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Rating: 
Summary: Islamic Civilization outflanked
Review: Bernard Lewis the world's leading authorities on the Middle East discusses the eclipse of the Middle East in their last three centuries in power and how their decline is still felt to this day. For many centuries, the world of Islam was in the forefront of human achievement--the foremost military and economic power in the world, the leader in the arts and sciences of civilization. Christian Europe, a remote land beyond its northwestern frontier, was seen as an outer darkness of barbarism and unbelief from which there was nothing to learn or to fear. And then everything changed, as the previously despised West won victory after victory, first in the battlefield and the marketplace, then in almost every aspect of public and even private life. In his three essays Conquest, Expulsion, Discovery he examines how the Islamic world was transgressed from conquers to conquered. Lewis bases the expansion on three significant areas weaponry; education and navigation. The Europeans gained significant advances in the field of weaponry; with the discovery of gun powder in the Far East. The Christian traders bypassed the middle east and bought this product home where it was adapted to deadly fire arms. In 1492 the Spanish monarchs captured Granada, the last Muslim stronghold on the peninsula, and also expelled the Jews. The Jews got with them the knowledge of printing; but the rulers fearful of desecration allowed the Jews to publish books in any language except Arabic. This caused a significant regression in the transfer of knowledge to the masses; which the West took the maximum gain of. Navigation was a major contributor for the economic development of Europe. The European ships were built for the Atlantic and were therefore bigger and stronger than those of the Muslims , built for the Mediterranean. The muslims also had the Atlantic coastline along Morocco. One obvious answer for the absence of Atlantic faring muslim ships were for the lack of ports on the Atlantic and also Morocco had the Atlantic to them selves in comparison the Europeans had to compete with one another. The sea faring enabled the West to gain the riches from America and colonize it. Islamic civilization was eventually overshadowed by the achievements of European Christendom, and much of the Muslim world came under the direct or indirect domination of the West.
Rating:
Summary: Islamic Civilization outflanked
Review: Bernard Lewis the world's leading authorities on the Middle East discusses the eclipse of the Middle East in their last three centuries in power and how their decline is still felt to this day. For many centuries, the world of Islam was in the forefront of human achievement--the foremost military and economic power in the world, the leader in the arts and sciences of civilization. Christian Europe, a remote land beyond its northwestern frontier, was seen as an outer darkness of barbarism and unbelief from which there was nothing to learn or to fear. And then everything changed, as the previously despised West won victory after victory, first in the battlefield and the marketplace, then in almost every aspect of public and even private life. In his three essays Conquest, Expulsion, Discovery he examines how the Islamic world was transgressed from conquers to conquered. Lewis bases the expansion on three significant areas weaponry; education and navigation. The Europeans gained significant advances in the field of weaponry; with the discovery of gun powder in the Far East. The Christian traders bypassed the middle east and bought this product home where it was adapted to deadly fire arms. In 1492 the Spanish monarchs captured Granada, the last Muslim stronghold on the peninsula, and also expelled the Jews. The Jews got with them the knowledge of printing; but the rulers fearful of desecration allowed the Jews to publish books in any language except Arabic. This caused a significant regression in the transfer of knowledge to the masses; which the West took the maximum gain of. Navigation was a major contributor for the economic development of Europe. The European ships were built for the Atlantic and were therefore bigger and stronger than those of the Muslims , built for the Mediterranean. The muslims also had the Atlantic coastline along Morocco. One obvious answer for the absence of Atlantic faring muslim ships were for the lack of ports on the Atlantic and also Morocco had the Atlantic to them selves in comparison the Europeans had to compete with one another. The sea faring enabled the West to gain the riches from America and colonize it. Islamic civilization was eventually overshadowed by the achievements of European Christendom, and much of the Muslim world came under the direct or indirect domination of the West.
Rating:
Summary: A good, but brief, look at 1492.
Review: Having heard Lewis described as both "the" expert on the Middle East, and a stooge for the Turkish government, I was a little hesitant to start reading this book. I was pleasantly surprised by Lewis' look at the "other" important events contemporaneous with Columbus' 1942 discoveries. This is a tiny book, actually the transcript of a lecture series, easily read in a day. Lewis takes a different perspective in looking at the history of the time, much of which will already be familiar, and the pivotal nature of the events of the late 1400's, of which the discovery of the New World was but one.
Rating:
Summary: A good, but brief, look at 1492.
Review: Having heard Lewis described as both "the" expert on the Middle East, and a stooge for the Turkish government, I was a little hesitant to start reading this book. I was pleasantly surprised by Lewis' look at the "other" important events contemporaneous with Columbus' 1942 discoveries. This is a tiny book, actually the transcript of a lecture series, easily read in a day. Lewis takes a different perspective in looking at the history of the time, much of which will already be familiar, and the pivotal nature of the events of the late 1400's, of which the discovery of the New World was but one.
Rating: 
Summary: TITLE PROMISES MORE THAN IT DELIVERS
Review: IVE READ SEVERAL OF LEWIS' BOOKS, AND CONCUR THAT HE IS A LEGITIMATE SCHOLAR, AND HAS A LOT TO SAY ON THE SUBJECT OF THE HISTORICAL BASIS FOR THE PRESENT DAY MALAISE AMONG MUSLIMS. THAT SAID, HOWEVER, I WAS SOMEWHAT DISAPPOINTED BY THIS BOOK. FIRST: ITS SMALL SIZE - IT IS ACTUALLY MORE A TRACT THAN A BOOK PER SE. SECONDLY: ITS CONTENT - I'VE FOUND MUCH REDUNDANCY IN LEWIS' RECENT WRITINGS. SO MUCH SO, THAT IT SEEMS THAT HE (OR HIS PUBLISHER) IS MERELY REPACKAGING THE SAME PRODUCT TIME AND AGAIN TO APPEAL TO DIFFERENT AUDIENCES. PERSONALLY, ALTHOUGH LEWIS IS A WORTHWHILE AUTHOR, I DONT THINK THIS PARTICULAR BOOK IS WORTH THE $12 PRICE TAG. IF IT WERE HALF THAT, I SUPPOSE IT MAY BE A WORTHWHILE (THOUGH BRIEF) READ. FOR THOSE WHO WISH TO BENEFIT FROM LEWIS' VAST KNOWLEDGE OF THE HISTORY OF ISLAM, I RECOMMEND TWO BOOKS: "WHAT WENT WRONG" A WELL WRITTEN TREATISE ON THE ROOTS OF CONTEMPORARY MUSLIM DISCONTENT (WHICH, BY THE WAY IS THE ROOT OF EXTREMISM); AND "THE MIDDLE EAST - A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE LAST 2.000 YEARS" A SOMEWHAT SCHOLARLY, BUT WORTHWHILE READ.
THE TITLE OF THE LITTLE BOOK FOR WHICH THIS REVIEW IS WRITTEN PROMISES MORE THAN IT DELIVERS.
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