I’ve recently been drawn to and fascinated by medieval Arab culture and architecture. From Morocco to Persia, from Constantinople to Egypt, I love it all. I think one of the main reasons I find it so intriguing, is the role the various Islamic empires played in perserving the western cultural and scientific heritage and advancing it themselves. It’s well know that while western Europe was languishing in its “dark ages” the Abbasid Caliphate was busy at work translating the western literary cannon from Greek to Arabic. They were greedy for every sort of knowledge and stored it in vast libraries, which made the small ones in Europe laughable.
In “The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance” Maria Rosa Menocal details an important chapter of this history, that of the Ummayad caliphate of Al-Andalus, now modern day Spain. In its heyday its capital, Cordoba was home to lavish palaces and libraries. Partially, it is argued, due to this intrest in knowledge and other cultures, the rulers showed remarkable tolerance to “people of the book” as Jews and Christians were called. The Jews especially prospered during this time, one of their leaders named Hasdai even became vizier to the caliph Abd al-Rahman III.
Of course all good things must come to an end, and the Ummayad caliphate crumbled and the resulting small kingdoms quarelled with each other and slowly disappered, being taken over one by one by the Christians to the north. But even during this time, the culture and advancements of the Andalusians continued to have an impact on western Europe. The Europeans were fascinated by their inventions like the astrolabe, their astronomical texts, and of course their collection on ancient greek texts.
So while no longer in existence, Al-Andalus still can be seen in the beautiful palaces of Spain and in its scientific legacy to us.
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