Popular mythology holds that while Christian Europe was in the so-called "Dark Ages", where intellectual inquiry and human progress was allegedly weighted down under Christian dogma, the Islamic world was flourishing with advancement and learning. But bestselling author Robert Spencer challenges the assumptions underlying this "Golden Age of Islam" narrative, primarily constructed by 19th Century European historical revisionists, in his new book, Religion of Peace?, and in a recent blog post where he notes that virtually all of the scientific and technological achievements following the initial Islamic wars of conquest relied on the Christian and Jewish intellectual capital of the areas they subdued. Spencer concludes:
In sum, there was a time when it was indeed true that Islamic culture was more advanced than that of Europeans, but that superiority corresponds exactly to the period when Muslims were able to draw on and advance the achievements of Byzantine and other civilizations. But when the Muslim overlords had taken what they could from their subject peoples, and the Jewish and Christian communities had been stripped of their material and intellectual wealth and thoroughly subdued, Islam went into a period of intellectual decline from which it has not yet recovered.Bestselling author Dr. Andrew Bostom also recently addressed another component of the "Golden Age of Islam" myth, that Islamic Spain was a model of religious ecumenism while Christian Europe was simultaneously wracked with inquisitions and intolerance, by examining the writings of the "Second Moses", Jewish medieval philosopher Maimonides, who fled Muslim Spain because of religious persecution there directed against Jews and Christians alike.
Both the Spencer and Bostom articles are well worth reading. I would also note my previous June 2006 post, "The 'Golden Age of Islam' Myth", which covers additional ground on this topic.
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