Saudi Arabia is considered the birthplace of Islam. It was revealed to the Arab people by trhe Prophet Mohammed who succeeded in converting them to this new faith and abandoning their pagan practices. But Islam was not only a mere religion, it is a way of life as Mohammed laid down guidelines on how the faithful must live their lives in order to be considered true believers.
Following Mohammeds death, his sucessors (caliphs) had carried on his mission of spreading Islam to the world. From the Arabian Penunsula, the caliphs launched wave upon wave of invasions of its neighboring regions and beyond, rigorously implanting Islam in these lands, by force whenever it was necessary. There were others that did not need aggression. They traveled across the seas as missionaries and were able to spread Islam in much more distant shores outside the Middle East. By the 15th century, Islam had spread as far as Spain in the west (Europe), parts of North Africa, including the Sub-Saharan regions to parts of South Asia and Indonesia in Southeast Asia which remains the most populous Muslim country in the world. Naturally, along with the spread of Islam, the Arabs had managed to import some of its culture and heritage to these lands (Berkey, 2003).
The most obvious of them all is the Arabic language which became the official language of the Muslim world, particularly their form of writing which is very apparent in the Quran. This is why to this day Islamic scholars also have to study Arabic to study the Quran and other teachings of the Prophet even though it Quran is translated into the vernacular. Muslims outside the Arab world would even adopt Arab-sounding names such as Abdul, Omar, or Faisal. Islam would also see to it that Arab influence remains as it teaches the faithful to pray five times a day facing Mecca (salat) and take part in a pilgrimage to Mecca (haj) at least once in their lifetime.
But this was the extent of Arab influence to other Muslim states outside the Arab Peninsula. Like other conquerors before them such as the Persians, Greeks and Romans and even the Mongols who followed after them, the Arab conquerors fell victim to a phenomenon sociologists would call acculturation or (social) assimilation. As they established autonomous kingdoms or governments in the occupied regions, they have also adapted the cultures of the lands they conquered despite converting majority of its people to Islam. This is very evident in some Muslim countries such as Iran where majority of its people speak Persian (Farsi), Urdu in Pakistan and in some parts of Afghanistan and even Bahasa in Indonesian for that matter although they continue to write in Arabic text which they adopted into their own language (DeWeese, 1994). Furthermore, these new Muslims belong to a different racial stock and could not consider themselves Arabs in addition to the fact that some of these lands have different climates and geographic features that is very different from the desert environment of the Middle East which made it impossible for Arab culture to penetrate even deeper to change the local culture which was deeply rooted in these regions. What happened then was Islam became assimilated to the culture (Lapidus, 2002).
Because of their assimilation of the local cultures, these lands could not be unified into a single Islamic empire or nation especially since Arabic is a foreign culture that could not take root in these regions. It can be inferred that the influence of Arab culture was limited.
Following Mohammeds death, his sucessors (caliphs) had carried on his mission of spreading Islam to the world. From the Arabian Penunsula, the caliphs launched wave upon wave of invasions of its neighboring regions and beyond, rigorously implanting Islam in these lands, by force whenever it was necessary. There were others that did not need aggression. They traveled across the seas as missionaries and were able to spread Islam in much more distant shores outside the Middle East. By the 15th century, Islam had spread as far as Spain in the west (Europe), parts of North Africa, including the Sub-Saharan regions to parts of South Asia and Indonesia in Southeast Asia which remains the most populous Muslim country in the world. Naturally, along with the spread of Islam, the Arabs had managed to import some of its culture and heritage to these lands (Berkey, 2003).
The most obvious of them all is the Arabic language which became the official language of the Muslim world, particularly their form of writing which is very apparent in the Quran. This is why to this day Islamic scholars also have to study Arabic to study the Quran and other teachings of the Prophet even though it Quran is translated into the vernacular. Muslims outside the Arab world would even adopt Arab-sounding names such as Abdul, Omar, or Faisal. Islam would also see to it that Arab influence remains as it teaches the faithful to pray five times a day facing Mecca (salat) and take part in a pilgrimage to Mecca (haj) at least once in their lifetime.
But this was the extent of Arab influence to other Muslim states outside the Arab Peninsula. Like other conquerors before them such as the Persians, Greeks and Romans and even the Mongols who followed after them, the Arab conquerors fell victim to a phenomenon sociologists would call acculturation or (social) assimilation. As they established autonomous kingdoms or governments in the occupied regions, they have also adapted the cultures of the lands they conquered despite converting majority of its people to Islam. This is very evident in some Muslim countries such as Iran where majority of its people speak Persian (Farsi), Urdu in Pakistan and in some parts of Afghanistan and even Bahasa in Indonesian for that matter although they continue to write in Arabic text which they adopted into their own language (DeWeese, 1994). Furthermore, these new Muslims belong to a different racial stock and could not consider themselves Arabs in addition to the fact that some of these lands have different climates and geographic features that is very different from the desert environment of the Middle East which made it impossible for Arab culture to penetrate even deeper to change the local culture which was deeply rooted in these regions. What happened then was Islam became assimilated to the culture (Lapidus, 2002).
Because of their assimilation of the local cultures, these lands could not be unified into a single Islamic empire or nation especially since Arabic is a foreign culture that could not take root in these regions. It can be inferred that the influence of Arab culture was limited.
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