Arab Civilization and Its Impact on the West

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ARAB CIVILIZATION AND ITS IMPACT ON THE WEST

By

Dr. ABDULLAH MOHAMMAD SINDI(Ph.D. International Relations)

Dr. Abdullah Mohammad Sindiis a native

of Saudi Arabia where has was a Professor ofPolitical Science at King Abdulaziz

University in Jeddah. He now lives and

works in the US where he has also taught at 4

universities and colleges in SouthernCalifornia: The University of California at

Irvine, California State University at

Pomona, Cerritos College, and FullertonCollege. Dr. Sindi has published several

articles in different scholarly periodicals both

in Arabic and English. His book The Arabsand the West: The Contributions and the

Inflictionsis sold on Amazon.com.

INTRODUCTION

I

Arab Civilization before Islam

1.The Kingdom of Saba (or Sheba)

2.The Kingdom of Himyar

3.The Nabataean Kingdom

4.The Kingdom of Tadmor (or Palmyra)

5.The Kingdom of Kindah
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I

Arab Civilization before Islam

Contrary to some popular Western misconceptions propagated by many Western"experts" and "authorities" on the Arab world alleging that Arabs did not have anycivilization before Islam, or that Arabs were nothing more than a collection of nomadicwarring primitive tribes, confined solely to the Arabian Peninsula, who spent most oftheir existence looking for food and water, the historical record proves otherwise. In fact,centuries before the birth of Islam, the Arabs had several civilizations, not only in the

Arabian Peninsula itself, but also in the Fertile Crescent, some of which were highlyadvanced with elaborate development and culture. Although Arab civilization beforeIslam might not have had a noticeable impact on Greece and Rome, it is nonethelessimportant to briefly mention here the following pre-Islamic Arab civilizations in order todispel this wrong conventional Western notion that Arabs had no civilization before the

birth of Islam, were nothing but wandering nomads, and were confined only to theArabian Peninsula.

1

The Kingdom of Saba (or Sheba)

One of the earliest and most important of all pre-Islamic Arab civilizations is the QahtaniKingdom of Saba or Sheba (10th century BCE7th century CE), which had an

elaborate civilization, legendary in its reputation of prosperity and wealth. The Kingdomof Saba was located in the southwestern mountainous rainy parts of the ArabianPeninsula in what is known today as the regions of Aseer and Yemen. Envious of itswealth, the Romans named it Arabia Felix (fortunate or prosperous Arabia).

The Sabaean capital, Ma'rib, was located near San'a, today's capital of Yemen, whichwas reportedly founded by Noah's eldest son Shem (or "Sam" in Arabic) from whosename the word "Sami" in Arabic or "Semitic" in English comes. In addition to theirdomains in the Arabian Penisula, the Sabaean kings controlled for a long time someparts of the East African coast across the Red Sea where they established the Kingdomof Abyssinia, which is Eritrea today. It should be indicated here that the name

Abyssinia comes from the Arabic word Habashah. One of the most famous rulers ofthe Sabaeans was Queen Balgais. This mystic Arab Queen of Sheba was well knownfor her beauty, grace, wealth, charm, and splendor. She reportedly had a famousimpassioned encounter with the Hebrew King Solomon when she took a special trip toJerusalem

The Sabaean Kingdom produced and traded in spices, Arabian frankincense, myrrh,and other Arabian aromatics. The Sabaeans excelled in agriculture and had a


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Arabia's Mada'in Salih (i.e., Prophet Salih who warned the Thamud Arab Kingdom toworship Allah before the birth of Prophet Mohammad). The small Arab neighboringKingdoms of Ad, Thamud, and Lihyan - all also with brilliant monuments andachievements mentioned in the Qu'ran - came under the Nabataean suzerainty for awhile.

The Arab Nabataean Kingdom, which at its zenith ruled much of the Syrian interiorincluding Damascus, later became a vassal Roman state and eventually fell victim toEuropean colonialism when it was absorbed into the Roman Empire as the "Provincia

Arabia" in 195 CE. In fact, the Roman Emperor Philip, who ruled from 244 to 249, wasethnically an Arab from this Arab Nabataean region. Incidentally, this Roman Emperorwho was known as "Philip the Arab", was preceded to the Palatine Hill in Rome by aseries of Arab empresses, half-Arab emperors, and the fully Arab Elagabulus of Emesa.It is also believed by some scholars that Philip the Arab was really the first RomanChristian emperor (244-249 CE) rather than Constantine I who ruled the Roman Empire(312-337 CE) 63 years after him.

4

The Kingdom of Tadmor (or Palmyra)

Another important Arab civilization before Islam was the famous Kingdom of Palmyra(or Tadmor in Arabic), which is now Hims in Syria. Although mentioned in some historybooks as early as the 9th century BCE, Tadmor became only prominent in the 3rdcentury BCE when it controlled the vital trade route between Mesopotamia and the

Mediterranean. The Tadmorians had a great civilization and excelled in internationaltrade. However, like the Nabataeans, they eventually came under the control of theexpanding Roman imperialism by becoming another client Arab state of Rome.

In 265 the Tadmorian Arab King Udhayna (or Odenathus) was rewarded by the Romansto become a vice-emperor of the Roman Empire because of his assistance in their waragainst Persia. However, King Udhayna's widow Zainab (aka az-Zabba or Zenobia), thefamous strong Arab queen wanted nothing less for Palmyra than a completeindependence from Rome. She succeeded in temporarily driving the Roman invadersout of most of the Fertile Crescent and proclaimed her son Wahballat (or Athenodorus)to be the true emperor of a new independent Arab Palmyra. Queen Zainab's Arabian

independent spirit, however, deeply angered the Romans and eventually resulted in thedestruction of the Tadmorian Kingdom in 273 by a powerful force of the Roman imperialarmy. As part of the Roman victory celebration, queen Zainab was brutally taken toRome in golden chains.


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5

The Kingdom of Kindah

Kindat al-Muluk (or the Royal Kindah) was a famous Arab kingdom, which originated in

the southern Arabian Peninsula near Yemen's Hadramawt region. Its capital city, al-Fau, was excavated northeast of Najran in Saudi Arabia in 1972 by Saudiarchaeologists from King Saud University in Riyadh. The Kingdom of Kindah becameprominent around the late 5th and early 6th centuries CE when it made one of theearliest and successful efforts to unite several Arab tribes under its new domain in Najdin central Arabia.

The traditional founder and ruler of Kindah was Hujr Akil al-Murar. However, the mostrenowned of all Kindah kings was al-Harith ibn Amr, Hujr's grandson, who extended hiskingdom's domain north by invading Iraq and temporarily capturing al-Hirah, the capitalcity of the Arab Christian Kingdom of Lakhmid. But in 529 al-Hirah was liberated by its

Christian Arabs who killed King al-Harith along with 50 members of his family. After al-Harith's death, the Kindah Kingdom split up into four factions - Asad, Taghlib, Kinanah,and Qays - each led by a prince. The famous pre-Islamic Arab poet Imru' al-Qays (whodied around 540) was the prince of Qays. The continuing feuding between these Arabfactions, however, eventually forced the Kindah princes by the middle of the 6th centuryto withdraw to their original place in southern Arabia next to Yemen. Nevertheless, afterIslam was established throughout the Arabian Peninsula, many descendants of theRoyal Kindah continued to hold powerful political positions within the Islamic state. Infact, one branch of the Royal Kindah was even successful in gaining great politicalinfluence in far away Arab Andalusia in the European Iberian Peninsula.

6

The Kingdom of Lakhmid

The Arab Christian Kingdom of Lakhmid, which originated in the 3rd century CE,reached the height of its power during the 6th century under King al-Munthir III (503-554). Its domain covered from the western shores of the Persian Gulf all the way northto Iraq where its capital city, al-Hira, was located on the Euphrates River near present

day Kufah. Working in close cooperation with the Zoroastrian Persian Sasanian Empireto which the Lakhmid Kingdom was a vassal state, al-Munthir III raided and frequentlychallenged the pro-Byzantine Arab Kingdom of Ghassan in Syria. His son King Amr IbnHind was patron of the legendary Arab poet Tarfah Ibn al-Abd and other poetsassociated with the seven Mu'allaqat (the Suspended Odes") of pre-Islamic Arabia (see"The Jahiliyyah" below). The Lakhmid dynasty eventually disintegrated after the deathof its great Arab Christian King an-Nu'man III in 602.


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7

The Kingdom of Ghassan

As the Lakhmid Arab Kingdom was Christian so was its Arab neighbor to the west, theKingdom of Ghassan, whose capital city was Damascus. This Syrian GhassanidKingdom was prominent in the 6th century and was an ally of the Byzantine Empire. Itprotected the vital spice trade route from the south of the Arabian Peninsula and alsoacted as a buffer against the desert bedouins.

The Ghassanid King al-Harith Ibn Jabalah (reigned 529-569), who was a MonophysiteChristian, supported the Christian Byzantine Empire against the Zoroastrian SasanianPersian Empire and successfully opposed the Arab Kingdom of Lakhmids, which sidedwith Persians. As a result, King al-Harith was given the title of Patricius by the

Byzantine emperor Justinian.

Like the Lakhmids, the Ghassanids patronized the arts and many literary geniuses suchas al-Nabighah al-Thubyani and Hassan Ibn Thabit. Great Arab poets like them werefrequently entertained in the royal courts of the Ghassanid kings. After the emergenceof Islam in the 7th century, most inhabitants of the Kingdom of Ghassan becameMuslim. One of the most prominent poets of the Kingdom of Ghassan was Hassan IbnThabit. Ibn Thabit, who espoused Islam, wrote several famous and beautiful poems inpraise of Prophet Mohammad.

8

The Jahiliyyah (Pre-Islamic Arabia)

Even in the period of Jahiliyyah (or "the ignorance" of pre-Islamic Arabia 500-622) theArabs also had a great cultural literary civilization. Its great classical belles letters couldvery easily be compared to the best literary treasures developed during the later goldenage of the Arab/Islamic civilization of the Abbasids and Andalusia. The Jahiliyyah erawitnessed a vibrant golden age of Arab poetry and odes. Among the top pre-Islamic

Arab poets, whose poems are still studied in college and pre-college curriculathroughout the Arab world, are the seven legendary poets of the Golden Odes, knownas the Seven Mu'allaqat ("the Suspended Odes"). These seven pre-Islamic Arab poetswho belonged to different Arab tribes included: Prince Imru' al-Qays of the KindahKingdom; Tarfah (by far the greatest pre-Islamic Arab poet); Zuhair; Labid (who becameso overwhelmed by the power and elegance of the Qur'an that he refused to composeany poetry for the last thirty years of his life); Antar (the greatest cavalier warrior of pre-Islamic Arabia); Amru' Ibn Kalthoom; and al-Harith Ibn Hillizah. Each one of these seven


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great Arab poets wrote magnificent lengthy poems accentuated with passion, love,eloquence, courage, and sensuality. Their seven golden odes, considered to be thegreatest literary treasure of pre-Islamic Arabia, were accorded the highest honor by thecritics of the times in the annual poetry fair in Ukaz near Makkah. Their works wereinscribed in gold letters and hung (or "suspended") on the door and walls of the Ka'bah

for the public to read, enjoy, and appreciate. To these seven incomparable JahiliyyahArab poets one must add the following four geniuses in poetry: an-Nabighah al-Thubyani, Hassan Ibn Thabit, al-Hutay'ah, and al-Khansa' (a female).

Although most of pre-Islamic Arabia during the Jahiliyyah period was largely nomadicand tribal where bedouin wars and conflicts were the norms among the disunited Arabtribes and where most people believed in pagan religions and superstitions, the twoimportant cities of the Hejaz, Makkah and Ukaz, stood as shining spots in the entire

Arabian Peninsula. In fact, Makkah was the religious, political, economic, intellectual,and cultural center of pre-Islamic Arabia. The Ka'bah in Makkah and Mount Arafatoutside it (both of which were later incorporated in Islam) had been important religious

sites for annual pilgrimage centuries before the coming of Islam.

II

Arab Civilization after Islam

Within a very short period of time after the birth of Islam in the 7th century, the Arabsbuilt a vast empire that stretched from Spain and Portugal (Andalusia) in the west all the

way to the Indian subcontinent in the east. Covering almost half of the old known world,the Arab empire was one and a half times the size of the Roman Empire at its peak.Unlike earlier civilizations, the Arab civilization dominated the Mediterranean and madeit practically an Arab lake. The Arabs occupied Spain and Portugal in 711 and were onthe verge of engulfing all of France in 732 when Charles Martel stopped their advancesin the heart of Western Europe in the Battle of Tours, about 100 miles south of Paris.

Between the 7th and 15th centuries, the Arabs established a brilliant civilization the likeof which was not contemporaneously found anywhere in the world. However, sinceIslam united all Arabs for the first time in their history, and rejected nationalism andsecularism (Islam united Arabs and non-Arabs under the banner of Islam), Arab

civilization and Islamic civilization were one and the same. The two could not beseparated. Several Arab powerful states were established each with its own distinctArab civilization. The most important of these are the following three, the last two ofwhich are considered to be the Arab golden age. These are: The Omayad State with itscapital city in Damascus (661-750); the Abbasid State with its capital city in Baghdad(750-1258); and Arab Andalusia (711-1492) in the European Iberian Peninsula of Spainand Portugal (a continuation of the Omayad State) with its capital city first in Cordobaand later in Granada. For centuries Arab Andalusia represented Europe's main cultural


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Christians, many American "scholars", who like to demean or insult the Arabs, downplaythe vital Arab role in the Arab/Islamic civilization. They argue that Arab civilization wascopied from the Greeks and/or was nothing more than the civilization of Persians, Turksand other non-Arab Muslims. Even the so-called American "left" and "open-mindedscholars" argue in a racist way that Arab contribution to the Islamic civilization was

minimal. For example, the following citation is a typical example of Western distortion ofArab contribution to Islamic civilization. In an address given at a symposium on thehistory of philosophy of science held at Boston University on September 22, 1994, Mr.Dirk Struik said the following, which appeared in the American Monthly Review, the so-called "left-wing and socialist" periodical: "Incidentally, we often speak of the Arabs. Butthese "Arabs" were Persians, Tadjiks, Jews, Moors, etc., seldom Arabs [Myunderlining]. What they had in common was their use of the Arabic language." [2]Also,Mr. Struik wrongly referred to the Jews as a distinct nationality, forgetting theelementary fact that "Jews" are nothing but the adherents of the Jewish faith regardlessof their race or language, and disregarding the basic fact that Arab Jews have alwaysexisted even up to the present time. He also wrongly implied that Moors are not Arabs,

dismissing the simple fact that Moors are indeed Arabs. In addition, Mr. Struik evenridiculed and belittled Arab contribution to human civilization by saying: "...the Arabs,who were so kind [my underlining] as to keep the torch of Greek science ablaze to passit over to the Europeans..." [3]

However, unlike Mr. Struik and the many Western "scholars" like him who distort Arabintellectual and scientific contributions to humanity, Professor Briffault in his bookMaking of Humanity simply stated the basic facts: "Science is the most momentouscontribution of Arab civilization to the modern world." [4]In addition, historians EdwardBurns and Philip Palph concluded that: The intellectual achievements of the [Arabs]were far superior to any of which Christian Europe could boast before the twelfthcentury." [5]They also correctly acknowledged that: "In no subject were the [Arabs]farther advanced than in science. In fact, their achievements in this field were the bestthe world had seen since the end of the Hellenistic civilization." [6]In addition, Burnsand Palph wrote that Arabs:

"were brilliant astronomers, mathematicians, physicists, chemists, and physicians.Despite their reverence for Aristotle, they did not hesitate to criticize his notion of auniverse of concentric spheres with the earth at the center, and they admitted thepossibility that the earth rotates on its axis and revolves around the sun... [The Arabs]were also capable mathematicians and developed algebra and trigonometry... [Arab]physicists founded the science of optics and drew a number of significant conclusionsregarding the theory of magnifying lenses and the velocity, transmission, and refractionof light...[Arab] scientists were the first to describe the chemical processes of distillation,filtration, and sublimation...The accomplishments in medicine were just asremarkable...[The Arabs] discovered the contagious nature of tuberculosis, describedpleurisy and several varieties of nervous ailments, and pointed out that the disease canbe spread through contamination of water and soil." [7]
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The Abbasid Arab leaders, or Caliphs, were the most opulent rulers in the entire world.Their palaces, halls, parks, and treasures were highly ostentatious. For example when adiplomatic Byzantine delegation arrived in Baghdad during the reign of the Caliph al-Muqtadir (908-32), they were highly impressed to see the outstanding treasures in thestore-chambers and the magnificent armies of elephants caparisoned in peacock-silk

brocade. The Byzantine delegation saw Caliph al-Muqtadir arrayed in brilliant clothesembroidered in gold and sitting on an ebony throne which was surrounded on bothsides by nine hung collars of gems and other fabulous jewels. [9]In his elegant Room ofthe Tree, they observed:

"a tree, standing in the midst of a great circular tank filled with clear water. The treehas eighteen branches, every branch having numerous twigs, on which sit all sorts ofgold and silver birds, both large and small. Most of the branches of this tree are ofsilver, but some are of gold, and they spread into the air carrying leaves of differentcolours. The leaves of the tree move as the wind blows, while the birds pipe and sing."[10]

In fact, the Arabs were so advanced in all of the scientific and artistic fields over theWest that they considered the Europeans to be inferior barbarians with uncouthmanners. In a language similar to the current racist propaganda perpetrated by manyEuropeans and Americans against non-Europeans, especially Blacks, the famous 10th-century Arab geographer/historian Abu al-Hasan al-Mas'udi of Baghdad (died 956)wrote the following about the Europeans:

"The peoples of the north are those for whom the sun is distant from the Zenith... coldand damp prevail in those regions, and snow and ice follow one another in endlesssuccession. The warm humour is lacking among them; their bodies are large, their

natures gross, their manners harsh, their understanding dull and their tongues heavy...their religious beliefs lack solidity...those of them who are farthest to the north are themost subject to stupidity, grossness and brutishness." [11]

In addition, in the 11th-century, an Arab judge from Toledo in Arab Spain made evenmore racist remarks than al-Mas'udi's about the "stupidity" of the Europeans and theirlack of civilization. He wrote:

"their bellies are big, their colour pale, their hair long and lank. They lack keenness ofunderstanding and clarity of intelligence, and are overcome by ignorance andfoolishness, blindness and stupidity." Even as late as the 14th century the great Arabsociologist and philosopher, Ibn Khaldun, made contemptuous remarks about theEuropeans. [12]

Before the European Renaissance (the start of the current Western civilization from1350 to 1650), most of Europe was living in the feudalism of the Dark Ages. Europeanslived in poverty, ignorance, hunger, diseases, violence, treachery, squalor, andintolerance. Most Europeans lived in mud huts with filth, practically like animals. Dirtyroadside ditches throughout Europe, filled with stagnant water, served as public latrines.
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[13]In fact, most Europeans did not even wash their own bodies with water for fear ofdamaging their skins and health.

2

The Glorious Arab Andalusian Civilization of Europe

Arab entrance into Europe began with an "invitation". The governor of an outlyingprovince in the Iberian Peninsula sent his daughter to Toledo for schooling. She wassupposedly under the protection of King Rodrick (one of the Germanic ruthless Visigothoccupying rulers in Spain) who instead of protecting her, violated and impregnated her.

As a result, her father appealed to the Arabs in North Africa for a redress of this injury.[14]The Arabs complied, and thus began almost 8 centuries of Arab occupation andcivilization in Europe's most southwestern part. To be exact, the Arabs stayed in Europe

781 years during which they introduced to the West a wonderful civilization; religioustolerance; racial harmony; public baths; and the novel idea of cleanliness expressed inpublic and personal hygiene by washing the human body with water.

While most Westerners of the Dark Ages lived in filth, poverty, and ignorance, the Arabshad a brilliant civilization in Andalusia, Europe's Iberian Peninsula. From 711, whenTariq Ibn Ziyad landed with his Arab conquering army at Gibraltar (so named after himfrom the Arabic words Jabal Tariq or "the Mountain of Tariq"), to 1492 when the Arabpresence in Europe ended, Andalusia was the most enlightened, civilized, racially andreligiously tolerant place in all of the West.

Before the Arabs arrived in the Iberian Peninsula, the barbarian Germanic occupyingVisigoths viciously persecuted Spanish and Portuguese Jews. The Arabs not onlytreated local Jews with kindness and respect, but also treated their fellow Christianswith the same kindness and tolerance that Islam called for. In fact, the Iberian Jewswelcomed the Arab conquering army as a liberating force and joined it against theVisigoths. [15]The intolerant Germanic Visigoths also heavily taxed and ruthlesslytreated the poor Iberian peasants, rendering them practically as slaves. The Arabs, onthe other hand, humanely treated the local peasants and drastically reduced theirtaxation.

As early as the 10th century, the Arab Andalusian capital, Cordoba, was a magnificent

metropolitan center of progress. The pride of the Arabs in Europe, Cordoba had a halfmillion people living in it at a time when no European city could claim a population ofeven 10,000. Indeed, Arab Cordoba was the largest and most cultured city in all ofEurope. Its jewelry, leather work, woven silk and elaborate brocades were highly prizedthroughout the world. Cordoba's Arab women copyists excelled far better than mostEuropean Christian monks in the production of religious works. A travelling German nunby the name of Hrosvitha, who died in 1002, was highly impressed by Arab Cordoba.She referred to it as "the jewel of the world". She wrote:
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"In the western parts of the globe ... there shone forth a fair ornament ... a city wellcultured ... rich and known by the famous name of Cordoba, illustrious because of itscharms and also renowned for all resources, especially abounding in the seven streamsof knowledge, and ever famous for continual victories." [16]

Arab Cordoba was truly the jewel of the entire world. In contrast to the dust and mudwhich would remain familiar features of the streets of London and Paris for 7 centuriesto come, Cordoba had miles of paved streets; street lights (even seven hundred yearslater there was not so much as one public lamp in London); 113,000 houses withlavatories and water drainage (even poor houses had them, something which was notfound at the time in most other European cities); 700 mosques; 300 public baths; 70public libraries; numerous bookstores; parks and palaces; [17]and two majormagnificent treasures unequal for their sophistication in the known civilized world.

The first treasure was the Great Mosque of Cordoba, the most extraordinary religiousshrine, second in size only to the Great Mosque of Makkah. It was completed in 976

and took 200 years to build. This Great Mosque, which is still a major tourist attraction inSpain today, is a vast rectangle with a deep sanctuary divided into 19 aisles by a forestof 870 marble columns. The interior of this marvelous religious shrine was beautifullydecorated with gold; silver; precious stones; mosaics; colored tiles; contrasting greenand red marbles; carved plater; wall paintings; Qur'anic calligraphy; and 8,000 oil lamps,to provide light, hung from two hundred chandeliers. The scent of burning aloes and theperfumed oils in the lamps drifted through the arches of the long naves. The Mosque'sspacious seven-sided mihrab (the prayer niche which directs worshipers towardMakkah) was lined with gold mosaics and marbles. Next to the mihrab stood thebeautifully carved minbar (or pulpit) with its several straight steps for the Imam to climbup in order to give his Friday sermon. This wonderful unique pulpit, which took eight

talented craftsmen seven years to make, was laced with rails of gold and silver andmade of ivory, ebony, sandalwood, and citron wood. Unfortunately, this magnificentpulpit was cut into pieces when the Spanish Christians took over Cordoba in 1236.Today this great mosque is the Catholic Cathedral of Cordoba.

The second treasure in the Arab Andalusian capital city of Cordoba was the outstandingenormous public library. Completed around 970, this wonderful library alone had over440,000 books, more than all of the books in all of France at the time. In addition to thisgigantic public library, there were 69 other public libraries in Cordoba. These Arablibraries had been using paper for over 200 years at a time when the few Europeans,who could read or write, were still using animal skins for writing.

Just outside Cordoba, in the city of al-Zahra, the Arab ruler Abdul-Rahman III built hisfamous magnificent Palace of Madinat al-Zahra. One of the great wonders of thisextraordinary Arab palace was the Room of the Caliphs, which had a gilded ceiling andwalls of multi-colored marble blocks. On each side of the hall were eight splendid doors,which stood between columns of clear crystal and colored marble, decorated with goldand ebony and inlaid with precious stones. In the center of this beautiful room was alarge pool filled with mercury, which produced dazzling reflections from the walls and
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ceiling every time the sunrays shone on it. When the surface of the pool was quivered,the whole room was shot through with rays of light, giving the impression that the roomwas floating away. All experts and writers at the time agreed that the magnificence ofthis Arab hall had never been equaled anywhere in the world. [18]

After the fall of Cordoba to the Spanish Christians, the Arabs moved their capital city toGranada - in the south of the Iberian Peninsula - which also became famous as an Arabcenter of arts and learning. Arab Granada was also renowned for its wealth and tradeespecially in silk. To immortalize Grenada, its Andalusian Arab rulers built themagnificent Palace of al-Hamra ("the red") or Alhambra Palace. This unique palace hastwo splendid courts, the Court of the Lions and the Court of the Myrtles, considered tobe the most magnificent and glorious of all Arab monuments in Spain. The AlhambraPalace, which was also an Arab fortress, took about 100 years to build and is today amajor tourist attraction attesting to the beauty and genius of Arab architecture. Inaddition to Cordoba and Granada, Seville and Toledo also served as the greatesthouses of Arab Andalusian knowledge. In fact, Toledo was the main center of scientific

translation from Arabic to Latin.

The Andalusian Arabs also produced several exotic agricultural products (seeAgriculture below) and developed many great manufactured products, which were allexported to Western Europe and the rest of the world. These industrial products include:textiles; paper; silk; baked tile; glazed cups, dishes, and jars which rivaled Chineseporcelain; pottery; sugar refining; gold; silver; ruby; silk; various crafted metals; marble;ceramics; and the much-admired Cordovan ("cordwain") leather-work.

The sciences that the Andalusian Arabs excelled in and were taught at their universities,which helped educate several generations of Western scholars and students from all

over Europe, included: mathematics, geometry, astronomy, physics, chemistry,architecture, optics, meteorology, engineering, pharmacology, medicine, biology,botany, anatomy, zoology, and philosophy. It should also be mentioned here that Arabstudents in Andalusia were the first to use the cap and gown worn today by students allover the world during graduation ceremony.

III

The Legacy of Arab/Islamic Civilization and Its Impact on the West

Thanks to Islam and Arab civilization, Arabic has become the richest of all Semito-Hamitic languages (so-named after Noah's two eldest sons Sam and Ham), and one ofthe world's greatest languages in history. As a major language of scripture andcivilization, Arabic has deeply influenced several world languages both in the East andthe West such as Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Hindi, Spanish, Portuguese, Maltese, Malay-Indonesian; some African languages like Hausa and Swahili; and to a lesser extenteven the English language (see below). The Arabic alphabet, which contains 28 letters
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(2 more letters than the English alphabet), is now - like the Latin alphabet - one of themost widely used alphabetic writing system in the world used in the writing of thelanguages of Muslim countries like Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Between the 9thand 15th centuries, during the zenith of Arab civilization, Arabic was the internationallanguage of science to a degree which has since never been equaled by any other

language including English. Arabic was not only the language of the Arab people, butalso the language of many other peoples and faiths. Neither Greek, nor Latin, nor evenEnglish has ever attained the far-reaching unique historical dominance over humancivilization as Arabic had. Arabic was so important as the language of science thatEuropean scholars had to learn it as they learned Latin. Today, Arabic is one of only sixofficial languages of the United Nations along with French, English, Russian, Chinese,and Spanish. Arabic is also the Worlds fourth most popular language after Chinese,English, and Spanish. And as the language of the important Arab oil-producingcountries, Arabic has also achieved a prominent status in the world of internationalfinance and economics.

In fact, the profound impact of the Arabs and their civilization on Western civilization canbe found in the many Arabic words that became part of the everyday language in theWest. While it is obvious that the influence of Arabic is much greater on Spanish andPortuguese, both of which contain many thousands of Arabic words, than on any otherEuropean language, at least some 4% of the English language came from Arabic. [19]The following is a group of words from several scientific and cultural areas - presentedin alphabetical order - used today in English that originally came from the Arabiclanguage:

[aba, abelmosk, abutilon, Achernar, acrab, admiral, adobe, afreet (or afrit), albacore,albatross, alcalde, alcazar, alchemy, alcohol, alcove, Aldebaran, alembic, alfalfa, alforja,

algarroba, algebra, Algol, algorism (or algorithm), alidade, alkali, alkanet, Allah,almanac, alphabet, Altair, amalgam, amber, ameer (or amir), aniline, antimony, apricot,ardeb, argan, ariel, arrack, arroba, arsenal, artichoke, assassin, atabal (or attabal),attar, aubergine, average, azimuth, azure ...

baldachin, banana, barberry, bard (or barde), bark, barkentine, bedouin, benzoin,berseem, Betelgeuse, bint, bonduc, borax, buckram, bulbul, burnoose (or burnous) ...

cable, cadi (or kadi or qadi), calabash, caliber (or calibre), caliph, caliphate, camel,camise, camlet, camphor, canal, candy, cane, Caph, carafe, carat, caravan, caraway,carmine, carob, carrack, Casbah (or Kasbah), check (from the Arabic word "sakk"),checkmate, chiffon, cinnabar, cipher, civet, coffee, coffer, coffle, colcothar, Copt, cotton,crimson, crocus, cubeb, cumin, curcuma ...

dahabeah, damascene, damask (from Damascus), damson, darabukka, Deneb, dhow,dinar, dirham, djin (or djinn or djinni), dragoman, drub, durra ...

elixir, emir, emirate ...


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not contain a "zero" or use a positional system. [22]Although the Arabs Semiticancestors in ancient Iraq developed the zero, it was only through the great post -Islamic Arab civilization that it was incorporated into the main body of the generalmathematical theory. It took Europe almost 300 years to finally accept the "zero" as agift from the Arabs. The Arabic numerals were simultaneously expressed in somewhat

two different figures or forms, one Abbasid (the eastern style which most Arabscurrently use) and one Andalusian (the western style which is used today in the ArabMaghrib countries of Northwest Africa). It was this Arab Andalusian form of numerals(i.e., 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9) that the West and the rest of the world eagerly adopted; hencethe worldwide label "Arabic numerals".

Mohammad al-Khawarizmi (780-850), the giant genius scientist who was born and diedin Abbasid Baghdad, created modern algebra and made brilliant contributions in thefield of mathematics. In fact, the word "algorithm" is derived from his name, and the

Arabic word al-jabr (or "algebra" in English) comes from the title of his major work, Kitabal-Jabr wa al-Muqabalah ("The Book of Integration and Equation"). Served for a number

of years as the Executive Director of the prestigious "House of Wisdom" in Baghdad, al-Khawarizmi was also the first scientist in history to explain how passing light throughwater particles creates rainbows.

Another Muslim genius in mathematics, also from Abbasid Baghdad, is Abu Arrayhanal-Biruni (973-1048) who was a mathematician, astronomer, physician, physicist,chemist, geographer and historian. He was probably the greatest scientist in all ofmedieval Islam. Another great mathematician is Naseer al-Din at-Tusi (1201-1274). Itwas in the super work of at-Tusi that trigonometry achieved the status of anindependent branch of pure mathematics, thus making it an invention of Arabic science.

At-Tusi's contribution was to combine the results of earlier investigators and to replace

Menelaus' complete quadrilateral by a simple triangle, thus freeing trigonometry fromspherical astronomy. [23]

Practically all of the advanced trigonometrical work in the world during the 12th and 13thcenturies were made by Muslim mathematicians and published in Arabic. Arabicinfluence in this major scientific field did not only impact the West, but also other parts ofthe world. It seemed that even the Chinese trigonometry as used by Kuo Shouching atthe end of the 13th century was also of Arab origin. [24]

2

Astronomy

The most important figure in this scientific field is the Arab Abu Abdullah al-Battani (akaAlbategius: 858-929) from the Abbasid era. He was the best-known Arab astronomer inEurope during the Middle Ages. Al-Battani refined existing values for the inclination ofthe ecliptic, for the length of the year and of the seasons, and for the annual precession


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Also, the world's first explosive developed in the field of gunpowder known as blackpowder - which is a mixture of salt petre (potassium nitrate), sulfur, and charcoal(carbon) - was originally invented by the Arabs and not by the Chinese [31]as it iscommonly believed in the West. The Chinese took this invention from the Arabs, and bythe 10th century used it in their fireworks and signals. The Arab-invented black powder

was eventually adopted by the Westerners, (during the 14th century primarily for use infirearms), who gradually discontinued it use in the middle of the 19th century in favor ofthe guncotton (the first smokeless powder) and other forms of nitrocellulose. In addition,around 1304 the Arabs invented the world's first real gun, a bamboo tube reinforcedwith iron that used a charge of black powder to shoot an arrow. [32]

4

Physics

In the fields of physics and optics, no Arab scientist comes close to the legendary AbuAli al-Hasan Ibn al-Haytham (aka Alhazen: 965-1039) who was born in Iraq and died inEgypt during the golden Abbasid era. Ibn al-Haytham made the first significantcontributions to optical theory since the time of the Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy inthe 2nd century. In his book On the Burning Glass, he revolutionarized the nature offocusing, magnifying, and inversion of the image.

Ibn al-Haytham was the world's first scientist to give an accurate account of vision,correctly stating that the light comes from the object seen to the eye, and not the otherway around as was previously believed (i.e., from the eye to the seen object). [33]Also,

In his widely-acclaimed treatise on optics, translated into Latin in 1270 under the titleOpticae Thesaurus Alhazeni Libri VII, this great Arab physicist/optometrist publishedrevolutionary theories on reflection; refraction; binocular vision; focussing with lenses;the rainbow; atmospheric refraction; spherical aberration; parabolic and sphericalmirrors; and the apparent increase in size of planetary bodies near the Earth's horizon.In fact, so complicated and so advanced were Ibn al-Haythams theories in physics thatfor a long time both Western and Eastern scientists were afraid to adopt them. But whenhe was finally proven to be correct, Ibn al-Haytham's scientific pre-eminence throughoutthe world was no longer in doubt. [34]The English Roger Bacon (1242-92) was not theonly Western scientist on optics to admit his indebtedness to Ibn al-Haytham. Both thegreat Italian Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) and the German astronomer Johannes

Kepler (1571-1630) were also deeply influenced by the scientific findings of this Arabgenius.

5


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Medicine

The great Persian Muslim scientist Abu Bakr al-Razi (aka Rhazes: 865-925) ofAbbasid's Baghdad was the greatest medical authority in the entire Islamic civilization.His major works were translated into Latin. A pioneering physician, al-Razi was the first

to describe pupillary reflexes; gave the world's first account of smallpox and measles;discovered the contagious characters of diseases; and differentiated among colic pain,kidney-stone pain, and the pains of the ileus. His ten-part treatise in Arabic on clinicaland internal medicine, at-Tibb al-Mansuri that was translated into Latin under the titleMedicinalis Almansoris, was widely influential in the West throughout the Middle Ages.In it, he discussed drugs; diets; skin diseases; child and mother care; mouth hygiene;toxicology and epidemiology; climatology and the effect of environment on health; aregiment for preserving good health; and general medical theories and definitions. In hisbrilliant treatise on psychic therapy written in Arabic, at-Tibb ar-Ruhani ("PsychicTherapy"), and in his comprehensive medical encyclopedia, al-Hawi fi at-Tibb, al-Raziprovided considerable insight into the scope, methods, and applications of the clinical,

internal, and psychiatric medicine as well as the interpretation of the general healthprecepts.

Another medical genius was Abu al-Qasim Az-Zahrawi (aka Albucasis: 936-1013), anArab from the great Arab Andalusian civilization. Az-Zahrawi is considered to be Islam'sgreatest medieval surgeon who single-handedly shaped European surgical proceduresuntil the Renaissance. His 30-part medical encyclopedia, At-Tasrif ("The Method"),which contained over 200 surgical medical instruments he personally designed, was asurgical treatise that had a tremendous influence on Western medicine. Translated intoLatin in the 12th century by the Italian scholar Gerard of Cremona, at-Tasrif stood fornearly 500 years as the leading textbook on surgery in Europe, preferred for its concise

lucidity even to the great works of the classical Greek medical authority Galen ofPergamum.

A third Muslim medical giant, from the Abbasid's Baghdad era, is the Persian Abu AliIbn Sina (aka Avicenna: 980-1037). Perhaps the most famous and influentialphilosopher-scientist in all of Islam, Ibn Sina added to al-Razi by discovering thecontagious character of disease (e.g. through water). Ibn Sina wrote many medicalvolumes in Arabic, the most important of which are the following two, both of which weretranslated into Latin. The first is Kitab ash-Shifa ("The Book of Healing"), a vastencyclopedia that included the science of psychology and is probably the largest workof its kind ever written by one man. The second is an encyclopedia by the name of al-

Qanun fi at-Tibb ("The Canon of Medicine"), the most famous single book in the historyof medicine in both East and West. The Canon became the medical authority not only inthe Islamic world where it was used as a major reference until the 19th century, but alsoin the Western world where it was used for more than 500 years. [35]

Arab and Muslim medical science came to a climax in the two famous treatises on theplague by two great Arab physicians: Ibn al-Khatib (1313-1374) of Granada, and hiscontemporary Ibn Khatima. Ibn al-Khatib who wrote more than fifty books on different


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comprehensive zoological study of animals in Arabic was Kitab al-Hayawan (Book ofAnimals), written by Abu Uthman Amr Ibn Bahr al-Jahiz (776-869) from Basrah, Iraq.Covering animals in and around Iraq with their characteristics, this pioneering book waswritten in an eloquent and interesting literary style. In it, al-Jahiz described the variousdiseases that afflict animals and their treatments. Another important work in this field

was The Uses of Animals, written by an Arab doctor named Ibn Bakhtishu. This 11thcentury book is a comprehensive account of the medicines that could be extracted fromanimals for human use.

However, the greatest medieval work in veterinary medicine is the comprehensive workby Abu Bakr al-Baytar of Cairo (died 1340) entitled Kamil as-Sina'atayn. This famouswork in Arabic covers animal husbandry, birds, breeding, horsemanship, andknighthood. In it, al-Baytar also detailed animal diseases, the methods and drugs usedin their treatment, and the use of animal organs in therapeutics.

Also, during the 14th century, another Arab scientist from Egypt by the name of Kamal

al-Din ad-Damiri (died 1405) provided the world with a brilliant work in zoology andanimal husbandry entitled Hayat al-Hayawan (The Life of Animals). In this mostcomprehensive major work, al-Damiri (who was also a philosopher/theologian) arrangedand discussed animals in alphabetical order. He listed their characteristics, qualities,habits, and the medical values of their organs for humans. In addition, this brilliant workby al-Damiri along with other Arabic texts on animals and natural sciences - which werewritten over four centuries before the famous 1859 Origins of Species by the EnglishCharles Darwin (1809-1882) - contained rudimentary concepts of evolutionary theory,including the doctrine of survival of the fittest and natural selection. [41]

8

Agriculture

Arab Andalusia had a highly advanced system of agricultural engineering, an elaborateirrigation canal system, and fountains - the likes of which was not found anywhere inWestern Europe at the time. The Arabs made the Iberian land produce more and bettercrops and introduced to Europe such exotic and valuable agricultural products asoranges, cotton, eggplants, saffron, pomegranates, apricots, rice, sugar cane,artichokes, peaches, date palms, and mulberry.

The Andalusian Arabs were the leading agricultural practitioners in all of Europe whoalso developed the most advanced systems in canal and irrigation, land drainage, andsiphoning. Thanks to them, Spain was agriculturally the richest and most advancedcountry in Europe. According to one American author, agriculture and horticulturalimprovements "constituted the finest legacies of Islam, and the gardens of Spainproclaim to this day one of the noblest virtues of her Muslim conquerors." [42]
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The Arabs of Andalusia also produced some of the world's finest agricultural scientistswho benefited humanity. For example, during the second half of the 11th century, an

Arab scientist from Toledo by the name of Ibn al-Bassal wrote a brilliant book onagriculture, which in 1955 was edited with a Spanish translation and notes under thetitle Libro de Agricultura. [43]In addition, an Arab scientist from Seville named Ibn al-

Awwam wrote the most important agricultural treatise during the golden age of ArabSpain in the 12th century. It was entitled Kitab al-Filahah ("Book of Agriculture") andwas translated from Arabic into both Spanish and French in the 19th century. Ibn al-

Awwam's brilliant book contained 35 chapters and covered 585 plants. It dealt withagronomy, cattle and poultry raising, and beekeeping; made important observations onsoil, manures, plant grafting, and plant diseases; and covered such agricultural topicsas medical plants, farming techniques, husbandry, plant sex life, fertilization, tillage,sharecropping, gardening, and landscaping. [44]

9

Philosophy and Metaphysics

Western Christian philosophy and theology owe a great deal to Arab thinkers andphilosophers. For example, The Italian theologian St. Thomas Aquinas (1224-74)copied liberally from the Arabic writings of Abu al-Walid Ibn Rushd (aka Averroes: 1126-98), the Arab Muslim genius of Cordoba who is considered to be the greatestphilosopher in all of Islam.The Summa of St Thomas, which was considered to be thevery citadel of Western Christian theology, was deeply influenced by the writings of

Arab philosophers, especially Ibn Rushd. The French philosopher, Rene Descartes

(1596-1650), was also deeply influenced by Ibn Rush. Also, St. Thomas' greatDominican's most essential doctrines were copied practically word by word from the

Arabic work of an earlier great Turkish Muslim philosopher by the name of Abu Nasr al-Farabi (878-950) of Abbasid's Baghdad. [45]

In addition, Italy's greatest poet, Dante (1265-1321), who hated Prophet Mohammadand Islam, plagiarized his greatest work, the Divine Comedy, by copying from the worksof the mystic Arab genius Ibn al-Arabi (1165-1240) of Arab Andalusia, and also fromRisalat al-Ghufran (The Epistle of Forgiveness) written by the great Arab philosopherand poet Abu al-Ala' al-Ma'arri of Syria (973-1057). Dante's Divine Comedy'sfundamental concepts of Heaven and Hell very closely resemble Ibn al-Arabi's account

of Prophet Mohammad's ascent to Heaven from Makkah via Jerusalem. [46]Ironically,however, the unthankful plagiarist Dante consigned Prophet Mohammad to the lowestlevel of Hell in his Divine Comedy. On the other hand, the Spanish mystic Ramon Llull(1235-1316) was also highly influenced by Arabic philosophy and Islamic mysticismproduced by such Muslim mystics as al-Hallaj (858-922) of Abbasid's Baghdad.

Actually Arab influence was so obvious on Western philosophy that many Europeanscholars and theologians openly admitted their great indebtedness to the Arabs. One of


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those who admitted his gratitude to the Arabs is the Scottish theologian John DunsScotus (1266-1308) who was deeply influenced in his intellectual activities by the FonsVitae which was originally written in Arabic by a great Arab philosopher of Jewish faith(not a Hebrew) from Cordoba by the name of Abu Ayyub Ibn Gabirut "or Gabirol" (aka

Avicebron: 1022-70). [47]Other great Andalusian Arabs of Jewish faith may include

such scholars as the philosopher/poet Abu Haroon Moussa (aka Moses Ibn Ezra: 1060-1139), and the philosopher/physician Abu Imran Moussa Ibn Maymun (aka MosesMaimonides: 1135-1204), the personal physician of the great Salah ad-Din wholiberated Palestine from the Crusaders.

10

Geography

Many Arabs and Muslims made valuable contributions in the field of geography. Abu al-Hasan al-Mas'udi of the Abbasid era (died 956) - a geographer, historian, and traveler -was the author of more than twenty major voluminous works many of which weretranslated into Latin. He was the first Arab to combine history and scientific geographyin his widely acclaimed historical-geographical encyclopedia, The Meadows of Gold andMines of Gems. Al-Mas'udi's encyclopedia was one of the finest and richest medievalsources not only in geography but also of geographical and anthropological information.

Al-Mas'udi also wrote another 30-volume encyclopedia on world history entitled Akhbaraz-Zaman ("The History of Time").

The Arabs who occupied Sicily, prior to its occupation by the Normans (Vikings) in the

11th century, made it major center of Arab sciences. Even during the occupation by theNorman Kings, Sicilian coins were minted with Arabic inscriptions and Islamic dates;many of the Sicilian records including those of the courts were written in Arabic; and itwas also fashionable for Christian Sicilians to dress like Arabs and to speak Arabic.[48]When the Christian Norman King Roger II of Sicily (1130-54) needed a compendium ofthe then known world, he entrusted no other geographer in the world except aMoroccan descendant of Prophet Mohammad by the name of al-Sharif Abu Abdullah al-Idrisi (1100-1166), the greatest of all Arab geographers. Al-Idrisi produced for KingRoger II not only a brilliant construction of a celestial sphere but also a disk-shaped mapof the known world (i.e., the world's Eastern Hemisphere), both of which were made ofsolid silver. The silver map, which was one of seventy accurate maps he produced, was

based on his encyclopedic work, The Book of Roger, translated into Latin in Paris in1619. After the death of King Roger II, al-Idrisi stayed on at the court in Palermo andwrote, for his son King William I, another geographical treatise, The Garden ofCivilization and the Amusement of the Soul. [49]Al-Idrisi also wrote one of the greatestworks of medieval geography, The Pleasure Excursion of One Who is Eager toTraverse the Regions of the World.


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philosophy of history which is undoubtedly the greatest work of its kind that has ever yetbeen created by any mind in any time or place." [53]

12

Literature

Not only did the West learn from the Arabs the arts of making paper books, as indicatedearlier, but also the typically beautiful Arab art of leather binding with its luxuriousornamentation in "gold tooling" and its flap that folds over to protect the front edges of abook. [54]In addition to the thousands of Arabic words that entered the various Westernlanguages, especially Spanish and Portuguese, the rich Arabic literature itself has leftsome of its general imprints upon Western literature.

Among the great works of Arabic literature that have impacted the West is the multi-volume Alf Laylah wa Laylah ("The Thousand and One Nights" or "The Arabian Nights")from the golden Abbasid era which is composed of a large collection of famous Arabentertaining stories narrated by queen Scheherazad to her husband Scheherayar.These include such famous legends as "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp", "Ali Baba andthe Forty Thieves", and "The Voyages of Sindbad the Sailor". The Arabian Nights wastranslated early in the 18th century into many Western languages and immediatelyintroduced a distinct new element to Western fiction writing. For example, "The Voyagesof Sindbad the Sailor" became an inspiration for Gulliver's Travels published in 1726 bythe Irish author Jonathan Swift. The Arabian Nights was also a source of inspiration formany other Western writers and poets. These include: the French writer Voltaire (1694-

1778) who modeled his famous work Zadiq on it; the English Samuel Johnson (1709-84) who was influenced by it in his Rasselas; the English poet George Gordon Byron(1788-1824); the English poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850); and the Argentineanpoet Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986). [55]

In fact, the influence of Arabic literature on Europe was so pervasive and widespreadthat we find echoes of it in the Grail-saga, in the old French romance Floire etBlanchefleur; in the allied German Rolandslied and the French Chanson de Rolandl andin the more famous Aucassin et Nicolette, the name of whose male hero derives fromthe Arab name Qasim. Obviously, both the oriental tales in Giovanni Boccaccio'sDecameron and Geoffrey Chaucer's Squieres Tale are of Arab origin. Also, the Arabic

apologies came to play an important role in medieval and later Western literature,especially the Spanish and Portuguese literatures. For example, Arabic influence is veryclear on Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote published in 1605.[56]

The two best-known Arab characters in English literature are found in WilliamShakespeare's Othello and The Merchant of Venice. While Othello is an Arab with allthe pride, passion, and nobility of his own cultural identity, the Prince of Morocco, in The


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Merchant of Venice, is an Arab with a high distinction of soul and appearance hardlymatched by the Western characters against whom he was pitted. [57]

Moreover, Professor H. A. R. Gibb indicated that Arabic poetry contributed in somemeasure to the rise of the new poetry of Europe [58], especially the Provencal

troubadours whose poetry and music owed so much to the Arabs. Arab poetry wascultivated in the court of Alfonso the Wise of Castille and of the Norman kings and ofFrederick II of Sicily. The Arab poet Shushtari provided literary themes to many Westernwriters such as St. John of the Cross and Ramon Lull. The Arabic poetry of ghazal("love and romance"), especially as reflected in the idealized legendary love passion ofQays and Layla, left a profound mark on the Western love lyrics of many Europeanwriters such as the French communist poet Louis Aragon (1897-1982). [59]

Also, the love traditions of Jamil and Umar made their way into the French Provencalcourtly love whereby the Arabic word TaRiBa became TRoBar and TRouBadour. Thegreat Arabic literature of the genius Abu Mohammad Ibn Hazm of Cordoba (994-1064),

especially his chivalric love in Dove's Necklace, deeply influenced the French writerAndre Le Chapelain's The Art of Courtly Love, published in 1185. [60]

In fact, we find Arabic and Islamic influences and elements in the works of many otherand more recent European authors and poets such as in the English author WilliamBeckford's (1760-1844) Vathek, published in 1786; in the English author Daniel Defoe's(1660-1731) Robinson Crusoe, whose inspiration clearly came from the beautiful Arabnovel Hayy Ibn Yaqzan ("Living, Son of Awake") written by the great Arab Andalusianphilosopher/physician Mohammad Ibn Tufayl (1109-85); in the German poet JohannGoethe's (1749-1832) West-ostlicher Divan, published in 1819; and in the works ofother great German poets of the 19th century such as August Platen (1796-1835) and

Friedrich Ruckert (1788-1866). [61]

13

Music

Even though orthodox Islam does not approve of music, it was with the advent ofIslamic mysticism, such as Sufism, that the Arabs and Muslims began to develop agreat deal of musical art, especially for religious observation. A talented Arab musician

by the name of Zaryab (died 850), who moved from Baghdad to settle in Andalusia,established Europes first conservatory in Cordoba. Zaryab became a great singer, luteplayer, and music teacher. The influence of the Arab music on European music can alsobe found in the musical instruments the Arabs invented and/or introduced to the West.For example, in 942, the Arabs introduced kettledrums and trumpets to Europe.

In fact, the West did not only adopt Arab musical instruments but also took their namesas well. These include such instruments as the lute (al-ude), pandore (tanbur), and
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guitar (qitara). [62]The origins of many other Western musical instruments, such as theoboe, trumpet, violin, harp and percussion instruments, can also be traced to ArabSpain.

In addition, the Arabs and Muslims produced a large amount of literature on music,

mostly of scientific nature. For example, the great Arab philosopher/mathematician AbuYousif al-Kindi (801-873), known as "the philosopher of the Arabs", wrote importantworks on the theory of music, including more than 270 works on different musicalsubjects many of which were translated into Latin. Others who also wrote in Arabic onmusic include the great Turkish al-Farabi and the brilliant Persian Ibn Sina. Actually, al-Farabi's Grand Book on Music in Arabic was superior to anything produced anywhere atthe time. The Arab and Muslim writers on music not only influenced the West, but also

Africa, India, and the Far East. [63]

After the 12th century few of the Western authors, from the Spanish DomingoGundisalvo to the Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Kilwardy, Lull, George Reish, and

Adam de Fulda, omitted to quote from al-Farabi's musical writings in Latin translations,especially his De Ortu Scientiarum and De Scientiis. Both Roger Bacon and Adelard deBath, of the 12th century, advised their fans and followers to abandon their Westernschools for those of the Arabs. [64]

Another major Arab contribution to Western music was the mensural music andrhythmic modes such as the famous and beautiful Andalusian Arab Muwashshahat,strophic poems performed with music. Arab music was spread all over Europe throughthe wondering medieval minstrels, echoes of whose music have survived for hundredsof years in Gypsy music. Many Arab musical terms are still used today in Spanish suchas huda, nourisca, zamra, and zarabanda. In fact, not only the famous Spanish

flamenco music and dance originally came from the Arab music of Andalusia, but alsoeven the English Morris dancers were deeply influenced by Arab music. Actually theword Morris means Moorish or Arab. [65]

There are many outstanding Western musicians and composers, from the 19th and 20thcenturies, who found inspiration in Arab music and were influenced by it. These includefour French: Hector Berlioz (1803-1869), Charles Saint-Saens (1835-1921), JulesMassenet (1842-1912), and Claude Debussy (1862-1918); one French-Belgian: CesarFranck (1822-1890); four Russians: Aleksander Borodin (1833-1887), Mily Balakirev(1837-1910), Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881), and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) who composed the famous symphonic suite Scheherazad in 1888; and twoSpanish: Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909) especially in his musical production Alhambra, andEnrique Granados (1867-1916), especially in his songs Chansons Arabes andMauresques. [66]

14


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Art

Because Islam forbids the portrayal of human figures and animals (for man must notcompete with God who alone has the power to create), Arab civilization produced notonly the beautiful and distinguished artistic forms of Arabic calligraphy, but also the

famous "arabesque", a unique stylish form of Arab art.

Arabesque is a most perfect style of decoration characterized by an elaborateinterlocking plants and abstract curvilinear motifs as well as intricate geometricaldesigns. Because it represents visual art in its purest form, arabesque was copiedthroughout Europe from the time of the Renaissance and up to the 19th century.European artists used arabesque, as the Arabs did, for the decoration of walls andceilings; plaster panels; woodcarving; metalwork; pottery; textile; furniture; andilluminated manuscripts. In fact, the Italian Renaissance used the term "arabesque" tomean intricate design.

European artists, particularly in Spain and Portugal eagerly adopted the famous Arabart of using the alphabet letters for purely decorative purposes, calligraphy. TheEuropean Gothic script was used in the same fashion as Arabic calligraphy. SometimesChristian art itself used the actual Arabic letters as a form of decoration. For example,

Arabic artistic writing in Western art could be found in the paintings of the followingthree great Italian painters: Giotto Di Bondone (1266-1337), Fra Angelico (1400-1455),and Fra Lippi (1406-1469). In Lippi's great painting of the "Coronation of the Virgin",housed in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence, the yard-long scarf held by the angels has

Arabic words written all over it.

The Andalusian Arabs introduced to the West many beautiful artistically handcrafted

industries such as the unique Arabian jewelry; the manufacture and painting ofceramics, including tiles; and the manufacture of crystal, a process discovered by theArabs in Cordoba in the second half of the 9th century. [67]Also, an 11th centurySpanish Catholic prince by the name of Alfonso VIII ordered the minting of a decorativecoin in which not only the inscriptions were written in Arabic, but also he referred tohimself on the coin as the "Ameer of the Catholics" and the Pope in Rome as the "Imamof the Church of Christ". [68]

During the Renaissance, Arabian turbans and other articles of Arab apparel appeared inmany Western paintings, some of which even displayed Christian Saints looking like

Arab and Muslim notables. [69]Arab artistic influence could also be easily seen as late

as the 19th century in the great paintings of the French Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863)who lived in Arab North Africa and was influenced by his experiences there.

In reality, the beautiful Arabian textiles; silk; damasks; inlaid tables; wood carving;colored glass wares; lamps; bottles; enamelled glass; beakers; metal and leather works;book-binding; and decorative colored glazed pottery were all considered great objetsd'art throughout Europe. They were copied and sometimes poorly imitated by Europeanartists, especially in Italy. Also, what was identified in Europe as the "Chinese Blue"


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pottery, which was copied especially in Holland and Denmark, was in reality the Islamicpottery known in China as the "Mohammadan Blue" which the Chinese pottersthemselves had learned from the Arabs. Further, at the Canterbury Cathedral, themother-church of English Protestantism, the artistically made 13th century Arabian silkbags were used to hold the seals of documents. [70]

15

Architecture

The style of Arab architecture was popular in the West and was copied by bothEuropean and American builders. Both the plain Andalusian horseshoe arch and themore complex cupsed arches of the mosques of Cordoba and Samarra in Iraq as wellas at those of the Alhambra Palace in Granada, served as models for many arches in

Perpendicular and Gothic churches in England and France.

The beautiful Arab brick tracery of the facades of both the well-known Islamic GiraldaTower in Seville, as well that of its sister-minaret, the Kutubia in Morocco, were copiedwith some minor variation in much of Gothic tracery throughout Europe, especially onthe Bell Tower at Evesham in England. [71]Many churches both in Sicily and SouthernItaly have a deep Arab architectural influence such as the church of Capella Palatina inPalermo. The medallions of Christian saints that adorn its arches bear Arabic writings ofthe Kufic style. Many European arches and battlements, such as the Palazzo Ca' d'Oro(one of the greatest of 15th century palaces in Venice), also reflect Arab architecturalinfluence. The Italian cities of Siena and Florence provide the best available examples

of the Arab architectural influence of alternating white and black marbles on the facadeof churches. Other examples elsewhere include various churches and academicbuildings in England, such as Cromer Church in Norfolk and Christ Hall in Oxford. [72]

However, the very best example of the profound impact of Arab architecture on theWest is provided by the campanile that is nothing but a clear adaptation of the tallgraceful slender minaret. This adaptation can be found in the campaniles of the Torredel Commune in Verona, the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, and the Piazza San Marco inVenice. [73]Arab architectural influence touched even the early American cityarchitecture; especially those buildings designed by the great American architect LouisSullivan (1856-1924), the spiritual father of modern U.S. architecture. In fact, the

interest of American architects both in long ornamental friezes and in the severity ofAmerican exteriors is due to the influence of Arab monuments, especially those of theMadrasah ("religious school") of Sultan Hasan in Cairo. [74]

IV


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The Horrors of the Spanish Inquisition after the End of Arab AndalusianCivilization

In January 1492 Granada surrendered to the Christian Spanish forces of KingFerdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile. Although there was no final battle,

but rather a final surrender, the Pope declared their victory to be a "holy war" - acrusade against Islam. Ironically, after almost 800 years of brilliant Arab civilization andpresence in Europe's Iberian Peninsula, the Christian Spaniards resorted back to theold Western uncivilized religious and racial intolerance. By brutal and barbaric acts ofracism and religious intolerance, the Spanish "Christians" initiated the horribly violentInquisition (or holocaust) against both Muslims and Jews whether they were Arab ornot. The terrorist Inquisition in Spain, which was officially sanctioned by the CatholicChurch and the Papacy in Rome, was actually a continuation of the general EuropeanInquisition against non-Christians, which started some 200 years earlier during theviolent European Crusades against the Arabs and Muslims of the East. In fact, thebarbaric European Inquisition that started with the beginning of the Crusades in

Toulouse, France, in 1229 continued for over 600 years all over Europe. This Westernterrorism that included the horrors of witch-hunting and the killing and torturing of non-Christians and Christians, as well as the censoring of scientific ideas, finally came to anend in Spain in 1834.

The Spanish violent Inquisition of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries resulted in thewidespread killing and burning of Jews and Muslims; their brutal torture anddeportations from Spain; their denial to hold any public office whatsoever; and theirforced conversion to Christianity. In fact, even those who had been forced to convert toChristianity (i. e., the "Moriscos") were also expelled from Spain. In all, over three millionMuslims were deported from Spain. [75]It was believed that all Hispanic names that

ended with "ez" were originally Arab-Muslim families who were "converts" to Christianityand who fled the Spanish Inquisition to find new hopes in the New World. In fact, thevoyages of Christopher Columbus (who was an inquisitor, a slave-owner, and a slave-trader) to the New World were financed with the revenues from the confiscatedproperties of Muslims and Jews who had been brutally deported from their homes inSpain. [76]Armand-Jean du Plessis (1585-1642), the famous French Cardinal andDuke of Richelieu - who served as the chief minister to the French King Louis XIII from1624 to 1642 - described the expulsion of the Arabs and Muslims from Spain in hismemoirs "as the most barbarous act in human history." [77]

During the Spanish Inquisition, many Christians also resorted back to the old dirty

European habit of avoiding washing their bodies with water, this time in order not toimitate the heretic expelled Muslim Arabs! After the "uncivilized" Arabs were expelledfrom Spain, all public baths were closed. The Spanish Christians rejected all forms ofbathing, public or private, because they associated them with Islam and regarded themas "a mere cover for Mohammedan ritual and sexual promiscuity." [78]In fact, even untiltoday people throughout the civilized Western world, whether in Europe or in the

Americas, still clean up with only toilet papers after using the toilet bowl, whereas allArabs and Muslims have always used water to wash and clean up afterwards. In


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9. Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples (Cambridge, Massachusetts: TheBelknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1991), p. 34.

10. Ibid., p. 34.

11. Bernard Lewis, The Arabs in History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), p.180.

12. Ibid., p. 181.

13. David E. Stannard, American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World (NewYork: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 58.

14. Catherine Young, An Introduction to Islamic History: A Teacher's Resource BookGrades 7-12 (Fountain Valley, California: Council on Islamic Education, n.d.), p. 1 of thesection on Spain.

15. Lewis, The Arabs, pp. 131-32.

16. Duncan Townson, Muslim Spain (Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Company,1979), p. 24.

17. Ibid., p. 17.

18. Ibid., p. 19.

19. Mohammad T. Mehdi, Islam and Intolerance: A Reply to Salman Rushdie (New

York: New World Press, 1989), p. 21.

20. Ibid., p. 61.

21. Clifford N. Anderson, The Fertile Crescent: Travels in the Ancient Footsteps ofAncient Science (Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Sylvester Press, 1972), p. 94.

22. Karl J. Smith, The Nature of Mathematics (5th ed.; Monterey, California:Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, 1987), p. 176.

23. Abdelhamid I. Sabra, "The Exact Sciences," in The Genius of Arab Civilization:

Source of Renaissance, ed. by John R. Hayes (3rd ed.; New York: New York UniversityPress, 1992), p. 186.

24. Landau, Arab Contribution, p. 36.

25. Encyclopedia Britannica, 1989, vol. 1, p. 962.

26. Landau, Arab Contribution, pp. 35-36.


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49. Hayes (ed.), The Genius of Arab Civilization, p. 266.


51. Quoted in Encyclopedia Britannica, 1989, vol. 6, p. 222.

52. Quoted in ibid., p. 222.

53. Quoted in ibid., p. 222.


55. Khouri, "Literature", p. 70.

56. Landau, Arab Contribution, p. 55-56.

57. Ibid., p. 57.

58. Cited in ibid., p. 55.

59. Khouri, "Literature", p. 56.

60. Ibid., p. 67.


62. Ibid., pp. 59-60.

63. Ibid., pp. 60-61.

64. Ibid., p. 61.

65. Ibid., pp. 61-62.

66. Ibid., p. 62.

67. Ragaei and Dorothea El Mallakh, "Trade and Commerce," in Hayes, The Genius ofArab Civilization, p. 259.


69. Ibid., p. 65.

70. Ibid., pp. 66-67.

71. Ibid., p. 68.


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72. Ibid., p. 68.

73. Ibid., pp. 68-69.

74. Oleg Grabar, "Architecture and Art," in Hayes, The Genius of Arab Civilization, p.

112.

75. Audrey Shabbas, "Living History With a Medieval Banquet in the Alhambra Palace,"Social Studies Review, 34, No. 3 (Spring, 1996), 25.

76. Ibid., p. 25.

77. Quoted in Henry Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition (New York: The New AmericanLibrary, 1965), p. 115.

78. Stannard, American Holocaust, p. 161.

79. Quoted in Desmond Stewart, Early Islam: Great Ages of Man (New York: TimeIncorporated, 1967), p. 143.

80. Quoted in Shabbas, "Living History With a Medieval Banquet," p. 25.

Documents

Arab Civilization and Its Impact on the West