Islamic Civilization during the European Renaissance
Encyclopedia
Islamic civilization and culture during the European Renaissance period follows earlier periods of exchanges, especially with the Latin translations of the 12th century, and Islamic contributions to Medieval Europe
.
Information on Islamic civilization
in Europe during the Renaissance
period (11th to 16th centuries) is scattered and widespread. There was limited direct interaction between the two cultures even though there was plenty of trade between Europe and the Middle East at this time. Merchants would often deal through an intermediary, a practice common since the time of the Roman Empire
. Historians have noted that even during the 12th and 14th centuries the two parties had little interest in learning about each other.
Another reason for limited knowledge about Islamic civilization during the European Renaissance is due to the persecution of Muslims through the Spanish Inquisition
. This persecution forced many Muslims to flee to the Middle East or North Africa. The Catholic Church’s opposition to Islamic civilization is best demonstrated in its plea to the Council of Vienna in 1311 to ban Muslim worship in Europe. Such sentiment reveals that many primary documents of the era contain a heavy bias.
was the last stronghold of the region of Spain known as Andalusia
, which was considered a pinnacle of culture in the western Muslim Empire. Trade from Granada included silk, ceramic, and porcelain. From 1230 until its fall to the Christians, the city was under the rule of the Nasrid dynasty . Ferdinand III of Castile
had conquered all Andalusia by 1251. It was not until after the 1469 marriage between Prince Ferdinand II of Aragon
and Isabella I of Castile
that Alhambra
, the Nasrid palace of Granada, fell to foreign forces. Alhambra fell to the combined forces of Isabella and Ferdinand on January 2, 1492.
Alhambra was known as one of the greatest achievements of urban art in the Muslim world during the time of the Nasrids. The Court of the Myrtles and the Court of the Lions are the only two portions of the palace to survive to present time.
, which saw numerous Arabic texts being translated into Latin, there was a 'second wave' of interest in the study of Arabic literature
, Arabic science and Islamic philosophy
in 16th-century France and 17th-century England.
Together with the development of the Franco-Ottoman alliance
, cultural and scientific exchanges between France and the Ottoman Empire flourished. French scholars such as Guillaume Postel
or Pierre Belon
were able to travel to Asia Minor
and the Middle East
to collect information.
Scientific exchange is thought to have occurred, as numerous works in Arabic, especially pertaining to astronomy
were brought back, annotated and studied by scolars such as Guillaume Postel. Transmission of scientific knowledge, such as the Tusi-couple
, may have occurred on such occasions, at the time when Copernicus was establishing his own astronomical theories.
Books, such as the Coran
, were brought back to be integrated in Royal libraries, such as the Bibliothèque Royale de Fontainebleau, to create a foundation for the Collège des lecteurs royaux, future Collège de France
. French novels and tragedies were written with the Ottoman Empire as a theme or background. In 1561, Gabriel Bounin
published La Soltane, a tragedy
highlighting the role of Roxelane in the 1553 execution of Mustapha
, the elder son of Suleiman
. This tragedy marks the first time the Ottomans were introduced on stage in France.
Arabic manuscripts were considered the key to a 'treasure house' of ancient knowledge, which led to the founding of Arabic Chairs
at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, where Arabic
was taught. A large collection of Arabic manuscripts were acquired, collected in places such as the Bodleian Library
at Oxford. These Arabic manuscripts were sought after by natural philosophers
for their research in subjects such as mathematics and observational astronomy, and also encompassed subjects ranging from science, religion, and medicine, to typography and garden plants
.
Besides scientific and philosophical literature, works of Arabic fiction were also translated into Latin
and English
during the 17th and 18th centuries. The most famous one was the One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights), which was first translated into English in 1706 and has since then had a profound influence on English literature
. Another famous work was Ibn Tufail
's philosophical novel
Hayy ibn Yaqdhan
, which was translated into Latin as Philosophus Autodidactus by Edward Pococke
the Younger in 1671 and then into English by Simon Ockley
in 1708. The English translation of Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, set on a desert island
, may have inspired Daniel Defoe
to write Robinson Crusoe
, considered the first novel in English
, in 1719. Later translated literary works include Layla and Majnun
and Ibn al-Nafis' Theologus Autodidactus
.
The Muslim Moors
had a noticeable influence on the works of George Peele
and William Shakespeare
. Some of their works featured Moorish characters, such as Peele's The Battle of Alcazar and Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice
, Titus Andronicus
and Othello
, which featured a Moorish Othello
as its title character. These works are said to have been inspired by several Moorish delegation
s from Morocco
to Elizabethan England around 1600. A portrait was painted of one of the Moorish ambassadors, Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud ben Mohammed Anoun
, who had come to promote an Anglo-Moroccan alliance
.
At the Bodleian Library of Oxford University, there were hundreds of Arabic manuscripts, as well as dozens of Persian
and Turkish
ones, available during the 17th century. These included works on Islamic law
and Arabic grammar
; the lexicography
of Al-Firuzabadi and Al-Jawhari
; works on Arabic poetry
; the Indian literary
work Kalila and Dimna
; the proverbs of Al-Maydani
and Maqama
of Al-Hariri of Basra
; the medical works of Al-Razi
, Avicenna
, Ibn al-Baitar, Hunayn ibn Ishaq
, Al-Majusi, Ibn al-Jazzar
, Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi, Ibn Zuhr
, Maimonides
and Ibn al-Nafis; the astronomical works of Ibn al-Banna, Ibn al-Shatir
, Al-Farghani
and Alhazen; the Masudic Canon by Abu Rayhan Biruni and the Book of Fixed Stars
by Al-Sufi; several Ottoman scientific
works by Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf; occult and alchemical works
; the Secretum Secretorum
; Al-Safadi's biographical dictionary
Al-Sihah; the historical works of Al-Tabari, Al-Isfahani
, Al-Makin, Ibn Khallikan
, Al-Dhahabi
, Al-Waqidi
, Ibn al-Shina, Al-Utbi, Ibn al-Jawzi, Ibn al-Athir, Sibt ibn al-Jawzi
, Ibn Abi Usaibia, Bar-Hebraeus
, Al-Tunaynai, Ibn Duqmaq, Ibn Taghribirdi
, Al-Suyuti
, Al-Jannabi, Ibn Hayyan
, Ibn Miskawayh
, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani
and Al-Maqrizi
; the History of Time by Al-Masudi
and volume five of Ibn Khaldun
's historiographical work Kitab al-Ibar; the historical and geographical works of Abu al-Fida; the Sahih al-Bukhari
and Qur'anic commentaries
; the Algebra
by Al-Khwarizmi and the mathematical works of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
; the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity
and Avienna's The Book of Healing
; the works of Ibn Bajjah
and Ibn Tufail; geographical works of Ibn Khordadbeh
and Ibn Hawqal
; . A Latin translation of two of Ali Qushji's works, the Tract on Arithmetic and Tract on Astronomy, was published by John Greaves
in 1650.
was the ideal iconic symbol of Islamic faith and civilization to a large population of Renaissance Europe. The turban appeared in the paintings of Italian and Flemish artists when they depicted scenes of the Ottoman Empire
and Biblical lore. Famous figures such as Suleyman the Magnificent, Hagar
, and Hayreddin Barbarossa appear in these paintings. The tradition of depicting Biblical characters in turbans has continued through to this century, as at least one of the wise men is always depicted with a turban.
Turban iconography was highly prominent, especially in Renaissance England. While friendly relations were formed between England and the Islamic civilization of the Middle East in the early 16th century, Turkish fashions became popular for the higher classes. During times of interaction with Istanbul
, Queen Elizabeth I of England
wore Turkish clothing styles. It was believed that she favored working with the Islamic sultans of Istanbul rather than the Roman Catholic leaders of Europe. These suspicions were heightened when she asked Sultan Murad III
and his son Mohammad III
for military assistance. Although she never did receive any assistance from the sultans, her relations with the Sultan and his son did not waver.
The first English convert to Islam mentioned by name is John Nelson
. 16th century writer Richard Hakluyt
claimed he was forced to convert, though he mentions in the same story other Englishmen who had converted willingly.
Captain John Ward
of Kent
was one of a number of British sailors who became pirates based in the Maghreb
who also converted to Islam (see also Barbary pirates). Later, some Unitarians
became interested in the faith, and Henry Stubbes
wrote so favourably about Islam that it is thought he too had converted to the faith.
From 1609 to 1616, England
lost 466 ships to Barbary pirates, who sold the passengers into slavery in North Africa
. In 1625, it was reported that Lundy
, an island in the Bristol Channel
which had been a pirate lair for much of the previous half century, had been occupied by three Ottoman pirates who were threatening to burn Ilfracombe
; Algerine rovers were using the island as a base in 1635, although the island had itself been attacked and plundered by a Spanish raid in 1633. In 1627, Barbary pirates under command of the Dutch renegade Jan Janszoon
operating from the Moroccon port of Salé
occupied Lundy. During this time there were reports of captured slaves being sent to Algiers
and of the Islamic flag flying over Lundy.
was highly influential to the province. Many members of Kosovo’s higher class, such as the Serbs
and the Vlachs
, converted to Islam during the Dušan
period (1331–1355). A large part of the reason for the conversion was probably economic and social, as Muslims had considerably more rights and privileges than Christian subjects. As a result Kosovo’s three largest towns were majority Muslim by 1485, where Christians had once formed a dense population before the rise of the Ottoman Empire. The movement was effective due to the wandering of Sufis who traveled around the region teaching religion as they went. By the 16th century, towns like Prizren
, Skopje
, and Đakovica had established centers of learning that became crucial in inspiring and educating scholars who would then use their knowledge to benefit the Ottoman empire and the Muslim world. From this time onward, many books circulated in the region that had a Persian
influence while written in the Albanian
language and Arabic alphabet
. The oldest genre in this style is known as Bejtexhinji poetry.
Writing at the same time as Rashid al-Din was the Hanbal jurist and theologian Taqi al-Din ibn Taymiyah (1263–1329). He was trained in both the religious and nonreligious sciences of the time. His book entitled Those Who Have Changed the Book of Christ, argues the earlier work of a Transjordan
Melkite
bishop.
region. It was accepted and approved for both Muslims and Christians. Most slaves came from warfare, privateering, or the international slave trade. Only some of the Arabian slaves in Europe were Muslims by origin. Many of the Muslim slaves were baptized before they were sold for the first time and then were given a new Christian name. There were, however, some Muslims who were not baptized and who kept their original names, but if they had children the newborns were immediately baptized. Most Muslim slaves converted to Christianity because there was hard social pressure at the time for them to convert. They also improved their social position by converting to Christianity, such as they would rise from a slave to a serf.
There were a small percentage of learned Muslim captives who were among the intellectual elite in their original hometowns among the Muslim prisoners and slaves. Captured Muslim scientists, physicians, and copyists were in high demand at slave markets. Learned Muslim captives were held in high regard by the authorities and they were sold for very high prices. They were wanted for the knowledge and advancements the Arabs had made over the Europeans. Copyists of Arabic manuscripts were needed in Spain to translate Arabic texts for the practice of medicine, the study of Arabic philosophy, and because of the popular interest in Europe for the translations of Arabic scientific texts. Learned Muslim captives played a very important role in the spread of Arabic science and philosophy over the Christian world.
The liberation of Muslim slaves was a state affair and elevated the popular esteem of the sovereign government. Muslim slaves were either freed or exchanged through special legislation and international treaties.
One account of a highly esteemed Muslim slave comes from the year 1340. The slave was from the town of Villafranca
, Spain, and was owned by municipal authorities in the town. The slave was a learned physician who specialized in eye diseases. Word of this physician reached King Peter IV of Aragon
, who had an ill councilor in his court. The king ordered his jurors to bring the slave to him in Barcelona and treat his ill councilor.
Another account is of Moroccan geographer al-Hassan al-Wazzan al-Fasi, who made important contributions to geography and Italian texts. In 1519, al-Fasi was captured by a group of Sicilian pirates while he was on his way home from Egypt. When he was picked up he had scholarly notes on him that he had made from his travels through Africa. The pirates soon realized his value and they gave him to Pope Leo X
in Rome. Al-Fasi was baptized on June 6, 1520, and renamed Joannis Leo, but he became known as Leo the African or Leo Africanus. Leo Africanus learned Italian, taught in Barcelona, and made Arabic notes in a book called Description of Africa, which was used for many years as an important source of geographic information on Muslim Africa.
emerged in 1299 and lasted until 1919. The Ottomans were strong proponents of Sunni Islam
. In the 13th century, the kingdom was only in a small portion of northwest Anatolia
but by the 16th century, it expanded to the heartland of the Byzantine Empire
and its capital, Constantinople
. The height of the Ottoman Empire occurred under the sultans Selim the Grim, also known as Selim I
(1512–1520) and Suleyman the Magnificent (1520–1566). Under their reigns, the Turks conquered Egypt
, Syria
, and the North coast of Africa
, the Red Sea
, the island of Rhodes
, and the Balkans
all the way to the Great Hungarian Plain
.
, who were allies of the Ottoman Empire, sent Barbary pirates to raid parts of Western Europe
in order to capture Christian slaves
to sell at slave markets
in the Arab World
throughout the Renaissance period. According to Robert Davis, from the 16th to 19th century, pirates captured 1 million to 1.25 million Europe
ans as slaves. These slaves were captured mainly from seaside villages in Italy
, Spain
and Portugal
, and from farther places like France
or England
, the Netherlands
, Ireland
and even Iceland
and North America.
, a writer and controversialist living in the first half of the 17th century, praised the Turks for being “more modest in their conversation generally than we; Men and Women converse not together promiscuously, as among us.” Ross believed that England could learn a great deal from the Muslims. During the Renaissance, English women disrespected their husbands because they were free to do what they wanted, which society believed led to a moral deterioration. European women also began leaving home to become male-like figures in society. Other European women attacked male chauvinism and defended the status of women by handing out pamphlets. Women rebelled against male religious hierarchy and began to replace men as preachers and pastors. Christian writers highly admired Muslim women because they were frugal compared to English women, they were respected by their husbands because they did not play “false” with them, and because Muslim women went immediately back to work after giving birth and they still had time to raise their children themselves, unlike English women.
The Muslim model became an example of the “exotic” and “Utopian” ideal because it was not possible in European society. European men sought to reinforce the traditional role of women and wanted their women to adhere to the model of Muslim women as frugal, obedient, wearing modest apparel, and respectful towards their husbands. Muslims and Englishmen differed in various ways, especially in their religious beliefs and militarism, but they did agree with each other on the representation of Muslim women.
Islamic contributions to Medieval Europe
Islamic contributions to Medieval Europe were numerous, affecting such varied areas as art, architecture, medicine, agriculture, music, language, and technology. From the 11th to 13th centuries, Europe absorbed knowledge from the Islamic civilization...
.
Information on Islamic civilization
Islamic Golden Age
During the Islamic Golden Age philosophers, scientists and engineers of the Islamic world contributed enormously to technology and culture, both by preserving earlier traditions and by adding their own inventions and innovations...
in Europe during the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
period (11th to 16th centuries) is scattered and widespread. There was limited direct interaction between the two cultures even though there was plenty of trade between Europe and the Middle East at this time. Merchants would often deal through an intermediary, a practice common since the time of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. Historians have noted that even during the 12th and 14th centuries the two parties had little interest in learning about each other.
Another reason for limited knowledge about Islamic civilization during the European Renaissance is due to the persecution of Muslims through the Spanish Inquisition
Spanish Inquisition
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition , commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition , was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval...
. This persecution forced many Muslims to flee to the Middle East or North Africa. The Catholic Church’s opposition to Islamic civilization is best demonstrated in its plea to the Council of Vienna in 1311 to ban Muslim worship in Europe. Such sentiment reveals that many primary documents of the era contain a heavy bias.
Granada
GranadaGranada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
was the last stronghold of the region of Spain known as Andalusia
Andalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
, which was considered a pinnacle of culture in the western Muslim Empire. Trade from Granada included silk, ceramic, and porcelain. From 1230 until its fall to the Christians, the city was under the rule of the Nasrid dynasty . Ferdinand III of Castile
Ferdinand III of Castile
Saint Ferdinand III, T.O.S.F., was the King of Castile from 1217 and León from 1230. He was the son of Alfonso IX of León and Berenguela of Castile. Through his second marriage he was also Count of Aumale. He finished the work done by his maternal grandfather Alfonso VIII and consolidated the...
had conquered all Andalusia by 1251. It was not until after the 1469 marriage between Prince Ferdinand II of Aragon
Ferdinand II of Aragon
Ferdinand the Catholic was King of Aragon , Sicily , Naples , Valencia, Sardinia, and Navarre, Count of Barcelona, jure uxoris King of Castile and then regent of that country also from 1508 to his death, in the name of...
and Isabella I of Castile
Isabella I of Castile
Isabella I was Queen of Castile and León. She and her husband Ferdinand II of Aragon brought stability to both kingdoms that became the basis for the unification of Spain. Later the two laid the foundations for the political unification of Spain under their grandson, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor...
that Alhambra
Alhambra
The Alhambra , the complete form of which was Calat Alhambra , is a palace and fortress complex located in the Granada, Andalusia, Spain...
, the Nasrid palace of Granada, fell to foreign forces. Alhambra fell to the combined forces of Isabella and Ferdinand on January 2, 1492.
Alhambra was known as one of the greatest achievements of urban art in the Muslim world during the time of the Nasrids. The Court of the Myrtles and the Court of the Lions are the only two portions of the palace to survive to present time.
Second wave of Arabic interest
Following the first wave of Arabic interest during the Renaissance of the 12th centuryRenaissance of the 12th century
The Renaissance of the 12th century was a period of many changes at the outset of the High Middle Ages. It included social, political and economic transformations, and an intellectual revitalization of Western Europe with strong philosophical and scientific roots...
, which saw numerous Arabic texts being translated into Latin, there was a 'second wave' of interest in the study of Arabic literature
Arabic literature
Arabic literature is the writing produced, both prose and poetry, by writers in the Arabic language. The Arabic word used for literature is adab which is derived from a meaning of etiquette, and implies politeness, culture and enrichment....
, Arabic science and Islamic philosophy
Islamic philosophy
Islamic philosophy is a branch of Islamic studies. It is the continuous search for Hekma in the light of Islamic view of life, universe, ethics, society, and so on...
in 16th-century France and 17th-century England.
Together with the development of the Franco-Ottoman alliance
Franco-Ottoman alliance
The Franco-Ottoman alliance, also Franco-Turkish alliance, was an alliance established in 1536 between the king of France Francis I and the Turkish ruler of the Ottoman Empire Suleiman the Magnificent. The alliance has been called "the first non-ideological diplomatic alliance of its kind between a...
, cultural and scientific exchanges between France and the Ottoman Empire flourished. French scholars such as Guillaume Postel
Guillaume Postel
Guillaume Postel was a French linguist, astronomer, Cabbalist, diplomat, professor, and religious universalist.Born in the village of Barenton in Basse-Normandie, Postel made his way to Paris to further his education...
or Pierre Belon
Pierre Belon
Pierre Belon was a French naturalist. He is sometimes known as Pierre Belon du Mans, or, in Latin translations of his works, as Petrus Bellonius Cenomanus.Belon was born in 1517 at Soulletiere near Cérans-Foulletourte...
were able to travel to Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
and the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
to collect information.
Scientific exchange is thought to have occurred, as numerous works in Arabic, especially pertaining to astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
were brought back, annotated and studied by scolars such as Guillaume Postel. Transmission of scientific knowledge, such as the Tusi-couple
Tusi-couple
The Tusi-couple is a mathematical device in which a small circle rotates inside a larger circle twice the diameter of the smaller circle. Rotations of the circles cause a point on the circumference of the smaller circle to oscillate back and forth in linear motion along a diameter of the larger...
, may have occurred on such occasions, at the time when Copernicus was establishing his own astronomical theories.
Books, such as the Coran
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
, were brought back to be integrated in Royal libraries, such as the Bibliothèque Royale de Fontainebleau, to create a foundation for the Collège des lecteurs royaux, future Collège de France
Collège de France
The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...
. French novels and tragedies were written with the Ottoman Empire as a theme or background. In 1561, Gabriel Bounin
Gabriel Bounin
Gabriel Bounin was a French author and dramaturgist of the 16th century. He was a lawyer of Châteauroux in Berry. In 1561, Gabriel Bounin published La Soltane, a tragedy highlighting the role of Roxelane in the execution of the elder son of Suleiman. In defiance of the rules of the Pleiad, La...
published La Soltane, a tragedy
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
highlighting the role of Roxelane in the 1553 execution of Mustapha
Sehzade Mustafa
Şehzade Mustafa Muhlisi , the prince of Manisa from 1533 to 1541 and the prince of Amasya from 1541 to 1553, was Suleiman the Magnificent's first born son by Mahidevran . He was the apparent heir to the Turkish throne.- Life :Mustafa experienced problems in his relations with his father...
, the elder son of Suleiman
Suleiman
Suleiman is the main transliteration of the Arabic name, , the name means "man of peace" and corresponds to the English name Solomon.The word may also be transliterated as Sulaiman, Suleman, Soliman, Sulayman, Süleyman, Sulejman, Sleiman, Sleman, Solyman or Seleman...
. This tragedy marks the first time the Ottomans were introduced on stage in France.
Arabic manuscripts were considered the key to a 'treasure house' of ancient knowledge, which led to the founding of Arabic Chairs
Laudian Professor of Arabic
The position of Laudian Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford was established in 1636 by William Laud, who at the time was Chancellor of the University of Oxford and Archbishop of Canterbury. The first professor was Edward Pococke, who was working as a chaplain in Aleppo in what is now...
at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, where Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
was taught. A large collection of Arabic manuscripts were acquired, collected in places such as the Bodleian Library
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...
at Oxford. These Arabic manuscripts were sought after by natural philosophers
Natural philosophy
Natural philosophy or the philosophy of nature , is a term applied to the study of nature and the physical universe that was dominant before the development of modern science...
for their research in subjects such as mathematics and observational astronomy, and also encompassed subjects ranging from science, religion, and medicine, to typography and garden plants
Muslim Agricultural Revolution
The Arab Agricultural Revolution is a term coined by the historian Andrew Watson in his influential 1974 paper postulating a fundamental transformation in agriculture from the 8th century to the 13th century in the Muslim...
.
Besides scientific and philosophical literature, works of Arabic fiction were also translated into Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
during the 17th and 18th centuries. The most famous one was the One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights), which was first translated into English in 1706 and has since then had a profound influence on English literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
. Another famous work was Ibn Tufail
Ibn Tufail
Ibn Tufail was an Andalusian Muslim polymath: an Arabic writer, novelist, Islamic philosopher, Islamic theologian, physician, vizier,...
's philosophical novel
Philosophical novel
Philosophical fiction refers to works of fiction in which a significant proportion of the work is devoted to a discussion of the sort of questions normally addressed in discursive philosophy. These might include the function and role of society, the purpose of life, ethics or morals, the role of...
Hayy ibn Yaqdhan
Hayy ibn Yaqdhan
Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān is an Arabic philosophical novel and allegorical tale written by Ibn Tufail in the early 12th century.- Translations :* from Wikisource* English translations of Hayy bin Yaqzan...
, which was translated into Latin as Philosophus Autodidactus by Edward Pococke
Edward Pococke
Edward Pococke was an English Orientalist and biblical scholar.-Early life:He was the son of clergyman from Chieveley in Berkshire, and was educated at Lord Williams's School of Thame in Oxfordshire and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford...
the Younger in 1671 and then into English by Simon Ockley
Simon Ockley
Simon Ockley was a British Orientalist.-Biography:Ockley was born at Exeter. He was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, and graduated B.A. in 1697, MA. in 1701, and B.D. in 1710. He became fellow of Jesus College and vicar of Swavesey, and in 1711 was chosen Adams Professor of Arabic in the...
in 1708. The English translation of Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, set on a desert island
Desert island
A desert island or uninhabited island is an island that has yet to be populated by humans. Uninhabited islands are often used in movies or stories about shipwrecked people, and are also used as stereotypes for the idea of "paradise". Some uninhabited islands are protected as nature reserves and...
, may have inspired Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe , born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson,...
to write Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe that was first published in 1719. Epistolary, confessional, and didactic in form, the book is a fictional autobiography of the title character—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and...
, considered the first novel in English
First novel in English
The following works of literature have each been claimed as the first novel in English.* Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, * William Baldwin, Beware the Cat,...
, in 1719. Later translated literary works include Layla and Majnun
Layla and Majnun
Layla and Majnun, also known as The Madman and Layla – in Arabic مجنون ليلى or قيس وليلى , in , Leyli və Məcnun in Azeri, Leyla ile Mecnun in Turkish, in Urdu and Hindi – is a classical Arab story, popularized by Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi's...
and Ibn al-Nafis' Theologus Autodidactus
Theologus Autodidactus
Al-Risalah al-Kamiliyyah fil Siera al-Nabawiyyah , also known as Risālat Fād il ibn Nātiq , was the first theological novel, written by Ibn al-Nafis and later translated in the West as Theologus Autodidactus...
.
The Muslim Moors
Moors
The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...
had a noticeable influence on the works of George Peele
George Peele
George Peele , was an English dramatist.-Life:Peele was christened on 25 July 1556. His father, who appears to have belonged to a Devonshire family, was clerk of Christ's Hospital, and wrote two treatises on bookkeeping...
and William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
. Some of their works featured Moorish characters, such as Peele's The Battle of Alcazar and Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...
, Titus Andronicus
Titus Andronicus
Titus Andronicus is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, and possibly George Peele, believed to have been written between 1588 and 1593. It is thought to be Shakespeare's first tragedy, and is often seen as his attempt to emulate the violent and bloody revenge plays of his contemporaries, which were...
and Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
, which featured a Moorish Othello
Othello (character)
Othello is a character in Shakespeare's Othello . The character's origin is traced to the tale, "Un Capitano Moro" in Gli Hecatommithi by Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio. There, he is simply referred to as the Moor....
as its title character. These works are said to have been inspired by several Moorish delegation
Delegation
Delegation is the assignment of authority and responsibility to another person to carry out specific activities. However the person who delegated the work remains accountable for the outcome of the delegated work. Delegation empowers a subordinate to make decisions, i.e...
s from Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
to Elizabethan England around 1600. A portrait was painted of one of the Moorish ambassadors, Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud ben Mohammed Anoun
Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud
Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud ben Mohammed Anoun was principal secretary to the Moroccan ruler "Muly Hamet" , and ambassador to the court of Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1600, to promote the establishment of an Anglo-Moroccan alliance....
, who had come to promote an Anglo-Moroccan alliance
Anglo-Moroccan alliance
The Anglo-Moroccan alliance was established at the end of the 16th century and the early 17th century between the kingdoms of England and Morocco. Commercial agreements had been reached by Queen Elizabeth I of England and the Moroccan leader Ahmad al-Mansur on the basis of a mutual enmity to the...
.
At the Bodleian Library of Oxford University, there were hundreds of Arabic manuscripts, as well as dozens of Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
and Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
ones, available during the 17th century. These included works on Islamic law
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
and Arabic grammar
Arabic grammar
Arabic grammar is the grammar of the Arabic language. Arabic is a Semitic language and its grammar has many similarities with the grammar of other Semitic languages....
; the lexicography
Lexicography
Lexicography is divided into two related disciplines:*Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries....
of Al-Firuzabadi and Al-Jawhari
Ismail ibn Hammad al-Jawhari
Abu Nasr Isma'il ibn Hammad al-Jawhari or al-Jauhari was the author of a notable Arabic dictionary. He was born in the city of Farab a.k.a. Otrar in Turkestan . He studied Arabic language first in Baghdad and then among the Arabs of the Hejaz. Then he settled in northern Khorasan...
; works on Arabic poetry
Arabic poetry
Arabic poetry is the earliest form of Arabic literature. Present knowledge of poetry in Arabic dates from the 6th century, but oral poetry is believed to predate that. Arabic poetry is categorized into two main types, rhymed, or measured, and prose, with the former greatly preceding the latter...
; the Indian literary
Indian literature
Indian literature refers to the literature produced on the Indian subcontinent until 1947 and in the Republic of India thereafter. The Republic of India has 22 officially recognized languages....
work Kalila and Dimna
Panchatantra
The Panchatantra is an ancient Indian inter-related collection of animal fables in verse and prose, in a frame story format. The original Sanskrit work, which some scholars believe was composed in the 3rd century BCE, is attributed to Vishnu Sharma...
; the proverbs of Al-Maydani
Al-Maydani
al-Shaykh 'Abd al-Ghanī Dimashqī al-Maydānī al-Hanafī was a 10th century Hanafi jurist from Damascus .He penned a four volume commentary on the famous Mukhtasar of al-Quduri titled al-Lubāb – the full name of which is al-Lubāb fī Sharh al-Kitāb 'alá al-Mukhtasar al-Mushtahir bi-Ism "al-Kitāb"...
and Maqama
Maqama
Maqāma are an Arabic literary genre of rhymed prose with intervals of poetry in which rhetorical extravagance is conspicuous. The 10th century author Badī' al-Zaman al-Hamadhāni is said to have invented the form, which was extended by al-Hariri of Basra in the next century...
of Al-Hariri of Basra
Al-Hariri of Basra
Muhammad al-Qasim ibn Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Uthman al-Hariri , popularly known as al-Hariri of Basra was an Arab poet, scholar of the Arabic language and a high government official of the Seljuk Empire...
; the medical works of Al-Razi
Al-Razi
Muhammad ibn Zakariyā Rāzī , known as Rhazes or Rasis after medieval Latinists, was a Persian polymath,a prominent figure in Islamic Golden Age, physician, alchemist and chemist, philosopher, and scholar....
, Avicenna
Avicenna
Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sīnā , commonly known as Ibn Sīnā or by his Latinized name Avicenna, was a Persian polymath, who wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived...
, Ibn al-Baitar, Hunayn ibn Ishaq
Hunayn ibn Ishaq
Hunayn ibn Ishaq was a famous and influential Assyrian Nestorian Christian scholar, physician, and scientist, known for his work in translating Greek scientific and medical works into Arabic and Syriac during the heyday of the Islamic Abbasid Caliphate.Ḥunayn ibn Isḥaq was the most productive...
, Al-Majusi, Ibn al-Jazzar
Ibn Al-Jazzar
Ahmed Ben Jaafar Ben Brahim Ibn Al Jazzar Al-Qayrawani , was an influential 10th-century Muslim physician who became famous for his writings on Islamic medicine. He was born in Qayrawan in modern-day Tunisia...
, Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi, Ibn Zuhr
Ibn Zuhr
Abū Merwān ’Abdal-Malik ibn Zuhr was a Muslim physician, surgeon and teacher in Al-Andalus.He was born at Seville...
, Maimonides
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
and Ibn al-Nafis; the astronomical works of Ibn al-Banna, Ibn al-Shatir
Ibn al-Shatir
Ala Al-Din Abu'l-Hasan Ali Ibn Ibrahim Ibn al-Shatir was an Arab Muslim astronomer, mathematician, engineer and inventor who worked as muwaqqit at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria.-Astronomy:...
, Al-Farghani
Al-Farghani
' also known as Alfraganus in the West was a Persian astronomer and one of the famous astronomers in 9th century. The crater Alfraganus on the Moon is named after him.-Life:...
and Alhazen; the Masudic Canon by Abu Rayhan Biruni and the Book of Fixed Stars
Book of Fixed Stars
The Book of Fixed Stars is an astronomical text written by Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi around 964. The book was written in Arabic, although the author himself was Persian...
by Al-Sufi; several Ottoman scientific
Science and Technology in the Ottoman Empire
Science and Technology in the Ottoman Empire covers the topics related to achievements and distinguished events that happened during the existence of the empire. The study of scientific, cultural and intellectual aspects of Ottoman history is a very new area...
works by Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf; occult and alchemical works
Alchemy and chemistry in medieval Islam
Alchemy and chemistry in Islam refers to the study of both traditional alchemy and early practical chemistry by scholars in the medieval Islamic world. The word alchemy was derived from the Arabic word كيمياء or kīmīāʾ...
; the Secretum Secretorum
Secretum Secretorum
Secretum secretorum is a medieval treatise also known as Secret of Secrets, or The Book of the Secret of Secrets, or in Arabic Kitab sirr al-asrar, or the Book of the science of government: on the good ordering of statecraft...
; Al-Safadi's biographical dictionary
Biographical dictionary
Biographical dictionaries – a type of encyclopedic dictionary limited to biographical information – have been written in many languages. Many attempt to cover the major personalities of a country...
Al-Sihah; the historical works of Al-Tabari, Al-Isfahani
Al-Isfahani
Abu al-Fath Mahmud ibn Muhammad ibn Qasim ibn Fadl al-Isfahani was a 10th century Persian mathematician. He flourished probably around 982AD in Isfahan....
, Al-Makin, Ibn Khallikan
Ibn Khallikan
Shams al-Dīn Abū Al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad Ibn Muḥammad Ibn Khallikān was a 13th Century Shafi'i Islamic scholar of Kurdish origin.-Biography:...
, Al-Dhahabi
Al-Dhahabi
Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn `Uthman ibn Qaymaz ibn `Abd Allah, Shams al-Din Abu `Abd Allah al-Turkmani al-Diyarbakri al-Fariqi al-Dimashqi al-Dhahabi al-Shafi`i , known as Al-Dhahabi , a Shafi'i Muhaddith and historian of Islam.-Biography:...
, Al-Waqidi
Al-Waqidi
Abu `Abdullah Muhammad Ibn ‘Omar Ibn Waqid al-Aslami , commonly referred to as al-Waqidi , was an early Muslim historian.He was born and educated in Medina...
, Ibn al-Shina, Al-Utbi, Ibn al-Jawzi, Ibn al-Athir, Sibt ibn al-Jawzi
Sibt ibn al-Jawzi
Yusuf ibn Abd-Allah , famously known as Sibt ibn al-Jawzi and Abu-Muzaffar .was a famous scholar.-Confusion:He was the grandson of the great Hanbali scholar Abul-Faraj Ibn Al-Jawzi who is known for his works such as A Great Collection of Fabricated Traditions and the Provision of the journey .his...
, Ibn Abi Usaibia, Bar-Hebraeus
Bar-Hebraeus
Gregory Bar Hebraeus was a catholicos of the Syriac Orthodox Church in the 13th century...
, Al-Tunaynai, Ibn Duqmaq, Ibn Taghribirdi
Ibn Taghribirdi
Jamal al-Din Yusuf bin al-Amir Sayf al-Din Taghribirdi or Ibn Taghribirdi was an Egyptian historian born into the Turkish Mamluk elite of Cairo in the 15th century. He studied under al-Ayni and al-Maqrizi, two of the leading Cairene historians and scholars of the day...
, Al-Suyuti
Al-Suyuti
Jalaluddin Al-Suyuti also known as Ibn al-Kutub was an Egyptian writer, religious scholar, juristic expert and teacher whose works deal with a wide variety of subjects in Islamic theology. He was precocious and was already a teacher in 1462. In 1486, he was appointed to a chair in the mosque of...
, Al-Jannabi, Ibn Hayyan
Ibn Hayyan
Abu Marwán Hayyán Ibn Khalaf Ibn Hayyan al-Qurtubi , usually known as Ibn Hayyan, was a Muslim historian from Al-Andalus.Born at Córdoba, he was an important official at the court of the Andalusian ruler al-Mansur and published several works on history which have only survived in part...
, Ibn Miskawayh
Ibn Miskawayh
Abu 'Ali Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ya'qub Ibn Miskawayh, also known as Ibn Miskawayh or Ebn Meskavayh was a Persian chancery official of the Buwayhid era, and philosopher and historian from Rey, Iran...
, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani
Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani
Al-Haafidh Shihabuddin Abu'l-Fadl Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad, better known as Ibn Hajar due to the fame of his forefathers, al-Asqalani due to his family origin , was a medieval Shafiite Sunni scholar of Islam who represents the entire realm of the Sunni world in the field of Hadith...
and Al-Maqrizi
Al-Maqrizi
Taqi al-Din Ahmad ibn 'Ali ibn 'Abd al-Qadir ibn Muhammad al-Maqrizi ; Arabic: , was an Egyptian historian more commonly known as al-Maqrizi or Makrizi...
; the History of Time by Al-Masudi
Al-Masudi
Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn Ali al-Mas'udi , was an Arab historian and geographer, known as the "Herodotus of the Arabs." Al-Masudi was one of the first to combine history and scientific geography in a large-scale work, Muruj adh-dhahab...
and volume five of Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldūn or Ibn Khaldoun was an Arab Tunisian historiographer and historian who is often viewed as one of the forerunners of modern historiography, sociology and economics...
's historiographical work Kitab al-Ibar; the historical and geographical works of Abu al-Fida; the Sahih al-Bukhari
Sahih al-Bukhari
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī , as it is commonly referred to, is one of the six canonical hadith collections of Islam. These prophetic traditions, or hadith, were collected by the Persian Muslim scholar Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari, after being transmitted orally for generations. Muslims view this as one of...
and Qur'anic commentaries
Tafsir
Tafseer is the Arabic word for exegesis or commentary, usually of the Qur'an. Ta'wīl is a subset of tafsir and refers to esoteric or mystical interpretation. An author of tafsir is a mufassir .- Etymology :...
; the Algebra
The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing
, also known under a shorter name spelled as Hisab al-jabr w’al-muqabala, Kitab al-Jabr wa-l-Muqabala and other transliterations) is a mathematical book written in Arabic in approximately AD 820 by the Persian (Arabic for "The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing", in...
by Al-Khwarizmi and the mathematical works of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
Khawaja Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan Ṭūsī , better known as Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī , was a Persian polymath and prolific writer: an astronomer, biologist, chemist, mathematician, philosopher, physician, physicist, scientist, theologian and Marja Taqleed...
; the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity
Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity
The Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity was a large encyclopedia in 52 treatises written by the mysterious Brethren of Purity of Basra, Iraq sometime in the second half of the 10th century CE...
and Avienna's The Book of Healing
The Book of Healing
The Book of Healing is a scientific and philosophical encyclopedia written by Abū Alī ibn Sīnā from Asfahana, near Bukhara in Greater Persia. Despite its English title, it is not in fact concerned with medicine...
; the works of Ibn Bajjah
Ibn Bajjah
Abū-Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn al-Sāyigh , known as Ibn Bājjah , was an Andalusian polymath: an astronomer, logician, musician, philosopher, physician, physicist, psychologist, botanist, poet and scientist. He was known in the West by his Latinized name, Avempace...
and Ibn Tufail; geographical works of Ibn Khordadbeh
Ibn Khordadbeh
Abu'l Qasim Ubaid'Allah ibn Khordadbeh , author of the earliest surviving Arabic book of administrative geography, was a Persian geographer and bureaucrat of the 9th century...
and Ibn Hawqal
Ibn Hawqal
Muḥammad Abū’l-Qāsim Ibn Ḥawqal was a 10th century Muslim writer, geographer, and chronicler. His famous work, written in 977, is called Ṣūrat al-’Arḍ ....
; . A Latin translation of two of Ali Qushji's works, the Tract on Arithmetic and Tract on Astronomy, was published by John Greaves
John Greaves
John Greaves was an English mathematician, astronomer and antiquary.-Life:He was born in Colemore, near Alresford, Hampshire. He was the eldest son of John Greaves, rector of Colemore, and Sarah Greaves...
in 1650.
The turban in art and politics
The turbanTurban
In English, Turban refers to several types of headwear popularly worn in the Middle East, North Africa, Punjab, Jamaica and Southwest Asia. A commonly used synonym is Pagri, the Indian word for turban.-Styles:...
was the ideal iconic symbol of Islamic faith and civilization to a large population of Renaissance Europe. The turban appeared in the paintings of Italian and Flemish artists when they depicted scenes of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
and Biblical lore. Famous figures such as Suleyman the Magnificent, Hagar
Hagar (Bible)
Hagar , according to the Abrahamic faiths, was the second wife of Abraham, and the mother of his first son, Ishmael. Her story is recorded in the Book of Genesis, mentioned in Hadith, and alluded to in the Qur'an...
, and Hayreddin Barbarossa appear in these paintings. The tradition of depicting Biblical characters in turbans has continued through to this century, as at least one of the wise men is always depicted with a turban.
Turban iconography was highly prominent, especially in Renaissance England. While friendly relations were formed between England and the Islamic civilization of the Middle East in the early 16th century, Turkish fashions became popular for the higher classes. During times of interaction with Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, Queen Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
wore Turkish clothing styles. It was believed that she favored working with the Islamic sultans of Istanbul rather than the Roman Catholic leaders of Europe. These suspicions were heightened when she asked Sultan Murad III
Murad III
Murad III was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1574 until his death.-Biography:...
and his son Mohammad III
Mehmed III
Mehmed III Adli was sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1595 until his death.-Biography:...
for military assistance. Although she never did receive any assistance from the sultans, her relations with the Sultan and his son did not waver.
England
John Nelson (convert)
John Nelson was the earliest known Englishman to convert to Islam in the 16th century. He is mentioned by the 16th century writer Richard Hakluyt in his book Voyager's Tales....
. 16th century writer Richard Hakluyt
Richard Hakluyt
Richard Hakluyt was an English writer. He is principally remembered for his efforts in promoting and supporting the settlement of North America by the English through his works, notably Divers Voyages Touching the Discoverie of America and The Principal Navigations, Voiages, Traffiques and...
claimed he was forced to convert, though he mentions in the same story other Englishmen who had converted willingly.
- This king had a son which was a ruler in an island called Gerbi, whereunto arrived an English ship called the Green Dragon, of the which was master one M. Blonket, who, having a very unhappy boy on that ship, and understanding that whosoever would turn Turk should be well entertained of the a yeoman of our Queen's guard, whom the king's son had enforced to turn Turk; his name was John Nelson.
Captain John Ward
John Ward (pirate)
John Ward or Birdy , also known as Jack Ward and under his Muslim name Yusuf Reis, was a notorious English pirate around the turn of the 17th century who later became a Barbary Corsair operating out of Tunis during the early 17th century.-Early life:Little is known about Ward's early life...
of Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
was one of a number of British sailors who became pirates based in the Maghreb
Maghreb
The Maghreb is the region of Northwest Africa, west of Egypt. It includes five countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania and the disputed territory of Western Sahara...
who also converted to Islam (see also Barbary pirates). Later, some Unitarians
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
became interested in the faith, and Henry Stubbes
Henry Stubbes
-Life:He was born in Partney, Lincolnshire, and educated at Westminster School. Given patronage as a child by the Puritan, Henry Vane the Younger, he obtained a scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford, from which he graduated in 1653...
wrote so favourably about Islam that it is thought he too had converted to the faith.
From 1609 to 1616, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
lost 466 ships to Barbary pirates, who sold the passengers into slavery in North Africa
Arab slave trade
The Arab slave trade was the practice of slavery in the Arab World, mainly Western Asia, North Africa, East Africa and certain parts of Europe during their period of domination by Arab leaders. The trade was focused on the slave markets of the Middle East and North Africa...
. In 1625, it was reported that Lundy
Lundy
Lundy is the largest island in the Bristol Channel, lying off the coast of Devon, England, approximately one third of the distance across the channel between England and Wales. It measures about at its widest. Lundy gives its name to a British sea area and is one of the islands of England.As of...
, an island in the Bristol Channel
Bristol Channel
The Bristol Channel is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Severn to the North Atlantic Ocean...
which had been a pirate lair for much of the previous half century, had been occupied by three Ottoman pirates who were threatening to burn Ilfracombe
Ilfracombe
Ilfracombe is a seaside resort and civil parish on the North Devon coast, England with a small harbour, surrounded by cliffs.The parish stretches along the coast from 'The Coastguard Cottages' in Hele Bay toward the east and 4 miles along The Torrs to Lee Bay toward the west...
; Algerine rovers were using the island as a base in 1635, although the island had itself been attacked and plundered by a Spanish raid in 1633. In 1627, Barbary pirates under command of the Dutch renegade Jan Janszoon
Jan Janszoon
Jan Janszoon van Haarlem, commonly known as Murat Reis the younger was the first President and Grand Admiral of the Corsair Republic of Salé, Governor of Oualidia, and a Dutch pirate, one of the most notorious of the Barbary pirates from the 17th century; the most famous of the "Salé...
operating from the Moroccon port of Salé
Salé
Salé is a city in north-western Morocco, on the right bank of the Bou Regreg river, opposite the national capital Rabat, for which it serves as a commuter town...
occupied Lundy. During this time there were reports of captured slaves being sent to Algiers
Algiers
' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...
and of the Islamic flag flying over Lundy.
Kosovo
The Islamic civilization in KosovoKosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
was highly influential to the province. Many members of Kosovo’s higher class, such as the Serbs
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
and the Vlachs
Vlachs
Vlach is a blanket term covering several modern Latin peoples descending from the Latinised population in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. English variations on the name include: Walla, Wlachs, Wallachs, Vlahs, Olahs or Ulahs...
, converted to Islam during the Dušan
Stefan Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia
Stephen Uroš IV Dušan the Mighty , was the King of Serbia and Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks until his death on 20 December 1355. Dušan managed to conquer a large part of Southeast Europe, becoming one of the most powerful monarchs in his time...
period (1331–1355). A large part of the reason for the conversion was probably economic and social, as Muslims had considerably more rights and privileges than Christian subjects. As a result Kosovo’s three largest towns were majority Muslim by 1485, where Christians had once formed a dense population before the rise of the Ottoman Empire. The movement was effective due to the wandering of Sufis who traveled around the region teaching religion as they went. By the 16th century, towns like Prizren
Prizren
Prizren is a historical city located in southern Kosovo. It is the administrative center of the eponymous municipality and district.The city has a population of around 131,247 , mostly Albanians...
, Skopje
Skopje
Skopje is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Macedonia with about a third of the total population. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre...
, and Đakovica had established centers of learning that became crucial in inspiring and educating scholars who would then use their knowledge to benefit the Ottoman empire and the Muslim world. From this time onward, many books circulated in the region that had a Persian
Persian literature
Persian literature spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources have been within historical Persia including present-day Iran as well as regions of Central Asia where the Persian language has historically been the national language...
influence while written in the Albanian
Albanian language
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...
language and Arabic alphabet
Arabic alphabet
The Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjad is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters. Because letters usually stand for consonants, it is classified as an abjad.-Consonants:The Arabic alphabet has...
. The oldest genre in this style is known as Bejtexhinji poetry.
Muslim scholars of the era
By the 14th century, Muslim and Christian scholars became interested in the religions and histories of each other. In this century, Muslims wrote many works that concerned religion and history. Such an example is the Persian scholar Rashid al-Din (1247–1318), who wrote two history books. The first concerned the history of the Franks. The second focused on ancient Rome, Christian saints, and pagan traditions. Rashid al-Din is credited with the introduction of Christian history and lore to the eastern world of Islam.Writing at the same time as Rashid al-Din was the Hanbal jurist and theologian Taqi al-Din ibn Taymiyah (1263–1329). He was trained in both the religious and nonreligious sciences of the time. His book entitled Those Who Have Changed the Book of Christ, argues the earlier work of a Transjordan
Transjordan
The Emirate of Transjordan was a former Ottoman territory in the Southern Levant that was part of the British Mandate of Palestine...
Melkite
Melkite
The term Melkite, also written Melchite, refers to various Byzantine Rite Christian churches and their members originating in the Middle East. The word comes from the Syriac word malkāyā , and the Arabic word Malakī...
bishop.
Muslim slaves
Slavery at the time of the European Renaissance was a socio-economic factor especially around the Mediterranean SeaMediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
region. It was accepted and approved for both Muslims and Christians. Most slaves came from warfare, privateering, or the international slave trade. Only some of the Arabian slaves in Europe were Muslims by origin. Many of the Muslim slaves were baptized before they were sold for the first time and then were given a new Christian name. There were, however, some Muslims who were not baptized and who kept their original names, but if they had children the newborns were immediately baptized. Most Muslim slaves converted to Christianity because there was hard social pressure at the time for them to convert. They also improved their social position by converting to Christianity, such as they would rise from a slave to a serf.
There were a small percentage of learned Muslim captives who were among the intellectual elite in their original hometowns among the Muslim prisoners and slaves. Captured Muslim scientists, physicians, and copyists were in high demand at slave markets. Learned Muslim captives were held in high regard by the authorities and they were sold for very high prices. They were wanted for the knowledge and advancements the Arabs had made over the Europeans. Copyists of Arabic manuscripts were needed in Spain to translate Arabic texts for the practice of medicine, the study of Arabic philosophy, and because of the popular interest in Europe for the translations of Arabic scientific texts. Learned Muslim captives played a very important role in the spread of Arabic science and philosophy over the Christian world.
The liberation of Muslim slaves was a state affair and elevated the popular esteem of the sovereign government. Muslim slaves were either freed or exchanged through special legislation and international treaties.
Examples of learned Muslim captives
Villafranca
Villafranca is a town and municipality located in the province and the autonomous community of Navarre, northern Spain.-External links:*...
, Spain, and was owned by municipal authorities in the town. The slave was a learned physician who specialized in eye diseases. Word of this physician reached King Peter IV of Aragon
Peter IV of Aragon
Peter IV, , called el Cerimoniós or el del punyalet , was the King of Aragon, King of Sardinia and Corsica , King of Valencia , and Count of Barcelona Peter IV, (Balaguer, September 5, 1319 – Barcelona, January 6, 1387), called el Cerimoniós ("the Ceremonious") or el del punyalet ("the one...
, who had an ill councilor in his court. The king ordered his jurors to bring the slave to him in Barcelona and treat his ill councilor.
Another account is of Moroccan geographer al-Hassan al-Wazzan al-Fasi, who made important contributions to geography and Italian texts. In 1519, al-Fasi was captured by a group of Sicilian pirates while he was on his way home from Egypt. When he was picked up he had scholarly notes on him that he had made from his travels through Africa. The pirates soon realized his value and they gave him to Pope Leo X
Pope Leo X
Pope Leo X , born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, was the Pope from 1513 to his death in 1521. He was the last non-priest to be elected Pope. He is known for granting indulgences for those who donated to reconstruct St. Peter's Basilica and his challenging of Martin Luther's 95 Theses...
in Rome. Al-Fasi was baptized on June 6, 1520, and renamed Joannis Leo, but he became known as Leo the African or Leo Africanus. Leo Africanus learned Italian, taught in Barcelona, and made Arabic notes in a book called Description of Africa, which was used for many years as an important source of geographic information on Muslim Africa.
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireOttoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
emerged in 1299 and lasted until 1919. The Ottomans were strong proponents of Sunni Islam
Sunni Islam
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam. Sunni Muslims are referred to in Arabic as ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah wa āl-Ǧamāʿah or ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah for short; in English, they are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis or Sunnites....
. In the 13th century, the kingdom was only in a small portion of northwest Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
but by the 16th century, it expanded to the heartland of the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
and its capital, Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
. The height of the Ottoman Empire occurred under the sultans Selim the Grim, also known as Selim I
Selim I
Selim I, Yavuz Sultân Selim Khan, Hâdim-ül Haramain-ish Sharifain , nicknamed Yavuz "the Stern" or "the Steadfast", but often rendered in English as "the Grim" , was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to...
(1512–1520) and Suleyman the Magnificent (1520–1566). Under their reigns, the Turks conquered Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, and the North coast of Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
, the island of Rhodes
Rhodes
Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...
, and the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
all the way to the Great Hungarian Plain
Great Hungarian Plain
The Great Hungarian Plain is a plain occupying the southern and eastern part of Hungary, some parts of the Eastern Slovak Lowland, southwestern Ukraine, the Transcarpathian Lowland , western Romania , northern Serbia , and eastern Croatia...
.
Barbary pirates
The Barbary StatesBarbary Coast
The Barbary Coast, or Barbary, was the term used by Europeans from the 16th until the 19th century to refer to much of the collective land of the Berber people. Today, the terms Maghreb and "Tamazgha" correspond roughly to "Barbary"...
, who were allies of the Ottoman Empire, sent Barbary pirates to raid parts of Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
in order to capture Christian slaves
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
to sell at slave markets
Arab slave trade
The Arab slave trade was the practice of slavery in the Arab World, mainly Western Asia, North Africa, East Africa and certain parts of Europe during their period of domination by Arab leaders. The trade was focused on the slave markets of the Middle East and North Africa...
in the Arab World
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
throughout the Renaissance period. According to Robert Davis, from the 16th to 19th century, pirates captured 1 million to 1.25 million Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
ans as slaves. These slaves were captured mainly from seaside villages in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, and from farther places like France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
or England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and even Iceland
Turkish Abductions
The Turkish Abductions were a series of raids that took place in Iceland between July 4 – July 19, 1627. Both Austurland and Vestmannaeyjar were raided by Barbary pirates from the regency of Algiers.In 1627, Jan Janszoon hired a Danish “slave”...
and North America.
Muslim women
Muslim women were highly admired by English men during the Renaissance. They especially caught the attention of English writers at the time and were often idealized by them. What the English writers saw in Muslim women greatly differed from libertinism (disregard of authority or convention in sexual or religious matters), which the writers feared among English women. Muslim women at the time were thought to be the perfect representation on how an Englishwoman should act, and they were presented as the foil for English women as well. Muslim women were constantly compared to European women and idealized by English authors as a perfect image of female docility. English authors liked how Muslim women in the Ottoman Empire had familial submissiveness and were separated from political and religious affairs. Alexander RossAlexander Ross (writer)
Alexander Ross was a prolific Scottish writer and controversialist. He was Chaplain-in-Ordinary to Charles I.-Life:He was born in Aberdeen, and entered King's College, Aberdeen, in 1604. About 1616 he succeeded Thomas Parker in the mastership of the free school at Southampton, an appointment which...
, a writer and controversialist living in the first half of the 17th century, praised the Turks for being “more modest in their conversation generally than we; Men and Women converse not together promiscuously, as among us.” Ross believed that England could learn a great deal from the Muslims. During the Renaissance, English women disrespected their husbands because they were free to do what they wanted, which society believed led to a moral deterioration. European women also began leaving home to become male-like figures in society. Other European women attacked male chauvinism and defended the status of women by handing out pamphlets. Women rebelled against male religious hierarchy and began to replace men as preachers and pastors. Christian writers highly admired Muslim women because they were frugal compared to English women, they were respected by their husbands because they did not play “false” with them, and because Muslim women went immediately back to work after giving birth and they still had time to raise their children themselves, unlike English women.
The Muslim model became an example of the “exotic” and “Utopian” ideal because it was not possible in European society. European men sought to reinforce the traditional role of women and wanted their women to adhere to the model of Muslim women as frugal, obedient, wearing modest apparel, and respectful towards their husbands. Muslims and Englishmen differed in various ways, especially in their religious beliefs and militarism, but they did agree with each other on the representation of Muslim women.
See also
- Islamic contributions to Medieval EuropeIslamic contributions to Medieval EuropeIslamic contributions to Medieval Europe were numerous, affecting such varied areas as art, architecture, medicine, agriculture, music, language, and technology. From the 11th to 13th centuries, Europe absorbed knowledge from the Islamic civilization...