A person that I truly admire in the world of academe is Professor Glen Cooper, a BYUand Columbia-trained expert on discoveries and inventions arising from Islamic civilizations. According to his well-documented research, it was Islamic civilizations which gave the West its blueprint for university education today. In eighth century Baghdad, Muslim intellectuals first translated Greek and Indian science and philosophy into Arabic texts that, when later translated into Latin, catalyzed the European renaissance that we all praise today. It was also these same Islamic scientific texts which transformed Western science and ushered in a period of European dominance which many believe ultimately led to the Industrial Revolution.

XREF: Connects to broader narratives about the transmission of knowledge from Islamic to Western civilization, relevant to discussions of Eurocentric historiography.

XREF: Connects to the long-established historiographical correction (Lyons, Saliba) that medieval Islamic scholars preserved and advanced classical knowledge prior to the European revival.

Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Gl…, loc. 803