Cultural continuity in the medieval world of islam : Two fabulous Arabic inscriptions from Gaur, the early muslim Capital of Bengal Sultanate

Abstract EN

For centuries, the Islamic world witnessed a slow, but steady globalization and cultural continuity.

Gradual expansion of maritime and commerce contacts, trade routes, spiritual and educational links, pilgrimage and travel activities and many other factors contributed to this development.

Islamic inscriptions are one of the rare sources that help us capture the ethos of medieval Islamic world.

Indeed, certain Arabic verses with a theme deeply imbued in water cosmology in some monumental inscriptions both in South Asia and Andalusia attest to this cultural unity.

A well-known French colonial administrator in North Africa once compared the world of Islam to a resonant box: the faintest sound in one corner reverberates through the whole.

This apt metaphor translates correctly the globalization and cultural continuity in the world of Islam through history.

In spite of its many distinctive local cultural features, one finally discovers the most vibrant message of Islamic civilization-the unity within the diversity-that is still visible throughout history in the Islamic world.