Cultural Interaction & Diffusion: Examples

Watch the documentary clip, Islam: Empire of Faith, carefully with these questions in mind:

1) How does it illustrate cultural interaction, influence, or diffusion?

2) Does the clip seem balanced or biased? Explain.

Islam for Viewers Like You:

1) Originally broadcast in May 2001, rebroadcast soon after September 2001

2) $1.54 million budget, shot over 18 months, re-enactments shot location in Iran

3) Advance screenings with representatives of American Muslim organizations

4) Does the film idealize or romanticize Islam, ignoring or omitting the darker, more negative details?

5) Does the film reflect present concerns as well as historical research?

6) Can this example link to the more recent controversy regarding cartoons of Muhammad? How so?

Islam: Past & Present

Examples to Consider:

1) A 14th-century manuscript illustration depicting Muhammad was edited out

2) Muhammad’s depiction as “forgiving conqueror” omits certain episodes:

“The Messenger of God ordered that every adult male of Banu Qurayza be killed and then he divided the property, wives, and children of Banu Qurayza among the Muslims.” Ibn Hisham

3) Overemphasis on internal unity of early Islam:

Schism between Shi’ites and Sunnis is downplayed

Film leaves out most civil wars & rivalries of early Islam

4) Overemphasis on “harmony” of early Muslim-Christian relations

Film on Church of St. John the Baptist: “Side by side, the two faiths shared the same building—in peace” contrast with Encyclopedia of Islam: “A legend which tells of the division of the Church of St. John between Christians and Muslims springs from an error in translation.”

Film: “As the Muslim community grew, they bought the old church from the Christian congregation.” contrast with Encyclopedia of Islam: “In spite of previous agreements, the Caliph al-Walid confiscated the Church of St. John the Baptist from the Christians.”

Examples to Consider:

1) Selective “moralizing”

8 minutes devoted to fall of Constantinople (1453), but no mention of Mehmet’s treatment of the conquered: killing, raping, plundering

Only one of Muhammad’s followers is depicted: Bilal bin Rabah who was Ethiopian. Yet a 13th century manuscript shows merchants trading, but not that what they were trading: slave market in Yemen

Selective regarding Muhammad’s wives and Sulyeman’s lovers.

2) Experts reaching outside their fields of expertise

Islamic States (ca. 1000)

Explain the changes in the maps of Islamic-ruled areas between 750 and 1000.

Islamic & Arabic Science

Translations (c. 750-1000)

Where? Baghdad

Who? Muslim, Christian, Jewish, & pagan scholars

What? hundreds of Greek works (Persian and others)

Why? theological & non-theological reasons

“Seek out knowledge even if it is in China” Hadith of Muhammad

Islam promoted literacy: reading & interpreting the Qur’an

Daily prayer: Which direction is Mecca? (Qibla)

Muslim calendar: When does the lunar month begin? (Ramadan)

Practical applications: Greek medical texts

Greek mathematics (surveying, accounting, engineering)

Greek astronomy (calendar, horoscopes)

Al-Sufi (903-986), Book of the Fixed Stars (ca. 965)

Astronomical terms from Arabic:

zenith, nadir, azimuth

Some stars with Arabic names:

Betelgeuse, Deneb, Mizar, Vega, Aldebaran, Altair, Algol

More science-related terms of Arabic origin:

alcohol, alchemy, algorithm, alkaline, algebra, almanac, elixir, antimony, sine, cipher, zero, chemistry

Al-Sijzi’s treatise (969 AD)

Islamic Astronomy, Mathematics, & Medicine

Al-Biruni’s treatise (1082)

Al-Banna’s treatise (14th c.)

When I had been introduced to the art of the Indians’ nine symbols through remarkable teaching, knowledge of the art very soon pleased me above all else and I came to understand it, for whatever was studied by the art in Egypt, Syria, Greece, Sicily and Provence, in all its various forms.

Liber abaci (1202) by Fibonacci

Medicine is a science from which one learns the states of the human body with respect to what is healthy and what is not, in order to preserve good health when it exists and restore it when it is lacking.

Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (980-1037)

The Anatomy of the Human Body (14th century, Persian)

Iraqi banknote depicting Alhazen (ca. 965-1039)