4 ms·

Here are a few words/concepts for you that we in the west borrowed from the Islamic world: * Algebra * Alcohol * Alchemy (root origin of chemistry) * Algori

by cstross 10y ago

Here are a few words/concepts for you that we in the west borrowed from the Islamic world: * Algebra * Alcohol * Alchemy (root origin of chemistry) * Algorithm * Azimuth ... You will note I haven't even gotten past the first letter of the alphabet yet.

notgood 10y ago
All that is from the years it started, after that it's been frozen in time. And unfortunately, the same happened with their moral code.
dogma1138 10y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_algebra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_algebra Want to go back to the greeks and see how many of those were borrowed from them? Or how about the fact that "Arabic Numerals" were borrowed from India? Information changes hands all the time. These things were not brought by Islam, anymore than Judaism somehow brought us nuclear fission and relativity because the likes of Teller, Oppenheimer and Einstein were Jews.
jonyt 10y ago
I believe GP is referring to Islam, not Arabs. Islam is responsible for none of the things you mentioned.
- patrickaljord 10y ago
  Half of them were Persians.
rhizome31 10y ago
Note that GP asked about Islam and you're answering about the Islamic world. One can wonder if those things you mentioned are really rooted in religion, or were just invented in territories were there happened to be a prevailing religion. As an analogy, I wonder if it would be accurate to say that electricity was brought by a given religion even though some of its most major developments happened in territories where that religion prevails.
- candiodari 10y ago
  It is far, far worse than that. Algebra was transported across islamic territory by the muslim slave trade. That is the big contribution of islam. Some Hindu priests got kidnapped by muslims during the conquest of India, and after got knows how many abuses got sold to Venetian traders in Northern Africa. Venetians set them free, and gave them a platform in a monastery, and after a few decades of writing books and a number of false starts, algebra spread (in the sense that the current digits started replacing Roman numerals).
tomjen3 10y ago
Any one of them in the last 200 years? Yeah, though so.
- golergka 10y ago
  On one hand, none of the religions have been of much help to humanity in the last 200 years. On another, if you change it from "Islam" (as in religion) to "islamic cultures" (from Northern Africa to Middle East to Indonesia), your argument would still stand. And on a third hand, there are only so much countries on the edge of technological progress. South america, while being mostly christian, doesn't produce many technological revolutions either. But again, although it's not especially rich or safe region, there aren't many terrorists from South America to US and Europe either. Sorry, I seem to have lost track writing this comment. I know a lot of perfectly valid and logical arguments for both sides of this debate, and yet I have no idea who's "right". May be we should move to a more specific question from the general "is Islam evil or not" theme?
vixen99 10y ago
There was certainly an Islamic 'Golden Age'. Interesting that Omar Khayyám, who's regarded as one of the major mathematicians and astronomers of this Islamic Golden Age was in fact an atheist. He wouldn't fare very well today in many Islamic countries. In Saudi Arabia you face the death penalty if charged as such. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination_against_atheists https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination_against_atheist...
- selimthegrim 10y ago
  To say nothing of Al-Ma'arri
danarmak 10y ago
Did you just seriously claim that Muslims invented alcohol? That no-one brewed beer or made wine before the 7th century?
patrickaljord 10y ago
The Incas had their alcoholic beverage and never had contacts with Islam. China had their rice alcoholic beverage, pre-Islamic ancient Egypt had beers already. "Chinese alcohol predates recorded history. Dried residue extracted from 9,000-year-old pottery implies that early beers were already being consumed by the neolithic peoples in the area of modern China. Made from rice, honey, grapes, and hawthorn, it seems to have been produced similarly to that of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_alcoholic_beverages#Ancient_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_alcoholic_beverages#An.... You're aware that alcohol is nothing more than letting something rot for a while by mistake ie fermentation (rice, grapes, corn etc)? Algebra was invented by Greeks and Egyptians, same for algorithm (Euclyd anyone?) etc. The Islamic world built on top of that and helped improved it and that was awesome, but they did not invent any of these fields. I'm from Muslim Syrian origin myself so it's not like I wouldn't enjoy my ancestors taking all the credits for these fields but this is simply not true.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
dibstern 10y ago
Religion has brought none of those things. If anything, religion has inhibited scientific and economic progress.
eli_gottlieb 10y ago
>* Alcohol Borrowed the word, sure (or at least, borrowed the term "the blue", al-qahoul, relating to an alcohol-based dye used in makeup at one point). Borrowed the thing? Islam bans its production and consumption.

by cstross 10y ago

notgood 10y ago

All that is from the years it started, after that it's been frozen in time. And unfortunately, the same happened with their moral code.

dogma1138 10y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_algebra https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_algebra Want to go back to the greeks and see how many of those were borrowed from them? Or how about the fact that "Arabic Numerals" were borrowed from India? Information changes hands all the time. These things were not brought by Islam, anymore than Judaism somehow brought us nuclear fission and relativity because the likes of Teller, Oppenheimer and Einstein were Jews.

jonyt 10y ago

I believe GP is referring to Islam, not Arabs. Islam is responsible for none of the things you mentioned.

patrickaljord 10y ago
Half of them were Persians.

rhizome31 10y ago

Note that GP asked about Islam and you're answering about the Islamic world. One can wonder if those things you mentioned are really rooted in religion, or were just invented in territories were there happened to be a prevailing religion. As an analogy, I wonder if it would be accurate to say that electricity was brought by a given religion even though some of its most major developments happened in territories where that religion prevails.

candiodari 10y ago
It is far, far worse than that. Algebra was transported across islamic territory by the muslim slave trade. That is the big contribution of islam. Some Hindu priests got kidnapped by muslims during the conquest of India, and after got knows how many abuses got sold to Venetian traders in Northern Africa. Venetians set them free, and gave them a platform in a monastery, and after a few decades of writing books and a number of false starts, algebra spread (in the sense that the current digits started replacing Roman numerals).

tomjen3 10y ago

Any one of them in the last 200 years? Yeah, though so.

golergka 10y ago
On one hand, none of the religions have been of much help to humanity in the last 200 years. On another, if you change it from "Islam" (as in religion) to "islamic cultures" (from Northern Africa to Middle East to Indonesia), your argument would still stand. And on a third hand, there are only so much countries on the edge of technological progress. South america, while being mostly christian, doesn't produce many technological revolutions either. But again, although it's not especially rich or safe region, there aren't many terrorists from South America to US and Europe either. Sorry, I seem to have lost track writing this comment. I know a lot of perfectly valid and logical arguments for both sides of this debate, and yet I have no idea who's "right". May be we should move to a more specific question from the general "is Islam evil or not" theme?

vixen99 10y ago

There was certainly an Islamic 'Golden Age'. Interesting that Omar Khayyám, who's regarded as one of the major mathematicians and astronomers of this Islamic Golden Age was in fact an atheist. He wouldn't fare very well today in many Islamic countries. In Saudi Arabia you face the death penalty if charged as such. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination_against_atheists https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination_against_atheist...

selimthegrim 10y ago
To say nothing of Al-Ma'arri

danarmak 10y ago

Did you just seriously claim that Muslims invented alcohol? That no-one brewed beer or made wine before the 7th century?

patrickaljord 10y ago

The Incas had their alcoholic beverage and never had contacts with Islam. China had their rice alcoholic beverage, pre-Islamic ancient Egypt had beers already. "Chinese alcohol predates recorded history. Dried residue extracted from 9,000-year-old pottery implies that early beers were already being consumed by the neolithic peoples in the area of modern China. Made from rice, honey, grapes, and hawthorn, it seems to have been produced similarly to that of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_alcoholic_beverages#Ancient_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_alcoholic_beverages#An.... You're aware that alcohol is nothing more than letting something rot for a while by mistake ie fermentation (rice, grapes, corn etc)? Algebra was invented by Greeks and Egyptians, same for algorithm (Euclyd anyone?) etc. The Islamic world built on top of that and helped improved it and that was awesome, but they did not invent any of these fields. I'm from Muslim Syrian origin myself so it's not like I wouldn't enjoy my ancestors taking all the credits for these fields but this is simply not true.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

dibstern 10y ago

Religion has brought none of those things. If anything, religion has inhibited scientific and economic progress.

eli_gottlieb 10y ago

>* Alcohol Borrowed the word, sure (or at least, borrowed the term "the blue", al-qahoul, relating to an alcohol-based dye used in makeup at one point). Borrowed the thing? Islam bans its production and consumption.