“Europe and Islam: Shared History,
Shared Identity”
On September 25, 2008, the NYU Center for Dialogues convened a panel discussion to explore the claim that European identity is a shared and partly Muslim identity, starting with the recognition that “Islam” and “the West” are not opposite terms. "Islam" and "the West" are in fact closely connected — a connection that starts and continues with Europe. For the past 1300 years, cultural and commercial interactions between Muslim and non–Muslim Europeans have helped define European identity, making today’s Europe a shared space. The concept of "sharing" recognizes the importance of these interactions and offers a more accurate way of describing European identity — an identity that Americans also share.
Panelists discussed these concepts from a historical perspective and considered the policy implications that might arise from rethinking European identity as a shared and partly Muslim identity. Founder and Director Mustapha Tlili moderated the panel, which included Mohamed Arkoun, Emeritus Professor of the history of Islamic thought at the Sorbonne; Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference; and David Levering Lewis, Professor of History at NYU and author of the recent God’s Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe.
Mustapha Tlili opened the panel discussion by welcoming the panelists and thanking the audience for attending. He explained that while the relationship between Islam and the West has been depicted in particularly negative terms since September 11, 2001, this panel discussion would have a positive theme. Rather than emphasizing points of division, it would address what Europe (and by extension, the West) shares with Islam. Tlili noted that Muslim communities in the West continue to flourish, with over 45 million Muslims in Europe alone. These communities are not isolated enclaves but share in the lives of their non–Muslim compatriots, and can be seen as a bridge between the Western and Muslim worlds. Tlili also noted that Muslims and Westerners share not only 1,300 years of history, but will also share a common destiny. He explained that the intention of the panel was to explore Europe and Islam’s overlapping history in order to determine policies that would ensure a more prosperous joint future.
After introducing the three speakers, Tlili asked each of them to respond to a particular question. He first turned to Professor David Levering Lewis, asking him to examine how the Battle of Poitiers in 732–historically described as a major victory in which Charles Martel’s army defeated the encroaching Muslim forces from across the Pyrenees–has been narrated to buttress the idea of a “clash of civilizations” between a hostile Islam and Christian West.
Titling his presentation “The 8th Century in the 21st Century: Poitiers and Roncevaux,” David Levering Lewis responded with what he called a ‘deconstruction’ of the Battle of Poitiers and another 8th–century battle, the Battle of Roncevaux, to show how they have each been framed to support the same idea of a civilizational clash. By way of introduction, he surveyed some of the scholarship on Europe and Islam, and also retraced relevant aspects of Andalusian history.
When historians think about the present, explained Professor Levering Lewis, it means they think about the past in the present. With respect to the long, competitive cohabitation of Christianity and Islam, the act of historical interpretation has become exceedingly problematic. The premise of this panel discussion –– that Europe and Islam have a shared history and shared destiny –– hardly appears self–evident in the light of post–9/11 conceptual dichotomies in which clashes are inevitable, “what went wrong” occurred centuries ago, and Islamo–Fascism stalks the land.
However, Levering Lewis pointed out, there are several recent books that promise a sober re–evaluation of these dichotomies; these include Richard Bulliet’s provocative The Case for Islamo–Christian Civilization, Michael Hamilton Morgan’s Lost History: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Scientists, Thinkers, and Artists, and George Saliba’s Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance. The long collaboration of the Abrahamic religions in Iberia is also vividly evoked in Maria Rosa Menocal’s The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain. But these works barely make a dent in a controlling narrative that insists upon the synchronous antithesis of a Christian West and Muslim East. In light of this, he suggested that to begin at the beginning — at the moment when Islam arrived on the European continent — enables us to appreciate how the use and abuse of history transformed objective contingency into subjective inevitability; how, in other words, two 8th–century events of parochial significance — the Battle of Poitiers in 732 and the martyrdom of the Roland in 778 at Roncevaux — became macro–historical confrontations.
Islam came to Europe on horseback in 711, a mere 79 years after the death of the Prophet Mohammad. The rock of Gibraltar, Jebel Tariq or “Tariq’s Mountain,” bears the name of the Berber commander, Tariq ibn Ziyad, who led 7,000 Berber horsemen and infantry across the Iberian Peninsula, from the port of Ceuta to Algeciras. Visigothic Hispania imploded with bewildering speed and the Jews of Seville, Cordoba, and Toledo — fiercely persecuted by Visigothic aristocracy — assisted the Muslims in securing those cities. Tariq and his people came to stay for almost 800 years, but to speak of this moment as the moment of confrontation between Islamic civilization and Christian Europe would be a historical anachronism.
Why? Because there were no “Europeans”— the term itself did not yet exist. Arabs ruled the peninsula until the end of the 15th century, and for much of that time, Islam in Al–Andalus (Muslim Spain) was generally religiously tolerant, technologically innovative, and economically robust. The Quranic injunction that there should be no compulsion in religion was especially honored in Al–Andalus. From this policy flowed the fabled convivencia, an era of storied tolerance and mutuality in which Muslims, Christians, and Jews enjoyed a civilized coexistence that might have served as a model for the Continent. To be sure, it was not social equality that distinguished the convivencia, but tolerance secured by restrictions. Non–Muslims were not allowed to erect new houses of worship or repair old ones, nor were Christians and Jews to hold public religious processions, pray too loudly, or proselytize. Sumptuary laws required the display of badges and that dhimmi clothing be distinguishable from that worn by Muslims. The bearing of arms was forbidden.
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Launch Event of Conference Report of Bridging the Divide Between the United States and the Muslim World through Arts and Ideas: Possibilities and Limitations.
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