Muslim Heritage
Bertrand Russel in ‘History of Western Philosophy,’
London, 1948, p. 419.
"Our use of phrase 'The Dark ages' to cover the period from 699 to
1,000 marks our undue concentration on Western Europe...
"From India to Spain, the brilliant civilization of Islam
flourished. What was lost to christendom at this time was not lost
to civilization, but quite the contrary...
"To us it seems that West-European civilization is civilization, but
this is a narrow view."
"Is it possible that the "glory
days" of Arab culture were due to the classical and advanced
near-eastern cultures which they overran? To their credit they
succeeded in preserving and passing on much of what they
learned--and in a few cases were able to add something. But did they
really have the intellectual curiosity and drive in a general sense
to go on and develop and enlarge on what they happened upon? I have
the general impression that the directing classes seemed preoccupied
with prestige and luxurious living rather than accomplishing
anything worthwhile, but perhaps this is Western cultural bias."
Disregarding the fact that many serious historians have expounded
it, Paul Simon uses the unWAIS word "twaddle" to dismiss the idea
that Moorish influence had anything to do with the backwardness of
southern Spain and Italy. He says
(Insert Source -
http://www.muslimheritage.com/ )
Disregarding the fact that many
serious historians have expounded it, Paul Simon uses the unWAIS
word "twaddle" to dismiss the idea that Moorish influence had
anything to do with the backwardness of southern Spain and Italy. He
says:
"If Southern Italy and Spain lag behind the north, southern Germany
long lagged behind Prussia; was this some Muslim or African
influence? How about the long "South lags North" in the USA or the
19th century "South lags North" in England (these last two now
reversed!) and why have they reversed and why did they lag. How
about looking to natural human torpidity under heat, disease vectors
or malaria, and similar draining factors before coming down on
Islam; I am unaware of any caliphates or Muslim history in the
Italian peninsula. or are we just going to go around blaming
religions?
(Insert Source -
http://www.cyberistan.org/ )
Is it the Catholics in Bavaria or the Baptists in the
American South? Or is it prejudice? If one would like a
well-reasoned approach to why these areas lag behind, there is no
better read than David Landis' The Wealth and Poverty of Nations.
My comment: Again, there is an enormous corpus on the influence of
religions on civilizations. Serious Spanish historians maintain that
the Catholic Church held back the development of Spain. Naturally
some Catholic scholars protested; Menendez y Pelayo wrote La ciencia
espanola, without convincing many people. Of course there were no
caliphates in Italy, but there was plenty of Muslin influence. The
nature and causes of the decline of civilizations are complex
subjects involving many factors.
Ronald Hilton - 7/27/00