Islam in Azerbaijan - The City of Winds

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I S L A M

The overwhelming majority of population of Azerbaijan are the followers of Islam. This is one of the world religions, which was founded by Prophet Muhammed in 610 when he recieved the first revelation from God through Archangel Jabrail (Cabriel) at the age of 40. He was recieving these revelations all the rest of his life. He narrated the Divine commandments to his associates who remembered them by heart. All the Divine revelations had poetic form and were gathered together in the Holy Qur'an - sacred book for all Muslims. The Holy Qur'an reached present days in absolutely unique form, which can not be considered neither pure poetic, nor prosaic. One thing is indisputable - this is the greatest masterpiece of not only Oriental, but also world literature.

Larger part of a text in the Holy Qur'an is a dispute in form of dialog between Allah and opponents of the Prophet. Special attention is given to the appeals of Allah with directions and instructions to the followers of Islam. There are 5 so called pillars of the faith:

"Ash-shahada" - a statement of the main formula of faith: "I attest that there is no God but Allah and Muhammed is his Prophet".
"As-salam" - prayer, carried out 5 times a day. Muslim must clear themselves for what a special ablution ritual is being carried out.
"Az-zeket" - alms, which should be given by each Muslim according to his income.
"As-saun" - fast in the month of Ramazan by the Lunar calendar.
"Al-hadj" - piligrimage to Mecca, which should be carried out at least once in the lifetime of every Muslim.

Islam gives clear concept of God. God here is unlimited in time and space and omnipresent. He created different intelligent essences as well as this world together with other worlds. He is not born and he does not bear. His form is beyond human comprehension. He knows everything. He is the heart of everything. As you can see objective idealism in Islam exceeds the bounds of previous religions.

After Muhammed's death his associates began company of conquest and spreading of Islam. At first Arabs invaded south part of Azerbaijan in 637 and in spite of the resistance of local inhabitants occupied it. In 640 Arabs descended on Caucasus. A ruler of Caucasian Albania of that time Djevanshir was offering resistance longer than others, but after his death Albanian principality stopped to exist. Having conquered Azerbaijan Arabs started to spread here Islam. All inhabitants of Azerbaijan except the upper part of Karabakh adopted Islam. Conservation of Christianity in Upper Karabakh resulted in armenization of this part of Azerbaijan.

However it would be wrong to consider that islamization of Azerbaijan went off smoothly. There were a lot of insurrections which were neutralized by the Calphfate's troops. The longest and vast one was people movement of liberation of Khurramits head by Babek in the end of VIII - beginning of IX centuries. However it was also smashed in 837. In January of 838 Babek was executed by quartering.

Sufism - the mystic movement of Islam has always been popular in Azerbaijan. Especially it was wide spread in Azeri Medieval poetry. The Sufi poetry, distinqueshed by the subtle detailazation of each syllable, harmonizes with the classical Azeri musical genre - mugammat. This mystic and meditative art has rich traditions in Azeri culture. Not only Sufism, but also Islam itself is reviving in Azerbaijan now after 70 years of official atheism under Soviet rule.

In the endl I'd like to mention that the institution of Islam in Azerbaijan has some distinquishing features.First of all it is connected with the fact, that Islam here absorbed many democratic features of Zoroastrism, which was the main religion for Azerbaijanians in pre-Islamic period.

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