Islamization and Native Religion in the Golden Horde: Baba TŸkles and Conversion to Islam in Historical and Epic Tradition

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Penn State Press, Nov 1, 2010 - Religion

This book is the first substantial study of Islamization in any part of Inner Asia from any perspective and the first to emphasize conversion narratives as important sources for understanding the dynamics of Islamization. Challenging the prevailing notions of the nature of Islam in Inner Asia, it explores how conversion to Islam was woven together with indigenous Inner Asian religious values and thereby incorporated as a central and defining element in popular discourse about communal origins and identity. The book traces the many echoes of a single conversion narrative through six centuries, the previously unknown recounting of the dramatic &"contest&" in which the khan &Özbek adopted Islam at the behest of a Sufi saint named Baba T&ükles.

DeWeese provides the English-language translation of this and another text as well as translations and analyses of a wide range of passages from historical sources and epic and folkloric materials. Not only does this study deepen our understanding of the peoples of Central Asia, involved in so much turmoil today, but it also provides a model for other scholars to emulate in looking at the process of Islamization and communal religious conversion in general as it occurred elsewhere in the world.

 

Contents

Introduction
3
Worldview Ritual
17
Baba Tukles and the Conversion
67
The Setting
159
The Drama
231
Baba Tiikles in History and Genealogy
321
Baba Tiikles in Epic Tradition and Folklore
409
Baba Tiikles and the Uses of Sacred Origins
491
Otemish HajjT s Account of the Conversion
533
Translation
541
An EighteenthCentury Khorezmian Account
567
Bibliography
575
Index
617
Copyright

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About the author (2010)

Devin DeWeese is Associate Professor of Central Eurasian Studies and Assistant Director of the Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies at Indiana University.

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