Golden Age of Islam and Lessons for Today — II
By Dr Akbar Ahmed
American University
Washington, DC

 

The important lesson of this Golden Age is the reminder that using reasoning and empirical findings to arrive at logical conclusions represents the most fundamental of human activities. This belief has its roots in Greek philosophy, especially that of Aristotle. Such a rational approach allowed people to ponder philosophical questions as much as their relations with those from different cultures. After all, we are better able to see our own culture after examining others’; thereby sharpening our focus regarding existing limitations. Cross-cultural comparative studies of this sort underpin my particular discipline: anthropology.

The second lesson is societies flourish when positive and healthy interaction exists. When this collapses – there is conflict and strife. Thus, the Golden Age came to an end when the Almohad Dynasty began persecuting minorities and scholars. This saw Rabbi Maimonides and Ibn Rushd both expelled from Cordoba. Similarly, when the Mongols attacked and destroyed Baghdad in 1258, they smashed the irrigation canals, killed the residents and threw hundreds of thousands of books from the Grand Library (House of Wisdom) of Baghdad into the river. Arab society never really recovered.

The third lesson focuses on knowledge and learning as inherent to the human condition. Increasingly, as the world moves inexorably towards technological developments – learning about humanity through art and literature becomes relegated to the margins, as are human relations themselves. By contrast, the Golden Age shone brightly due to the scholars’ relentless curiosity about the world and their constant quest for knowledge.

There is yet another lesson to be drawn from the Golden Age of Islam, although this is more for the naysayers: The Islamophobes. They accuse Muslims of being closed off to knowledge, of being barbaric and inherently violent. Of course, the scholars of the Golden Age of Islam teach us the exact opposite. Namely, that Islam promotes the cerebral, innovation and compassion. Muslims have naturally made great contributions to civilization. Islamophobes would do well to study the Golden Age instead of succumbing to mass distortions and disinformation campaigns.

The global nature and interconnectedness state of our word was something else that the Golden Age recognized. This remains as important as ever. For it helps us to understand how to deal with the “other”, while also seeing things from their perspective. To walk in their shoes. This must extend to the rich elite viewing their poor countrymen through the prism of dignity and respect. As the modern world currently faces competing global crises – the pandemic, climate change as well as religious and ethnic wars – we must not forget how to live together. Our very survival depends on it.

Nevertheless, perhaps the most important lesson of all is to pay heed to the past. Earlier, I mentioned those good rulers who patronized scholars while also pointing out that others behaved like tyrants. A classic example being the treatment of one of the greatest philosophers of the age, Ibn Rushd himself. At the height of his powers and at an advanced age, he fell victim to court conspiracies and his feckless patron expelled him to a life of uncertainty and misery. The scene of his burial is described by Ibn Arabi and is a sad moment in the Golden Age of Islam. On one side, his coffin balanced on a donkey; on the other, his books. Hardly any mourners were there to accompany Ibn Rushd on his final journey. A most tragic ending for a man honored by the world. This also explains why so many scholars – such as Ibn Arabi and Al Ghazali – preferred to leave the royal palace and wander off in search of other mystics and intellectuals far from the court with all its intrigues and temptations.

Let me conclude by saying that I am, perhaps, too idealistic and, as such, this piece reflects that. Nonetheless, my work is based on years of library and field research, which is summed up in my most recent study, The Flying Man, Aristotle, and the Philosophers of the Golden Age of Islam: Their Relevance Today.

Inclusivity, I find, remains crucial to the health and harmony of society. And the latter needs to include the minority – not as a favor - but for the long-term health and integrity of the nation. The importance of promoting knowledge cannot be over emphasized. Science and fact must prevail over blind belief and superstition. Space must be created for scholars and scholarship. If a scholar is unhappy at one university, he or she must be assisted in moving to another. Governments must acknowledge scholars and afford them due respect.

The young need idealistic role models and society must encourage the development of these. Note, from Oxford to Cairo, scholars such as Ibn Rushd, Al Ghazali and Ibn Arabi are still remembered. What of the names of the once mighty emperors and rulers? No one remembers them.

Allow me to leave you a little food for thought.

The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most severe in recent history. It was caused by a virus of avian origin. It spread rapidly during the last year of the First World War. Some 500 million people (or one-third of the world’s population) became infected. Some 50 million died worldwide; 675,000 from the United States alone.

As the First World War ended and commentators estimated the millions who had lost their lives or were injured – many concluded that this was the war to end all wars. We have learned a lesson, they cried, and will never repeat this catastrophe again. Yet two decades later, we witnessed another world war, even bigger than the last. And together, these two global conflicts killed an estimated100 million people.

Here we are today, in the middle of a global pandemic, which has claimed the lives of 50 million while inflecting 500 million. And the world is drifting - like some sort of Greek tragedy – towards confrontation between the US and China. Clearly, our capacity to learn from history remains limited. We do not help ourselves when we dismiss history as a mere academic tool. Nor when we denounce, to paraphrase a prominent captain of industry, history as bunk.

All this is precisely why reason, scholarship and a worldview informed by compassion and humanity – as espoused by the philosophers of the Golden Age of Islam – alleviate the human condition while inspiring and elevating us during difficult times.

( The writer is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC and author of, most recently, ‘The Flying Man, Aristotle, and the Philosophers of the Golden Age of Islam: Their Relevance Today’)