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Politics : THE WHITE HOUSE -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pompsander who wrote (8566)	9/10/2007 4:11:18 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 25737

Watched a very well-done educational program last week about the Islamic period in Spain. (PBS broadcast.) Beginning with the initial conquests over the Visigoths (almost up to the Pyrenees, and Sicily and parts of southern Italy), the establishment of various States, shifting positions of Jews and Christians, establishment of world-leading libraries (responsible for much of the translation of Arabic texts on medicine, architecture, astronomy, mathematics... and Greek translations of Aristotle, etc., into Latin and other Western tongues). Resulting in the re-introduction of many of the Greek philosophical concepts into the Western zeitgeist... ultimately making possible the Enlightenment. And, periodic waves of religious 'revivals' of fundamentalist fervor (both Islamic and Christian) in various of the States as time passed... the repeated appeals of 'Crusades' & 'Jihads' as methods for marshalling troops on both sides, as ownership of What is now 'Spain' was contested back and forth.... (For example: Did not know that at one point the Roman Pope instructed Christians in 'Spain' to not go on Crusades to the Holy Land in Palestine... that 'their Crusade was in Spain'... or that internal divisions and civil wars among the Muslim states of Granada, Cordoba, Toledo, etc., are what finally opened the way to the 'reconquista'... or that the Islamic city-states of the period [if China is taken out of the consideration, probably the most scientifically and culturally advanced areas of that era in the world] came to be considered 'decadent' and 'depraved' --- for example: they drank wine and had adopted many 'Roman ways' --- by the fundamentalist Islamic cultures in Northern Africa whom they had turned to to import foreign mercenary troops to defend their Kingdoms against the Catholic reconquista... and who then turned on them and over-threw the rulers and ushered in several centuries of repressive fundamentalist Islamic rule at the same time the Christian side had become more religiously intolerant and also turned to the hard-edged tactics of the Inquisition itself.) Fascinating piece, and some jaw-dropping architecture, natural gardens, etc. One of history's best arguments ever for the great benefits and social strengths that can come from pluralism and religious toleration. Highly recommended! Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain "an epic journey back into one of the most captivating and important periods of world history --a centuries-long period when Muslims, Christians and Jews inhabited the same far corner of Western Europe and thrived." Also, another look... from a Jewish perspective entitled The Crucible of Europe 732 - 1492 covers some of the same ground: " From the 8th to the 15th centuries, during the era that later observers would call the Middle Ages, new centers of civilization and patterns of life evolved out of the ruins of the ancient world. During these years, European civilization acquired some of the basic characteristics that have lasted until our time. Western civilization in this period was divided between the world of Islam and the world of Christianity. Islam thrived in Spain and part of southern Italy. Christianity held sway in England, France, Germany, Italy, Eastern Europe, and from the late 10th century, in reconquered Spain. When the Muslims conquered the Iberian peninsula in 714, they imported there the radiant Arab culture of Baghdad and other capitals of the East. Islamic civilization in Spain reached its zenith in the 9th and 10th centuries, when the Muslim polity, the Caliphate of Cordoba, declared its political independence. Iberian Jewry blossomed and enjoyed what later came to be known as "the Golden Age of Spanish Jewry"—an era marked by extensive Jewish participation in public life and a symbiosis of Arabic and Jewish culture. This golden age came to an end when Spain’s Umayyad rulers were usurped by the repressive North African Almoravid dynasty. During the 12th and 13th centuries, Spain gradually returned to Christian rule, as Castile and Aragon, the two preeminent Iberian Christian states, led the Reconquista (Christian reconquest). Granada, the last Muslim outpost in Spain, was finally conquered in 1492."