A young man I know, father of three and a practicing Roman Catholic, works at a tech company where his best friend is a practicing Muslim. Given the animus in our society toward Islam, a mistrust exacerbated by various acts of Islamic terror around the world and by perceived wrongs done to Muslims by the West, this friendship may seem strange, but it works because of a doctrine many Americans preach but fewer practice: toleration. Both men follow their own path of faith, tolerate that of the other, and enjoy being friends.
Medieval Islam, which often tolerated other faiths, had an immense influence on Christendom. As Will Durant writes in The Age of Faith, “From Islam Christian Europe received foods, drinks, drugs, medicaments, armor, heraldry, maritime codes.” He cites Islamic advances in science and mathematics, and the transfer to the West of works by Greek and Islamic philosophers, scientists, and poets. In that era, the civilizations of such cities as Baghdad and Damascus far surpassed in their amenities, laws, and technological expertise London, Paris, and Rome.
So what happened? How did such a sophisticated civilization end as a cultural and reactionary backwater while Europe moved into the Renaissance?
Durant cites numerous causes, but one in particular—the invasion of the Mongols (1219-1258)—helped reduce a proud civilization to rubble.
Unlike the barbarians who invaded the empire of Rome in the fourth and fifth centuries, the Mongols had little interest in adapting to the ways of Islamic culture or even of enslaving its peoples. Led first by Jenghiz Khan (Durant’s spelling), these hardened warriors swept out of the plains of northwestern Asia, looting, burning, raping, and slaughtering millions of people. When they entered Baghdad, for instance, they killed and pillaged for forty days. Historians of the time tell us that 800,000 people were cut down during that time of blood and death. Even allowing for the exaggeration of numbers in the Middle Ages by historians from both East and West, it is clear many thousands of that city met their death by Mongol sword.
I am now well into the next section of The Age Of Faith, where Durant leads his readers into Medieval Judaism. A review of this fascinating history will come in the next Durant report, but I did want to make two comments regarding Durant’s take on history and the misguided thinking of our own era.
The first is the ridiculous obsession by some with what they call “cultural appropriation.” Recently, for example, I read parts of an essay in which a young black woman wondered whether she was engaged in cultural appropriation by learning yoga.
As Durant shows us on page after page of his series, history is the story of cultural appropriation, an exchange created through various vehicles: war, theft, trade, immigration, and travel. The small town where I live boosts two Chinese restaurants, a Japanese restaurant, two Thai restaurants, an Italian restaurant, and two Mexican restaurants. I doubt whether the owners and employees of these establishments feel exploited by those who eat their food. In China, there are now 4,200 Kentucky Fried Chickens and 1,300 Pizza Huts. Beijing sports the world’s largest MacDonald’s, with seating for 400 and 29 registers; on its opening day twenty-five years ago, MacDonald’s Beijing served over 40,000 patrons.
Then there are Durant’s remarks at the close of his chapters on Islam. He writes:
“Civilization is polygenetic—it is the co-operative product of many peoples, ranks, and faiths; and no one who studies its history can be a bigot of race or creed. Therefore, the scholar, though he belongs to his country through affectionate kinship, feels himself a citizen of that Country of the Mind which knows no hatreds and no frontiers; he hardly deserves his name if he carries into his study political prejudices, or racial discriminations, or religious animosities; and he accords his grateful homage to any people that has borne the torch and enriched his heritage.”
Durant may be laying it on a bit thick here, but he makes an important point: the study of history enhances not only our knowledge of the past, its wisdom and its follies, but also deepens our self-understanding both as individuals and as a people. To the young especially I would say, as I am sure Will Durant would say: learn some history. By doing so, you will dull your prejudices regarding the past and sharpen your perceptions regarding the present.
So what happened? How did such a sophisticated civilization end as a cultural and reactionary backwater while Europe moved into the Renaissance?
Durant cites numerous causes, but one in particular—the invasion of the Mongols (1219-1258)—helped reduce a proud civilization to rubble.
Unlike the barbarians who invaded the empire of Rome in the fourth and fifth centuries, the Mongols had little interest in adapting to the ways of Islamic culture or even of enslaving its peoples. Led first by Jenghiz Khan (Durant’s spelling), these hardened warriors swept out of the plains of northwestern Asia, looting, burning, raping, and slaughtering millions of people. When they entered Baghdad, for instance, they killed and pillaged for forty days. Historians of the time tell us that 800,000 people were cut down during that time of blood and death. Even allowing for the exaggeration of numbers in the Middle Ages by historians from both East and West, it is clear many thousands of that city met their death by Mongol sword.
I am now well into the next section of The Age Of Faith, where Durant leads his readers into Medieval Judaism. A review of this fascinating history will come in the next Durant report, but I did want to make two comments regarding Durant’s take on history and the misguided thinking of our own era.
The first is the ridiculous obsession by some with what they call “cultural appropriation.” Recently, for example, I read parts of an essay in which a young black woman wondered whether she was engaged in cultural appropriation by learning yoga.
As Durant shows us on page after page of his series, history is the story of cultural appropriation, an exchange created through various vehicles: war, theft, trade, immigration, and travel. The small town where I live boosts two Chinese restaurants, a Japanese restaurant, two Thai restaurants, an Italian restaurant, and two Mexican restaurants. I doubt whether the owners and employees of these establishments feel exploited by those who eat their food. In China, there are now 4,200 Kentucky Fried Chickens and 1,300 Pizza Huts. Beijing sports the world’s largest MacDonald’s, with seating for 400 and 29 registers; on its opening day twenty-five years ago, MacDonald’s Beijing served over 40,000 patrons.
Then there are Durant’s remarks at the close of his chapters on Islam. He writes:
“Civilization is polygenetic—it is the co-operative product of many peoples, ranks, and faiths; and no one who studies its history can be a bigot of race or creed. Therefore, the scholar, though he belongs to his country through affectionate kinship, feels himself a citizen of that Country of the Mind which knows no hatreds and no frontiers; he hardly deserves his name if he carries into his study political prejudices, or racial discriminations, or religious animosities; and he accords his grateful homage to any people that has borne the torch and enriched his heritage.”
Durant may be laying it on a bit thick here, but he makes an important point: the study of history enhances not only our knowledge of the past, its wisdom and its follies, but also deepens our self-understanding both as individuals and as a people. To the young especially I would say, as I am sure Will Durant would say: learn some history. By doing so, you will dull your prejudices regarding the past and sharpen your perceptions regarding the present.