It is true that religion reigned over Europe for over 1,000 years between 500 AD and 1,500 AD – a period that the West now generally looks at with contempt – and Europe then was also a land of mystics, hermits and recluses.
According to Ahmed, the East was a symbol of the spirit as opposed to the West which represents the body and its desires.
“The East was an attempt to rise above the body,” wrote Saleem Ahmed in his monumental poem Mashriq Har Gaya.
