When The Moors ruled in Europe

[metalman]

 From the 9th through the 12th centuries, the Islamic world was the world leader in scientific knowledge. So why is science in Muslim lands still stuck in the past?

Because they've been too busy looking for the 100th name of Allah??

[metalman]

SuperTurbo wrote:
I only watched some of it, it's too long to watch on a monitor.

What is not discussed in "When The Moors ruled in Europe" is that the Caliphate of Córdoba and Spanish Muslims in general had diverged from a more fundamentalist, less tolerant Islamic culture. Unfortunately for them this meant that they were between Catholic Europe on one side, and the Muslim Almoravids in Africa, who had a fatwa to dethrone the Muslim Taifa kingdom rulers.

El Cid is described incorrectly as a Christian fighter. In fact El Cid was admired by both Moors and Christians, for his battle tactics, fighting ability and his loyalty, not for "defending the Christian faith" (he also fought as a Moorish mercenary).

History Reference:
Why were the Moors (Berbers) able to invade, conquer, and subdue nearly the entire Iberian Peninsula, when Christian forces outnumbered the Moors forces as much as 2.4 to 1, and yet Charles Martel was able to route the Moors from southern France in just one battle?

The Caliphate of Córdoba divided by civil war, collapsed in 1031, and the splintered Islamic Iberia Taifa kingdoms came to be ruled by the North African (Almoravid Dynasty), guided by a intolerant version of Islam.

The Reconquista the seven-and-a-half century long process by which Spanish Christians reconquered the Iberian peninsula.

[metalman]

Karlos wrote:

Dandy wrote:
But I fail to see that Islam improved development of civilisations in the Islamic world since then - so why do you asssume that it would have been different if Islam had spread across Euorpe back then?

I can see no reason to assume that such a culture would not have continued to excel if it had been allowed to do so. It's a perfectly simple extrapolation that had this culture survived to usurp the existing ones within europe and the ensuing conflict with Catholicism not occured (at least not on the scale and duration of the crusades) there would have been no real support for the sorts of extremists that gained the upper hand during that time.

The Caliphate of Córdoba was financially exhausted by its expensive military campains fighting against the invading Fatimids in an Islamic civil war. The small Christian kingdoms of Northern Iberia paid yearly tribute to the Caliphate of Córdoba in exchange for peace with the Moors of Al-Andalus (Iberia) until its break up into the Taifa kingdoms (1031). The Moors Taifa kingdoms each centered upon their own capital city then attacked each other whenever they could gain advantage by doing so. It was not until Ferdinand (The Great) of León became king of Castile in 1035, and the king of León in 1037, that territory was taken back from the Moors, by any of the Christian Kings.

A stronger alternate history case could be made that had Carthage prevailed over the Romans, Phoenician culture would have spread all across europe, Roman ambitions to conquer the world would have been checked, no Roman conquering of Palestine, no obsession with prophets of the jewish god Jehovah, and therefore, no subsequent 8 centuries of Jewish-Christian-Islamic conflict over the middle eastern territories. Instead, today we would go pray at Temples of "the one true god" Melqart.

Islam has had 1000 years to again develop another Islamic paradise.  Proclaimed Islamic paradise's since then have had one thing in common,  Mutaween ( religious police) enforcement of Sharia. This golden age of al-Andalus only happened because its rulers were Islamic heretics.