gc: “Zizka, I think…
gc: “Zizka, I think it would be a curious definition of Western Civilization indeed if it included Islam. Mesopotamia, sure, but not Mohammed.”
On what principled grounds would you include pre-Muslim Mesopotamian civilization in the cluster concept, but not Muslim civilization—at least as it reached Mesopotamia (let alone Spain and Eastern Europe)?
Razib: “it’s easily defensible if you think about it on a world-historical scale. but the definition i’m using implicitly is constrained to western europe (orthodox-byzantine europe is left out as well).”
It seems like the obvious response here is going to be the seven centuries of Muslim Spain… if Cordoba’s not in Western Europe, where is it?
Anticopyright.