How Islam influenced Western Civilization?
Civilization is always reinvented. The civilization that some call “Western” has been, and continues to be, shaped by a wide variety of political, literary and intellectual influences, all of which deserve our attention. Algebra, alchemy, artichoke, alcohol and apricot all derive from Arabic words that came to the West during the Crusades.
Even more fundamental are the Indo-Arabic numerals (0-9), which replaced Roman numerals around the same time and revolutionized our ability to engage in science and commerce. This came about through the Latin discovery of the 9th century Persian scholar, Al-Khwarizmi (whose name gives us the word algorithm). This commitment to Islamic civilization contradicts the assertion made by political scientist Samuel Huntington some 25 years ago in his book The Clash of Civilizations that Islam and the West have always been diametrically opposed.
In 2004, historian Richard Bulliet proposed an alternative perspective. He argued that civilization is an ongoing conversation and exchange rather than a uniquely Western phenomenon.
Yet Australia and the West still struggle to recognize the contributions of Islamic cultures (whether Arabic, Persian, Ottoman or other cultures) to civilization. An initial curriculum proposed by the Ramsay Center for Western Civilization mentioned a single Islamic text, a collection of often humorous stories about the crusades of a 12th-century Syrian aristocrat. But Muslim-majority cultures have produced many other texts with a greater claim to shape civilization.
Many of the scientific ideas and luxury goods from this world came into the West over the period of time. When west captured the Spanish city of Toledo from its Moorish rulers in 1085, they become aware of the intellectual legacy of Islamic culture preserved in the libraries of Toledo.
Their focus was not on Islam, but on the philosophy and science with which many great Islamic thinkers were involved. One was Ibn Sina (aka Avicenna), a Persian and multifaceted physician (a very experienced generalist) who combined practical medical knowledge with a philosophical synthesis of key ideas from both Plato and Aristotle.
Another example was Ibn Rushd (or Averroes), an Andalusian and multifaceted physician, whose critique of the way Ibn Sina interpreted Aristotle would have a profound impact on the Italian theologian and philosopher Thomas Aquinas in shaping his philosophical ideas and theological in the thirteenth century. Thomas was also indebted to a fellow countryman of Ibn Rushd, the Jewish thinker Moses Maimonides, whose Guide to the Perplexed was translated from Arabic to Latin in the 1230s.
Islam also gave western civilization the quintessential image of the Enlightenment, the self-taught philosophers. Above all, Islam influenced Western Civilization in broader dimensions.
