Islam

Introduction His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama emphasizes that religious harmony must be based on education, knowing about each other’s traditions. With thorough knowledge, we can acknowledge the common goals we share, while respecting the differences. In fact, from...

There is a long history of Muslims being regarded by the Christian West as the forces of the devil. This began at the end of the eleventh century CE with the Crusades to take the Holy Lands from the Muslims. It continued with the fall of ­­the center of Eastern Orth­odox...

The Organized Bon Religion and the Native Tibetan Tradition The two main religious traditions of Tibet are Bon and Buddhism. The former was the native faith of Tibet, while the latter had been introduced by Tibet’s first emperor, Songtsen-gampo (Srong-btsan sgam-po, r. 617 ...

The Conversion of the Qarakhanids to Islam During the 930s, Nasr bin Mansur, a prominent member of the Samanid royal family, defected to the Western Qarakhanids and was installed as the governor of Artuch, a small district north of Kashgar. He was undoubtedly trying to...

Khotanese Missions to Han China Khotan, lying to the east of the Qarakhanid stronghold in Kashgar, was a wealthy Buddhist state. Its mines were the main source of jade for all the lands along the Silk Route, especially Han China. Occasionally, its kings had even visited Han...

Sectarian Discord within Islam during the Early Abbasid Period The Abbasids had succeeded in evicting the Tang Chinese forces from West Turkistan and the An Lushan rebellion in Han China had seriously weakened the Tang grip on Kashgar, Kucha, Turfan, and Beshbaliq....

The Situation of the East-West Trade Routes The overland Silk Route from China to the West passed from East to West Turkistan, and on through Sogdia and Iran to Byzantium and Europe. An alternative route passed from West Turkistan through Bactria, the Kabul and Punjabi...

When al-Salit bin-Abdullah al-Hanafi arrived in Tibet, there were already two religious traditions sponsored by the imperial court, so-called “Bon” and Buddhism. The former was the native faith of Tibet, while the latter had been introduced by Tibet’s first emperor,...

The Ghaznavid Campaign in Gandhara and Northwestern India After Mahmud of Ghazni was repulsed in 1008 in his attack on the Qarakhanid Empire to his north, he enlisted the Seljuq Turks in southern Sogdia and Khwarazm to defend his kingdom from Qarakhanid retribution. The...

The Kyrgyz Conquest of Mongolia The Kyrgyz (Kirghiz) were originally a Mongolian people from the mountain forests of the present-day Altai and Tuva districts of southern Siberia north of Dzungaria. Some of their tribes also lived in the western reaches of the Tianshan Range to...