water, burned incense, and said a spell over it. In a moment there
sprang up blue lotus flowers whose brightness and color dazzled the eyes. Shi
Le was convinced by this, and Fotudeng admonished him [for executing
prisoners]. Of those remaining who were to have been executed, eighty or
ninety percent benefited from this. Thereupon almost all the barbarians
[pastoralists] and Chinese in Jungzhou worshipped the Buddha. |
Eusebius, The
Life of Constantine, Levant, 330s CE
Italy,
312 CE
Being
convinced, however, that [Constantine] needed some more powerful aid than his
military forces could afford him, on account of the wicked and magical
enchantments which were so diligently practiced by the tyrant [Maxentius, who
ruled Rome at the time], he sought Divine assistance, deeming the possession
of arms and a numerous soldiery of secondary importance, but believing the
cooperating power of Deity invincible and not to be shaken. He considered,
therefore, on what God he might rely for protection and assistance. While
engaged in this inquiry, the thought occurred to him that, of the many
emperors who had preceded him, those who had rested their hopes in a
multitude of gods, and served them with sacrifices and offerings, had in the
first place been deceived by flattering predictions, and oracles which
promised them all prosperity, and at last had met with an unhappy end, while
not one of their gods had stood by to warn them of the impending wrath of
heaven. While one alone who had pursued an entirely opposite course, who had
condemned their error and honored the one Supreme God during his whole life,
had found him to be the Savior and Protector of his empire, and the Giver of
every good thing. … considering farther that those who had already taken arms
against the tyrant, and had marched to the battle-field under the protection
of a multitude of gods, had met with a dishonorable end (for one of them had
shamefully retreated from the contest without a blow, and the other, being
slain in the midst of his own troops, became, as it were, the mere sport of
death). Reviewing, I say, all these considerations, he judged it to be folly
indeed to join in the idle worship of those who were no gods, and, after such
convincing evidence, to err from the truth; and therefore felt it incumbent
on him to honor his father's [Christian] God alone. … The emperor constantly made use of [a banner with a cross
and spear] as a safeguard against every adverse and hostile power and
commanded that others similar to it should be carried at the head of all his
armies. |
Al-Baladhuri, Kitab
Futuh al-Buldan, Persia, Late 9th Century CE
Persia,
7th Century CE
It has
been told by many men of learning: Siyah al-Uswari [a Persian general] was in
command of the vanguard of Yazdajird. … When Siyah beheld the
victories of Islam and the power of its people (for [the Persian city of]
Susa fell and reinforcements kept coming to abu-Musa) he sent to the Moslem
commander, saying, "Behold, we are
desirous of entering with you into your religion on condition that we help
you fight your [Persian] enemies … and that if we have
war with the [heathen] Arabs, you will grant us help and defense against
them; and that we be permitted to settle in whatever part of the country we
please, and live among whichever of your tribes we choose; and that we
receive the maximum stipend." [Later, Siyah
admitted] "We entered into this
religion from the very beginning only as a refuge, and in the hope that Allah
was one who provides abundant sustenance." |
Awe15
The
grandeur of religious institutions was self-consciously used to awe potential
converts, as one seventh-century Chinese Buddhist monk wrote, "There
are three reasons to construct a pagoda [including] to persuade others to
believe."16 There
are alternate versions of the Russian Chronicle which claim that the
prohibition of alcohol was why Russians rejected Islam.
Chen Shou, Sanguozhi (Records of the Three
Kingdoms), China, Late 3rd century CE Yangzi Basin (China), 193 CE
[While
the Han dynasty was disintegrating, a warlord named Ze Rong was appointed to
transport grain by a regional governor. Ze Rong appropriated many of the
taxes and he] erected a large Buddhist temple. ... dressed in silk and
brocade [and bronze] ... a building of several storeys ... which could
contain more than three thousand people who all studied and read Buddhist
scriptures. He ordered the Buddhist devotees from the region and from
adjacent [counties] to listen and to accept the doctrine. Those people he
exempted from other [corvee] labor duties in order to attract them. ...
Whenever there was the ceremony of 'bathing the Buddha' [Ze] had always great
quantities of wine and food set out for distribution, and mats were spread
along the roads over a distance of several tens of li. Some ten
thousand people came to enjoy the spectacle and the food. |
"Capitulary
Concerning the Regions of Saxony," Northwestern
Europe, 782 CE
It was
pleasing to all that the churches of Christ, which are now being built in
Saxony and consecrated to God, should not have less, but greater and more
illustrious honor, than the shrines of the idols had had.
Primary
Russian Chronicle, Eastern Europe, ca. 1100
Dnieper
Basin (Ukraine), 987 CE
Vladimir
[the monarch of the state of Kiev] summoned together his vassals and the city
elders, and said to them: "Behold, the Bulgars [Muslims] came before me
urging me to accept their religion. Then came the Germans and praised their
own faith [Catholicism]; and after them came the Jews. Finally the Greeks
[Byzantines] appeared, criticising all other faiths but commanding their own
[Eastern Orthodox Christianity]… . [Elder Russians
suggested sending emissaries to the homeland of each group of missionaries to
examine each faith.]
… The envoys reported: "When we journeyed among the
Bulgars, we beheld how they worship in their temple, called a mosque, while
they stand ungirt [loosely, or disorderly, or literally unbelted]. The
Bulgarian bows, sits down, looks hither and thither like one possessed, and
there is no happiness among them, but instead only sorrow and a dreadful
stench. Their religion is not good.
"Then we went among the
Germans, and saw them performing many ceremonies in their temples; but we
beheld no glory there.
"Then we went on to
Greece, and the Greeks led us to the edifices where they worship their God,
and we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth. For on earth there is
no such splendour or such beauty, and we are at a loss how to describe it. We
know only that God dwells there among men, and their service is fairer than
the ceremonies of other nations. For we cannot forget that beauty. Every man,
after tasting something sweet, is afterward unwilling to accept that which is
bitter, and therefore we cannot dwell longer here." … Vladimir then inquired where they should all accept
baptism, and they replied that the decision rested with him. |
Ibn
Khaldun, Muqaddimah, North
Africa, 1377 CE
Levant,
ca. 637/691/701 CE
It should
be known that Allah singled out some places of the earth for special honor.
He made them the homes of His worship. (People who worship in them) receive a
much greater reward and recompense (than people who worship elsewhere). God
informed us about this situation through the tongues of His messengers and
prophets, as an act of kindness to His servants and for the purpose of
facilitating their ways to happiness. …
'Umar
[the
Umayyad caliph] was present at the conquest of Jerusalem, and he asked to see
the Rock. The place was shown to him. It was piled high with dung and earth.
He had it laid bare, and he built upon it a mosque in the Bedouin style. He
gave it as much veneration as God allowed and as befitted its excellence, as
preordained and established in the divine Qur'an. Al-Walid b. 'Abd-al-Malik
later on devoted himself to constructing the Mosque of (the Rock) in the
style of the Muslim mosques, as grandly as God wanted him to do it. He had
done the same with the Mosque in Mecca and the Mosque of the Prophet in
Medina, as well as the Mosque of Damascus. The Arabs used to call (the Mosque
of Damascus) the Nave (balat) of al-Walid. Al-Walid compelled the
Byzantine Emperor to send workers and money for the building of these
mosques, and they (the Byzantine artisans) were to embellish them with
mosaics. The Byzantine Emperor complied, and the construction of the mosques
was able to materialize according to plan. |
Merchants As Missionaries (Empirical Religiosity II)17
Since merchants (long-distance and regional traders) do their job by convincing
people to purchase their wares, perhaps they are especially good evangelists.
Selling things meant traders stuck around and chatted and socialized for a
while. Merchant caravans also provided safety for non-commercial missionaries.
Smaller communities also might have been convinced that merchants—and the
faiths they practiced—were a connection to a greater,
more civilized world.18 Merchants also looked very wealthy, considering all the high-value goods they
transported, suggesting that worshiping in a similar fashion would bring wealth
to a convert. Buddhist ceremonial demand for silk helped to encourage
long-distance trade, incense was used in Christian religious ritual (and
purportedly delivered to the baby Jesus), and do not forget that Muhammad
himself was originally a merchant. Comparing maps of the major middle ages trade routes of
Afro-Eurasia and successful conversions to the fifteenth century shows
a substantial overlap of phenomena.
Xuanzang, Record of the Western
Regions, China,
646 CE
5th
century BCE, South Asia
In
old days, when Buddha first attained enlightenment … he went to the garden of deer; at this time two
[merchants] meeting him, and beholding the brilliant appearance of his
person, offered him from their store of provisions for their journey some
cakes and honey. The lord of the world, for their sakes, preached concerning
the happiness of men and Devas [supernatural beings], and delivered to them,
his very first disciples, the five rules of moral conduct [precepts] .… When they had heard the sermon, they humbly asked for some
object to worship. On this [the Buddha] delivered to them some of his hair
and nailcuttings. Taking these, the merchants were about to return to their
own country, when they asked of Buddha the right way of venerating these
relics. [He performed a ritual, and described the construction of] a stupa
[container of relics]. The two men … each went to his own
town, and then, according to the model which the holy one had prescribed,
they prepared to build a monument, and thus was the very first stupa of the
Buddhist religion erected. |
Nestorian
Chronicle from Saard, Mesopotamia, 11th Century CE
Southern
Arabia (and Northeastern Africa), ca. 400 CE
In
the land of Najran of Yemen there was, in the days of Jazdegerd, a tradesman,
well-known in his country, whose name was Hayyan. He went to Constantinople
on business and returned to his country. Then he planned to go to Persia and
passed through al-Hira. There he frequented the society of the Christians and
learned their religion. So he was baptized …. Then he returned to his country and exhorted
the people to adopt his faith, and made his family Christians, as well as a
number of the people in this part of the country. And certain persons
attached themselves to him and aided him to convert to Christianity the
people in the Land of the Himyarites and adjacent tracts of Abyssinia
[Ethiopia]. |
Lisan
al-Din ibn al-Khatib, Iberia, ca. 1350
West
Africa, Mid-13th century
… his descendants [the Maqqari family]… became famous in trade. They established the desert route
by digging wells and seeing to the security of merchants. … [the family] acquired properties and houses in [Walata in
the Sahel], married wives, and begat children by concubines. The [brother in
Morocco] would send to [the brother at Walata] the goods that the latter
would indicate to him, and [he would send back] skins, ivory, nuts, and gold.
… And so their wealth expanded and their status grew.
When
[the Empire of Mali] conquered the region … [the brother at
Walata] entered into relations with their king, who made him welcome and
enabled him to trade in all his country, addressing him as a dear and sincere
friend. Then the king began to correspond with [the Moroccan family. Soon]
Their wealth knew no bounds and became more than could be counted…
"The
Ancient History of Kilwa Kisiwani," East
Africa, collected 19th century CE
Swahili
Coast (East Africa), 12th century CE(?)
Of
the original people who built Kisiwani [on Kilwa Island]… were the Mtakata [and]… the Maranga…. Then came Mrimba and
his people…. He became the
headman of Kisiwani.
Then
there came Sultan Ali bin Selimani the Shirazi …
the
Persian. He came with his ship, and brought his goods and his children. One
child was called Fatima…. They came with Musa
bin Amrani the Bedouin [Arab]. They disembarked at Kilwa … went to the headman of the country, the Elder Mrimba, and
asked for a place in which to settle at Kisiwani. This they obtained. And
they gave Mrimba presents of trade goods and beads.
Sultan
Ali married Mrimba's daughter [and asked
her to tell her father to move to the mainland. He replied:]"Tell Sultan Ali, I am
ready to go to the mainland, but he must spread out cloth for me all the way,
so that I may walk on cloth as far as the mainland." … So [Ali] spread out
cloth from Kisiwani to the opposite mainland, and Mrimba passed over it
thither.
[When
Mrimba changed his mind] Sultan Ali had the Qur'an read out as a spell and offered sacrifices
so that Mrimba should not take the road to cross over and bring war. …
Sultan
Ali had a child by Mrimba's
daughter, a son, who was called Sultan Muhammad bin Sultan Ali. [When] he
reached manhood, and then set off … to see his
grandfather, the Elder Mrimba. When he arrived, his grandfather handed over
his power to him, his grandson. So Sultan Muhammad ruled [on the African
mainland]. |
State Breakdowns (Empirical Religiosity III)19
While
monarchical conversions were often vital to mass conversion, the collapse of
states and the resultant loss of security often played a role in converting
populations in the "cores." As we have already seen in some
of the sources above, religious institutions and networks offered safety, in
material and immaterial form, when the Han Dynasty fell, the Western Roman
Empire began to crumble, and the Abbasids experienced a civil war.
Shi
Baochang, Biqiuni
Zhuan (The Lives of Nuns), China, ca. 516 CE
Huang
He and Yangzi Basins (China), mid-5th century CE
Fa-sheng's secular surname was
Nieh. Her family was originally from Ch'ing-ho [in north China, north of the
Huang He River, but, during the fighting when the [non-Chinese] dynasty of
Latter Chao (319–350) was coming to power, the family fled south to Chin-ling
[that is, to the southern capital, on the Yangzi River].
In
the fourteenth year of the yüan-chia reign period (437) of
the Sung, Fa-sheng, who was talented, intelligent, and very quick to
understand everything, became a nun [at the age of seventy] in Establishing
Blessings Convent in the capital city. She had sojourned there in her old
age, but, even though once again the imperial capital was peaceful and
prosperous, she still longed for her old home. Only by delving deep into the
mysteries [of Buddhism] was she able to leave behind sorrow and forget old
age. |
Letter
from Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, to Contantius, Italy, 379 CE
You
have undertaken the office of a Bishop, and now, seated in the stern of the
Church, you are steering it in the teeth of the waves. Hold fast the rudder
of faith, that you may not be shaken by the heavy storms of this world [the
Germanic invasions of the Roman Empire]. …
Let
them [wealthy Romans] learn to seek the wealth of good wishes, and to be rich
in holiness; the beauty of wealth consists not in the possession of
money-bags, but in the maintenance of the poor. It is in the sick and needy
that riches shine most. … let the wealthy learn
to seek not their own things, but the things of Jesus Christ, that Christ
also may seek them, and recompense to them what is their own. … His kingdom. |
Ibn
Khaldun, Muqaddimah, North
Africa, 1377 CE
Mesopotamia,
817 CE (201 AH)
Trouble
broke out in Baghdad. The troublesome elements among the underworld and the
soldiery were given a free hand against the decent citizens. They robbed the
people and filled their pockets with loot, which they sold openly in the
markets. The inhabitants turned for protection to the authorities, but these
did not help them. The religious and good citizens, thereupon, united in
order to stop the criminals and to put an end to their misdeeds. At that
moment, a man named Khalid ad-Daryush appeared in Baghdad. He appealed to the
people to obey the law. Many responded to his call. They fought the
troublesome elements and defeated them. Khalid had them beaten and punished.
After him, there appeared another man from among the populace of Baghdad, by
name Abu Hatim Sahl b. Salamah al-Ansari. He hung a copy of the Qur'an around
his neck, and appealed to the people to obey the law and to act in accordance
with the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet. High and low, Hashimites and
others, all followed him. He established himself in the palace of Tahir and
took over the government office(s). He went about Baghdad, kept out all those
who were frightening wayfarers, and put an end to the payment of protection
money to the [organized criminals]. When Khalid al-Daryush said to him that
he (Khalid) was not against the government, Sahl replied that he (for his
part) was fighting all those who acted contrary to the Qur'an and the Sunnah,
whoever they might be. |
Healing
(Empirical Religiosity IV)20
Stories
about the Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad all recounted the founders' miraculous powers of healing.
Universalist evangelists spread stories of more humble miracle-working
missionaries, but also stored magical healing relics at central locations (in
stupas and reliquaries built for those purposes), including the teeth of the
Buddha, splinters of the cross and the milk of Mary, and hair from Muhammad's beard
or the robe of 'Ali, not to mention the remains
of lesser Bodhisattvas, saints, and pirs. (This was less common in Islamic
practice.) Potential converts made pilgrimages to heal themselves, and on
certain sites institutions of convalescence and even what might be considered
early hospitals were constructed. For instance, Buddhist prince Xiao Ziliang
(late fifth century CE, Southern Qi Dynasty of China), probably founded "the
first permanent hospice with a dispensary."21
Huijiao, Gaoseng
Zhuan [Biographies of Eminent Monks], China, 530 CE
Huang
He Basin (China), 310 CE
At
this time there was a chronic illness which no one was able to cure. When
Fotudeng treated the disease, it was immediately cured. ... Shi He [nephew of
Shi Le] had a son named Pin [who] was unexpectedly taken ill and died. ...
Fotudeng, then took his toothpick and said a spell over it. In a moment Pin
was able to get up and in a little while had fully recovered. As a result of
this Shi Le had most of his young sons brought up in a Buddhist temple.
Kharosthi
Tablets, Inner Eurasia, ca. 300 CE
Whoever
performs the bathing of the Ganottama[most excellent of teachers,
i.e., The Buddha] becomes pure in the eyes, bright, pure in the limbs, tender
and of good complexion. Whoever performs the bathing of the Ganottama does not have boils and pimples, elephantiasis, … or the itch. Pure, he acquires a sweet-smelling body.
Whoever performs the bathing of the Ganottama becomes big-eyed and
bright, golden-limbed and of pleasing aspect, and sets off [?]. A gift in
this matter is the best, the most excellent of gifts. In the works connected
with baths it is an example of action. Let there be honour to the Jinas, the
Tathagatas who take delight in the good of beings, and vision of supreme
truth. Let there also be honour to those who exist in themselves, the
pratyeka buddhas who have sought solitude, who take delight alone in the
mountain caves, devoted to their own aims, delighted in continence and
virtue. Also let the disciples, those dear to the Jina who have passed by in
this interval of time, be honoured, of whom he from the Kodinya family was
first and Subhadra the last. Let those (who make) gifts on this point enjoy
(the reward even) when the chief king of Ganas, the Elders, the
middle, and younger monks have not arrived, and when they have arrived, let
them be perpetually enlightened. May the monks who are assembled in this
gathering, who bathe in the jamdaka-baths and honour and love their
teachers, be pure in their current duties, with minds free from hatred (or
fault). In this (matter of) baths let both he who provides material for
removing dirt, he who provides oil for rubbing, and he who provides a dry
bath, be free from fault and impurity. I am devoted to the Vihara, to the law
of the Tathagata and his excellent virtue; as a result of removing dirt, let
their minds be calm, and let them undertake the lawful protection of men. All
creatures that exist from the bottom of Hell up to the summit of being, on
entering the doctrine of the Tathagatas, make an end of birth and death. Let
there always be good begging and plenty; let Indra the lord of sacrifice rain
increase; let the crops come up and the king (go forth) to victory. May he long
abide in the law of the Blessed One. |
Bede, The
Life and Miracles of St. Cuthbert, Northumbria (England) ca.
730 CE
Isle
of Britain, 7th Century CE
Chapter
30:
HOW HE CURED A GIRL OF A PAIN IN THE HEAD AND SIDE BY ANOINTING HER WITH OIL
But
the venerable Bishop Cuthbert effected a cure similar to this, of which there
were many eye-witnesses, one of whom is the religious priest, Ethelwald, at
that time attendant on the man of God, but now abbot of the monastery of
Melrose. Whilst, according to his custom, he was travelling and teaching all,
he arrived at a certain village, in which were a few holy women, who had fled
from their monastery through fear of the barbarian army, and had there
obtained a habitation from the man of God a short time before: one of whom, a
sister of the above-mentioned priest, Ethelwald, was confined with a most
grievous sickness; for during a whole year she had been troubled with an
intolerable pain in the head and side, which the physicians utterly despaired
of curing. But when they told the man of God about her, and entreated him to
cure her, he in pity anointed the wretched woman with holy oil. From that
time she began to get better, and was well in a few days.
Jerome,
Letter to Oceanus (Letter #77: Fabiola's Eulogy),
399 CE,
ca.
395 CE, Rome
In
the day of prosperity [Fabiola, an aristocratic Christian] was not forgetful
of affliction…. Instead therefore of
re-embarking on her old life, she … sold all that she
could … turning [her property] into money she laid out this for
the benefit of the poor. She was the first person to found a hospital [in
Rome], into which she might gather sufferers out of the streets, and where
she might nurse the unfortunate victims of sickness and want. Need I now
recount the various ailments of human beings? Need I speak of noses slit,
eyes put out, feet half burnt, hands covered with sores? Or of limbs
dropsical and atrophied? Or of diseased flesh alive with worms? Often did she
carry on her own shoulders persons infected with
jaundice or with filth. Often too did she wash away the matter discharged
from wounds which others…. |
Benjamin
of Tudela, Itinerary, Mesopotamia
1160 CE
[Caliph
Emir al Muminin al Abbasi] built, on the other side of the river, on the
banks of an arm of the Euphrates which there borders the city, a hospital consisting of blocks
of houses and hospices for the sick poor who come to be healed. Here there are about sixty physicians' stores which are
provided from the Caliph's house with drugs and whatever else may be
required. Every sick man who comes is maintained at the Caliph's
expense and is medically treated. Here is a building
which is called Dar-al-Maristan, where they keep charge of the demented people
who have become insane in the towns through the great heat in the summer and
they chain each of them in iron chains until their reason becomes restored to
them in the winter-time. Whilst they abide
there, they are provided with food from the house of the Caliph, and when
their reason is restored they are dismissed and each one of them goes to his
house and his home. Money is given to those that have stayed in the hospices
on their return to their homes. Every month the
officers of the Caliph inquire and investigate whether they have regained
their reason, in which case they are discharged. All this the Caliph does out of charity to those that come
to the city of Bagdad, whether they be sick or insane. The Caliph is a righteous man, and all his actions are for
good.
Siyar
al-'arifin (Sufi Biographies) Bengal,
ca. 1530 CE
Bengal
(South Asia), ca. 1240 CE
[Sufi
mystic Jalal al-Din Tabrizi] went to Bengal [and] all the population came to
him and became his disciples. There he built a hospice and a public kitchen,
and bought several gardens and lands as an endowment for the kitchen. These
increased. There was also there a [river] port called Deva Mahal, where an
infidel had built a temple at great cost. The shaikh [Jalal] destroyed the
temple and in its place constructed a [Sufi] rest-house. There he made many
infidels into Muslims. |
Weather Control (Empirical Religiosity V)22
Other miraculous forms of intervention included
the alleviation of drought.
Huijiao, Gaoseng
Zhuan [Biographies of Eminent Monks], China, 530 CE
Huang
He Basin (China), 310 CE
The
source of the water for ... the city of Xiangguo ... suddenly dried up. ...
Fotudeng sat down ... burned Parthian [Persian] incense, chanted an
invocation of several hundred words. When he had done like this for three
days, water seeped out a few drops at a time. ... In a little while the water
came in abundance….
Shi
He ordered Futodeng [to go to a land affected by drought]. Straightaway two
white dragons descended ... there was a heavy rain over an area several
thousand li square, and that year there was a great harvest. |
St.
Cyprian, The
Life of St. Caesarius of Arles, France, 6th century CE
France,
ca. 500 CE
When
… Caesarius [returned to Arles]… the Lord bestowed a most plentiful rain on the
ground, suffering from a very long drought. |
Abu
'Ubayd 'Abd Allah
bin 'Abd al-'Aziz
al-Bakri, Kitab
al-Masalik wa-al-Mamalik (Book of Roads and
Kingdoms), Iberia,
ca. 1068 CE
Niger
Basin (West Africa), early 11th century CE?
[Eight
days' march beyond the south bank of the Niger River
lies a country] called Malal, the king of which is known as 'The Muslim.' He is thus called because his country became
afflicted with drought one year following another; the inhabitants prayed for
rain, sacrificing cattle until they had exterminated almost all of them, but
the drought and the misery only increased. The king had as his guest a Muslim
who used to read the Koran … To this man the king
complained of the calamities ….
The man said: 'O King, if you
believed in God and if you accepted all the religious laws of Islam, I would
pray for your deliverance from your plight and that God's mercy would envelop
the people of your country …'. Thus he continued to press the king until
the latter accepted Islam and became a sincere Muslim. …[After several
ceremonies] they prayed for a mart of the night, the Muslim reciting
invocations and the king saying, 'Amen.' The
dawn had just started to break when God caused abundant rain to descend upon
them. So the king ordered the idols to be broken and expelled the sorcerers
from his country. He and his descendants after him as well as his nobles were
sincerely attached to Islam, while the common people of his kingdom remained
polytheists. |
Egalitarianism23
Although
elites were often the targets of universalist evangelism, and Buddhist,
Christian, and Islamic societies in the middle ages were certainly hierarchical
(not to mention the religious institutions themselves), parts of scripture and
certain rituals held egalitarian messages. Even if scholars are now skeptical
of how often this produced converts from the lower classes, certainly some
sources indicate success for this promise in a stratified world, in many cases
for women.24
Sutra Nipata, South
Asia, 1st century BCE or later
Ganges
Basin (South Asia), 5th century BCE
No
Brahman is such by birth.
No
outcaste is such by birth.
An
outcaste is such by his deeds.
A brahman
is such by his deeds.
Shi
Baochang, Biqiuni
Zhuan (The Lives of Nuns), China, ca. 516 CE
Sichuan
(Western China), mid-5th century CE
When
she was a child T'an-hui delighted in the thought of practicing the
[Buddhist] religion, but her parents would not permit it. …, when the foreign
master of meditation Kālayashas entered the
region … to propagate the practice of meditation and contemplation,
T'an-hui, eleven years old at the time, asked her mother to invite the master
of meditation to visit them, for she wished to consult him about methods of
meditation. Her mother agreed to do so. The moment Kālayashas saw T'an-hui
he marveled at her natural propensity and ordered her to cultivate the
practice of meditation and also requested the nun Fa-yü to keep her under supervision. T'an-hui's mother, however,
had already arranged her betrothal to the son of T'an-hui's paternal aunt.
Because the day for the marriage had been set and was not to be changed, the
nun Fa-yü took her in secret to the convent.
T'an-hui
made a solemn vow, saying, "If I cannot carry out my intentions to lead
the religious life but instead am compelled to marry, then I shall burn
myself to death." When the governor, Chen Fa-ch'ung, heard about this he
sent an envoy to summon T'an-hui. He gathered together greater and lesser
officials, as well as other prominent individuals, and then requested all the
monks and nuns to investigate the difficult problem thoroughly.
Chen
Fa-ch'ung asked, "Are you truly able to lead the life of a Buddhist nun
or not?"
T'an-hui
replied, "It has been my humble wish for a long time, and I especially beg
your help in my distress."
Chen
Fa-ch'ung said, "I approve," and he sent an envoy to consult with
her aunt, who then obeyed his instructions and released T'an-hui from her
betrothal. |
New
Testament, (Gospel
of) John 2: 1–4, Levant, ca. 90 CE
My
brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not
show favoritism. Suppose a man comes
into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in
filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the
man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there"
or "Sit on the floor by my
feet," have you not discriminated among
yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
Origen, Against
Celsus, Levant,
ca. 248 CE
Mediterranean
Basin, ca. 178 CE
We
see, indeed, in private houses [early Christian] workers in wool and leather,
and fullers, and persons of the most uninstructed and rustic [rural]
character, not venturing to utter a word in the presence of their elders and
wiser masters; but when they get hold of the children privately, and certain
women as ignorant as themselves, they pour forth wonderful statements, to the
effect that [the children and women] ought not to give heed to their father
and to their teachers, but should obey [the Christians]; ... that
[Christians] alone know how men ought to live, and that, if the children obey
them, they will both be happy themselves, and will make their home happy
also. ... that if [the women and children] wish (to avail themselves of
[Christian] aid,) they must leave their father and their instructors, and go
with the women and their playfellows to the women's apartments, or to the
leather shop, or to the fuller's shop, that they may attain to
perfection;—and by words like these they gain them over. ... those
[Christian] individuals, who in the market-places perform the most
disgraceful tricks, and who gather crowds around them, would never approach
an assembly of wise men, nor dare to exhibit their arts among them; but
wherever they see young men, and a mob of slaves, and a gathering of
unintelligent persons, thither they thrust themselves in, and show themselves
off [i.e., preach]. |
Qur'an, ("Women") Surah
4: 7, Late 7th Century-8th Century CE
Hijaz
(Arabia), 630 CE
Men
shall have a portion of what their parents and near relatives leave; and
women shall have a portion of what their parents and their near relatives
leave.
Hadith
narrated by 'Aisha,
collected 9th Century CE?
Hijaz
(Arabia), 7th Century CE
The Prophet [Muhammad] said, "He who cultivates land that does not
belong to anybody is more rightful (to own it)." 'Urwa
said, "Umar gave the same verdict in his Caliphate [Islamic
state/kingdom]."
Al-Baladhuri, Kitab
Futuh al-Buldan, Persia, Late 9th Century CE
Levant,
857 CE (243 AH)
In
[Syria], so many pieces of land [owned by Christian nobility, who persisted
and even thrived following the Muslim armies'
conquests]
were exempt from the tithe that the total income of tithes was diminished to
such an extent that it could not meet expenses. By al-Mutawakil's orders, therefore,
all these exemptions were … abolished. |
Hybridity25
Although
in every case universalist believers argued often and intensely over orthodoxy
and orthopraxy (proper beliefs and practices), the actual process of conversion
often included cultural accommodationism. In other words, dogmas previously
believed or actions previously practiced as parts of "pagan" worship,
were allowed to new converts. Historically these absorptions and mixings helped
to change Buddhist, Christian, and Muslim practices as a whole. For instance,
in Japan local deities (kami) were newly explained as manifestations of
Buddhas—or were themselves converts to Buddhism; the ritual sacrifice and
parade around Rome and its farms to appease the local harvest deity Robigus
became a processional for the Pope and cardinals; the target of Islamic prayer,
the Ka'aba,
was a pagan shrine rededicated by Muhammad. The following styles of syncretism
do not mean that universalists did not often destroy the temples of competing
religions.
Nihon
Shoji, Japan,
8th Century CE
Japan,
6th Century CE
The
emperor [Yomei] believed in the teachings of the Buddha and revered Shinto
(or kami no michi). |
Bede, The
Life and Miracles of St. Cuthbert, Northumbria (England) ca.
730 CE
Isle
of Britain, 610 CE
A
COPY OF THE LETTER WHICH POPE GREGORY SENT TO THE ABBOT MELLITUS [A missionary
to England], THEN GOING INTO BRITAIN
[U]pon
mature deliberation on the affair of the English, determined upon, viz., that
the temples of the idols in that nation
[worshipped by the "English"] ought not to be
destroyed; but let the idols that are in them be destroyed; let holy water be
made and sprinkled in the said temples, let altars be erected, and relics
placed. For if those temples are well built, it is requisite that they be
converted from the worship of devils to the service of the true God; that the
nation, seeing that their temples are not destroyed, may remove error from
their hearts, and knowing and adoring the true God, may the more familiarly
resort to the places to which they have been accustomed. And because they
have been used to slaughter many oxen in the sacrifices to devils, some
solemnity must be exchanged for them on this account, as that on the day of
the dedication, or the nativities of the holy martyrs, whose relics are there
deposited, they may build themselves huts of the boughs of trees, about those
churches which have been turned to that use from temples, and celebrate the
solemnity with religious feasting, and no more offer beasts to the Devil, but
kill cattle to the praise of God in their eating, and return thanks to the
Giver of all things for their sustenance; to the end that, whilst some
gratifications are outwardly permitted them, they may the more easily consent
to the inward consolations of the grace of God. For there is no doubt that it
is impossible to efface [remove] everything at once from their obdurate
minds; because he who endeavours to ascend to the highest place, rises by
degrees or steps, and not by leaps. Thus the Lord made Himself known to the
people of Israel in Egypt; and yet He allowed them the use of the sacrifices
which they were wont to offer to the Devil, in his own worship; so as to
command them in his sacrifice to kill beasts, to the end that, changing their
hearts, they might lay aside one part of the sacrifice, whilst they retained
another; that whilst they offered the same beasts which they were wont to
offer, they should offer them to God, and not to idols; and thus they would
no longer be the same sacrifices. … |
Amir
Khusrau, Khaza'in al-Futuh (Treasury
of Victories), South
Asia, ca. 1310
Then
they made the idol-house of Somnat prostrate itself towards the exalted Ka'ba [in Mecca]…['Ala al-Din Khalji] his
high ambition prompted him that he might build a replica of the lofty minaret
of the mosque (Qutub Minar) which is unique in the world and might impart
thereby a loftiness to the dome of the sky which could not be surpassed. He
first ordered that the courtyard of the mosque be enlarged as afar as
possible …. Wherever a tipple
had girt up its loins for the worship of an idol, the tongue of the pick-axes
with an elegant discourse dug out the foundation of unbelief from its heart,
so that the temple at once prostrated itself in gratefulness. The stone slabs
which had on them inscriptions of long standing villainy made by the teachers
of the angels…. |
Michael
McInneshin has
been teaching collegiate world history for over a decade. He may be contacted
at mcinneshin@gmail.com. |
|
Notes
1 Michael C. Weber, "Teaching Religion in the
World History Class," World History Connected 4.1 (November 2006) <http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/4.1/weber.html>.
2 L. Rambo and C.
Farhadian, "Introduction," The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion (Oxford University Press:
2014), 8.
3 Rambo and Farhadian, "Introduction," 7.
4 Jerry Bentley, Old World Encounters (Oxford
University Press: 1993), 9.
5 Marc David Baer, "History and Religious Conversion," in L. Rambo and C. Farhadian, eds., The Oxford Handbook
of Religious Conversion (Oxford University Press: 2014), 25.
6 Baer, 25.
7 Richard Bulliet, "Conversion Stories in Early Islam," in M. Gervers and J. Bikhazi, eds., Conversion and
Continuity: Indigenous Christian Communities in Islamic Lands Eight to
Eighteenth Centuries (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies: 1990),
127.
8 My thanks for this concordance to Ane Lintvedt, Chair, History Department,
President, Mid-Atlantic World History Association, McDonogh School, Owings
Mill, Maryland.
9 Document Sources: Hendrik Kern, trans., Saddharma
Pundarika or the Lotus of the True Law, Sacred Books of the East XXI
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1884), 440–41; Kathryn Tsai, Lives of Nuns (University
of Hawai'i Press: 1994), 23 <http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/saxon/servlet/SaxonServlet?source=xwomen/texts/biqiu.xml&style=xwomen/xsl/dynaxml.xsl
&chunk.id=d26&toc.depth=1&toc.id=d38&doc.lang=english>; New Testament, New
International Version, Matthew 28:18–20; St. Bede, The Ecclesiastical
History of the English Nation, trans. L.C. Jane (Cosimo: 2007 [1910]), 300; Qur'an, trans.Yusuf Ali,
Surah 16: 125–126; Farid al-Din Attar, Tadhkirat al-Auliya' (Memorial of the Saints), trans. A. J. Arberry
(Penguin: 1990), 302.
10 Document Sources: Lord Chalmers, trans., Further
Dialogues of the Buddha, vol. 1 (Oxford University Press: 1926), 165–66;
V.S. Dhammika, trans., The Edicts of King Ashoka (Buddhist Publication
Society: 1993); Old Testament, New International Version, II Chronicles
15: 1014; A. Boretius no. 26, trans. D.C. Munro, Translations and Reprints
from the Original Sources of European History vol. 6.5 (University of
Pennsylvania Department of History: 1900), 2; Qur'an, trans. Ali, Surah 9:5;
Severus ibn al-Muqaffa', History of the
Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria, trans. B.T.A. Evetts,
Patriologia Orientalis 5 (Firmin-Didot: 1910), 158–59.
11 Document Sources: J. Grayson, Myths and
Legends from Korea (Routledge: 2012), pp 189–90; Gregory of Tours, History
of the Franks, trans. Ernest Brehaut, Records of Civilization 2,
(Columbia University Press: 1916); R. Jones, "Ten Conversion Myths from Indonesia," Conversion to Islam, N. Levtzion, ed. (Holmes & Meier: 1979),
133–35.
12 Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah 2.22, trans. Franz Rosenthal, <http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ik/Muqaddimah/Chapter2/Ch_2_22.htm>.
13 Document Sources: Arthur Wright,
"Fo-t'u-teng: A Biography," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, vol.
11 (1948), 321–71; Eusebius Pamphilus, The Life of the Blessed Emperor
Constantine (Samuel Bagster and Sons: 1845), 25–29; Ahmad bin Yahya
bin Jabir al-Baladhuri, Kitab Futuh al-Buldan vol. 2, trans. F.C.
Murgotten (Longmans: 1924), 105–6.
14 Richard Fletcher, The
Barbarian Conversion (Henry Holt: 1997), 6.
15 Document Sources: Chen Shou, Sanguozhi, cited in Erik Zürcher, The Buddhist
Conquest of China (Brill: 1972 [1959]), 28; Boretius, Translations, 2; Povest' Vremennykh Let, <https://community.dur.ac.uk/a.k.harrington/christin.html>; Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah 4.6 <http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ik/Muqaddimah/Chapter4/Ch_4_06.htm>.
16 Daoshi, Fayuan
Zhulin, cited in E.Y. Wang, Shaping the Lotus Sutra (University of
Washington Press: 2005), n436.
17 Document Sources: Xuanzang, Record of
the Western Regions, trans. Samuel Beal, (Trubner
& Co.: 1884), 47–48 <https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/xuanzang.html>; Axel Moberg, trans., The Book of the Himyarites (Oxford University Press: 1924), xlix–l;
Lisan al-Din ibn al-Khatib, Medieval West Africa, eds. N. Levtzion
and J. Spaulding (Markus Wiener: 2003), 48–49; G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville, ed., The
East African Coast: select documents (Clarendon Press: 1962), 221.
18 Richard Foltz, Religions
of the Silk Road (St. Martin's: 1999), 12.
19 Document Sources: Tsai, Lives of Nuns, 38
<http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/saxon/servlet/SaxonServlet?source=xwomen/texts/biqiu.xml&style=xwomen/xsl/dynaxml
.xsl&chunk.id=d38&toc.depth=1&toc.id=d38&doc.lang=english>; The Letters of
S. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (James Parker and Co.: 1881), 5–14 <http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/ambrose_letters_01_letters01_10.htm#Letter2>; Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah 3.6 <http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ik/Muqaddimah/Chapter3/Ch_3_06.htm>.
20 Document Sources: Arthur Wright, "Fo-t'u-teng"; T. Burrow,
trans., A Translation of the Kharosthi Documents from Chinese Turkestan (The
Royal Asiatic Society: 1940) 100–1 <http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/niyadocts.html>; Bede, Ecclesiastical
History, 328; The Letters of St. Jerome <http://www.tertullian.org/fathers2/NPNF2-06/Npnf2-06-03.htm#P3201_835203>; M.N. Adler,
trans., The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela (Oxford University Press:
1907), 37–8; Richard Eaton, The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier,
1204–1760 (California University Press: 1993), 73.
21 Nathan Sivin, ed., Medicine, vol. VI.6 of Science and Civilization in China (Cambridge University
Press: 2000), 54.
22 Document Sources: Arthur Wright, "Fo-t'u-teng"; J.N. Hillgarth, ed., Christianity
and Paganism, 350–750: The Conversion of Western Europe (University of
Pennsylvania Press: 1985), 37; Levtzion and Spaulding, Medieval West Africa, 18–19.
23 Document Sources: Ainslee Embree, ed., Sources
of Indian Tradition, vol. 1 (Penguin: 1992), 139; Tsai, Lives of Nuns, 92
<http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/saxon/servlet/SaxonServlet?source=xwomen/texts/biqiu.xml&style=xwomen/xsl/dynaxml.xsl
&chunk.id=d80&toc.id=d80&doc.lang=english>; New Testament, New
International Version, James 2: 1–4; Kevin Kaatz, Voices of Early
Christianity (ABC-CLIO: 2013), 183; Kaitlyn Chick, ed., Islamic Hadith (Hamlet
Publishing: 2013); Qur'an Surah 4: 7; Baladhuri, Futuh al-Buldan, vol.
1, 265.
24 See B.G. Gokhale,
"The Early Buddhist Elite," Journal of Indian History 42.2
(1965), 391–402; M.R. Salzman, The Making of a Christian Aristocracy (Harvard
University Press: 2002); and Eaton, Rise of Islam.
25 Document Sources: K. Toshio, J.C. Dobbins,
and S. Gay, "Shinto in the History of
Japanese Religion," Journal of Japanese Studies 7.1 (1981), 4; Bede, Ecclesiastical
History; Amir Khusrau, Khaza'in al-Futuh (Treasury of Victories), M.W. Mirza, trans.
(National Committee: 1975). |
|
