“To accept the story of the Arab destruction of the library of Alexandria, one must explain how it is that so dramatic an event was unmentioned and unnoticed not only in the rich historical literature of medieval Islam, but even in the literatures of the Coptic and other Christian churches, of the Byzantines, of the Jews, or anyone else who might have thought the destruction of a great library worthy of comment. That the story still survives, and is repeated, despite all these objections, is testimony to the enduring power of a myth.” StillsStoriesMightChristianLiteratureChurchAcceptingRichEventsDestructionHistoricalIslamEndureLibraryJewScaryWorthyMythDespiteDramaticCommentTestimonyMedievalObjectionsUnnoticedChristian ChurchAlexandriaByzantine Author:Bernard Lewis
“I think confronted with the modern world or with the rest of the world, I think people are becoming aware that the Western and Islamic civilizations have more in common than apart. It was a German scholar, C. H. Becker, who said a long time ago that the real dividing line is not between Islam and Christendom; it's the dividing line East of Islam, between the Islamic and Christian worlds together on the one hand and the rest of the world on the other. I think there is a lot of truth in that.” PeopleThinkingWorldLongRealChristianTogetherCommonModernIslamWesternIslamicScholar Author:Bernard Lewis
“In the West nowadays, it's very common to talk about the Judeo- Christian tradition. It's a common term. The term is relatively modern but the reality is an old one. One could with equal justification talk about a Judeo-Islamic tradition or a Christian-Islamic tradition. These three religions are interlinked in many signification ways, which marks them off from the rest of the world. And I think there is a growing awareness of this among Christians and among Jews, and even to some extent to some Muslims. That's happening for obvious reasons.” ThinkingWorldReasonRealityChristianTermCommonModernAwarenessEqualTraditionJewObviousJustification Author:Bernard Lewis
“You see Christians and Muslims have one thing in common which they do not share with their other religions as far as I know. They claim to be the fortunate recipient of God's final message to mankind.” ChristianCommonShareMankind Author:Bernard Lewis
“The Jewish Talmud says that the righteous peoples have an equal place in paradise. The Christians and Muslims agree in rejecting that; they claim that they are the fortunate recipients of God's final message and those who accepted will go to heaven and those who rejected go to hell. So there is a long struggle between the Dar al-Islam and the Dar al-Harb, which in effect was Christendom. This was the perceived enemy. And this has inevitably colored the perception of everything else.” LongChristianHeavenEnemyStruggleHellEqualPerceptionAgreeAcceptedRighteousRejected Author:Bernard Lewis
“Christians and Muslims share the belief that they are the fortunate recipient of the final God message.” ChristianBeliefShare Author:Bernard Lewis
“In the Christian world, as you remember, Christianity is in the 21st century, Islam is in the 15th century. I don't mean to say that Islam is backward; I mean to say that there are certain experiences that it hasn't gone through. Christianity had the great religious wars of the 17th century. Islam, fortunately for the Muslims, did not have that. Christianity worked out a system of toleration. Islam was always more tolerant of Christendom.” WorldMeanWarChristianRememberReligiousChristianityIslam21st Century Author:Bernard Lewis
“If you look at the movement of refugees, in Vladimir Lenin's phrase, "the people who voted with their feet," the movement of refugees until comparatively modern times was overwhelmingly from West to East, not from East to West. Refugees of all kinds were constantly fleeing from Christendom to the Islamic lands. Jews of course and Muslims of course, but even some Christians and the movement of refugees went overwhelmingly that way.” PeopleKindChristianModernJewAll KindsIslamicRefugee Author:Bernard Lewis
“When we talk about the Judeo-Christian or the Judeo-Muslim tradition, it's important to remember that we are speaking of a Jewish component of civilization, but not in itself a civilization. What is happening now in Israel is that you have a coming together of Jews from the Christian world and Jews from the Muslim world with different cultures.” WorldImportantDifferentChristianTogetherRememberCultureTraditionJewDifferent Cultures Author:Bernard Lewis
“They call themselves Sephardic Jews, but that's not the important thing. The important thing is that some come from the Muslim world and some come from the Christian world. I would call them the Muslim Jews and the Christian Jews. It sounds absurd but you know what I mean.” WorldMeanImportantChristianJewAbsurd Author:Bernard Lewis
“The golden age of equal rights in Spain was a myth, and belief in it was a result, more than a cause, of Jewish sympathy for Islam. The myth was invented by Jews in nineteenth-century Europe as a reproach to Christians.” AgeChristianBeliefCausesResultsRightsCenturyEqualEuropeIslamJewMythGoldenSpainEqual RightsNineteenth CenturyReproachGolden Age Book:Islam in History: Ideas, People, and Events in the Middle East Source: Islam in History: Ideas, People, and Events in the Middle East
