These differences were accentuated by the Mongol-Tatar invasions that began in the 1220s and culminated in the devastating sack of Kiev in 1240.
That civilization is distinguished from the rest of Europe by legacies of a medieval Mongol-Tatar domination that precluded the sharing of many of the innovations and developments of European "Western civilization"; it became further distinctive during the relative isolation of the Soviet period.
Ancient Kazan (Iske Kazan) was founded in the late 13th century by the Mongols (Tatars) of the Golden Horde after their overthrow of the Bulgar kingdom on the middle Volga.
The Russians have their own horror tales to recite about the 250 years of Mongol-Tatar rule.
It passed successively under the influence or outright control of the Greeks, Romans, Khazars, Mongols, Crimean Tatars, Turks, and, after 1864, the Russians.
Toward 1300, Chinese influence, infiltrating by way of the Mongols and Tatars, makes itself felt in the decoration of these glasses, as is apparent in the series of great mosque lamps that then began to be inscribed with the names of rulers and great officers of state in Egypt.
It publishes books and periodicals in languages including Tatar, Mongol and Uygur, and issues an iPhone app featuring Koranic verses and a prayertime alarm.
Russian culture with its Slavic roots is also the product of Greek, Nordic, Tatar and Mongol influences — and the rapid Westernization of the elites in the 18th century.
In viewing the scientific and philosophic tradition of Eastern and Western Islam prior to the Tatar and Mongol invasions, they saw an irrefutable proof that true Islam stands for the liberation of the human spirit, promotes critical thought, and provides both the impetus to grapple with the temporal and the demonstration of how to set it in order.
