The Nature of Religious Conflict Among Muslims: An Analytical-Comparative Study between Baghdad and Andalusia during the 5-6 AH/11-12 AD

Abstract

This research deals with the religious and sectarian competition and conflict that took place between Muslims during the fifth and sixth centuries AH in Baghdad and Andalusia, and reviews the factors behind the confrontation between them and the results that resulted from them. In other words, and more precisely, the research aims to shed light on the existing conflict between intellectual currents. The three: rationalism, metaphysics, and gnosticism.

The transitionalist current was at odds with the rationalist current in many issues pertaining to the origins of religion or its branches on the one hand, and stood in the face of the mystical current on the other hand. Bloody clashes between followers of different sects, especially between Sunnis and Shiites, and between Sunnis themselves.

It is worth noting that each sect took different means and methods to undermine the other and weaken or erase it if possible, including, for example, the infidelity of the other and the burning of books that promote thought and its sect. From an intellectual point of view, these conflicts and confrontations left their effects on two parts: The first: the positive impact, which is represented in the authoring of dozens or even hundreds of intellectual books that promote what each doctrine goes to, and in that enriches the intellectual movement.