The Hidden Debt to Islamic Civilisation

The Hidden Debt to Islamic Civilisation Synopsis A review of the influence of Islamic civilisation in the emergence of European civilisation that focusses on ways in which this has been hidden by Western historians. From the Inside Flap "If there is much misunderstanding in the West about the nature of Islam, there is also much ignorance about the debt our own culture and civilisation owe to the Islamic world. It is a failure, which stems, I think, from the straight-jacket of history, which we have inherited. The medieval Islamic world, from central Asia to the shores of the Atlantic, was a world where scholars and men of learning flourished. But because we have tended to see Islam as the enemy of the West, as an alien culture, society, and system of belief, we have tended to ignore or erase its great relevance to our own history." Prince Charles, Oxford University Speech 1993 The Hidden Debt to Islamic Civilisation is a thorough study of that relevance and how it has been hidden from Western consciousness. Al-Djazairi puts his many years of expert work as an historian into this book. From street lighting to soap, from trigonometry to algebra, from windmills to universities, from nutrition to surgery of the eye, from the paper industry to mass literacy, from the banker