[allmendream]

Algebra, zero, and that was about it.

Arab's were, at one time, the center of civilization. The works of Rome and Greece were preserved and studied. Medicine, such as it was, was better than in Europe. Scholarship was prized.

Later the attitude towards learning and books became “if they disagree with the Quran they are heresy, if they agree with the Quran they are superfluous - let them burn”

In recalling that past, the modern jihadist fights against the very wellspring of what made that past great.

[tbw2]

The quotes about "Islamic civilization" in Bagdad and Alexandria, Egypt as centers of learning ignores the fact that both cities had this role for millennium BEFORE Islam. However, both declined in prominence after Islam. Badgad took a few decades (after Muslim conquest). The famous library of Alexandria was deliberately burned by Muslim conquerors.

In short, there is NO Muslim civilization. It is only the claiming of the heritage the prior civilizations had as Islamic as it drives them down to the dust-bin of history.

[The_Reader_David]

Zero was discovered by the Hindus (I’m a moderate mathematical Platonist, so, discovered, not invented), put that together with Diophantus’ work (for which Diophantine equations are named) and algebra is but a slight advance, which, incidentally was made by a Persian, not an Arab.