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Culture and Cultural Diversity in the Medieval Islamic World Diversity can be defined as differences between people worth respect to age, class, ethnicity, gender, physical and mental abilities, race, sexual orientation, spiritual practice and other human differences (Religion and Cultural Diversity Conferences). The medieval Islamic world encompasses the period from 622 C. E. or the first year of the Hijra of the Prophet Muhammad to Medina. This also happens to be the first year of the Islamic calendar. There are particular continuities that operated in the Islamic civilization until the modern secular and national ideologies in the 19 th century C.
E. This paper looks into the cultural diversity in the medieval Islamic world. By classical Islamic culture we mean, then, the culture connected with the birth and strengthening of the Arabic caliphate which, under the aegis of the new monotheistic religion (Islam) proclaimed by Muhammad in the Visit century, spread its authority and influence to a vast territory from Gibraltar to the banks of the Indus, and became the new center of interaction and mutual enrichment of diverse cultural traditions. The "Golden Age" developed on the basis of Islamic culture is in the IX - XII centuries, as Islamic culture began to determine the worlds material and spiritual cultures. (Kirabaev, Nur). Characteristic of traditional Islamic culture is the fact that it is the values that count. It is also identified with specific ideological trends which play a role in structural elements in interpreting and understanding the world.
Based on knowledge, Islam Medieval Islamic thinkers tried to solve their problems in culture, politics, ethics, philosophy and law. This move determined the integrated fashion with which all major philosophical and socio-political trends of medieval Islamic society issues evolved ( (Kirabaev, Nur). The Sharia determined the specifics of the ideal knowledge in Islamic culture. Thus, the Islamic culture was oriented upon a united, integral body of knowledge. To illustrate this, the work of the famous thinker al- Ghazali (1058 - 1111) which is called The Revival of the Religious Sciences, can be regarded equally as a philosophical, legal, religious, linguistic and a cultural workin the modern sense of the term it would be called an interdisciplinary study.
There is a specific spiritual atmosphere of the Islamic culture, based on the famous dictum of the Prophet Muhammad: "Go for knowledge, even to China." (Kirabaev, Nur). It is important to note that in the Islamic civilization, Knowledge in both the religious and the secular gained enough status. This kind of importance was a cut above the rest of the other known civilizations. This only goes to show that there were a sizable number of educated people in that society. There were numerous books and publications written then to show how the people at that time valued education and spent money to publish these books. Present at that time in the medieval culture was the presence of the asia group.
This unique group manifested both the secular and religious knowledge of educated persons of every culture such as philosophy, astronomy, mathematics and model behavior. There are also three aspects of humanism in medieval Islamic culture. These are: - religious humanism, which proclaimed the human being as the highest of all Gods creatures; - arab humanism, whose ideal formed in the It century corresponds to European XVIth century humanity, i. e.
the ideal of developing the physical, moral and mental capacities of everyone in the name of the common good; . (Kirabaev Nur). - philosophical humanism, more conceptualized, whose essence Abu Hainan at-Tawhidi briefly and actually expressed in his dictum: "Man has become a problem for man." (Kirabaev Nur). John P. McKay et. al, A History of World Societies distinguishes between an "Islamic World" and "African Societies. "In this book he also tackles the role that religion plays in the lives of non-Islamic Africans and in the lives of African Muslims (McKay, John 2000). As for the value orientations of the educated part of medieval Islamic society, one can suppose that the behavior of the asia group was imitated to some degree by the majority of those educated. This group embodied the traits of both the secular and religious knowledge of educated persons of every culture: philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, and model of behavior.
Meanwhile, according to Marin-Guzman, Roberto (2003), the Muslim Empire faced a great number of diverse cultures, peoples, and religions, all of which became a major threat to the unity of Islam, both as a religion and as a culture. In general, Islam found it necessary to define the terms "unity" and "diversity" so that it could maintain a semblance of authenticity and unity in an empire of diversity. (Marin-Guzman, Roberto 2003). According to him, Islam was able to assimilate the different cultures. It was very flexible in this area. He further claims that ever since the beginning of the Islamic Empire, a delicate balance was maintained between the theological unity and the cultural diversity. Still, the definition of the Muslim umma revealed the idea that any departure from the precepts of Allah was a serious threat to the umma (Chartrand, Harry 1993).
As to comparison of Medieval Islamic culture and Latin Christendom culture, this ascendance of Latin Christendom and the many shifts that happened in between caused the decline of artistic expression during that period. In the same manner, the Latin Bible maintained continuity of the Catholic faith in the West during occupation by Germanic tribes. ( (Steiner 1976: 322 Chartrand, Harry). Indeed, in the medieval Arab-Islamic civilization "knowledge" both secular and religious gained an all-embracing importance and status, without equal in other civilizations. Its high status in the system of values of medieval Islamic society, which of itself is a significant indicator, tells us at least that there were many educated people in that society.
Even specialists cannot now imagine the actual scale of Arab book publications: the manuscripts of that immense literature that count to thousands and thousands of material. Works Cited Chartrand, Harry. Christianity, Copyright & Censorship In English-Speaking Culture. Culture and Democracy: Social and Ethical Issues in Public Support for the Arts and Humanities. Andrew Buchwalter, (ed), Westview, Boulder, 1992 McKay, John P. et al. 2000.
A History of World Societies. New York: Houghton Mifflin. Kirabaev Nur, Introduction. Accessed 22 Sept. 2005 at: web Marin-Guzman, Roberto. Fanaticism: a major obstacle in the Muslim Christian dialogue.
The case of twentieth century Islamic fundamentalism Arab Studies Quarterly. 2003. Accessed 22 Sept. 2005 at: web Religion and Cultural Diversity Conferences. Retrieved 6 June 2005 at: web
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