2. HOLDING SACRED THAT WHICH IS NOT SACRED

2. Holding Sacred that which is not Sacred ~ 85 ~ THE EMERGENCE OF SCIENCE In the history of Europe the period from the sixth to the tenth century A.D. is known as the Dark Ages. This is a period when Europe was far from being civilized. “For Europe it was a period of intellectual darkness and barbarity.”38 The term ‘Dark Ages’ was applicable, however, only to Europe; when Europe was enveloped in the murk of the Dark Ages, the light of civilization shone brightly throughout the world of Islam. As Bertrand Russell puts it in his History of Western Philosophy, “From India to Spain, the brilliant civilization of Islam flourished.”39 This Islamic civilization, which entered Europe via Sicily and Spain, exerted a strong influence there, so much so that students from Western Europe started coming to receive their education in the Islamic universities of Spain. Many from the Muslim world likewise went to Europe. When Europeans realised that the Muslims had gone far ahead of them in education, they began to render books written by Muslim scholars into Latin. The Encyclopaedia