The Impact Of Syncretism On Religion And Culture

Over 1.6 billion people are muslims. That is about about a quarter of the entire world. Islam is the second largest religion the world. This beast of a religion started out in the small town of Mecca on the Arabian Peninsula. Over the next thousand years it spread to the astonishing size we know today.

Historically, the major religions of Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism began to spread across Eurasia and Africa from the 5th century through trade routes and conquest. As these ideas and practices traveled to new and distance places, local populations adapted and transformed many of them in ways that reflected traditional beliefs and customs, also known as syncretism. The rise of rulers, such as Sundiata in Mali helps illustrate this process of partial adaptation, or syncretism, in order to get a boost of support from the subjects of the kingdom. The actions concerning syncretism, can be explanation of the rise of kings such as Sundiata. These examples can be seen through the texts “Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali”, “Worlds together, Worlds

The Ottoman Empire was an empire that came to its rise during the year 1299, the empire was a strong follower of the Islamic religion, they were also one of the biggest reasons for the spreading of the religion. The Holy crusades ended during the year 1291, this was just a few years before the Ottoman empire was founded. The Religious wars were far from finished though, religions would keep on fighting for their beliefs for a long time, even until the current day. The Ottoman Empire did not have as much discrimination towards other religions though, they instead invited them through a system called Millet.

Turkey, though once the throne of Christendom, it began a new and glorious religious history starting in 1453 with the sack of Constantinople by the Islamic Turkish forces. During the next half millennium the strong Ottoman state is primarily controlled by the Islamic Sultanate and Caliphate. Istanbul under the Ottoman Empire was a, if not the, cultural center of the Islamic world. The empire brought great wealth, knowledge and culture into the modern day lands of Turkey. Although the modern Republic tried to suppress its Ottoman past, Turkey's Islamic beginnings remain a source of great Turkish pride. Though most people can no longer access their history through original Ottoman texts it is impossible to hide the

In its Golden Age, Islam’s influence reached all the way to Spain, Anatolia, West Africa, and India, among other regions. While these regions were all, in a way, united under a common religion, each of them both altered and were altered by Islam in their own unique ways. Although there were similarities that existed with the spread of Islam to each of those places, many more differences prevailed. Differences and similarities existed in the forms of the role of migration, role of trade, role of cultural exchange, methods of conversion to Islam, and the unique cultural developments in each region.

Christianity has become something more than a religion for the Armenian people. It was their soul and mentality. However, the Armenians had especially hard times when their ancestral lands were invaded from the Far East and Central Asian Turkic tribes. When a breakdown of Constantinople began it also affected an allied capital of the Byzantine – the Great Armenia, and so hard times began: Christian churches were turned into mosques, the minarets were set around, and the faces of the saints in the churches painted over. The Ottomans considered Armenians, Greeks and Slavs as an inferior class. Islamic fundamentalism was formed in the second half of the 19th century and flourished during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid. Armenians became especially hateful for the Turks when they hoped to get help from the Christian

The independence of Turkey and its early development as a country full of energetic youth required a combination of two almost contradictory ideals : In order to illustrate its disassociation with the past Ottoman authority the new government desired international style which expresses scientific modernization and political liberation; However, the Kemalists also wanted to preserve a certain degree of cultural root in order to boost, if not, maintain nationalistic devotion of its citizens. Consequently, a new hybridization of theses two ideals emerged

Sultan Mahmud II and other educated Ottomans with European influence, started one of the largest reform movements in the history of the Ottoman Empire . With the Tanzimat, life in the Ottoman Empire changed significantly, changing the way Ottomans lived. The Ottoman Empire was home to a variety types nationalities, races, religions, and cultures. The Ottomans issued a new policy known as Ottomanism , where they wanted to unite these people under Tanzimat. Some of the results from this policy was the creation of a national anthem

Looking throughout history, there are many instances in which cultures and ideologies mirror biological and scientific phenomena. Often ideas will propagate much like a species would in certain environments. Like Darwin’s finches, notions regarding religion, culture, or any other system of thought, struggle to survive through competition with other systems of ideas. Instead of having offspring that are able to survive longer, these ideologies will fight for converts to further the spread of their beliefs. But in nature it is rare that two species will actually come to learn how to live with each other, and adapt to become stronger from their interaction. Much like when Buddhism immigrated to China, carrying ideals similar to the native Daoist principles, the interaction between the two religions triggered a drastic change in both. This syncretism occurred on account of the competition in the Chinese environment. Specifically, both held similar beliefs, which caused the two to fall into direct competition. In particular, the entry of Buddhism in China was accomplished by way of using Daoist principles and former Daoist to spread their beliefs, which immediately impacted Buddhism by means of its translation. The early success of Buddhism in China forced Daoism to either adapt or become extinct. This interaction between the two caused both to adapt and develop similar religious

The Yaqui have evolved themselves into having a blended religion, with the use of syncretism. Syncretism is, “the mixing/blending of elements from two or more cultural sources to produce a new third culture or

After seizing Constantinople, the ottoman empire has a new opportunity to create a new capital city. They named the city Istanbul. Istanbul located at the center of many critical important trade route connected to Europe and China. It also dominates the water route between Aegean Sea and the Black Sea and control major entrance of northern European trade. With the expansion of ottoman empire, Islamic world also cover large section of world. Istanbul was important influential city between European and ottoman empire during early modern

Southwest religion is home to three major religions. These different religions often cause several conflicts, which is understandable, considering the vast differences between the three. To fully understand why the conflicts are happening, it is vital that the differences and similarities between the three religions, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, are discussed.

Bethany Mills and Matthew Borella Vodou, also known as Vodoun or Voodoo, is a syncretic religion. The word, 'syncretic', refers to the combination of different forms of beliefs or practices. After this being said, Vodou is a combination of Roman Catholicism and a native African religion or more specifically, the religion of the Dahomey region of Africa. However this is argued by many who do not practice Vodou.

By saying that the general religious climate of Asia Minor in the first century was syncretistic is meant the people in Asia Minor want to keep many religions. Their approach to religion is more religions you have the better you are.

Religion has been around for as long as human have been alive. Religion has played a big role in peoples, cultures, the way some people live, people’s decisions and the way they act and our society. Religions has played a role in our civilization for the good and there are some for the bad or as others may refer as controversial. Technology is something people have had for quite some time now and we have used it to communicate and spread information and our ideas. Technology has played a role in religion for the good and for the bad.