Islamic civilization preserved ancient learning and stimulated Western scholasticism

Evidence

Mohammedan civilization in its great days was admirable in the arts and in many technical ways, but it showed no capacity for independent speculation in theoretical matters. Its importance, which must not be under-rated, is as a transmitter. Between ancient and modern European civilization, the dark ages intervened. The Mohammedans and the Byzantines, while lacking the intellectual energy required for innovation, preserved the apparatus of civilization—education, books, and learned leisure. Both stimulated the West when it emerged from barbarism—the Mohammedans chiefly in the thirteenth century, the Byzantines chiefly in the fifteenth. — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 1634

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 1634
• XREF: connects to: Hostility toward pagan learning persisted within the Church for centuries — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 1508; Scholastic philosophy operates within orthodoxy and uses syllogistic reasoning — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 1658; Egyptian thought seeded Greek intellectual and scientific development — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 437 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Scholastic philosophy operates within orthodoxy and uses syllogistic reasoning #expands (0.60) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 1658