ISLAM: THE LIBERATOR OF THE MIND

~ 65 ~ remained in great awe. (Whole volumes have been written on this very vast subject, including an encyclopaedia.) Greek mythology formed the staple of most Greek poetry and drama. It also influenced the thinking of philosophers and historians to a marked degree. Medieval poets and nearly all the English poets from Shakespeare to Robert Bridges turned to it for inspiration. But stimulating as it was to the arts and literature, it failed to provide the kind of ambience in which men of science, in the modern sense of the word, could flourish. The Greeks may have had the most illustrious civilization of ancient times, but they did nothing to set in motion the processes of scientific thinking, which came much later to Europe. If scientific thought reached Europe, it was entirely due to the stimulus given to it by the Muslims, for, up to that point, the concept of polytheism had acted as a deterrent to progress. The concept