Abstract

The formation of Muslim civilization is directly related to the emergence and development of the Arab Caliphate. The monotheistic religion of Islam, which originated in the 12th century, spread from the Middle Volga region in the north to Madagascar in the south, from the Atlantic coast of Africa in the west to the Pacific coast of Asia in the east. After the era of Alexander the Great, which united the Hellenic lands and the Mediterranean Sea with the Indo-Iranian world, the Arab Caliphate was the material, scientific and philosophical center of world civilization for more than five centuries.The Mongol invasion of 1258 led to the fall of Baghdad and the destruction of the Abbasid Caliphate, and subsequently the collapse of Islamic civilization. The common cultural space that existed at that time was divided into Arab, Iranian, Turkish and other areas. However, such ideals of Islam as peacefulness and solidarity, despite political, ethnic and cultural separatism, formed their spiritual unity.
The author notes that Islam spread to territories where religious systems that had formed before it previously existed. Therefore, for a long time, Islam was not the dominant religion in these regions and was forced to “integrate” into the spiritual nature of the peoples inhabiting these lands. For this reason, in some regions, along with purely religious cults, according to the canons of pre-Islamic beliefs, the graves and mazars of saints are considered shrines.
However, the place and role of such components was not the same in the religious consciousness of Muslims in different regions.
From a reformist-modernist point of view, the article defines and analyzes the values of Islam and institutions related to the basic aspects of the classical period of Muslim civilization. The problem of the cult of saints and the attitude towards holy places in post-classical Islam is also considered.