Cultures in Conflict: Christmas, Muslims, and Jews in the Age of Discovery

Lewis, Bernard. Cultures in Conflict: Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Age of Discovery. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Written by a world renown Arabist and a prominent scholar on the Middle East, this short book is based on several lectures delivered at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in May 1993. The author's purpose is to demonstrate how the events of 1492, namely the Christian conquest of Granada, the last stronghold of the Muslims in the Iberian peninsula, the expulsion of the Jews and the advent of the Age of Discovery are interrelated. Three processes, conquest, expulsion and discovery are being examined and their impact are being assessed. In the first section the author discusses the unique character of the Islamic faith and explains the underlying reasons for its clash with Christianity. Islam is presented as a unique civilization with remarkable merits. Unlike other religions which impacted certain regions or races, Islam, Lewis argues, is a civilization comprising many peoples of different races and cultures. Its missionary ardor was by far the most potent of all religions. The Muslims, Lewis adds, did not fail to appreciate the greatest civilizations of the past. Islam had affinity and respect for the Hellenic and Byzantine civilizations, however, the Medieval civilization of western Europe was regarded with much less respect. The clash between Islam and Christianity, Lewis argues, was not a result of a misunderstanding but of a strong sense of mission on both sides. The clash between Christians and Muslims underscored the similarity, rather than the differences in both religions.

In this description the Muslims appear far more tolerant than Christians. Moreover, Arab civilization appears far more advanced than Medieval Europeans believed. However, Europeans seem to be far more capable of adopting technological innovations than the Arabs. Moreover, European civilization was more egalitarian, particularly in regards to women.

None of these themes is new. The debate over whether Columbus was a benevolent discoverer or a villain raised in this study is dealt with much greater detail elsewhere. Both European historians of the period and the author himself have dealt with most of the themes mentioned in the book at great length. The author repeats much of same arguments mentioned in his previous books such as Islam and the West, The Muslim Discovery of Europe, and some of his other books. The only difference is that these themes were dealt with much more thoroughness in his earlier books. Themes such as the impact of technology on European conquest and European skill in adapting firearms were already extensively dealt with by prominent historians such as William MacNeil, Marshal Hodgson and Carlo Cippola, and there is little value in presenting them again to the reader.

The book's only salient characteristic is the attempt to integrate three important topics. The connection between the Reconquista, the expulsion of the Jews and the onset of the Age of Discovery helps throw light on the nature and objectives of Islam; however, the discussion is too general and too cursory.

In the second part of the book the author discusses the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. Interesting details are presented here. The author explain the attitude of Christian Europe towards the Jews as a prelude to the expulsion of the Moors. Here, the major debate among Muslims, whether to remain in Christian land as Moriscos or emigrate from Spain is discussed. Also, the author throws light on Ottoman attitude toward the Jews. Ottoman attitude towards Jews appears far more tolerant than that of Christian Europe. In the final section of the book the author argues that the Age of Discovery, which was marked by oceanic voyages, had led to greater contact between world civilizations, but helped the West increase its influence over other civilizations. Western culture with its benefits of advanced technology and its dark by-products-imperialism, racism and sexism remained triumphant to this day.

Lewis' attempt to find a common thread in these aforementioned phenomenon has its merits, however, the discussion remained superficial. For scholars well versed in Middle Eastern history, this book will obviously be of limited value. As for the novice, the discussion here can be useful only as an introduction to this topic. This book is well written, however, but it will not rank high among other studies written by the author.

Jacob Abadi

U.S. Air Force Academy

Copyright Association of Third World Studies, Inc. Spring 1998
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