conquered almost the whole of Spain within three years. Many
towns capitulating in return for the promise of religious tolerance.
Those who had suffered from the harsh intolerance of the Visigothic
Catholic Kings – Arians, heretics, Jews – welcomed
and assisted the new rulers. Even some Visigothic princes (for
example, Theodemir of Murcia) submitted to Arab overlords and
kept their thrones.
retreated to the mountains of the Asturias. From these small
enclaves, after witnessing several centuries of Muslim brilliance,
stagnation and decline, Christian knights were able to mount
the "reconquest" of Spain. In this they were helped
by the rise of fanaticism within Islam.
Martel's son Pepin the Short (751-768),
in return for regal legitimacy bestowed
by Pope Stephen II, in 754 defeated the
Arian/Pagan Lombards and handed conquered
territories to the papacy. He then reduced
Arab possessions north of the Pyrenees.
grandson of Charles Martel, followed
in the family tradition of sacred butchery.
In 774 he re-invaded Lombardy and at
Worms in 775 he declared holy war on
the Saxons. Three years later, satisfied
that the pagans had been suitably chastised (he
was wrong: the war continued for thirty
years), he turned his attention
towards the Arab empire in the south.
a massive army of Franks, Lombards, Burgundians,
Bavarians and Goths, he crossed the Pyrenees
at both ends. He immediately ran into
difficulties. The Christians of
Navarre resisted his advance:
Christian subjects of the Moslem
emirate appeared to be quite content
with their tolerant Saracen overlords." (R.
Winston, Charlemagne, p46)
to prevail against the Arab stronghold
of Saragossa, and in hostile territory,
a dejected Charles turned north
again, venting his spite on the Christian city
Fall Down – Big Charles
at Pamplona in 778. The Basques
had driven out the Arab garrison
forty years earlier.
as Charlemagne passed through the defile
of Roncesvalles the Basques took
their revenge and ambushed his column.
Among the Frankish commanders who fell
was a certain Roland.
the hands of 'romantic poets' the whole
sorry episode would be immortalised
as an edifying tale of Christian heroism – 'Chanson
de Roland' ('The Song of Roland') – with
the Basques, necessarily, transformed
into deceitful Saracens!
this first defeat in 10 years of warfare
Charles never returned to Spain – but
frequently sent his generals over the
Pyrenees to nibble away a Spanish 'March' – a
desolated border zone.
Father, Like Son
the Visigoths capitulated to the Arab invaders
in 711 their kingdom included Septimania and
an area of southwest France.
717 the Arabs crossed the Pyrenees to take
possession. But whilst rival emirs squabbled
during 725-30, the kingdom of Aquitaine forged
an alliance with the Berber commander in
the north who had raided as far as Autun.
by the independent action of nominal subordinates,
the Franks invaded Aquitaine while Emir
al-Rahman crossed the Pyrenees in force.
two armies met somewhere between Poitiers
and Tours. After several days of skirmishes,
the Arab army withdrew under cover of darkness,
not least because of a Berber uprising
in North Africa.
Frankish commander Charles 'Martel' gained
the epithet ('The Hammer') for
his 'great victory.'
to the Christian fantasy 'Chronicle
of St Denis' 300,000 'Saracens' had
fallen and Christian civilization had been
saved by this soldier of the cross.
an ungrateful Church synod later cursed
his memory – he had had the audacity
to use Church income to pay for his troops
and parcelled out Church land to reward
10th and 11th centuries what the Islamic world had preserved – and
developed – of ancient wisdom began to flow back into
Europe, together with precious spices, fabulous cloth and a
vast emporium of both rich and practical goods.
so, the states of Europe, animated by pious avarice for the 'riches
of the east', launched two centuries of warfare – the Crusades and
in the 12th and 13th centuries established enclaves in the
of the 'armed monks' coincided with the blitzkrieg from the
east mounted by the Mongols from central Asia
(with whom the Christians attempted to form an alliance
and not unrealistically – at least one Mongol
general was a Nestorian Christian). The Islamic world
was sent reeling.
reversals did not bode well for enlightened Islam. In a manner
not unlike the beleaguered Roman Caesars centuries earlier,
Muslim regimes turned to mounted nomads and barbarians to
fight for them – and reaped a similar fate.
Turks from central Asia, initially hired as mercenaries
in the 10th century, took power in Baghdad in 1055. The Berbers
of North Africa, used in the original 8th century conquest
of Spain, mutinied and sacked Cordoba.
To the delight
of the Christians waiting in the mountains, first Almoravids from
the Moroccan Sahara wrecked Andalus. Then, in the 13th century, Almohads from
the Maghreb repeated the assault. In each case the new barbarians
acted in God's name and fought for a 'purity of faith.' The
price of religious purity, as ever, was civilization.
Light of Reason?
before Aquinas and the 'Schoolmen', Islam made an attempt
to reconcile 'revelation' with reason, knowledge with
faith, and religion with philosophy.
the Islamic view each field of science was merely a
branch of philosophy. Thus the Islamic 'philosophers'
tended to be polymaths, intermingled their metaphysical
theorising with practical study of biology, chemistry,
botany, astronomy,music and medicine (it was as doctors
that many earned a living.) Free thought even had a
name – 'ijtihad'.
748 Wasil ibn Ata founded the Mutazilite ('Separatist')
school in Syria, building on Greek philosophy, Plato
and Aristotle in particular, and urging the use of 'ijtihad' to
ask open questions about science and society. The Mutazilites argued
that God's actions were dictated by justice and freedom,
and that reason alone was sufficient to understand
the nature of existence– a courageous challenge
to the strictures of emerging Islamic theology (the
'kalam'). In the 830/840s, perhaps because free science
had the potential to develop better weapons, the Mutazilites
were backed by the Abbasid caliph.
780s Sufism: Islamic
mysticism – Sufism – first
arose in Syria and Iraq soon after the arrival of the
Arabs in the seventh century. The Levant already had
a long tradition of asceticism. Eastern Christianity
had for some centuries populated the desert with stylites, anchorites,
and swarms of unwashed monks. The Sufis continued the
religious madness, seeking the divine through a contempt
for worldly pleasure and a life of austere poverty.
'Otherworldliness' – a form of freely interpreted
metaphysics – was theirs.
The 'falsafah' movement
- 873 Ibn Ishaq al-Kindi (aka 'Alkindus',
an Iraqi) – philosopher, mathematician, physicist,
astronomer, physician, geographer and musicologist.
He made original contributions in all of these fields
and Gerard of Cremona translated some of his work into
Latin. The Book of Perfume Chemistry and Distillation
by al-Kindi describes many essential oils, including
imported Chinese camphor.
- 950 The Turkic-Persian Abu Nasr al Farabi (aka 'Alfarabius'),
scholar of Baghdad and Aleppo, was a philosopher and
Neoplatonist, as well as a Qadi (judge) for
his 'protector' Amir Saif al-Daula. Farabi advanced
logical thinking by separating 'takhayyul' (the
idea) from 'thubut' (the proof) and worked
towards a synthesis of philosophy and Sufism, paving
the way for Ibn Sina's work.
Sina, a disciple of Aristotle, identified 'Allah' with
Plato's 'Prime Mover'.
-1138 Ibn Bajja (aka 'Avempace'),
philosopher of Saragossa, Spain, in 'The Hermit's
Guide', developed the tradition of Islamic Neoplatonism
begun by al-Farabi. Man ('the hermit') may develop
his mind (will and reason) to attain union with the 'Active
Intellect' and ultimately, perfection.
the 10th century Ikhwan al-Safa founded a
secret 'Brotherhood of Purity' in
Basra, Iraq. The beliefs of the group diverged sharply
from orthodox Islam and incorporated elements of
Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, astrology, and the occult
brotherhood is best known for having produced a philosophical
and religious encyclopedia, Epistles of
the Brethren of Purity and Loyal Friends,
whose purpose was to provide enlightenment that would
'purify the soul and provide happiness in the next
life.' Ikhwan al-Safa wrote:
beginning of philosophy (falsafah) is the love
of the sciences, its middle is knowledge of the
realities of existence to the measure of human
ability, and its end words and deeds in accordance
was perhaps the closest that the modern Western idea
of philosophy developed within the Islamic world – but
it was centuries before the European Enlightenment.
of Orthodoxy – The Closing Mind
Iranian Hamid Al Ghazzali (1058-1128) reasserted
the cause of religion.
In his famous
work 'Tuhafut al-Falasifa' ('The
Incoherence of the Philosophers') al-Ghazzali held that
the approach of logic and the mathematical sciences was essentially
correct but he opposed what he regarded as 'excessive rationalism'.
Logic should merely be used to elucidate 'God's reality'.
argued that it was impossible to comprehend the 'absolute
and the infinite' and questioned the reliability of the
senses. In effect, he formulated a 'Cartesian doubt' centuries
ahead of Descartes! Towards the end of his life, al-Ghazzali
renounced the world and became a Sufi mystic.
work influenced both Jewish and Christian Scholasticism and
several of his arguments passed into the theology of Thomas
Aquinas who similarly sought to reestablish the authority of
philosophy, as a discipline distinct from theology, came to
an end in the Islamic world. Islam's university system began
to emphasize the teaching of theology ('Kalam'), in
some places almost exclusively, and attacks began on the philosophers
Spain, a last word came from Cordoba-born Ibn Rushd (aka 'Averroës,' 1126-1198). Ibn
as qadi (chief judge) for the enlightened
amir Ibn Yaqub, for whom he translated Aristotle and Plato.
was a time of increasing conflict with Christian Spain and
growing fanaticism throughout Europe and the Middle East. For
his free-thinking Ibn Rushd was banished from Cordoba 1195.
Rushd was the last of the philosophers,
his death a few years later coinciding with end of Abbasid
caliphate in Baghdad.
Falls in Al Andalus
When the 'Mohammadans' were
driven out of Spain by Christian knights from the north, Christian
savagery turned on the Jews, who numerically had barely recovered
from the previous Christian assault under the Catholic Visigothic
kings. The most fortunate fled, some to Morocco with the Moors,
many others to the Turkish empire. Wealthy, educated Jews who
chose to stay and 'accept Christ' became the prime victims
of the Inquisition.
a land which once had led Europe in science, art and literature,
a land of scholars, merchants and knights, became a place of beggars, friars,
and bandits. In a typical example of pious
vandalism the fine irrigation system that had made southern
Spain a richly productive garden was all but reduced to desert
in the interest of religious purity:
III (1578-1621) later ordered the expulsion of half the
total number of Moriscos in Spain – allowing only
two families to remain in each Alpujarran village in order
to maintain irrigation techniques." (Spain,
Rough Guide, p622)
from the East
By the end
of the 13th century the Mongols had devastated the eastern
lands of Islam and spread terror all the way from the Sinai
desert to India. The Abbasid caliphate was finally destroyed
when Hulagu, the Mongol ruler, captured Baghdad in 1258, destroying
much of the city including its incomparable libraries.
city was systematically looted, destroyed and burnt. Eight
hundred thousand persons are said to have been killed.
The Khalif Mustasim was sewn up in a sack and trampled
to death under the feet of Mongol horses.
For five hundred years, Baghdad had been a city of palaces, mosques,
libraries and colleges. Its universities and hospitals were the
most up-to-date in the world. Nothing now remained but heaps
of rubble and a stench of decaying human flesh.”
– Sir John Bagot
Glubb, On the Holocaust of Baghdad
Islam recovered politically from the catastrophe but at a terrible
cost. Confronted with inhumane brutality on a vast and sustained
scale Islam reacted in kind, becoming as vicious and intolerant
as the Christian knights and heathen horsemen that had destroyed
its cities. The renaissance was dead.
of the Islamic empire was followed by a partial reunification
under the leadership of various barbarous nomads from
Christian Bishops working the tribesmen of northern Europe,
the imams of Islam achieved by stealth what Arab horsemen
could not achieve by the sword and the first of a series
of dynasties of Asiatic Islam were installed in triumph.
In the 11th
and 12th centuries the Seljuk Turks,
as zealous recent converts to Islam, adopted a rigorous orthodox Asharite theology
which completely supplanted the intellectual sciences which
had gone before. Unlike the more tolerant Fatamids, the Seljuks
refused Christian pilgrimage in the Holy Land, exacerbating
the conflict there.
In the 13th
century the Mongols adopted Islam and installed their own unenlightened
and brutal regime, the Il-Khanate. One
group alone was spared the wrath of the Mongols (such was their
fear of 'demons'): 'holy men.'
were succeeded by Timur, a zealous Muslim conqueror who wrecked
much of India. He and his descendants ruled from their Asiatic
capital of Samarqand from 1369 to 1500. And then, from humble
origins another branch of the Turks, the 'Ottomans,' rose to
dominance over the whole of Anatolia and parts of Europe.
Islam – Extinguishing the Light
Mehmet the Conqueror captured Constantinople and put an end
to the 'Christian Empire' of Byzantium.
fanaticism ruled in the capitals of Islam. Though
immensely powerful and rich compared to the puny states of
western Europe little that was new would emerge from the realm
of the Ottomans and it 'missed out' on the Industrial Revolution
that Islam's early promise had made possible.
had recovered politically but it had left behind forever
its brief spring of liberality and innovation.
W. Cook & R. Herzman, The Medieval World View (OUP, 1983)
Fernand Braudel, A History of Civilizations (Allen
William Dalrymple, From the Holy Mountain (Flamingo, 1998)
N. H. H. Sitwell, Outside the Empire-The World the Romans Knew (Paladin,
Edward Gibbon, Decline & Fall, Chapters 50-52 The Coming of Islam, Arab
M. Brett, W. Forman, The Moors, Islam in the West (Orbis, 1980)
Justin Wintle, History of Islam (Rough Guides, 2003)
J. Bloom, S. Blair, Islam - Empire of Faith (BBC Books, 2001)
J. J. Norwich, Byzantium, The Early Centuries (Viking, 1988)
C. McEvedy, The Penguin Atlas of Medieval History (Penguin, 1987)
Robert Marshall, Storm from the East (BBC Books, 1993)
Some fifty articles are now available as a book.
For your copy order:
Copyright © 2004
by Kenneth Humphreys.
Copying is freely permitted, provided credit is given to the author and
no material herein is sold for profit.