Word: islam
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Holy Land" [Aug. 4], you survey the religious significance of Jerusalem to Judaism, Christianity and Islam. You might have mentioned that Jews the world over have been praying for and toward Jerusalem for 2,000 years, thrice daily; Moslems face five times daily toward their holiest site-Mecca. For Christians, Nazareth and Bethlehem have been destinations of pilgrims. For the Jew the world over, only Jerusalem remains as the sole center of his religion...
...Latin kingdom founded by the Crusaders lasted scarcely a century. Recaptured by the Saracen King Saladin in 1187, Jerusalem remained in Moslem hands, except for a brief 15-year Christian reconquest, until World War I. The long sleep under Islam brought little peace, however, as Moslems battled for Jerusalem among themselves. The Saracens were soon overthrown by their Egyptian slave guards, the Mamelukes. The Mamelukes were in turn driven out by the Ottoman Turks, who captured the Holy City in 1517 and ruled it for 400 years. Though Christians were allowed to return to the city, a dispute between Greek...
...Islam, their reasons may be as much emotional and fiscal as religious: last year Jordan's tourist income amounted to more than $35 million-most of it coming from Christians visiting the Old City. Israel's position is equally tough. "Jerusalem is not negotiable," says an aide to Premier Levi Eshkol. At most, the Israelis might agree to internationalization of non-Jewish shrines in the Old City-a solution favored by many Christian leaders...
...mere destroyers, the fighters under the banners of Islam set up garrisons and developed a high culture. The world owes to them algebra, trigonometry, many chemical compounds, pioneering work in astronomy, medicine and horticulture. Yet missing in Arab science was any true sense of creativity; despite its technical inventions, it regarded knowledge more as a matter of gathering the known than exploring the unknown...
...Arabs' empire failed because they lacked the skill of political synthesis. In conquered territory, Arab rulers hewed to the Koran and tended to let the conquered govern themselves. Mohammed designated no successor (caliph); his squabbling heirs split Islam into rival sects. For a time, independent Moslem states retained Mohammed's vigor. While Europe slept, great Arab universities flourished in Cordova, Baghdad and Cairo; in Spain, the Arab philosopher Averroes revitalized Aristotle. After the death of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid in 809, the Baghdad caliphate plunged into civil war; in succeeding centuries, marauding Mongols poured into the Arab...