Medieval Islam: A Study in Cultural Orientation

Medieval Islam: grew out of a series of public lectures delivered in the spring of 1945 at the University of Chicago. The book aims to outline the cultural orientation of the Muslim Middle Ages, with eastern Islam as the centre of attention. It attempts to characterize the medieval Muslim's view of himself and his peculiarly defined universe, the fundamental intellectual and emotional attitude that governed his works and the mood in which he lived his life. It strives to explain the structure of his universe in terms of inherited, borrowed and original elements, the institutional framework within which it functioned, and its place in relation to the contemporary Christian world. The plan of this book rules out the narration of political history beyond the barest skeleton, but requires the ascertaining of the exact position of Islam in the medieval world and its significance. This plan also excludes a study of Muslim economy, but it leads to an interpretation of the social structure as molded by the prime loyalties cherished by the Muslim. The Muslim approach to scholarship and literature is investigated, but the individual result attained by the Muslim scholar or writer, however important in the history of science or poetry, is touched upon only inasmuch as it documents a cultural trait not otherwise traced. In this context the structure-of-thought is regarded as more important than the particular ideas and the limitations of poetical ambition as significant as the successful poem. The Muslim scale of values become patent through the analysis of the supreme purpose of his existence rather than through the detailing of individual value-judgments. In the second edition, the opportunity has been seized to correct a number of misprints as well as errors. The chapters cover: 1-Islam in the Medieval World: The Mood of the Times; 2-Islam in the Medieval world: Christendom and Islam; 3-The Religious Foundation: Revelation; 4-The Religious Foundation: Piety; 5-The Body Politic: Law and the State; 6-The Body Politic: The Social Order; 7-The Human Ideal; 8-Self-Expression: Literature and History; 9-Creative Borrowing: Greece and the 'Arabian Nights'; 10-Conclusion.