16 introductionof the most unsettling and destabilizing political events in the life of a society,
affecting members of the pietistic movement and those who come into contact
with them, not to mention the religion abandoned and the one joined.^27
Focusing on the converter, I argue that having undergone an intensifi ca-
tion of faith or changing to another religion, converts tend to articulate their
enthusiasm for the religion in private practices and public actions. If they are
revivalists, they may attempt to bring members of the original faith to their new
understanding of its signifi cance for everyday life, and then convince members
of other religions to join the newly discovered old religion. Converts to piety are
especially zealous in compelling through their words and actions less observ-
ant members of their own religion to become awakened and heed the religion’s
tenets, which they have reformed, devoting themselves to what they consider a
purifi ed version of the faith.^28 After all, “religious revivals grow by the conver-sion of new adherents.”^29 When a ruler’s aims and those of pietists converge,
it establishes the most conducive environment for the conversion of members
of the sovereign’s religion and his subjects committed to other religions. As in
Christendom, where “the missionary and the warrior traveled and worked to-
gether in the process of extending both Christ’s kingdom and that of the king,”
pacifying foes and expanding the kingdom, the proselytizer in Islamic societies
received “protection, endowments (often on a very grand scale)... the status
that came with association with a king, the infectious example of a royal conver-
sion,” and “access to royal powers of coercion,” all of which would spread the
religion in areas of recent conquest and intensify it among subjects at home.^30
Perhaps adopting the methods, strategies, style, techniques, and mode of en-
counter of the individual that fi rst compelled him or her to change religion, the
convert serves as a mediator in converting outsiders. This confi rms the validity
of his or her newly chosen path, for there is nothing more self-validating than
having others undergo the same transformation he or she experiences and in
having associates in the new lifestyle.
The conversion of peoples is incomplete without the conversion of space,
place, and the landscape.^31 Few scholars, however, have linked conversion of
self and others to a major impact on the built environment, or the spatial di-
mensions of religious change. If the ruler (usually male) of a society converts,
whether to piety or a different religion altogether, he converts holy spaces of
other religions to his own, including the most grand and signifi cant structures
located in the capital and major cities of his state, or constructs new edifi ces cel-
ebrating and announcing his personal decision. Female members of the royal
family and male members of his retinue may do likewise. When the masses
change religion, this occurs on a much wider scale, as all those new believers
and those compelling their conversion demand spaces where their newfound