LEARNING AND ISLAM

~ 56 ~ civilizations. It gave man freedom of thought—a freedom which was hitherto totally lacking. Thanks to this freedom, learning had every opportunity to flourish. In other older civilizations, learning and learned people were commonly subjected to oppression. It follows that the attempt to place Islamic civilization on a parallel with other civilizations is a clear historical injustice. This is not all that there is to the matter. The truth is that it was actually Islam, not Europe, which heralded the age of modern science. This is an undeniable historical event. During the Islamic period, learning was actively encouraged, and all fields of learning produced scholars and researchers of repute. This has been generally acknowledged by historians. In an exhaustive book on the history of Islam, The Cambridge History of Islam, produced by Professor P.M. Holt and other orientalists, there is an article in volume 2-B, entitled “Literary Impact of Islam in the Modern West,” which shows the far-reaching influence exerted by Islam in the past on the learning and civilization of the western world. The chapter concludes with these words: “.... during the Middle Ages the trend was almost entirely from