[Buddha-l] Rice & Dragons

[Dan Lusthaus]

Since the nature of the links I supplied seems to have been missed, let me 
briefly explain the sorts of things I selected (they are not random), and 
why, and what they were intended to provide and/or document.

First, as I just explained, while the full story of the rise and fall of 
Buddhism and Buddhists in Central Asia and India is a long and complicated 
story, and individual events will never tell the whole story, certain 
events -- as well as we can recover history today -- can be seen as pivotal, 
and thus deserve special attention.

One such set of events are the ones that brought Buddhists to Baghdad, their 
temporary flourishing there, and then their purging. This set the tone for 
future situations since the players on the Muslim side also became major 
figures in the development and spread of political Islam. Hence one would do 
well to study figures such as Al-Mahdi, Al-Mansur, Yahya ibn Khalid, and 
especially Harun al-Rashid, along with the House of Wisdom (bayt al-hikhma). 
Mention was made in one of the links to the Fihrist, an important book that 
gives details on what Arabs at that time knew and were having translated 
from Indian and other non-Muslim sources about Buddhism, Manichaeism, etc. 
(there is an English translation -- some of it is available on google books, 
I believe; worth a read).

Pieces on these people are still on Wikipedia, although the mentions of 
Buddhism only remain in one or two pieces, in passing comments. There used 
to be more. More importantly, all the material on what happened to end a 
very special ecumenical moment has been removed, very likely by people 
uncomfortable with the dissemination of such information.

Harun is the one who invited Buddhists to Baghdad, based on their fame as 
translators, literary scholars, etc. His reign was famously one of the most 
open and ecumenical moments in the entire history of Islam, and recognized 
as such by Muslim and non-muslim scholars today. He primarily drew the 
Buddhists from Gandhara and Kashmir. But he collected scholars and 
translators from all over the known world. His successor, Yahya, amidst his 
military campaigns, initially continued this patronage, and established the 
House of Wisdom -- a working library, translation and study center. 
Buddhists became numerous -- and not all were celibate monks.

Within a generation or two, the tide turned, non-Muslim traditions were 
suppressed -- People of the Book, primarily Jews and Christians, were 
oppressed in a variety of ways, but people NOT of the Book, such as 
Buddhists and Jains, were not to be tolerated at all. They were purged from 
Baghdad and many places in central Asia, fleeing to and then holding up in 
some monastic "fortresses" in the Sind.

I pointed to these events for several reasons, the most important being, 
this was the beginning of an important turning point in the relation between 
Buddhists and Muslims in western and central Asia. It was not until 
Al-Biruni (973 -1048) famously argued that the status of "People of the 
Book" should be bestowed on "Hindus" (which meant anyone living south of the 
Indus river -- inclusive of Jains, whatever was left of Buddhists, as well 
as what we today call Hindus), that some muslim conquerors grudgingly 
conceded this, and, at least amongst certain sufis and Islamic 
intellectuals, Buddhist, Hindus and Jains became "honorary" people of the 
book (along with Plato and Aristotle). Al-Biruni was indeed fascinated with 
Indian science and philosophy, and his efforts and polemics probably ended 
up sparing the lives of countless thousand of non-Muslims over the 
centuries, but especially in his own time -- when he fashioned that argument 
precisely to prevent a campaign of massive slaughter that was about to be 
unleashed.

So, if one is sincerely interested in figuring out "why" and "how" Muslims 
came to regard and treat Buddhists as they did, the Baghdad episode is an 
important series of events to investigate.

Another especially important event for Buddhism -- the beginning of the end 
of sustained East Asian contact with India (and some of the reason why 
Buddhism started flowing to Tibet instead of China and East Asia) is the 
Battle of Talas in 751.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Talas

Arabs seized and disrupted the silk routes. Their aim probably was more 
economic and military-strategical rather than "religious" per se, but the 
effects were devastating and decisive. Tibet was spared because, at the 
time, it was a major military player in the region. That virtually no Indic 
Buddhist developments later than the early 8th c ever reached China or East 
Asia (aside from a fast flirtation with tantra that took root in Japan but 
not China) has much to do with this battle and its aftermath (but of course 
the full picture has additional facets and features, but this one looms 
large among them).

I would certainly hope that anyone seriously interested in the sorts of 
questions Artur is raising -- which are important and vital -- would explore 
beyond a few web pages.

I provided the Encyclopaedia Iranica links because it contains entries by 
solid scholars (like Emmerick), and can hardly be considered biased against 
Islam. They offer various glimpses of Buddhist interactions with Islam, as 
well as historical sketches of regions before and after Muslims arrived, and 
the impact that had on the native Buddhist populations. Also the last 
moments of Buddhist presence in Iran, which ended with conversion of the 
ruling Mongols to Islam.

It would be constructive if others would provide more actual information, or 
search some out. Imagining none of this happened, or pretending it doesn't 
mean anything, is not a viable option except for the willfully blind. Buddha 
warned what a string of blind being led by the blind results in.

Dan