Global cultural exchange Free Essay Example, 1250 words

I will consider as comparison subjects the following aspects of cultural exchange: religion, scholarship, art and architecture and trade; as an outcome, I will determine which of these aspects has been the best means of cultural exchange. The territories on the Iberian Peninsula, also corresponding to modern Spain, have been under the rule of the Moors from 711 until 1492, a fact that has had a great impact upon its culture and civilization. The Moors took over the centralized kingdom of the Visigoths, who were fully Romanized and Christianized by that time. ii Spain, also known as Al-Andalus, represented a portal through which the Islamic culture influenced arts, sciences and literature in Europe. In Levant, cultural interaction was facilitated by the Crusades and the existence of the Byzantine Empire, which represented a very powerful cultural entity at the time. First of all, I would like to talk about the religious aspect of cultural exchange. Muslims never tried to impose their religion on the local Christian population, because they were generally outnumbered by it. Since the Christian religion was monotheistic, Muslims were more tolerant towards its adepts. This is why, Christians were granted certain autonomy, within the Islamic law, to practice their religion, in exchange for tribute. We will write a custom essay sample on Global cultural exchange or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now Still, over the years, the laws became harsher, including regulations that prevented Christians from building new churches or repairing the old ones, as well as wearing the same clothes as the Muslims. These laws tried to isolate Muslims from Christians, in order to protect them from the danger of religious contamination. (Wolf). However, cultural exchange became possible in an area outside religion, which concerned the absolute truth and dealt with matters of logic and philosophy. As opposed to the Christian religion, Islam was much more understanding and open minded towards ancient writings. Therefore, in the development of the Islamic thought, scholars belonging to this civilization studied ancient science, mathematics, medicine, translating the works of Aristotle, Archimedes, Galen, Ptolemy, and Euclid into Arab. Al-Andalus became a scholastic center, which influenced European thought is a tremendous manner; for example, Gerard of Cremona considered himself a student of the Arabic science; he studied the works of Ptolemy and translated Avicenna from Arabic into Latin; his translations were very beneficial to the European scholars at the time and â€Å"prepared the way for that conflict of ideas out of which sprang the Scholasticism of the thirteenth century† (Turner).