Islam Creator of the Modern Age
1. Islam: Creator of the Modern Age
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civilizations. It gave man freedom of thought—a
freedom which was hitherto totally lacking. Thanks
to this freedom, learning had every opportunity to
flourish. In other older civilizations, learning and
learned people were commonly subjected to
oppression. It follows that the attempt to place
Islamic civilization on a parallel with other
civilizations is a clear historical injustice. This is not
all that there is to the matter. The truth is that it was
actually Islam, not Europe, which heralded the age
of modern science. This is an undeniable historical
event. During the Islamic period, learning was
actively encouraged, and all fields of learning
produced scholars and researchers of repute. This
has been generally acknowledged by historians.
In an exhaustive book on the history of Islam,
The
Cambridge History of Islam,
produced by Professor
P.M. Holt and other orientalists, there is an article in
volume 2-B, entitled “Literary Impact of Islam in
the Modern West,” which shows the far-reaching
influence exerted by Islam in the past on the
learning and civilization of the western world. The
chapter concludes with these words: “.... during the
Middle Ages the trend was almost entirely from
