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Cultures in Conflict |
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Part I |
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† From Bernard Lewis, Cultures in Conflict: Christians, Muslims, and Jews, in the Age of Discovery (New York, 1995), pp. 3-26. |
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Islamic Literati Bernard Lewis’ assertion that the culture of Islam was infinitely superior to that of Christian Europe is very much in keeping with the revisionist trend established by modern historians. Though surely there were masters of science, agriculture, and engineering among the followers of Islam, there would have indeed been hordes of nomadic people who were and, continued to be for many centuries thereafter, illiterate. Catholic Monks During the so-called “Dark Ages” of Europe, Catholic monks dutifully reproduced by hand tome after tome of knowledge that had been preserved from the civilization that was the Roman Empire |
which, in turn, had absorbed the knowledge passed on to it by the Greeks. The average Christian European was, by all accounts illiterate, as was his Arabic Muslim counterpart. Islamic Expansion The vast expanse of desert that accounts for most of northern Africa was,
after all, conquered by galloping marauders riding into oases brandishing
scimitars and shouting “Islam,” which means surrender, to the unsuspecting
travelers who had stopped there for a brief respite and a bit of
sustenance. These warriors may have been skilled in the art of war, but
they certainly would not have been learned men in arts and science. |
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Contributed by Richard Wible |
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