Rationalist inquiry flourished within Islamic empires, including religious skepticism.

Evidence

The Persian scholar Ibn Sina—known in Western histories as Avicenna—laid the basis for the study of logic, science, philosophy, politics, and medicine. Ibn Rushd systematized Aristotle’s thought so as to introduce rationalism and antimysticism to a new audience; he also went beyond Aristotle to promote rational thought as a virtue in itself. Ibn Rawandi wrote several books questioning the basic principles not only of Christianity and Judaism but of Islam as well. Ibn Rawandi belonged to the Mu’tazilite sect, which went so far as to question whether the Koran was really a collection of the revelations that Muhammad received from God. They used rationalist thinking, fragments of Greek philosophy, and their own observations to develop theories to explain the physical world. In short, science thrived in the world of the Islamic empires. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 187

Categorization

• XREF: Directly rebuts the Pope’s claim and Cromer/Renan’s frame; Mu’tazilite rationalism parallels the modernist skeptics in Kumar’s ‘Islam-before-West’ argument. — connects to: Islam has varied regionally and adapted to historical transformations. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 160; Islamic empires hosted thriving traditions of rationalist and skeptical thought — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 341; Islamic empires hosted rationalist thinkers who questioned even the Quran

Broader Connections

• Islam has varied regionally and adapted to historical transformations. #expands (0.55) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 160