Foxy again… So we have another “Muslims saved Western civilization” post, informing us if it weren’t for the Greek books saved and translated by Muslims then virtually all of ancient knowledge would have been lost. How inane!

Yes, Muslims of the Abbasids (in Bagdad) and Andalusia (Spain) particularly between the 9th and 12th centuries, did humanity a great favor by translating some ancient Greek texts into Arabic. While numbers are uncertain (I have never seen a comprehensive tally of the providence of ancient writing indicating where and how preserved), it is certain that the numbers translating into Arabic are inferior to those in monasteries and much less than those preserved in Byzantine libraries.

The fact is that Islamic scholars in both Baghdad and Spain did great things in science and philosophy, this mainly due to the riches of conquest (plunder) and trade, as well as the blessing of geography. Note that these great civilizations were made possible with the cooperation of Jews, Christians, Nestorians, Persians, Zoroastrians, and Hindus, who translated most of ancient works that enriched Islamic culture, even as second-class citizens. Alas, this did not last. In both kingdoms, Baghdad and Spain, corruption, internal divisions and fundamentalism led to the weakening of each, until they were destroyed by Mongols and Spaniards (the reconquesta), respectively. Islam always eats its own and harms others. Some examples of this are Al-Kindi , one of the greatest philosophers of the House of Wisdom, Baghdad, was flogged because be tried to combine Greek ideas with Islamic beliefs. Another great intellectual, Ibn Sina (Avisenna), was also imprisoned but steered clear of most controversy by concentrating on medicine and science. Then there is the case of Ibn Rushd (Averroes), the most famous of the Andalusian commentators, who was forced to recant by the Islamists. Nothing has change; even today Islamic nations reject the UN declaration of Human Rights because it is “Incompatible with Islam” and Arabic translations of Science and humanist works are still scarce.

Continued...

If credit is due to anybody for keeping the classics alive, it should go to the Byzantines. In fact, in a way, Muslims were responsible for the reintroduction of ancient works to the West in the 15th and 16th century. The brutal conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 caused thousand of Byzantines to flee to Europe, taking their knowledge and manuscripts with them. In fact, in the famous medieval book fairs in Germany, Switzerland and France, Byzantine texts were hot items.

The great Islamic civilizations were made possible by the acceptance and cooperation of nonMuslims, always, only. When either the infidels were expelled or Islamic fundamentalism prevailed, those civilizations went into decline. A measure of this can be seen in Arabia, the heart of and soul of Islam. Even the Arabian Nights, the apogee of Islamic literature, was not written in Arabia. Has there ever been a place so artistically and culturally desolate, so scientifically backward, and so intellectually barren, as Arabia?

The rebirth of Western civilization has very little to due with Islam and any so-called “saved” texts. Rather it was combination of many factors : Increased trade, introduction of paper, the invention of the printing press, the increased use of the vernacular, the rise of secular states and the weakening of religious authority, new inventions and technology (home grown and adapted from other places), new crops, new markets, new forms of art, etc.

So spare us the “Islam saved the world” inanity. Islam is based only on blind, irrational faith, not logic, facts and moral principals.

Did I say logic? Did somebody here mention “reverts” to Islam, referring to new Muslims? Well, by all Islamic jurisprudence, a person reverting is changing his/her religion, and must be killed. Didn’t Mohammad order, according to the hadith, “kill anyone who changes his (Islamic) religion”? Note that Muslims insert the word “Islamic” into the text, otherwise they would have to kill converts/reverts. As I said, Islam and logic or Islam and facts are not and have never been friends. Any country accepting Muslims has a death wish!

Dear kactuz,

During the first century
of the Muslim Abbasid dynasty, which lasted 500 years
until the Mongol leader Hulagu Khan sacked Baghdad in 1258,
most of the great works of Greek philosophy and science
were translated into Arabic and kept safely in centres of
Muslim religious learning. This was a period when the
Muslim leadership supported scholarship, before Muslim
science and philosophy disappeared, leaving 21st century
fundamentalist Muslims believing seventh century customs.

The historian of Arab society Mansfield, in his clear and
concise history of the Arab world informs us that prior
to the religious ascendancy in the Arab countries -
"Poets, philosophers, orators, doctors, and scientists were
honoured and highly paid."

Like the Greeks and the Romans after them, an economic surplus
was put to good use in the Muslim centres of learning.
Just as the West commenced its slow but sure climb out of
the Dark Ages, the Muslim world came under the strict control
of leaders incapable of separating tribal mores from
government. What we now know as Sharia (Islamic) law became state
law, and has remained so in the remaining tribal areas of
Muslim lands.

Today we might have very serious concerns with the
fundamentalist fringe of Islam - just as we do with the
fundamentalist fringes of Christianity and Hinduism - but we should
never forget the role of the Muslim scholars of 1000 or so years
ago. These people discovered (just as some of their Christian
counterparts did) that scholarship was possible in an ostemsibly
religious environment. In the era we are discussing, religious
scholars had going for them what very few others had. They
were literate and they lived off society's economic surplus.

As long as scholarship is not destroyed, and scholars are fed,
clothed and housed, progress is possible.

cont'd ...

cont'd ...

Dear kactuz,

That the progress was going to occur in what had been
the backwater as far as Muslims were concerned, the
West - rather than the Muslim lands - set the scene for
the "so-called" clashes of civilisation of the early 21st
century. The two cultures were set to diverge dramatically,
one pursuing progress based on Greek philosophy, science
and politics; the other regressed from its high point of
scholarship, art and invention and stagnated in a mire of
Old Testament beliefs and AD 700 desert culture.

Dear Foxy,

Yes, " ... we should
never forget the role of the Muslim scholars of 1000 or so years
ago. These people discovered (just as some of their Christian
counterparts did) that scholarship was possible in an ostemsibly
religious environment."

And it shouldn't be forgotten that, when the Muslims invaded the civilised cities of the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa, they 'captured' vast numbers of scholars, who diligently had been copying ancient texts for centuries. When the caliphs in Spain wanted to build their magnificent palaces, etc., they had import Greek engineers and architects to-do much of the planning (and used Christian slaves to do much of the work, since a good Muslim didn't do that sort of thing, i.e. work): they even had to invite scholars scholars from Constantinople to translate works from Greek and Latin and Syriac into Arabic.

The early caliphs invited huge numbers of Berbers from North Africa to Spain to settle and occupy the plains, but had to order them, after a few years, to form into villages rather than allow them to keep their tents and pastoral animals and to keep them from wandering over the country. Again, probably, with local people doing the farming work.

Love,

Joe

Dear Joe (Loudmouth),

The first two or three centuries of the new millennium
were not happy ones. A series of military adventures known
as the Crusades have their legacy today in the blood
feuds between two groupings of Semitic people, the Jews and
the Muslims. We should not omit the Christians from blame.
They were the Crusaders hell-bent on claiming (or
re-claiming) Jerusalem, Bethlehem and other sites, that all
three monotheistic religions asserted were exclusively
theirs.

In English history pride of place goes to Richard the Lionheart.
He is believed to have torn the heart out of a lion which
had been set upon him by an Austrian duke who had imprisoned
Richard. Richard amassed a large, well-equipped army for his
Crusade and in 1191 managed to capture Acre, but not
Jerusalem. He led his soldiers from the front, as kings (and
the occasional queen - Boadicea for example) were accustomed
to doing. Richard's Christian soldiers were on their own
"jihad". Like their Muslim enemy they believed they would
get easy access to heaven if they fought bravely.

Today, we seek the good sustainable life and find not only
unimaginable environmental problems (climate change), but we
replay, at a far more dangerous level than in 12th century
warfare, the Crusades. What is the point of saving humanity
and the planet from a possible environmental disaster if we
are going to keep killing each other in the name of different
prophets of the same god?