Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah is generally thought of as a hell of a good history. Arab scholarship, during years before the crusades, WAS far beyond anything in western europe. The fact that it was based upon Greek thought doesn't mean much: at least they were civilized enough to preserve greek learning!
I think that's a good point. I've also read about their advances in medicine and the correlation they made concerning sanitation and health. It went well beyond the Greeks.
Our culture's understanding that sanitation might be a good thing really didn't come about until the Civil War. (Was told at Plymouth Rock that the natives were disgusted that the English didn't bath. Who knows.) It wasn't until the 1860's that we started to look at Lister's and Jenner's work seriously and began to understand that flies will travel the short distance from the outhouse to the hospital's kitchen and having the surgeons sharping their amputation knives on their dung covered boots may not be a great idea.
All in all, it a lesson in the cyclic rise and decline of cultures.