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[rama]

Salam once again.

During this period, I noticed some different views & attitudes towards
the Islamic issues, but still there were some of the old ones among
the writers of the age.
- here we have many books written by those who had been to Muslim
cities.
- Some of those writers or we can say travelers could visit Makkah &
Madina.
- Wilson was the first one to call the prophet peace be upon him
arrogant worm
- de Capell liked the idea of polygamy.
- Higgins was the only one who had a good attitude in his writing
about the prophet.
- In prose writing we have Southey, De Quincey, & Lamb and all of them
were aggressive & faulty in their treatment of the Islamic issues.
- In fiction they still under the influence of The Arabian Nights
which also affected poetry and even drama of the period.
- Besides dealing with the subject of Haram
- we have here another source for stories beside the Arabian Nights,
that is "Qis & Lyla".
- I saw that Lady Byron pitied Muslim women, as if she didn't read
- Julia Pardoe's book, where she expressed her thought that Turkish
women are to be envied rather than pitied.
- Lockhart admired the culture of Muslims in Spain & their tolerance
towards the Christians.
- And generally I can say that the writers of this period hit upon
some new topics & characters relating to Islam, but the majority of
them still had that abusive intention to sabotage the image of Islam
in their readers' minds

Good Luck.

[Riham Alam]

Dear Dr. Rajih and friends,
In chapter five the number of literay works "based on Islamic or
Eastern subjects had increased based on the great expansion of travel
records. The author had provided around 25 names of different
travelers lived in the Near Eastern Coasts. Obviously the number of
travelers had increased for many different reasons. Some travelers had
a pure scientific goal. They were interested in the glory of the
Eastern civilization and were taken by its glamour. Those kind of
travelers carried fair and honest views about Islam and some of them
turned to become Muslims themselves ,otherwise, how were they able to
visit Makkah and Madinah. Another kind of travelers showed great
interest in the East that they changed their identities, names,
clothes and life style just to fit in perfectly. No one knew their
real intentions.
From my readings especially from this chapter, I've became
convinced that all these numerous works carried a hidden goal that
derogate Islam in a way or another. They praise Muslims in certain
aspects and then fill their books with illusions and contradictions
that added more confusion to the reader. William Rae Wilson , for
instance, praised the Muslims at first but then he said that Muslims
are Christian at hearts and that The Quran was filled with
absurdities.
Historical books in this era held the same old negative ideas
about Islam. Some examples are:
Edward Uphan: Muhammad was an imposter.
Anonymous writer: Muhammad was " a monster, voluptuous, ignorant,
ambitious wretch"
William Sime: Muhammad was like the tale of the scorpion that stings
by its false doctrines.
William Cooke Taylor and Charles Forste: Islam is a Christian heresy.
Nevertheless, Godfrey Higgins defended Islam and Muhammad and
refuted most of these charges, but one voice or two were never enough.
The literary works in this era were rich of Eastern subjects and
Islamic materials based on the oriental life, but nothing concerning
Islam itself as a religion to be followed. Most important subjects
that were handled in their prose, poetry and drama were about
polygamy, paradise, Houris, Love, calls of prayers, Ramadan, the
status of women and Islamic virtues and hospitality.
Finally, I'm really impressed with all these lists of works which
served as an encyclopedia for all the works that were dealing with
Islamic matters and I hope that I can dig more in these works and
checkout the thematic goals behind these stories.

[Iman alshehri]

Dear dr.Rajih.

During the Romantic and the Victorian age, I noticed that the works of the travelers increased. The majority of them  visited Makkah, Constantipole, Cairo, Damascus and Jeruslam. For example, James Dallaway's Constantipole, Ancient and Modern  contains much intelligent information about Islam.

We still have self-contradiction as Lamartine in his discussion of islam , he condemns the fatalism of the Moslems, but praises their sincerity of worship, their charity, tolerance and admiration of justice.

 

One of the travellers who visited Makkah is Badia Leblich Who pretended to be a descendant of Abbasids and was moved by seeing men of all nations in Mecca to worship.

Emma Roberts wrote an interesting description of Shi'ite Muslims of India.

The most interesting thing in this age is the tendency to consider Islam as a Christian heresy and Muhammad as imposter or arrogant. And that view was held by many writers such as ; Edward Upham's a History of Ottoman Empire in which he assumes that Mihammas was an imposter.

Charels Forter who believes that Muslims will be converted and through them the rest of the world.

William Rae Wilson who called Muhammad an arrogant and he feels that many Muslims are Christians at heart but fear to confess their faith. And the same view can be seen in William Tylor's History of Muhmmateism and its Sects and in The Revrened Charles Forster's Mahometanism Unveiled.

We can see also the same view about the hardships of fasting Ramadan and of pilgrimage as well as prohibition of wine and gambling in Higgins writings.

In the prose writings of the period , we see some new negative images about Koran. Southey  insulted the Koran by saying it has no affect or wisdom and it contains no beautiful narrative"p.157.

William Taylor  claimed that the unChristian elements in the Koran came from Indian Philosophy.

Richard Robert who had low opinion of Koran" it would be difficult to put together the a greater tissue of puling absurdity"p.139

Higgins takes untenable position that Abubakr and Uthman rewrote the Koran.

Southey claims that the Koran is a Product of Muhammad's mind.

In fiction, There were stories which were influenced by Arabian Nights such as Maria Edgeworth's Murad Unlucky and Isaac Disraeli's Mejnun and Leila, the Arabian petrach and Lura which is based on a pre-Islamic  poem about a lover who became mad and wandered in the desert among wild animals. And Julia Parodes's The Romance of the Harem which was excellent imitation of Arabian Nights.

In poetry, Robert Southey made the most notable contribution on Islamic themes

In Drama, the old plays were replayed as Dryden's Don Sebastian. Another plays were based on Arabian Nights others on more or less on history  such as William Diamond's About Hassan.

Generally, some elements reappeared in the literature of this age as the swearing by the sacred stone of Kaaba, Serjius, Muslim salutation which would not be given to a Christian, the green color as a favourite color, calls for prayers and the picture of Islamic paradise.

[Jehan Al-Maghamsi]

In this new period we see the continued efforts of the travelers to
present their experiences of their travels through the East, always
being the most tolerate in their view of Islam and its followers.
Their records of the Oriental life made the reading public demands
more information
on Islam which encouraged a great expansion in the literary fields to
search and
write about Islam.

Theologians still considered Islam as a Christian heresy but their
definition of
that term has changed to convey a positive attitude towards it. Few
plays and
poems alluded to the old legends about the Prophet Muhammad though the
main two charges are
still against him: ambition and lust which only Higgins is brave
enough to refute: stating
that if these were his goals he would've asked "to be appointed to be
a keeper of the Caaba"
and wouldn't have stayed faithful to Khadijah through their married
life.
He also refuted the belief that he (Peace be upon him) was an
impostor, an accusation
still living through the writings of everyone. However, some has
started to doubt that accusations
because of the details of his life and and the new belief that he has
died a righteous death!

I liked Higgins for the positive attitude towards the Prophet and
hated Robert Southey, who is one big
contradiction with his very insulting opinions concerning the morality
and mentality of the Prophet,
accusing him of being an impostor, yet lacking any talents or
skills!!!

[Ebtehal AlHemayani]

Salam everyone,

Reading this chapter has been a very interesting experience. The picture of Islam has become a little bit much brighter and that is due to the travel records, the Romantic writers, and the reading public. Gibbon's and Sale's writings seem to be alive in this period where variant views about Islam have appeared. What is really interesting to me is those fables about the Prophet's life and death have somehow disappeared. But, still the same ideas about Muhammad being a lusty imposter have continued to represent what the 18th century western Europe  think of the Propher peace be upon him.

--
Hearty wishes,
Ebtehak K. Al-Hemayani

[Mona Al-khidaidy]

Hello everybody
The expansion of literature during this period that was dealing with
Islam means the interest in Islam had become more and it is increasing
every decay. Wither they admit or not, people are always interested in
things that they are better than what they have. So, I think the
Western interest is merely a hidden admiration of a religion and a
system which is lasting for more than a thousand years. However, the
same old accusations about the Prophet as a lusty impostor still
existed in this period and therefore there is no new addition or
development about the ideas that they already have about Islam. Yet,
there are some positive attitudes toward some false ideas about the
Prophet, the false stories about his death disappeared in this
period.
See you all tomorrow
Good Luck

[Nuha B.]

Hello Everyone,
I hope everyone had a enjoyable and productive break. Regarding this
chapter, while there was an effort by some of the writers of this age
to spread tolerance and acceptance towards Islam, they were a select
few. Writers like Julia Pardoe tried to be fair in her descriptions of
Muslims, and Higgens in particular tried to lesson the intolerance
against Muslims and Islam. Yet, the majority still had mostly negative
things to say or write, the term "Impostor" was still used when
referring to Muhammad (PBUH) and the idea that Muslims were
bloodthirsty and obsessed with woman still prevailed.
I also noticed that in some of the writings of this age, in particular
that of Charles Foster, there was an attempt to create a link between
Islam and Christianity by claiming that Islam should be considered "a
humble servant to clear the road for an ultimate Christian
triamph"(152). So it seems that the only way some people could look at
Islam in a relatively positive light is by making it serve
Christianity in one way or another.
Something else that caught my attention was that the fascination with
the East and subsequently the writings that were born out of this
fascination were mostly superficial and for entertainment purposes.
When not making a negative comment about Islam/Muslims or Muhammad
(PBUH), there really was little knowledge imparted in these works
(with a few exceptions).
Some tales and legends stopped being told in this age, but some still
persisted. And the western's obsession and fascination with the idea
of polygamy and the houris still persisted, although the idea that Sir
Arthur Brooks comes up with: that polygamy would be excellent for
England (!) shows that this fixation might be tainted with envy
sometimes.

On 3 ديسمبر, 17:29, rama <to_endles...@hotmail.com> wrote:

[Ms. Sumaiyah Turkistani]

Hello everyone,

Finally, in this chapter, I found the sliver rays that I was waiting
for since long time ago. The Muslim Women; they are no longer marginal
creatures. They have souls and rights. They have a voice among people.
And their wishes are fulfilled at an eye blink. The Western women are
envious of us. They envy us for the respect and the appreciation we
receive from our own society. Yes, we are preserved since we were
young girls and we grew up to be valuable members in the community. We
are the mothers, sisters and daughters. We are the school for the new
coming up generation. We form the sensitive spot of this Muslim
nation. After all these twisted theories, which are repeated from
century to another Julia Pardoe admitted that somehow these western
women desire to be treated like the Muslim Women. But in order to
accomplish that, they paid a mighty price to free themselves from
slavery. And They will keep paying it and no one will notice them. Cos
they are living in darkness and they wont ever be able to see the
light due to their ignorance and arrogance. As for the literary
production, people became interested any every written form about
muslims. Whether it is a poem, prose or a diary or just a trivial
letter, they read it. People of this time have no taste or class in
choosing the material they read. But all the wanted to know was the
Muslim nation that is growing powerful and they know at heart that
someday muslims will out run them in every single aspect of life. That
is why they are so crazy about us.

Wish you all the very best.