3. MUSLIM CONTRIBUTION TO SCIENCE

~ 117 ~ LINGUISTICS On account of superstitious beliefs becoming attached to language, linguistics, as a science, stagnated for thousands of years. Writing of this failure to Dr Ernest Gellner, a linguist very aptly commented: ‘Linguistic philosophy has an inverted vision which treats genuine thought as a disease and dead thought as a paradigm of health.’ In antiquity it was generally believed that writing was the gift of God, as in the Indian concept of “Braham lipi.” Words and the form of speech were considered to have been given to man by the gods and, as such, they commanded the highest veneration from humans. John Stevens, in his book Sacred Calligraphy of the East, presents research carried out by himself, which shows that the concept of ‘sacred’ calligraphy persisted for centuries. Scholars differed as to the origin of calligraphy, whether in Egypt, China, India, or any other place. One idea, however, was universal: writing was divine. It was inherently holy. Writing was the speech of the gods.