Thread by @xspotsdamark

What if I told you Western Civilization is actually Islamic civilization?
A thread on how Arab Muslims combined the Far East & Mediterranean ideas to create Western civilization

In 256 AD, Persian Emperor Shapur of the Sassanid Empire captured the Roman city of Antioch, along with two Roman legions. Shapur carried the Roman & Greek prisoners back to Iran & forced them to build a city to house themselves

After the Roman prisoners finished building the city, which was built in traditional Roman style, Shapur was so impressed that he decided to make the city the winter capital for Sassanid Emperors and the ruling class. The city was named Gundeshapur.

It is said Emperor Shapur was envious of the great library of Alexandria, Egypt. Shapur decided to build his own great library in Gundeshapur. Thousands of books & ancient texts were collected from across the Sassanid Empire, India & China & stored at the academy of Gundeshapur.

Fast forward to 391 AD, Roman Emperor Theodosius declares Christianity the only religion of the Roman Empire. In response, bishop Theophilus of Alexandria, Egypt, orders Christian mob to destroy all Egyptian pagan texts. The library of Alexandria is burned.

Before the destruction of the library, Greek pagans managed to spirit away several valuable texts, including the works of classical Greek philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato, & ancient Egyptian texts. These texts would later be stored in the Platonic Academy of Athens.

In 529 AD, Byzantine-Roman Emperor Justinian began persecuting non-Christians across the Byzantine world. He places the platonic academy under state control, & outlaws the teaching of all non-Christian ideas. Thousands of Greek pagans flee the Byzantine empire.

Pagans fled into the Sassanid Empire. These refugees included several of the teachers & students from the Platonic Academy. They bring along with them several of the ancient texts & other contemporary Greek books. These texts are stored in the library of Gundeshapur.

The academy of Gundeshapur now housed the combined knowledge of the Ancient Egyptians, Ancient Greeks, Chinese & Indians. First, at Gundeshapur & later in Baghdad, Muslim scholars would fused & synthesize all these ideas into what we now call modern science.

In 632 AD, Arab Muslims of the Rashidun Caliphate began their conquest of Iran. These led to the end of the Sassanid Empire & the decline of the Zoroastrian religion. Thousands of Persians convert to Islam. Arab Muslims also take over the library of Gundeshapur

Over the years, Arab & Persian Muslims begin translating the contents of the library of Gundeshapur into Arabic. These texts are copied multiple times & stored in libraries across the Muslim world from Pakistan, the Middle, to North Africa.

One student of these texts was 9th century Persian Muslim, Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (al Xorazmiy). After studying Ancient Indian texts, al-Khwarizmi codified Indian number system into the Arabic number system, which we all use today.

Al Khwarizmi also invented the decimal point, algebra, and algorithms (which bears the Latin translation of his name, al gorismus). A Latin translations of one of his books remained the standard mathematical textbook across Europe until the 17th century, 700 years after his death

Another Persian Muslim, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), produced the first work on the transmission, treatment & prevention of disease, and is considered the father of modern medicine. Ibn Sina also made significant contributions to astronomy, mathematics & philosophy

Ibn Sina is best known for deciphering the works of Aristotle. Even the Greeks of the 10th century couldn't understand them. Ibn Sina was also the first to postulate that light was a particle & had a finite speed

Ibn Sina's translation of Aristotle is still the standard for all of Aristotle's works to this day. Ibn Sina was also the first person to theorize that the universe has a beginning & the first to theorize that tiny organisms cause disease.

Iraqi Muslim mathematian Ibn al-Haytham pioneered modern science. He invented the science of optics, invented the lense, discovered gravity, invented calculus & was the first to theorize that light was a wave, 600 years before Isaac Newton.

One of the greatest inventors of the medieval world was Iraqi engineer Ismail al-Jazari. His inventions included the toilet flushing mechanism still in use today, automated water pumps, & a humanoid robot butler for pouring coffee. Al Jazari is considered the father of Robotics

Arab Muslims also introduced modern banking, private ownership & cultivation of land by peasants, private enterprise. They even invented what we now know as Capitalism

The works of all these Islamic scholars were later introduced into Europe during the Muslim occupation of Spain. Caliph Al Hakam's library of Cordoba, Spain, contained 400,000 books.

When Europeans began to reconquer Spain, Benedictine & Dominican monks were charged with destroying all Arabic literature. The monks were awed by the breadth of knowledge, & instead decided to translate to first translate the text into Latin before burning the Arabic versions

After the conquest of Sicily from the Muslims by the Normans (French Vikings), the County of Sicily (Later Kingdom of Sicily) was founded. In Sicily, the Normans became enamored with Islamic culture. The King of Sicily, Frederick II, had several Arabic texts translated into Latin

Frederick II would go on to become King of Italy, Germany, Jerusalem & Holy Roman Emperor. Known for his love of Islam, Frederick II was probably the man most responsible for spreading Muslim ideas across Western Europe.

Books cited in this thread.