A primer of Muslim history and customs

By Louis Meixler

Associated Press

ANKARA, Turkey – Islamic warriors burst out of Arabia in the seventh century, conquering the great Persian Empire and lands stretching from the Middle East to Spain and Central Asia. With them, they brought a new religion.

Islamic influence spread across Asia, carried as well by merchants, artisans and preachers. Muslim empires began to dominate the world’s trade routes, and poetry and the sciences flourished. Craftsmanship reached fantastic heights.

“It was the religion of culture,” says Nazif Shahrani, an anthropologist at Indiana University. “A lot of these traders were very influential folks who came with new goods, new ideas and even new technologies.”

Almost all the merchants, traders and preachers were from the mainstream Sunni branch of Islam, and today most Asian Muslims adhere to Sunni Islam.

Mystics of the Sunni branch, called Sufis, preached widely in Asia and were instrumental in converting people. Sufism, which emphasizes personal devotion and often blends local practices into its worship, is still powerful among Asian Muslims.

The other main branch of Islam, although much smaller, is Shiism, which dominates Iran and is the largest sect in Iraq. Pockets of Shiite Islam also exist in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan.

Shiism, originally a dissident faction, has its own distinct rituals and a more organized and hierarchical clerical system than Sunni Islam.

A strict form of Islam called Wahhabism, founded in Saudi Arabia at the start of the 19th century, still flourishes there today and is making inroads in Asia. Based on a literal translation of the Quran, Wahhabism rejects mysticism and any veneration of saints or their tombs. The movement has served as an inspiration for Osama bin Laden.

Religious Sunnis and Shiites have some variations in their prayer services, but both groups bow their heads toward the holy city of Mecca and recite the same verses of the Quran, the Muslim holy book.

“Everywhere you have local customs – this is the lifestyle, and lifestyle always carries the old heritage,” said Ilber Ortayli, a Turkish historian. “But there are strict rules … that come from the Muslim law schools.”