Islamic empires established libraries that preserved and built on Greek science.

Evidence

During the seventh century, while Europe was mired in the Dark Ages, Islam came onto the scene and Muslim armies established a vast empire that stretched from Central Asia through parts of Europe all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. The Muslim rulers of the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties (661–1258 CE) recognized the advanced development of the kingdoms and cultures they had conquered and took it upon themselves to assimilate and adopt these cultures. They established libraries and translation centers where the great works of science, medicine, and philosophy, both Eastern and Western, were collected and translated. This age of translation was followed by a period of great creativity as a new generation of Muslim thinkers and scientists built upon this knowledge and made their own contributions. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 186

Categorization

• XREF: Grounds the material-interest dismantling of the ‘West developed in isolation’ myth — evidence against the Renaissance-origin story the reader is tracking. — connects to: Andalusian translators saved much classical Greek learning for Europe — , A Year of World Stories, 3376; Islamic translations of Greek and Indian texts catalyzed the European Renaissance. — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 803; Muslim scholars’ work paved the way for the European Renaissance. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 56 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Islamic civilization preserved ancient learning and stimulated Western scholasticism #corroborates (0.85) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 1634