Conversion in Islam: From the Time of the Prophet Muhammad to the Era of Classical Islam, To the Modern Era
By
William A. Walsh, New Age Islam
1 June 2022
Socially
Islam Provides an Escape from Much of the Western World, and Yet Offers
Stability despite the Changes
Main
Points:
1. In the
post-colonial states in Asia and Africa, establishment of social institutions
by Muslims have led to an increasing turn to Islam.
2. Islamic
conversion has a long and successful history, becoming one of the largest
religions in the world.
3. Conversion through
the cultural influence has found a place in the post-colonial world,
particularly in Asia and Africa.
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Introduction
Conversion
is a foundational aspect of religion, voluntary or by coercion it exists
throughout history. Despite the prevalence and importance of conversion
especially historically, understanding of why people convert can be flawed as
described by Lewis R Rambo when he states “Theories of conversion often tell us
more about the one making the attribution than the person or group that has
converted”.
In this
piece I am going to examine Conversion in Islam, and how it has evolved from
the time of The Prophet Muhammad to the era of Classical Islam, to the modern
era. Conversion in this piece will be taken to mean adopting of the religion of
Islam and joining of Muslim communities in a social, cultural or political
sense. Conversion will be split into three main areas and subsequent periods in
this piece: the initial conquests during the first 150 years of Islamic
civilisation (610-750), the classical period of Islam (750-1800+), and in
modern post-colonial times (1950+).
The areas
of focus for each period will be different, the first period will be focused on
the spread of Islam and the subsequent conversion in the following centuries in
those initial regions. The focus in the second period will be focused on how
the conversion spread in the newly conquered territories of the Ottoman in
contrast to the earlier conversions. The focus in the modern sense will be
focused on conversions in western societies and the understanding of what is
drawing people to convert to Islam.
Understanding
why these people converted is an area of contention among researchers and
scholars, Lewis R. Rambo mentions in his article Theories of Conversion: Understanding
and Interpreting Religious Change. Rambo in his article brings up
several major theories of conversion from different schools of thought.
Although his article is focused on discussing theories in relation to Islamic
conversion, his analysis of theories is useful in outlining the multitude of
different reasons of conversion, both in history and contemporary times.
Early
Islam
The early
Islamic Empires may have spread across the Middle East and North Africa very
quickly, however it took centuries for Islam to become the dominant religion. Bulliet
in his book Conversion to Islam in the Medieval
Period develops an S-curve of five segments for measuring conversion in Persia.
The S-curve is used further by Bulliet to compare the popularity of Muslim
names in Persia, which he then uses in several other regions to estimate the
progress in the S-curve of different regions.
Bulliets
analysis estimates that it took roughly 100 years from conquest in Iran to
progress to Muslims being 50% of the population, and it takes another 100 years
more to reach 80% of the population. The other regions that Bulliet
analyalised, which had previously had Christianity as the majority religion “Converted at
approximately the same rate, taking into account the later date of conquest of
Tunisia and Spain”. These indications of conversion of early Islam wasn’t of any mass
conversions, rather being growing naturally as it becomes more normalised and
popular in each region.
The
understanding of conversion in this time is limited by the data that scholars
have been able to gather, as Islamic chroniclers saw conversion as a personal
non-political issue of faith. Alwyn Harrison in his article Behind the Curve: Bulliet and
Conversion to Islam in al-Andalus Revisited readresses the theories put forth by Bulliet.
Harrison covers critiques of Bulliets study, arguing that many of the critiques
of Bulliets work have misunderstood it, “For 30 years, scholars have been
mistaken in citing Bulliet’s conversion curve as proof”. The arguing of
Harrison is that Bulliets work only was an estimate of the percentage of total
converts over time, rather than being of the percentage of population.
During this
period the rapid, but not instant conversion is an indication that the spread
of Islam during this time was broadly political and socially. Political by the
change in leadership and the upsetting of local institutions, which were an
extensive system in the Byzantine land of the
initial conquests. Socially the conquests led to an Arab/Muslim domination
which led to converts in the elites of the new territory, in order to maintain
their status. This is an inherently elitist viewing of events, however the
cultural paradigm would shift over time to accompany the rise of Islamic
culture which would lead to more widespread conversion.
Classical
Islam
Anton
Minkov in his book Conversion to Islam in the Balkans builds upon and refers to the ideas of Bulliet in his attempts to
analysis the conversion in Asia Minor after the battle of Manzikert in 1071.
Minkov points out how the conversion in Asia Minor also only took the roughly
four centuries that earlier regions did according to Bulliet’s study. Taking
into account the work of Speros Vyronis in The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in
Asia Minor and the Process of Islamisation from the Eleventh through the
Fifteenth Century (of which I cannot find any English translations to verify)
Minkov claims that the Islamisation of Asia Minor was only in a small part to
do with conversion. Noting that the population of the region fell from roughly
eight million to five million in the four centuries of conversion, during which
time significant numbers of people from the Turkic tribes settled in the
region. Following in the regards to the issues that have been mentioned prior,
measuring conversion in Islam has some contention from limited information on
the topic.
The
expansionism of the Islamic empires in this period reached it zenith under the
Ottoman Empire, but has subsequently been on a decline ever since. The Ottoman Empire
with the taking of the Balkan peninsula of Europe can be considered the last
time of significant expansion through force. Despite forced conversion being
forbidden in Islam “There is no compulsion in religion” as laid out in verse 256 of chapter two, the
Islamic empires incentivised conversion, both intentionally and not.
Intentionally promoting conversion happened primarily through discriminating
against non-Muslims with taxes such as the poll tax as well as the weakening of
non-Muslim social structures and support networks. Unintentional promotion of
conversion happened through the social stigmatisation, Muslim hostility, unfair
treatment from the Muslim elites and legal systems. Understanding the impact of
any of these factors will remain speculative, but it’s clear that for whatever
reason most of the local communities did convert over the course of four
centuries.
Forced
conversions also were implemented on a large scale during this time, the
primary example being the Devshirme system. In which the Ottoman sultans would
forcibly recruit the children of Christian families to the army, in which they
were castrated and forced to convert to Islam. Other forced conversions are
less clear, such as in the case of slavery; where practices of a pious Muslim would be to free slaves upon their conversion
to Islam. Which isn’t exactly forced conversion, but is clearly not an example
of voluntary conversion.
During this
time political conversion became increasingly sparing, as the conquests of new
land became smaller and less secure, meaning that non-Muslim political leaders
were less likely to acquiesce for personal gain. The rise of the Islamic
civilisation during this time led to increasing cultural influence, particularly
for the borders of the empires. The Turkic people converted during this time,
and their increasing domination of Asia Minor and creation of a new Islamic
culture and empire led to the longest lasting Islamic empire. Socially and
culturally Islamic culture and society spread into Europe during this time,
leading to increased trade and cooperation in this period.
Contemporary
Islam
In the post-colonial
era of Islam, spread of the religion has been minor compared to the
expansionist times of the Islamic empires. Instead conversion has been
localised, and been primarily in the western countries or ex colonial states.
Monkia Wohlrab-Sahr in her article Conversion to Islam: Between Syncretism and Symbolic
Battle argues that “So the topic ‘‘Conversion to Islam’’ is not only about
Islam, but also—and perhaps primarily—about the circumstances under which
conversion takes place.” To argue her point, Wohlrab-Sahr makes a case about
how conversion to a foreign religion (different to the normative) is a result
of the convert’s social context deteriorating.
Wohlrab-Sahr in her study finds that women who have had “former personal
and social connections have become unstable” have found a new point of stability
with their Muslim partners.
Talking
about a convert’s daughter who converted subsequently who was present during
one of the interviews, the conversion led to a religious redefinition of her
previous life. The daughter describes how “break with everything that used to
be normal in the past” the article shows how she has become isolated from her
previous social groups as a result of the conversion, and how the framing of
returning to those groups is antagonistic to her newfound faith.
David E.
Skinner in his article Conversion to Islam and the Promotion of 'Modern'
Schools in Ghana
covers the other aspect
of modern conversions, that of the educational kind. Originating in colonial
times, the English/Arabic schools mentioned were created to stop the conversion
of Muslim children to the Christianity of the missionary schools, as well as to
prepare them for future competition in professions. These schools were
influenced by the idea of the teachers that had “intended the schools to become
centres for missionary outreach among the local populations.” As such the schools were seen as a way to
convert the population by the Muslim teachers, of which seems to have been
effective in regards to the successive sustained growth that English/Arabic
schools in Ghana have experienced over the past century. By acting to
counteract the spread of Christianity, these schools allowed the Muslim
population to sustain and grow. The scale of conversion either implicitly by
preventing potential conversions out of Islam, or by converting youth has led
to a successful practice for Islamic conversion. This educational history has
provided a foundation for the modern system of English/Arabic schools and their
method of conversion and learning, which have been integrated into the school
system of Ghana.
Modern
converts are not the result of political force or opportunities as in times
bygone, instead in western societies the social institutions of Islamic society
has found a place which attracts converts. In other places conversion through
the cultural influence has found a place in the post-colonial world, particularly
in Asia and Africa. Politically motivated conversion has largely been related
to history, political Islam has instead become focused on radicalisation.
Conclusion
Islamic
conversion has a long and successful history, becoming one of the largest religions
in the world. Politically, Islamic empires had a long history of strength which
allowed it to dominate vast lands and power, peaking during the first few
centuries when the lands were unified by singular entities which led to the
conversion of the elites. Culturally Islam grew to be a massive influence which
through the empires and trade, converts to Islam in this time grew increasingly
due to the influence and prestige that was associated with the empires. The
social reasons for conversion in historical times are less explicitly
straightforward as the other two reasons are, however in the modern world
Islamic conversion has spread outside of the borders of the Islamic countries.
Socially Islam provides an escape from much of the western world, and yet
offers stability despite the changes. In the post-colonial states in Asia and
Africa, establishment of social institutions by Muslims have led to an
increasing turn to Islam. Islamic
conversion has evolved throughout the ages to find its place in societies and
for people to turn to, as a way to integrate into new groups or to better fit
into a society in which they have found themselves in.
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William Walsh is an International Relations
student aspiring to work in the IR field. He is passionate about understanding
and fostering communication between different cultural/religious understandings
and historical backgrounds.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-ideology/conversion-prophet-muhammad-classical-modern/d/127147
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