Islamic Syncretism in Asia

[Rdffigueira]

I'm not sure if the thread title is self-explanatory, so here goes my question: how well did Islam integrate with Asian (western, southern and eastern) religions. I'm aware about Akbar the Great's proposed syncretism between Islam and Hinduism, but that's an "up-down" and arguably artificial creation, here I'm more interested to see if there are examples of a more natural merger between the Muslim religion and the "principal" ones, mainly Buddhism, Hinduism, and all the faiths of the Sinosphere (here I'm including Tibetan and Chinese beliefs).

I'm asking this because even if Islam, unlike Christianity in its 1000 year-old expansion into "pagan" Europe, seemed to retain a greater degree of "purity", perhaps due to its inevitable association with the Arabic culture - and, indeed, there was a trend for Arabization, in greater or lesser degree (comparing the ethnicities of the Maghreb, Sahel and Egypt, and those of the Near East, such as the Iraqis, we can say that they were more profoundly affected by Arabization than, say, the Iranians, the Turkic peoples of Central Asia or the Afghans), perhaps owing to the fact that the Qur'an was brought to the conquered peoples in Arab language, and for centuries it remained untranslated into the local Asian languages.

Now, I wanted to know if OTL presents concrete examples of these relationships:

- A sort of Islamic-influenced Buddhism or, in India, Islamic-influenced Hinduism? I'm thinking about northwestern Indian itself, where the Islamic presence was predominant until the creation of Pakistan.

- How did Islamic expansion fared in the Malaysian/Indonesian cultural sphere, considering that it was already a melting pot of faiths, notably localized forms of Hinduism and Theravada Buddhism

- The hardest one might be: are these examples of how Islam impacted, or was impacted, in its brief and peripheral penetration into the Chinese world? I'm aware there is a substantial Muslim population in Xinjiang, but here I wanted to now, if, for example, are there examples of how the Taoist/folk-religions of China, or even Confucianism (and I know, Confucianism is not a religion, but rather a philosophical behavioral stance).
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Disclaimer: I'm also aware that "Hinduism" is not a religion, but rather an umbrella term encompassing a myriad of religions, beliefs and theological positions coming from the Indian cultural sphere. Take the term with a grain of salt, please.

 

[mad orc]

It is according to my own interpretations;I am not even Indian .
1)Islam contributed a lot to the Bhakti movement in Hinduism .
2)To a big degree ,Islam contributed to the rise of Hindu nationalism(Obviously) .
3)It is Muslims who introduced the thing of applying mehendi to a bride's hands during marraige and it is now even considered to be auspicious(Though this one should be more apt in culture rather than religion )

Just my own two bits ,i know its not much .

cheers

 

[Thon Taddeo]

Something like this happened in OTL Indonesia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kejawèn

 

[Al-numbers]

Bear in mind, what I'm about to say is really specific to me, my family, and the community that I live in, and our practices have changed a LOT from our grandparents' time, even if that was just 50 years ago. So, yeah.

Firstly, I'm a Malay-Minangkabau with some Chinese blood through my paternal grandmother's side, with family ties to the Malaysian states of Negeri Sembilan, Terengganu, and Kelantan. Secondly, I am also a descendant to one of the royal houses of eastern Sumatra (though I can't remember which) so I experienced a few different things while growing up.

In an overview, Islam in the region became heavily syncretised with local beliefs and superstitions when it first arrived. Many communities in Malaya and Sumatra had certain adat, or customs, in the pre-Islamic era which became either blended or seperate from the faith over time. In some cases, customs and superstitions fused with Islam, such as the practice of sprinkling flower petals over graves - which has roots in Indian culture but is now attributed to a hadith of Muhammad (it's in Malay though. Sorry). That very same hadith also allows leeway for planting trees and shrubs over our graves, a practice that's really prevalent in Peninsular Malaysia but near-nonexistant in the Middle East. If leaves and petals whisper prayers to the deceased, then a garden would become it's own choir of worshippers for the buried.

Elsewhere, other customs became separate and "secularised", becoming a trapping of a culture but losing it's prior meaning. This is most pravelent with the Bunga Telur. In the distant past, eggs were a sign of fertility and were linked to Hindu culture. When Islam came, it lost that quasi-cultural link and became relegated to being handed out as gifts at weddings. In the 1900's, a person who blessed a newlywedded couple would be given an egg in return. Now, people would hand over flowers, cups, chocolates, and even tiny prayer mats for blessing a couple.

In a deeper sense, the earlier beliefs of the region also underwent a shift after Islam. Local customs became separate from faith, in some cases to the point where Islam and adat formed two different and sometimes contradictory pillars for contemporary society. In Minangkabau culture, the ownership of houses, land, and cattle follow particular rules called (at least in Negeri Sembilan) the Adat Perpatih. According to the rules, matrilineal descent comes first, and the daughter holds first rights to inheritance, which is counter to traditional Islamic scholarship which places male descent and inheritance first. At times, these pillars cite each other for their own existence.

In cosmological terms, orthodoxy became entranced over time, but there was always an underlying belief that the world is more than just Allah, Muhammad, the Angels, Shaitan, and Jinns. A common theme in Malay, Minangkabau, and even across Southeast Asia is the existence of makhluk halus - beings that do not fall into the above categories, and the alam ghaib - worlds and realms hidden from mortal eyes. It makes sense in a way; Living near rainforests is a much different kettle of fish than living in deserts, and you need to think of something that explains why are you hearing or seeing things that aren't godly nor evil. Whenever a person needs help, he or she would pray and/or visit a shaman whom would converse with the spirits and provide guidance or help. It's less of a thing nowadays, but it's an open secret that many people would go to a shaman than a doctor/imam for ailments or spiritual needs.

I think that's all I could think of, for now. Hope this fills you in on how Islam meshes with some Southeast Asian cultures.

 

[Jan Olbracht]

What about Cao Dai analogue based more on Islam instead of Catholicism?

 

[Tripledot]

If you're looking for "Han" Chinese Muslims with syncretic Confucian/Taoist/Buddhist beliefs as opposed to Central Asian Turkic peoples in modern-day China, you're looking for the Hui, not the Uyghurs of Xinjiang.

 

[Rdffigueira]

It is according to my own interpretations;I am not even Indian .
1)Islam contributed a lot to the Bhakti movement in Hinduism .
2)To a big degree ,Islam contributed to the rise of Hindu nationalism(Obviously) .
3)It is Muslims who introduced the thing of applying mehendi to a bride's hands during marraige and it is now even considered to be auspicious(Though this one should be more apt in culture rather than religion )
Just my own two bits ,i know its not much .
cheers

Thanks, that was actually helpful.

Something like this happened in OTL Indonesia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kejawèn

I had never heard about this, but, then, that's exactly I started this thread. Thanks very much, I'll give it a read in detail!

snip - I think that's all I could think of, for now. Hope this fills you in on how Islam meshes with some Southeast Asian cultures.

Thanks, very much, @Al-numbers, that insight was fascinating and very helpful! I live in a majoritarily Catholic country, and I've always had the perception that Christianity owes A LOT to the pre-existing religions that it encountered, be it from the ancient pagan religions of Rome, the polytheistic Germanic and Slavic beliefs in Europe, and, here in the Americas, we cannot neglect the cyclic influence of the indigenous Amerindian and later of the African beliefs brought by the slaves. Though it seemed curious to me that Islam, even in extremely diverse-religious places, such as SE Asia, appeared to be a monolithic and heavily Arabized institution. Your account sheds a very interesting light in the subject.

What about Cao Dai analogue based more on Islam instead of Catholicism?

Caodaism is a bit later in the timespan I wanted to explore. I was thinking more about Medieval (or rather pre-Modern as a whole) period, but, indeed, this seems an useful comparison for us to draw a conceiveable parallel.

If you're looking for "Han" Chinese Muslims with syncretic Confucian/Taoist/Buddhist beliefs as opposed to Central Asian Turkic peoples in modern-day China, you're looking for the Hui, not the Uyghurs of Xinjiang.

Indeed, the mention about of the Uyghurs was descriptive, but I had read a bit about the Hui. Even so, I was under the impression that their beliefs were more grounded in "classic" or "mainstream" Islamic beliefs than a syncretic approach.

 

[GrinningSatyr]

Take this with a grain of salt given the Wikipedia sources, but how's this for a foundation from (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Sikhism#Syncretism)

"One view of Sikhism is that it is a syncretism of Hinduism (particularly the Bhakti movement) and Islam (particularly Sufism[30][31][32]), having evolved from Hinduism in the context of a multiplicity of syncretic movements in Medieval India, while taking the idea of monotheism from Islam,[33][34][35][36] as well as the incorporation of selected hymns from Hindu and Muslim saints (such as Kabir, Fariduddin Ganjshakar and other Bhagat) into the Guru Granth Sahib.[31] This view was commonly believed, but is outdated within scholarship.[37]

According to Harjot Oberoi, until the 19th century the Sikhs had shown "little collective interest in distinguishing themselves from the Hindus" and "Sikh notions of time, space, corporality, holiness, kinship, social distinctions, purity and pollution and commensality were hardly different from those of the Hindus."[38] The Sikh belief in Reincarnation is also often used as proof of the syncretic influence of Hinduism on Sikhism,[39][40][41][42] although that belief in reincarnation also existed in other Indian religions, including Buddhism and Jainism before the conception of Sikhism.[43]"


Notably, the main article on Sikhism disagrees with the syncretic idea while simultaneously confirming cultural/religious similarities:

"The Sikh scriptures use Hindu terminology extensively, with references to the Vedas, and the names of gods and goddesses in Hindu bhakti movement traditions, such as Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma, Parvati, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Rama, Krishna.[128][134][self-published source][135] It also refers to the spiritual concepts in Hinduism (Ishvara, Bhagavan, Brahman) and the concept of God in Islam (Allah) to assert that these are just "alternate names for the Almighty One".[136]

While the Guru Granth Sahib acknowledges and respects the God in the Vedas, Puranas and Quran,[137] it does not imply a syncretic bridge between Hinduism and Islam,[138] but emphasises focusing on Japu(repeating mantra with the name of God), instead of Muslim practices such as circumcision or praying on a carpet, or Hindu rituals such as wearing thread or praying in a river.[139]"

 

[Intransigent Southerner]

Though it seemed curious to me that Islam, even in extremely diverse-religious places, such as SE Asia, appeared to be a monolithic and heavily Arabized institution.

Huh? Islam is far, far, far more diverse than Catholicism, mainly because Islam lacks an international clerical hierarchy like the Pope. Muslim Javanese kings worshiped a "Goddess of the Southern Ocean" and various other indigenous and Hindu deities. Same in Bengal with Hindu gods, in West Africa with African gods, arguably in the heart of Arabia itself (with the tree god that Abd al-Wahhab chopped down).

Chinese Muslims said that Muhammad was a Confucian sage. Not comparable to a sage, mind you. An actual, literal sage in the same sense that Confucius was a sage.

 

[I'tikaf]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Bani Cham yet. It isn't a natural syncretism as a King of Champa forced both Hindu Chams and Muslim Chams to syncretism their faiths but it's certainly syncretism. So according to folklore Hindu Chams and Muslim Chams always fought each other due to their differing beliefs. A Hindu King decided to force the two together as he was worried the religious divide would weaken the Kingdom which was being threatened by the Vietnamese. So he forced Muslims to worship Hindu gods and vice versa. There's also a French Documentary about the Bani Cham: