Sadly, at one time the Arabs and Persians did have a productive civilization.
I would agree about the Persians; I am not familiar with any productive Arab period. The entire “Islamic Golden Age” is a modern construct with no historic basis whatsoever. Not one major discovery or invention can be credited to the Arabs during this period.
Arabs have been destroying civilization since prehistory, but Mohammed indelibly tied violence to their cultural identity. Their only contribution to history is eternal warfare and slavery combined with unhealthy doses of cultured ignorance, fanaticism, mysticism, misogyny, homosexuality and pharmacopeia. I am sure there are some aspects I’ve overlooked, but I try to focus positive things and that is anathema when it comes to Islam.
The fact that a few “enlightened” (heretical) Muslims did not kill everyone whom they conquered, and were thereby able to assimilate some cultural aspects from civilized nations, does not equate to building a civilization. Modern Islamic apologists can be likened to an anthropologist coming upon a troop of monkeys residing in an abandoned city and ascribing the development to the current residents.