Bernie Taupin Quotes
I am a simple vessel with complex overtones, opinionated on occasions but willing to listen. Comfortable with reclusiveness and devoted to privacy and family. Patriotic to a fault and allergic to cruelty, ignorance and bad music.
Taupin, Bernie. "About Bernie Taupin." Bernie Taupin Art, 2021.
This quotation is very instructive given the context. Christian Crusaders had wrested control of much of the Holy Land from the Muslims and established various local Christian Kingdoms and many had their own local king who was the equivalent of a war lord. Munqidh’s sons, his brother and their families were sailing to meet him and they even had a document of safe passage from the senior Christian King. Their ship developed trouble and they landed on the shores of the Christian mini kingdom. Instead of helping distressed vessels, the king and his men looted the ship taking all of value. They even took axes to the wood and carted that off to be sold for construction. However, they destroyed the books. This tells us: 1) It was not uncommon for Muslim nobles of no great power or prestige to have very large libraries. 2) These books were very highly valued by their Muslim owners. 3) That the Christian King and his minions were so ignorant that they did not even bother to steal the books, which could have been sold for more money than the rest of the ship and its content. These three conclusions support much other historical data to show that Islam was at that time a highly sophisticated, learned society, where philosophy, science, mathematics, medicine, literature all thrived and a substantial number of the books were the works of the great Greek scholars and scientists which were preserved by the Muslims when the nobles of Christian Europe most of whom were illiterate had lost the documentation of Western civilization. Unfortunately for Islam and the rest of the world, at about this time, Islamic clerics were calling for restrictions and a “closing” of Islamic society as it had become too free thinking with too many new ideas and discoveries being made, most of which were not mentioned in the Koran. In less than two centuries, Islamic scholarship and science had been reduced to a shadow of what it was. Scholars took their lives in their hands by introducing any know knowledge or ideas. Islam intellectually declined and fortunately many of the books were transported to Europe by Christians and Jews who were welcome collaborators with Islamic counterparts but no longer welcome. Italian medicine thrived and became famous when Jews came to Italy with the medical skills and literature that they had gleaned in the Muslim World. Europeans were gradually reintroduced to ancient Greek sciences and philosophy and literature. Despite the blockage of the Catholic Church (and later the Protestants) knowledge grew and spread in Europe and stultified in the Islamic lands. With the Christian world progressing and Islam intellectually regressing, the stage was set for the enlightenment and the dominance of the west and the minimal importance of Islam in the world of new ideas and scholarship.
Bernard John Taupin is an English lyricist, poet, singer and artist. He is best known for his long-term collaboration with Elton John, having written the lyrics for most of John's songs.
