At one time Islam was open, tolerant and intellectual. This was prior to Imam al-Ghazzali (1058-1111) who started a movement based on theology which eventually would end the period of scientific discovery or the Golden Age of Islam. This age of enlightenment, literature, culture, mathematics, astronomy, medical advances and public education; this was enjoyed in much of the Islamic world. This age would span almost 400 years then end abruptly with the sacking of Baghdad.
Imam al-Ghazzali was so influential he successfully changed the course of Islamic philosophy. His book "The Incoherence of Philosophers" successfully refuted logic and reason used in the past by stating that those who employed Greek intellectual methods and ideas were corrupting the Islamic faith.
One has to wonder about three events in history which slowed intellectual discovery:
- Sacking of Rome by Alaric and the Visigoths in 410ce
- Theodosius' decree, Christians sack Library of Alexandria. They then strip, murder and flay Hypatia in 415ce
- Sack of Baghdad 1258ce by the Mongols
All three examples show us a society, culture and intellect taken down by ignorance and fear. Imagine how much more advanced we would be as a people had these three events not occurred.
In Rome alone, they had running water, flushing toilets, heated houses through radiant floor heat and hot water when needed. These are just a few examples of what was lost.
It would take over 1000 years to get some of that back for the rich people in society. It would take until post WWII for the majority of Americans to have that level of lifestyle.
It would be a shame to get set back again because of religious fanaticism and ignorance. Maybe it is time for reasonable people to start confronting those who use Fox talking points and loud talk instead of tolerance, reason and facts.
America's future is cemented in its educational system and the sciences. Our economy, culture and lifestyle depend on a future with a foundation in intellect, creative thought, arts, math and the sciences.
I don't think that the sack of Rome qualifies as one of the turning points. While the Romans were masters of engineering and maintenance on the water systems of Rome required a high standard of technical insight, Rome was hardly much more of a center of learning and culture than most of the other cities in the empire.
ReplyDeleteWhile the Visigoth loot included lots of culturally valuable artifacts, quite a lot of those were looted by the Romans first.
A quite significant and willful destruction of cultural achievements occurred in the Kingdom of the Franks shortly after Charlemagne's death, when his religious nut successor Louis had all the collections of Germanic myth and legend burnt that the scholars of Charlemagne sort of rescued while their king slaughtered and deported their oral sources systematically. I would vote for this to be the most culturally destructive event of the Viking Age.