Umar faruq abdullah biography of martin

From the time of Alfonso VI on, one of the chief offices of the Church and, later, the Inquisition would be to obliterate Moorish culture and replace it with that of Latin Christianity. But Muslim influence in Iberia lasted longer. Those of them who could not leave freely or flee successfully were forcefully converted to Catholicism in the 16th century and forbidden to speak Arabic or keep their Moorish culture.

Often Morisco children were taken away to be raised as Christians in monasteries, cloisters, and other Church institutions. Large populations of Moriscos were expelled from the south of Spain and from its eastern coastal regions and were resettled in the north.

Umar faruq abdullah biography of martin

But extreme measures could not kill the spirit of Islam in Moriscan hearts. They rebelled frequently and continually begged Muslim powers to come to their rescue. Ultimately, Spain expelled hundreds of thousands of Moriscos from to But this same act helped break the power and wealth of Imperial Spain, which relied on the energies and skills of its Moriscos.

The bloody Spanish civil war — was in part the fruit of the brutal division of Spanish social classes that the Inquisition fostered. Andalusian Muslims were generally conservative. New developments in the eastern Islamic world were not readily received in al-Andalus. But its civilization was not rigid. Rather, it blended a profound understanding of Islamic tradition with unique originality and improvision when circumstances required.

Andalusian legal scholars allowed their Christian minorities to erect new churches, for example, whereas other Islamic lands only allowed them to keep their old ones. Cordoba and other great Andalusian cities were brilliant centers of learning. Students from as far away as England and continental Europe came there to study. Roger Bacon was among them and held that learning Arabic was essential to scientific progress.

Like their counterparts in the east, Andalusians made intelligent use of waqf properties, which supported free hospitals and free schools, maintained roads and bridges, quartered armies and garrisons, provided for official journeys into Europe to free captives and prisoners of war, and even provided mercifully for beasts of burden too old to labor.

The legal precedents of Islamic Iberia are an important source of minority fiqh for Muslims in Europe and America today, and the discipline of minority fiqh in Islam may probably be said to have had its origin in al-Andalus. Al-Andalus produced many of the greatest minds of the Islamic and Arabic sciences. Their works remain unmatched even now.

Andalusians also mastered mathematics, geometry, the physical sciences, and medicine. They put down the foundations of the history of science. Even Moorish music was an advanced science, Andalusian music being among the most highly developed music forms the world has known and one of the sources of our classical music. Andalusians did not just use their music for enjoyment but also to cure the insane.

Moorish architecture and fine arts developed traditional models with distinctive originalilty. During its illustrious centuries, al-Andalus was powerful on land and sea. Like Spain in its golden age, the force of Andalusian arms was based on sea power. Formidable strength in arms was matched with cultural, economic, and political prowess. See also [ edit ].

References [ edit ]. Retrieved The Muslim The Journal of Religion. University of Chicago Press: — ISSN Sedgwick, Mark Nova Religio, pp. Journal of Islamic Studies. Scopino, A. Abd-Allah returned to Chicago in and took office as to work as the chair and scholar-in-residence of the newly founded Nawawi Foundation, a non-profit educational foundation.

Abd-Allah, who continues to work and teach today at the Nawawi Foundation, where Ingrid Mattson is also present, teaches and lectures in different parts of the United States and Canada. He recently completed a biography of Mohammed Webb d. Dr Umar Facebook. Introduction — Guest Contributions. Guest Contributions Guest Contributions — Book Reviews.

Book Reviews