Includes bibliographical references and index.

"The spread of Islam and the process of Islamisation (meaning both conversion to Islam and the adoption of Muslim culture) is explored in the 25 chapters of this volume. Taking a comparative perspective, both the historical trajectory of Islamisation and the methodological problems in its study are addressed, with coverage moving from Africa to China and from the 7th century to the start of the colonial period in 1800. The volume is divided into five sections on (i) theoretical approaches to Islamisation, (ii) the Arab lands and Africa, (iii) Andalus, Anatolia and the Balkans, (iv) Iran, Central Asia and India and (v) Southeast Asia and East Asia. It addresses key questions including what is meant by Islamisation? To what extent was the spread of Islam as a religion bound up with the spread of Muslim culture? To what extent are Islamisation and conversion parallel processes? How is Islamisation connected to Arabisation? What role do vernacular Muslim languages play in the promotion of Muslim culture? The broad, comparative perspective allows readers to develop a thorough understanding of the process of Islamisation over 11 centuries of its history."--Back cover.

Introduction : comparative perspectives on Islamisation / A.C.S. Peacock -- Part I. Conversion and Islamisation: theoretical approaches. Global patterns of ruler conversion to Islam and the logic of empirical religiosity / Alan Strathern ; Conversion out of personal principle : 'Ali b. Rabban al-Tabari (d.c. 860) and 'Abdallah al-Tarjuman (d.c. 1430), Two converts from Christianity to Islam / David Thomas ; The conversion curve revisited / Richard W. Bulliet -- Part II. The early Islamic and medieval middle east. What did conversion to Islam mean in seventh-century Arabia? / Harry Munt ; Zoroastrian fire temples and the Islamisationof Sacred Space in early Islamic Iran / Andrew D. Magnusson ; 'There is no God but God' : Islamisation and religious code-switching, eighth to tenth centuries / Anna Chrysostomides ; Islamisation in medieval Anatolia / A.C.S. Peacock ; Islamisation in the Southern Levant after the end of Frankish rule : some general considerations and a short case study / Reuven Amitai -- Part III. The Muslim west. Conversion of the Berbers to Islam/Islamisation of the Berbers / Michael Brett ; The Islamisation of al-Andalus : recent studies and debates / Maribel Fierro -- Part IV. Sub-Saharan Africa. The Oromo and the historical process of Islamisation in Ethiopia / Marco Demichelis ; The archaeology of Islamisation in Sub-Saharan Africa / Timothey Insoll -- Part V. The Balkans. The Islamisation of Ottoman Bosnia : myths and matters / Sanja Kadric ; From Shahada to 'Aqida : conversion to Islam, catechisation and Sunnitisation in sixteen-century Ottoman Rumeli / Tijana Krstic -- Part VI. Central Asia. Islamisation on the Iranian periphery : Nasir-i Khusraw and Ismailism in Badakhshan / Daniel Beben ; Khwaja Ahmad Yasavi as an Islamising saint : rethinking the role of sufis in the Islamisation of the Turks of Central Asia / Devin DeWeese ; The role of the domestic sphere in the Islamisation of the Mongols / Bruno De Nicola -- Part VII. South Asia. Reconsidering 'Conversion to Islam" in Indian history / Richard M. Eaton ; Civilising the savage : myth, history and Persianisation in the early Delhi courts of South Asia / Blain Auer -- Part VIII. Southeast Asia and the Far East. China and the rise of Islam on Java / Alexander Wain ; The story of Yusuf and Indonesia's Islamisation : a work of literature plus / Edwin P. Wieringa ; Persian kings, Arab conquerors and Malay Islam : comparative perspectives on the place of Muslim epics in the Islamisation of the Chams / Philipp Bruckmayr ; Islamisation and Sinicisation : inversions, reversions and alternate versions of Islam in China / James D. Frankel.

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