Muslim Spain: A Vanished World
By Inas Younis, New Age Islam
September 12, 2013
German philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche bemoaned the destruction of Spanish Cordoba, calling
it the one truly authentic civilization to have mastered the art of
living physiologically and spiritually well. Modern day historian Chris
Lowney, corroborates those observations- no lamentations required.
The famous Muslim poet, Muhammed Iqbal, May have been the first to
expose the similarities between 12th century Muslim writer Hayy ibn
Yaqzan, and Robinson Crusoe, but It was Chris Lowney who draws the
most superlative analogy of all, in his book titled , A Vanished World,
where he parallels the experiment which was medieval Spain to the
experience of the post modern world.
By chronicling the
lives of the many personalities who contributed to Medieval Spain’s
evolution and eventual demise, Mr. Lowney proves, that If survival is a
fundamental human motivation, then it is survival of our identity as
much as it is survival for its own sake, which determines the course of
human history. And the safeguarding of religious identity was
determined by the degree to which Islamic Spain was willing to
accommodate a religiously and intellectually diverse environment. If
history repeats itself, it does so only to restate the lesson which
Medieval Spain has taught us, and one which we can never afford to
overlook- that tolerance and diversity breed prosperity.
No comments:
Post a Comment