how did african culture influence islam

the greatest gains made by Islam were in the lands immediately south of the Sahara. Trade has played an important role in the economy of West Africa since very early times. Arabic’s Influence in the Region. Emergence of Islam in the African-American Community. This indigenous influence has enhanced harmonious relationships among members of Christianity and Islam in … Arabic’s Influence in the Region. He also discusses the influence of Islam in Mali in the 13th century and describes the rule of Mansa Musa, whose fame spread to Sudan, North Africa and up to Europe. this chapter, you will explore how Islamic faith and culture influenced West African culture. As a result, Islam influenced the culture and lifestyle, particularly of … Africa has influenced and been influenced. In its pure form, Islam was more attractive to kings because of its concept of the caliph … African Religion and its Influence on Christianity and Islam Traditional African religion has been the basis of spirituality for the people of Africa. The intensified spreading of Islam due to the arrival of Aabs and Somalis, and intermarriages with the local people resulted into the Swahili people and Swahili culture. Consequently, much of the music is monophonic (having a single often simple melody) and melodic in structure. Before the arrival of Islam, succession to the throne had been matrilineal. By Adam Edgerly and Carl Ellis. The blues, born in the Deep South, conjures up images of cotton fields, oppressed sharecroppers, chain gangs, pain, and lonesomeness. Despite profound changes, Africans maintain and cherish strong cultural continuities with their past. Following the conquest of North Africa by Muslim Arabs in the 7th century CE, Islam spread throughout West Africa via merchants, traders, scholars, and missionaries, that is largely through peaceful means whereby African rulers either tolerated the religion or converted to it themselves. Established by the prophet Muhammad, the religion of Islam unified a diverse cultural region that spans several countries. As a result of Arab rule, many northern Africans were converted to Islam. In their dances, music, singing and handicrafts, the inhabitants of southern Spain, and to a lesser extent those to the north, still retain a good amount of Moorish influences. After the initial military phase in North Africa, Islam spread through the population movements and trade. Islam spread quickly when it was founded in the seventh century C.E. The success of Islam in Africa is partially the result of its ability to respect and absorb other traditions .'' These epics and love stories are still recited in coffee houses today. But before those two religions arrived, there were several traditional religions practiced. Venice was a key point for trade with the Islamic World. Western civilization as we know it wouldn’t exist without Islamic culture. Influences of Islam and Christianity Early civilizations in the western Sudan region had strong trading links across the Sahara, and an Islamic presence was established south of the desert 1,000 years ago. East Africa offered gold, ivory and slaves, and later on very fine woven cotton. But sharp ideological and ethnic differences within the region create conflict today. Regardless, Islam impacted African culture forever by changing the religion and ideals of the African people through education. 1. Most people combined it with their established beliefs of ancestor worship and fetishes. Arab polytheism, the dominant belief system, was based on the belief in deities and other supernatural beings such as djinn. Islamic Influence on African Societies. Islamic political and aesthetic influences on African societies remain difficult to assess. In some capital cities, such as Ghana and Gao, the presence of Muslim merchants resulted in the establishment of mosques. Traditional religion Traditional African religion is based on oral traditions, which means that the basic values and way of life are passed from elders to the younger generation. Cultural diffusion has influenced religious life in Africa through the ongoing introduction of two religions, Islam and Christianity. Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia was a mix of polytheism, Christianity, Judaism, and Iranian religions. Islamic history and culture can be traced through the written records: Pre-Islamic, early Islamic, Umayyad, the first and second Abbasid, the Hispano-Arabic, the Persian and the modern periods. For the Hausa of Northern Nigeria and Southern Niger, Islam was the religion of elites from about the 15th through the 19th century (Henquinet 59). The influence Islam had on the region led to a profound social transformation, according to several Spanish researchers. Islamic Influence on African Societies Islamic political and aesthetic influences on African societies remain difficult to assess. North African Musi . In the 11th century Kumbi, the capital of the kingdom of Ghana (in present-day Mali), was described as having a dozen mosques. Another factor that helps the spread of Islam in Africa is its adaptability culture where the customs and usages of a society are Introduction: The Spread of Islam in the West. The history of Islam in East Africa stretches back to around 1000 CE. Traditional Muslims affirm, as did Pakistani anthropologist Akbar S. Ahmed, one of the leading interpreters of Islamic values for Western audiences, “Islam is essentially the religion of equilibrium and tolerance; suggesting a breadth of vision, global positions and fulfillment of human destiny in the universe” (Ahmed, 1992, p. 48). Influence of Yoruba Culture in Christian Religious Worship By Odejobi Cecilia Omobola Institute of Education, Faculty of Education, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria. Antara dates to pre-Islamic times in the Arabian Peninsula, and was himself a famous poet, … 570–d. 3. When one thinks about a music so embedded in rural African American culture, Islam certainly does not come to mind. Influence of Westernization on Islam and Islamic Culture - Home. Political Impacts . One could cite a whole series of factors that show a degree of cultural and sociological proximity between these two religious worlds. Oil on panel. Many Western musical instruments were copied from instruments that originated in Islamic … Slavery and the enslavement of people were widespread throughout ancient history. Introduction of Islam in Africa Contributed by Prof. Dr. Nazeer Ahmed, PhD Africa, alone among the continents, has a majority Muslim population. Until the mid-20th century, it remained largely confined to the coast and closely bound up with the history of the Swahili towns situated on it. Africa gave the Islamic world its first muezzin, Bilal ibn Rabah. In North Africa as elsewhere, Islam may be considered either as a religion or as a form of culture, and according to the point of view adopted, the same facts may be interpreted in quite different ways. https://www.whyislam.org/muslim-heritage/the-history-of-islam-in-africa What Islam Gave the Blues. All this came about, in the main, as a result of the 900 years the Arabs were in Spain – first as conquerors then as conquered. This stems from Sufism beliefs which hold that humans can access the spiritual world (Gilbert 118). Civilization is a continuing conversation and exchange. The various influences of these different periods can be readily perceived, as can traces of the Greek, the Indian, and the Pre-Islamic Persian cultures. The Ahmaddiya Muslim community is the oldest in Ghana who have managed to convert several Christians to Islam. After the arrival of Islam, succession became patrilineal, or passed from father to son. Lesson 2: Trekking to Timbuktu: Trade in Ancient West Africa (Student Version) Timbuktu from the terrace of the traveller's house in 1858. The Islamic empire had a huge impact on the development of medieval Western Europe. “Women in sub-Saharan Africa possessed more opportunities than did women in other parts of the world. Trace how Islam entered Africa. Islam originally entered Africa by expansion. This led to wandering mystics, Muslim warriors, traders carrying the faith into Africa. This took place between the 10th and 14th centuries, as a result of political fragmentation, political conquest, and more enduring peaceful conversion. In the following pages Islam is referred to not as a culture that has been more or less influenced by the Qur ʾ anic message but as a religion. Islamic impacted politics as well and gave Africa a more advanced and forward thinking appearance to the rest of the world. To the east, they had conquered the Persian Empire and spread into modern-day Pakistan and Central Asia. One was the link between the Maghreb and the Berber-African gold-trading … The Islamic culture began to spread from Persia in the east to southern west Europe and the north of Africa. Islam’s first contact with Africa was with Ethiopia rather than Egypt and the rest of North Africa. Islamic influence on Western Europe. Christian influences in Islam could be traced back to the Eastern Christianity, which surrounded the origins of Islam. Culture. There are several reasons why religious and cultural issues should be considered when dealing with the topic of hand hygiene and planning a strategy to promote it in health-care settings. How did Islam come to North Africa? It had effects on politics in Malaysia, influencing a large part of the political system. The Role of Islam in Slavery in Africa. How The Islamic World Influenced Western Art. Today, Christianity and Islam are religions practiced by the majority of people living in Africa. This is a difficult issue to address by most Spaniards, specially for those who live in Spain and never traveled to countries of Arabic culture. Concepts and culture of African origin have been exported and re-imported, just as genes have exited and reentered African populations. This rock is supposedly the same rock mentioned in the stories of ‘Antara. 2. So we shouldn't necessarily think of "European" culture as the same as "American" culture when we talk about how African culture influenced it. African Islam is strongly influenced by Arabic Islam, and African Christianity is strongly impacted by … Islam emerged in the 7th century C.E. Abstract Religion is the strongest element in African culture and exerts great influence upon the conduct of the African … In turn, the Arabs shared their faith and their knowledge with Africa. The common people did not practice Islam in as pure a form as did the kings and other people of influence. The Arabs also brought education and established impressive centers of learning in Cairo and Timbuktu. Islam brought to Africa the art of writing and new techniques of weighting. Ludwig Deutsch (1855–1935), In the Madrasa, 1890. In this way, West African Muslims did not disturb the orthodoxy of Islam, but rather, they managed to syncretize it with some West African’s indigenous beliefs. Although unified Muslim rule lasted only about a century, Islam kept spreading and Muslim culture and society flourished. African Traditional Religions influence on Islam in Africa created a sect of Islam with a more mystical overtone than in other parts of the world (Gilbert 118). The greatest cultural changes within Africa have come within the last two centuries under the influence of European colonial rule and Muslim and Christian missionaries. What culture greatly influenced Islam? While this was a short-lived encounter, Muslims eventually left a lasting influence in North Africa which has since spread to western, eastern, and central Africa. Islam has been a piece of the American religious fabric since the first settlers arrived in North America. Islam has had a lasting impact on Africa, affecting its languages, architecture, and culture . Furthermore, contrary to the conventional belief that a predominantly oral culture has always existed in Africa, a rich literate culture thrived among Africans historically - going back as far as a millennium. Many decisions were based off of the religion of the mass population of this country. Islam in Africa, the development of the Muslim religion on the African continent. Prior to the 19th cent. Islamic influences on Western art refers to the influence of Islamic art, the artistic production in the Islamic world from the 8th to the 19th century, on Christian art.During this period, the frontier between Christendom and the Islamic world varied a lot resulting in some cases in exchanges of populations and of corresponding art practices and techniques. Political Influence During most of the 1600s and 1700s there was no significant European colonization in Asia comparable to that which existed in the New World. While Europe did not initially engage in the colonization methods utilized in the New World, it still had a profound impact on the society and culture … It was the year 613 CE, nine years before the Hijra. Pre-Islamic religions coexisted with Islam. The Islamic culture influenced and impacted Europe in numerous ways, affecting such varied areas as medicine, literature, and technology. They did so as followers of Islam, but they also did so as ethnic, linguistic and cultural Arabs. While we do not know exactly how many African Muslims were enslaved and transported to the New World, there are clues in legal doctrines, slaveholders’ documents, and existing cultural … Pre-Islamic religions coexisted with Islam. Islam and the Development of Kiswahili by Mwenda Mukuthuria, Ph.D. [email protected] Egerton University, Njoro, Kenya. Islam made its presence felt in much of Africa (the East coast and Horn of Africa as well as West Africa) mainly Side by side with their high levels of commitment to Christianity and Islam, many people in the countries surveyed retain beliefs and rituals that are characteristic of traditional African religions. The process that resulted in Swahili culture took several centuries. In regions of West Africa where Muslim clerics and traders were present, their influence reached beyond those they converted because of the value of the services they offered. Under Islamic influence, government became more centralized and kings exercised more control over local leaders. The greatest cultural changes within Africa have come within the last two centuries under the influence of European colonial rule and Muslim and Christian missionaries. Medieval African empires and cities were influenced by Islam. Antara dates to pre-Islamic times in the Arabian Peninsula, and was himself a famous poet, … It also explores Islam influence on agriculture, economics, science, technology, architecture, art, and music in the Spanish society. Islam, emerging in the context of the Middle East that was largely Christian, was first seen as a Christological heresy known as the "heresy of the Ishmaelites", described as such in Concerning Heresy by Saint John of Damascus, a Syriac scholar. indigenous population are converts to Christianity and Islam, it is the indigenous beliefs and values which, mainly, serve as the mediation for their religious and cultural expressions. In some capital cities, such as Ghana and Gao, the presence of Muslim merchants resulted in the establishment of mosques. The culture and religious practices of Muslims in Ghana are similar to those of other Muslims around the world. Western civilization as we know it wouldn’t exist without Islamic culture. it spread fro the north to the east.Egypt was the first to country to come under the influence of Islam." Two strands of influence shaped Islam in West Africa. Islam arrived in North Africa … Islamic Influences on European Art. The Influence of Islam on West Africa. In terms of popular culture, it's hard to find a single work -- whether it's a novel, movie, song or other art form -- that covers the topic of Islam, music and African slaves. Great question. The Muslim presence in the Iberian Peninsula has shaped the cultural identity of the inhabitants of that part of the world. Islam influence on Medieval African Empires and Cities. View this answer. The spread of Islam in Africa can be attributed to its respect for local cultures. This was the quid pro quo between Africa and Arabia: Africa gave protection to the Arabs. The Hausa, one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa, span a large portion of the Sahel and can be found in many countries in the region. Islam came to West Africa the 8th century by Muslim traders. Islam had a significant impact on the culture of northern Africa. The Iberian Peninsula and the influences Islam had on its culture. It was the commercial center for most imports coming from the Islamic World into Europe. Despite profound changes, Africans maintain and cherish strong cultural continuities with their past. a world which humans can access and use to assist themselves in becoming better human beings.Islam encourages and teaches … The Hausa, one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa, span a large portion of the Sahel and can be found in many countries in the region. It was home to its greatest historian, Ibn Khaldun and the birthplace of its best-known traveler, Ibn Batuta. As in North Africa, trade was a powerful strand in the conversion of people to Islam. 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