- Title Pages
- Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on Contributors
-
1 Introduction: Comparative Perspectives on Islamisation -
2 Global Patterns of Ruler Conversion to Islam and the Logic of Empirical Religiosity* -
3 Conversion out of Personal Principle: ʿAli b. Rabban al-Tabari (d. c. 860) and ʿAbdallah al-Tarjuman (D. C. 1430), Two Converts from Christianity to Islam -
4 The Conversion Curve Revisited -
5 What Did Conversion to Islam Mean in Seventh-Century Arabia? -
6 Zoroastrian Fire Temples and the Islamisation of Sacred Space in Early Islamic Iran -
7 ‘There Is No God But God’: Islamisation And Religious Code-Switching, Eighth to Tenth Centuries -
8 Islamisation in Medieval Anatolia* -
9 Islamisation in the Southern Levant after the End of Frankish Rule: Some General Considerations and a Short Case Study* -
10 Conversion of the Berbers to Islam/Islamisation of the Berbers -
11 The Islamisation of Al-Andalus: Recent Studies and Debates* -
12 The Oromo and the Historical Process of Islamisation in Ethiopia -
13 The Archaeology of Islamisation in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Comparative Study -
14 The Islamisation of Ottoman Bosnia: Myths and Matters* -
15 From Shahāda to ʿAqīda: Conversion to Islam, Catechisation and Sunnitisation in Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Rumeli -
16 Islamisation on the Iranian Periphery: Nasir-i Khusraw and Ismailism in Badakhshan -
17 Khwaja Ahmad Yasavi as an Islamising Saint: Rethinking the Role of Sufis in the Islamisation of the Turks of Central Asia -
18 The Role of the Domestic Sphere in the Islamisation of the Mongols* -
19 Reconsidering ‘Conversion to Islam’ in Indian History* -
20 Civilising the Savage: Myth, History and Persianisation in the Early Delhi Courts of South Asia -
21 China and the Rise of Islam on Java -
22 The Story of Yusuf and Indonesia’s Islamisation: A Work Of Literature Plus -
23 Persian Kings, Arab Conquerors and Malay Islam: Comparative Perspectives on the Place of Muslim Epics in the Islamisation of the Chams -
24 Islamisation and Sinicisation: Inversions, Reversions and Alternate Versions of Islam in China - Index
Zoroastrian Fire Temples and the Islamisation of Sacred Space in Early Islamic Iran
Zoroastrian Fire Temples and the Islamisation of Sacred Space in Early Islamic Iran
- Chapter:
- (p.102) 6 Zoroastrian Fire Temples and the Islamisation of Sacred Space in Early Islamic Iran
- Source:
- Islamisation
- Author(s):
Andrew D. Magnusson
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
Local histories of Iranian cities from the early Islamic era are replete with accounts of fire temple desecration. Are such accounts reliable indicators of Islamisation? In other words, does the alleged violation or appropriation of sacred space indicate the spread of Islam? Or is it indicative of a deeper antagonism between Muslims and Zoroastrians that may have encouraged conversion? Much of the secondary literature presumes so. Scholars often treat these violent tales as a barometer for Muslim–Zoroastrian relations, and for Islamisation more generally.1 Yet if tales of fire temple desecration, intertwined as they often are with tales of mosque construction, seem ideally suited to explain the process of Islamisation in post-conquest Iran, it is because they were designed to do so. Medieval Muslims wrote them to explain the triumph of Islam over Zoroastrianism. For that reason, scholars should question their reliability as indicators of conversion. Tales of fi re temple desecration are not disinterested historical accounts; they are triumphal narratives of religious supersession
Edinburgh Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
- Title Pages
- Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Notes on Contributors
-
1 Introduction: Comparative Perspectives on Islamisation -
2 Global Patterns of Ruler Conversion to Islam and the Logic of Empirical Religiosity* -
3 Conversion out of Personal Principle: ʿAli b. Rabban al-Tabari (d. c. 860) and ʿAbdallah al-Tarjuman (D. C. 1430), Two Converts from Christianity to Islam -
4 The Conversion Curve Revisited -
5 What Did Conversion to Islam Mean in Seventh-Century Arabia? -
6 Zoroastrian Fire Temples and the Islamisation of Sacred Space in Early Islamic Iran -
7 ‘There Is No God But God’: Islamisation And Religious Code-Switching, Eighth to Tenth Centuries -
8 Islamisation in Medieval Anatolia* -
9 Islamisation in the Southern Levant after the End of Frankish Rule: Some General Considerations and a Short Case Study* -
10 Conversion of the Berbers to Islam/Islamisation of the Berbers -
11 The Islamisation of Al-Andalus: Recent Studies and Debates* -
12 The Oromo and the Historical Process of Islamisation in Ethiopia -
13 The Archaeology of Islamisation in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Comparative Study -
14 The Islamisation of Ottoman Bosnia: Myths and Matters* -
15 From Shahāda to ʿAqīda: Conversion to Islam, Catechisation and Sunnitisation in Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Rumeli -
16 Islamisation on the Iranian Periphery: Nasir-i Khusraw and Ismailism in Badakhshan -
17 Khwaja Ahmad Yasavi as an Islamising Saint: Rethinking the Role of Sufis in the Islamisation of the Turks of Central Asia -
18 The Role of the Domestic Sphere in the Islamisation of the Mongols* -
19 Reconsidering ‘Conversion to Islam’ in Indian History* -
20 Civilising the Savage: Myth, History and Persianisation in the Early Delhi Courts of South Asia -
21 China and the Rise of Islam on Java -
22 The Story of Yusuf and Indonesia’s Islamisation: A Work Of Literature Plus -
23 Persian Kings, Arab Conquerors and Malay Islam: Comparative Perspectives on the Place of Muslim Epics in the Islamisation of the Chams -
24 Islamisation and Sinicisation: Inversions, Reversions and Alternate Versions of Islam in China - Index