Culture in the Muslim-Arab World

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Abbasid-era Les Makamat de Hariri par Yahya ibn Mahmoud ibn Yahya ibn Aboul-Hasan ibn Kouvarriha al-Wasiti, folio 86r

The Arab world has been described as the largest culturally homogeneous region in the world. It is unified by language, religion, poetry and music. The modern media as a transmission vehicle for music, news, ideas and entertainment has helped unify the Arab-Muslim world. Groups like the Muslim Brotherhood feel that Islam should infused in all aspects of the media, culture and life.

The Middle East is the source of three of the world’s great religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—and the home of the ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian cultures, The Seven Wonders of the World were in the Middle East and the first alphabet, first writing, first school, first calendar and the first code of laws originated there. The world oldest inhabited city (Damascus) is there as well as most of the places mentioned in the Bible. Arabs are relative latecomers to the Near East. They are first mentioned in the mid 9th century B.C. as a tribal people subjugated by the Assyrians.

After the Arab conquest in the 7th century, for example, Egypt was transformed from a predominantly Christian country to a Muslim country in which the Arabic language and culture were adopted even by those who clung to their Christian or Jewish faiths. In time most of the people accepted the Muslim faith, and the Arabic language became the language of government, culture, and commerce. The Arabization of the country was aided by the continued settlement of Arab tribes in Egypt. [Source: Helen Chapin Metz, ed. Egypt: A Country Study, Library of Congress, 1990 ]

Websites and Resources: Islamic Art and Architecture: Islamic Arts & Architecture /web.archive.org ; British Museum britishmuseum.org Islamic Art Metropolitan Museum of Art metmuseum.org/toah/hd/orna ; Islamic Art Louvre Louvre ; Museum without Frontiers museumwnf.org ; Architecture of Islam ne.jp/asahi/arc ; Images of mosques all over the world, from the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT dome.mit.edu ; Islamic Images islamicacademy.org ; Victoria & Albert Museum vam.ac.uk ; Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar mia.org.qa ; CalligraphyIslamic, lots of Islamic calligraphy web.archive.org ; Islamic, Arabic and Persian Literature Islamic and Arabic Literature at Cornell University guides.library.cornell.edu/ArabicLiterature ; Internet Islamic History Sourcebook fordham.edu/halsall/islam/islamsbook ;
Wikipedia article on Islamic Literature Wikipedia ; Wikipedia article on Arabic Literature Wikipedia ; Wikipedia article on Persian Literature Wikipedia ; Persian literature at Encyclopædia Britannica britannica.com ; Persian Literature & Poetry at parstimes.com /www.parstimes.com ;

Islamic or Arabic Civilization?

ancient Arabic writing in an 8th or 9th century Qur'anic manuscript

Arthur Goldschmidt, Jr. Wrote in “A Concise History of the Middle East”: “Scholars are divided between the terms "Islamic" and "Arabic." Some say the civilization was Islamic because the religion of Islam brought together the various peoples -- mainly Arabs, Persians, and Turks -- who took part in it. The religion also affected its politics, commerce, life-style, ideas, and forms of artistic expression. [Source: Arthur Goldschmidt, Jr., “A Concise History of the Middle East,” Chapter. 8: Islamic Civilization, 1979, Internet Islamic History Sourcebook, sourcebooks.fordham.edu /~]

“But, for much of the period you have studied so far, Muslims were still a minority within the lands of Islam. Since the Muslims were relatively unlettered at first, it is hardly surprising that many of the scholars and scientists active within the civilization were Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, or recent converts to Islam whose ideas still bore the stamp of their former religions. The civilization evolving in the Middle East drew on many religious and philosophical traditions. /~\

“The alternative name, "Arabic civilization," emphasizes the importance of Arabic in the development of the culture. Not only because of its prestige as the language of the Quran and of the conquering elite, but also because it could easily assimilate new things and ideas, Arabic became the almost universal language of arts, sciences, and letters between 750 and 1250. But do not assume that all the artists, scientists, and writers were Arabs. The builders of the civilization came from every ethnic group within the ummah. Although many were Arabized Berbers, Egyptians, Syrians, and Iraqis whose present-day descendants would call themselves Arabs, only a few were wholly descended from Arab tribesmen.” "Islamic" is a more comprehensive term than "Arabic". /~\

Some say the Arab contribution to Islamic culture has been unduly magnified, and that of the civilized peoples of Egypt, Syria, 'Iraq and Persia, who later converted to Islam, has been minimized. In the Middle Ages there were two great centers of Arab and Muslim culture: Baghdad in Iraq and Cordova in Spain. As Islam spread, it embraced Greeks, Jews, Romans, Iberians, Hindus, Egyptians, Persians—each of whom added elements of their own culture to Islamic culture.

Islam Art Prohibitions

Muslims believe that only God creates. Only Allah has the power to give life. Extended to art this belief infers that any artist who paints pictures of people or animals is trying to outdo Allah himself and therefore deserves some of the worst punishments on the Day of Judgment. Some Muslims believe that when an artist, who has created animate objects, faces Allah in heaven, god will ask him to breath life into his creations. When the images remain lifeless the artist will be cast into hell.

Any picture or an animal or a person in a mosque or work or art is seen as idolatry. But the Qur’an doesn't explicitly ban images of animals and people as is commonly thought. It warns against the creation and worship of idols. According to the Qur’an: "Those who endure the most grievances on the Day of resurrection are those who create a likeness." Idolatry ( shirk in Arabic) is regarded as the handiwork of the devil. It is one of the worst sins and even the worship of Muhammad is sacrilegious. The only being that a Muslim is allowed to worship is Allah.

One of Muhammad's most important acts was expelling the Kaaba of idols. One early Arabic source wrote the Kaaba contained paintings as well as statues and that Muhammad ordered them all destroyed except a mural of Jesus and the Virgin Mary which he spared, some suggest, so as not to offend his Christian converts. Presumably Muhammad and his successors had no problems with paintings. The movement to forbid painting, some, was influenced by Jewish converts.

Intellectual Life in the Early Islamic Period

Hilye-i serif (a visual form in Ottoman art related to the physical description of Muhammad)

Arthur Goldschmidt, Jr. Wrote in “A Concise History of the Middle East”: Unfortunately, many Westerners still believe that the Arab conquests stifled artistic, literary, and scientific creativity in the Middle East. In reality, no area of intellectual creativity was closed to Muslim scholars. Although the Quran is not a philosophical treatise, nor Muhammad a philosopher, the Arab conquests brought Muslims into direct contact with the philosophical ideas of the Hellenistic world, including those of Plato, Aristotle, and many later thinkers. Hellenistic philosophy was alive and well in several Middle Eastern schools, including the Neoplatonist academy of Alexandria and the great Sasanid university of Jundishapur; and in ninth-century Baghdad Mamun's Bayt al-Hikmah picked up where these places left off. The encyclopedic writings of Aristotle, translated by Syrian Christians into Arabic, inspired much Muslim thinkers as al-Kindi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), and Ibn Rushd (Averroes). [Source: Arthur Goldschmidt, Jr., “A Concise History of the Middle East,” Chapter. 8: Islamic Civilization, 1979, Internet Islamic History Sourcebook, sourcebooks.fordham.edu /~]

“The "Philosopher of the Arabs" al-Kindi (d. 873) rated the search for truth above all other human occupations, exalted logic and mathematics and wrote or edited many works on science, psychology, medicine, and music. He was adept at taking complicated Greek concepts, paraphrasing them, and simplifying them for students, a skill any textbook writer can appreciate. Ibn Sina (d. 1037), originally from Transoxiana, also combined philosophy with medicine. His theological writings are unusually lucid and logical, although his devout contemporaries shunned them because he separated the body from the soul and conceded that the individual has free will. He argued that the highest form of human happiness was not physical, but spiritual, and that it aimed at communion with God. His scientific writings include what amounts to an encyclopedia of medical lore. Translated into Latin, his greatest book remained a text for European medical students until the seventeenth century. Like al-Kindi, he wrote on logic, mathematics, and music. The greatest Muslim writer of com- mentaries lived in twelfth-century Spain. Ibn Rushd (d. 1198) is best known for his works on the philosophy of Aristotle and on Muslim theologians. Because of his unorthodox religious views, many of his writings were burned, and some of his original contributions to knowledge may have been forever lost. /~\

“Poetry was also an important means of artistic expression, instruction, and popular entertainment. There were poems that praised a tribe, a religion, or a potential patron; some that poked fun at the poet's rivals; others that evoked the power of God and the exaltation of a mystical experience; and still others that extolled love, wine, or sometimes both (you cannot always be sure which). Prose works were written to guide Muslims in the performance of worship, instruct princes in the art of governing, refute the claims of rival political and theological movements, or teach any of the 1001 aspects of living from cooking to lovemaking. Animal fables scored points against despotic rulers, ambitious courtiers, naive ulama, and greedy merchants. You probably know the popular stories that we call he Arabian Nights, set in Harun al-Rashid's Baghdad, but actually composed by many ancient peoples, passed down by word of mouth to the Arabs, and probably set to paper only in the fourteenth century. You may not have heard of a literary figure equally beloved of the peoples of the Middle East. The Egyptians call him Goha, the Persians say he is named Mollah, and the Turks refer to him as Nasruddin Hoja. One brief story will have to suffice. A man once complained to Goha that there was no sunlight in his house. "Is there sunlight in your garden?" asked Goha. "Yes," the other replied. "Well," said Goha, "then put your house in your garden."” /~\

Abbasids and the Arab Golden Age

The Abbasids (A.D. 750 to 1258) presided over the Golden Age of Islamic culture, art and science. While Europe was in its Dark Ages, the Islamic world was the most advanced civilization in the world. Spanning the globe from northwest Africa to the islands of Indonesia, it was light years ahead of Europe. Its main rivals—India and China—were powerful and rich but they were limited to one ethnic group and one geographical area and their influence on others was restricted mostly to their group and area.

During the reign of its first seven Abbasid caliphs, Baghdad became a center of power where Arab and Iranian cultures mingled to produce a blaze of philosophical, scientific, and literary glory. This era is remembered throughout the Arab world, and by Iraqis in particular, as the pinnacle of the Islamic past. At its peak in the 9th through 13th centuries, the Islamic-Arab world, Princeton historian Bernard Lewis, wrote: “represented the greatest military power on earth—its armies were at the same time invading Europe and Africa, India and China. It was the foremost economic power in the world..It had achieved the highest level so far in human history in the arts and sciences of civilization."

In the 8th and 9th century, under Abbasid caliphs, Baghdad became one of the great cities of the world and the focal point of a vast empire. During that time Baghdad grew into a circular city, nearly three kilometers in diameter, ringed by three concentric walls. At the center was the caliph's green-domed place. From the four gates were highways that extended to the fringes of the Abbasid empire. A bridges of boats was built across the Tigris River.

Under the Caliph Harun al-Rashid, Baghdad becomes the richest city in the world and the center of he Islamic golden age. It grew to encompass with over a million people. Immortalized in the tales from Arabian Nights, it was situated at the crossroads of major Silk Road trade routes, was filled with great scholars, poets, scientists, gardens and magnificent buildings and gave the world Arabic numbers, decimal pints, algebra and medical advances.

Early Islamic Poetry and Art

Arabic and Persian poetic verses

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art : During the Abbasid period, “a distinctive style emerged and new techniques were developed that spread throughout the Muslim realm and greatly influenced Islamic art and architecture. “Since the style set by the capital was used throughout the Muslim world, Baghdad and Samarra’ became associated with the new artistic and architectural trend.” Unfortunately, virtually nothing remains from Abbasid Baghdad today. [Source: Yalman, Suzan. Based on original work by Linda Komaroff. "The Art of the Abbasid Period (750–1258)" Metropolitan Museum of Art metmuseum.org \^/]

Partly because of its association with the Qur’an and god, poetry has traditionally been considered the highest Arab-Muslim cultural form. Most of the Arab world's most famous literary figures have been poets. They have often been regarded as men blessed or cursed with special talent denied ordinary men, in some cased from demons. Muslim poets wrote love songs rich in betrayal and sensual imagery, usually accompanied by musical instruments. Even Muslims who are illiterate can appreciate poetry because they recite and hear the poetic verses of the Qur’an every day.

In the pre-Islamic era poets acted as storytellers, historians, judges, philosophers and counselors. With the arrival of Islam, the rich language of the Qur’an because an expression of poetry in itself. In the courts of Baghdad and Damascus, poets were held in the highest of regard. Many famous poets seemed to have had drinking and women problems.

Popular styles of poetry included: 1) the qasida, an ode that originated in pre-Islamic times with accented meters and with a single rhyme running throughout it; 2) the muwashshah, a style that emerged in the 10th century and had a pattern of rhymes that appeared in a series of lines repeated throughout the poem. Among the most popular subjects were the exaltation of God, praise or rulers, odes to nature and romantic love and mysticism.

Poetry in the Arab-Muslim World

Poetry is highly regarded in the Muslim world. Partly because of its association with the Qur’an and god, poetry has traditionally been considered the highest Arab-Muslim cultural form. Most of the Arab world's most famous literary figures have been poets. They have often been regarded as men blessed or cursed with special talent denied ordinary men, in some cases from demons. Among the most popular subjects of Arab, Persian and Muslim poetry are the exhalation of God, praise or rulers and odes to nature and romantic love and mysticism.

Charles F. Horne wrote: “Arabic poetry is based largely on harmonies of sound and striking turns of phrasing. Hence most of the poems are brief; and a poet's fame depended upon a few brilliant couplets rather than on any sustained melody or long-continued flight of noble thought.” [Source: Charles F. Horne, ed., “The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East”, (New York: Parke, Austin, & Lipscomb, 1917), Vol. VI: Medieval Arabia, pp. 205-234]

Arthur Goldschmidt, Jr. Wrote in “A Concise History of the Middle East”: Poetry was “an important means of artistic expression, instruction, and popular entertainment. There were poems that praised a tribe, a religion, or a potential patron; some that poked fun at the poet's rivals; others that evoked the power of God and the exaltation of a mystical experience; and still others that extolled love, wine, or sometimes both (you cannot always be sure which). [Source: Arthur Goldschmidt, Jr., “A Concise History of the Middle East,” Chapter. 8: Islamic Civilization, 1979, Internet Islamic History Sourcebook, sourcebooks.fordham.edu /~]

Arabian Nights

The most famous book in Arabic literature is Arabian Nights, a collection of stories that may have descended from an old Persian book called Thousand and One Nights. No one knows where the stories originally came or when they were first told.

from Arabian Nights: The gardener, with a rake, drew the basket to the side of the canal

The stories from Arabian Nights remain popular today. The include classical tales of adventure, magic and wealth set among exotic Eastern settings with harems, bazaars and luxurious palaces. Many people are familiar with the famous stories of Sinbad, Aladdin and Ali Babi through films and children stories without knowing anything about the originals.

The fairy tales of Arabian Nights are believed to be mostly of Persian origin. The moral fables are distinctly Arabian. The tales of animals and beasts are thought to have come from India. Others are probably of Chinese, Japanese and Egyptian origin. In the A.D. 8th century, the stories of Arabian Nights fame were introduced to the court of Harun al-Rashid, the Caliph of Baghdad and one the greatest rulers during the Arab Golden Age. A great patron of the arts, Harun loved the stories and storytellers flattered him by making him a central character of many of the stories, often as a ruler traveling in disguises among his subjects.

No original or authoritative copy of Arabian Nights exists. Up until the Middle Ages the stories continued to be passed on orally, with different storytellers telling different stories, and did not take their present form until around 1400 when Egyptian scholars began writing the stories down. Arabic manuscripts that have survived from this period contain about 200 stories. The Middle Easter scholar Edward Said has accused European translations of the stories as being the source of many of the stereotypes and misconceptions about Arabs and Muslims.

Famous stories in the West from Arabian Nights include Sinbad the Sailor, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and Aladdin. The famous tale of a flying carpet began when three brothers—Prince Ali, Houssain and Ahmed—peered through an ivory tube and saw that the princess they loved was dying. To get to her as quickly possible they flew on a magic carpet Lesser known stories include The Young King of the Black Isles, The Three Sisters, The Enchanted Horse and Prince Ahmen and Periebanou.

Arab Scholarship in the Early Islamic Period

During the 8th, 9th and 10th century when Europe was is in the Dark Ages, the Arab world was incorporating elements of the great civilizations around them—India, China and Byzantium— and producing a great culture of their own. Among other things, the Arabs were very interested in Greek science and philosophy. They were reading Plato and Aristotle when they had long been forgotten in the West. The study of the Greeks is credited with incorporating reason into Islamic thought and causing tensions between those who favored reason and those that followed a strict interpretation of the religious scriptures.

In the early Middle Ages, the Muslim kingdoms were the intellectual centers of the world. The Al-Azhar University in Cairo had 12,000 students and the library in Cordoba contained 400,000 manuscripts. Mosques and madrasahs were the primary centers of learning, but because of what was studied there was of a religious nature, scientific and philosophical studies were supported primarily by the courts of rulers and wealthy people. Science and religion coexisted and supported one another. Astronomers helped fix prayer times and determined the dates and times of Islamic holidays. It was believed astronomy and mathematics provided an avenue to God. Philosophy offered new insights into Islam but also challenged some of its premises.

Arthur Goldschmidt, Jr. Wrote in “A Concise History of the Middle East”: “I alluded to mathematics, science, and medicine in discussing Islamic philosophy, for early Muslims did not split up the areas of human knowledge as much as we do now. We tend to appreciate Muslim thinkers, if at all, for preserving the body of classical learning until the West could relearn it during the Renaissance. Our debt is really much greater. Muslim mathematicians made important advances in algebra, plane and spherical trigonometry, and the geometry of planes, spheres, cones, and cylinders. Our "Arabic numerals" were probably a Hindu invention, but Arabs transmitted them to Europe. Muslims used decimal fractions at least two centuries before Westerners knew about them. They applied their mathematical knowledge to business accounting, land surveying, astronomical calculations, and mechanical devices. [Source: Arthur Goldschmidt, Jr., “A Concise History of the Middle East,” Chapter. 8: Islamic Civilization, 1979, Internet Islamic History Sourcebook, sourcebooks.fordham.edu /~]

schematic of eyes

“In medicine, the Muslims built on the work of the ancient Greeks, but they were especially indebted to Nestorian Christians. One of these was Hunayn ibn Ishaq (d. 873), who translated many Greek and Aramaic texts into Arabic but whose greatest work was in the science of optics. I have already mentioned the continuing use of Ibn Sina's work as a medical textbook in Europe. To give another example of the influence of Middle Eastern medicine, the illustrations in Vesalius's pioneering work on anatomy show many parts of the body labeled with Arabic and Hebrew terms. Physicians in early Islamic society studied both botany and chemistry in order to discover curative drugs and also antidotes to various poisons. /~\

“Rational and nonrational methods of observation were often closely tied together. For example, chemistry would be mixed with alchemy and astronomy with astrology. Knowledge of the movements of stars and planets aided navigation and overland travel by night. But Muslims, like most other peoples, thought that heavenly bodies affected the lives of people, cities, and states, and so many of the caliphs kept court astrologers as advisers. Muslims also used astrolabes (devices for measuring the height q of stars in the sky) and built primitive versions of the telescope. One astronomer is said to have erected a planetarium that reproduced not only the movements of the stars but also peals of thunder and flashes of lightning. Muslim scientists, if not the public, knew that the earth was round and that it revolved around the sun, long before Copernicus or Galileo. /~\

“To come closer to earth, descriptive geography was a favorite subject. Thanks to the Arab conquests and the expansion of trade throughout the eastern hemisphere, Muslims liked to read books describing distant places and their inhabitants, especially if they were potential trading partners or converts to Islam. Much of what we know about Black Africa from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries comes from the writings of Arab travelers and geographers. History was a major discipline, too. Nearly every Muslim scientist had to write about the previous development of his specialty. Rulers demanded chronicles, either to publicize their own accomplishments, or to learn from their precursors' successes and failures. The ulama could never have developed the Shari'ah without first having biographies of Muhammad and his companions. Muslims also liked to read accounts of the early caliphs and conquests for amusement as well as instruction. Muslim historians were the first to try to structure history by looking for patterns in the rise and fall of dynasties, peoples, and civilizations. These efforts culminated in the monumental Muqaddimah of Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406), which linked the rise of states with the existence of a strong group feeling (asabiyah) between the leaders and their supporters. /~\

Golden Age of Arab Science and Mathematics

The Arabs were the most scientifically advanced civilization between the seventh and eleventh century. Muslim scholars made great advances in algebra, geometry, optics, cosmology, alchemy (the beginning of modern chemistry), natural history, astronomy, medicine, geography, technology and philosophy but left the world of physics to Allah and Aristotle. Arabic was the language of science from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean.

Muslim astrolabe, dated to 1080

One historian wrote that Muslim scholars were developing algebra and measuring latitude while "Charlemagne and his lords were reportedly dabbling in the art of writing their names." Lipman wrote, "Muslim scholars accepted the holy book's challenge, exploring the works of their Greek and Babylonian predecessors and synthesizing them with their own works into a highly sophisticated body of knowledge."

Abu Ali al-Hasan Ibn al-Haytham, born in Basra in present-day Iraq in 965, is credited with developing the notion of scientific method. Rather than trying to figure out truth and reality by pondering and analyzing things, as Plato and Aristotle had done, Ibn al-Haytham emphasized experimentation. Ironically, teetotaling Arab Muslims developed the technology of distillation—a way of making the alcohol content in beverages higher—and introduced it to Europe in Middle Ages.

Arabs adopted the Hindu numerical and base ten system into Arabic numerals and invented algebra and trigonometry in A.D. 8th century. Algebra, derived from the Arabic word al-jabr, algorithms and logarithms were developed by Abu Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (800-47), a mathematician from Khiva, Uzbekistan. Algorithm (the mathematical process behind addition and multiplication) is a corruption of his name. He was also a pioneer in using Hindu (Arabic) numerals.

Golden Age of Muslim Spain

The Muslim period in Spain is often described as a 'golden age' of learning where libraries, colleges, public baths were established and literature, poetry and architecture flourished. Both Muslims and non-Muslims made major contributions to this flowering of culture.

According to the BBC: “Islamic Spain is sometimes described as a 'golden age' of religious and ethnic tolerance and interfaith harmony between Muslims, Christians and Jews. Some historians believe this idea of a golden age is false and might lead modern readers to believe, wrongly, that Muslim Spain was tolerant by the standards of 21st century Britain. [Source: BBC, September 4, 2009 |::|]

Cordoba was one of the greatest centers of learning in the world in the Middle Ages. Abd al-Rahman III's library reportedly had 400,000 volumes. Muslim Spain was famous for its poetry, which resembled French troubadour poetry. Córdoba's libraries and poets were celebrated and Islamic scholars kept alive the knowledge of the Romans and Greeks which had died out in the Dark Ages in Europe. The monumental Great Mosque of Córdoba was built by Sultan Abd al-Rahman I and his successors as a symbol of the political and religious power of Muslim Spain.

Alhambra in Granada, Spain

Muslim Influence on European Culture

Arab translators did the world a great service. They translated classical Greek works on philosophy, science, mathematics, medicine, astrology and alchemy. Hunayn ibn Ishaq (808-73), for example, a scholar in Baghdad, translated Plato and Aristotle and Galen's Anatomy. The original Greek versions of these works were lost and probably would not survived if it were not for Ishaq's Arabic translations.

According to Encyclopedia.com: Islam's influence on the world has been enormous. In historical terms, from about the year 500 to 1000, Islamic scholars were responsible for keeping alive much of the knowledge of ancient Greece and Rome. This period in European history is sometimes known as the Dark Ages because of the lack of cultural and scientific advances during the period. Muslims preserved much of the knowledge of the ancient Greeks in libraries (Damascus alone had seventy libraries) and passed that knowledge on to the Europeans. The Europeans themselves, in the centuries after the Crusades, often traveled throughout the Islamic empire, gathering knowledge about science, medicine, and more. [Source: Encyclopedia.com]

The motivations for translating the classical works seems to have been both practical and scholarly. Knowledge relating to medicine, was particularly in demand. There also seemed to be intellectual curiosity. The great Islamic thinker al-Kindi (801-66) wrote: “We should not be ashamed to acknowledge truth from whatever source it comes to us, even if it is brought to us by former generations and foreign peoples. For him who seeks the truth there is no higher value than the truth itself."

The Arabs supplied the cultural and scientific link between the Golden of Greece and Rome and the European Renaissance. The medieval European sources of valuable documents by Euclid and Ptolemy and others where Arab manuscripts that were translated into Latin in Toledo.

Some scholars believe that Arab knowledge played a part in triggering the Renaissance and accelerating the pace of the Age of Discovery. The Renaissance began as a rediscovery of classic Greek culture and many say that Arabs were the ones who were responsible for reintroducing writings by Greek authors. Translations of Arabic texts into Latin spread knowledge of instruments such as the astrolabe. Among the greatest advancements were the merging Arabic numerals with the Hindu concept of zero and Greek geometry and devising algebra and trigonometry and spreading them to Europe.

Modern Arab-Muslim Culture

protest in Iran against Salman Rushdie for his 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses"

Jane F. Collier wrote: In his book “‘Culture and Imperialism,’ Edward Said argues that scholars must analyze connections between the histories of Western imperialist powers and the places they colonized and dominated, because only by understanding our shared history can we counteract the divisive and destructive forces of contemporary movements to rediscover "essential" cultural values, be they American, British, Arab, Muslim, Christian, Indigenous, or whatever. Said criticizes both imperialists and those they dominated. [Source: Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993)]

He condemns Westerners for misunderstanding the role of imperial conquests in shaping their culture -- a culture they continue to regard as superior to all others. And he condemns dictatorial leaders of successful national liberation movements for putting national security above the goals of human liberation and democratic participation. Although Said focuses on literature rather than law, his criticism of essentialist thinking is as applicable to legal treatises as to novels. Histories of Western law that ignore the imperialist context in which it developed and histories of dominated peoples that stress their preservation, rather than their innovative uses, of tradition both fuel dangerous stereotypes of Western law as dynamic (whether progressive or decadent) and Islamic law as conservative (whether pure or backward). /*/

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: “The end of the Ottoman empire unleashed a renaissance in literature and the arts. Traditional arts had suffered under ailing economies and the transfer of patronage from urban regional centers to the Ottoman court. By World War I, artists had turned to Western art as a representative form of modern expression. As a result, a new separation emerged between traditional art in all its forms and what came to be known as the fine art of easel painting. Traditional arts such as painting on glass and leather, woodwork, glassmaking, metalwork, textiles, and wall frescoes were considered naive and repetitive, relying less on intellect and more on archaic traditions. Painting on glass is one example of a dying tradition that ended with the passing of the last Syrian painter in this genre (Abou Subhi al-Tinawi, Muhammad cAli fi al-Sham). [Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art \^/]

French culture had a strong influence on some parts of the Arab-Muslim world. Some upper and middle class Syrians loved French culture. The Syrian-American writer Robert Sole wrote that some “adored French without having a drop of French blood in their veins, just as they knew Paris by heart without ever having set foot there.”

The West and Censorship of Arab Culture

According to the Pew Research Center: Western music, movies and television have become a fixture of contemporary society in many parts of the world. The survey finds that, at a personal level, many Muslims enjoy Western popular culture. This is especially true in Southern and Eastern Europe (66 percent), Central Asia (52 percent) and sub-Saharan Africa (51 percent), where medians of at least 50 percent say they like Western entertainment. Fewer in Southeast Asia (41 percent) and the Middle East and North Africa (38 percent) share this view. Favorable opinions of Western music, movies and television are even rarer in South Asia (25 percent). [Source:Pew Research Center, April 30, 2013]

Even though many Muslims enjoy Western pop culture, a clear majority of Muslims in most countries surveyed think that Western entertainment harms morality in their country. And it is not only Muslims who personally dislike Western music, movies and television who feel this way. In four of the six regions, medians of at least half of those who say they enjoy this type of entertainment also say Western cultural imports undermine morality: sub-Saharan Africa (65 percent), South Asia (59 percent), Southeast Asia (51 percent) and the Middle East-North Africa region (51 percent).

There have been many efforts to censor and control cultural works — particularly in literature, film and television, including even the classic “One Thousand and One Nights” — on the grounds that their content is too sexual or un-Islamic. Amro Hassan and Jeffrey Fleishman wrote in the Los Angeles Times, “Some attempts at censorship are reminiscent of the death threats Islamic radicals made against Salman Rushdie for his 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses." Mohamed Salmawy, president of the Egyptian Writers Union, said he himself received threats from extremists over his play "The Chain," which criticized religion-inspired terrorism. [Source: Amro Hassan and Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times, July 11, 2010 /]

illegal 1988 Iranian edition of Satanic Verses

“Such tactics are common in Saudi Arabia, where last year a scholar issued death fatwas against racy-TV programmers. But they are unsettling in Egypt, traditionally more tolerant. The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information said attempts to silence or censor writers through lawsuits, many of them religion-based, have been rising. The group said 1,500 civil and criminal complaints were filed in Egypt against authors, scholars and journalists in 2007 and '08. Most are dismissed or end in favor of the writer. /

“In 2009, writer and feminist Nawal Saadawi won a lawsuit that sought to revoke her Egyptian citizenship over her play "God Resigns at the Summit Meeting." The work centers on prophets interrogating God over his "unjust rulings" in all three "heavenly faiths." Critics denounced it as heresy. "Extremists and their media tools are against any form of creativity and cases like these are a backlash against creative people and opposition authors," Saadawi said. Her frequent criticism of President Hosni Mubarak's government, she said, served to tangle her case in the courts much longer than suits involving less politically active writers. /

“Attempts at censorship through the prism of religion have spread to works dealing with Christianity. Youssef Ziedan is facing a criminal complaint filed with the state by a group of Coptic lawyers accusing him of "defaming Christianity" in his 2009 "Arabic Booker Prize"-winning novel, "Azazeel," or "Beelzebub." The story is set in 5th century Egypt and Syria and deals with the early history of Christianity and sects that challenged the divine nature of Jesus. Insulting religion is illegal in Egypt, and if convicted, Ziedan could face up to five years in prison. /

“Some intellectuals have a more cynical view of the lawsuits. Gamal Eid, executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, said that often lawyers are seeking notoriety through false righteousness. "Many of those lawyers are not even religious," Eid said, "but the furor accompanying these cases put them in the media limelight, which eventually secures them more clients and higher fees."” /

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Internet Islamic History Sourcebook: sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Arab News, Jeddah; “Islam, a Short History” by Karen Armstrong; “A History of the Arab Peoples” by Albert Hourani (Faber and Faber, 1991); “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “Encyclopedia of the World’s Religions” edited by R.C. Zaehner (Barnes & Noble Books, 1959); Metropolitan Museum of Art, Encyclopedia.com, National Geographic, BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Conversation, Smithsonian magazine, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Library of Congress and various books and other publications.

Last updated April 2024