Islam and Tibet - Interactions Along the Musk Routes

475 Pages·2016·8.14 MB·English

by  Anna Akasoy

ISLAM AND TIBET – INTERACTIONS ALONG THE
MUSK ROUTES
The first encounters between the Islamic world and Tibet took place in the
course of the expansion of the Abbasid Empire in the eighth century. Military
and political contacts went along with an increasing interest in the other side.
Cultural exchanges and the transmission of knowledge were facilitated by a
trading network, with musk constituting one of the main trading goods from the
Himalayas, largely through India. From the thirteenth century onwards the
spread of the Mongol Empire from the Western borders of Europe through
Central Asia to China facilitated further exchanges. The significance of these
interactions has been long ignored in scholarship.
This volume represents a major contribution to the subject, bringing together
new studies by an interdisciplinary group of international scholars. They explore
for the first time the multi-layered contacts between the Islamic world, Central
Asia and the Himalayas from the eighth century until the present day in a variety
of fields, including geography, cartography, art history, medicine, history of
science and education, literature, hagiography, archaeology, and anthropology.
Islam and Tibet – Interactions along the
Musk Routes
Edited by
ANNA AKASOY
CHARLES BURNETT
RONIT YOELI-TLALIM
First published 2011 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © Anna Akasoy,
Charles Burnet t, Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim and the contributors 2011
Anna Akasoy, Charles Burnett and Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim have asserted their right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any
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identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Islam and Tibet – interactions along the musk routes.
1. Islam – China – Tibet – History. 2. Culture diffusion – China – Tibet – History. 3. Culture diffusion –
Islamic countries – History. 4. Tibet (China) – Civilization – Mongolian influences. 5. Tibet (China) –
Relations – Islamic countries. 6. Islamic countries – Relations – China – Tibet.
I. Akasoy, Anna. II. Burnett, Charles (Charles S. F.) III. Yoeli-Tlalim, Ronit.
303.4’8251501767–dc22
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Islam and Tibet – interactions along the musk routes /
[edited by] Anna Akasoy, Charles Burnett, and Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7546-6956-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Islamic countries—Relations—China—Tibet. 2.
Tibet (China)—Relations—Islamic countries. 3. Islamic countries—Civilization. 4. Tibet (China)—
Civilization—Islamic influences. 5. Islam—China—Tibet—History. I. Akasoy, Anna. II. Burnett,
Charles (Charles S. F.) III. Yoeli-Tlalim, Ronit.
DS35.74.C6I84 2010
303.48’217670515—dc22
2010008294
ISBN 13: 978-0-7546-6956-2 (hbk)
Contents
List of Figures and Maps
List of Plates
Preface
1 Islam and Tibet: Cultural Interactions – An Introduction
Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim
2 Tibet in Islamic Geography and Cartography: A Survey of Arabic and
Persian Sources
Anna Akasoy
3 The Bactrian Background of the Barmakids
Kevin van Bladel
4 Iran to Tibet
Assadullah Souren Melikian-Chirvani
5 Greek and Islamic Medicines’ Historical Contact with Tibet: A
Reassessment in View of Recently Available but Relatively Early Sources on
Tibetan Medical Eclecticism
Dan Martin
6 Tibetan Musk and Medieval Arab Perfumery
Anya King
7 The Sarvastivadin Buddhist Scholastic Method in Medieval Islam and Tibet
Christopher I. Beckwith
8 Notes on the Religions in the Mongol Empire
Peter Zieme
9 Tibetans, Mongols and the Fusion of Eurasian Cultures
Paul D. Buell
10 Three Rock-Cut Cave Sites in Iran and their Ilkhanid Buddhist Aspects
Reconsidered
Arezou Azad
11 The Muslim Queens of the Himalayas: Princess Exchanges in Baltistan and
Ladakh
Georgios T. Halkias
12 The Discovery of the Muslims of Tibet by the First Portuguese Missionaries
Marc Gaborieau
13 So Close to Samarkand, Lhasa: Sufi Hagiographies, Founder Myths and
Sacred Space in Himalayan Islam
Alexandre Papas
14 Between Legend and History: About the ‘Conversion’ to Islam of Two
Prominent Lamaists in the Seventeenth-Eighteenth Centuries
Thierry Zarcone
15 Ritual Theory across the Buddhist–Muslim Divide in Late Imperial China
Johan Elverskog
16 Trader, Middleman or Spy? The Dilemmas of a Kashmiri Muslim in Early
Nineteenth-Century Tibet
John Bray
17 Do All the Muslims of Tibet Belong to the Hui Nationality?
Diana Altner
18 Greater Ladakh and the Mobilization of Tradition in the Contemporary
Baltistan Movement
Jan Magnusson
Index of Proper Names
List of Figures and Maps
FIGURES
8.1 One of the 84 Mahāsiddhas, after Albert Grünwedel, Bericht über
archäologische Arbeiten in Idikutschahri und Umgebung im Winter 1902-
1903 (Munich, 1905), p. 171, fig. 160.
10.1 Floor plan of the Raṣadkhāna caves at Marāgha.
10.2 Floor plan of the Mihrī Temple/Imāmzāda Maʿṣūm, near Marāgha.
MAPS
1.1 Tibetan Empire, 8th century (estimation)
3.1 Tokharistan and its region
List of Plates
2.1 The six keshvārs according to al-Bīrūnī (362/973-after 442/1050), as in
Biruni’s Picture of the World, ed. A. Zeki Validi Togan (Delhi, 1937), p.
61. By permission of the Archaeological Survey of India.
2.2 Qibla map according to al-Qazwīnī (d. 682/1283), Āthār al-bilād, ms.
London, British Library, Or 3623, fol. 33a. By permission of the British
Library.
2.3 World map of pseudo-Ibn al-Wardī, Kharīdat al-ʿajāʾib wa-farīdat al-
gharāʾib, ms. Gotha, Forschungs-und Landesbibliothek, Ms. orient A
1514, fols 1b-2a (ms. copied in c.1700). By permission of the
Forschungs-und Landesbibliothek Gotha.
2.4 World map of Idrīsī (twelfth century), ms. Oxford, Bodleian Library,
Pococke 375, fols 3v-4r.
4.1 Bronze pendant said to have been dug up at Shigatse. Photo: Tucci.
4.2 Bronze seal, Bard-e Bal type, Lorestan. Photo: Tucci.
4.3-4 Bronze harness ring, with addorsed goat protomes, said to have been
dug up near Lake Manasoravar, Tibet, and another ring. Photo: Tucci.
4.5 Silver wine bowl formerly owned for generations by an aristocratic
family in Lhasa. Eastern Iranian world, possibly Balkh area, late Parthian
or Sasanian period. Photo: Sotheby’s.
4.6 Gold wine cup with Tibetan inscription incised on the underside.
Christian Deydier gallery. Tibetan work, probably seventh-eighth century
CE.
4.7 The elephant headed Ganapati holding a gem-studded gold cup of Iranian
design. Detail of a mural in the Nyag Lhakhang Kharpo cave, Guge
Kingdom, Western Tibet. Photo: Thomas J. Pritzker. Courtesy
Orientations.
4.8 Silver bowl, Western Iran, probably seventh century BCE, private
collection, unpublished. Photo: S. Melikian. Compare lower portion with
Plate 4.7.
4.9-11 Three silver vessels from an Iranian-type wine service. Tibet,
probably eighth century CE. Cleveland Museum of Art.
4.12 Mercury gilt silver wine ewer in the Jokhang, Lhasa. Tibet, probably
ninth-tenth century CE. Photo: Ulrich von Schroeder, courtesy Amy
Heller.
4.13 Pottery wine ewer, Iran, ninth century CE. Photo: S. Melikian.
4.14 North-East Iranian parniyān silk tunics worn at a Sogdian court in
Panjikand (modern Tajikistan).
4.15 The Amitayus Buddha painted on the north wall of the ‘entrance stūpa’ at
Mangyu. Photo: Robert Linrothe, courtesy Orientations.
4.16 Detail of an Iranian-style banquet painted on the leg of the bodhisattva
Avalokiteshvara in the Sumtsek at Alchi. Note the courtier wearing a
kolah-e doshakh (‘two-horned cap’). Photo: Lionel Fournier, courtesy
Ravi Kumar.
4.17 An Iranian royal hunt in Ghaznevid times painted on the leg of the
bodhisattva in the Sumtsek at Alchi. Photo: Lionel Fournier, courtesy
Ravi Kumar.
10.1 Raṣadkhāna caves’ chamber no. 3 with ‘altar’ and pentagonal opening.
Photo: A. Azad.
10.2 Mihrī Temple/Imāmzāda Maʿṣūm’s central chamber no. 4 with Qurʾānic
inscription on its west wall. Photo: A. Matin.
10.3 Mihrī Temple/Imāmzāda Maʿṣūm’s domed chamber no. 7 with Ilkhanid-
style stalactite decoration on its ceiling. Photo: A. Azad.
10.4 Mihrī Temple/Imāmzāda Maʿṣūm’s square chamber no. 2 with elliptical
niches in its wall, surmounted by a dome, and pierced by a light shaft.
Photo: A. Azad.
10.5 Mihrī Temple/Imāmzāda Maʿṣūm: pillar of chamber no. 3 seen through
one of its four collapsed domes. Photo: A. Azad.
10.6 Mihrī Temple/Imāmzāda Maʿṣūm: detail of niches cut into the pillar of
chamber no. 3. Photo: A. Azad.
10.7 Mihrī Temple/Imāmzāda Maʿṣūm: trough-like niches east of the
complex. Photo: A. Azad.
10.8 Dāsh Kasan (Qonqor Olong): north-facing horse-shoe-shaped façade.
Photo: A. Azad.
10.9 Dāsh Kasan (Qonqor Olong): dragon relief on the west wall of the façade.
Photo: A. Azad.
10.10 Dāsh Kasan (Qonqor Olong): set of adjacent miḥrābs in the south-
western corner of the façade. Photo: A. Azad.
10.11 Relief of intertwined snakes at Mihrī Temple/Imāmzāda Maʿṣūm. Photo: