Students, faculty and visitors gathered at the third floor in Halle Library Thursday to listen to Stewart Gordon discuss his book “When Asia Was the World.”
The book explores the lives of travelers in the Middle East during the Dark Ages, when Europe faced cultural stagnation while Asia flourished.
“The Middle East is a place where we’re deeply involved in, having done two wars in Iraq and now a war in Afghanistan,” Gordon said. “We were there partly because we understand very little about the region.”
Even with the emerging oil market, being a target for excavation of natural resources is not something new.
“Afghanistan is where lapis lazuli, a semi precious stone, comes from; it’s where pearls come from, and it has been fought over for a very very long time,” Gordon said. “Oil is just the last in a long
line of desirable commodities that have been found in this area.”
Lisa Wyse, an EMU senior majoring in biology, came to the event to learn about the history of Islam in the Middle East.
When the inauguration of the awarded Muslim Journey Bookshelf collection began, Gordon discussed how he came to write the book.
“I tried to write about commodities and it was just boring, boring, boring,” Gordon said. “I’m analyzing human networks, and that’s what I have to make this book come alive.”
Throughout the lecture, Gordon talked about how religious conversions dealt much more with customs than epiphanies, how inventions such as the recurve bow increased the deadliness of warfare, the humbleness of requesting “on a bended knee,” how getting a robe put on you is a tremendous act of respect and many other aspects of culture.
“These are not third world countries that are desperate for our aid, for our wisdom,” Gordon said. “During Europe’s Dark Ages, this area has mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, medicine, elegant courts and long distance credit. There’s a degree of respect we should have for these cultures that is sometimes missing.”
George Lambrides, a director of the Interfaith Round Table of Washtenaw County said, “In a country where Islam is a minority, people must get up to speed about this religion.”
