Ping!
Back in Europe's Dark Age (while under siege from Vkiking Raids), several Islamic scholars were noted for the transmission and interpretation of Aristotle's work.
Al gebra (the stones) was the basis of much of our higher mathematics, and the concept of "zero" came down to us through Arabic scholars. This period of learned erudition probably occurred BEFORE the Islam revolution that drove out Zoroastrianism from the Middle East.
Time to restore Ahura Mazda as the monotheistic diety of the region. MUCH more compatible with the Judaic tradition.
It's true that some of the basic Aristotelian texts came into the West via Islamic editions. Most important, that's how some of the major Aristotelian texts reached Thomas Aquinas, who brought Aristotle back into the mainstream of western philosophy and theology.
On the other hand, if not for the Muslim invasions of North Africa and the Middle East, it's likely enough that this knowledge would have reached the West via other channels. Islam itself invented little or nothing. It destroyed several very ancient civilizations, including Egypt and Mesopatamia, which at the time was Persia. A little of the ancient knowledge came dribbling through. I don't know whether the Arabs should be praised for that, or blamed for destroying a great deal of other knowledge that might otherwise have survived.
In any case, the advancement of science and technology was a uniquely Christian achievement. There were deep scientific thinkers in China, Greece, and the ancient world, but they did very little with that knowledge. It was the Middle Ages (see Lynn Thorndike's histories of science) and the Renaissance that transformed thinking about science. This rested on at least two basic Christian principles that are not found elsewhere:
1) The Logos. The universe has a basic rationality built into it because it was created by and through the Logos, God's Word, the Second Person of the Trinity.
2) Free will. We are free to discover, invent, and change our lives.
Neither of these principles can be found in Islam, which stresses that Allah is totally arbitrary and that he governs the universe without extending any freedom of choice to men.
Thats what I like about religion...Its unites people so well.
Same old story. They take stuff over than claim they built it, invented it or conceived it.
Most of Islamic science was destroyed by the Mongol invasion. The economic destruction was widespread at the same time, comparable to that of the South during the Civil War or that wrought by WWII. Additionally, Islamic society turned more conservative and fundamentalist as a response to the Mongols. (Sort of a "God is punishing us so lets get conservative" view.) Currently, Islamic philosophy is mostly fundamentalist conservative and very anti-science, particularly anti-evolutionary theory.
I will give neither the early muslims nor the modern ones any credit whatsoever.
As this introductory paragraph summarizes perfectly, I will give the golden age of islam credit as superb librarians. That's it.
Note, however that the knowledge conveyed is Greek, or Oriental, or the fruits of other conquered empires.
There is no uniquely arab or muslim contribution of any kind whatsoever. Completely devoid of original thought.
As for the modern muslims?
I won't even recognize them as human!
~ and ~
Ummmm, no; no it's not. I won't go into *what it is*, as I'd probably get in trouble... aw, what the heck:
Islam, The Cult of Murder™.
Islam, The Cult of Terror™.
Islam, The Cult of Boy-Buggering™.
Islam, The Cult of Women-Chattelling™.
Islam, The Cult of Horror™.
Islam, The Cult of Rape™.
Islam, The Cult of Ritual Killing™.
Islam, The Cult of Beheading™.
Islam, The Cult of Deviants™.
Islam, The Cult of Hate™.
Islam, The Cult of Lies™.
Islam, The Cult of Female Mutilation™.
Islam, The Cult of Death™.
Islam, The Cult of Christian & Jew Killing™.
Islam, The Cult of Infidel Murder™.
Islam, The Cult of The Mentally-Ill™.
Islam, the Cult of Evil™.
Islam, the Cult of Poverty™.
Islam, the Cult of Illiteracy™.
Islam, the Religion of Peace™, and THEY'LL KILL YOU TO PROVE IT!
The Islamic world acted as the west's library during the dark ages yet did alomst nothing with that knowledge themselves.
SURE it does!
The science of making explosives---and detonating them.
This guy has quite a different view of the Islamic world than I do. What of the final conquest of Constantinople during the same time period. Much of Greek science came from them, not the Arabs. In fact, what Greek science the Arabs got, they got from the conquest of the Roman (Byzantine) empire over the centuries.
Arabic for some of it, but Persian for some of the best.
To some extent, but it's been exaggerated.
More credit goes to the Byzantines. And some must go to the Church, which saved much of the Latin heritage of the Greco-Roman world.
bump...for later reading...
Nobody, but nobody, beats David Coppedge for insane creationist conspiracy theories.
Yep, Nature ran a politically correct review of medieval Muslim contributions to science because they know that Darwinism has crumbled, and they're searching for a new evil dogma to push.
David, I say you should run with this concern. Run with it like your life depended on it! Dig up every example of modern mainstream science saying anything complimentary about Muslims in any context, and show the world how this is just another part of Satan's plot to transfer our alliegiance from the evil Charles Darwin (now that you've triumphantly vanquished him) to the evil Muhammed.
The author of this piece is an utter idiot; jingoistic in the most pedestrian of cultural ways. India is the source of the earliest mathematics, and the lack of mention in this regards belies his pig-ignorance.
Islam, by its very nature, is expansive, tyrannical, non-democratic, and absolutist. Not the stuff of anything scientific!
Further, there is no word for compromise in Arabic.
So, folks, we are dealing with a cult either satanically derived (Rushdie) or divinely sent - to keep Christians on their toes.
As for the mophead cacademiacs spouting mad theories/propaganda of a Muslim "golden age" tell that to El Cid and the Reconquistas and the Orthodox Xstians who kept the flame of freedom and Xstianity alive for centuries.
"On the other hand, there was a grave threat to the long-range development of Islamic philosophy in this separation between the religious and intellectual leadership. If the fundamentalists and mystics felt that the traditional religion was actually in danger of subversion by the speculative thinkers and if they could obtain the cooperatio of the state, they would simply silence the expression of rational thought. That is, in fact, what began to happen in the latter part of the eleventh century, and after 1200 scientific thought in the Islamic world was dead."
Source: The Civilization of the Middle Ages by Norman Cantor, p. 361.