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The Forgotten Debt Europe Owes Islam — Transcript

by Professor Tim Wilson · 1,442 words · 274 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:01There's an interesting story that's
0:03turned up in the Economist Today uh
0:06about the distinction between Islam and
0:12uh Islamic terrorism or what some people
0:14call the Islamists.
0:17And the economist is right about one
0:19essential distinction. Islam is a
0:21religion followed by almost two billion
0:25diverse human beings. Islamism
0:28is a political program uh that tries to
0:31organize state and society according to
0:34a prescribed interpretation of Islamic
0:36principles. Like Judaism and like
0:38Christianity, by the way, Islam sees
0:43uh the religion in terms of a
0:46uh a structure for the whole life.
0:51But I think Islamism
0:54is
0:56uh is thinking of a particular type of
0:58structure and confusing Islam and
1:01Islamism with two uh confusing those two
1:05is intellectually slovenly historically
1:08illiterate, socially dangerous but also
1:11um misunderstanding what people mean by
1:14Islamism or Islamist is again uh
1:18difficult. This is about the the the
1:20problem that we have particularly in the
1:23social media age of imposing one
1:25specific meaning onto a word which maybe
1:29that word never really has or never
1:32really had. Islam does not stand outside
1:34European civilization of course glaring
1:36through the window. Islamic civilization
1:38helped to furnish the room. And we
1:41should begin with a correction about
1:43clocks. For example, the clock at S
1:45Cathedral in France dates from 7 uh
1:491176.
1:51Although historians remain uncertain
1:53whether its mechanism was mechanical or
1:55hydraulic. I think it was hydraulic
1:57because um the the monks of there or the
2:00monks of Beris and Edmunds um where
2:04there's a clock from 11 97
2:08were collected the water from the from
2:10the clock tower in order to put out a
2:12fire. But um the uh so that would
2:16confirm that's a water clock. Al Jazari
2:19completed his celebrated book of
2:21knowledge of the ingenious mechanical
2:24devices in 1206,
2:28but I think there's some sort of clock
2:31that goes back earlier to about 11:36.
2:36Um, so the elephant clock itself doesn't
2:39precede the sun's
2:41uh clock, but there but there is a
2:43clock. There is an Islamic clock. Uh um
2:47Humsa Yusf was to was talking about this
2:50a few days ago in his Twitter feed or um
2:55Instagram feed. But but the the wider
2:58argument about Islamic engineering of
3:01course survives absolutely the 9th
3:03century Banu Musa brothers described
3:05about 100enous
3:07machines including automatic fountains,
3:10valves, lamps and hydraulic control
3:12systems and the 11th century and
3:14Deluthian engineer Al- Muradi designed
3:18elaborate water clocks well before the
3:20English example. So uh Al Jazzer Al
3:23Jazari later produced programmable
3:26automter, water raising machinery,
3:29intricate clocks and sophisticated
3:30double-action piston pumps. Europe did
3:33not encounter an intellectually dormant
3:36Islamic world. Europe encountered
3:38engineers who had been controlling water
3:40pressure uh motion and time for
3:43centuries. And this matters because
3:45modern arguments about Islam often
3:47proceed as if history began at Dover
3:50last Saturday when masked men shouted
3:54Christ is king at frightened migrants.
3:56Christianity deserves better
3:58representatives. So does Britain.
4:00[clears throat] Between the 8th and the
4:0113th century, Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo,
4:04uh Cordoba, uh Bkara and other centers
4:08formed an immense network of
4:10scholarship. It scholars were Muslim,
4:11Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian, and
4:14sometimes religiously elusive. They
4:16wrote mainly in Arabic, the great
4:18international scholarly language of the
4:20period. Islamic civilization therefore
4:22describes an intellectual culture,
4:25not a certificate of personal uh faith,
4:29and at its center stood Baghdad's bite
4:32al hikma, the house of wisdom. and we
4:36should avoid presenting this as a modern
4:37university with departments,
4:38prospectuses and a vice chancellor
4:40demanding another administrative
4:42restructuring. Historians dispute its
4:44precise size and institutional form. At
4:47minimum though the uh Abised court
4:52supported a major library translation
4:55activity and scholarly patronage khifs
4:58paid for knowledge. They wanted
4:59knowledge gathering from around the
5:00world and translating into the common
5:03language into Arabic which is where we
5:05get
5:07uh the Greek philosophy, Indian
5:09mathematics combined and modern
5:11mathematics emerges with algebra and uh
5:15Persian astronomy entered Arabic
5:18scholarship. Scholars translated these
5:21works from Bzantium, Persia, India,
5:23Greece uh criticized them, extended
5:25them. This was not mere preservation. A
5:27refrigerator preserves. A civilization
5:30thinks.
5:32Um, Alqua
5:35Quarismi working in 19th century Baghdad
5:39wrote a systematic treatment of
5:41equations called Al-Qab al Mtasa. Uh,
5:46fisab algebra al well mukabala.
5:52Uh from algebra comes algebra. From the
5:56latinized form of al uh quazismi comes
6:00algorithm. Uh and every computer search,
6:04banking calculation and digital
6:05animation carries a faint linguistic
6:07echo therefore of a Persian worker
6:10working under an abbisid khalif.
6:13Al quarismi did not invent the numerals
6:17him themselves. Their their roots lay in
6:19India and Islamic scholars adopted,
6:21organized and transmitted Hindu
6:23mathematics including the decimal
6:25position system and later Latin
6:28translations brought those methods into
6:30Europe. Fibonacci who learned
6:31mathematics in North Africa
6:34helped popularize them through the Liber
6:37Abbachi in 1202. Try conducting modern
6:40finance using Roman numerals. the
6:42meeting uh would become sclerotic before
6:45anyone had divided the lunch bill. In
6:48optics, Ib al hyam rejected the old
6:53notion of rays shooting from the eye
6:55towards an object. He studied light
6:57entering the eye, reflection,
6:59refraction, lenses, and the camera
7:01obscurer, which then became so central
7:04to European art in the 16th and 17th
7:07centuries. More importantly, he joined
7:09mathematical reasoning to controlled
7:12observation. He tested propositions.
7:15This didn't create modern experimental
7:16science fully formed. But his method
7:19represents one of the great medieval
7:21foundations. In medicine, Al Razi
7:24distinguished smallpox from measles and
7:26wrote clinical observations grounded in
7:28experience. Ibncina's cannon of medicine
7:31organized medical knowledge on such a
7:34scale that European universities used
7:36Latin versions for centuries. Al Zaharis
7:40surgical encyclopedia illustrated
7:42instruments and described procedures.
7:44Although historians rightly warn against
7:46assuming every operation in a medical
7:48text occurred routinely in practice in
7:50astronomy.
7:52Muslim scholars refined the astrolabe,
7:55compiled more accurate tables, improved
7:58trigonometry, and challenged elements of
8:01Tollmy's planetary models. Alberuni
8:04calculated the Earth's radius with an
8:06impressive accuracy and compared
8:08cultures with an openness rare in any
8:11century. In geography, Alidrisi
8:15produced the great world map for Roger
8:17II of Sicily. in philosophy, Alkindi, Al
8:20Farabi, Ibnena, Ibn Rushid wrestled with
8:24Aristotle, reason, revelation and the
8:26nature of existence. Their works entered
8:29Latin Christrysendom and helped shape
8:31scholastic thought, including arguments
8:33addressed by Thomas Aquinus. Paperm
8:36learned from China and developed across
8:39the Islamic world reduced reliance upon
8:41expensive parchment. Hospitals,armacies,
8:44observatories and libraries became part
8:47of urban life. Arabic scholars advanced
8:50chemistry, pharmarmacology, mechanics,
8:52navigation,
8:54music theory, and agriculture.
8:58Coffee arrived much later, but Europe's
9:01intellectual life eventually acquired
9:03both Arabic mathematics and the means to
9:06stay awake while studying it. Now, none
9:08of this requires romantic mythology.
9:11Islamic history contains conquest,
9:14intolerance, slavery, persecution, and
9:17sectarian violence. Christian Europe
9:19contains precisely the same list, often
9:21with additional footnotes. Civilization
9:25uh in in in its many forms,
9:29civilizations are neither saints nor
9:31defendants in a single eternal trial.
9:33They are vast contradictory human
9:36inheritances. And the economist
9:39therefore reaches the right political
9:41conclusion. Although history strengthens
9:43its case, Europe faces genuine problems
9:46involving Islamist intimidation,
9:49anti-semitism, coerced within
9:51communities, hostility towards gay
9:53people, threats against critics, and
9:55attempts to restrict free expression.
9:58Liberum government must confront those
10:00problems without pucilan pucilan
10:04pucilanimity.
10:06O a girl threatened into silence, a gay
10:09Muslim intimidated by neighbors or a
10:11teacher
10:13frightened to discuss religion deserves
10:15the full protection of the law. And this
10:18sort of prejudice is not part of the
10:22Islamic historical tradition. Yet
10:25collective suspicion offers no solution.
10:28Treating every Muslim as an undeclared
10:29Islamist
10:31grants extremists the civilizational
10:34conflict they desire. Dressbounds,
10:37indiscriminate, disproportionate
10:39rhetoric and fantasies about demographic
10:42replacement push ordinary Muslims away
10:45from away from shared citizenship. The
10:47Islamist says Europe will never accept
10:49you. The anti-Muslim agitator replies
10:52quite right. their rival salesmen
10:55sharing the same brochure.
10:58Europe's answer must be to m must must
11:03be confident liberalism. One law for
11:06everyone. Freedom of worship. Freedom to
11:08leave a religion. Freedom to criticize
11:10Islam, Christianity, Judaism or atheism.
11:14Protection for women, gay people,
11:16apostates, and religious conservatives
11:18alike. No blasphemy restrictions
11:20disguised as community harmony. No
11:22racial panic disguised as patriotism.
11:25Europe is not being erased by Islam.
11:28Europe already bears Islam's
11:30intellectual fingerprints upon its
11:32mathematics, its medicine, its
11:34philosophy, and machines. The greater
11:37danger comes from historical amnesia
11:40joined to modern fear. Islamists deny
11:44freedom in the name of faith and
11:46demagogues deny belonging in the name of
11:49Europe. Both should be resisted. The
11:52house of wisdom offers a better
11:54inheritance. Translation instead of
11:56isolation, argument instead of
11:59intimidation,
12:00curiosity instead of paranoia, and
12:03knowledge passing between peoples who
12:05understood one profound truth.
12:06Civilization has never belonged to only
12:09one civilization.

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