Status Updates From Islam : Art & Architecture

Rolling my Edward Said eyes..

As with most intros in these kinds of books, our foreign authors use aggressive lexicon in narrating Islam and Muslims. Creating a realm where Islam is centrally violent and has nothing to offer other than a reflection of local cultures. The author's words are bricks of facts but Muslim's understanding of their own faith and history is a mere "claim", an "imitation", a "so-called".

Shah Abbas, great grandson of Ismail followed the same system of the Ottoman janissaries by taking Christian children from the Caucasus and making them 'slave soldiers', and likewise with the janissaries did the Safavid ghulam also rise to be governors, commanders etc.

Shah Abbas made his sons grow in captivity and even gauged the eyes out of some of them & his grandsons, thus they grew up in terror & weakness.

Shah Ismail was only a year old when his father died fighting the Cherkess and had a strict religious upbringing within the Savafi order, he was only 12 years old when he led his first campaign against the Aq Qoyunlu which was a success, at the age of 14 he founded the Safavid state, at 20 he conquered Iraq and defeated the Uzbeks, at 25 he conquered the whole realm of the Aq Qoyunlu thus incorporating Persia.

The Muslim rulers of India didn't prioritize the proselytization of Islam in the Subcontinent because they didn't want to bring political instability since they ruled over a majority Hindu population, the conversion of the locals mainly happened due to the Sufi turuq.

The first thing Babur did when he conquered Delhi was to go to the graves of Sufi masters and then as 2nd to those of former Muslim rulers.

the book just doesnt stop dawg, the last chapters are on
Indian subcontinent: (39 pages)
Safavids to Qajars: (37 pages)
Ottomans: (41 pages)
Modern era: (13 pages)

its a good book but its just too compact and too much detail on specific buildings, i dont want to know how much meters A B C X Y Z mosques have and shi

"Architects and artists from the nations conquered by Timur, from Minor Asia {Anatolia}, Azerbaijan, Caucasus, India, Iran and others, had to help with the construction of 'great state buildings', both religious and profane ones. Like this, different artistic schools and traditions were molten together, united by Timur's monumentality and splendor a new international style was developed, that of the Timurid Empire."

"Timur was theologically tolerant and didn't formalise any islamic madhhab, he tried to combine the Mongol law (yasa) with the Shari'ah, and even though he himself was a Sunni, he deemed himself as the protectors of the Shi'as, and while he lived his life as a nomadic conqueror, Samarkand became a new World Centrum."

"Timur's extraordinary military talents is indisputable, just like his strategic and tactical gifts, but so were his cruelty and hardness. He only accepted the full submission of his enemies.
Timur was not an uncivilized barbarian, he possessed the Persian language and valued the scholars, historians and poets of his time. He let them work in his environment and engaged in intellectual conversations with them."

Ibn Khaldun thought that Timur was a prophetised ruler, who would announce himself as 'Sultan of the World', he deemed Timur's reign since he commanded the Turkic tribes as a sign of the End Times, one of the reasons why Timur invaded India was due to his admiration for Mahmud of Ghazna.

During his conquests, Timur kept the artisans, scholars, engineers etc. alive which contributed to the bloom of his Empire

Although the cruelties of Timur surpassed those of Genghis Khan, many Islamic chroniclers admired him for his willpower and decisive character, Timur came from poverty and was crippled yet because of his proud, vigor and wit he became a World Emperor, even admired by the Europeans during the Renaissance.

He re-inforced the Shari'ah in Iraq after defeating the Jalayirids and purged bandits, making trade safe again

Temujin proclaimed himself to be Genghis (in Turkic, Ocean/Global World) Khan and the leader of all the Mongol and Turkic tribes, the Mongols saw themselves as the inheritors of the Turkic tradition of military conquests, just like the Ghaznavids embodied this tradition.

When a lot of the Mongol Khans of the West converted to Islam and the Great-Khans to Buddhism, the Mongol world quickly became instable.

According to Mongol tradition, the realm needs to be split between the son, and then by their sons and so on, while many rulers claimed to be descendant of the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) for legitimacy, with the coming of the Mongols rulers claimed to be descent of Genghis Khan.

It was also custom that the oldest son inherited the land furthest from the homeland.