ABSTRACT
The Perceived Dichotomy Mecca, the cradle of Islam, was an urban center of trade and religion. In the lands conquered by the Arabs the early converts to Islam were migrants to the towns. Islamization was thus closely linked to urbanization. For some time the towns were Muslim and the countryside remained almost completely unconverted. In Islam, migration to the town is considered meritorious because it is in the town that one can fully practice the Muslim way of life. Muslim culture is urban because Muslim institutions evolved in the towns, through the collaboration of the 'ulama' with the mercantile classes. Merchants, more than any other group, conducted their life according to the sharfa. 1
Islamization of the countryside and of tribal societies took place at a later stage and was aided by the development and proliferation of ~iijf orders. In rural Islam there was a greater continuity with the local pre-Islamic culture and social organization. The sharfa made little progress at the expense of customary law. The worship of saints and local shrines was central to the religious experience of rural Muslims.2
