Cultural Relations with the West more generally in this Period

Europe is named for Europa, perhaps ironically given the oppositional conflict I've been discussing, a Phoenician princess in Greek mythology and the Phoenicians are closely related to the Arabs. The idea of Europe is relatively recent but may be seen as opposed to what is not European as all identities conflict with their opposites in the sense that they are defined as not something. A politically united Europe was first attempted under the Carolingian dynasty of Charlemagne in the latter part of the 8^th Century and the ideal was later expanded to include what had been Moorish al-Andalus. The concept of Christendom developed in opposition to ‘Moors’ in the south and east from the 10^th Century before the idea of Europe, however.

On the Arab side, we know that al-Mas’udi wrote in detail in 10^th Century Egypt about some of the dynasties of the Franks (Ifranj). We also know that Toledo in central Spain was the major centre of cultural contact between the ‘Moors’ and ‘Christendom’ both before and after its reconquest. Seville in Spain and Palermo in Sicily were also witness to cultural cooperation between ‘Moors’ and ‘Christians’ both before and after their Christian reconquests.

Averroes (Ibn Rushd) (1126 – 1198) was highly regarded and his work was employed by such preeminent Christian scholars as Aquinas. Chess and lute playing were also shared by the two groups. Dante seems to have also had a slight interest in the literary works and history of the East and may have borrowed from the literature to an extent for his Inferno.

Moving to the Ottoman period and to the rise of cities such as Venice and Genoa, we can see a continuation of mutual interest between the two ‘sides’. The Europeans meanwhile continued to harbour admiration for the Arabs and their Arabesque designs and lives. The first colonial endeavours of Napoleon in Egypt were accompanied by continued mutual interest. The interest on the Arab side especially led to a third major wave of translations in our history this time instigated by Muhammad 'Ali, the ruler of Egypt (following the major efforts in Baghdad in the earliest Islamic period and in Toledo in the early modern period of Europe). The back and forth flow of ideas has thus occurred continuously but also has been particularly focused in those three distinct waves.