Quote:


The acahaemenid empire was the worlds most advanced and enlightened empire, 1000 years before Islam.

polite_gandalf wrote on Apr 24^th, 2016 at 2:48pm:


Why didn't 10th century chinese know genetic engineering?

... wrote on Apr 24^th, 2016 at 3:29pm:


It all goes back to eugenics, doesn’t it?

Sorry - scientific racialism.

... wrote on Apr 24^th, 2016 at 3:32pm:


Too busy interbreeding with the negroid sub-races, I’m afraid.

Scientific.

... wrote on Apr 24^th, 2016 at 3:29pm:


1000 years eh?

So what happened after that, and why did their revival only occur after they fell to the muslims? They could have had a cultural flowering any time during that interim 1000 years - most of which they were a great and free power in their own right. Doesn't it seem funny that they could only find their intellectual feet again once they were under the yoke of the muslims? Ditto for the Syrian Christians and jews.

polite_gandalf wrote on Apr 24^th, 2016 at 3:52pm:


Because that's when the advances you now consider significant, were made.  It seems my counter-question about 10th century genetic engineers wasn't sufficient to make you think, so let's dial the absurdity up a notch:

Why couldn't the japanese reach the cutting edge of electronics until after they had nukes dropped on them?  Clearly, it was the bombs that enabled their scientific advance.

Al-Ghazali has been referred to by some historians as the single most influential Muslim after the Islamic prophet Muhammad

PERSIAN


Avicenna was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age.[5]

PERSIAN

Sibawayh was an influential linguist and grammarian of the Arabic language. His seminal work Al-Kitab was the first written grammar of the language.[4] Despite his significance to the development of the Arabic language and linguistic tradition, Sibawayh was an ethnic Persian and wasn't a native speaker of Arabic, having learned the language later in life. He has been referred to as the greatest of all Arabic linguists and one of the greatest linguists of all time in any language.

PERSIAN

Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī was a Persian[3] mathematician, astronomer and geographer during the Abbasid Caliphate, a scholar in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad.

In the 12th century, Latin translations of his work on the Indian numerals introduced the decimal positional number system to the Western world.[4] Al-Khwārizmī's The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing presented the first systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations in Arabic. He is often considered one of the fathers of algebra.[5][6] He revised Ptolemy's Geography and wrote on astronomy and astrology.

PERSIAN

Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī was a Persian[3][4] polymath, physician, alchemist, philosopher, and important figure in the history of medicine.

PERSIAN

... wrote on Apr 24^th, 2016 at 4:01pm:


something to do with the billions in US aid and opening their markets up to the west and installing democracy that encouraged innovation etc?

Is your point that great people don't do great things until a great power comes in and creates the right political and cultural climate for them to flourish? You know what - I agree!