Shared Heritage: West and Islamic World

Every day we hear the media talking about ‘us’ and the Islamic World as if there are two societies with little or nothing in common. Many public commentators seem unaware that both societies developed to a large extent from Roman and Greek roots. Roman and Greek art and architectures laid the foundations for both Islamic and Western creative developments.  Greek philosophy and science was translated into Arabic with the West often learning about these works from Arabic texts.

Join Michele Campopiano of the University of York as he addresses this shared cultural heritage. He will explain how English scholars in the age of the Normans travelled east to learn about the advancements of their Muslim contemporaries. Christian theologians discussed the works of Muslim philosophers and their reflections about God and Religion developed along the same lines as their Arab and Persian contemporaries. Europe and the Islamic World shared legends and myths of the great heroes of Antiquity - Alexander, Caesar and others. As Roman ruins stand in their magnificence in our city of York, so they stood and stand in Syria, Egypt, Libya and other countries in North Africa and the Middle East.

About the speaker

Dr Michele Campopiano is Senior Lecturer in Medieval Latin Literature at the University of York. He has studied and worked in several countries in Europe and the Middle East. He has also published extensively on the history of the Islamic World.