History of Buddhism and Islam

[PhillyG]

Hello everyone,

I was quite occupied the last months but now I have a little spare time.

I'm recently looking for good sources about the history between Islam und Buddhism. The rich history suprised me. I wasn't aware of it.

Does anyone can contribute a good book or different source to the topic?

Greetings from Germany

Philly

[Aloka]

Hi there Philly,

Good to see you posting again!

Unfortunately I'm unable to provide any helpful resources myself, maybe someone else might know something......have you tried Googling ?


Stay safe & well.

Aloka

[philg]

I looked into it at one time and found very little to go on. The most I could find was a reference to the possibility that a mystical element remains in modern Islam, with some seeing the need for people to have their own spiritual experiences. The aim for these people is to realise that nothing other than God exists, and to do this by losing the self in nothingness, where the state of the self does not exist. Fasting, dreamwork, imaginal perception and work of the conscious intellect are all used to ‘decondition, recondition, and finally uncondition the whole of the mind, including the subconscious.

I can't find where I took this from, but you could start with modern Islamic philosophers such as the Moroccan philosopher Mohammed Abed al-Jabri who has suggested that philosophy and faith can work with the same truth. In this respect some have looked at Buddhism as a philosophy which could be studied. As to history, the Mughals destroyed a lot of remaining Buddhism and artifacts in India during their rule there, so not much in terms of links between the two.

[Aloka]

Sorry but I think at this point its probably worth me gently mentioning no.17b in the Code of Conduct for the website, which is:

17b) This is not a comparative (world) religions or 'spiritual beliefs' website, nor a place to discuss "magic and the supernatural." Our main focus is the teachings of the historical Buddha and the various Buddhist traditions which arose after his death.

Thanks