"Many of the traits on which modern Europe prides itself came to it from Muslim Spain. Diplomacy, free trade, open borders, the techniques of academic research, of anthropology, etiquette, fashion, various types of medicine, hospitals, all came from this great city of cities. Medieval Islam was a religion of remarkable tolerance for its time, allowing Jews and Christians the right to practise their inherited beliefs, and setting an example which was not, unfortunately, copied for many centuries in the West. The surprise [...] is the extent to which Islam has been a part of Europe for so long, first in Spain, then in the Balkans, and the extent to which it has contributed so much towards the civilisation which we all too often think of, wrongly, as entirely Western. Islam is part of our past and our present, in all fields of human endeavour. It has helped to create modern Europe. It is part of our own inheritance, not a thing apart."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Moors
8 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Moors →
Related Quotes
"The darkness of her Oriental eye Accorded with her Moorish origin (Her blood was not all Spanish, by the by; In Spain…"
"The noble Moor of Spain is anything but a pure Arab of the desert, he is half a Berber (from the Aryan family) and hi…"
"She’s for the Moores, and Martyrdom."
"I want to see the gardens and palace of the Alcazar where the Moorish Kings used to live. It is as perfect an archite…"
"But as a Moor, who to her cheeks prefers White spots t’ allure her black idolaters, Methought she look’d all o’er bep…"
"Christianity destroyed for us the whole harvest of ancient civilization, and later it also destroyed for us the whole…"
"These Moors cultivated the sciences with success, and taught Spain and Italy for five centuries."
"I should wish, however, to know what this reason is, through which we are more excellent than all the tribes of anima…"
"Will you, laying aside all partiality, consider in the silence of your thoughts that we [humans] are creatures either…"
"But if men either knew themselves thoroughly, or had the slightest knowledge of God, they would never claim as their …"