And it's not like South america was converted through peaceful Franciscans showing up and using reason.
A policy capable of peacefully converting Muslims
- Thread starter SeanB
- Start date
And it's not like South america was converted through peaceful Franciscans showing up and using reason.
There is no effective way :/
The most effective one in history was the Spanish inquistition, yet even that wasnt effective, since they remained covertly muslim and rebelled latter. Probably the best one would be to attack the basic teachings of islam, since muslims believe Quran cant be wrong, if you find something false in it you could colapse the religion. Islam is a giant on glass legs
I'd argue that an Inquisition is the worst way to get converts; such an attack only makes believers circle the wagons.
The Church sent numerous missions to the Holy Land, with priests earnestly debating rabbis and mullahs, to not much success. Have you ever heard of St. Francis of Assisi's mission to al-Malik al-Kamil?
A better plan, over the long term, is simply to offer financial and social benefits to converts and make the conversion process as attractive as possible. It worked fairly well for medieval Muslims; a common tactic was to offer a captive a position and a wife (or wives). Robert de St. Albans had been a Templar knight before converting and marrying one of Saladin's female relatives; he ended up fighting with Saladin against the kingdom of Jerusalem. A couple of the Frankish chroniclers noted that it was more unusual for Christian women to "turn Turk" than the men, probably because most of those incentives weren't available to them.
Like I mentioned before, its not like there weren't Muslim converts to Christianity in the Crusader States, out of true religious sentiment or for mercenary reasons, but they weren't welcomed with open arms. Hell, William of Tyre tells us that Sinan, "The Old Man of the Mountain", offered to convert himself and all his Assassins to Christianity, but the Templars scuttled the plan because it would've meant losing out on the 2,000 besants a year the Assassins paid them as "protection money".
I think in addition to there being good reason to convert in the near future, if you want a long term conversion of an area, you need to provide the usual good governance.
This is considerably more difficult, but if people associate the rule of Christianity with changes for the worse, you'll get individuals and small groups initially converting, but not regions.
This is considerably more difficult, but if people associate the rule of Christianity with changes for the worse, you'll get individuals and small groups initially converting, but not regions.
Stable governance is of course important. That is one thing the Crusader states failed to provide in the long run. They were constantly under the threat of being overran. They segregated their populations (such as expelling all Muslims from Jerusalem), and offered no genuine means of upward mobility through conversion. They really didn't have a chance with the way they were doing things.
Nevertheless, the fact that the Crusader States lasted as long as they DID, despite handling things so poorly, should be evidence of the viability of Christian rule in Muslim lands under the proper administration.
Here's an excellent article looking at the case of Sicily, which was for the most part peacefully converted from Islam to Christianity ("peaceful" being a relative term, given that there was no state-sanctioned violence or forced conversions)
http://www.medievalists.net/2009/01/03/from-islam-to-christianity-the-case-of-sicily/
http://www.medievalists.net/2009/01/03/from-islam-to-christianity-the-case-of-sicily/
". . .and 1190 to 1250, which was marked by Muslim armed resistance, the setting up of a rebel polity under the last Muslim leader of Sicily, and Frederick II’s ‘extermination’ of Islam."
It might be true of the first third and to a lesser extent the second, but that and this:
"An unfree and subjected population, Sicilian Muslims depended on the mercy of their masters and, ultimately,on royal protection. When this was removed, hell broke loose. King William’s death in 1189 opened the way for widespread attacks against the island’s Muslims. The author of the Epistola ad Petrum remarked that “it would be difficult for the Christian population not to oppress the Muslims in a crisis as great as this, with fear of the king removed”
and predicted that Muslims would respond by occupying mountain strongholds
8"
do not suggest a more peaceful transition than say, Granada.
http://www.academia.edu/294825/Cont...d_Christians_in_the_Unmaking_of_Norman_Sicily
Also, this is an interesting read on the general subject of dealing with Muslim subjects: http://www.cliohworld.net/onlread/5/29.pdf
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The key here is full acceptance in to the community and no barriers to upwards social mobility.
Tarik bin Ziyad the conquerer who lead the muslim army in the initial invasion of
spain was a slave and converted 10 years previously.
One of the top commanders of the army that invaded egypt under amr ibn al as
was a black african slave as well.
So when people see the full acceptance and social mobility of converts who were from the lowest levels of society i.e slaves , prosper as muslims
the incentive to convert is higher.
Christian polities were never serious about converting, and were more more xenephobic and had rigid class lines than muslims.
Tarik bin Ziyad the conquerer who lead the muslim army in the initial invasion of
spain was a slave and converted 10 years previously.
One of the top commanders of the army that invaded egypt under amr ibn al as
was a black african slave as well.
So when people see the full acceptance and social mobility of converts who were from the lowest levels of society i.e slaves , prosper as muslims
the incentive to convert is higher.
Christian polities were never serious about converting, and were more more xenephobic and had rigid class lines than muslims.
I remember one episode where a large Muslim population on Sicily was deported to some town on the Italian mainland for rebellion, where they were expected to assimilate into Christianity. Having not done so, they instead ended up providing military levies and other taxes to the local rulers, until they ended up getting deported somewhere else about a century later. I don't remember the details, or even the town they were deported to though.
But basically, my point is that there are documented instances of Christian violence against Muslims on Sicily.