Tariq Ali: What if Al-Andalus Had Survived?
Please join Qatar University's Department of English Literature and Linguistics for a lecture entitled "What if Al-Andalus Had Survived?" by novelist, journalist and film-maker Tariq Ali. The lecture will be held on Thursday, May 28th at 1:00 PM at the Museum of Islamic Art in the Education Wing Classroom (2nd floor).
Lecture Abstract: What was the experience of al-Andalus and why did it collapse? Can al-Andalus be recreated in the modern world and if so where? The obvious location is Israel-Palestine where Jews, Muslims and Christians live in disharmony. The heirs of the Jewish people, protected in al-Andalus and the Arab world by Islamic civilization, might realise one day that peaceful co-existence between the three cultures offers the only real hope of peace in the region.
Lecture is free and open to the public. Seating is limited. To reserve a place, please e-mail: [email protected]
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It is actually true what I wrote above. I think that the biggest cities in the Iberian peninsula were Cordoba and Granada but there were many other cities such as Lisbon, as you said, or Valencia. Anyway, I am not going to write all the Arabic cities in the peninsula but only the main ones and those that still today can represent what Al Andalus was. Still I am not an erudite in such subject.
exiledsaint: think he was being ironic :)
Cantabri: Aren't you forgetting Lisbon, and all other big cities in South of Portugal?
Ayman
Only God Can Judge Me
الله فقط يمكنه محاكمتي
I am you and you are me, if you love i love, if you suffer i suffer
أنا أنت, و أنت أنا, إذا أحببت نفسك أحببت نفسي, إذا عانيتَ عانيتُ
exiledsaint: think he was being ironic :)
Cantabri: Aren't you forgetting Lisbon, and all other big cities in South of Portugal?
Ayman
Only God Can Judge Me
الله فقط يمكنه محاكمتي
I am you and you are me, if you love i love, if you suffer i suffer
أنا أنت, و أنت أنا, إذا أحببت نفسك أحببت نفسي, إذا عانيتَ عانيتُ
I´m a Spanish guy who since first went to school has been told that Al Andalus was the greater place on the known world by that time. Cities like Cordoba, Seville or Granada were places, both culturally and technically speaking, far above any other city in Europe. If anybody has a chance to go to Granada or Cordoba, please, do it you´ll see by your own eyes what it was like. As a result of the time spend by Muslims in what it is now Spain, we have many Arab derived words still in use.
Tariq Ali was my hero during my late teens. His speeches and writings wree superb.
The key to Andalucia was the understanding, tolerance and acceptance of others shown by the leaders.
why did the breakthroughs in science and associated areas just fall off a cliff hundreds of years ago?
Science from this part of the world had a profound impact on Europe and western civilization, but whereas in the west they took this up and progressed, here everything stagnated and even went backwards in some areas.
So I am sorry I disagree with one of your comments. Man would not have landed on mars if this part of Europe was occupied still. Following your logic the Arabs should have landed on mars by now.
If AL ANDULUSIA Has been Survived, Man should have Reached & Landed on MARS today.....
Trust Me, The Biggest VICTIM in those Crisis was the KNOWLEDGE of SCIENCE....
Europe got Enlightened by ISLAMIC Scientist EFFORTs...
MUSLIM Scientists ..... Whose Knowledge & Techniques still in use in Modern SCIENCE
Chemistry= Kemia, Physics= Phyzia, .........
See the Reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Muslim_scientists
I have noticed that in some former Muslim kingdoms, such as al Andalus, Sicily and Southern Italy, a similar culture of welcome, acceptance of fate as inescapable etc. still exists as is found in many Arab countries. Is this a coincidence?
I would like to add that even nowadays there are still descendents from Al-Andaluz, the Arabs, after reconquest, were allowed to stay in Portugal but as Portuguese and not as their previouslly nationality and kept their faith
Ayman
Only God Can Judge Me
الله فقط يمكنه محاكمتي
I am you and you are me, if you love i love, if you suffer i suffer
أنا أنت, و أنت أنا, إذا أحببت نفسك أحببت نفسي, إذا عانيتَ عانيتُ
Battle of Poitiers...A FLY!Both armies were of roughly the same size, about 30,000 men.
Dracula impaled 20,000 Turks in a single battle(battle for Tirgoviste).
By 1462, the Ottomans had drawn up an overwhelming army of 60,000 men to wipe out this bold and brave Walachian Prince who threatened to uproot Turkish tyranny from the Balkans.
Drac’s small forces were joined by Romanian female conscripts, who fought the Turks with a ferocity unexpected of women. In one of these skirmishes, the Turkish Sultan himself barely escaped capture when a Walachian party led by a contingent of lady warriors raided his camp in the Carpathinian mountains overlooking Tirgoviste.
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History of Jihad against the Romanians (1402-1843)
http://www.wikiislam.com/wiki/History_of_Jihad_Against_the_Romanians
Prince Vlad Tepes (made popular in the Dracula fable) impaling the Turks who had invaded his homeland Romania.
...Thousands of Turks were captured and killed in this engagement - and when the Sultan advanced upon Tirgoviste itself, he found a mile long gorge filled with 20,000 impaled Turks.
Vlad achieved renown beyond Wallachia's borders as a successful fighter against the Turks and a ruthless ruler. Notorious for his brutal punishment methods, he gained the name Tepes (Impaler) after his favorite form of punishing his Muslim enemies - impaling them on a wooden stake.
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Al Andalus was not the great thing of tolerance that some people try to portray it as. It was created through war fare don't forget and led to an almost continuous state of war between the Christian kings of Europe and the Muslim leaders.
In fact the model of tolerance waxed and waned. In some periods treatment of the Jews and Christians was good, in other times very bad. In a similar move to the Ottoman's a tax was placed on all non-Muslims and was considered the price they had to pay for their 'protection'.
However if the Muslim armies had been successful at the Battle of Poitiers in southern France that would have open all of Europe up to their conquest and the course of European history would have probably been Muslim, not Christian.
Drac did you lose your interest in necks now?
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"The Muslim invaders were greedy for land and booty, but the main targets of their rapaciousness were the Visigothic aristocrats who resisted them. To most of the population the conquest was represented as a liberation. Christians were promised free practice of their religion and in some cases greater social and economic justice as well. The rights of the minority of Hispanic smallholders were apparently respected. Though Christians were required to pay a special tribute, it was at first modest. In all, exactions were perhaps no greater than under the Visigoths.
For more than a century, the Christians in the towns were permitted to live a semi-autonomous local existence, and in some cases shared their churches with Islamic worshippers"
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http://libro.uca.edu/payne1/payne2.htm
then the rest of Europe would probably refer to it as the "Occupied Territories' whereas the Muslim world would give it unconditional support and defend its right to exist based on the fact they had been there for a long time...