Interaction instead of confrontation.. The history of transcendence in the distinction between East and West in the relations of Islam and Christianity

Some claim that the confrontation between Islam and Christianity is a political-civilized confrontation between the East and the West that goes back to the beginnings of the emergence of the Islamic state, and that it is part of the historical conflict. Westerners, as European heirs of the Greeks, Romans and Franks.

On the other hand, some believe that the West still sees the world through the prism of Eurocentrism, which derives its basic vision from the Middle Ages without realizing that the world has changed.

In his book "An Introduction to Our History, the Other, and Beyond Relationships between Islam and the West", recently published by the Arab House of Sciences "Publishers", translated by Anas Yelman, the Turkish historian Ibrahim Kalin searches for common points between the Islamic and Western worlds, and considers them "the points of their convergence and interaction."

In his approach, Qalin proceeds from the common history of Islamic and Western societies, and the author justifies this start from the intertwining of facts with perceptions of these two histories, as identity with image, and truth with imagination.

East is east and west is west

The author cites a famous poem by the British poet and short storyteller Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936 AD), the first Nobel laureate, "East is east, and west is west... they will never meet. Like earth and sky...".

It thus expresses one of the basic characteristics of the Orient in the prevailing sense of the Western world.

He points out that the separation between the two cultures is the natural situation, while their convergence is an exceptional case that calls for divine intervention.

The writer mentions that Aristotle was warning his student Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) from the East, saying, "The way of life of the Persians bore in its essence the seeds of death and fear. As for the Greeks, they bore the seeds of life and courage."

Kalin believes that Islamic societies did not view themselves as “oriental” or “representing the East.” Orient is nothing but an imaginary functional term that appeared to refer to Asia following Europe’s definition of itself as the West.

The thinker Hassan Hanafi (1935-2021) says that it is wrong to place the contrast “Islam and the West.” Islam is in the East and the West, in Asia and Europe, in Japan and America, and the West as a model and example that exists in the West and the East, Islam and the West, is a demographic and urban overlap and cultural at the same time.

The historian and sociologist Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) saw that the movement of history is between the societies of the modern city and the societies of the nomads, and he did not say that the first is western or the second is eastern.

The author pointed out that the phrase in verse 115 of Surat Al-Baqarah, “To God is the East and the West…” drew the attention of European thinkers, as the German poet Johann Goethe (1749-1832) used it as a title for his poetry collection “The West-Eastern Diwan” to transcend this distinction between the East And the West (or perhaps as a reminder of this distinction. As for the Austrian orientalist and historian Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall (1774-1856), he used to make frequent references to this verse in his writings, and asked for it to be engraved on his grave before his death.

Islam and the West...the magic of words

The author charts the history of the interactions of Islam and the West, saying that modern times have caused many shocks in the Islamic world.

He believes that the Islamic world, whose lands were occupied, and its history, civilization and culture was condemned to backwardness and absurdity, had to provoke some reaction against the modernity that came from the West.

The writer stated that for two centuries, Muslim societies viewed themselves as an actor acting outside history, suffering from a syndrome of cultural backwardness, and adding that describing the history of Europe as a whole as a project based on the formation of the identity of the other is an exaggerated description.

Kalin asserts that Europe, during its inception, was greatly influenced by other cultures in Asia, the Islamic world and Africa.

The author points out that the philosophical framework of the Declaration of Independence of the United States announced on July 4, 1776, was drawn from the Holy Qur'an and some Islamic sources.

He adds that the copy of the Qur'an known as "Jefferson's Qur'an", which is still preserved today in the Library of Congress, is one of the most vivid examples of this intertwined history.

The writer points out that with the colonial and imperial tyranny over Europe's political, diplomatic, commercial and cultural relations with the outside world since the 17th century, new frameworks for relations and the style of writing history were defined.

The religious-theological challenge... the historical confrontation

Several incidents in the early history of Islam showed a special and different relationship between Islam and Christianity as mentioned in the book.

The first of these incidents was that a Christian monk named Bahira (Sergius) was the first to refer to the prophecy of Muhammad (may God bless him and grant him peace), and he is a Christian cleric.

The author continues, mentioning that when the revelation was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, he went to Waraqah Ibn Nofal, who is one of the Christian relatives of his wife Khadija - may God be pleased with her.

And who told the Prophet that this is the divine revelation, and that by this he preached the prophecy.

Thus, the first scholar who preached the Prophet to the Prophet would be a Christian scholar.

The author says that despite all that early bright history, the theological debate against Islam intensified in the 8th and 9th centuries, and he was one of the first to deal with Islam, the Qur’an and the Prophet Muhammad among Christian theologians Beda (died in 735), and Yohanna al-Dimashqi (died in 749) and a student of His hands were Theodore Abu Qurra (died in 820 or 830), and the historian asserts that Islam and Muslims became in such writings the target of violent attacks by Christian theologians.

cultural threat

The writer says that after the 9th and 10th centuries, Islamic thought and culture began to spread their influence early in the early 19th century, especially in the educated sector in southern Europe, and despite the theological and political threat, the Bishop of Cordoba in 854 criticized his disciples, saying that “My Christian brothers enjoy poetry.” and Arabic love stories, and they study the works of Muslim philosophers..Christian youths only know Arabic..They read Arabic books with great care and enthusiasm.They spend huge amounts of money on acquiring Arabic books.”

Kalin believes that translating the works of many Muslim wanderers, thinkers and intellectuals, into Latin, caused the emergence of new intellectual movements trends. A prominent example of this is the philosophical novel Hayy bin Yaqzan by its owner Ibn Tufail, and his works were translated into Latin by the English orientalist Edward Pocock (1604). -1691), in 1727, under the title (Philosphus Autodicticus), meaning "the self-taught philosopher".

The Spanish priest and researcher in Islamic history Miguel Asín Placius (1871-1944) also confirms that Dante's "Divine Comedy", which is one of the most important literary and theological works of the Middle Ages, was influenced by Muslim writings about the Night Journey and Al-Miraj.

The writer added that among the Jewish thinkers who were influenced by the principle of reflection among Muslims, and inspired Jewish thought in the Middle Ages, the philosopher Ibn Maimon (d.: 1204), the author of the book “Dalalat Al-Hareen”, the philosopher Saadia Gaon (died in 942), and Suleiman bin Gabirol ( 1070), Yahya bin Baquda (died in the middle of the 11th century), and Ibn Kammuna (died 1284), who wrote a valuable commentary on the book “The Wisdom of Sunrise” by its companion Shihab al-Din al-Suhrawardi (d.: 1191).

Ibrahim Kalin confirms that the great interaction and dialogue with Christians in the era of the Prophet Muhammad - may God bless him and grant him peace - was a fundamental problem for the basis of the historical and ideological relations of the Islamic-Byzantine relations.

Harun al-Rashid and Charlemagne

Historian Ibrahim Kalin goes to the fact that the political and diplomatic ties that brought together the Caliph Harun al-Rashid (died 809), whom the European reader knew from the tales of the Thousand and One Nights, and Charlemagne (748-814), the most powerful emperor in Europe, show how the thought of religious conquest and jihad transcended with political realism.

The historian Kalin explains that perhaps out of curiosity and Charlemagne's desire to know the personality of his counterpart, nicknamed "Sultan of the East and Commander of the Faithful", he sent a delegation laden with gifts to Harun al-Rashid in 797. Since then Muslim leaders and scholars have begun to transfer Greek works coming from Byzantine lands, after translating them and revised in a manner appropriate to the culture of the Islamic world.

He continues that the Abbasid Caliph Abu Jaafar al-Mansur (714-775), asked the Byzantine Emperor Constantine for works related to ancient Greek science and thought, so the emperor sent him the Book of Elements, the most famous work of the Greek mathematician Euclid (323-383 BC). The book is one of the basic scientific works of the Middle Ages.

The writer added that in the same way, Jabir ibn Hayyan, one of the most important scholars and thinkers of the era of Harun al-Rashid, requested the latter to bring him some books, and Hunayn ibn Ishaq (809-873) went to the Byzantine lands and returned with many Greek works.

New worlds of art, architecture and literature

In his book, the historian Kalin monitors important interactions between Muslims and Byzantines in the fields of art, architecture and literature, as well as scientific and philosophical thinking.

Byzantine craftsmen worked on many Islamic works.

The author points out that some Byzantine craftsmen worked in the restoration of the Kaaba during the era of our master Muhammad, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, and that lighting the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina with lamps was a suggestion from Tamim bin Aws al-Dari, who converted from Christianity to Islam, and the Prophet called for him with light. in life and afterlife.

In Damascus, the capital of the Umayyads, a large part of the abandoned churches were turned into mosques, including the famous Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, which was built on the ruins of the ancient cathedral of Yahya (St. John the Baptist), which later became one of the greatest works of Islamic architecture.