PREFACE

Preface ~ 9 ~ Historians have generally accepted that it was the science, which reached Europe through the Arabs (who were, of course, Muslims), which finally brought about the Renaissance (or the first awakening, to be more precise). Professor Hitti writes that Arabic translations of books available in different languages, as well as original works prepared by the Arabs in Arabic after the establishment of Bait al-Hikmah in Baghdad in 832, were translated into Latin. “This stream was rediverted into Europe by the Arabs in Spain and Sicily whence it helped create the Renaissance of Europe.”3 The question remains to be answered, however, as to what brought about this mentality in the Arabs in the first place, considering that they themselves had been submerged in the same backwardness, which prevailed throughout the entire world of that time. There can be only one answer: the creed of monotheism was the cause of this mental and practical revolution. Other nations had polytheism, while the Arabs, after the advent of Islam, had come to be imbued with the spirit of monotheism. It was this difference, which caused the divergence in their