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"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."
I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.
well ...Thanks guys , gave me sumthing great 2 read abt :) meaning wow ! spain seems 2 be the only country which survived their onslaught and lived to tell the tale :) in spanish
There were quite a few differences between the Spanish and others (such as in North Africa) that made the difference.
Spain was not wholly conquered, there were always free Spanish areas outside of the control of the Emir(s), so Spaniards within Islamic Spain were in contact with Spaniards in the Christian areas.
Spain is also separated from North Africa by water, and part of continental Europe. The Catholic institutions were strong and cohesive. Hispania was a thoroughly Romanized province prior to Germanic and Islamic conquest, and had a relatively advanced, homogeneous culture.
The Spanish assimilated quite a bit of Arab culture (not to the point of being Arabized), however, things that come to mind include the guitar and the word 'el', which are really very minor.
The fact that the Muslims were generally tolerant in this era combined with the factors mentioned above and more, as well as their obstinacy, contributed to the Spanish surviving intact culturally and linguistically, in addition to their religion.
"Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."
Wow! That was some brief...Excellent job.
One question accrued to me. Since there was so many turbulent events and some violent culture, if not civilization, mixing, the main middle eastern question is identity by my humble opinion. They are all similar but not the same. How well do those people know the truth about their true origin? Does it matter now? I was watching that movie a dozen times and I'm trying to figure out how things are moving. There is definitely the action-reaction pattern of events. Also since there was so many conflicts and overlaps, it is certain that the nations and people of middle east know themselves very well. Than there is no wonder why religions such as Christianity and Islam,as unifying factor appeared there. There is a connection rule "unity by the religion" where enslaved nation seeks to gather its strength to fight for freedom but once freedom is achieved it crumbles down from the inside due to inner conflicts and bias. The problem with Israel was that it was somehow kicked out of middle east and "now" it got back, taking the land from the ones that lived there for centuries. When there is so many conquests trough out the history, land gets almost a sacral position in the mentality of one nation. That is why they are fighting so fiercely over few miles of territory. I think that the long term solution would be, trying to connect middle east trough some other way other than religion.
It will be hard since every time when change came to those areas it came violently in form of some conquest and oppression. That lead to the creation of rigid mentality that doesn't accept changes easily. That rigidness leads to the creation of elites that are uber rigid, usually formed in a shape of some totalitarian type of rule. That monolithic structure is preserved, almost fossilized till today. When that thing goes into the mentality it is almost impossible to change anything.
I don't know this is my first impression when I saw 5000 years in 30 seconds. I'll write more later.
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