Islam Creator of the Modern Age
1. Islam: Creator of the Modern Age
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East to West (when Islam acted as the teacher of the
West).”
18
Another orientalist, the French Baron Carra de
Vaux, underlines the achievements of the Arabs by
stating that “the Arabs have really achieved great
things in Science.” “However” he goes on to say,
“we must not expect to find among the Arabs the
same powerful genius, the same gift of scientific
imagination, the same enthusiasm, the same
originality of thought that we have among the
Greeks; their science is a continuation of Greek
science which it preserves, cultivates, and on a
number of points develops and perfects.”
19
Montgomery Watt, however, in his book entitled
The Majesty That Was Islam,
states that there is a
tendency to belittle the work of the Arabs and to
regard them as no more than transmitters of Greek
ideas. He says that Arabs were much more than
transmitters and that Arab science and philosophy
contributed greatly to developments in Europe.
20
This same author, however, makes another point,
which is more open to objection than the remark
that Arabs were mere transmitters. He writes:
