Adelard left his native England a young scholar thirsting for wisdom only the Arabs [Muslims] could supply. He would return as the first Western man of science and help change this world forever. A recent public opinion survey found that a majority of Americans see little or nothing to admire in Islam or the Muslim world. But turn back the pages of time and it is impossible to envision Western civilization without the fruits of Arab [Muslim] science... Even more important than any individual work was the Arabs [Muslims] overall contribution that lies at the very heart of the contemporary West - the realization that science can grant man power over nature. Jonathan Lyons book, The House of Wisdom, quoted above, may seem, to a Muslim, one that is educating non-Muslims about the contribution of Muslims to Western civilization. However, one could argue that it is in the same breadth educating the Muslims themselves of their past - a past which was not antagonistic to modernity, science, and intellectual development; on the contrary, a past which is marked as much by science and rational thought as by spiritual development. Note choice of word: The book used Arab throughout in honor of the fact that the lingua franca was Arabic and that Muslim civilization thrived under the aegis of Arab rulers. Hence, the brackets in the quotes are mine to put the record back at the banner under which all was conducted.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 06:28:05 +0000
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