Talk:Christian influences on the Islamic world

Cause and Effect

There are examples here of Islamic influence on Christian buildings - such as the remaking of the Hagia Sophia. Wouldnt this be Islamic influence on a Christian building?

Christian Sabbath Observance

Could someone please cite or remove the statement about most Islamic countries observing Sunday as a non-working day. As a resident of Egypt, I was under the impression that most Islamic countries observe Friday as Jum3, and the weekend then encompasses Friday and Saturday. Sunday is the beginning of the workweek. If this sort of goes ignored, I think it would probably be best to remove this claim as it seems as odd, and poorly written, as the article itself. Michael Sheflin (talk) 16:51, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Broad problems

There is a broader problem with this article: it refers to Christian (an already nebulous amalgam of religious and not ethnic groups) influences on Islam (also religious and not ethnic groups). Hence the language section is somewhat questionable as one would have to prove "Christian" linguistic influences on the Arabic language prior to the compilation of the Quran to prove, for instance, that Syriac sahedo influenced the word shahid.

Since shahid is in the Quran, and this proof would speak to a time in which Arabic was not written, this statement cannot be verified. I cannot check the citation but I would imagine the statement made here may not be the actual statement made in that book - ie it probably suggest that they are cognates. Arabic as a language far predates linguists' abilities to trace other linguistic influences. Additionally, while Arabic is attested in Syria-Palestine region fairly early (AD) it is inappropriate to trace that influence to the beginning of Islam - as it did not begin there.

Additionally, this article is not concerned with Christians in Arabia, where Hadith and the Quran both mention some more direct influences. The article in general should be deleted and the information on the Hagia Sophia etc. should be combined with another article. As it stands now this article is effectively a poor attempt to point out broad cross-cultural similarities under the disingenuous heading of "influence." Influence requires the ability to show that influence, so the article fails at its own proof. Michael Sheflin (talk) 10:57, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Crusaders didn't invent the pointed arch, did they??

I thought the Crusaders brought the pointed "Gothic" arch back from their travels in the Middle East, not the other way round (as this article suggests)? Can anyone confirm/correct this article? Thanks, AJ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.199.242.116 (talk) 22:07, 29 August 2012 (UTC)