As with any Bernard Lewis book, I spend the first few chapters thinking, “Didn’t I already read this?”
My notes on this book:
INTRODUCTION
Islam thought it was superior to the West. It failed to notice the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, or the Industrial Revolution. For centuries, Islam was dangerously blind to reality.
Islam was outflanked in Asia in the 1600’s: Vasco daGama, then seaports, then colonies, then empires
Western victories: battlefields, high seas, marketplace (p 15)
CHAPTER 1
European creativity (invention and experimentation) changed the balance of power (20)
The Ottomans ask “What are we doing wrong” AND “What are they doing right?” (25)
Typical Lewis baloney on Islamic “tolerance” on page 33. And on pages 48, 72, 85, 89, 111, 114, 156. It’s his magical incantation, uttered repeatedly so muslim imams will not issue a fatwa against him.
CHAPTER 2
Diplomacy, commerce, and war were the main points of contact
The West maintained embassies in the east.
Westerners frequently traded in the east.
Gradually, many western implements – practical Westernization (p 40). The Infidels introduce new devices – why? (45)
Then languages – opened up doors to ideas (45)
Islam = economic stagnation (47) Why? West has creativity.
The religious leaders lost precedence/intellectual dominance because:
Journalists recorded and disseminated truth
Lawyers interpreted and argued the laws
Professors taught
The ideas of freedom and self governance:
In the west, this is the scale between tyranny and liberty. In Islam, the scale is between tyranny and justice (54)
CHAPTER 3 Social and Cultural inferiority
The status of women
The continuity of slavery into the present day
Political rights: parliamentary and constitutional systems turn autocratic and sometimes socialist, fascist, theocratic
Scientific and technological advances
Literacy
Islam squelches independent inquiry (79)
Islam has a reluctant and resentful approach to creative ideas (81) like astronomical observatories and medical advances
CHAPTER 4
Modernization and Social Equality
Ottoman reforms of 1839 and 1854 (91) meant the shocking and dismaying elimination of social discrimination against (never women) slaves, and infidels
Social equality for slaves and unbelievers! Meant the loss of status for muslims (94)
CHAPTER 5
Secularization/Civil Society
In the West, there is separation of church and state. All people are equal before the Law.
In Islam, authority comes from Allah; God is the supreme sovereign. No part of life is outside the scope of religion.
In Islam, MOST PEOPLE depend on the state for income. (111)
The muslim world has a medieval orientation for the church governing the state. (112)
CHAPTER 6
Time/Space/Modernity
The west eclipsed islam in science, precision, innovation, and creativity
The western calendar has been almost universally adopted; western clocks also
The use of perspective in art is Western
Western music is modernity: polyphony, harmony – many instruments, playing off separate scores, make music together. There are parallels with team sports, corporations, literature (novels), theater, representative governance, and scientific accomplishments,.
Polyphony requires synchronization. Timekeeping is a requirement of modernity. Railway timetables as an example (130)
Life is transformed by the measurement of time: exactitude, precision, hurry
CHAPTER 7
Culture change
Westernization as distinct from modernization
Orchestras and classical music readily adopted in Japan, China, India – totally absent in Islamic world.
Architecture shows Islamic world lacks confidence
Artistic realism & accuracy
Translated works: what gets translated? In islam, geography, some military history. No philosophy!
Non-muslim minorities bring western innovations
Translations from the west – very few, and LATE
Islam still avoids “western” science and music
THE WORLD OF ISLAM IS POOR, WEAK, AND IGNORANT
The decline of the middle east led to its being conquered: Mongols, French & English
Israel proves the weakness of Islamic culture (155)
Islamic governance is horrible and capricious and corrupt (158) – there is an absence of individualism or private property or contract law
Why all the blaming and conspiracy theories? 159 INFERIORITY
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