islamic-jihad-legacy-of-forced-conversion-imperialism-slavery

Propagation of Islam: By Force or Peacefully?After Muhammad bin Qasim opened up a new frontier for Jihadi conquests in Northwest India withhis 6,000 Arab soldiers, "adventurers, eager for plunder and proselytism", streamed into Sindh from Muslimlands swelling Qasim’s army. 235 The desire for martyrdom was so strong amongst devout Muslims that theywere willing to travel hundreds of miles to foreign lands to engage in Jihadi wars. ‘It was for this reason,’writes Daniel Pipes, ‘that about 20,000 volunteers traveled 1,000 miles in 965, from Iran to Syria, for theopportunity to fight Byzantium.’ The Ottoman conquerors drew Muslim warriors from far-off Muslim landsflocking to engage in Jihad against Christians in the Balkan. 236After the initial surge, the Jihad expeditions became relatively infrequent. The surviving volunteers,called Ghazis—dedicated to Allah and an ascetic life—took abodes in forts or fortified lines at the frontiers,called ribat (pickets), hoping that opportunities for martyrdom operations against infidel territories across thefrontier would arise. New volunteers, seeking martyrdom, continued to be attracted to this relatively idle bandof Ghazis. They continued to exist along with the ribat in Andalusia (Spain) until the fourteenth century. 237The Ghazis—also known as Murabits, roughly meaning "mounted frontiersmen"—waited in thosemilitant recluses, ready to respond to the call of Jihad, sometimes for a very long time. With fewerengagements in Jihad and away from their families and society, they increasingly got accustomed to anisolated, somewhat monastic, life. The life of some of them became increasingly idle, sedentary andnonviolent. Devoted to Allah and renounced worldly indulgence, their mode of life slowly transformed into amore nonviolent and sex-starved one, similar to that in Christian and Buddhist monasteries. In time, theseJihadi frontier recluses became transformed into ascetic ashrams, as notes Sir Hamilton Gibb, ‘it (ribat) wasassociated with the rise of the ascetic and mystical movement within Islam (i.e., Sufism)… Later on, Jihad wasinterpreted to apply to the inward and spiritual struggle against the temptations of the world.’ 238Certain elements from within ribats started professing a quietist and nonviolent vision of life, which,they had become increasingly accustomed to. They started preaching withdrawal from the society, andavoidance of luxury and ostentation of which, writes Umaruddin, ‘Their object was the avoidance of everyindulgence which entangled the soul and prevented its development.’ 239 In time, the followers of this quietistdoctrine became known as Sufis, who withdrew from warfare; the ribat was now ascetic hermitage, conventor hospice for the devotees to congregate for living the religious life. 240 According to Benjamin Walker,Many Sufi orders were established on monastic principles and eminent Sufis wrote in praise ofpoverty, and extolled the ideal of the beggars (fakirs) and the religious mendicants (dervishes). Asmall number voluntarily embraced such a way of life, giving up the delights of the world—wealth, fame, feasts, women and companionship—and seeking instead penury, anonymity,hunger, celibacy and solitude—even welcoming abuse and disgrace as a means of strengtheningthe spirit by remaining indifferent to censure and ridicule. 241The precursor of Sufism was therefore rooted in militant Islamic orthodoxy. It arose, notes Umaruddin, alsoas a reaction ‘against intellectualism of the rationalist and the philosopher, the ungodly ways of the rulingclasses.’ 242 The Abbasid rulers had pushed the Arab (Islamic) cultures into the background and adopted the235. Elliot & Dawson, Vol. I, p. 435236. Pipes (1983), p. 69237. Gibb, p. 33238. Ibid239. Umaruddin, p. 61240. Gibb, p. 33–34241. Walker, p. 305242. Umaruddin, p. 58–5988