UFPPC (www.ufppc.org) — Digging Deeper CVI: December 7 & 14, 2009, 7:00 p.m.

David Levering Lewis,

God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe

(New York and London: W.W. Norton, January 2008; paperback January 2009).

[

Thesis.

Westerners (especiallyChristians and Jews) are much moreindebted to Muslim civilization than mostrealize.]

List of Illustrations.

2 pp.

List of Maps.

5 maps.

Chronology.

From 53 BCE to 1215 CE.5 pp.

Notes on Usage.

Calendars; Arabicspelling; foreign words.

Preface.

Three months in Khartoum in1982 (xxi-xxii).

Pace

European history asit is usually told, there was not a militarydefeat of Islam in Europe but rather an"epic forfeiture," after which Europedefined itself "in opposition to Islam,made virtues out of hereditaryaristocracy, persecutory religiousintolerance, cultural particularism, andperpetual war," and made a hero out of Roland, "an eighth-century prototype of the American cowboy" (xxii-xxiv). Lewisbegan the book on Sept. 11, 2001 (xxiv). Though Lewis's books seem

in toto

eclectic, they all deal with "the criticalyet sympathetic exploration of livesexemplifying . . . courage or integrity,intellect or calculation in the face of injustice, religious exclusion, andorganized plunder" (xxiv-xxv).

Ch. 1: The Superpowers.

Islam roseas Rome's imperial misadventure withIran (or Persia used hereinterchangeably) caused its fall (3-13). The Byzantine Empire (14-17; Lewisprefers the term

Graeco-Roman

). TheSassanian Golden Age, whoseachievements in the aftermath of theearly 6th c. CE Mazdakite "revolution"were "spores of much of Islamic science,culture, religious practice, and militaryorganization" (21; 18-21). War betweenthe Eastern Roman Empire and Iran (21-23). Its effect on Arabia (23-26). Mecca,dominated by the Quraysh tribe (26-28).

Ch. 2: "The Arabs Are Coming!"

Muhammad's early life (29-33).Revelation and

hijra

to Yathrib (Medina)in 622 CE (33-40). Muhammad's lastyears (40-51). The problem of succession (51-52). The Qur'an (53-56).

Ch. 3:

"Jihad!"

The East Roman Empireunder Heraclius defeats the SassanianIranian empire under Khosrow II [KosrauParvez], which began a sudden collapseafter the battle of Nineveh (627 CE) (57-70). This facilitated the Muslim conquestof Syria, Palestine, Libya, Egypt, thenPersia (70-76), and the conquest of Jerusalem (637) in the Egyptiancampaign (76-84).

Ch. 4: The Co-opted Caliphate andthe Stumbling

Jihad

After Umar'sassassination in 644 CE, Uthmar oversawthe compiling of the definitive Qur'an in650 before he was killed in 656, to besucceeded by Ali, also assassinated in661 (85-92). Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan,the first Umayyad caliph, sought unity; in680 at Karbala Ali's son Husayn wasdefeated and killed, but the split in Islam"hardened into the powerful andeverlasting theological antithesis of Shi'ism" (97; 92-98). Umar II repairedUmayyad finances (98-101). Musa ibnNusayr brought the Berbers into the foldthrough diplomacy (101-04).

Ch. 5: The Year 711.

The fall of theRoman Empire began with the Gothicvictory at Adrianople in 378 (105-08). The Goths sacked Rome in 410 (108). The late-5th-century Visigothic kingdom,

stretching from the Atlantic to the Loire,lost most of its territory in Gaul afterClovis's victory at the Battle of Bouillé in507 (109-11). Visigothic Spain was builton slavery (111-13). It converted fromArianism to Roman Catholicism in 589(113-15). Virulent anti-Semitism (115-17). Tariq ibn Ziyad's invasion of Visigothic Hispania in 711 (117-27).Second invasion by Musa ibn Musayr in712-713 (127-32). Shortly after Tariqand Musa visited Damascus, Sulaymanbecame caliph; he tried but failed to takeConstantinople (132-36).

Ch. 6: Picking Up the Pieces afterRome.

In retrospect, "the logic of Europe's creation as a coherent cultureand polity inhered in the commencingcoordination and collaboration of thebishopric of Rome and the regime of theCatholic Franks," in the early 8th centurythese institutions were still

in utero

(138;137-38). Clovis converted the Franks toCatholicism and expelled the Visigothsfrom Gaul after the Battle of Vouillé, nearPoitiers, in 507 (138-41). The

Lex Salica

became "the founding charter of theevolving European mindset" (142). ButClovis's Merovingian kingdom collapsedafter his death in 511 (142-44). ALombard kingdom arose in northern Italy;the Frankish kingdom dwindled (144-47).Ignoble origins of Charles Martel (147-52). Rudimentary economy of the time(152-53). The assassination of Musa ibnMusayr's son in 714 was followed by a"prolonged period of politicalturbulence . . .

al-Andalus

. . . due partlyto power politics swirling around thecaliphate [in Damascus] and partly toethnic and tribal conflicts among theAndalusi Berbers and Arabs" (154-55;153-57). Duke Odo of Aquitaine defeateda Muslim army in the Battle of Toulousein 721, "a dress rehearsal for aconfrontation a few years later uponwhich historians have lavished epicsignificance" (159; 157-59).

Ch. 7: The Myth of Poitiers.

For manyyears little was known about the Battle of Poitiers [also called the Battle of Tours] in732 except that it was fought "about athird of the distance from Poitiers to Tours"; its significance has beenexaggerated by "choirs of Eurocentrichistorians" (160; 168). In the summer of 731, after Odo had given his daughter ina marriage of alliance to the Muslim

walí

of Cerdanya just across the Pyrenees,Charles Martel humiliated Odo militarily ,or history might have attributed stoppingthe Muslims to him (161-64). In 732 'AbdAllah al-Ghafiqi,

amir

al-Andalus

, setout to conquer and occupy southwesternGaul (165-68). Thanks to the research of Maurice Mercier and André Seguin (1944)and Jean-Henry Roy and Jean Deviosse(1966), we have "a vivid narrative of thehistoric combat as it may have unfoldedover a seven-day period that climaxed onthe plain just outside Moussais-la-Bataille" (168; 168-72). The Chronicle of 754 (supposedly) by Isidore (or Isidorus)Pacensis called the victors

Europenses,

the earliest use of 'European' (172). Thevictory "must be seen as greatlycontributing to the creation of aneconomically retarded, balkanized,fratracidal Europe that, in defining itself in opposition to Islam, made virtues outof religious persecution, culturalparticularism, and hereditary aristocracy"(174). Arabs and Berbers "would keepcoming" for "another half century" (175). The economic, ecclesiastical, andpolitical development of Frankland (fromthe Persian term,

Frangistan;

morecommonly called Francia, the FrankishEmpire [i

mperium Francorum

]

or theFrankish kingdom [

regnum Francorum

])(175-83).

Ch. 8: The Fall and Rise of theUmayyads.

In 741, the year CharlesMartel died, the Berbers revolted againstthe Umayyad Caliphate (184-88). TheSyrian Balj ibn Bishr came to

al-Andalus

to put down the revolt, but transplantedthe historical feud between northern and

southern Arabs (Qays and Yemenis) (188-91). The loss by Hisham I (died 743 CE)of Berber support deprived Muslimmilitaries of soldiers (191-92). Revolts inIranian Khurasan and Transoxania(Uzbekistan) followed (193-94). The firstAbbasid caliph was declared in 749;Baghdad displaced Damascus; Persiancultural influence asserted itself (194-95). A flattering portrait of Abd al-Rahman ("the Falcon"), founder of theUmayyad Emirate of Cordoba, whichendured three centuries (195-202). Adazzling era of community, tolerance,

convivencia

, liberality to Jews,waterwheels, agriculture, trade, pricecontrols, and law (202-07).

Ch. 9: Saving the Popes.

The Romanchurch faced extinction in the 8thcentury (209-14). The Franks were a lastresort, in return for the popes makingking in 754 Pippin the Short, the firstCarolingian, and deposing theMerovingian line (214-19). The Frenchchurch became a political institution and"served as the proving ground for therise of a hierarchical, militant religiouscaste" (221; 220-23).

Ch. 10: An Empire of Force andFaith.

Carolus overcame his brotherCarloman with his mother Bertrada, thensidelined her (224-33). His militarycampaigns as Charlemagne rescued thepapacy by defeating the Lombards andcreated an extensive Carolingian"superstate" (243; 233-43). HisAndalusian campaign (243-50).

Ch. 11: Carolingian

Jihads:

Roncesvalles and Saxony.

Theaborted Andalusian campaign was "ahumiliating reversal of fortune" fromwhich Charlemagne recovered in hisvictorious campaigns in Saxony (253;251-55). "Had the king's empire-buildingstrategies failed in the aftermath of theretreat from Zaragoza, there would havebeen no

Chanson de Roland

, no literarytransmuting of a military embarrassmentinto a nation-molding epic of unique,perdurable potency. Roncesvalles'sevolving mystique was to Saxony's killingfields what justification is to homicide. The historic and brutal Carthaginianpeace eventually inflicted on the foresttribes living between the Rhine and theElbe was ennobled over time as the workof selfless, Christian knighthoodexemplified by Roland's imaginedmartyrdom" (254). The

Song of Roland

as genocidal epic (255-59). Rolandserved as a precursor to the type of upper-class—Frankish—superhero to theWestern world (260-62). "The

Roland

saga . . . frame[s] the contact of Christianity and Islam as an epic strugglethat can never end until Muhammad'slegions will have been run to ground,defeated, and converted to the TrueFaith" (261). The

Chanson de Roland

was "

Ur-

text for the West" (262). Anatrocity-prone Christianizing campaignagainst Widukind succeeded in 779-785,and Charlemagne promulgated anintolerant Saxon Capitulary that "wouldset the standard for correct Christianconduct" (following Richard Fletcher,

TheBarbarian Conversion

[1998]) (267; 262-68).

Ch. 12: The Great Mosque.

Threeyears before his death, the enlightened'Abd al-Rahman I began the building of the Great Mosque of Cordoba (785-987CE) (268-77). Security and prosperitycharacterized Umayyad Spain, vastlymore advanced than society in Frankland(277-81).

Ch. 13: The First Europe, Briefly.

TheCarolingian empire defeated the Avars by795 (282-84). The Spanish Marchprovided a barrier to Muslim Spain, butheretical ideas filtered through, likeAdoptionism (the doctrine that Christ wasonly the adopted son of God) (284-85).As a social order, Charlemagne's empirewas "religiously intolerant, intellectuallyimpoverished, socially calcified, andeconomically primitive" (286; 286-91).