[Antoninus]

In fairness, almost all of what we know of classical Greek literature, mathematics and science is from translations and copies that came down to us from the Islamic University at Damascus. Arabic and Persian scholarship in the Middle Ages was of a very high standard, outstripping Europe by centuries.

That is true only if you discount Byzantium which was still the epicenter of classical learning and civilization deep into the middle ages. And it should be remembered that Syria and the near-east was still majority Christian for a long time after the Muslim conquest. This is not to say that Muslim scholars played no role at all in transmitting classical scholarship. In my opinion, their role has been over-estimated.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Clearly, Ptolemy exclusively and Euclid primarily came back to Europe through Arab translations. Fragmentary copies of Euclid have been found, but our knowledge of Euclid is really through Damascus and through the its Islamic university. A great deal would have been lost without them. Ptolemy's Syntaxis is known today by its Arabic name, Almagest.