FREEDOM OF ENQUIRY

~ 33 ~ FREEDOM OF ENQUIRY In his well-known book, The Legacy of Islam (1931), Baron Carra de Vaux acknowledges the achievements of the Arabs, but nevertheless relegates them to the status of pupils of the Greeks. Bertrand Russell, too, in his History of Western Philosophy, sees the Arabs only as transmitters of Greek thought, i.e. that they brought Greek knowledge to Europe through their translations. But this does not do justice to the academic attainments of the Arabs. It is true that the Arabs studied Greek literature and profited thereby. But what they transmitted to Europe was much more than they themselves had received from Greece. The truth is that the ideas, which sparked off the Renaissance in Europe, had not formed part of Greek thought. Had that been so, Europe’s thinking would have been transformed much earlier. Then Europe would not have had to waste a thousand years before it could have its Renaissance. It is well known that the progress made by the Greeks was mostly in the fields of art and