Islam Creator of the Modern Age
1. Islam: Creator of the Modern Age
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FREEDOM OF ENQUIRY
In his well-known book,
The Legacy of Islam (1931),
Baron Carra de Vaux acknowledges the
achievements of the Arabs, but nevertheless
relegates them to the status of pupils of the Greeks.
Bertrand Russell, too, in his
History of Western
Philosophy,
sees the Arabs only as transmitters of
Greek thought, i.e. that they brought Greek
knowledge to Europe through their translations.
But this does not do justice to the academic
attainments of the Arabs. It is true that the Arabs
studied Greek literature and profited thereby. But
what they transmitted to Europe was much more
than they themselves had received from Greece.
The truth is that the ideas, which sparked off the
Renaissance in Europe, had not formed part of
Greek thought. Had that been so, Europe’s thinking
would have been transformed much earlier. Then
Europe would not have had to waste a thousand
years before it could have its Renaissance.
It is well known that the progress made by the
Greeks was mostly in the fields of art and
