Three Cities, Three Versions of a Faith

Religion flourishes in unlikely places, in unlikely ways

One good thing about travelling the world is that you begin to see patterns that allow you to compare, contrast and link up social phenomena in multiple environments. Disparate regions, separated by geography and completely unrelated to each other, become connected through culture and history in surprising ways.

I make no secret that I enjoy travelling the Muslim world. Because of my own religious upbringing – which encourages a healthy respect for all kinds of faith – and a member of the main ethnic group in Singapore, travel is a kind of first-hand education on the global Muslim community. Add to that the privilege of travelling as a male with a Singaporean passport and how affordable it is to travel in many Muslim countries (affectionately labelled ‘Backpackistan’), I’ve found my short trips to places from Malaysia to the Middle East enjoyable and eye-opening.

In this post, I will touch on how circumstances of history and quirks in local culture have allowed Islam to flourish and express its faith in certain places I’ve visited. The post is titled ‘Bastions of Islam’ – not because these places are strongholds of religion (maybe in the past), but because their represent unique expressions of Islamic identity found nowhere else.

I hope that this post helps people to see some interesting local history and show my fellow non-Muslim travellers that the Muslim world – and some parts beyond it – are far from a homogenous whole.

(Disclaimer: This post is fraught with the assumptions of a western-educated Chinese guy talking about Muslim history. It’s not my intention to talk down and lecture people about their own culture. Just sharing my observations.)

 

Andalusia, Spain
Spain is not a place usually associated with the Muslim world. But for 700 years up until 1492, Spain was home to the only Muslim kingdom on continental Europe. Called Al-Andalus, the caliphate and later, Muslim states, in southern Spain marked the furthest westward expansion of Muslim territory. This frontier between the Muslim world and Catholic Europe allowed the cities of Al-Andalus to develop a highly-cultured, intellectual society that many historians have called the Golden Age of Islam.

Al-Andalus benefitted from mutual cultural exchange between communities of Muslims, Christians and Jews, resulting in distinct expressions of architecture, art and culture.

After the successful Reconquista by Catholic Spain after 1492, not much of Al-Andalus exists in Spain today. But what remains is a glowing tribute to the uniqueness of the Islamic kingdoms and cities on the Iberian Peninsula.

Inside the Mezquita-Cathedral at Cordoba

The Moorish architectural style so common in southern Spain is a combination of Roman, Greek, Byzantine, Abbasid (Iraqi), Almoravid and Almohad (both North African) influences. This style is not limited to mosques but also to synagogues, castles and some churches.

 Interior of the Cordoba Synagogue

The Giralda Tower beside Seville, formerly a minaret

No discussion of Al-Andalus would be complete without mentioning the Alhambra (Arabic for ‘The Red One’) in Granada, Spain. As the last stronghold of the Muslim Moors when it fell in 1492, it is fitting that Granada is where the Alhambra stands, guarding the hills. The complex of fortresses, palaces and gardens represents the very finest fruits of Islamic civilisation in Spain, a lost culture without parallel anywhere else.

Detail on the stucco pillars at the Generalife, the Alhambra, Grenada

Hall of the Abencerrajes, the Alhambra

 

Oman
Oman at first glance appears to be like any other country in the Gulf: almost completely Muslim, oil-producing, and mainly made up of desert. But beneath this exterior, it is a bastion of a unique sect of faith found almost nowhere else: the Ibadi sect of Islam.

The subject of Ibadi Islam probably warrants an entire post on its own (coming soon). To be brief, the Ibadi school is one of the oldest schools, and developed out of an early schism called the Kharijtes. After being expelled from other parts of Arabia due to doctrinal struggles with their Sunni and Shia brethren, Ibadis settled in what is now Oman. The isolated nature of the Omani landscape, especially in the interior, allowed the Ibadis to keep their beliefs secret and survive to the present day.

Nizwa mosque, with the city in the background

Ibadis are a slight majority in Oman, with the current sultan of Oman (Sultan Qaboos bin Said) among them. They’re described as conservative, but tolerant and moderate. I can’t confirm this doctrinally, but at least in Oman, this is true in practice. Social, religious and ethnic codes don’t seem to be so enforced as other countries. There are churches and Indian templates – at least for the expatriate population. While I didn’t see a lot of women in public on their own, Oman has quite its fair share of women drivers.

If much of Oman’s interior remains an Ibadi heartland and mountains, then its coasts, especially Muscat, are where most Sunnis and a very small community of Al-Lawatia Shia in the Mutrah district of the city. That all these three groups live without friction is perhaps a hint at Ibadis’ moderation.

Shia Muslim banners outside a mosque in Mutrah, Muscat

Another interesting sidenote is that how the symbols of Ibadi Islam have developed through Oman’s position as a trading power. Take the Chinese porcelain decoration in this mihrab (prayer niche) in an Ibadi mosque for example:

Detail of a mihrab in a Ibadi Mosque. Note the three Chinese porcelain bowls.

 

Yunnan, China
Like Spain, China is not traditionally seen as Muslim country. Only 1.7% of its population identifying as Muslim. But because of China’s scale, that translates to almost 23 million Musllims, larger than the populations of many Arab and North African countries. China’s ancient history means that Islam has been in the middle kingdom for a very long time.

Discussions around Islam in China tend to highlight the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, and their struggle for a separate state. While it’s true that Chinese Muslims are concentrated in northeast China – the provinces of Xinjiang, Gansu and Ningxia – a substantial population can be found in the southeast in Yunnan.

Unlike their ethnic Uyghur counterparts, Yunnan Muslims are almost entirely Hui. That is, while Muslim, they are culturally and linguistically, Han (like the majority Chinese). Their mosques therefore have a very Chinese style, instead of the usual Middle-Eastern or Persian architecture:

Jinnu Jie Mosque, Kunming

Yunnan’s significant Muslim population was likely the result of Mongols: Kublai Khan reportedly appointed a Muslim governor in the 1200s. Migration, trade and the shifting borders of Chinese empire in Yunnan meant that its current Southeast Asian neighbours like Myanmar and Thailand all have small pockets of Yunnan Hui (‘Panthay’ in Myanmar and ‘Haw’ in Thailand).

The Hui have such a lasting impact on Chinese culture that Islam has traditionally been called huíjiào (回教), although these days only the Taiwanese use that phrase and most people prefer yīsīlán jiào (伊斯兰教).

Of course, the most famous Muslim from Yunnan is the well-known navigator Zheng He, the eunuch who commandeered the Chinese fleet from East Africa to Southeast Asia and possibly even the Americas. Today, there are about 700,000 Muslims in Yunnan, along with smaller numbers of China’s other Muslim minorities, like the Salar and Dongxiang.

Yongning Mosque, Kunming

Salar restaurant, Kunming

Distinct identities, local customs and unique architecture, these centres of Muslim culture represent some of the most compelling variations of what Islam has to offer. What binds the Andalusians, Omanis and Yunnan Hui is this: all three cultures have always been historically very open to outside influences, whether intellectually (in Andalusia) or through trade (Oman and Yunnan). Far from being isolated bastions, external factors and cultures have been adapted, localised and have helped these three cultures flourish to the modern day.

In a world becoming closed off, the Andalusians, Omanis and Yunnan Hui can tell us a lot about how religious culture develops beautifully in tandem with contact with outside forces.