Muslim travelers replaced contempt for Europe with respect born of perceived weakness

Evidence

In this new phase the number of Muslim visitors to Europe increased greatly, and so too did the literature produced by them. For a long time the prevailing attitude towards Europe was one of respect, even of admiration. Muslim writers naturally enough did not regard the new masters of the world with any great affection, nor were they prepared to concede them any real merit in what was for them the most important aspect of all—the religious, a term which at that time, for them, included the cultural and intellectual. The old attitude of un­ informed contempt, while still surviving no doubt among those who stayed at home, virtually disappeared among those who ventured abroad. The main stim­ ulus was still the perception of their own weakness and poverty and the desire to emulate and if possible equal the wealth and power of the Western world. This desire became the more acute as events demonstrated with increasing ur­ gency the dangers to which this inequality exposed the Muslim world—the dangers of domination, of exploitation, even of conquest. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1094

Categorization

• QUESTION: How did the religious/cultural distinction the author notes later evolve once secular learning was decoupled from religious identity?