Part 1: The Impact Of The Arabs On Western Civilization

posted on: Jul 19, 2017

By Habeeb Salloum/Contributing Writer 

Part 1 of 2

The impact of the Arabs on Western Civilization! I would venture to say that in the western world, especially in North America, the vast majority of people, and by the way even many in the Arab world, would think that this statement is a grossly exaggerated assertion by an Arab chauvinist. However, with the very profound anti-Arab media and phobia in the Western world for the last half century and more, one cannot blame the average layman for having anti-Arab and anti-Muslim feelings. Yet, as I will set out to prove, the Arabs throughout medieval history were the leaders in world civilization. They gave the world, I would hazard to say, as much or even more than most world civilizations have contributed to the history of man and his progress and development.

For me, growing up on the arid Saskatchewan prairies, I did not become familiar with the Arabs and their history by way of my parents who had scant knowledge of their history. Even in school I do not recall the Arabs were ever mentioned and, nor, of course, not converted by the newly arrived Arab immigrants who, in the main, being western educated, had an uncomplimentary view of their own people. Finely, there was definitely no influence by way of the media which carried more and more, as the years went by, an anti-Arab bias.

Strangely, I became interested about the Arabs and their history due the cruelty of my schoolmates who would taunt me with ‘Black Syrian’.   This drove me to find out who the Syrians were. As I grew up, I found that the Syrians were Arabs and the Arabs had an illustrious history.

As year after year went by, I read every book I could find about the Arabs, their literature and their history, I became proud of my ancestors and the civilization they had created. My knowledge came from English books, not Arabic – a language which I was to somewhat master in my later years. If only my schoolmates knew that by belittling me as ‘Black Syrian’ they had made me proud of my Arab ancestors. It is ironic that because of them I wanted to tell the story of the Arabs to the world.

Unlike most of the educated Arabs in the world today, I wanted to tell their ancestor’s story. Perhaps, no people in the globe have contributed so much to world civilization as the 7th century Arabs who created an advanced culture which led the world for centuries. Strange as it may seem not only to westerners, but to many modern Arab intellectuals, the contributions of the ancestors of the modern Arabs have left a lasting effect on our lives in the West today.

And this is no idle talk. Let us examine just a few of the traces left by the Arabs in our daily life.

Perhaps, the most important contribution which affects our daily life today is the Arabic numeral system which in medieval times replaced the clumsy Roman numerical system. With these Arabic numbers came the zero, derived from the Arabic al-sifr; algebra, from al-jabr and logarithm, from al-Khawarizmi, the name of its founder. These revolutionized the field of mathematics and made possible our advanced modern technological world.

 Frontispiece of the Latin Version of the Canon of Medicine, printed in Venice in 1595 (from, Il Canon medicinae di Avicenna nella tradizione ebraica: Le miniature del manoscritto 2197 della Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna. A cura di Giuliano Tamani. Padova; Editoriale Programma, 1988; p 21. [italian]).

In the field of health, we owe much to the Arabs. The 11th century Ibn Sina, better known as Avicenna, compiled a great medical work entitled al-Qanun which was used in the universities of western Europe for some 500 years. This along with the dissertations of the 10th century Al-Razi, known in the West as Rhazes, dominated European medicine well into the 16th century.

How many of you know that when a modern pharmacist fills out your prescription, this method of obtaining medicine and the earliest drug stores had their beginning in Baghdad during the golden years of Abbasid rule?

There is no doubt that not one out of 100 thousand know that the basis of the first clean organized hospitals was laid in the Arab/Islamic cities of Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus and Cordova, hundreds of years before such houses of healing were to be found in Europe.

When we read about Europe coming out of the Dark Ages, how many of us know that the 12th century physician/philosopher Ibn Rushd, known in the West as Averroes, in his writings, sowed the intellectual seed of the European Renaissance which made possible modern western society.

When we sit down to eat, our daily meal, starting with an appetizer; then soup, entrée and lastly dessert; this method of enjoying a meal was brought to Arab Spain, known as Al-Andalus to the Arabs, from the court of Baghdad by Ziryab, a renowned 9th century musician and a pace-setter of etiquette. From this furthest west of the Arab/Muslim Empire, his ideas on how to enjoy a better life spread to the remainder of Europe and later to the Western Hemisphere.

A talented individual, Ziryab was responsible for contributing many other concepts to the western way of life. From among these, a few are: The drinking from glass instead of metal goblets; the use of forks and knives in eating; the wearing of different types of clothing for each season; the styling of women’s hair; and many new types of women’s toiletries. The list is endless of his contributions to the highly-cultured way of living in Al-Andalus – a lifestyle which later reached and affected other European lands.

How many in the West or even East know, when we sit down to listen to fine music, that the guitar, lute and violin were introduced by the Arabs into Europe and that the first written notes in western classical music were written in Arab Spain?

In their first years as empire builders, the Arabs of the East had retrieved, then absorbed, the ancient written Greek music, that included much which had been taken from earlier Middle Eastern civilizations, which had been forgotten in western Europe. They evolved this music and brought their version to Al-Andalus. In fact, the famous Ziryab opened the first music conservatory in Europe to which students came from the northern Christian countries. In that age when women in the workforce was virtually unknown in Christian Europe, one of Ziryab’s daughters held the position of director in this music training school.

How many western and even Arab students, tripping over each other to study in the Western institutions, know that the first true universities in the world were the Al-Azhar in Cairo and the Qarawiyeen in Fez, Morocco, followed by the universities of Arab Spain? In their initial stages, the first universities in Christian Europe at Montpelier in France and Salerno in Italy both borrowed Arab professors from the universities of Al-Andalus.

Avicenna: reduction techniques for spinal deformities, 1556 edition, “The Canon of Medicine”
Illustration from the 1556 edition of Iranian physician Avicenna’s The Canon of Medicine, a translation by medieval scholar Gerard of Cremona. Avicenna treated spinal deformities using the reduction techniques introduced by Greek physician Hippocrates. Reduction involved the use of pressure and traction to correct bone and joint deformities. (Source)

In our times, how proud are the mothers and fathers of Arab students, who have spent fortunes educating their children in Western universities, as they watch their sons or daughters walk out in black robes graduating with their degrees. I would hazard to say that very few know that these robes are the ‘abayas of Azhar students, brought back by the returning Crusaders from the Middle East.

And this is not all. The 10th century Arab scientist-historian, al-Mas’udi, first talked about evolution. The Arabs brought the art of paper-making from China to Sicily and Spain and they were also responsible for building the first timing device, similar to the modern clock and for creating the Moorish and pointed arches in Europe.

During the Crusades, from the 12th and 13th centuries, the Europeans carried back to their continent many innovations as a result of their contact with the Arab/Muslim civilization. For instance, these Men of the Cross brought back to Europe systematic hospitalization and reintroduced into the continent bathing in tubs and the public bath that had disappeared after the Roman Empire vanished.

Also, Arab influences in the art of war were considerable. The use of crossbows, heavy mail covering for both knight and horse, and the use of cotton padding under the armor are Arab contributions. The flowing robes and the Arab kuffiyah (Arab head dress) placed around the helmet, adopted by the Christian knights, is the original heraldic mantling.

Gunpowder is not, as many believe, an invention of the West. The Arabs brought gunpowder from China and introduced it into Europe. However, the Chinese had only used the powder for flares to honor their dead. Subsequently, the Arabs conceived of the idea to use it in a primitive cannon – a forerunner of modern artillery.

The Arabs in Spain, a number of years before their downfall are also believed to have developed an arms industry which, ultimately was taken over by the conquering Spaniards. Some historians have observed, this invention handed the inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula the power to conquer the New World.

The Crusaders also brought back with them, castle architecture, closed gardens, the sundial and the art of distillation. Arab/Islamic scientists perfected the ancient method of extracting flower scents from herbs and blossoms and were able to produce exotic perfumes, acquiring a taste for incense – long known in Europe as the fragrant ‘gum of Arabia’.

As for food, before the Crusades, the diet in medieval Europe consisted chiefly of bread and meat washed down with beer or wine, along with a few vegetables such as beets, carrots, garlic, and onions.   In the Middle East and the Iberian Peninsula, the Crusaders became familiar with the delicate and rich tables of the Arabs and introduced some of these foods into European cuisine. These stimulated the European appetite for the exotic foods of the East and the fondness for these foods began to grow.

To satisfy the new tastes, the trading merchants began to import into mainland Europe products from the Holy Land, Iberian Peninsula and Sicily which were unknown in Europe at that time. Almonds, artichokes, bananas, buckwheat, cherries, dates, eggplants, figs, gooseberries, grapefruits, lemons, limes, melons, oranges, raisins, rice, scallions, shallots, spinach, strawberries, sugarcane; eastern spices, including pepper, cardamom, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, sesame, sweetmeats; and many other goodies from the Arab lands hit Europe like a tempest. With the introduction of these foodstuffs, the culinary history of Europe changed.

Perhaps, the most important of all the foods, brought back by the Crusaders was sugar cane. The Arabs brought the cultivation of this ultimate sweet in the world from India, along with the techniques of sugar refining and passed all of this knowledge on to Europe. Sugar, as well as being used as a food, was employed by the Arab physicians in the 9th century to make aromatic syrups, flavorings, medicines, and palatable brews many of which included spices.

Scene of agriculture work in an Arabic manuscript from Islamic Spain. (Source).

Even though introduced into Europe after the Crusades from the Arabian Peninsula, coffee quickly became part of the European table. Ever since its introduction, the brew has always had a mystical aura and is associated with the exotic East.

During and after, the Crusades, the custom of wearing beards became a fashion inherited from the Arabs. These same returning Crusaders also brought back with them to Europe, oriental carpets, tapestries, turned-up toe shoes, and fine fabrics such as ‘Damask’ from Damascus; muslin (once called mussolina) from Mosul in Iraq; and fustain, originating in Fusfat – Egypt’s first Islamic capital, as well as atlas, baldachin and satin.

Europe’s demand for Arab textiles, especially silk fabrics, became so great that manufacturers in Sicily established factories copying Arab designs. Subsequently, Arab silk-weaving craftsmen were brought to Palermo and laid the foundation of a silk industry which, in the ensuing years, became one of Italy’s most flourishing trades.

A symbol of the vanity of the medieval ladies of European courts was the high-peaked, pointed cap with its trailing veil of silk – a fashion developed in Jerusalem called tontour. As fabrics, popular in the Arab lands, made their way to Europe, again thanks to the returning Crusaders, so did design in attire, especially of women. The noble ladies of Europe vied with each other on the height of the tontour and the elegance of the fabrics used in the design of the face-framing millinery.

Much of our contemporary jewelry is a result of design and metallurgy mixture developed by the Medieval Arab jewelers, then introduced to Europe by the Crusaders such as the highly-prized squash blossom design – once on the uniform button worn by Spanish conquistadors.

Europeans and Arabs traded goods through an extensive trading network that passed through the Near East and the Mediterranean.

European clothing during the Dark Ages was usually made from furs and skins. By the medieval age, they had graduated to wearing coarse clothing made from linen and wool. This crude way of dressing would change after the Crusaders returned from their wars. In the Middle East, they became familiar with the rich fabrics used by the Arabs. Soon thereafter, a booming trade developed between the Italian city-states, the Arab cities and Arab Spain.

By way of the Crusades, the women of Europe became acquainted with cosmetics, first prepared by the ancient Egyptians, and by the civilizations of the Fertile Crescent. Some of these included lipsticks, nail polish, eye shadows, kohl (antimony used to accentuate the eyes), perfumes and powders, henna (hair dye,) body lotions and oils, and even wigs.

The list of Arab influences in our daily life is endless. But how did all this come about? The answer is to be found in the dynamic birth of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula. All be it that the ancient civilizations born in the Middle East all made their mark in influencing the surrounding Mediterranean cultures, but with the founding of Islam, the Arab impact on the development of world civilizations knew no bounds.

When the Arab armies moved eastward and westward from the Arabian heartland, they occupied countries which had developed numerous civilizations and cultures. However, unlike a good number of conquerors before and after, they did not destroy but preserved the cultures they had overwhelmed. In the ensuing centuries, they absorbed the learning of these lands and worked it within their own cultures to produce an Arab/Islamic civilization, which was to be mankind’s beacon for hundreds of years.

This great Islamic civilization was in reality an Arab/Islamic civilization. Under the hundred years of Umayyad rule, the next hundred and fifty years of Abbasid rule and the over three hundred years of Arab-Umayyad rule in Arab Spain, the basis of this rich culture was built. With the exception of the Persians, very little was contributed by other Muslim peoples, like the Mongols, Turks and a number of other central Asians who through the centuries adopted Islam and eventually became the leaders of that Arab-born religion.

In the 11th century, the Arab ruler of the petty state of Aleppo, Sayf al-Dawla, attracted more of the literary giants of that era to his court, than were attracted to the courts of the hundreds of petty non-Arab Muslim states of that time.

After the leadership of Islam was taken over by non-Arabs, except in the military arena, no significant contributions were made in any scientific field. Hence, we can honestly say that Muslim civilization is truly an Arab/Islamic civilization.

Part 2 continued next week

Habeeb Salloum