After Atheism by
Based on interviews with people throughout Siberia, Central Asia and European Russia about their spiritual experiences, this book brings together insights into the "religious" world-view of those who claim to be Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, pagan or even atheist. Throughout the ex-Soviet Union peoples of many different ethnic backgrounds report such experiences but often do not know how to interpret them, a position helped or hindered by the fact that at the same time these people are trying to rediscover their ethnic and cultural identity. More than 200 illustrations help to demonstrate these experiences.
Die Begegnung Von Christentum, Gnosis und Buddhismus an der Seidenstrasse by
Das Land der SeidenstraBe, das groBe Steppen- und Wiistengebiet nordlich der tibetischen Hochebene, das sich yom westlichen China iiber Ostturkestan und Westturkestan bis hin zum Rande der iranischen Hochebene erstreckt, ist mit seinen transkontinentalen Verbindungswegen von jeher ein Gebiet der Begegnung von Volkern, Kulturen und Religionen gewesen. Dienten die Handelswege, die China iiber das heutige Afghanistan mit Indien, femer mit Persien, Syrien, Agyp ten und sogar Rom verbanden, in erster Linie dem Warenaustausch, so vermittel ten sie dariiber hinaus auch geistige und religiose Inhalte von einem Yolk zum anderen. So trafen hier die groBen Religionen des Orients, u. a. das nestorianische Christentum, der gnostische Manichaismus und der Buddhismus des "Kleinen" und "GroBen Fahrzeugs", in der Zeit zwischen dem 3. 14. und dem 13. 114. Jh. auf einander. Ihre Trager lebten nicht nur nebeneinander, sondern auch miteinander; sie traten in eine lebendige Begegnung ein, so unterschiedlich deren Tiefe jeweils gewesen sem mag. DaB die Begegnung, sofem sie tatsachlich zu einem Ort des Gespraches wird, grundsatzlich AnlaB zu einer Neubesinnung auf die eigene Lebenswahrheit geben kann, hat die Lebensphilosophie erkannt. Der Sachverhalt ist jiingst in aller Schade von O. F. Bollnow herausgearbeitet worden. ! Wir werden uns also die Frage vor legen miissen, inwiefern die miteinander lebenden Vertreter der drei Religionen sich einem solchen Gesprach offneten und inwiefern sie sich auf dogmatisch festge legte Positionen zUrUckzogen.
Islamic Central Asia by
Islamic Central Asia is the first English-language anthology of primary documents for the study of Central Asian history. Scott C. Levi and Ron Sela draw from a vast array of historical sources to illustrate important aspects of the social, cultural, political, and economic history of Islamic Central Asia. These documents--many newly translated and most not readily available for study--cover the period from the 7th-century Arab conquests to the 19th-century Russian colonial era and provide new insights into the history and significance of the region.
Islamisation de l'Asie Centrale by
Cet ouvrage propose une approche interdisciplinaire de la question de l'islamisation de l'Asie centrale du milieu du VIIe siecle au XIe siecle. Il reunit des articles de specialistes de domaines tres divers, de la philologie a l'archeologie en passant par toutes les declinaisons de la methode historique, des champs iranologiques et turcologiques, pre-islamiques et islamiques. Islamisation est compris ici au sens global, et non pas principalement religieux, comme une serie de processus regionaux d'acculturation vers la culture musulmane medievale d'Asie centrale. This book dwells on the cultural change, which took place in Central Asia from the middle of the VIIth century to the XIth century. Its articles come from a wide range of fields (history, philology, archaeology...) and are written by specialists of Pre-Islamic and Islamic Central Asia, in its Iranian and Turkic components, in a demonstration of interdisciplinarity. Islamisation is not to be understood in a mainly religious meaning, but as a convenient way to name the regional process of acculturation towards the Central Asian Medieval Islamic culture.
Muslims of Central Asia by
Between the tenth and sixteenth centuries Central Asia was one of the most prestigious cultural areas of the entire Muslim world, playing a pivotal role in the Silk Road trade. Throughout that history, and up to the present, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Turkmen and other Muslim peoples of Central Asia have developed their own unique understanding and practice of Islam which has shaped their national identity and particular social and political evolution. These special characteristics of Central Asian Islam ensured its survival during seventy years of Soviet atheist rule, while in the post-Soviet period Islam has been integrated into nation-building projects in constitutionally secular Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. This absorbing history is traced in this fascinating study which shows how, from the seventh century to the present day, the region's people have negotiated their distinctively Central Asian Islamic identity in the face of enduring external Islamic and non-Islamic dominations, ethnic nationalisms and, more recently, global transnational Islamic influences.
Buddhist art of central Asia by 
Emanated Buddhas in the aureole of Buddhist images from India, Central Asia, and China by 
