Both articles require subscription Toward a clear vision of ‘Islamic’ art ‘Islamic’ culture: a groundless myth Related Claim: Europe’s great cathedrals owe much to muslim craftsmen. The claim that Europe's great cathedrals owe much to Muslim craftsmen is historically accurate and well-supported by architectural evidence, historical records, and recent research . Architectural historians, such as Diana Darke in her books Stealing from the Saracens and Islamesque , demonstrate that crucial engineering features and master stonemasons from the Islamic world fundamentally shaped Romanesque and Gothic architecture. [1, 2, 3, 4] Core Architectural Features Derived from Islam Many of the definitive elements seen in iconic Christian cathedrals were originally invented, tested, or perfected in the Islamic world: [5, 6, 7] The Pointed Arch : Essential to Gothic height. It was used in the 7th-century Dome of the Rock in Jerusal...
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.” —Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilisation and the Remaking of the World Order, 1996, p. 51