Posted on 03/12/2006 7:02:45 AM PST by SkyPilot
Whatever achievements they claim were lifted entirely from Greek, Roman, and other cultures that they looted and plundered
Arabic philosophy is not important as original thought. Men like Avicenna and Averroes are essentially commentators. Speaking generally, the views of the more scientific philosophers come from Aristotle and the Neoplatonists in logic and metaphysics, from Galen in medicine, from Greek and Indian sources in mathematics and astronomy, and among mystics religious philosophy has also an admixture of old Persian beliefs. Writers in Arabic showed some originality in mathematics and in chemistry – in the latter case, as an incidental result of alchemical researches. Mohammedan civilization in its great days was admirable in the arts and in many technical ways, but it showed no capacity for independent speculation in theoretical matters. Its importance, which must not be underrated, is as a transmitter. Between ancient and modern European civilization, the dark ages intervened. The Mohammedans and the Byzantines, while lacking the intellectual energy required for innovation, preserved the apparatus of civilization – education, books, and learned leisure. Both stimulated the West when it emerged from barbarism – the Mohammedans chiefly in the thirteenth century, the Byzantines chiefly in the fifteenth. In each case the stimulus produced new thought better than any produced by the transmitters – in the one case scholasticism, in the other the Renaissance (which however had other causes also).
- Lord Bertrand Russell, A History Of Western Philosophy (1st Edition, 1945)
Funny.
As a decimal system placeholder, they "borrowed" it from India.
And they did not invent astronomy, either. They simply renamed the stars discovered by others, and eventually those copies reached the west.
Conquer -- steal --- move on. The Islamic way.
Geronimo always denied that!
Great, yet another digital divide fee to be tacked on our phone bills. /s
See long ago discussion at What, Exactly, are the Great Achievements of the Islamic World?
ML/NJ
The title of this story is as obvious as saying "South Park" is a cartoon! Duh, these people live in the stone ages.
Writing was invented in that part of the world, and they have 10% illiteracy in the best of conditions. Collectively, they publish or translate around 300 books per year.
The "Golden Age" of Islam coincided with their time of expansion, when there was a steady in-flow of loot and slaves who knew how to run a civilization. When this in-flow stopped, so did the Golden Age
If it wasn't for oil, the Arab world would be an inconsequential hell-hole of no interest to anybody
This may change with increased satellite Internet service. With prices now around $50/mo, it's affordable by the middle class
I would imagine a service offering encrypted, high-speed access to the internet, where people could download uncensored video, music, etc would get a lot of customers in the Arab world. Particularly with antennas that can now be more easily concealed
Zero and the "arabic" number system was invented in India.
The #1 major at every single University in the Arab world is "Islamic Studies."
I am not making that up.
If they wish to study engineering, mathematics, biology, or other areas, they go to Europe, Canada, or the US.
One History Channel program about the invention of zero had a neat scene: A teacher is telling a scribe about the concept. The scribe gets a puzzled look and says "What symbol do we use for it? How do you display "nothing"? The teacher says, "Think of a hole in the ground - that is nothing". So the scribe carefully writes "0" to describe the hole. A neat Urban Legend, if nothing else.
There used to be an "American University" in Beirut, mostly staffed by Western professors, but most of its staff has been run off by the Islamofascists. When Rockefeller made millions on oil he set out to create universities and libraries. I don't know of a single Islamic Rockefeller, even though there are plenty of oil rich Muslims, particularly in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
The only electronics they need is the cell phone to detonate IEDs. If they had to use what Arabs have invented in the past thousand years, they'd be reduced to running over people with their camels.
LOL! Good one.
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