Explain the Western perspective on its relationship to Islam as it is represented in the bronze griffin that sat atop the Pisa Cathedral from 1110 to 1828

Question

Please provide the best answer for the statement.

Answer 1

1. Islam is a fundamental part of the Western heritage—from Islam, the West borrowed musical practices, the spiritual depth of the love poem, many of the decorative effects achieved in medieval architecture, fundamental scientific and mathematical concepts, and much more.
2. In its insistence that Jesus was a “mere” prophet and not the son of God, and in its belief that the Qur’an superseded both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, Islam inevitably came into conflict with the Christian West. By the time that Pope Urban II launched the First Crusade in 1095, Islam represented the forces of darkness to European Christians.
3. A notable symbol of this determination is an Islamic bronze griffin that, from 1100 to 1828, sat atop Pisa Cathedral, itself built to celebrate the victory in 1063 of this Italian city-state over Muslim forces in the western Mediterranean. Decorated with incised feathers, its back designed to suggest silk drapery, the griffin symbolized to Muslims eagle-like vigilance, lion-like courage, and, perhaps most of all, the rich history of Mesopotamia and Persia. But the Catholic Church appropriated this bronze griffin to different ends and transformed its meaning. From its perch atop Pisa Cathedral, it symbolized the dual nature of Christ, his divinity (the eagle) and his humanity (the lion). The composite creature was, in the Church’s mind, the image of the Christian victory over Islam.