عرض هذه الصفحة "Your Comments on Chapter III, The Age of Pope."

[Ms. Sumaiyah Turkistani]

انقر فوق http://groups.google.com.sa/group/643-islam-in-western-literature/web/your-comments-on-chapter-iii-the-age-of-pope
- أو قم بنسخها ولصقها في شريط عنوان المتصفح الخاص بك إذا لم يفلح ذلك.

[Dr. Rajih Almughamsi]

Thanks Sumayyah for the page and happy to know you are fine. Will all
the students, please, feel free to express their views abput the
assignment. I have delayed the publishing of presentations to see your
comments. Next week comments will come earlier than Friday so that on
Friday we publish the presentations. Thanks

[Nuha B.]

Hello Dr. Rajih and all my classmates,
I apologize for posting this so late and will try to make it the first
and last time this happens.
The second chapter of this book was interesting in many ways. We
noticed how many of the misconceptions continued to persist but also
how some of the negative and blind hatred towards Muslims and Islam
was being challenged in some ways.
When reading the first half I was struck by the fact that the same
negative propaganda against Islam and Muslims was still flourishing.
The venomous and vicious writings about Mohammed (PBUH) were also
thriving and some were not only blatantly hateful but also
contradictory. Which can be noticed in the writings of Pierre Bayle (P.
69) when he says that Khadija (May God have mercy on her) supported
and helped the Prophet (PBUH) but then claims that the Prophet had no
female followers because the “severity” of his religion towards women
made him fear trying to engage them in it. This does not make any
sense and the only reason I can think of for it to be written is that
they wanted to cram as many negative aspects as possible and if they
were contradictory or did not make sense, so be it.
It can also be noticed that throughout the age but particularly in the
first half, most of the times anything positive was said about Muslims
(when not written anonymously), it was said about the particular
traits of Muslims or Muslim countries, and not Islam itself. Also, in
the plays, I noticed that some of the plays only felt comfortable
writing about Muslims if there was no direct mention of Islam. This
fear they have of ever saying anything positive about Islam only
serves to highlight their hatred and also kind of indicates that they
felt threatened by Islam and its teachings.
Although negative representations of Islam and Muslims persisted, the
main difference in this age was the anonymous writings that defended
Islam and Muslims. Which was a start, even though it was probably not
widely accepted.
It seems that although some people stubbornly held on to their
ignorance and hatred, there were a few people who were willing to look
deeper into Islam and try to look it at impartially. And that is what
I believe the past and present have in common. Because this is where I
feel they remained; between the people who want to be politically
correct and non-judgmental, and the ones who will never back down from
their long held prejudices and misconceptions, no matter what is
written and what is said.

On 6 نوفمبر, 14:31, "Ms. Sumaiyah Turkistani" <t.sumai...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> انقر فوقhttp://groups.google.com.sa/group/643-islam-in-western-literature/web...

[Iman Sh]

Reading the age of Pope, one can notice that the image of Muslims were
corrected in some certain aspects, but their view about the prophet
was the old one, the imposter.
During the age of Pope, the west has tackled issues such as the
Islamic culture, the social life of Muslims and the wisdom of Islam.
However, their observations and judgments were not objective although
some of them claimed to be objective and studied Islam from Arabic
sources for that sake, but when we read their arguments we feel that
they were interested to study Islam and the Muslim culture to prove
their previous conceptions.
I say the writings which deal with the life of the prophet and his
character fall into two groups, some depend on the old legends and
others reflect the self- contradiction of their authors.
An example of the self-contradiction is what Sale said about the
prophet" He was a man of tolerable morals, and so much a monster of
wickedness "
Concerning polygamy, Sale said that " possession of number of wives
does not necessarily prove that Muhammad was a wicked man and
impostor" For we must remember that polygamy was " frequently
practiced in Arabia….and was not counted an immortality "

In the works of the travelers, the writers talked about the
antiquities of the East, the dress and the environment of the native
people, the animals and the plants of oriental countries. However, the
religion of the Muslims comes for incidental mention. They praise
Muslims' devotion to their religion , their equal justice and their
hospitality, but there was no account of the prophet.
Here we can see another example of elf-contradiction and ignorance
when Mandurell admires the devotion of Muslims to theri religion and
at the same time he accuses them of hypocracy for practicing their
religion in public. But Smith clarifies that was not evidence of
hypocracy.
.. Also, Lady Mary whose letters show that she has little knowledge
of Islam.
Joseph Pitts, who was forced to convert into Islam by an Algerian
pirates, holds the conventional view about Muhammad as the imposter.
But he admired the religious devotion of the Muslims. He tells us
about his journey to Makkah and Madinah. In his journey to Makkah, he
admired the devotion of the pilgrims, however he described them
negatively as "poor creatures" and their worship as " superstition".
In his visit to Madina , he made notes about Muhammad's tomb to
contradict the old legends.
He also described positively the conditions of the slaves as being
well treated and unwilling to be ransomed.
Generally, I like Smith's positive attitude in defending Islam in some
points such as when he said the Mary's theology was fault. She said
that women in Islam will not remain widows ten days, but he quoted
form Koran the correct information that widow is not allowed to marry
until a period of 4 months and 10 days.
When Maundrell said " Muslims are hypocrite because they pray in
public", Smith accuses him of not understanding that these practices
are not evidence of hypocrisy.
Concerning the works of Arabic scholars, Simon Ockley wrote the
history of Islam from Arabic sources, but his study was not objective.
He failed to realize the impact of the prophet's charcter on Muslims,
but he did justice to Omar and Ali.
He begins his history with the words "Muhammad the impostor" and he
calls the religion of Islam "superstition".
George Sale, the translator of the Quran, he said that Muhammad is
impostor and Islam is false religion. But Smith accused Sale of
missing the poetic beauty in his translation of the Koran.
We can say the writings which deal with the life of the prophet and
his character fall into two groups:
First, works in which the old legends and the old spirit of hostility
is evident, such as A complete History of the Turks by David Jones
which is worthless.
Second, works which had an attempt to look at Muhammad in more
favorable light such as Bayle's article on Muhammad which contains
self-contradictions. For example, he said that "Khadijah went from
house to house to tell the people about Muhammad's prophesy…then he
says that he was not supported by women".
writers translated and imitated the oriental tales.These oriental
tales became very famous because of the moralistic tendency of the age
which helped in flourishing didactic literature.
Some of the miscellaneous allusions to Islam appeared in this ages,
such as
in the Third Earl of Shaftesbury, the author claims that Islam
prohibits Muslims from learning other than learning the holy Koran.
Generally, the dramatists repeated the old themes. Islam and Muhammad
were portrayed in the same way as in the previous centuries. Two plays
were positive in their representation of Arabs ( Thomson's Edward and
Eleanora and Hughe's Siege of Damascus) . Arabs were portrayed
sympathetically in these two plays.
On the other hand, we see Voltire's Muhammad which portrayed Muhammad
as imposter and tyrant in order to bait the clergy with picture of
religious hypocrisy.
Finally, I can say the age of Pope still considers Muhammad as
impostor.

[Riham Alam]

Dear Dr. and friends,
If we want to compare the age of Pope with the previous age, we
might notice a slight change. There are somehow signs of improvements
though still filled with imperfections. Indeed, the West was greatly
influenced by the Eastern society in everything. They were almost
fascinated with everything that has an oriental signature on it. The
Arabic literature was so rich which made the West quote and translate
a lot from the Eastern knowledge. In fact, most of the famous works
that were written were based on Arabic origins. We can proudly say
that the Western tree of knowledge has grown by Eastern seeds.
The West was triggered by everything they saw. They've examined
everything with great admiration. They drew paintings, wrote books,
and jotted their impressions in diaries and letters. The questions
are: Did they portray a positive or a negative image? Did they help in
spreading Islam or not? Were they accurate in describing Islam? Was
Muhammad still an imposter in their mentality? Did they convey a
shallow or deep understanding about Islamic laws and principles? This
is what we are going to discover tomorrow Inshallah.
Sincerely, Riham

[rama]

Salam everyone

After reading chapter 3, my attention got drawn to a point that didn't
concern me in the first two chapters; which is the fast look at the
political situation in the Islamic world. Then I realized that the
author's purpose to start each chapter with this way might be to show
how strong or weak Islam was which could be represented in the
condition of the Islamic states, so that we (the readers) can know how
the others perceived Islam at that particular period.
Later on when Smith wanted to give an account of how Islam was looked
at by the Westerners, he started off with the mention of Lady Mary's
letter to her friend, telling her about the women's condition in the
Islamic world, which related to how they thought of women in the
previous chapter. Also, the author included this account first in a
way to prepare the readers that a great majority of the information
that the West had of Islam & Muslims was based to a certain extent on
"the word of mouth, or women's gossip", not on systematic and
scientific grounds. After that he listed the authors who related to
Islam in their writings and after a notion of each author's point of
view, Smith gave glimpses of the faulty ideas that those writers made.
Actually the method that Smith employed to comment & reply to those
misperceptions seems objective & fair to me. He used straightforward
economic language to show what is the right idea of the formerly
discussed issues. Honestly, his way to defend Islam made me think that
he might turn to be Muslim himself, due to my sense that he admired
Islam.
On the other hand, the thing that provoked my restlessness is how some
writers, that Smith included in his account, still accused the prophet
(pbuh) of being an imposter at the same time of admiring some aspects
of Islam, but this proves that the Christians & Jews won't approve of
prophet Muhammad (pbuh) till he follows their methods. But at least in
this chapter we have a group of writers who wrote in a more favorable
way about the prophet (pbuh).
The other thing that made me wonder, is the constant mention of the
Arabian Nights, during the chapter, then I remembered that so many
Westerners built their ideas of the Arab World on this work even till
recent past years.
Some issues here were also discussed in the previous chapters, which
are the translation of Qur'an, the Night Journey, Islam was spread by
sword, and the themes of the plays. But at the end I return to say
that in this chapter we have some positive aspects of Islam that the
West admitted them during that period of time, and may be we will see
more of this positive side in the coming chapters.

On 6 نوفمبر, 14:31, "Ms. Sumaiyah Turkistani" <t.sumai...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> انقر فوقhttp://groups.google.com.sa/group/643-islam-in-western-literature/web...

[Jehan Al-Maghamsi]

On reading the second chapter, we see the effect of the travels and
trade in the Muslim world on the misconceptions and prejudices against
Islam. Though they still persist on considering the Prophet as an
impostor and Islam as a wrong religion, the translation of the Arabian
Nights gave a new light for the public to view the East as the lands
of wisdom and magic. We also see the change in the view of Muslim
women as they now have souls contrary to what was believed in the
Restoration period.

Except for the oriental taste that kept flourishing in the drama and
literature of this age, nothing has changed in the exhibit of Muslims
characters and moralities but in the theology of this time, a huge
difference shows in the thinking of the theologians who published
anonymously to defend Islam and Muhammad (PBUH). I think that this
slight but very important change in thinking is attributed to the
cease of Turkey's threat on Western countries and the beginnings of
trade in there which gave people a chance to get to know Islam and its
people and to see for themselves the lies and accusations against
Muslims proved false. These writings would be a great influence in the
coming ages with more liberal minds to think clearly on the subject of
Islam.

[Mona Al-khidaidy]

There has been always an interest in reading the Holy Quraan by the
Westerns because whenever they want to know more about anything, e.g.
Islam, they read about it or sometimes they want to read the original
source of this religion. Sometimes, they don’t get fascinated by
reading the translated text because I think English language is so
poor comparing to Arabic and usually the translation isn’t very
accurate. What amaze me the most is that some scholars and
orientalists who read the Holy Quraan in Arabic and yet they don’t get
fascinated. We all know that the Quraan is the miracle in Islam, so I
am wondering why those scholars and oreintalists don’t convert to
Islam when after reading this miracle?
It is true to notice that there is a slight change in this age, and
the observations of the travelers and the translation of the Arabian
Nights are main sources about the East and people's life. There is
also an interest in women and their conditions and lives in the East.
Some writers wrote about the geography of the East and all aspects of
its environment, which I think is very interesting. Another positive
attitude is how the devotion of pilgrims amaze the Westerns, and yet
they still describe prophet Mohamed as an impostor.

[Ebtehal AlHemayani]

Hello everyone,
I hope you are all fine.
I truely believe that each age is better that the age it precedes.
Maybe it is due to the fact that life and connections with the other
parts of the world become easier and more comfortable. As an evidence
to that, the travellers and their letters convey somehow a more
correct image of Islam and Muslims. I think that the image of Islam
among travellers and the litrary comunity differs. The image of Islam
in the letters of the travellers tend to be more objective and most
litrary writers do not take sides when dealing with this religion that
has been corrupted by the hands of the westerners. I believe that the
anonumous writers were brave enough to talk about the truth as it
really was in a world where a nice word about Islam was scarcely
written.
Dr. Rahjih, I did add you on my Skype account but you seem that you do
not want to accept my invitation :)
Take Care and see you tomorrow :)