Islam Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Pre-Modern era (1258–18th century) === {{Further|Safavid conversion of Iran to Shia Islam}} [[File:GhazanConversionToIslam.JPG|thumb|right|[[Ghazan Khan]], 7{{sup|th}} [[Ilkhanate]] ruler of the [[Mongol Empire]], converts to Islam. 14th-century depiction]] Through Muslim trade networks and the activity of Sufi orders,{{sfnp|Arnold|1896|pp=125–258}} Islam spread into new areas<ref>{{cite web |title=The Spread of Islam |url=http://www.yale.edu/yup/pdf/cim6.pdf |access-date=2 November 2013 |archive-date=3 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131103220022/http://www.yale.edu/yup/pdf/cim6.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> and Muslims assimilated into new cultures. Under the [[Ottoman Empire]], Islam spread to [[Southeast Europe]].<ref>{{cite web |date=6 May 2008 |title=Ottoman Empire |publisher=Oxford Islamic Studies Online |url=http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e1801?_hi=41&_pos=3 |access-date=26 August 2010 |archive-date=10 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220610093907/http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e1801?_hi=41 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Conversion to Islam often involved a degree of [[syncretism]],<ref>{{Cite book |title=Islamic and European Expansion |publisher=[[Temple University Press]] |year=1993 |editor-last=Adas |editor-first=Michael |location=Philadelphia |page=25}}</ref> as illustrated by Muhammad's appearance in [[Hinduism|Hindu]] folklore.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Metcalf |first=Barbara |title=Islam in South Asia in Practice |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |year=2009 |page=104}}</ref> Muslim Turks incorporated elements of [[Tengrism|Turkish Shamanism beliefs]] to Islam.{{efn|"In recent years, the idea of syncretism has been challenged. Given the lack of authority to define or enforce an Orthodox doctrine about Islam, some scholars argue there had no prescribed beliefs, only prescribed practise, in Islam before the 16th century.{{sfnp|Peacock|2019|p=20–22}}}}{{sfnp|Çakmak|2017|pp=1425–1429}} [[Islam during the Ming dynasty|Muslims in Ming Dynasty China]] who were descended from earlier immigrants were assimilated, sometimes through laws mandating assimilation,<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Farmer|editor1-first=Edward L.|title=Zhu Yuanzhang and Early Ming Legislation: The Reordering of Chinese Society Following the Era of Mongol Rule|date=1995|publisher=BRILL|isbn=9004103910|page=82|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TCIjZ7l6TX8C&pg=PA82|access-date=19 February 2023|archive-date=28 December 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231228024330/https://books.google.com/books?id=TCIjZ7l6TX8C&pg=PA82#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> by adopting Chinese names and [[Chinese culture|culture]] while [[Nanjing]] became an important center of Islamic study.<ref>Israeli, Raphael (2002). ''Islam in China''. p. 292. [[Lexington Books]]. {{ISBN|0-7391-0375-X}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Dillon |first=Michael |year=1999 |title=China's Muslim Hui Community |publisher=Curzon |url=https://archive.org/details/chinasmuslimhuic00dill |isbn=978-0-7007-1026-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/chinasmuslimhuic00dill/page/n62 37] |url-access=registration}}</ref> Cultural shifts were evident with the decrease in Arab influence after the [[Mongol invasions and conquests|Mongol destruction]] of the Abbasid Caliphate.<ref>{{harvp|Bulliet|2005|p=497}}</ref> The Muslim Mongol Khanates in [[Ilkhanate|Iran]] and [[Chagatai Khanate|Central Asia]] benefited from increased cross-cultural access to East Asia under [[Pax Mongolica|Mongol rule]] and thus flourished and developed more distinctively from Arab influence, such as the [[Timurid Renaissance]] under the [[Timurid dynasty]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Subtelny |first=Maria Eva |date=November 1988 |title=Socioeconomic Bases of Cultural Patronage under the Later Timurids |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-middle-east-studies/article/socioeconomic-bases-of-cultural-patronage-under-the-later-timurids/2A0F3018EE155F23FC4A7F5F25D7DE6D |journal=[[International Journal of Middle East Studies]] |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=479–505 |doi=10.1017/S0020743800053861 |s2cid=162411014 |access-date=7 November 2016 |archive-date=13 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200813204329/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journal-of-middle-east-studies/article/socioeconomic-bases-of-cultural-patronage-under-the-later-timurids/2A0F3018EE155F23FC4A7F5F25D7DE6D |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Nasir al-Din al-Tusi]] (1201–1274) proposed the [[Tusi couple|mathematical model]] that was later argued to be adopted by [[Copernicus]] unrevised in his [[heliocentrism|heliocentric]] model,<ref>{{cite web|date=1999|title=Nasir al-Din al-Tusi|publisher=University of St Andrews|url=https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Al-Tusi_Nasir/|access-date=27 August 2023|archive-date=6 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181006055638/http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Al-Tusi_Nasir.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and [[Jamshīd al-Kāshī]]'s estimate of [[pi]] would not be surpassed for 180 years.<ref>{{cite web |date=1999 |title=Ghiyath al-Din Jamshid Mas'ud al-Kashi |publisher=University of St Andrews |url=https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Al-Kashi/ |access-date=29 December 2021 |archive-date=4 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220104103227/https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Al-Kashi/ |url-status=live }}</ref> After the introduction of gunpowder weapons, large and centralized Muslim states consolidated around [[gunpowder empires]], these had been previously splintered amongst various territories. The [[Ottoman Caliphate|caliphate]] was claimed by the [[Ottoman dynasty]] of the Ottoman Empire and its claims were strengthened in 1517 as [[Selim I]] became the [[Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques|ruler of Mecca and Medina]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Drews |first=Robert |url=https://my.vanderbilt.edu/robertdrews/publications/ |title=Coursebook: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, to the Beginnings of Modern Civilization |date=August 2011 |publisher=[[Vanderbilt University]] |chapter=Chapter Thirty – "The Ottoman Empire, Judaism, and Eastern Europe to 1648" |chapter-url=https://my.vanderbilt.edu/robertdrews/files/2014/01/Chapter-Thirty.-The-Ottoman-Empire-Judaism-and-Eastern-Europe-to-1648.pdf |access-date=21 April 2020 |archive-date=26 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221226173808/https://my.vanderbilt.edu/robertdrews/publications/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The Shia [[Safavid dynasty]] rose to power in 1501 and later conquered all of Iran.<ref>Peter B. Golden: An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples; In: Osman Karatay, Ankara 2002, p. 321</ref> In South Asia, [[Babur]] founded the [[Mughal Empire]].<ref>{{citation|last=Gilbert|first=Marc Jason|title=South Asia in World History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1dhKDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA75|year=2017|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-066137-3|pages=75|access-date=15 January 2023|archive-date=22 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922031915/https://books.google.com/books?id=1dhKDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA75|url-status=live}}</ref> The religion of the centralized states of the gunpowder empires influenced the religious practice of their constituent populations. A [[symbiosis]] between [[list of sultans of the Ottoman Empire|Ottoman rulers]] and Sufism strongly influenced Islamic reign by the Ottomans from the beginning. The [[Mevlevi Order]] and [[Bektashi Order]] had a close relation to the sultans,<ref>Ga ́bor A ́goston, Bruce Alan Masters ''Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire'' [[Infobase Publishing]] 2010 {{ISBN|978-1-4381-1025-7}} p. 540</ref> as Sufi-mystical as well as [[heterodox]] and [[syncretic]] approaches to Islam flourished.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Algar |first=Ayla Esen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fc69BhBDjhwC&q=ottomans+sufism |title=The Dervish Lodge: Architecture, Art, and Sufism in Ottoman Turkey |page=15 |date=1 January 1992 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0-520-07060-8 |access-date=29 April 2020 |via=Google Books |archive-date=28 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231228024414/https://books.google.com/books?id=fc69BhBDjhwC&q=ottomans+sufism#v=snippet&q=ottomans%20sufism&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> The often forceful [[Safavid conversion of Iran to Shia Islam|Safavid conversion of Iran]] to the Twelver Shia Islam of the Safavid Empire ensured the final dominance of the [[Twelver|Twelver sect]] within Shia Islam. Persian migrants to South Asia, as influential bureaucrats and landholders, help spread Shia Islam, forming some of the largest Shia populations outside Iran.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/conversion-iii|title=CONVERSION To Imami Shiʿism in India|publisher=Iranica Online|language=English|access-date=6 October 2022|archive-date=7 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221007024220/https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/conversion-iii|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Nader Shah]], who overthrew the Safavids, attempted to improve relations with Sunnis by propagating the integration of Twelverism into Sunni Islam as a fifth ''madhhab'', called Ja'farism,<ref>{{cite journal |title=Nadir Shah and the Ja 'fari Madhhab Reconsidered |first=Ernest |last=Tucker |journal=Iranian Studies |volume=27 |issue=1–4 |date=1994 |pages=163–179 |doi=10.1080/00210869408701825 |jstor=4310891}}</ref> which failed to gain recognition from the Ottomans.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Nāder Shāh |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/nader-shah |date=29 March 2006 |first=Ernest |last=Tucker |access-date=9 March 2021 |archive-date=25 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225103212/http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/nader-shah%20 |url-status=live }}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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