ARTS 017 Lecture Notes 1

As a term, culture is hard to define. In simple words, culture is a ‘way of life’ or ‘the way we
do things’. Culture is all around us- we observe it, perform it and produce it everyday as we
move in society and interact with others. It is the frame of reference that we use to navigate
everyday life- how to dress, how to eat, how to pray, how to communicate, how to live in
families. Culture, in its broadest sense, is a mosaic of beliefs, norms, values, rules, rituals,
knowledge and the spiritual, political and artistic preoccupations of a group at a certain time.
It can be thought of as a lens through which we, as members of that group see ourselves, and
those we perceive as belonging to other groups.

When the norms, values and rules of a group become dominant in society, these come to
constitute the ‘mainstream culture’. For example, the mainstream culture in the UAE is an
Islamic culture. We know this through certain material and non-material evidence. There are,
for instance, mosques all over the country. These mosques serve a particular function: they
provide observant Muslims a place to offer their prayers. But they also have a symbolic
value: they represent the religious identity of the country- the power and authority of its
Muslim rulers, the Islamic and Arabic heritage of the area, the beliefs of the local Emirati
population as well as what it shares with Muslims from other parts of the world who live and
work in the UAE. Thus culture imbues physical artifacts with meanings.

Alongside mainstream culture, several ‘subcultures’ may also be said to exist in the UAE:
expat culture, blogging culture, foodie culture, consumer culture. These subcultures may be
associated with lifestyle choices, interests and hobbies, the arts, social activism etc. The norms
and values of these subcultures do not necessarily oppose the mainstream culture on the
whole but serve as expressions of individuality that may not be otherwise available. Non-
Muslim religious communities such as Hindus and Christians also reside in the UAE.
Temples and churches exist to serve their religious needs. These groups are in turn expected
to respect the country’s Islamic culture- notice the ‘dress modestly’ signs at mall entrances
and the shutdown of food outlets during daytime in Ramadan. Thus culture is typically a site
of negotiation and contestation.

Religion is a major element of culture. The performance of religious rituals, communal

Muslim prayer for instance, constitutes the performance of culture. To what extent a religion
colors the culture of a society may vary. In a way, the existence of the term ‘Islamic
Culture’ shows how deeply Islam influenced and reshaped the culture of 7th century pre-
Islamic Arabia as well as the lands it spread into over the next few centuries, in turn
producing a distinct system of belief, rituals, knowledge, art and architecture that came to be
perceived as ‘Islamic culture’.

Can we say that there is a standard Islamic culture? Wouldn’t that mean Muslims all over
the world would dress and act exactly the same, speak the same language and eat the same
food? That is clearly not the case. Indeed, a rich cultural diversity characterizes Islamic
societies today. Do we then say that there are several local Islamic cultures? If we look
carefully, there is constant negotiation between what is universal in Islamic culture- the
Qur’an, hadith, Islamic law and mandatory rituals such as prayer, fasting and zakat- and what
may be particular in a country- laws, modes of dress, festivals, style of mosques, marriage
customs. For example, most Muslims strive to learn Arabic, a language that may
geographically belong to a certain region and Arabic/Middle Eastern culture only, but it is
also the language of the Qur’an, the one sacred text of Muslims all over the world.

Culture happens in real-time and is constantly changing. In other words, to study any culture,
we must study its history. At what point in time can we say that an Islamic culture came into
existence? The religious view will have us believe that it began when Adam and Eve were
created by God and sent down to earth and that all history, in essence is the history of Islam.
The historians, on the other hand, would argue that it begins as Mohammad received the first
revelation from God around 610 AD. Yet others would say that it began with the Hijra (622
A.D.), as the prophet migrated to Medina and set up the first proto-Islamic state. Or perhaps
it only truly emerged as Muslim armies, under the first four caliphs (Rashidun) and the
Ummayad (661-750 A.D.) and Abbasids (750 -1258 A.D.) conquered lands in present-day
Northern Africa, Spain, India and the Caucasus and the Arab rulers settled down to rule the
local non-Muslim populations roughly from the 8th century.
ARTS 017 Lecture Notes 2

In the 9th and 10th centuries, there was a palpable creative energy in the Islamic world-
mosques, palaces, tombs, markets and caravanserais become major focal points in cities with
their new styles and aesthetics. Arts and crafts flourished, patronized by the rulers and the
rich and facilitated by the movements of craftsmen, merchants and migrants among the cities
of Islam. Calligraphy became a major Islamic art form as Quranic inscriptions appeared on
palace walls, mosques, coins and textiles to proclaim the transcendence and glory of God.
Thus Islam permeated culture to the extent of defining it. At the same time though, there was
political ferment in the Islamic world and the Islamic empire fragmented into smaller regional
dynasties that give new directions to early Islamic culture. Thus art and architecture are of
great value in understanding the political and cultural landscape of a given time and how
these two may be intertwined.

Clearly, even in those early days, being Muslim was not the only way one identified oneself.
Identity is drawn from a range of cultural sources- religion is one but there are others such
as ethnicity, kinship ties and political affiliations. Today, 1 billion Muslims not only belong to
the ‘Ummah’ but also nation-states. Thus one may be a Muslim, an Afghan, a Pashtun of x
tribe and a land-owner and may not necessarily value the aspect of his identity in that order.
Constructing an identity involves asking questions about how you define yourself and how you
define and judge others. Threats, real or perceived, to a group’s identity often produce strong
responses as it endangers the very way the group makes sense the world. Group members,
even among themselves, may not agree on how they define themselves and their worldviews.
Thus identity is a site of conflict and negotiation.

How Muslims view themselves and others has become a burning question of our times. The
turn of the century, dominated by the processes of globalization and the rise of new media,
has witnessed great flux and conflict among Muslims and their relationships with non-
Muslims or the ‘West’ as is often said- the rise of ‘fundamentalism’ and ‘jihadist’ ideology, the
unfolding drama of ‘political Islam’, the role of women in society, questions about religious
authority, and the issues and dilemmas faced by Muslims diasporas in the West who now have
unprecedented transnational links with their countries of origin. All these impact ‘Islamic
culture’ and constantly reshape it.