The Muslim Discovery of Europe Paperback – January 1, 2000

Lewis is one of the world's leading scholars of Islamic history. In this book, he presents a thoughtful and scholarly overview of Muslim travelers, students, envoys and others who wrote about their experiences and opinions of western Europe. This book explains a lot about the Muslim approach to the "dar al harb," (literally, the "world of war"), i.e., the world of the "unbelievers." Anyone concerned about the contemporary "clash of cultures" between Muslims and the West will get a lot of useful information from this history.

This is not an easy read, but Professor Bernard Lewis is a skilled writer. The book is divided into various disciplines; culture, science, language, government, etc., and spans approximately 1000 years of contact between the Muslim east (Persia, Ottoman Turkey, Arabia, Mughal India) and the European west.It is not written chronologically, as other reviewers have commented, but this didn't bother me, personally. Prof. Lewis gives real insight into a variety of Islamic views of the west. I could not ignore that for the majority of the 1000 years covered, there was just as much intolerance and arrogance exhibited by Muslims as there was by Westerners. I was hoping to find a few more positive sketches of the historical contact between east and west.Prof. Lewis writes with skill and an authoriatative voice, and I saw no reason to believe that his conclusions were false or misleading. Many of the numerous sources he uses are amazing as well. A great book that offers a fresh view of Western history and Westerners, as well as Muslim history. It is also difficult to not apply what is read here to the current world situation. A great book.

I had trouble maintaining my concentration and interest with this book. Despite the fact that the author has broken the book up into "theme" chapters, such as "Muslim Scholarship About The West," "Government And Justice," "Science And Technology," etc., the book suffers from a lack of focus. Mr. Lewis keeps jumping back and forth, within the space of a few sentences, in both time (from about 700-1900 A.D.) and space (from Morocco across to Iran). He seems to have just gathered together a lot of material and pretty much jumbled it together. It doesn't really come together, and I found the structure disconcerting and even annoying. Another problem is that the author includes too many excerpts from first person accounts, which results in whatever narrative flow the book does have being disrupted even further. There is too much repetition- the author makes the same points over and over and includes four quotations when one or two would suffice. The book merits three stars because if you have the patience to sift through all of the material, you will be rewarded with some nuggets. For example, in the section dealing with economics, Mr. Lewis mentions that coffee and sugar both originated, commercially speaking, in Muslim countries, but these same countries wound up importing both items (because of lower prices) from the Central American and Caribbean colonies of Western European countries; in the section on religion, the author explains that Muslims had a difficult time understanding the concept of a Pope, especially that a man could forgive sins, as in Islam there is no such hierarchy as exists in the Catholic Church, and only God can forgive sins; in the chapter entitled "Social And Personal" the author quotes a disgusted Muslim regarding European personal hygiene: "You shall see none more filthy than they...They do not cleanse or bathe themselves more than once or twice a year, and then in cold water, and they do not wash their garments from the time they put them on until they fall to pieces. They shave their beards, and after shaving they sprout only a revolting stubble." Some of the excerpts are enlightening, some funny, and some sad (because they demonstrate the prejudice, intolerance, and lack of understanding that runs in both directions- and certainly gives us reason to ponder what the future holds in store). Again, though, there is just too much data here which is put together in a slapdash fashion. Mr. Lewis had a basic idea which could have resulted in an excellent book. Too bad the end result didn't fulfill the original promise.

Very informative, enjoyable read.

Book can be a bit dryt but the topic is fascinating, Gives the reader some insight into why some things in the middle east are the way that they are.

Professor Lewis` s books are a joy to read and this is no exception. The book shows the muslim reaction to different aspects of Christian civilization.