How Allah KilledScienceEv er y sc ho ol ch il d kn ow s, or us ed to
know, tha t in 1492 Chri sto pher Colu mbus
sailed the ocean blue and discovered America
while searching fora new,westward sea route
to Asia. And why was he searching fora new
route to Asia? Because the fall of Con-
stantinople to the Muslims in 1453 closed
trade routes to the East. This was
devastatingfor European tradesmen, who had
untilthe n tra vel ed to Asia for spices and
othe rgoo ds by lan d. Col umb us' s voy age
was trying to ease the plight of these merchants by bypassing the Muslims
altogether and making it possible for Europea ns to reach India by sea.So
the bellic osity and intra nsigen ce oflslam ultimately opened the Americas
for Europe.
Another consequence of the fall of Constantinople, and the long, slow
death ofthe Byzantine Empire that preceded it, was the emigration of
Greek intellectuals to 'Western Europe. Muslim territorial expansion at
Byzantineexpense led so many Greeks to seek refuge in the West that
'Western universities were filled with Platonists and Aristotelians to an
unprecedented extent. This led to the rediscovery of classical philosophy
and lite ratu re, and to an inte llec tual and cult ural flow erin g the like of
whic h the worl d had neve r see n (an d has n't aga in). It may be tha t the
decline and fall of Byzantium was a greater Muslim contribution to the
histor y of philos ophy and intell ectual life in the Wester n world than the•
Arabic preservation of Aristotle,
Of course. both of these aren't really Islamic "achievements." They are
consequences of the applications of the violent doctrines of Islam we
exploredearlier. But in terms of their real effects upon the world at large,
mayamount to more than a whole stack of Islamic philosophical treatises
,and aboatload of calligraphy.A Book You're Not
Supposed to Read
The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam,
China and the West,by Toby E. Huff; Cam-
bridg e: Cambr idge Unive rsity Press , 2ndedi-
tion, 2003 Huff explains why it was not by
acc ide nt tha t mod ern sci enc e did n't
dev elo p inthe Islamic world or China.butin
the West,