This sounds like a great idea!  But honestly, how many pages can you devote to the invention of the electric prayer rug before it gets monotonous?

An educational foundation in the UK has announced plans to distribute to high schools a free book that highlights the scientific and cultural legacies of Muslim civilization.

1001 Inventions: Muslim Heritage in Our World is the creation of the Foundation for Science Technology and Civilization (FSTC), a Manchester-based organization set up to raise awareness of the contributions of the Muslim world to modern civilization.

FSTC said the contribution that Muslim and other civilizations have made to the modern world has been widely overlooked and that its team of academics has focused on debunking the myth of the so-called “Dark Ages of Civilization.”

“The period between the 7th and 17th centuries – which has been erroneously labelled ‘the Dark Ages’ – was in fact a time of exceptional scientific and cultural advancement in China, India and the Arab world,” Prof. Salim Al-Hassani, chief editor of the book, said.

“This is the period in history that gave us the first manned flight, huge advances in engineering, the development of robotics and the foundations of modern mathematics, chemistry and physics.”

In a technical sense, the book is correct – between the 7th and 17th centuries, there was scientific advancement in China, India, and the Arab World.  Unfortunately for the integrity and honesty of this book’s publisher and promotors, nearly all of that advancement was in China and India.  Nevertheless, the overall premise is simply shoddy.  Robotics?  Manned flight?  Suuuuuure.   While the Muslim world did make some contributions to fields such as optics, chemistry, and mathematics (and they DID, let’s be fair), the al-taqiyya represented here reaches ridiculous proportions.

Further, we should note that for the period between the 7th and 17th centuries in Europe, it is equally erroneous to call these “the Dark Ages.”  Of course, from the 15th century on, Europe was having its own Renaissance, and had already far outstripped the Muslim world intellectually.  But even in the earlier part of the Middle Ages, Europe was advancing in science and culture as much as the rest of the world.  Medieval Europe saw advances in mathematics, physics (especially mechanics and ballistics), engineering, astronomy, and navigation (the technology for Columbus to sail across the Atlantic didn’t appear out of nowhere….)  European construction technology was far superior to that of the Islamic world in the High Middle Ages (12-13th centuries), enabling the Europeans to produce huge and intricate castles and cathedrals that the Muslims could not have begun to match.   Europe led the way in early industrialisation, too.  In the 13th century, London had enough productive industry that it already suffered from air pollution caused by the burning of wood for fuel in forges and other industrial concerns. 

In fact, Europe’s problem in the Middle Ages was not that it was backwards and behind the times – instead, the problem was that the continent was so politically divided that Europeans were unable to project significant power beyond the confines of their own continent until they reached the point where they had a decisive enough technological advantage that small numbers of them could defeat much larger non-European forces. 

Basically, this book represents two seemingly contrary trends in Islamic apologetics that nevertheless seem to converge quite frequently – the attempt to put across the superiority of Islamic culture historically, but doing so in a way that essentially submits Islamic culture and history to the confines of Western ideas of progress and goodness.  Even when lying to downgrade Western contributions at the expense of their own, the Muslims still have to define themselves by Western ideals.  Even in “winning”, they lose.

And really, if you think about it, I don’t see why they think this book would be helpful to their cause.  As anyone can see, the Muslim world today is one of the most backwards, kleptocratic, corrupt regions on the face of the earth.  What does it say about their civilisation’s long-term competency if it can go from having magical robotic manned flight back in the Middle Ages and being the supposedly premiere culture in the world, to having a combined gross national product among its 57 members that is less than that of the Great Satan alone, and being unable to maintain a functioning cellular service without the Great Satan’s technicians?