BBC Documentary - An Arab Islamic History of Europe

[Aamna14]

Since people take religion way too seriously in our part of the world, people should watch what they say. Even if they have legitimate criticism.

Its not about just taking seriously i honestly have lived in Karachi with non Muslims mostly Hindus and Christians i remember during Ramadan they wouldn't eat things in the premise to show their respect to us and for that i really hold them in high regard its just about being tolerant i have known non Muslims too thats a minority also half of my family is shia so again a minority with some clashes it just takes mutual respect and tolerance. Anyways this isn't the thread for that.

 

[al-Hasani]

@Aamna14 point taken and thank you for the explanation.

Anyway to return to the topic then I am glad that you can watch it now and I can only recommend it. It might be 1 hour and 30 minutes long but it is worth it. The Somalian host is really good. I always liked him since his days at Al-Jazeera and other TV stations.

 

[AlpErTunga]

@Aamna14 point taken and thank you for the explanation.

Anyway to return to the topic then I am glad that you can watch it now and I can only recommend it. It might be 1 hour and 30 minutes long but it is worth it. The Somalian host is really good. I always liked him since his days at Al-Jazeera and other TV stations.

I think it is a documentary serial and its 3rd episode is on the road on BBC4. Am I wrong?

 

[al-Hasani]

I think it is a documentary serial and its 3rd episode is on the road on BBC4. Am I wrong?

I am not sure bro. So can't answer you that. Wish I could answer that question since I myself would be interested to see more parts of that documentary if there are more parts. But I think that the one documentary I posted in this thread does not have a second or third part.

But I would be really interested to know what kind of BBC documentary series this clip was from.

That little clip is part of a wider serious of Islam in East Asia I think

 

[AlpErTunga]

edit: It was broadcastED in 3 episodes on BBC4 in 2009, and we watch all of it on your video @al-Hasani.

 

[al-Hasani]

edit: It was broadcastED in 3 episodes on BBC4 in 2009, and we watch all of it on your video @al-Hasani.

Thank you my friend.

I thought so.

Do you know which part of a BCC documentary (or series) this clip below is?

I think it deals with Islam in Far East Asia. But I am not sure.

@Wholegrain ( ) how are you my friend? Hope everything is well and good.


The journalist is the Oxford-educated Arabist Tim Mackintosh-Smith that is an expert on Yemen and its ancient civilizations. He lives in Yemen, in the ancient capital Sana'a which is one of the oldest cities in the world and located at nearly 2500 meters above sea level.

Tim Mackintosh-Smith - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

He is the British journalist speaking with those Chinese people of Arab descent in that video.

 

[AlpErTunga]

Thank you my friend.

I thought so.

Do you know which part of a BCC documentary (or series) this clip below is?

I think it deals with Islam in Far East Asia. But I am not sure.

@Wholegrain ( ) how are you my friend? Hope everything is well and good.


The journalist is the Oxford-educated Arabist Tim Mackintosh-Smith that is an expert on Yemen and its ancient civilizations. He lives in Yemen, in the ancient capital Sana'a which is one of the oldest cities in the world and located at nearly 2500 meters above sea level.

Tim Mackintosh-Smith - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

He is the British journalist speaking with those Chinese people of Arab descent in that video.

This documentary should be "Ibn Battuta: The Man who Walked Across The World"???????? What is written under the video on youtube in Arabic? @al-Hasani

 

[al-Hasani]

This documentary should be "Ibn Battuta: The Man who Walked Across The World"???????? What is written under the video on youtube in Arabic? @al-Hasani

But I have watched that documentary series about Ibn Batutta and I don't recall that scene in that documentary so I don't believe that this is the documentary. There are many false titles around Youtube. I know what it says but I already made a search and found no full documentary on Youtube. Try yourself.

I made a thread about that months ago.

Chinese Arab people

I remember another BBC documentary series about Islam in Far East Asia, where Ibn Battuta was only mentioned briefly, but I don't remember the title of that documentary. I believe that the clip above is from that documentary but I am not sure.

 

[al-Hasani]

 

[al-Hasani]

Medieval Sicilian music inspired by Arabic music.

Those World UNESCO Heritage Sites found in Spain below (the country with the third most World Heritage Sites in the world with 44 in total) have Islamic/Arab heritage or partial Islamic/Arab heritage:
Historic Walled Town of Cuenca



Historic Centre of Córdoba



Alhambra, Generalife and Albayzín

Old Town of Ávila with its Extra-Muros Churches

Mudéjar Architecture of Aragon



Historic City of Toledo



Old City of Salamanca



Cathedral, Alcázar and Archivo de Indias in Seville



Old Town of Cáceres



Palmeral of Elche (biggest palm grove in Europe - planted originally by the Semitic Phoneicians but Arabs expanded it)



List of World Heritage Sites in Spain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That is 10 world heritage sites (!).

The most famous Arab/Islamic heritage in Spain/most visited heritage site is Alhambra: Even the name is Arabic obviously and it means "The Red Castle".

 

[al-Hasani]

The Palermo Cathedral which was partially built by Arabs and once was a mosque​

​

It's mostly a mixture of Arab-Norman architecture. Also Byzantine architecture obviously. Quite something I have to admit. A World UNESCO Heritage Site as well.

Arab-Norman Palermo and the cathedral churches of Cefalù’ and Monreale
​

Description

COORDINATES

Palermo:

- Palazzo dei Normanni: 38°06'39N 13°21'11E

- Cappella Palatina: 38°06'39N 13°21'13E

- Church of San Giovanni degli Eremiti: 38°06'35N 13°21'17E

- Church of Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio: 38°06'53N 13°21'46E

- Church of San Cataldo: 38°06'53N 13°21'45E

- Cathedral of Palermo: 38°06'51N 13°21'21E

- The Zisa Palace: 38°07'00N 13°20'29E

- The Cuba Palace: 38°06'29N 13°20'35E

Cefalù:

- Cathedral: 38°02'24N 14°01'24E

Monreale:

- Cathedral: 38°04'55N 13°17'32E


DESCRITPION

The site denominated 'Arab-Norman Palermo and the cathedral churches of Cefalù and Monreale' is a collection of monuments with a decorative apparatus of mosaics, paintings and sculptures that resulted from a socio-cultural syncretism which, during the period of Norman domination (1071-1194), gave birth to an extraordinary artistic and architectural heritage of outstanding value.

Historic, geographic, political and cultural contingencies brought about an extremely unusual concentration of syncretisms on this site, generated by heterogeneous elements as they combined. The individual buildings we are putting forward are not merely an ensemble but a "stratum": the typical socio-cultural world of a place and a time, preserved in the memory of the stones and bricks of the buildings, and in the tesserae of the mosaics with which they are decorated.

From the Greek colonisation to the Unification of Italy, the history of Sicily has been marked by an uninterrupted succession of rulers who came from the greatest imaginable variety of other cultures, each of whom left behind their own physical traces that built up the incredible stratification that now gives this island its character. Other parts of Italy, too, were affected by the same periods of domination which, in a wider sense, also extended to cover an area that includes all the Mediterranean countries, but Sicily was especially influenced by the Islamic conquest (827-1091) and later by the ways in which the Norman domination of 1071-1194 was conjoined to it, and that led to the emergence of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multilingual culture in whose architectural and artistic expressions we observe its two components, the Western and the Islamic, admirably fused together - without forgetting that there was also a third Byzantine component.

The elements in the group. The group consists of ten buildings that strongly represent "Arab-Norman" cultural syncretism between the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The components we have selected as the group are based on their excellent state of conservation (and this is one exceptional case in which buildings of the period have not degraded to the level of archaeology) and on the particular variations of the "syncretic" style that each of them assumed. In fact whilst each building is part of an organic whole, they individually assume unique characteristics that in each case are conjugated in new, different ways, each reflecting autonomously on the cultural traditions of this place, from the Islamic to the Byzantine, the Roman, and the Latin.

Of the ten buildings identified and which establish the configuration of the area as a whole, eight lie within the city of Palermo; the others are in the nearby cities of Monreale and Cefalù.

The ancient name for the fulcrum of Arab-Norman Palermo was Panormos (the "all-port" city), founded by the Phoenicians in 734 BC. Never subdued by the Greeks, it was conquered by the Romans in 254 BC. The ancient Panormos consisted of two fortified nuclei: Paleopolis (the older of the two) and Neapolis. They were built on a rocky peninsula bounded by two now-vanished rivers, the Kemonia and the Papireto, which formed a deep, well protected natural harbour where they joined the sea.

Under the Arab domination (9th-11th centuries AD), Panormoswas greatly expanded to become the principal urban centre of Sicily, one of the most important emporiums in the Mediterranean. Arab chroniclers have left us descriptions of a legendary oriental city richly filled with mosques, sumptuous palaces, and crowded markets piled high with valuable merchandise: a place comparable in size and splendour to Cordoba or Cairo, and reputed to number more than three hundred thousand inhabitants. Some signs of that Arab period are still visible in Palermo, particularly in its urban fabric, which still preserves some Islamic components. But very little remains of the buildings: only a few parts that survive because they were incorporated into Norman buildings. After the Normans conquered the city in 1071 they made Palermo an important place for trade and contact between the Byzantine East, Muslim Africa, and the Christian West. Amalgamating diverse artistic tendencies, they developed an original architecture known as Arab-Norman, in which Arabic architectural compositions, methods for constructing roofs, and decorative motifs of Islamic origin are combined with the rational equilibrium of Byzantine planning or the severity of Romanesque building. On the site of the ancient Paleapolis, the old castrum of the Aghlabid era (9th century) was enlarged and equipped with towers and transformed into a palace worthy of its new rulers: Palazzo dei Normanni. On flat land behind it, stretching as far the first slopes of the hills, the Normans established a complex system of parks (the Genoardo), dotted with palaces such as the Zisa and the Cuba and with pavilions, fountains, and fishponds. The whole city became a vast construction site, in an aim to reinforce the authority of the crown and its alliance with the cathedra of the bishop. Physical evidence of this activity is apparent in the numerous religious buildings of the period, most notably San Giovanni degli Eremiti, San Cataldo, the Cathedral, and Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio ("La Martorana"). Each of these is the product of a unique combination of heterogeneous elements. Assisted by Muslim, Byzantine, and Latin craftsmen, an extraordinary cultural, artistic, and architectural synthesis was able to flourish at this time, of which the highest expression is the Cappella Palatina.

Under the House of Anjou (1266-1282) Palermo entered a period of decline but then under the House of Aragon (1282-1513) there were ambitious building programmes and a general reorganisation of the urban structures was undertaken. Later in the baroque period, Palermo again underwent profound transformation; palaces, churches, monasteries, and oratories all flourished in a period of new construction that was intended to glorify those in power. After the city passed to the Bourbons in 1734, eventually becoming Italian in 1860, there was a neoclassical phase followed by an especially rich period of new Art Nouveau building. But even though Palermo experienced this highly articulated urban and architectural development from the Middle Ages onwards, it was above all the Arab-Norman phase that gave the city its basic configuration and equipped it with a founding ensemble of religious and secular buildings that as a group and a style are unique in the world.

The same historical phases that affected Palermo are also found further east at Cefalù, an indigenous centre that was inhabited in antiquity by the Greeks and was later conquered by the Syracusans and then the Romans. In the Byzantine period the inhabited part of the city was relocated further uphill; during the Arab conquest it was named Gaflundi and incorporated into the Emirate of Palermo, and then in Norman times the inhabited part moved back down to the shoreline, where it reconnected with the pre-existing urban structure. Cefalù's most important buildings date from that time, of which the most outstanding is the Cathedral and its cloister, founded by Roger II as a place of burial for himself and his successors. In the interior of the basilica, the timber roof bears traces of pictorial decorations by Islamic craftsmen; the extraordinary mosaic decoration of the chancel walls, and the great middle apse with its imposing figure of Christ Pantocrator, are Byzantine.

Monreale is of Norman origin, if we exclude an earlier Arab settlement on the slopes of Mount Caputo. Located about 8 km south-west of Palermo, the whole of Monreale developed around a monastic Cathedral complex built by King William II in 1172 to meet his needs for prestige and security. The Cathedral follows typical Romanesque planning and is characterised by the imposing mosaic decoration of its interior, which is again Byzantine. The exterior is dominated by the quasi-Islamic motif of interlaced arches, and the cloister of the Benedictine convent exhibits a profusion and variety of forms, techniques and decorative motifs derived from various models.

Justification of Outstanding Universal Value

The ensemble of buildings that make up this Arab-Norman itinerary constitute an outstanding and universally valuable example of how diverse cultural components of heterogeneous historical, cultural and geographical provenance coexisted and interacted (cultural syncretism).

This phenomenon generated an original architectural style in which Byzantine, Islamic and Romanesque elements were admirably fused together, and in each case were able to generate unique, remarkably unified combinations of the highest artistic value.

Criteria met i) (ii)(iv)

Criterion (i):

The Byzantine mosaics of Palermo, Cefalù, and Monreale are among the most important and best preserved examples of Komnenian mosaic art. In particular, the mosaics in the Cathedral of Cefalù are a supreme example of mosaic art. The painted wooden muquarnasceiling of the Palatine Chapel in Palermo is an artefact unique in the world; its combination of constructional expertise with the elegance of its forms and decorations mark it out as a masterpiece.

Criterion (ii):

At the time when the Normans were establishing their domain in Sicily, they had no cultural identity of their own to impose. There were already three principal cultural components existing on the island: the Byzantine, later reinforced by the arrival of Graeco-Oriental workers; the strong Arab presence, particularly well rooted inthe artisan classes; and a Latin element that was emerging via the monastic orders and the court. The residential and religious buildings of the period fully reflect this cultural situation.

The particular political and cultural condition generated in Sicily during the Norman kingdom, when peoples from different cultures coexisted (Muslims, Byzantines, Latins, Jews, Lombards, and French), favoured the development of a vibrant period of cultural syncretism that generated, in the arts, a conscious, original combination of architectural elements and artistic techniques taken from the Byzantine tradition, the world of Islam, and western culture.

Criterion (iv):

This original architectural re-elaboration gave rise to a wholly new conception of space and volume and brought about the development of innovative technologies in vaulted roof systems for buildings.

Arab-Norman buildings express the consistent use of an extraordinary artistic syntax, manifested externally in the compact massing of the buildings, in the modulations of the masonry, in hemispherical cupolas, and internally in a characteristic method of constructing the corner junctions of domes, in the mosaic cycles and decorations in opus sectile, and in the frequent use of the muquarnas decorative technique. The conjugation of all these aspects, which is an outstanding example in the medieval architecture of the West, strongly characterises the Norman period in Sicily.

This particular cultural climate also generated a new urban typology: the synergistic realisation of buildings and pavilions within a system of gardens equipped with water pools and fountains (the Genoardo).

This "syncretic" style went on to influence the architectural development of the Tyrrhenian coast of southern Italy.

Statements of authenticity and/or integrity

The authenticity of this "syncretic" character is what gives life to the group of buildings that most completely embody it, which we have denominated 'Arab-Norman Palermo and the cathedral of Monreale and Cefalù' and of which most parts are still in their original configurations, as are also the structural and decorative elements of each building in the group.

The integrity of each building or element in the group, and the group as a whole, is guaranteed by legal measures for the protection of monuments, and is overseen by regional bodies constituted for that purpose. Almost all of the parts of the group that lie within the city boundary of Palermo (except for the Zisa Palace) also fall within the area denominated "Historic Centre" which in turn is protected by specific municipal planning regulations. The sites of both cathedrals at Monreale and Cefalù have legal measures for the protection of landscape.

Finally, a landscape conservation plan is currently in preparation for the territories of Palermo, Monreale and Cefalù.

Comparison with other similar properties

When we compare Arab-Norman architecture, of which the proposed group embodies significant and exemplary testimony, with the architecture of any other aesthetically important setting in medieval western civilisation, it emerges as extremely unique because of how it fuses together different traditions: it is a witness to the crucible of civilisations that was twelfth-century Sicily.

The next section compares the site of 'Arab-Norman Palermo and the cathedral churches of Cefalù and Monreale' with a number of other sites in western culture at which, in a particular historical moment, elements of heterogeneous origin, particularly Islam, were grafted on to a purely autochthonous technological, formal and figurative heritage.

Listed UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

The Mudejar Architecture of Aragon: influenced by the Islamic tradition, Mudejar art was the product of a particular political, social and cultural situation that prevailed in Spain after the Reconquista. But Mudejar art also reflects various contemporary European styles, particularly the Gothic, and could be described as reinterpreting western styles through Islamic influences. But in their general arrangement Mudejar buildings are essentially western; the ornamental Islamic element remains at an epidermic level, only as appearance. This is what principally differentiates it from "Arab-Norman" architecture, which is instead the outcome of fusing together a variety of forms and decorative systems that originate from different sources and creating an original, unified synthesis of three different traditions that is then able to establish its own new artistic expressions and thereby determine the genesis of singular, unique manifestations.

The Alhambra, Granada: this is an exceptionally important instance of fourteenth century Islamic Spanish art. Constructed in the medieval period as an Arab royal residence, it is a priceless Nasrid monument distinguished by the wealth of its decorative apparatus, particularly its sophisticated muqarnas decorations. The same features are also found, albeit in more modest form, in the twelfth century buildings of Palermo, where they sometimes perform a structural function and sometimes a merely decorative one. In the context of western art the Alhambra can be understood as one example of an exotic style in which the architectural element is wholly unified with its decorative and naturalistic features, in accordance with the Islamic concept of the garden, and in Palermo this is also the distinguishing feature of the Genoardo (from the Arabic Jannat-al-ard, heaven on earth): we find the same system of gardens, palaces and pavilions, of which there are various written accounts by Arab travellers and chroniclers of the time. The important buildings and monuments include the Fawar or Maredolce (Fresh Water), the Zisa Palace, the Cuba Palace, the Cuba Soprana and the Piccola Cuba. Another distinguishing feature at the Alhambra is the glazed ceramic tiles (azulejos and alicatados), notable for their virtuous interlaced geometric ornamental forms. In the group of buildings in Palermo we again find Islamic geometric motifs, fused n this case with the Byzantine opus sectile technique. The marble inlays in these Arab-Norman buildings is the outcome of a synergy of different knowledges from different provenances and is in fact the antecedent, in stone, of the ceramic tiles at the Alhambra.

Other places

Elsewhere in southern Italy (in the Cathedral of Salerno and the cloister of the Cathedral of Amalfi) a few other buildings exhibit affinities with the Norman architecture of Sicily, or make use of some elements of the same formal language. But these affinities are not sufficient to imbue them with the complexity and variety of the Arab-Norman architecture of Palermo. They are of a lesser order not only because of the peculiarities of their design but because of their different size, their lesser degree of stylistic affirmation, and the different way in which these phenomena were diffused in those local settings. In any case the Cloister of Paradise at Amalfi (1266-68) refers to a different historic climate.

The complex of the "Arab-Norman" monuments in Palermo, Monreale and Cefalù is an organic whole which at the same time is diverse and multifaceted. Extraordinary of its kind, it represents the highest artistic expression of the Norman kingdom in southern Italy.

Arab-Norman Palermo and the cathedral churches of Cefalù’ and Monreale - UNESCO World Heritage Centre

 

[LordTyrannus]

Spanish people erased all islamic influence in Andalusia. They kept the buildings because they are not of arabic Origin. Such structures were firstly build by Roman Empire and ancient Greece.

Arabs had influence in Mathematics and Alchemy, but that was it. Arabs start to decline in science just at the time when islam arrived and started to conquer Arabian peninsula.

 

[al-Hasani]

@LordTyrannus

Why are you trolling? You are an Russian. You have nothing to do with Southern Europe. You are located much further away from Southern Europe than the Arab world and historically wise you have had much less common ties. Genetically speaking you are an distant entity as well.

There is Arab heritage in every city of Spain and Portugal. 20-25% of all Spanish words have an Arabic origin. Says it all. Nearly 1000 years of rule cannot be erased.

10 World UNESCO Heritage sites in Spain (out of 44) have been built or partially built by Arabs. Your comment is simply utter nonsense.

Medieval Sicilian music inspired by Arabic music.

Those World UNESCO Heritage Sites found in Spain below (the country with the third most World Heritage Sites in the world with 44 in total) have Islamic/Arab heritage or partial Islamic/Arab heritage:
Historic Walled Town of Cuenca



Historic Centre of Córdoba



Alhambra, Generalife and Albayzín

Old Town of Ávila with its Extra-Muros Churches

Mudéjar Architecture of Aragon



Historic City of Toledo



Old City of Salamanca



Cathedral, Alcázar and Archivo de Indias in Seville



Old Town of Cáceres



Palmeral of Elche (biggest palm grove in Europe - planted originally by the Semitic Phoneicians but Arabs expanded it)



List of World Heritage Sites in Spain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That is 10 world heritage sites (!).

The most famous Arab/Islamic heritage in Spain/most visited heritage site is Alhambra: Even the name is Arabic obviously and it means "The Red Castle".

Now don't pollute this thread.

 

[al-Hasani]

Very interesting culinary report about Sicilian cuisine and its big Arab influences among other influences.

Here is an great documentary about Arab Muslim Sicily. It's in French though.

Emirate of Sicily - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

@Arabian Legend @Yzd Khalifa @Full Moon @JUBA @Mahmoud_EGY @burning_phoneix @Bubblegum Crisis @BLACKEAGLE etc. check all of this out. We must not forget all of this and seek education on every field. When we look at our ancestors we see how much wrong there is with the current Muslim world.

@WebMaster @Aeronaut @Jungibaaz @Manticore could you please delete the false troll post (post number 27) that is an attempt of trolling/derailing this excellent thread and based on lies as clearly seen in my reply? He is a well-known Islamophobe.
Wait, here was another Indian Islamophobe disguised as an Brit (post number 30)​

 

[Yzd Khalifa]

The BBC trying to appease to minorities by putting them on a pedestal.

The BBC is trying to unite people across the globe against fascism.