Islamic Expansion into Central Asia and Muslim-Buddhist Encounters

The study reviews Islamic expansion into Central Asia (from eastern Iran to Gansu in north-west China) from the seventh to the 16th century, highlighting Muslim-Buddhist encounters. It first discusses an initial period of Islamic imperial military expansion into Central Asia, where Buddhism was only one, rather marginal, religion practiced among the sedentary population met by the conquerors. It then argues that further Muslim expansion into Central Asia from the late 10th century onwards was mainly due the Islamisation of nomadic or post-nomadic collectives who had adopted Islam primarily to acquire communal identity and legitimation. Around the same time, other nomadic and semi-nomadic groups in East and Central Asia adopted Buddhism as part of their state formation, for similar reasons. These Muslim and Buddhist polities were connected by trade and sometimes also marital and political alliances, but there is hardly any evidence for meaningful intellectual contacts prior to the Mongol conquest. The Mongol period (13th–14th centuries) not only resulted in a huge expansion of Islam, it also brought Islam and Buddhism under one rule and invigorated Muslim-Buddhist intellectual exchange. Under Mongol rule, Muslims and Buddhists became the major competitors for converting the Mongols, a process which eventually led to the division of the steppe between Islam and Tibetan Buddhism.