Historically, the major religions of Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism began to spread across Eurasia and Africa from the 5th century through trade routes and conquest. As these ideas and practices traveled to new and distance places, local populations adapted and transformed many of them in ways that reflected traditional beliefs and customs, also known as syncretism. The rise of rulers, such as Sundiata in Mali helps illustrate this process of partial adaptation, or syncretism, in order to get a boost of support from the subjects of the kingdom. The actions concerning syncretism, can be explanation of the rise of kings such as Sundiata. These examples can be seen through the texts “Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali”, “Worlds together, Worlds Apart”, and “Account of a Journey to the West”. As the world of trade developed over time, goods were not the only things that were traded throughout these routes. With the merchants that traveled the world, were the ideals and religions that had learned from foreign lands, and the major religions of Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, spread like wildfire throughout the regions of Eurasia and Africa because of this. The spread of Islam throughout the continent of Africa acted as a major influence both politically and socially. After 1600, Islam began to make its mark on the newly centralized states in Africa and was spread through western land trade, and through merchants on the Swahili coast. The major gold trading center of the Kingdom of Ghana, attracted merchants, and was a center for the Muslim community . By the 10th century, the kings of Ghana had converted to Islam in order to improve the relation between the kings and merchants. The early converts of Central and West Africa did not e... ... middle of paper ... ...While the society practices Islam, it maintains a polytheistic understanding of the world. Jinns, or spirits, and multiple gods are constantly brought up. Great sorcerers, such as Sogolon and Soumaoro, are in touch with these spirits, and y Sundiata succeeds because he learns to respect them. Sundiata is somewhat bigheaded when it comes to the battlefield, it is somewhat understandable because of his strength and bravery in battle, but when he is unable to hurt Soumaoro, he doubts his own strength. He believes that bowing to the religious and magical powers, will help him, and allow him to defeat the Soumaoro. Religion, magic, and nature are part of the same land in the epic, since they are all part of the Mandingo way of life. In the beginning of the story, the griot tells of "secrets" of Mali not available to all men, the secrets of magic are possibly among those.
In the great empires of Africa they developed many things. In the Axum (Aksum) Empire (Ethiopia, in present time) they developed a trade route that stretched of Asia to Africa and back. Document one, states that people in the trade route traveled along the Red Sea. This affected the Axum Empire in many ways. They (Axum people) had gained wealth because it was a great trade point and from it, it was introduced to religions, Christianity and Islam. Another empire is called the Kingdom of Ghana in Western Africa. They became one of the richest civilizations due to commerce. In document two, it states that the amount of wealth was visible because of what the pages were wearing. They had on gold. Even the dogs guarding had on silver and gold.
Islam is presented in the Epic of Sundiata in a way that encourages listeners to embrace Islam over their indigenous belief systems. The epic accomplishes this by incorporating elements and practices of the indigenous beliefs into Islamic tradition; and by adapting certain Islamic mythology — such as the Jinn — to the existing West African culture. It also asserts the superior power and strength of those who derive their power from Allah and the Jinn, to those whose power is based in ancestral worship and fetishes. Through conflict, adaptation, and tolerance, the Epic of Sundiata presents an accessible version of Islam to the people of the Mali Empire; and promotes the acceptance of this new faith over the indigenous beliefs of the area.
Moroccan traveler, Ibn Battuta, is well-known for being one of the greatest travelers of his time. Battuta’s descriptive account of his travels to East and West Africa in the fourteenth century provides important insight into African Islamic life at that point in time. Although Battuta and the peoples in black Africa shared the same religion, he comes to realize that sharing a religion is not enough to completely relate to a different group of people. The story of Ibn Battuta in Black Africa illustrates the difficulties he faced in relating to these peoples due to the non-traditional role of women, different religious customs, and frequent misinterpretation of situations.
He decided to improve the status of his land on his arrival from a pilgrimage from Mecca in 1324. Furthermore, he transformed his trading city of Timbuktu to a center of learning and religion and built a mass, which set a new style of architecture in West Africa. “Caravans of Gold” underlines the importance of Timbuktu because it concentrated on African scholarship, politics, teaching theology, and Islamic law. Timbuktu was a significant place in Africa during this time because it became a market right after and made a profit for the region. Likewise, it was a religious, cultural, and profitable center whose people traveled north across the Sahara through Morocco and Algeria to other parts of Africa, Europe, and Asia. According to The History of Africa, “Because of his devotion to Islam, Mansa Musa strengthened Islam and promoted education, trade, and commerce in Mali” (Asante, 2014, pg. 135). It was a successful center for the trans-Saharan gold and salt trade and grew as the center of Islam. This statement launches the truth that Timbuktu supported Islamic values and knowledge because it was a city most well-known for the education of important scholars whose backgrounds were of Islam. Asante supports the fact that Mansa Musa was effective in reforming the city of Timbuktu and the trade in that area. Asante also states that “Musa did not forget the control of the gold and salt; it was fundamental for the
The spread of Islam took place all around Segu before actually getting to it. This period becomes one of constant debate between Muslims, Christians, and other people wanting to keep their already established sacred religions. The Islam religion is very different than that of the one previously practiced in Segu. If the people in Segu were forced to change their religion, they would be forced to change all of their customs and beliefs. However, if they did not follow, they could possibly lose their lives. It was truly a lose-lose situation for many people. A leader of the Islamic religion during that time was Usman dan Fodio. He was successful in getting rid of the corruptness of the Islamic religion and instituting a purified religion and political system. Another Islamic leader was Tiekoro. He relinquished his people’s religion and embraced the Islamic one. For that reason, he tore apart Segu and many families as well. He was one of the main causes for the tension about religion conversion and actually challenged the original religion. On the other hand, Tiekoro has a brother named Siga. He is polar opposite and will not give up his original religion that he has been brought up with. He defends his primar...
Between 200 B.C.E and 800 C.E., there was a large development and spread of Universal Religions. The definition of a universal religion is a religion that has these characteristics: believes in one God, promises a type of salvation or after life, and a religion that is open to all people no matter what social class, race, or gender. Two of the large universal religions, Christianity and Buddhism were spread because of Syncretism. Syncretism is the adaptation to a religion by the religious leaders so that their beliefs are close to those of the local population. Although Syncretism is arguably the most important factor for the spread of these universal religions, there were other key reasons as to why these religions spread.
By following and analyzing some of the key moments of faith in his life, this paper seeks to expose the extent to which the series of controversial dialectical incidents that happened throughout his early life, i.e., his cultural African religious traditions (thesis), and Christianity as taught by his slave masters (antithesis), had a direct influence in developing his own understanding of religion (synthesis). Furthermore, this paper will demonstrate that Olaudah Equiano's decision was based on the impact of both the influences of culture and slavery, and a personal experience based on his perspective of divine intervention. To begin, most Africans have come from societies with traditional African religious backgrounds unrelated to Islam or Christianity. As a whole, African religious traditions combine belief in a Supreme Being with the worship of other gods and ancestors and use ritual and magic to mediate between human beings, nature, and the gods. In many African languages, there is no word for God, because in their tradition, everything and place embodies God.
In this paper I will explain how religion went hand in hand with the political hierarchy of the Songhai and Aztec Empires. The Songhai and Aztecs were empires that both ruled from the 15th to 16th century. The Songhai Empire was known for being one of the richest centers of trade in West Africa, while the Aztecs were a dominant ruling force in Southern Mexico. Their success can be attributed to dominant military power, advanced technology, but most importantly a unifying religion. Whether it be Islam or a polytheistic faith, religion found its way into the governments of these powerful empires. Religion was not only present in the political hierarchy of these empires, but also a key force in unifying them.
Sundiata developed into a great leader of Mali through hardships, religion, and core/tributary/periphery relationships of states. The djeli who transmitted this information to the translators, is also a manifestation of an institution important in Sundiata’s epic, because without djelis these stories would be lost forever. Sundiata learned about the formation, running and maintenance of African states through interactions with the communities he was introduced to.
If there is one aspect of society that has endured the ages and is an integral part of society today is religion. There are currently about 7 billion people on earth and of those 7 billion more than half adhere to some form of organized religion. The world’s top religion with about 33% of the population or 2.1 billion followers is Christianity, followed by Islam and Hinduism with 1.3 billion and 851 million adherents respectively. These are just a few of the most well-known religions in the world but; what of the religions obscured in mystery and left in the background? The religions you don’t hear much about in your classrooms or in the media. What is their history? What are their beliefs? I hope to shed some light on these questions and bring to light some of the less popular religions in the world. I will be covering several different religions in this paper, Sikhism, Jainism, Confucianism, and Shinto
The Kingdom of Mali was an African hub of wealth, trade and education for over 225 years. Mali is an Arab version of the Mandinka word that means, “Where the king dwells”, and was vitally important in spreading trade, education, religion and culture along the Niger River. The rise of Mali into an Empire occurred in the early 13th century, when Sundiata defeated his enemies and won control of the West African gold mines. In 1312 Mansa Musa became ruler of Mali. During his reign which was known as Mali’s, “Golden Age”, he introduced Islamic beliefs to many communities along the Niger and enhanced education after his historic pilgrimage to Mecca. Mali’s rise was attributed to the Trans-Saharan Trade routes leading to and from Western and Eastern Africa. These trade routes contributed to the rise and fall of powerful African Kingdoms for hundreds of years, but for 250 years, Mali was the crown jewel of Africa.
There are many different characteristics that bring territories together and make them stronger. One of these is religion. Religion is the organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods. In these religions, there is usually a leader to guide the people in their belief and show them the right path to take to serve their god. Throughout history there have been many different types of religion. The three main ones that are still recognized today are Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. Each had different people that were seen as a leader. In order for others to know about these leaders and the works they did, there were many stories that were written about them. These stories were created to spread knowledge of their religion and how one was to act when following it. Three documents of the 300 B.C.E-800 B.C.E time period that were about religious leaders are Asokavadana, Life of Constantine, and The Life of Muhammad, Apostle of Allah and were written with persuasive purposes to show which behaviors were approved and disapproved of by looking into inspired men’s lives.
The spread of Islam in Africa had taken course from a number of factors, including external and internal forces. After my analyzing of the spread of Islam in Africa, I have gather three main themes that stuck out during the expansion of Islam: Islam and trade, the conversion conditions of Islam, and the economics/political development involving Islam. These three themes provide great insight on how Islam started to spread through out Africa. Through trade the culture and religion of Islam was spread to many different areas. This correlates to the conversion of different people, which helped spread Islam. By these conversions Islam was able to establish Islamic states, which played a factor in the development of strong economic and political
The relationship between religious ritual and social power as it is discussed in this paper is a very intermixed and connected relation. In many instances the separation of actions and ceremonies into strictly the social or religious realm is impossible and the gains from participating in these rituals serve the group as well as the individual. Though social power is not the same as religious ritual they often go hand in hand and in partaking in rituals in the aim achieving a religious end one also affects their political and social standing simultaneously. It is also impossible to ignore the greater function of religious ritual argued within the texts examined.
While is a common conception that pre-modern societies are primitive compared to their modern counterpart, this is not often the case, theses societies have complex systems within their society especially within their spirituality and religion. It is this complexity that has allowed aspects of pre-modern societies to evolve and adapt into modern societies. Myths, rituals and sorcery have been terms to describe the activities of pre-modern societies, but these activities have also been found to exist within modern society as well. This essay will further discuss the connections between pre-modern and modern societies that has allowed for myths, rituals and sorcery to exist in the modern societies.