The Moral Vision
How to Lead, Even in Defeat
~ 313 ~
The selection of Al-Idrisi for the mammoth task of
preparing maps of the whole of the known world
shows, as the historian. J.H.
Kramers has pointed
out, that at that time the intellectual and academic
superiority of Muslims was accepted by one and all.
Roger II certainly appreciated the worth of Muslim
scholars: he encouraged and sponsored them in
their work and—in the words of one historian—
“made Sicily a major meeting place for Christian
and Arab scholars.”
Though defeated on the field of battle, Muslims
continued their intellectual and academic
dominance, even in the court of their conqueror.
This was because at that time Muslims were far and
wide the most advanced race in almost every field
of knowledge. The legacy of Islam lives in European
languages, which retain many words of Arabic
origin.
Muslims today complain of their political, economic
and military subjection to non-Muslim nations.
They think that they can take back, by protest and
militancy, what has been seized from them. But the
case of Roger II of Sicily—his respect for Muslim
