Aspects of Altaic Civilization III (Uralic and Altaic)
Edition: 1 edition
Publisher: RoutledgeCurzon
Published: July 29, 1997
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 265
ISBN-13: 9780700709458
Subjects: Anthropology; Cultural studies; European history (ie other than Britain & Ireland); Sociology; Social Science; Ethnic Issues; Former Soviet Union, USSR (Europe); Russia; Ethnic Studies - General; Social Science / Ethnic Studies
First sentence: The process of Islamization in Central Asia, and in Inner Asia in general, has never been thoroughly examined with serious attention to even the already available written sources; it has become commonplace for historians to speak rather vaguely about the process as if it were a virtual physical phenomenon of penetration or osmosis, or something akin to the "spread" of a contagion or the "propagation" of an organism, and as if the eminently human and social undertaking of adopting Islam, even if only nominally, or of transmitting the pattern of beliefs, words, and behavior distinctive to Islam were somehow outside the scope of legitimate historical inquiry.