Much has been written about what the west learned and adapted to the challenge of Islam, but very few works have taken the other side of this issue. Bernard Lewis attempts to do just that in his book, The Muslim Discovery of Europe which examines how confrontation with the Christendom Europe affected Islamic culture from the middle ages to the mid nineteenth century. Lewis explores how the cultural barriers between Christendom and Islam gradually broke down during this time and how this led to the Muslim world's changing views of Europe. Because Islamic civilization was considerably more brilliant than its European counterpart from Islam's early days up through the Ottoman zenith in the 16th century, Muslims didn't find much reason to be interested in the West. While Europe's Roman forbears might be worth a glance, Islam’s attitude of European before 1800 was that of a backward, filthy, unredeemable society with very little to offer. Muslim scholars reasoned that Europe had little important ideas and literature. Consequently, for centuries, educated Muslims thought it was a waste of time to learn anything about Europe. However, by 1800, the Islamic attitude changed. New confrontations with the west, most notably Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign in 1798, illustrated how far the west had grown and advanced militarily, scientifically, politically, and economically. These confrontation proved to the Muslim world how much more advanced Europe was as a society. Unlike previous eras, many Islamic scholars, inventors, soldiers, and politicians began a serious study of the west as a means to help improve their society. Lewis’ book translates well to our time considering the current struggle in the Muslim world between Islamic tradition and westernization.