The jihad was a sacred mission enjoined by scripture and incorporated into the holy law, to continue until all the world was open to the light of Islam. The crusade was a human enterprise, not enjoined--some might rather say forbidden--by Christian scripture, and undertaken for a limited purpose, to defend, or, where lost, to recover Christian territories.
Bernard Lewis, 'Europe and Islam' in From Babel to Dragomans, 2004.
2 comments:
Bernard Lewis is one of the foremost scholars of this subject.
Christians will freely condemn and apologize the Crusades.
Muslims should be invited to describe the muslim conquests of Persia, North Africa, Spain, etc. as imperialism.
A-D
Agreed. I think Lewis comes to this from a bery objective point of view, as a Jew--not a Christian OR a Muslim.
Post a Comment