Bernard Lewis 'Clash Of Civilizations'

Bernard Lewis made the argument that there is a grand struggle between the Middle East and the West. He argued that there is a unified west vs east. Huntington wrote of an Islamic world which is opposed to the Western World. There are many problems with this argument. The first problem is how diverse and widespread the Islamic world is. It is difficult to speak for the Islamic world as a whole as it is located in places from Africa all the way to Indonesia. The Umma, the Arabic name for the Islamic World is a wide world. The Clash of Civilizations is not an accurate historical argument. Before refuting the Clash of Civilizations argument, it’s best to explain the theory of the Clash of Civilizations. Lewis says that the conflict between the

Islam was influenced by the three major empires surrounding the Middle East: Ethiopia, Byzantium, and the Sassanid Empire. Muhammad is called the Prophet because he said that the Angel Gabriel visited him and gave him the revelations that would become the Holy Book of the Quran. Family and friends of Muhammad were the first ones to convert. Islam was spread by the sword and by its ideas. The Prophet Muhammad died in year 632 CE but his religion did not die with him. At the time of his death Islam had spread all across the Arabian Peninsula. It continued to spread through the Middle East and went beyond to Asia, Africa, and

They let Christians and Jews keep their religion but “they had to pay higher taxes than Muslims, but in return they maintained local autonomy under the leadership of their clergy” This kept these people from rebelling against the empire. But “without the empire’s economic prosperity, none of this tolerance (rare at the time anywhere in the world) would have developed. Imperial territory stretched from Spain along the North African coast, through the eastern Mediterranean basin, the Middle East, Central Asia, and northwest India.” This tolerance would not have had been as easily administered if they Abbasids were not economically successful. Trade and commerce is how such a large empire kept together. The tolerance also helped reduce dissent from these religious