Islamic advance and retreat defined Europe’s boundaries and identity

Evidence

Thus, at both its eastern and south­ western extremities, the limits and in a sense even the identity of Europe were established through first the advance, and then the retreat, of Islam. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 663

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Echoes the reader’s interest in the idea that identities get defined through encounters with an ‘other’ — parallels the dress/morality material where identity signaling depends on who one is defined against.

Related

• Islam’s advance and retreat defined Europe’s eastern and western borders (similarity 0.88)
• Religion-based identity in Islam predates Western secular nationhood. (similarity 0.79)
• Islam has been Europe’s defining other across centuries (similarity 0.78)
• Europe’s identity as the West fused internal cohesion with opposition to external worlds. (similarity 0.78)
• Islam served as Europe’s principal civilizational other for centuries. (similarity 0.78)