A Thousand Years of Faith and Power , which documents the first millennium of the religion from its origins in the deserts of Arabia to its emergence as a guiding force behind several world powers. Blair and Bloom served as consultants and were interviewed on camera for the documentary. Blair and Bloom arranged for part one of the series to be shown today at 4 p.m. in Devlin Hall as part of the Boston College Arts Festival .
Most people only know about terrorists.
They don't realize that modern civilization got everything from algebra to paper via the Islamic lands. We've spent two decades teaching students about Islamic civilization through its art. This was the first time we've had an opportunity to address a truly general audience. In its first thousand years, said Blair and Bloom, Islamic civilization flourished in a string of glittering cities-including Cordoba, Fez, Cairo, Istanbul, Baghdad, and Samarqand. While Europe suffered through the Dark Ages, Muslims expanded the boundaries of human knowledge in literature, art, science and medicine.