reddy@uts.amdahl.com (T.S. Reddy) (04/07/90)
In article <10812@wpi.wpi.edu>, gwydion@tavi.rice.edu (Basalat Ali Raja) writes: > > T.S.Reddy writes: > > Muslim scientific achievements were mainly during the early part of this > >millennium, when Europe was going through the dark ages. While these > >achievements were substantial, their greatest gift was in saving all the > >knowledge that had been accumulated since the classical Greek era. > > This is an interesting point of view. As an example, I was not aware > that the Classical Greeks indulged in successful open eye surgery. > I did not take up any issue point by point. This is the view that I have gleaned from my knowledge of world history. And, if my memory serves me right, surgery (I'm not sure about open eye surgery) was quite developed in the Classical Greek era (though, of course, not as developed as it is now). > > >By > >Galileo's (I'm not sure whether it is the 16th or 17th century) time, > >Muslim scientific achievement was well on the wane and the focus of scientific > >achievement was back in Europe. > > And one wonders, idly, where exactly it was that that the focus of > scientific achievement in Europe got its basis? Did they build their > structure from scratch, or did they learn from someone else? What is > your opinion on this, Mr. Reddy? Actually, there is an interesting continuim in these events. Very roughly, the Arabs were the keepers of knowledge through the European dark ages in their people, libraries etc.. The Europeans, using the knowledge obtained by the Crusades, were able to use it to further their own ambitions in trade and conquest. It was also around about the 16th century that scientific achievement broke the shackles imposed by the church and state and began to take on a momentum of it's own. -- T.S.Reddy Arpa: reddy@uts.amdahl.com uucp:...!{ames,decwrl,uunet,pyramid,sun}!amdahl!reddy