Customer Reviews
Interesting read - By: gnostic, 07 Nov 2008 
I found this book by chance & wanted to give the writer a chance as well. It's a well written book with one major draw back, there is very little is the way of original sourcing. This was fustrating for me because I was interestedin what the author had to say but at the same time a piece of work must show it sources. He flips the time line of the book from present day places to the past; It can be annoying. Allin all, the book is worth reading & worth purchasing.
I would also like to leave you with the following quote from David King:
"Virtually all innovationsin [astronomical] instrumentationin Europe up to ca. 1550 were either directly or indirectly Islamicin origin or had been conceived previously by some Muslim astronomer somewhere."
excellent book for a mulsims library - By: JC, 15 May 2008 
good for people who want to know or see a non-biased view about the achievements of the Islamic civilization & how they have helped the world of today from medicine to astronomy. every muslim should have itin his/hers home/pubic library to make one proud of your history &in the process elevating ones self-esteem as a muslimin these times of anti-islamic propoganda everywhere.
Superb balanced exposition of our shared history - By: N. Afaf, 26 Jan 2008 As someone from the East who studied at an American liberal arts college, & quite rightly enthused with Western philosophy, science, & the development of rational thought, it has slowly dawned on me that the story is ever more complex.
Great thinkers from various cultures have enriched us - passing ideas & approaches to succeeding generations. Above all, great civilisations & thinkers have always been open to the ideas of others. The inquiring mind is driven by thirst, unconstrained by restrictive ideology that proclaims superiority of one culture over another. Ultimately there is no such lasting superiority - human beings are human beings, & no one has a claim to ascendancy. We ought to celebrate the insights & breakthroughs of all individuals no matter their background, culture & beliefs - though we often don't.
It may sound like yet another politically correct statement, butin truth that debate is sterile. What matters most to the inquiring mind is the truth - the concept of social acceptance or rejection, or of political correctness, is, & ought to be, an irrelevance. Morgan's book is not a statement about political correctness - it is a search for our history.
Studying mathematics & physics, especially its history, it slowly dawned on me that the simple story of Greek thought followed by Age of the Enlightenmentin Europe is a truncated story. The truncations arein the middle - perhaps written out for biased reasons, perhaps just forgotten. There are nowin fact telling clues that the Crusades played a large partin bringing the Westin touch with rational thought - with science, discovery, & the spirit of inquiry.
It is sad when we cheat our children by telling them incomplete stories of human history & development. Our history is a collective history. For me the awareness that the typical Western philosophic education has chosen to eschew telling the tale of great thinkers from other cultures is a slight disappointment - given that I have always taken the Western method to be all about openness & inquiry. But then no one is perfect - be it individual or culture.
Morgan tells the story impartially & with no hint of bias. The theme is the same - that not knowing our rich history, even if belonging to the various Islamic erasin different regionsin different centuries is ultimately everyone's loss. From Al Khwarizmi to Avicenna, to Caliph Rashid & his librariesin Baghdad, to the first man to develop a working parachute, Morgan tells the story of an Islamic culture embraced with a love of knowledge, spirit of inquiry & openness. It is easy to see the links to the flowering of Western thought - after the West camein touch with the East.
It is an enrichening read, all the more so because the author has no axe to grind, but to tell the actual history, & to share it with all. To both sides of the current carefully cultivated divide between East & West, this is simultaneously a delightful & sobering read. Closing one's mind to others serves no purpose. We lose our history & who we were, & where we are headed.
Tiresome minds, both from the East & the West, obsessed with proclaiming the superiority of their own cultures, will find this book an irritant. But those who are curious, & with a genuine thirst for understanding, will find this a refreshing & invaluable read. It will fillin the missing linksin intellectual history that leave confusion, blindness & a sense of dissatisfactionin the inquiry mind. I would suggest a read.
