The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades

Chapter 7

HOW ALL AH KIL LED SCI ENC E

The flowering of Islamic culture is the stuff of legend, Muslimsin ven te d
al geb ra , th e zer o, and th e ast rol abe (a n an ci en t na vi gati on al
in st ru me nt ). Th ey bl az ed ne w tr ai ls in ag ri cu lt ur e. Th ey preserved
Aristotelian philosophy while Europe blundered through the Dark Ages, In
virtually every field, the Islamic empires of bygone days far outstr ipp ed the
achi evem ent s of the ir non-Mus lim cont emp ora rie s in Euro pe and
elsewhere.

Or did they?

Well, not quite. Unless copying counts.

Whatabout art and music?
We hea ra great deal about Islamic literature__or at leasta lot about Sufi
poet Jalaluddin Rumi(1207-1273)andThe Thousand and One Nights.
Therere is alsothe Persian poet Abu Nuwas (762--814), whose heterodox
vi ew s on ho mos ex ual it y we di scu s in cha pt er ei ght ;al -Muta nab bi

( 915-965), whose surname means "one who pretends to be a prophet";

the heterodox Turkish Sufi Nesirni (d. 1417);andPersian epic poet Hakim

Abual-Qasim Mansur Firdowsi(935-1020).who set the history of Persia

to verse. For his sources, he usedChristian and Zoroastrian chronicles,

which have long since been lost.

87

Guess what?

The much-

ballyhooed

"G ol de nAg eof

Islamic culture was

largely inspiredby

non-Muslims.

Core elements of

Islamic belief mili-

tated against

scientific and

cultural

advancement.

Only Judaism

andChristianity,

not Islam.provide

a viablebasisfor

scientific

inquiry.