Thursday, September 12, 2013

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.  

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