Christian Europe Vs Muslim Europe The Moorish contributions to European civilization have been documented by numerous historians and is not disputed. The Moors were considered the light of Europe during the Dark Ages which followed the collapse of the Roman Empire . Moorish Spain became the academic source and foundation for the rise and success of Western European universities in the Middle Ages. Stanley Lane Pool provides the following description:Cordova was the wonderful city of the tenth century; the streets were well paved and there were raised sidewalks for pedestrians. At night one could walk for ten miles by light of lamps, flanked by uninterrupted extent of buildings. All this was hundreds of years before there was a paved street in Paris or a street lamp in London . Its public baths numbered into the hundreds, when bathing in the rest of Europe was frowned upon as a diabolical custom, avoided by all good Christians. Moorish monarchs dwelt in sumptuous palaces, while the crowned heads in England , France and Germany lived in big barns, lacking both windows and chimneys and with only a hole in the roof for the exit of smoke. Education was universal in Moslem Spain, being given to the most humble, while in Christian Europe 99 percent of the populace was illiterate, and even kings could neither read nor write. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, public libraries in Christian Europe were conspicuous by their absence, while Muslim Spain could boast of more than seventy, of which the one in Cordova housed 600,000 manuscripts. Christian Europe contained only two universities of any consequence, while in Spain there were seventeen outstanding universities. The finest were those located in Almeria , Cordova, Granada , Jaen , Malaga , Serville, and Toledo . Scientific progress in astronomy, chemistry, physics, mathematics, geography, and philology in Moslem Spain reached a high level of development. Scholars and artists formed associations to promote their particular studies, and scientific congresses were organized to promote research and facilitate the spread of knowledge.As mentioned earlier, the Berbers/Moors of North Africa initially resisted Islam and fought the Muslim armies before they accepted the religion and became its most ardent caliphs, generals and scholars.
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 08:58:33 +0000
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