Adnan Rashid – Unveiling the Muslim Civilization #10

			Lao salatu wa salam ala rasulillah I'm about rubella Samira Lima shaytani r rajim Bismillah R Rahman
r Rahim, Mama solokha in LA Mata Lena amin, respected brothers and sisters in Islam Salam alaykum
warahmatullahi wabarakatuh, I welcome you all to another episode of unveiling the Muslim
civilization. We've had a short break of a few weeks, and we are back again. Alhamdulillah. So
today, it will be Episode 10 of unveiling the Muslim civilization. Previously, I have talked about a
lot of things to do with the Muslim civilization as to how the Muslim civilization has made a huge
difference to humanity in general. And the history of the Muslim civilization cannot possibly be
		

			covered in 10 lecture or 20 lectures or 30 lectures, all I can do is to point to certain aspects of
this great, magnificent civilization. And you can go in your own times and study the rest of it.
Right. So this is one of the things we want to do. We want to encourage through these lectures,
encourage Muslims to go and pick up books on the history of Islam and Muslims, and see the
achievements, the greatest achievements of Muslim luminaries from the past, so that they can take
inspiration from them. The purpose of history is to inspire is to teach is to give lessons. This is
why a Lost Planet Allah repeatedly uses history as a very powerful argument in the Quran. So my
		

			brothers and sisters, today is Episode 10 of unveiling the Muslim civilization. I've talked about
the early Muslim conquest have talked about how the Muslims treated the Jews and the Christians and
all the non Muslims that came to govern over all these centuries, have talked about the spread of
Islam, from China to Spain have talked about what was the outcome of this spread? Or why was this
particular expansion necessary at the time? What caused this expansion? All of these questions were
discussed in relative detail and the aftermath and the aftermath? What happened after the Muslims
took all this land? What happened? How did this particular expansion of Islam made a difference to
		

			the people of these lands? Did they benefit from the Muslim expansion? Did they benefit from the
Muslim take over of these lands or the Muslims are no different to other civilizations who came into
plunder, to misuse abuse, all the people that came to govern so these are some of the questions I
have addressed in the previous episodes. I invite you
		

			to go and watch these lectures on live Dean page or my youtube channel few type of non vasila
YouTube you will see my channel there and I have put the entire series there you can see nine
previous episodes on that YouTube channel. I would like to thank live Dean for facilitating this for
their audiences as well so that we can learn about the Muslim civilization. So previous episode
episode nine I was talking about how Muslims are had amassed libraries, how Muslims went into book
collecting, what inspired this fascination with books in the first place is another question I
addressed Allah subhanaw taala stated in the Quran, Allah will be live nishitani regime has been
		

			liar Bismillahi Rahmani Raheem high yesterday. alladhina Yala Muna Villa de la Alamo are those who
know equal to those who know not so rhetorically Allah subhanaw taala is making a statement that
those who know not can never be equal to those who know. In other words, Allah is establishing the
importance of seeking knowledge in Islam. The first commandment a lot of use in the Koran to
Muslims, in the holy book is Accra read in the name of your ward, the one who created you. So
chapter 96 of the Quran, the first five verses were revealed to the Prophet peace be upon in salatu
salam in the cave of Hara, and these are the five verses a lot of yield to humanity. First five
		

			verses two have been revealed in the Quran, and they are about seeking knowledge reading. And this
is exactly what Muslims did. Following on from the teachings of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam and
his companions and their followers when they had expanded from China to Spain, within a century of
the power of the prophets, death, Muslims are all over the world. So they created a magnificent
civilization this civilization was entirely based upon, of course, among other things. It was based
upon seeking knowledge, importance of knowledge was paramount in the civilization of Islam and, and
for that reason, wherever the Muslims went, there was one unique feature about the Muslims and that
		

			feature was accumulating books.
		

			Book production bookbinding book writing book collection. So one of the best pastime one of the best
hobbies, one of the best virtues of the Muslim civilization for over 1000 years was
		

			creating giant libraries. And this is where other civilizations found the real power of Islam and
Muslims. For example, when the Mongols invaded the Muslim lands, they went on a rampage, destroying
Muslim libraries in particular, after the Mongols took Baghdad in 1258. They specifically destroyed
the library above that, which contained the millions of volumes, millions of volumes. The river, it
is said became black with the ink of these books because the Mongols dumped a lot of these books in
to the river after taking Baccarat. Likewise in Spain, in the year 1492, when two Catholic Monarchs,
two Catholic Monarchs came together, Isabella, and Ferdinand they came together through marriage,
		

			and the first thing they wanted to do was to destroy the last stronghold of Muslims in London was in
Spain. So in 1492, when they took Spain, or when they took Granada to be precise, they destroyed the
Muslim library in the city of Granada. So the libraries was seen as a source of power, a source of
inspiration for Muslims. That's why the Muslims have amassed so many libraries.
		

			In all these lands, they came together for over 1000 years. This was one of the best features of the
Muslim civilization, among many others, of course. So Muslims specialized in book production, they
produced books on a massive scale. To an extent that to this day, we can find manuscripts in Arabic
and Persian lying around in book markets in the Muslim world. To this day, you can find, despite the
fact that there were so many wars, so many fires, so much destruction, so much plunder of books. I
mean, even the colonial powers, they plundered books from the Muslim civilization. So a lot of the
books you find today in the British Library, coming from the Muslim lands, in particular, in French
		

			libraries, let's say in German libraries, in American libraries, a lot of these books, they came
from the Muslim world, even Bodleian Library at Oxford University is full of books, manuscripts that
actually originate from the Muslim world's
		

			Muslim countries. Where did these books come from? They came from, of course, these Muslim lands,
when the colonial powers of governing these lands. So it is very important for us to remember that
that book production was an absolutely amazing feature of the Muslim salvation. In the previous
episode, I talked about brother sisters, those of you who are watching, please share this live feed
with others so others can join us as well. Unfortunately, I cannot share it right now, because I'm
live on my phone. So it may not be possible for me to share this feed with others, but do share it
on your pages so that other people can join us and let them share it with their contacts in sha
		

			Allah tala. So, in the period previous episode, I talked about some of these libraries, in
particular in Spain, in London, US collecting books, writing books, book production, was a very
special hobby, the hobby of the elite, the hobby of the most learned men or women in Spain, there
were women who are scribing books in Spain. They were women, scribes in Spain, who were scribing
books. Likewise, there were men who are scribing books. scribes are in business, literally scribes
are in business. When we talk about book production in Spain, Caleb hukam, the second For example,
one of the cases I mentioned previously, he had a library of 400,000 volumes, possibly the largest
		

			library in the world, anywhere in the world at the time. Why was that the case? There are 70 public
libraries. In Cordova alone the city of Cordova, this was possibly the most civilized city in the
world at the time. Why? Because there was maximum emphasis on book production and book distribution.
Now this benefitted civilization beyond the borders of Spain, right, Spain is Western Europe as we
know today. So there are other nations that took advantage of this knowledge. Now without going into
too much details, because I don't have the time to go into the details. This talk is meant to be for
nearly about half an hour. 10 minutes already gone. So I want to talk about how this knowledge
		

			He was transferred beyond the borders of Spain, right? So it is clear now, there were many libraries
in a landeros governed by Muslims. Okay? Muslims had brought this fascination with books with them
to along the rows. Not that other civilizations didn't have this fascination, but the Muslims took
it to a completely new level, the Muslims took it to, if you want to call it an extreme, they took
it to the next level when it comes to collecting books and book production, and Muslims managed to
preserve a lot of the knowledge that came from the Greeks. Some of the works we know from the Greek
philosophers are only known in the Arabic language at this time, because Muslims managed to get them
		

			translated into the Arabic language, language from Greek and many other works are translated
similarly, from many different languages into the Arabic language. And this happened mainly in the
19th century in Baghdad. And later on, this knowledge was transferred throughout the Muslim world,
in the east, and in the West, and Spain was no exception. So when these libraries had come to Spain,
when these books are brought to Spain, from the Middle East, from Damascus, from Baghdad, and from
tragic, Sonia, what we today know as Central Asia, all of this became a flourishing example of the
Muslim civilization. A lot of these books, they were sent to London, to Spain, and scholar in Spain,
		

			were avid collectors of books. So after some of the Western Europeans heard about this knowledge in
Spain, they traveled to Spain, to seek this knowledge from the Arabs, the Arabs, when I say the
Arabs, I mean, Jews, Christians and Muslims writing and teaching in Arabic, the Arabic language
became the lingua franca of the civilized world, the Arabic language became the language of the
learned for over five centuries, the status the English language enjoys, and this is the closest
example I can give the status the English language enjoys in the world today was the status of the
Arabic language for over five centuries. So if you knew the Arabic language, it was a symbol of
		

			status. That meant that you are learned math even today, if you were to speak the English language
in so called third world countries, it is unfortunate, but it's true, you will be regarded as an
educated person because English language is immediately equated with education. Likewise, the Arabic
language enjoyed the same status. Once upon a time, the Arabs were known as the most learned and
intelligent people in the world because of the language and because of the books they were producing
in the language. So
		

			the Jews and the Christians and the Muslims collectively were teaching the knowledge they had
acquired from all these libraries from the Muslim world into the Arabic language, okay. In Arabic
language, they were teaching all this knowledge. So Western European scholars, some of the students
on some of these Western European countries like Germany, France and Britain, they had heard about
this knowledge and they started to flock to Spain, in particular, if not other destinations, like
Sicily, for example, was another very popular destination for scholars and students who wanted to
learn the Arabic language to acquire to be able to acquire knowledge in other sciences that could
		

			only be found in the Arabic language. So Aristotle's writings, for example, some of them were in the
Arabic language, okay. Greek medicine was in the Arabic language. The works of Galen, for example,
who was of course a Roman physician. He was a private physician to Marcus Aurelius. Marcus Aurelius
was a very famous Roman Emperor, a philosopher, a stoic philosopher. He had his private physician
who was called Galen jolly news, in the Arabic language, his works were translated into Arabic. So
Europeans became very interested in these works. A lot of this has been talked about in a number of
books I have mentioned previously and I will mention again, one of those books is by George Saliba.
		

			George Saliba is a scholar who published a book titled, The Islamic origins of the European
Renaissance, or the Arabic origins of the European Renaissance, something like that. That book was
published by Columbia University Press in the US, and the author was none other than George Saliba.
It is an excellent exposition of the fact that a lot of this knowledge which the Europeans used
later on to enjoy it
		

			raisons came from Arabic works, pioneered in Spain, in Sicily and in the Middle East. And mainly,
the Europeans were interested in astronomy, the study of heavens, they were very much fascinated by
astronomy. So astronomy seems to be the first science that made its way into Western Europe via
Islamic Spain in London was, in fact, the first science ever to have been taught in the University
of Oxford, historically speaking, in the 12th. And the 13th century was the science of astronomy
that came directly from a London rose. In fact, there is evidence that scholars like Daniel have
moral a Daniel of moral a wanted was an English man from a place called morally in Midlands today.
		

			Now he came to Spain. And he learned a lot of this knowledge, he took a lot of these books and he
went back to Britain, he went back to England from Spain, having learned from the Muslims in Spain,
and he established schools of philosophy in Oxford, and these schools later on collectively came to
be known as the Oxford University danila. Morley was instrumental in bringing the Arabic philosophy
to Britain. And this can be found or this stuff, or this idea, or details on this story of Daniel
are more rare can be found in a book titled The matter of Arabic In medieval England. I repeat the
name of the book, The matter of araby, in medieval England, and the author is Dorothy McCluskey, she
		

			talks about Daniel a morally in relative detail. And she explains how Daniel had traveled from
Britain to France, in Paris. And in Paris, he found these monks teaching
		

			the Scripture and the commentaries on the Scripture, and he found them to be very boring, and he
didn't find them to be very learned. So he heard about the Arabs of Spain at the time, and he made
his way to Spain to learn from the Arabs, which he did. And he seems to have come back, he wrote a
book titled filosofia. And in the pre face in the introduction of that book, he explains how
fascinated he was by the Arabs in the knowledge. And he introduced this knowledge into Britain. And
then this knowledge was subsequently taught in the University of Oxford, to students who are
studying there. So this was Daniel Amon way, another man who had traveled to Spain and Sicily and
		

			beyond, of course, even as far as Aleppo, if not, if I'm not mistaken, his name was Eddie lodge of
bath. Dorothy McCluskey talks about a lot in her book also. So a lot of was also a very, very
interesting character, he was directly connected to the Royal Court in Britain, if I'm not mistaken,
he was serving under Henry the first, right. And he had become a very close associate of King Henry
in Britain, and advising him on matters of education, science, and even
		

			he became like a financier for the king at a lot of bath, okay, very, a very learned English man who
had traveled to Spain, and take a who took this knowledge to Britain. There are other people who had
learned the Arabic language and then translated many, many works from Arabic into Latin. And yet
because Latin language was the language of the the Europeans at the time, Latin was the literary
language spoken, and taught in Europe, generally speaking, in Britain, and France, and in Germany as
well, because the church had brought the Latin language with it. All the books written for academic
purpose were written in the Latin language, so books translated into from Arabic word translated
		

			into Latin, so that most Europeans can access that knowledge. So there were some men who were
specifically appointed by European establishments to translate this Arabic knowledge into Latin, so
that the Latins can become civilized just as the Arabs are civilized in a londorossi in Spain,
right. So this is a very, very big fascinating
		

			aspect of the Muslim civilization, which is often neglected. Not many Muslim students know about the
true extent of how Islam and Muslims inspired Europeans in the western civilization via Spain in
Sicily. Sicily was governed by Muslims for nearly 200 years and Spain Of course, as we know, Muslims
govern part parts of Spain from seven 711 to 1492. over seven centuries, Muslims govern parts of
Spain in this period, okay, and when Muslims are governing, they brought a lot of positive
		

			interactions, positive contract
		

			With them to the land of Spain and by extension to rest to to the rest of Western Europe, Western
European lands, okay. So, there was one man in particular I must mention who played a very important
role in transferring the Arabic knowledge to the Latins to Western Europeans. His name was Gerard of
Cremona. Gerard of Cremona. If you Google him, I'm pretty sure you will find plenty of articles on
him. His name is spelled g AR AR D. Gerard of Cremona, c r e m o n a, or get Gerard of Cremona was a
very, very important man in this cross pollination, or actually, one way up to now one way
pollination of the Arabic knowledge to the Latins, right, because Gerard was an expert arabist he
		

			knew the Arabic language he had translated, over 80 Arabic works into Latin. He was highly
instrumental, highly valuable for Western Europeans to translate this knowledge into Latin for them
to learn from the Arabs from the Muslims, and from the Jewish scholars as well, because Jewish
scholars also spent a lot of time translating much of this Arabic knowledge into Latin petrosal
Fonzie was a Jewish convert to Christianity, who translated a lot of these Arabic works from sorry
from Arabic into Latin. So Gerard was working in Toledo. Toledo, was taken from the Muslims from the
Arabs in 1080s 10. At sea around that time, in the late 11th century CE II, Toledo, the city of
		

			Toledo, in the Arabic language, it was called Palais de la was taken from the Muslims in 1080s. So
when the Christian monarch, who came into the city of Toledo, he was absolutely blown away by the
sheer size of the library, in the mosque of Toledo, the central Masjid of Palais de la or Toledo, he
found many, many books and many books and other libraries in the city of Toledo, this Christian
monarch became absolutely fascinated by the amount of knowledge and works and manuscripts that were
found in the city of Toledo. So what did he do? He appointed Christian scholars who had learned the
Arabic language to translate this knowledge, because they knew the real source of power of the
		

			Arabs. The real source of this civilization, the advancement in science, and generally speaking in
living standard, is in these libraries. The real source of the success of the Arabs, the material
success of the Arabs, at that time, the source of their civilization as the Europeans saw them to be
superior, the Arabs were seen as superior civilization, by Western Europeans at the time, partly, of
course, because the civilization of Islam, Islamic civilization, and also the amount of works the
Muslims and the Arabs had pioneered in Allen Dulles, at the time, I'm not trying to paint the
history of Islam to be something like you know, like a utopia. Now, of course, there are so many
		

			things that we can talk about, that went wrong throughout the history of the Muslim civilization
from China to Spain, I can talk about all those things right. But my purpose in these lectures, and
I talk about the invade, unveiling of the Muslim civilization, my purpose is not to talk about all
the catastrophes and atrocities. My purpose here is to talk about the positive aspects of the Muslim
civilization, which are very seldom talked about. Unfortunately, the Islamophobia industry has been
so successful lately in spreading hate, again, against Islam and Muslims, it is now important, it is
not imperative for the Muslims to talk more about the positive, the great and the magnificent
		

			contributions of the Muslim civilization to the making of the Western civilization. There is no
there is no Western civilization without the Muslim civilization, I will repeat, there is no Western
civilization one cannot conceive the existence of the Western civilization, without considering
seriously the rise of the Muslim civilization throughout the Middle East, throughout Central Asia,
throughout North Africa and into Western
		

			Spain. So my brothers and sisters, but you must understand is that the Muslims brought a lot of this
power and knowledge to to Spain with them. And then European scholars. flocked flock
		

			To Londolozi to take knowledge from them, inshallah I will be stopping very soon here. This was a
brief introduction of as to how European students and scholars have flocked to Muslim lands to to
seek knowledge. In the next episode of unveiling the Muslim civilization which will be the episode
11. I will be talking about insha Allah. This, the scholars traveling to the Muslim lands in a bit
more detail, so that you can understand potentially some extent of the influence Islam and Muslims
had on the Western European mind at the time. Okay. There are so many ways we can look at this, but
I will be focusing on some particular ideas, some people, some specific individuals who had made a
		

			huge difference. People like Gerard of Cremona, people like Daniel immorally. People, like a lot of
bass people like Robert of Catan. All of these names are very important names when it comes to this
translation movement that flourished in a Londolozi in Spain, whereby Christian scholars are
translating books from Arabic into Latin so that these works can be brought to France, Germany and
England, where people studied these works. And lo and behold, we had the Renaissance later on. I'll
stop there to resume again in Charlotte next week at the same time, in 11, Episode 11 of unveiling
the Muslim solution. Until then, thank you so much. salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah. If you have any
		

			questions, you can post them on Facebook, I can see your comments and I will try my best to answer
your question. inshallah. Allah, there are some comments here. Okay. I'll try to answer them.
		

			Okay, are there any questions about the Muslim civilization please put them forward.
		

			Okay.
		

			So I think
		

			someone is asking a question and it's been put in many comments. I don't know if I can read all the
comments. But
		

			if you can put your comment in a brief sentence, asking your question, then I can answer it
potentially inshallah Tada. And brothers and sisters, if you have any questions, you have two to
three minutes to post these questions here right now so that I can answer them. Otherwise, inshallah
we will meet next week again at the same time
		

			in Charlotte, Allah.
		

			So this was a brief introduction of the translation movement that took place in London was the
translation movement, whereby European scholars who had learned the Arabic language in order to
translate the Arabic knowledge they found in Sicily and Spain into Latin to transfer this knowledge
to the rest of Western European institutions, educational institutions, so that they can have
similar civilization, like the Muslim Muslim lands had at the time. Okay, I think there are no more
questions. So I'll stop here right now. I'll end the live feed. Thank you so much for listening.
onehunga reliable el amin, Santa Monica Lama welcome. technicial lai lai, la, la style. Hiroko, la,
		

			la, la, la, la. We will see you next week again.