Throughout the time, main purpose of a trade route was to transfer goods but people also transferred ideas, beliefs, and technology. One of the most essential trade routes which these exchanges happened was Indian Ocean Trade Route. In this route, they traded goods such as ‘Indian spices, Arabian aromatics, Chinese silk and all other goods from different regions.’ (Seland 373) They also exchanged nautical knowledge which led to the development of advanced ships. In addition, they learned about different cultures and religions of different countries.
All of these impacted humankind on different levels but from my point of view, the main contribution to humankind was cultural and religious exchanges.
Firstly, we cannot state that it was possible to spread all the religions in the world. ‘As Jonathan Z. Smith conceptualizes these differences by diving religions into those are practiced ‘here'(the domestic sphere), ‘there'(the civic and national sphere) and anywhere’. (Seland 385) . All the religions that spread in this route belong to anywhere group which was Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam that can be existed in each part of the world.
The importance of the spread of religion relies on the identification. In those times, people’s connection to their geographical region wasn’t strong, thus when they traded with other regions, their religion would be representing them. This was essential because merchants spread their religion and created religious communities in foreign regions that can give them a sense of identity and belonging. These communities would facilitate the process of trading and adaption with regions that people did not know because people would have people from the same religion whom they could trust and live with.
This communities also lead the way to migrations which ease the development of cosmopolitan communities across the Indian Ocean. If Indian Ocean Trade route existed for a long time and if there was a constant migration, these communities played a key role in these activities as they made these events happen easier and for a longer time because these communities made possible for minorities to exist in foreign regions. Secondly, the religion’s effect was not only on creating communities but also it impacted local cultures. Each religion presented a different culture for which influenced local populations. With the exchanges of religion, people also exchanged their cultures. This lead to the existence of heterogeneous societies with different cultures. In those times, new-coming cultures didn’t destroy the existing cultures. They facilitated the creation of new mixed cultures. For example,’ in Indian Sub-Continent, the north side had an Islamic Influencers over Indian Culture and the south side where Hinduism and Buddhism practiced was over the influence of Southeast Asia and Malay World Cultures.'(Mcperhson) These two are examples of mixed cultures which didn’t eliminate the existing ones. These different cultural influences over different regions were essential because these influences helped regions in different ways. They helped them to develop and grow in areas such as Politics, Social, Commercial and Languages. Islamic countries had their own legal and trading systems which were one of the most developed of the time. As other non-Islamic regions started to interact with them, they adapted to them and began to use Islamic systems with Islamic languages while adapting them into their own cultures.
To conclude, religious exchanges around the Indian Ocean under the Arab Control contributed to Humankind in areas as improvement of local regions and the existence of international communities.
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