Book Review
Islam and Europe
God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215
By David Levering Lewis
W.W. North, New York, 2008
ISBN 0393064727
437 pp.
$29.95 (Member $26.95)
Reviewed by LCDR Youssef H. Aboul-Enein, USN
The beginning of 2008 saw the publication of an important work that takes a realistic look at the influence of Islam on Western Europe. Pulitzer Prize winning scholar David Levering Lewis has written a serious 437-page work that cuts through the sound bites and mythology of the Crusades. It provides significant background on how Muslim armies spread the faith and Islam came to dominate the Iberian Peninsula in Europe for centuries.
Lewis’ book, God’s Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570–1215, explores the resentment and fragmentation of Christian sects toward authorities in Byzantium. This internecine warfare among Christians is an important backdrop in understanding the spread of Islam in Europe.
When the Muslims first came into the Levant, they left many Christians in charge of their own affairs, leaving behind a token Muslim force. It is these factors, along with Muslim military prowess, that led to the lightening success of Muslim armies so that by 711 Common Era, fewer than eight decades after the Prophet Muhammad’s death, Muslim armies had reached Spain. Concrete examples of Muslim tolerance at that time are recounted. Islamist militants today and al-Qaeda affiliates suppress these relevant details of the tolerant nature of early Islamic history.
Other chapters peel away mythology and focus on the historical conditions that led to the Muslim success in the conquest of Spain and Portugal. This included Spanish Visigoth tribes divided among them, some of whom offered Muslims booty to act as surrogates in fighting rebellious dukes. Christian Visigoth dukes led by King Roderick, despite having a much larger force than the Muslim military commander Tariq Bin Ziyad, were no match for innovative Muslim tactics.
To quote a passage from the book, “Arab warfare was a lethal choreography of stunning speed and maneuver—karr wa farr—furious attack and withdrawal—in which initiative and improvisation were encouraged.” The Visigoths on the other hand maneuvered in mass from fixed positions. Visigoth pride and unwillingness to compromise greatly undermined the unity of their oligarchy against an external threat. The conquests of Tariq Bin Ziyad would lead to the Muslims remaining in Spain for seven centuries. Perhaps the most enduring legacy of Muslim Spain was the preservation of Greek and Roman classics and the advancement of human knowledge on the continent, while the rest of Europe succumbed to the Dark Ages.
The book also discusses the cohabitation of faiths in 9th century Baghdad as well as 12th century Spain that advanced human understanding and would sow the seeds of the Renaissance. The final chapter covers how this mass transmission of knowledge traveled from east to west, as Europeans rediscovered their history through works written by Muslim philosophers who left commentaries behind on the works of Western philosophers, such as Aristotle.
God’s Crucible is a thought-provoking read for those wanting to delve deep into the realities and complexities of Middle Eastern and early European history. Marines who have an understanding of the region’s history can better interact with local, tribal, and military leaders. This book also exposes the pseudointellectual nature of al-Qaeda’s ideology, which oversimplifies Islamic history and its relations with the West.
>Editor’s Note: The author wishes to thank his colleague, LCDR Margaret Read, MSC, USN, for her edits and comments that enhanced this review.
>LCDR Aboul-Enein is a Middle East counterterrorism analyst and is a prolific writer of reviews and essays on Islamist militancy and Middle East affairs. He is selected for promotion to commander.
