The Cultural and Civilizational Import of The Biography of The Holy Messenger (SAW)
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Sumeric Civilization Egyptian Civilization Hittite Civilization
Phoenician Civilization
Greek Civilization Iranian Civilization Indian Civilization
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The ter m culture is often used to cover the wholerange of man's activi ties when these are viewedpsychologically. The anthropologist applies the termto the wor k of p r imitive man in making tools,baskets, boats and the like; these are referred to asforms of mater ial culture. The popular mind thinks ofculture in terms of polite society, where it connotesgood manners and grammatical speech. The crudeperson who lacks these, even though he be farsuperior to the savage with his "culture", is referredto as "uncultured", meaning unr efined. Just as theterm animal is used to cover var ious fauna fr om atiny insect to a large mammal, so the term culture isoften extended to the glimmerings of intelligence inpr imitive men and the graces of those who move inthe best circles of urban society. It will be seen atonce that we cannot make headway in the analysis ofcultural types among modern nations if we apply theterm so indiscr iminately.(1)
(1) Char les Gr ay Shaw, Trends of Civilization and Culture, p.
75.
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Wherever human beings form communities, a culturecomes into existence. Cultures may be constr uctedon a number of levels: in village or city locations, oracross family, clan, ethnic, and national groups. Allcommunities pr oduce a linguist ic, literary, andartistic genre, as well as beliefs and practices thatcharacter ize social life and indicate how societyshould be run. Cultur e transcends ideology, and isabout the substance of identity for individuals in asociety. An awareness of a common language,ethnicity, history, religion, and landscape representthe building blocks of culture.(1)
(1) Simon Mur den, Culture in World Affairs in John Baylis &
Steve Smith's The Globalization of Wor ld Politics, p. 457.
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Culture can help us understand why humans act inthe way they do, and what simi lar i t ies anddifferences exist amongst them. The world is dividedinto dist inct communities, and a taxonomy ofbelonging and exclusion is the vital job that culturalanalysis can undertake.(1)
(1) Simon Mur den, Culture in World Affairs in John Baylis &
Steve Smith's The Globalization of Wor ld Politics, p. 457.
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The confusion in the use of the term culture is thatwhich ar ises when i t i s closely associated withcivilization, so closely associated as to be identifiedwith it. The term when it is used in its most generalsense i s often made to include both cultur e andcivilization.(1)
(1) Char les Gr ay Shaw, Tren ds of Civi liza tion and Culture,
Amer ican Book, 1931, p. 76 .
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(Robert Briffault)
(1) Rober t Br iffault, The Making of Humanity, p. 164.
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Sumeric Civilization
Egyptian Civilization
(1) Ar nold J, Toynbee, A Study of Histor y, Abr idgement by
D.C. Somer vell, 1947, p.27.
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Hittite Civilization
Phoenician Civilization
(1) Ar nold J, Toynbee, A Study of His tory, Abr idgement by
D.C. Somer vell, 1947, p.68.
(2) Ar nold J, Toynbee, A Study of His tory, Abr idgement by
D.C. Somer vell, 1947, p.29.
(3) Ar nold J, Toynbee, A Study of His tory, Abr idgement by
D.C. Somer vell, 1947, p.92.
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Greek Civilization
Iranian Civilization
(1) Ar nold J, Toynbee, A Study of His tory, Abr idgement by
D.C. Somer vell, 1947, p.52.
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(1) Ar nold J, Toynbee, A Study of His tory, Abr idgement by
D.C. Somer vell, 1947, p.15, 112.
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(1) Ar nold J, Toynbee, A Study of His tory, Abr idgement by
D.C. Somer vell, 1947, p.389, 425.
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Roman Civilization
Byzantinian Civilization
(1) Ar nold J, Toynbee, A Study of His tory, Abr idgement by
D.C. Somer vell, 1947, p.118.
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(1) Di mi t r i Gut as , Greek T houg ht-A rabic C ulture , The
Gr aeco-Ar abi c tr ansla ti on m ov ement i n Baghdad and
ea r ly Abba s i d s oci et y , Rout ledg e, L ondon, 1999,
p.185-188.
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(1) Dr aper , His tory of Intellectual Developm ent of Europe ,
vol. II, p. 42.
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(1) Dr aper , His tory of Intellectual Developm ent of Europe ,
vol. II, p. 42.
(2) Dr aper , His tory of Intellectual Developm ent of Europe ,
vol. II, p. 30.
(3) Dr aper , His tory of Intellectual Developm ent of Europe ,
vol. II, p. 34.
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Arnold
(1) Ar nold, Legacy of Is lam , p. 377.
(2) Dr aper , His tory of Intellectual Developm ent of Europe ,
vol. II, p. 36.
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On Western Christendom the ef fect of this impactwas wholly good, and Western culture in the MiddleAges owed much to Muslim Iber ia. On ByzantineChristendom the impact was excessive and evoked acrushing re-erection of the Roman Empire under Leothe Syr ian. The case of Abyssinia, a Chr istian 'fossil'in a fastness encircled by the Muslim World, is alsonoticed.(2)
(1) Dr aper , His tory of Intellectual Developm ent of Europe ,
vol. II, p. 37.
(2) Ar nold J. Toynbee, A Study of His tory, Abr idgement of
Volumes I-VI By D. C. Somer vell, Ox for d Univer sity Pr ess,
1947, p. 574 .
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In the creative soul of Muhammad the r adiation ofJudaism and Christ ianity was transmuted into aspir itual for ce which dischar ged i tself in the new'higher religion' of Islam.()
The Syr iac Society had to wait for the emergence ofIslam in order to lay its hand upon a religion whichwas capable of serving as an effective instrument forcasting Hellenism out...(2)
(1) Ar nold J. Toynbee, A Study of His tory, Abr idgement of
Volumes I-VI By D. C. Somer vell, Ox for d Univer sity Pr ess,
1947, p. 411 .
(2) Ar nold J. Toynbee, A Study of His tory, Abr idgement of
Volumes I-VI By D. C. Somer vell, Ox for d Univer sity Pr ess,
1947, p. 391 .
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The Arab onslaught upon the infant civilization of theWest was an incident in the final Syr iac r eactionagainst the long Hellenic intrusion upon the Syr iacdomain; for when the Arabs took up the task in thestr ength of I slam they d id not rest until they hadrecover ed for the Syr iac Society the whole of itsformer domain at its widest extension.(1)
The Emperor Heraclius himself was condemned not totaste of death until he had seen 'Umar the Successorof Muhammad the Prophet coming into his kingdom toundo, utter ly and for ever, the work of all theHellenizers of Syr iac domains f rom Alexanderonwards. For Islam succeeded where its predecessors
(1) Ar nold J. Toynbee, A Study of His tory, Abr idgement of
Volumes I-VI By D. C. Somer vell, Ox for d Univer sity Pr ess,
1947, p. 124 .
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had failed. It completed the eviction of Hellenismfrom the Syr iac World.(1)
The scho lar s of M us lim Spa in c ont r ib utedunintentionally to the philosophical edi fice erectedby the med ieval Wester n Chr istian schoolmen, andsome of the wor ks of the Hellenic phi losopherAristotle first reached the Western Christian Worldthrough Arabic translations. It is also true that many'Or iental' influences on Western culture which havebeen attr ibuted to infiltration through the Crusaders'pr incipali t ies in Syr ia really came f r om M uslimIber ia.(2)
(1) Ar nold J. Toynbee, A Study of His tory, Abr idgement of
Volumes I-VI By D. C. Somer vell, Ox for d Univer sity Pr ess,
1947, p. 144.
(2) Ar nold J. Toynbee, A Study of His tory, Abr idgement of
Volumes I-VI By D. C. Somer vell, Ox for d Univer sity Pr ess,
1947, p. 160-1 .
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In the creative soul of Muhammad the r adiation ofJudaism and Christ ianity was transmuted into aspir itual for ce which dischar ged i tself in the new'higher religion' of Islam.(1)
(1) Ar nold J. Toynbee, A Study of His tory, Abr idgement of
Volumes I-VI By D. C. Somer vell, Ox for d Univer sity Pr ess,
1947, p. 411 .
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The next living society that we have to examine isIslam; and when we scan the backgr ound of theIslamic Society we discern there a universal state, auniversal church and a Völkerwanderung.(1)
(1) Ar nold J. Toynbee, A Study of His tory, Abr idgement of
Volumes I-VI By D. C. Somer vell, Ox for d Univer sity Pr ess,
1947, p. 15.
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There wer e two features in the social li fe of theRoman Empire in Muhammad's day that would make aparticular ly deep impression on the mind of anArabian observer because, in Arabia, they were bothconsp icuous by their ab sence. The fi rst of thesefeatures was monotheism in religion. The second waslaw and order in government. Muhammad's life-workconsisted in translating each of these elements in thesocial fab r ic of ' R?m' into an Ar ab ian vernacularver sion and incor por ating both his Ar abianizedmonotheism and his Arabianized imperium into asingle master ? inst i tution- th e all-embr acinginstitution of I slam-to which he succeeded inimpar ting such ti tanic dr iving- force that the newdispensation, which had been designed by its authorto meet the needs of the barbar ians of Arabia, burstthe bounds of the peninsula and captivated theentire Syr iac World from the shores of the Atlantic tothe coasts of the Eurasian Steppe.(1)
(1) Ar nold J. Toynbee, A Study of His tory, Abr idgement of
Volumes I-VI By D. C. Somer vell, Ox for d Univer sity Pr ess,
1947, pp. 227-8 .
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Contrary to widesp read Chr ist ian notions, I slamnormally did not force conversion.(1)
Society in the Muslim world formed a definite socialpyramid. Dur ing the Umayyad per iod, descendents ofthe old Bedouin clans were on top, followed bymawali conver ts f r om other r eligions. Once theAbbasides took power , this d istinction ceased toexist. (2)
These non-Arab converts to I slam made i t into ahighly cosmopoli tan, multiethnic r eligion andcivilization.(3)
(1) Philip J. Adler , Randall L. Pouwels, World Civilizations ,
p. 194.
(2) Philip J. Adler , Randall L. Pouwels, World Civilizations ,
p. 195.
(3) Philip J. Adler , Randall L. Pouwels, World Civilizations ,
p. 194.
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Aside fr om their military mer its, their str engthincluded extr aor dinar y ar ti st ic sensi t iv i ty inliter atur e, ar chitecture and symbolic imagery: acommitment to justice for all, no matter how weak,a tolerance for non-believers that was unusual for itstime …. In economic and administrative affairs, theOttomans had a far more ef ficient tax system andbetter control of their provincial author ities than anyEuropean government of the four teenth throughsixteenth centur ies. (1)
(1) Philip J. Adler , Randall L. Pouwels, World Civilizations,
p. 495 .
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Muhammad pr escr ibed the religious toler ation ofJews and Chr ist ians who had made poli t icalsubmission to the secular arm of Islam, and he gavethis r uling expressly on the ground that these twonon-M uslim religious communities, like the Muslimsthemselves, wer e ' Peop le of the Book' . I t i ssigni ficant of the tolerant spir i t which animatedPrimitive Islam that, without express sanction fromthe P r ophet himself , a simi lar toler ation wasafterwards extended in practice to the Zoroastr ianswho came under Muslim rule. (1)
(1) Ar nold J. Toynbee, A Study of His tory, Abr idgement of
Volumes I-VI By D. C. Somer vell, Ox for d Univer sity Pr ess,
1947, p. 300.
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The Arab ic cultur e is of a singular interest to thestudent of human traditions in general, to thosewhose gr eatest task i t seems to them is therebuilding of human integr ity in the face of national
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and inter national disasters, because it was, and tosome extent sti ll i s, a br idge, the main br idgebetween East and West. It is through that br idge thatthe Hindu numerals, sines and chess, and the Chinesesilk, paper , and por celain reached Europe. Latinculture was Western, Chinese culture was Eastern,but Arabic culture was both, for it extended all theway from the Maghrib al-aqsa' to the Mashr iq al-aqsa.Latin culture was Mediterranean and Atlantic, Hinduculture was bathed in the Indian Ocean, Far Easternculture in the Pacif ic; the Arabic sailors, however,were as ubiquitous in all the oceans of the MiddleAges as the English are in those of to-day. The Latinand Gr eek cultures were Christ ian, Hebr ew cultur ewas Jewish, Easter n Asia was Buddhist; the Arabicculture was pr imarily but not exclusively Islamic; itwas stretched out between the Christ ianism of theWest and the Buddhism of the East and touchedboth. (1)
(1) Geor ge Sar ton, A Guide to the His tory of Science: A Firs t
Guide f or the Study of the Hi s tory of Science, w i th
Intr oductor y Essays on Science and Tr adition, Chr onica
Botanica, 1952, p. 29.
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Some of the giants of mediaeval times belonged tothe Arabic culture, mathematicians and astronomerslike AL-KHW ARIZMI , ALFARGHANI, AL-BATTANI ,ABU-L- WAFA, UM AR KHAYYAM , AL-BER UNI;philosopher s like AL-FARAB I, AL-GHAZZALI , IBNRUSHD, IBN KHALDUN, physicians like AL-RAZI, ISHAQAL-ISRAILI,' ALI IBN 'ABBAS, ABU-AL-QASIM, IBN SINA,MAIM ONIDES. This enumer ation could be greatlyextended. Few of these men were Arabs and not allof them wer e M uslims, but they all belongedessentially to the same cultur al gr oup, and theirlanguage was Arabic. This illustrates the absurdity oftrying to appraise mediaeval thought on the basis ofLatin writings alone. For centur ies the Latin scientificbooks har dly counted ; they wer e out-of -date andoutlandish. Arabic was the international language ofscience to a degree which had never been equalledby another language before (except Greek) and hasnever been repeated since. It was the language notof one peop le, one nation, one faith, but of manypeoples, many nations, many faiths.(1)
(1) Geor ge Sar ton, A Guide to the His tory of Science: A Firs t
Guide f or the Study of the His tory o f Sci en ce, w i th
Intr oductor y Essays on Science and Tr adition, Chr onica
Botanica, 1952, p. 28.
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The best Arabic scientists were not satisfied with theGreek and Hindu science which they inher ited. Theyadmired and respected the treasur es which hadfallen into their hand s, but they wer e just as"modern" and greedy as we are, and wanted more.The y cr i t i c i ze d E UC LI D, AP OL LO NIO S an dARCHIMEDES, discussed PTOLEM Y, tr ied to improvethe astronomical tables and to get r id of the causesof err or lur king in the accep ted theories. Theyfacilitated the evolution of algebra and tr igonometry
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and prepared the way for the European algebraists ofthe sixteenth century. Occasionally they were able todefine new concepts, to state new problems, to tienew knots in the network of ear lier traditions. (1)
(1) Geor ge Sar ton, A Guide to the His tory of Science: A Firs t
Guide f or the Study of the His tory o f Sci en ce, w i th
Intr oductor y Essays on Science and Tr adition, Chr onica
Botanica, 1952, p. 28.
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Syllogism Analogy Induction
Parallel Postulate Playfair's Axiom
(1) Ar nold, Legacy of Is lam, p. 375.
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Two intersecting straight lines cannot be parallel toone and the same.
Geodetic Survey
Area of ABC=S(S-a)(S-b)(S-c)
Where S= a+b+c/2
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For Islam did succeed in becoming the universalchurch of a dissolving Syr iac Society in spite of havingbeen politically compromised at an ear lier stage andin an apparently more decisive way than any of thereligions that we have passed in review up to thispoint. Indeed, I slam was poli tically compromisedwithin the lifetime of its founder by the action of noless a per son than the founder himself. The pub liccareer of the P rophet Muhammed falls into twoshar p ly d ist inct and seemingly contr ad ictorychapters. In the first he is occupied in preaching ar elig ious r e velat ion by m ethod s of pac i f icevangelization; in the second chapter he is occupiedin building up a political and military power and inusing this power in the ver y way which, in othercases, has turned out disastr ous for a religion thattakes to it. In this Medinese chapter Muhammed usedhis new-found mater ial power for the pur pose ofenforcing conformity with at any rate the outwardobservances of the religion which he had founded inthe pr evious chapter of his career , befor e his
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momentous withdrawal f rom M ecca to M edina. Onthis showing, the Hijrah ought to mark the date ofthe ruin of Islam and not the date since consecratedas that of its foundation. How are we to explain thehard fact that a religion which was launched on theworld as the militant faith of a barbar ian war-bandshould have succeeded in becoming a univer salchur ch, in spite of having started under a spir itualhandicap that might have been expected, on allanalogies, to prove prohibitive?(1)
(1) Ar nold J. Toynbee, A Study of His tory, Abr idgement of
Volumes I-VI By D. C. Somer vell, Ox for d Univer sity Pr ess,
1947, p. 488.
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That network, Or iental-Greek-Arabic, is our network.The neglect of Arabic science and the correspondingmisunder standing of our own -med iaeval traditionswas partly due to the fact that Arabic studies wereconsider ed a part of Or iental studies. The Arabists
(1) Will Dur ant, Age of Faith, p. 297.
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were lef t alone or else in the company of otheror ientali sts, such as Sanskr i t, Chinese or M alayscholars. That was not wrong but highly misleading.It is true the network, our network, included otherOriental elements than the Arabic or Hebrew, such asthe Hindu ones to which reference has already beenmade, but the largest part for centur ies was wovenwith Ar ab ic thr ead s. I f all these thr ead s wer eplucked out, the network would br eak in themidd le.(1)
Much in the field of or ientalism is definitely exotic asfar as we are concerned, but the religious Hebrew
(1) Geor ge Sar ton, A Guide to the His tory of Science: A Firs t
Guide f or the Study of the His tory o f Sci en ce, w i th
Intr oduct or y Essays on Science and Tr adit ion, Chr onica
Botanica, 1952, p. 29.
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traditions and the scienti fic Arabic ones are notexotic, they ar e an integral par t of our networ ktoday, they ar e part and par cel of our spir i tualexistence. The Arabic side of our culture cannot evenbe called Eastern, for a substantial part of i t wasdefinitely Western. The M uslim IBN RUSHD and theJew MAIMONIDES were born in Cordova within a fewyears of one another (1126, 1135); AL-IDRISI (XII-2),bor n in Ceuta, f lour ished in S icily; IBN KHALDUN(X IV -2), was a Tunisian; IBN BATUTTA (XIV-2) , aMoroccan. The list of Moorish scientists and scholarsis a very long one. Spain is proud of them but withoutr ight, for she treated them, like a harsh stepmother,without justice and without mercy.(1)
(1) Geor ge Sar ton, A Guide to the His tory of Science: A Firs t
Guide f or the Study of the Hi s tory o f Science, w i th
Intr oductor y Essays on Science and Tr adition, Chr onica
Botanica, 1952, p. 29.
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Muslims had r ealized the need of science, mainlyGreek science, in order to establish their own cultureand to consolidate their dominion, even so the Latinsrealized the need of science, Arabic science, in orderto be ab le to fight I slam with equal ar ms andvind icate their own asp ir ations. For the mostintelligent Spaniards and Englishmen the obligationto know Arabic was as clear as the obligation to knowEnglish, French or German for the Japanese of theMeiji era. Science is power. The Muslim rulers knewthat f rom the beginning, the Latin leaders had tolearn it, somewhat reluctantly, but they finally didlearn i t. The pr estige of Ar abic science beganrelatively late in the West, say in the twelf thcentury, and it increased gradually at the time whenArab ic science was already degenerating. The twomovements, the Arabic progress and the Latin one,were out of phase. This is a general rule of life, bythe way, rather than an exception, and it applies toind ividuals as well as to nations. A man gener allydoes his best in comparative obscur ity and becomesfamous only when his vigor is diminishing; that is allr ight as far as he is concerned, for it is clear thatsolitude and silence are the best conditions of good,enduring, work.(1)
(1) Geor ge Sar ton, A Guide to the His tory of Science: A Firs t
Guide for the Study of the His tory o f Sci en ce, w it h
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Intr oductor y Essays on Science and Tr adition, Chr onica
Botanica, 1952, p. 30.
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The scientific tradition as it was poured from Arabicvessels into Latin ones was often perverted. The newtranslators did not have the advantage which theArabic translators had enjoyed; the latter had beenable to see Gr eek culture in the per spective of athousand years or more; the Latin translators couldnot see the Ar abic novelt ies f r om a suf ficientdistance, and they could not always chooseintelligently between them. As to the Greek classicsthey came to them with a double prestige, Greek andArabic. It is as if the Greek treasures, of which Latinscholar s wer e now d imly conscious, wer e mor evaluable in their Ar abic form; they had certainlybecome mor e glamor ous. The tr anslation of theAlmagest made c. 1175 by GERARD OF CREMONA fromthe Arab ic, superseded a translation made dir ectlyfrom the Greek in Sicily fifteen years ear lier! (1)
(1) Geor ge Sar ton, A Guide to the His tory of Science: A Firs t
Guide f or the Study of the His tory o f Sci en ce, w i th
Intr oductor y Essays on Science and Tr adition, Chr onica
Botanica, 1952, p. 30.
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To r eturn to the Arabic wr itings (as d ist inct f romArab ic translations of Greek writ ings) some of thebest wer e tr ansla ted such as the wo r ks ofAL-KHWARIZMI, AL-RAZI, AL-FARGHANI, AL-BATTANI,IBN SINA; other s of equal value escaped attention,e.g., some books of ' UMAR ALKHAYYAM, AL-BERUNI,NASSIR AL-DIN AL-TUSI; others still appeared too lateto be considered, this is the case of the great Arabicauthors of the fourteenth century. By that time Latinsci en ce h ad bec om e in de pe nd en t of t hecontempor ary Arabic writ ings and contemptuous ofthem. On the other hand, the Latin (and Hebr ew)translations f rom the Ar ab ic include a shockinglylarge mass of astrological and alchemical treatisesand other r ubbish. Some of the astr ological andalchemical writings, it should be noted, are valuableor contain valuable mater ials and are to some extentthe for er unner s of our own astr onomical andchemical literature, but many others are worthless,or rather wor se than wor thless, danger ous andsubversive. Even so we should not be too severe injudging those aber r ations, for we have not yetsucceeded in over coming them and but for the
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control of scientif ic societies and academies, theincessant cr iticism coming fr om the scientif ic pr essand the university chairs, our own civilization wouldsoon be overrun and smothered by superstitions andlies. (1)
An Archimedian monograph on the regular heptagonwas preserved in the Arabic translation of Thabit ibnQurra (IX-2) and this was discovered in a Cairo MS.and published in 1926 by CARL SCHOY.In other words,lost treatises of ARCHIMEDES were revealed only in
(1) Geor ge Sar ton, A Guide to the His tory of Science: A Firs t
Guide f or the Study of the His tory o f Sci en ce, w i th
Intr oductor y Essays on Science and Tr adition, Chr onica
Botanica, 1952, p. 32.
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1906 and 1926. It is possible that other lost treatisesmay st ill be d iscover ed , chief ly in the secondmanner. The Greek palimpsests have been p retty.well examined and there is little hope of repeatingHEIBERG' S str oke of genius and luck, but there ismuch hope on the contrar y of f inding Ar ab ictranslations of lost Greek scientific books, becausemany Arabic librar ies are still unexplored and manyArabic MSS, undescr ibed.(1)
(1) Geor ge Sar ton, A Guide to the His tory of Science: A Firs t
Guide f or the Study of the His tory o f Sci en ce, w i th
Intr oductor y Essays on Science and Tr adition, Chr onica
Botanica, 1952, p. 141.
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Our judgment of mediaeval science in general mustalways be tempered by the consider ations whichhave just been of fered and by due and pr ofoundhumili ty. We may be great scientists (I mean, wemodern men), but we are also great barbar ians. Weknow, or seem to know, everything, excep t theessential. We have thrown religion out of doors butallowed superstitions, prejudices and lies to come inthrough the windows. We drum our chests in the bestgor illa fashion saying (or thinking) "We can do this we can do that yea, we can even blow the worldto smithereens," but what of it? Does that prove thatwe are civilized? Mater ial power can be as dangerousas it is useful; it all depends on the men using it andon their manner of using it. Good or evi l ar e inourselves; mater ial power does not create it but canmultiply it indefinitely.(1)
(1 ) Geor ge Sar ton, A Guide to the His tory of Science: A Firs t
Guide f or the Study of the Hi s tory o f Science, w i th
Intr oductor y Essays on Science and Tr adition, Chr onica
Botanica, 1952, p. 32.
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For Huntington, cultur e wor ked at the level ofmotivation. States r emained key actor s, butcivi lizational politics became real when states andpeoples identified with each other 's cultural concernsor rallied around the 'core state' of a civilization. TheOrthodox, Hindu, Sinic, and Japanese civilizationswere clear ly centered in powerful unitary states. TheWest had a closely linked core that included theUnited States, Germany, France, and Br itain. Islamwas without a clear core state, and for this reasonexper ienced much mor e intra-civilizational conflictas a number of contenders-Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Egypt,Saudi Arabia-competed for influence. The fact thatIslam was divided d id not refute the idea that apan-Islamic consciousness existed. (1)
(1) Simon Mur den, Culture in World Affairs in John Baylis &
Steve Smith's The Globalization of World Politics, OUP,
2001, p. 462 .
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Civilizations repr esent coherent tr adit ions, but aredynamic over time and place. For instance, medievalChr is tend om d r e w on anc ient a nd eas ter nciv ilizations for many of i ts philosophical andtechnological advances; sub sequently, Chr istendomwas r emolded into a European civi lization basedaround the nation-state and, finally, was expandedand adapted in North America, and re-designated asWestern civilization. (1)
(1) Simon Mur den, Culture in World Affairs in John Baylis &
Steve Smith's The Globalization of World Politics, OUP,
2001, p. 458 .
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The Islamic world rep r esents an examp le parexcellence of the exper ienc e of almost allnon-Wester n cultur es in the moder n age. I slamicpeoples have had to deal with the geopolitical andcultural hegemony of the West since the eighteenthcentury. The collapse of the Ottoman empire at theend of the Fi rst World War her alded a new era inwhich the secular, nationali st, and author i tar ianstate became the dominant form of or ganization.Modernizer s argued that Islam was the cause ofbackwardness and decline, and that moder nizationrequired the imitation of Wester n for ms of cultureand organization. In Turkey, the Ottoman Caliphatewas aboli shed in 1924, and Western forms of law,scr ip t, and dr ess enforced. Women were forciblyunveiled. A similar model was adopted in Ir an andthe Ar ab wor ld, although the attack on I slam wasnever quite so thoroughly pursued. Islam was dividedby Turkish, Iranian, and Arab nationalism.(1)
(1) Simon Mur den, Culture in World Affairs in John Baylis &
Steve Smith's The Globalization of World Politics, OUP,
2001, p. 463 .
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54. Arnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History, Abridgement ofVolumes I-VI By D. C. Somervell, Oxford UniversityPress, 1947.
55. Charles Gray Shaw, Trends of Civilization and Culture,American Book, 1931, p-76
56. Dimitr i Gutas, Greek Thought-A rab ic Cu ltu re, TheGraeco-Arab ic tran slation movement in Baghdad andearly A bbasid society, Routledge, London, 1999,p.185-88.
57. Dr aper , His tory of In tellectual Developmen t ofEurope.
58. George Sarton, A Guide to the History of Science: AFir st Guide for the Study of the History of Science,with Introductor y Essays on Science and Tr ad ition,Chronica Botanica, 1952.
59. Phi l ip J . Ad ler , Ra ndall L. Pou wels , Wo r l dCivilization s, Thomas Lear ning Inc., High Holbor nHouse, 50-51 Bedford Row, London, WCIR 4LR, UK,2006.
60. Simon Murden, Culture in World Affairs in John Baylis& Steve Smith's The Globalization of World Politics,OUP, 2001.
61. Thomas Arnold & A. Guillaume, The Legacy of Islam,OUP, 1931.
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62. Will Durant, The Age of Faith: A History of MedievalCiv ilization Chr ist ian, I slamic, and Judaic-- f r omConstantine to Dante: A.D. 325-1300, Simon &Schuster, NY, 1950
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