Islam Creator of the Modern Age
1. Islam: Creator of the Modern Age
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development in knowledge, religion and legal
systems in the complete absence of a conception of
science as it is now understood. Such were the
civilizations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, India
and the western hemisphere. Even the Hebrews,
people whose religion forms a large part of the basis
of European civilization, were indifferent to science.
Although some two and a half millennia ago the
Greeks created a system of thought that was similar
to the scientific, in succeeding centuries there was
little progress beyond their achievement and little
comprehension of it. The great power of science and
its pervasive influence on all aspects of life are thus
very recent developments.
The dawn of European science has traditionally
been located among the philosophers of the Greek
city states on the coast and islands of the eastern
Mediterranean, in the later sixth and fifth centuries
B.C. Their work is known only through
fragmentary references, and brief quotations made
by authors who came later, perhaps by hundreds of
years.
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