900 Years - The Spirit of Al-Andalus

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What can we describe to you is Al-Andalus and its extraordinary spirit, history, character and its immense contribution to the development of modern civilisation? Al-Andalus or Spanish Islam represented an idea, a period, an epoc of great cultural sophistication, intellectual, scientific, civil and religious achievement, for over eight centuries, by the Muslims of Al-Andalus. It represented a golden age, not only in the history of Islam, but is described by a Spanish Christian historian, as no less than “a goldern age of humanity”. Although almost entirely absent from Western academia, this eight hundred year period of Islamic rule and nine hundred year presence in Spain, their knowledge and achievements, lead directly to the Renaissance and Enlightenment in Europe, and directly contributed to the achievements of modern Europe as we recognise it today. We cannot begin to underestimate the influence and impact Spanish Islam had on Western civilisation, which before the knowledge of the Muslims, was described as the ‘dark ages’. A period characterised by one-thousand years of ethnic and religious intolerance and persecution, as Shaykh Hamza Yusuf describes, was a period when:

“Christianity ruled Europe with its iron hand, knowledge was not promoted and when it was it was only promoted amongst the priestly class, common people were not allowed to learn. The standard of living was never promoted, the early Christians in Europe believed that, among other things, taking a bath was ungodly, that it was better to be an ascetic” (900 years: Reviving the Spirit of Andalusia )