Denying outside influence on Islam distorts historical scholarship

Evidence

In the early 1970s there was a Festival of Islam in London, a great cultural event, organized with the cooperation of many Muslim govern­ ments which provided funds and lent objects. Among the ground rules for the Festival of Islam—the lectures, publications, exhibitions and the like—was a guideline laid down by the sponsors: Islam influences, Islam is not influenced. The discussion of possible influences on Islam was avoided. I have the uneasy feeling that a rather similar point of view is beginning to gain ground, I won’t say to prevail, in some circles in Israel. It is wrong and dangerous. For almost two millennia, Jews were a minority in a large, developing and relatively ad­ vanced civilization and society, and it requires no great effort of scholarship to detect influences going both ways. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 326

Categorization

• SEED: Essay angle: ‘Islam influences, Islam is not influenced’ as a template for asymmetrical influence-denial in other cultural contexts (e.g. US self-image).
• XREF: Echoes the reviewer’s broader readings on cultural exchange and one-way influence claims.