Unveiling the Muslim Civilization #11

Under Rahim Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. Al hamdu. lillahi Rabbil alameen wa salatu wa salam O Allah Hata mila blsa del Mar Sallim wa de was Hari, oral Miami. Oman tabia from the sun in Leo Medina. I'm about to be learning some Illumina shaytani r rajim Bismillah Ar Rahman AR Rahim Allah Allah, Allah Allah Allah, Allah Allah Allah Ameen respective brothers and sisters in Islam. I am, I am back with another episode of unveiling the Muslim civilization. And today we are going through part 11. Today we will be talking about the impact of Muslim libraries on the western civilization, the impact of Muslim intellectual activity that was taking place in places like

Spain, bodard, Damascus, Sicily, Central Asia, all of this region was vibrant. It was pregnant with ideas, which were pioneered by the Muslim intellectuals and non Muslim intellectuals who are also writing in the Arabic language. So the Arabic language had become the lingua franca of the civilized world. I want everyone to share this feed on the pages so that other people can join us in sha Allah tala. If you're watching, please share the feed so that other people can join us. And may Allah bless you all. Thank you so much for your comments and your questions and your praise. Allah bless you. So unveiling the Muslim civilization is a series about the Muslim civilization and its

achievement. A lot of people expect me to criticize the Muslim civilization. I'm not doing that. I am simply making episodes upon episodes to highlight the achievements of Islam and Muslim. Okay, there are plenty of academic works, whereby you can read about all the negative history if you want to see negativity, I am going to talk about the positive achievements of Islam and Muslims. This is what I've been talking about for the past 10 episodes. Today's the 11th episode, I started with the early Islamic conquest and the impact on the lands that were taken by the Muslims in the early centuries of Islam. And then whatever happened afterwards the outcome the result

of that expansion, which took place in the first century of Islam. And under loose was one of the places where the Muslims came, and I talked about Al Andalus. extensively. I also talked about libraries in the Muslim world in general. And in a Londolozi in Islamic Spain, in particular, in medieval Spain, the history of medieval Spain, for some reason, is not even considered considering the history of Europe. Unfortunately, a lot of the Eurocentric authors who write history today, they don't even consider an underoos, or Islamic Spain to be part of Europe, which is very, very strange. Spain is indeed seen as part of Western Europe today, right? But 700 years of history of Spain is

treated as alien history, because it is Islamic, for some reason. So we really need to revise that way of thinking we need to review whether that thinking is accurate historically, or, or is even just right, if Spain is part of Western Europe, then the history of Spain during the Muslim period is also the history of Western Europe for nearly 700 years. So men he will Spain was essentially Islamic, predominantly Muslim is governed Spain for nearly 700 years, parts of Spain, sometimes

most of Spain, sometimes parts of Spain. And while the Muslims are governing Spain, they brought about a magnificent civilization. We talked about it extensively. Those of you watching right now please share this feed this live feed on your pages so that other people can join us inshallah tada and we can benefit from these sessions. So Al Andalus.

The history of London rose, the history of Islamic Spain is a huge topic, politically speaking. There is a lot written on it. few books I would strongly recommend to begin with, and they are as follows onwards Shana, Anwar, Shanna has written the history of Muslim Spain. Then we have two volumes compilation on the legacy of Muslim Spain. The book is titled The legacy of Muslim Spain. It has been edited by Salma Hydra jayyousi samagra you see it

It was published by root ledge, publisher or Routledge I don't know how you would pronounce the term root ledge or Routledge. Okay. It is published by Rutledge publishers. And it is an absolutely fascinating collection of articles on a London Rose and the legacy of Muslim Spain. Then there are books like ornament of the world if you want to read an easy narrative, it is by Maria Rosa mcnicoll. Then there is a history of Islamic Spain and Portugal by Hugh Kennedy. You must look into that then there is a man called a Richard Fletcher who has written the history of Moorish Spain. And there are many more books I can advise you to read. There are specific topics. People have published

books on academically. But if you want to read a general history of Spain, a general introduction of the Muslim legacy in Spain, then I would strongly recommend the book of Anwar Shoshana titled, The Muslim Spain. Also if you want to read an orientalist work on the 19th century, then Reiner dozie, Reinhard dozie, has written a history of the Arabic Spain or out of Spain, on the Muslim Spain. His book is very, very highly recommended. Right. So these are some of the words I wanted to mention very quickly. Okay, so. So my brothers and sisters, I want to very quickly highlight, highlight

some of the issues I want to

I want to address which were picked on in the last episode, the legacy of Islam in Western Europe. How did the Muslims actually inspire the Western European civilization? I have strongly recommended one book in particular on this very topic. And that book is the hidden debt to the Islamic civilization. The book is titled, The hidden debt to the Islamic civilization, you can find a lot of information there. So as you know, last week, I talked about Muslim libraries in Spain, okay, these libraries were accumulated they were collected, or they were put together, they were established by Muslims, predominantly, and then some Jewish and Christian scholars who were part of the

establishment. When I say the establishment, I mean, the educational establishment in Muslim Spain, Muslim Spain was governed by the Muslim law, the Sharia law, the rulers are Muslims. And they were governing by the law of Islam. And these laws facilitated coexistence, right. There are many books actually written in particular on the coexistence which was facilitated by Islam and Muslims in Allah knows, right. That's another topic, we can address that topic at another time, another day, but I want to focus on how Muslims shifted knowledge to the rest of Western Europe. Okay, so I talked about Muslim libraries. In the previous episode, many, many books were collected, or brought

to a London loose by Muslim travelers, Muslim, adventurous Muslim kings and caelius. And so bonds were deeply interested in collecting books. So when these books came, they were put in different Muslim centers, Muslim centers of power, power hubs, Muslim power hubs in London was, for example, Cordoba, or Toledo, Palais de la, okay, and Seville or Valencia, for example, or Grenada, later on in 1492, the city of Grenada fell to the Catholic Monarchs, and they burnt over 1 billion books as a result.

So my brothers and sisters, I want you to talk about very quickly

that impact the library's created in an anomalous okay. So, and beyond, along those and beyond, many scholars have talked about the transfer of Muslim knowledge or the Arabic knowledge collected by Muslim, Jewish and Christian scholars, all of them together, they collected this knowledge they wrote commentaries, this was a very vibrant environment to learn in, and there were institutions, educational institutions established in these places. So these scholars, they accumulated libraries, these kings or these rulers, they accumulated libraries. So one particular city one one city in particular, called Toledo fell to the Christians from the north when they started, Reconquista is

called Reconquista. In other words, reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Arabs from the Muslims, so Christians from the north, the Catholics, they started to conquer the land back from the Muslims.

In Islamic Spain, and that started predominantly in the 11th century in the mid 11th century onwards 1015, let's say 1015. Okay, one of the major cities to fall in the hands of the Christians was the bastareaud that fell in the hands of the Christians on the north, in 1060s 1085, is the year when the city of Toledo fell into the hands of Christian monarchs coming from the north.

Okay. And when the city of Toledo fell to the Christians, they came across the library, in that city, the grand library of the city of Toledo. Okay, and there were many libraries there. So all these books that completely blew away these Christians who came from the north and Western Europe, according to conventional

thought, historic thought, Western Europe at the time was going through Dark Ages, okay.

A lot of 19th century historians, and even mid 20th century historians, they considered that period to be the dark age, now that you've been challenged because there was a lot going on in Western Europe at the time. So we cannot be so reductionist and call it the dark age, rather than all the weird things happening in Western Europe. But they were simply not recorded. And of course, there was a period of economic decline, cultural decline. And there were many, many issues in Western Europe at the time, but one of the things happening in Western Europe was in London to Spain. And as I, as I highlighted earlier, that the history of Islamic Spain, for some reason is not seen as the

history of Western Europe for some reason. And it is very strange. Eurocentric historians, Euro centric authors are generally speaking Western authors don't treat the history of Islamic Spain as the history of Western Europe, or at least it doesn't come across like that. Okay, that's one of the problems we need to highlight so that we can do something about it. Now, a lot was happening in London was in Spain. So these books that were found in Toledo, they simply blew away the Christians and the Christians.

Immediately, they made a connection between these books, and the civilization the Muslims are created in a landeros in Spain, okay. The Christians knew that the reason why the Muslims or the Arabs are so civilized in Spain, they are so sophisticated in Spain is because of these books, they are highly knowledgeable. They are very educated people. They are philosophers, intellectuals, thinkers. And for that reason, they are very, very powerful. They are very, very advanced, right? So they knew that these books must be translated, so that the Europeans can learn this knowledge. And that happened. There was a man called Gerard of Cremona, who was appointed to translate a lot of

these works in Toledo, into Latin from Arabic into Latin. So many of these manuscripts were put in front of Gerard of Cremona. And Gerard started to translate all these works. Gerard of Cremona was a huge teacher, he was a big teacher for many students. And he actually personally supervised many, many translations, important translations of works that were found in Western Europe later on for centuries. And the details can be found in the books of for example, George sarton, George sarton, has written a book titled an introduction to the history of science. This book was published in the early 20th century. And the book is in five volumes, a huge giant Compendium, collecting the history

of the Muslim legacy in Spain in particular, and the role of Gerard of Cremona in transmitting this knowledge to the rest of Western Europe was highlighted extensively in this work. Also, you can find details in the book I mentioned earlier, hidden debt to the Islamic civilization in that book, you can find a lot of interesting details to do with the translation movement. So this translation movement, okay, it really, really changed the situation in Western Europe as far as knowledge is concerned. So when these translations made from Arabic, into Latin, appeared in Germany, in Paris, in Britain, these translations started to change Western European outlook, on knowledge on education

on higher education on research on being civilized in general. Okay, so the Europeans who were inspired by Arabic knowledge coming from Spain and Sicily and beyond, like

from the Middle East, they became strong proponents of the Arabic knowledge, strong, very strong proponents of this knowledge. So many men traveled from Western Europe to Muslim lands to accumulate this knowledge. And they were instrumental in bringing this knowledge to Western Europe. So based upon this knowledge, a lot of universities were established in Western Europe at the time, okay. The University of Naples, for example, in Italy, was established mostly upon Arabic works translated into Latin. And sometimes even Arabic was taught as a language in these universities in Western Europe, brothers and sisters, this is the point you have to remember, in Western Europe.

So

there was universities in Paris, there were schools of philosophy in Britain in the 12th century. And in the 13th century. In fact, a lot of scholars talked about a 12th century Renaissance, whereby many European scholars, students authors traveled to an underoos, which was very close to Western Europe. Okay, it was itself Western Europe. But as I mentioned earlier, it wasn't seen in Western Europe at that time, and even later on, and even today, historians don't consider it as part of Western Europe when it was ruled by the Muslims for almost 700 years, which is very strange, right? So a lot of these scholars, students were travelling into Spain, and they were taking knowledge and

people like Robert of Catan Okay, people like Eddie lodge of Bath people, like Gerard of Cremona, as I mentioned earlier, okay. And there is a huge list. Okay, even one of the Pope's Pope gerbert of aurillac. Pope gerbert aurillac, Pope Sylvester the second, Pope Sylvester, the second who was Pope from 999 to 1003. He was the pope for four years. Guess what, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, he had traveled to the Muslim lands, to learn from the Muslims. He learned the science of mathematics. He brought a Bacchus, which was

an instrument like calculator is used today, it was a simpler version of calculator. It was used for calculating, he brought this knowledge to Western Europeans, among many other things, of course, and he was none other than Pope Sylvester the second. So people who were highly influential in Western Europe, had been influenced by the Muslim law, you know, the Muslim civilization in London, us and Sicily, and beyond.

Later on, this knowledge kept circulating in Western European universities, whereby people even started to dress like Muslims, they started to wear gowns, they started to wear Muslim hats. So you see the graduation hat you see today in universities, it looks flat from the top. A lot of people think this tradition came from the the Muslim nations, like Spain, where when students, they graduated, they would put the Quran on the head, and it looked like, like a flat surface on top of the hats. And this is why today when people graduate in western universities in particular, they have this flat, you know, shape hat on top of the heads. And I even had to wear that one of those

when I graduated from so as from School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Right. So this tradition actually came from medieval Spain. According to some scholars, I don't know how authentic or how accurate that assertion is. So a lot of this knowledge came with influences to Western European lands, okay, language came with this knowledge, a lot of Arabic language was transferred to Western Europe at the time, right. So for two to three centuries, Muslim knowledge, Arabic knowledge, pioneered by the Muslims, Muslim commentaries on Aristotle, Muslim commentaries on works of Galen on medicine, Muslim commentaries on many other Greek authors were translated into Latin.

And then these works are being studied in Western Europe for centuries, for three to four centuries to come. And later on, even during the Italian Renaissance in Florence, and other places in Naples, for example, a lot of these works are studied by Italian authors. Many people assume that some of the Renaissance thinkers were directly inspired by the Muslim civilization from London was from Spain. A lot of the work studied in Latin at that time, were actually translated during

The medieval Spanish period or the Muslim rule of Spain, right? So what I'm trying to say is that Muslims have influenced directly the making of the Western civilization, the identity of the Western civilization, Muslims, or Islamic civilization in Spain and Sicily was directly responsible, it was instrumental in inspiring what took place in Western Europe for three to four centuries, when it comes to education, most learned works, most important works that were being studied in Western Europe, universities were basically translations of Arabic works from Spain and Sicily and the Middle East, right. And you see if I was to give you details, this particular lecture, which is

about 25 minutes long, or maybe half an hour long, is simply not going to do justice. So why am I telling you all those things, brothers and sisters, all these things, why am I mentioning them and mentioning them? Because I started to talk about the Muslim civilization and his positive contribution to making what humanity for making humanity what it is today, right? Muslims played a huge role, a positive role, okay, in forming language, culture, education, dress code,

political systems, even as late as the 18th century.

18th century as late as the 16th century or 17th century, European philosophers and thinkers are studying some of the Muslim works, okay. It just thought that people like john Locke, as late as the 17th century, were directly inspired by the lectures of Edward pokok, who was the lecturer in Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford, right. So when Edward pokok, who was an orientalist, in fact, he was called the first orientalist. He was a scholar in the 17th century at the University of Oxford, he would deliver lectures on the Muslim civilization, okay. And john Locke, the author of three cheeses, on tolerance, and one of the founders of modern democratic principles was an attendee

in his in these lectures. So john Locke was directly inspired by the works of Edward pokok, his lectures, and many people that think that john Locke's theory on governance or government actually is inspired by the helaba system of Islam. He basically believe that rulership is a trust in the hands of ruler. It is not a divine right. Like Hobbes, another philosopher, argued

Hobbes, Thomas Hobbes. He argued that rulership ruling is a divine right of the ruler in Europe, talking about European context. Law, on the other hand, came up with a new theory on government. He believed that government is a trust in the hands of the ruler of trust from God. So he has to do well by and this is the Islamic rule is this is this is an Islamic opinion, we have that the concept of rulership in Islam is a trust, you have to treat it like a trust, you cannot abuse the trust of God in your hands. So these are some of the interesting ideas I wanted to share with you very quickly. My time for today's lecture is up. So to summarize, very quickly, my brothers and sisters,

I talked about Muslim libraries, and how they inspired a revolution of education. In Western Europe, Western European institutions took knowledge directly from the Muslim lands, and of whatever was studied in terms of science, philosophy, and other fields in Western Europe came predominantly pretty much a lot of it not if not all of it. A lot of it came from the Muslim knights and Muslims are directly responsible for triggering, or instigating or even creating what we know today as the western civilization. I'm not saying Western civilization is a product of Islam. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is, Western civilization, as it stands today took a lot of inspiration from

the lands of Islam, lands governed by the laws of Islam lands like Londolozi, Islamic Spain, lines like Sicily lines, like the Middle East, okay. And details can be found in the books I mentioned. The purpose of these talks and lectures is to simply highlight some of these facts and you can go and do your research into these topics, inshallah tada and one day inshallah, what I will do is, I will do a session specifically on book recommendations inshallah. So the entire session on unveiling the Muslim civilization

series will be on basically I will be talking about

the books people can study to understand the legacy of the Muslim civilization in the world. Okay, so the whole session will be about book recommendations. And until next week, I seek your permission to leave thank you so much for listening are salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato are hungry layerable Amina Salam aleikum wa