Introduction
Most of the world’s largest religious groups- Christianity, Islam and Hinduism have undergone major reforms for a long period of time.
Islam religion has had a system that is not a centralized hierarchy whereby it depends on the community participation of all believes (Riley 2005 pp 52). The religion depends on the most learned pious to lead in the religious activities. The absence of a hierarchical clergy who was capable of acting as a fount of religious authority and interpretation is one reason that led to the decentralization of the religious authority of Islam.
Main text
The rise of a political society in the middle age that was united by the social structures of Islam had an adverse consequence on the development of the world of Islam. There was a centralized form of culture provided by the Abbasid era, which gave way to a rich pluralism of languages, aesthetics and ethnic groups, which in the end helped to diversify the Islam religion and thus its rapid expansion (McKay 2003 pp 71). The expansion of Islam by the conversion to the southern & eastern India, Sub-Saharan Africa, Indonesia and Central Asia also added a large ethnic diversity to the Muslim community. Arab was promoted as the only language of literacy and bureaucracy during the time of Caliphate, but after its demise there was a renewed patronage and literary revival (Riley 2005 pp 65).
Once the religion had distanced itself from the centralized authority, some forms of local traditional artifacts started to be incorporated into the religious architecture. There was also the elaboration of law in terms of religious matters. This was especially in the areas that had new converts so that it could allow the new converts to have greater social mobility and independence without having to necessarily threaten the continuity of the local customs and practices in the area.
After the collapse of the Abbasid Caliphate, there was no any other political regime that was capable to unite all the Muslim faithful and more so, on a single religious authority. The de-politicized societies in the Middle Ages were also caused by the tribal movements that occurred due to climatic changes the societies experienced. The Turkish for instance had to move in to the Middle East. Their movements had also a great impact on the Islam religion in the area and the extended political decentralization during that period (McKay, 2003, pp 176). The societies that were on a constant move caused the displacement of the local communities and opened up a new era for their settlement.
The Turkish movements into the Middle East brought about the establishment of Turkic as the spoken language in the area, ousting the previously used means of communication that was Iranic. The Turkish presence also helped to strengthen Mamluk practices in the region, thus keeping the military elite of the region cut from the urban population.
Conclusion
The invasion by the Mongolians in the area was resisted by the locals, showing how Islamic religion could be resilient to the political upheaval but might have occurred (Riley, 2005 pp 147). The Mongolian invasion set up a political system that did not, however, disrupt the Islamic system, and thus left the Islamic culture relatively unscathed. In essence, the Mongolian invasion helped in playing a crucial role in re-decentralizing the Middle East, and thus renewing the pluralism system in the region.
Work cited
McKay J.P. A history of world societies, ISBN 0618301976, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003.
Riley P.F. The Global Experience: Readings in World History to 1550, ISBN 0131178172, Pearson Education, 2005.