Adonis Diaries

What the “Islamic Empire” did a thousand-year ago?

I say Islamic Empire because it is Not the “Arabs” who came from the Peninsula who brought civilization and culture to the vast empire: They were the Syrians, Iraqis, Iranians, Egyptians with education and knowledge with different languages and sciences that translated all the previous knowledge into the Arabic language and added immensely to human knowledge.

“A thousand years is a long time; the first book published in French wasn’t until 1476.

Goodness knows what an Islamic caliphate would have been doing 1,000 years ago? They bought rare books in various languages with gold and swapping prisoners.

They built the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, one of the first universities in the world;

they asked scholars of all faiths to translate every text ever written into Arabic;
they demanded the first qualifications for doctors,

founded the first psychiatric hospitals and invented ophthalmology.

They developed algebra (algorithms are named after their Arab father) and a programmable machine … a computer.
They introduced Aristotle to Europe,

Al-Jahiz began theories of natural selection,
they discovered the Andromeda galaxy,

Classified the spinal nerves and
Created hydropower using pumps and gears.