The View from the Edge.

Cultures in Conflict is an elegantly written essay based on the author's numerous previous lectures focusing on the multiple anniversaries of 1492. However, in addition to its penetrating historical analyses and thoughtful comparisons, it also contains some updated political comments which, although by no means baseless, nevertheless seem rather exaggerated and one-sided.

From an historical point of view, the author calls the reader's attention to the close relationship among the three major events of 1492: Columbus' discovery of America, the Christian conquest of Granada, the last outpost of Muslim power in the Iberian Peninsula, and the expulsion of the Jews a few months later from all of Spain. Particularly strong connections existed between the already long and multiple-level European struggle with Islam and the geographical discoveries of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries which would be extremely important and which in some way might be seen as its outcomes and continuities.

As the author reminds us, as early as the late Thirteenth Century, when the re-conquest of the Iberian peninsula, although already in progress, was still far from completed, Ramon Lhill, one of the leading Christian authorities on Islam at the time, argued that when the recovery of Spain was completed, it would be necessary to carry the war beyond the Straits of Gibraltar to the other side (p. 58). Spanish, Portuguese and, on the other side of Europe, Muscovite rulers, by driving the Muslims out of Iberia and Russia had won a great battle, but they had not yet won the war. The long drawn-out "holy" struggle between Christianity and Islam now simply continued on a much vaster scale. At least originally, the explorers and conquistadors searched not only for gold and spices, but perhaps even more for other Christians and allies in the ongoing confrontation between these two monotheistic religions. As Professor Lewis points out: "Columbus, too, was looking for Christians and spices and also for Priest John ... symbolically, he found them all and much more" (p. 73).

It was the discovery of America which, far more than the simultaneous conquest of Granada, in the long run ensured the triumph of Europe over its enemies, providing it with the riches of gold, silver, all sorts of natural resources and enormous immigration outlets, the role of which would soon grow immensely. What was probably no less important, it contributed decisively to the "breaking of intellectual molds and the fleeing of the human mind and spirit" out of the inherited frameworks of narrow traditions (ibid.).

However, all those and numerous other splendid achievements did not come without an enormous price which was largely paid by the peoples and continents that were undergoing the process of subjugation. Professor Lewis does not deny that, but his compassion and the moral indignation in which he describes the fate of Jewish refugees from Spain is here apparently in rather short supply. In fact he is much more concerned about the symptoms of Western repentance and feelings of guilt, which he considers as "corrosive and destructive and ... the deepest and most characteristic flaw of our Western civilization" (p. 75). He also attacks some forms of multiculturalism as a way of presenting "an idealized and sometimes invented version of other cultures and contrasting them with a demonized parody of the West" (pp. 76-77). He seems to be deeply concerned about the future of present-day American world hegemony, the enemies of which "cannot kill, but ... might lend a hand in an assisted suicide if certain trends discernible in American society reach that point" (p. 77). In an apparently pessimistic mood, he even suggests that: "It may be that Western culture will indeed go. The lack of conviction of many of those who should be its defenders and the passionate intensity of its accusers may well join to complete its destruction" (p. 79). Particularly in light of the events of the last decade, including the collapse of the Soviet challenge and the emergence of a truly global economy, which is staunchly controlled by the great capitalist centers, his misgivings seem quite exaggerated and show his political sympathy rather than scholarly research and insight. As Professor Lewis admits himself, despite all its problems, U.S. domination "still faces no serious competitor, no viable alternative" (p. 77).

One of the most valuable aspects of this essay is its stress on both the unique historical contribution of Western civilization and its shared inheritance with Islam. In marked contrast to the exponents of the civilizations of India or China, both Islam and Christendom essentially "drew on common sources: the science and philosophy of Greece, the law and governments of Rome, the ethical monotheism of Judea, and, beyond all of them, the deeply rooted cultures of the ancient Middle East" (p. 14). Also in the medieval period "Christians and Muslims around the Mediterranean could find a common language in both the figurative and the literal senses .... They could argue, if only to disagree" (Ibid.). The full implementation of the positive values of modern Western and Westernized cultures which the author especially appreciates: "the special combination of unconstrained curiosity concerning the Other and unforced respect for his otherness" (p. 78) might help to build on those common premises and aid in introducing us not to the clash of civilizations anticipated by Samuel Huntington, but to their better understanding and fruitful cooperation. In spite of his apparent political bias, Professor Lewis' work, with its fascinating historical horizon and abundance of information, is an important contribution in this direction and should be indispensable reading for any thoughtful student of contemporary cultural and political confrontations and dilemmas.

Richard Bulliet's Islam is a fascinating effort by one of the most distinguished medieval historians of Islam to provide us with a new revisionist account of the historical evolution of Islamic society, while, at the same time, demonstrating the importance for the contemporary world of the retelling of the development of the past. In Bulliet's view the present Islamic world's processes and transformations have many analogies with those of the past and largely correspond to the general patterns of its previous evolution. In fact, Professor Bulliet abandons the habit which is typical of most students of viewing Islamic history "from the center." These views concentrate on the rise and fall of dominant political authorities and their efforts to subjugate the submitting population. Instead, he wants to approach the subject from the edges - from a civil society point of view - trying to find out how and why Islam became, and continues to be, so deeply rooted among its numerous populations, without, or even despite the political decisions of their rulers. As he writes, "the edge of Islamic history exists wherever people make the decision to cross a social boundary and join the Muslim community, either through religious conversion, or under modern conditions through nominal Muslims rededicating themselves to Islam as the touchstone of their social identity, or recasting their Muslim identities in a modern urban context" (p. 91). These people quite naturally have always wanted, and still want now, to ask about their new or newly rediscovered faith and its meaning and importance for their daily lives and problems. During its first centuries Islamic society "formed itself at the edges through an iterative process of question and answer" (p. 180). As time went on, the character and qualifications of the figures that were trusted to give reliable responses to religious questions changed, but the basic pattern did not change.

Largely because of that, the impetus for change in Islam has more often originated "from the bottom than from the top, from the edges than from the center" (p. 195). The impact of this process was even stronger because, in marked contrast to Judaism and Christianity, Islam has never developed more formal congregational and ecclesiastical structures. The fact that individual Muslims were, and still remain, free to choose their religious mentors and exemplars consequently became one of the main reasons for the difference between Jewish and Christian reactions to the advance of "modernity" and the current Islamic reaction (p. 197).

In his historical analysis Bulliet argues that Islamic society in its original period between the Eighth and Tenth Centuries contained strongly competing loci of leadership and a diverse array of religious leaders. The predominant leadership of Ulema did not emerge at once. Also, only from the Twelfth Century to the Fourteen Century did communal religious institutions and practices, mainly of Iranian origin, spread throughout the other parts of the Islamic world, leading to a recentering through institutional and doctrinal homogenization (p. 179). The forms which then became almost universally accepted proved to be unusually stable and made "Middle Eastern Islamic society of the Ottoman and Safavid period one of the most successful social syntheses in world history" (p. 180). However, the picture of normative, centered Sunnism of the post-Mongol period inspired by them: "the essential and unalterable embodiment of the faith as it had been prefigured in the days of the Prophet himself" (p. 194) was an apparent mistake. The system has been elaborated over time as a result of a largely spontaneous evolution from the edges based on numerous local societies of Muslims which were able and willing to find their own ways and their own leaders who were chosen freely because of their charismatic features and/or learning. The final forms were outcomes of numerous adjustments and compromises and corresponded to the general desire to belong to a great community and a widely felt need to be together.

In the author's view the preset-day situation is, in fact, quite similar. According to the author, the roots of the seemingly sudden and unexpected emergence of Islam as a political force in the last quarter for the Twentieth Century lay in the new social edges of the Umma: edges created by massive rural-urban migration and by the secular state education systems of the post-World War II period. The generation of young students, who in the Muslim world entered the state school systems in the 1950s and 1960s, became a new edge. These people had little education in religious matters, but were generally aware of their long and once powerful Islamic tradition. It took them only a very short time to start to ask: "What does it mean to be Muslim in the modern world? What can I take from the historical culture of Islam that will enhance my life?" (p. 200). More often than not the answers which seemed plausible to them were provided not by the teachings of the traditional figures, but rather by new assertive thinkers such as Ali Shariati, Mahmud Muhammad Jaha, Sayyid Qutb or Hassan al-Jurabi, who in many respects deviated from the traditional ways and who were passionately absorbed by the challenges of modernity facing them. A second edge was formed by villagers who had migrated to cities and who, after surviving the shock of social and cultural adaptation, looked for help and direction to religious leaders who were willing and able to see and understand the problems of the underprivileged. In the cases of both edges, the prospect of confrontation with inherited socio-religious cliches and even more so with the predominant Western influences was sooner or later inevitable. Consequently, Professor Bulliet maintains that the complexity and potential of today's Islamic renaissance may be perceived as a "contest among three parties: secular, modernizing governments, ulama and lay people dedicated to the norms of recentered Sunnism, and of similarly normative Shi'ism, and new Islamic organizations developing along the social edges" (p. 189). In his view their struggles within the Islamic world will almost certainly intensify in the years to come and there is no sufficient reason to believe that any formulation which is currently applauded will prove convincing or workable in the long run (p. 207). But although "the final shape of modern Islam is still too distant to discern," in the final outcome "a new Islamic synthesis will be achieved." He optimistically believes that: "We are living through one of the greatest periods of intellectual and religious creativity in Islamic - and human history" and human history is still far from ended (Ibid).

Professor Bulliet's monograph is remarkably well-documented and highly stimulating. He probably rather exaggerates the shared role of questions and answers in Islamic history and does not sufficiently appreciate the substantial sociopolitical and religious differences among the various geographical regions and historical periods. From this point of view, the gap between the situation of Islamic societies in the medieval period and the present is probably much greater than he is willing to suggest. The whole problem obviously needs fresh and much more complex research and analysis and several particular issues included by the author will probably find new explanations and understanding. However, this does not diminish the real value of his ground-breaking work; some of his perceptive insights and approaches are, and will remain, most useful and valuable for further studies, not only of Islam but also of much broader issues of past and present human experience. Not just Islam, but many other religious and socio-political movements have always had, and still have now, their boundaries, but their impact on and relations with the centers have unfortunately been very little notice and analyzed.

Andrej Kreutz is a professor at the University of Lodz, Poland.