Stealing from the Saracens: How Islamic Architecture Shaped Europe

From the Notre Dame and Saint Mark's Cathedrals to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, they're all symbols of the Western world. But according to a new book, Gothic architecture might not be as European as we think. Stealing from the Saracens, How Islamic Architecture Shaped Europe is a book by Diana Dark. The writer traces the origins of the West's greatest buildings back to their Middle Eastern precedents. She says the twin towers, the rose windows and the vaulted ceilings that define Gothic architecture were actually born in the East. Dark adds it was medieval crusaders, pilgrims and merchants who brought these techniques and styles home after encountering Arab Muslim culture. Well, let's talk to Diana Dark who joins us from London. Hi Diana, thank you so much for joining us on Showcase today. So let's start with this. Why did you think that it was necessary to write this book? Because it was clear after the fire at Notre Dame, when there was this great outpouring of sort of national pride in the building, people talking about it as a sense of French identity. I thought, wait a minute, you know, people aren't aren't realizing that actually this building is not as European as people seem to think that an awful lot of its architectural features actually have their origins in the East. So that's why, you know, I put out the day after the fire, I put out a tweet saying Notre Dame's ancestors actually can be traced back to a 5th century church called Kalblauze, which is still standing in Idlib province in Syria. And the reaction was just, I was astonished, because I assumed that more people actually realized this, because I'm not the first person to mention this. I mean, these are theories that other people have had for really quite a long time. So, of course, there'll always be others who dispute it. But actually, now that I've done the full research in the book, I'm perfectly convinced of it, because although people are always producing examples of other buildings with twin towers that they say predate the Crusades, of course, you know, I mean, Kalblauze itself was completed in 490. So, this is a 5th century building on the pilgrimage route to St. Simeon's Dialytus, which is, you know, was in its day, the major pilgrimage shrine in the world. It actually held more worshippers than Notre Dame itself. And until Hagia Sophia was built in what is now Istanbul, it was the biggest church in the whole of the world. So, you know, I thought people knew these things, but it was clear to me that people didn't. So, I thought, okay, well, nobody seems to have done this sort of giant circular jigsaw, was how I began to visualize it. Diana, so you are saying that this is not widely known, or else, I mean, rather accepted, I'd say. Why do you think that is? Do you think that the European world sort of claimed some sort of superiority over the Islamic world, so it's hard to accept for them that they were actually influenced by Islamic culture? That was the other thing behind my motivation, that obviously we live in an age of Islamophobia, and it's becoming difficult for people to accept, if you like, that anything good ever came out of the Middle East, that people just associate it with war, terrorism, chaos. And so, I think it's actually very important to acknowledge cultural debts. And of course, the influences, everything builds on everything else. That's what became very clear from writing the book, that, you know, a new power comes in, and it takes over what was there before, the art and culture and architecture of what was there before, and adds to it, and synthesizes it. And this is what happens time and again. And it was actually the first Islamic empire, the Umayyads, who synthesized the pre-existing Byzantine architecture and art that was there, they synthesized it into something new. And so, that is the first Islamic art. And when you examine it closely, you see that in that you have the first pointed arch in Umayyad art, you have the first trefoil arch, and these are things which have been taken into European religious architecture, and appropriated in a way, as if you look at any cathedral, any Gothic cathedral, it's absolutely covered in pointed arches, trefoil arches, og arches. And all of these arches, without question, came from the Middle East, with the Islamic world blending with what was before. So, it's constant synthesis, basically. And so, I think we need to acknowledge that rather than to just say, oh, this is ours, we invented this. Okay. So, I mean, okay, let's just accept for a second that, you know, European culture was definitely influenced by Islamic culture and Arabic culture. What does it say about European culture in general? I mean, what's so wrong about being influenced by other cultures? Isn't it just inevitable? I mean... Of course, it's inevitable, but that's why it's so important to acknowledge it and not to try to sweep it under the carpet. So, for example, last year, I went to Cordoba in Spain to visit the mesquite, you know, the mosque that was built by the Syrian Umayyad who escaped, the sole member of the Umayyad family who escaped the slaughter of the Abbasids when they came to power. And this one Umayyad prince escaped all the way across North Africa and founded, you know, his new Umayyad empire in Spain. You go to Spain now, and although, of course, you know, the Spanish have culturally appropriated that original mosque that the Umayyad prince built, they've turned it into a cathedral. So, now you go in, and in every corner, there is a crucifix. You know, they've attached more than 40 chapels around the edges of it. You know, Christian music is playing all the time, and there is no acknowledgement of what this building originally was and how so many of its architectural features were then moved from Spain, copied in nearby churches that were then used in the Romanesque style to begin with in the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. You look at those churches, the early churches along that route, all of which were sponsored by the very powerful Benedictine Monastery of Cluny, and you see all the architectural features, you know, the two-tone brickwork, the arches, the styles, the vaulting, all of this has been taken, has come in, first of all, through Spain because it came from Syria originally. And I just feel we should acknowledge that. We're not trying to say, you know, everything came from the Middle East or everything is Islamic. No, of course not. But all these influences moved and were then built on. And so, it's important to recognize and appreciate this. It actually helps to deepen your appreciation of a building when you enter it to understand something of the backstory. And I found that recently. I've been able to visit a number of Gothic cathedrals in the course of July just now, and I now see them all with new eyes, and it's really deepened my appreciation of them. So, I think that's the ideal solution, if you like, that we acknowledge everything. And Diana, it's so sad to see so many Syrians trying to make their way to Europe. I mean, a continent that they so greatly influenced, apparently. I just want to talk about the name of the book as well, and why you made the specific word choices that you did. I mean, stealing. What do you mean by that? Yes. Well, this is a very, very deliberate choice, and it's what in English we call a double irony, because the derivation of the word Saracens is the most common one. Nobody knows for sure, but the one that most people think is the most likely comes from the Arabic word sadaqah, which means to steal. And so, we called Arab Muslims Saracens, people who steal. And so, the stealing from the Saracens is a deliberate irony that we, we Europeans, are calling thieves, you know, we are taking from, we are stealing things, taking things from people we are calling thieves. So, it's like a double irony, that's all. And of course, a lot of people don't seem to get that. They seem to think I'm saying something much more, you know, it's quite a subtle thing. I mean, it's a very complicated thing. Of course, I'm not saying we stole this, we stole that. I mean, you can't, but the choice of the title is meant to have this double irony. All right, Diana Dag, it was lovely having you on our show today, and good luck with your book.