IN preparations for our upcoming trip to Spain and Portugal, my wife and I watched an excellent Channel 4 documentary, “When the Moors Ruled in Europe” on YouTube. This documentary is not based on selective or distorted history but it uses the latest archaeological analysis by historians and intellectuals to present a fair and unbiased history of Andalusia, Spain. I urge everyone and specially our youths to watch this documentary to glimpse the history and learn some lessons from it.

When Europe was in the dark age, Islamic civilisation was at its peak. The Muslims ruled Spain for almost 700 years and introduced astronomy, chemistry, algebra and Arabic numerals to Europe. The remnants of their archaeological brilliance are evident in Granada, Cordoba and the entire Andalusia.

The documentary then details the fall of Muslim Spain. It tells us about a massive ethnic cleansing when thousands of Muslims were forcefully converted to Christianity, almost a million books in Arabic were destroyed and thousands of Muslims were expelled from Spain. The cause of Muslims’ decline, as expressed in the documentary, was that the Muslim rulers spent all their resources on arts and luxury and neglected defence and lost the edge.

How Christian Europe learnt from their enemies and exploited their knowledge to begin the Renaissance of Europe is also discussed in the documentary.

I appeal to young Muslims to read history and think about what we were and what we have become. Perhaps, the answer lies in this documentary. We were brilliant when we patronised knowledge and science.

Naseem Khan

North Carolina, US

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2017