- Paperback: 112 pages
- Publisher: OUP USA; New Ed edition (4 April 1996)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0195102835
- ISBN-13: 978-0195102833
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 13.6 x 0.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 886,820 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Bernard Lewis uses the year 1492, a year laden with epic events and riven by political debate, to explore the clash between the Jews, Christendom, and Islam, as well as that between the New World and the Old.
About the Author
Bernard Lewis is Cleveland E. Dodge Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Emeritus, at Princeton University. His many books include The Shaping of the Modern Middle East, Islam and the West, Race and Slavery in the Middle East, and The Muslim Discovery of Europe.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
FOR MOST AMERICANS and Europeans, as well as many others who learned history from American or European teachers or textbooks, 1492 was chiefly memorable as the year in which Columbus discovered America. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
FOR MOST AMERICANS and Europeans, as well as many others who learned history from American or European teachers or textbooks, 1492 was chiefly memorable as the year in which Columbus discovered America. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was surprised by the small size of this book, yet it is quite impresive in scope. Bernard Lewis illustrates how the 1490's were historically significant for reasons other than just Columbus' discoveries in the New World. Although there is little room here for a great deal of detail, the book is impressive in the perspective that it provides.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
6 reviews
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Islamic Civilization outflanked
27 Jan 2003
Format:Paperback
Bernard Lewis the world's leading authorities on the Middle East discusses the eclipse of the Middle East in their last three centuries in power and how their decline is still felt to this day. For many centuries, the world of Islam was in the forefront of human achievement--the foremost military and economic power in the world, the leader in the arts and sciences of civilization. Christian Europe, a remote land beyond its northwestern frontier, was seen as an outer darkness of barbarism and unbelief from which there was nothing to learn or to fear. And then everything changed, as the previously despised West won victory after victory, first in the battlefield and the marketplace, then in almost every aspect of public and even private life. In his three essays Conquest, Expulsion, Discovery he examines how the Islamic world was transgressed from conquers to conquered. Lewis bases the expansion on three significant areas weaponry; education and navigation.
The Europeans gained significant advances in the field of weaponry; with the discovery of gun powder in the Far East. The Christian traders bypassed the middle east and bought this product home where it was adapted to deadly fire arms.
In 1492 the Spanish monarchs captured Granada, the last Muslim stronghold on the peninsula, and also expelled the Jews. The Jews got with them the knowledge of printing; but the rulers fearful of desecration allowed the Jews to publish books in any language except Arabic. This caused a significant regression in the transfer of knowledge to the masses; which the West took the maximum gain of.
Navigation was a major contributor for the economic development of Europe. The European ships were built for the Atlantic and were therefore bigger and stronger than those of the Muslims , built for the Mediterranean. The muslims also had the Atlantic coastline along Morocco. One obvious answer for the absence of Atlantic faring muslim ships were for the lack of ports on the Atlantic and also Morocco had the Atlantic to them selves in comparison the Europeans had to compete with one another. The sea faring enabled the West to gain the riches from America and colonize it.
Islamic civilization was eventually overshadowed by the achievements of European Christendom, and much of the Muslim world came under the direct or indirect domination of the West.
15 of 18 people found the following review helpful
A great intro or primer to Islamic Studies
11 April 2005
Format:Paperback
This booklet (a compilation of three speeches given by the author) is a fast and easy read about the state of 3 world cultures (Islam, Jewdaism, Christianity) around 1492 (especially as seen in the Iberian peninsula - Spain, and subsequent world exploration).
It is a great intro (primer) to understanding how the Christian, Muslim and Jewish cultures affected each other and evolved in the late 15th century and into the 16th century. The analysis of how advanced the Muslim culture was and why it stopped advancing and making significant discoveries post-1492 is the gem of this treatise.
Bernard Lewis, a widely read British historian and a Near Eastern Studies Emeritus professor at Princeton University, has written over 20 books about the Muslim world and history of Islam.
I would recommend this for anyone wanting to understand the historical context of the start of deterioration and decline of Muslim influence on world events, and the stagnation of Muslim technical and cultural advancements.
The author's conclusion is that today's cultural divide between the West and the Islam world are grounded in the historical, cultural, and social developments of late 15th century. This book offers very little if any religious theological analysis.
It is a great intro (primer) to understanding how the Christian, Muslim and Jewish cultures affected each other and evolved in the late 15th century and into the 16th century. The analysis of how advanced the Muslim culture was and why it stopped advancing and making significant discoveries post-1492 is the gem of this treatise.
Bernard Lewis, a widely read British historian and a Near Eastern Studies Emeritus professor at Princeton University, has written over 20 books about the Muslim world and history of Islam.
I would recommend this for anyone wanting to understand the historical context of the start of deterioration and decline of Muslim influence on world events, and the stagnation of Muslim technical and cultural advancements.
The author's conclusion is that today's cultural divide between the West and the Islam world are grounded in the historical, cultural, and social developments of late 15th century. This book offers very little if any religious theological analysis.
17 of 21 people found the following review helpful
A good, but brief, look at 1492.
14 Jan 2001
Format:Paperback
Having heard Lewis described as both "the" expert on the Middle East, and a stooge for the Turkish government, I was a little hesitant to start reading this book. I was pleasantly surprised by Lewis' look at the "other" important events contemporaneous with Columbus' 1942 discoveries. This is a tiny book, actually the transcript of a lecture series, easily read in a day. Lewis takes a different perspective in looking at the history of the time, much of which will already be familiar, and the pivotal nature of the events of the late 1400's, of which the discovery of the New World was but one.
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