Slaves On Horses: The Islamic Culture

The ‘Islamic’ culture started with a man in Mecca, Muhammad. who had a revelation and he set out to change the world in the way that was shown to him. He died after having established a polity based on his vision in Medina and soon it assumed proportions that stretched far beyond. He now contested not only with the Quraysh in Mecca but the Byzantines and Sassanians as well. The leaders of the Muslim community, the caliphs after his death continued the conquests and established a vast Islamic empire over subsequent centuries. However the Islam of Muhammad’s time apparently changed over the years and the Islamic culture is so very diverse that the idea of Islam as a whole seems like an illusion. Patricia Crone in her Slaves on Horses points out that under internal tensions and external attacks when the existing doctrines could no longer deal with the circumstances, the caliphs imposed new doctrines on the muslim community which were subsequently criticised …show more content…
The past was consequently shredded into pieces , losing their relevance and being forgotten under new material.
Marshall Hodgson in his Venture of Islam has argued that Islam can be looked upon as a ‘meaningful whole’ based on its capacity as a cultural tradition. Centered around the doctrine of submission to God, are diverse cultural practices. Islam appears to be a web of various cultural traditions and patterns of life which are tied together by a sort of cultural unity. Every aspect of a Muslim’s life is derived from Islam, from the laws he has to obey to the local customs he observes. The propagators of Islam aimed to maintain the unity of the Muslim community . This effort shows in the financial and administrative organisation of Umar, and Muawaiyah, The changes that the tradition went through was actually a process by which it integrated itself in the lives of the Muslim converts in particular regions and periods.The dialogue and the debates were necessary for