On Tue, 1 Jul 2008 20:43:08 -0400, "Justin Case"
<Thinhthi@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>"534@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
" <rtte4353@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>news:g4eh3u$o09$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> The tiling in medieval Islamic architecture turns out to embody a
>> mathematical insight that Westerners thought they had discovered only
30
>> years ago.
>>
>> http://www.newsweek.com/id/36281
>Medieval Arabic (not Islamic) architecture was indeed great.
Unfortunately,
>the rise of the Islamic religion is in direct pro****tion to the decline
of
>Arab culture and peoples. So much so that today, Arab culture has
advanced
>little since the year 1000. The only Arab countries which have advanced
are
>the ones embracing Western thought.
No. The rise in Islamic fundamentalism, not the Islamic religion per
se which progressed and coexisted with science and engineering until
the fundamentalists gained control round about the time Europe was
starting to emerge from the Christian dark ages.
Before that they had made great strides in science. Just look at all
the al-words: alkali, alcohol (from al-kuhl which was an antiseptic
powder that gave its name to alcohol via "the alcohol of wine" which
was also a simple antiseptic), Algol, Aldebaran and other stars.
Algebra - while this has Babylonian origins the word is Arabic,
showing that they knew it when the Christian world didn't..
Also the number zero. Again, I don't think they originated it, it
possibly came from India. But they knew it when the Christian world
didn't.
They were also brilliant hydraulic engineers, using the energy from
flowing rivers to drive pumps to raise the water, often in several
stages.
They also had scholar****p and knew the Greek learning which was
rediscovered in Spanish libraries after the Moors were expelled.
All of which died out in the Islamic world when the fundamentalists
took over.
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