Source: Qantara
Lewis Gropp reviews a documentary that shines the spotlight on two 12th century philosophers – one Muslim, one Jewish – whose messages of positive coexistence resonate very strongly even today, refuting the “Clash of Civilizations” theory
Out of Córdoba is a documentary film about the greatest but least known chapter in European history: Muslim Spain. For almost 800 years, vast swathes of the Iberian Peninsula were under Muslim control.
Al-Andalus, as Moorish Spain was known, is to this day viewed as an era marked by tolerance, with Jews, Christians and Muslims living for the most part peacefully together under the banner ofconvivencia (coexistence). Córdoba was the capital in a region that represented a leading cultural and economic centre – of both the Mediterranean and the Muslim world as a whole.
Invoking the tolerant spirit of Al-Andalus: The Cathedral and former Great Mosque of Córdoba, the ‘Mezquita-Catedral’In Out of Córdoba, which was released last year, Jewish-American filmmaker Jacob Bender counters the idea of the clash of civilisations by invoking the tolerant spirit of Córdoba and tracing the life stories of two 12th century philosophers: the Jewish Maimonides and the Muslim Ibn Rushd.
As Bender explains at the start of his film, following the terror attacks on his home city of New York, he felt the need to discover new hope and idealism as a way of refuting the clash theory.
Retracing history in the spirit of Ibn Rushd and Maimonides and, to a certain extent, Bender’s own pilgrimage of hope, shows that tolerance and free thought – historically and today – can help bridge even the most entrenched divides.
Categories: CHRISTIANITY, Documentary or movie, Islam, Judaism, Muslim Heritage, Religion and Science