Islam in Asia: Diversity in Past and Present Exhibition: Islam in Asia

Mixing narrative and historic details, the book recounts the history of the eastern Silk Road, from Samarkand to Chang'an, through 10 individuals—composites based on the historical record—who lived in different city-states along the eastern Silk Road from the 8th to the 10th centuries.

The Silk Road is as iconic in world history. But what was it, exactly? It conjures up a hazy image of a caravan of camels laden with silk on a dusty desert track, reaching from China to Rome. The reality was different—and far more interesting—as revealed in this new history. It describes the archeological finds that revolutionize our understanding of these trade routes. Silk was not the most important good on the road; paper had a bigger impact in Europe, while metals, spices, and glass were just as important as silk. Perhaps most significant of all was the road's transmission of ideas, technologies, and artistic motifs.

Traces the spread of religions and cultures along the trans-Eurasian trade routes over a period of more than two millennia. Indian, Iranian, Semitic, and Mediterranean ideas all followed the same trajectory through Central Asia to China and beyond, picking up additional elements and sometimes being radically transformed along the way. This age-old pattern shows how the transmission of culture and the development of economic networks have always been inextricably linked, laying a precedent for the globalizing trends seen today.

The Muslims of Asia constitute the largest Muslim communities in the world - Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Central Asia. In recent years, bombings in Bali, separatist conflicts in Thailand and the Philippines, and opposition politics in Central Asia, all point to the strategic importance of Asian Islam. Essays in the book examine the broader context of Muslim politics and how Islamic ideals and movements, mainstream and extremist, have shaped Asian Muslim societies. Democratization experiments—successful and unsuccessful—as well as the rise of radical militant movements are analyzed and placed in historical perspective.

A global debate has emerged within Islam about how to coexist with democracy. Even in Asia, where such ideas have always been marginal, radical groups are taking the view that scriptural authority requires either Islamic rule (Dar-ul-Islam) or a state of war with the essentially illegitimate authority of non-Muslims or secularists. This book places the debate in a specifically Asian context. It draws attention to Asia (east of Afghanistan), as not only the home of the majority of the world’s Muslims but also Islam’s historic laboratory in dealing with religious pluralism.

A travelogue of destinations in Central and South Eastern Asia exploring both the Islamic religion and the regions in which it is practiced. Andrew Dowling traveled through seldom-visited countries such as Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, on the road from Istanbul to Indonesia. Godless Pilgrim is an attempt to comprehend the perplexing beauty of the Islamic world that he encounters on his travels. Combining aspects of travel writing, social commentary and poetry, Dowling's perceptive writing is a privilege to read.