Emergence of Islamic civilization in Andalusia in the era of the governors (95-138 AH / 713-755 AD) in light of the theory of challenge and response

Abstract

This study aims to reveal that the emergence of civilizations does not take place in easy circumstances, but rather is attributed to difficult and harsh circumstances that create challenges for humans, so society works to gather its forces to confront them and is desperate to survive and preserve its entity. If it succeeds in confronting and overcoming these challenges, its creative ability works to the birth of what is called civilization, so the challenge is a confrontation with a nation, a geographical environment, or a new land, which works on a human reaction, making them rise towards prosperity, and that the more the challenge increases, the more great they become, and thus civilization is spiritually strong. Culturally, if it faces a harsh environment, while people who live in easy conditions and areas, that simplicity and ease are the enemy of civilization. Toynbee worked to give the challenge a philosophical dimension influenced by a Chinese term called “yin and yang”, to prove that the challenge is to adapt to the conditions of the environment, for the benefit of human civilizational action, or its achievement for the purpose of building a civilization, which generates a driving force (in response to the challenge that transforms it from quiescence to Movement) works to transform from stagnation to driving movement in a recurring series in the face of challenges, transforming primitive societies into civilizations through successful responses which continue in all stages of civilization from emergence to dissolution. An example of this is the societies that responded to the challenge of drought by Changing both its habitat and its way of life, and this was the rare double reaction and the dynamic action that created the Chinese, Egyptian and Sumerian civilizations To prove that the drive toward civilization grows positively stronger in proportion to the increasing difficulty of the environment and that the challenges imposed by the harsh environment on the people of those primitive societies are what led to the birth of the first indigenous civilizations. Toynbee identified an important condition that must be met in the challenge resulting from a successful response, which is that The challenge should not be of maximum strength, because it does not generate an optimal response, but rather it generates despair and despair, and works to destroy the spirit of the other party, and it should not be easy, because the insufficiency of the challenge makes the other party unable to make a successful response, as it results in underestimation and negligence, to impose an important condition. In generating the best possible response through the middle limit of the challenge, expressed by the golden mean, meaning that the challenge reaches a reasonable degree, it works to stimulate creative energies in their responses to that challenge.

 Through what has been explained, we find that the ability of man to overcome the conditions of the environment, conquer them, or adapt to them, whether that environment is mountainous, swampy areas, or a cold or hot climate, for the benefit of man’s civilized action or achievement, all of this is called a challenge, and through our research we will work With a comparative approach, he shows us the stage of the emergence of civilization in Andalusia in the era of the governors according to the theory of challenge and response.