"What does Islam have to do with "The Golden Age of Islam?" What exactly in that religion created those things" I just read this. In any case, George Saliba wrote a book in which he theorises that the way the Islamic administration was organised, which was based on Sassanid administration, encouraged healthy competition. In short, capable administrators were like a precious resource, and after the ‘Abbasid Revolution, some notable Persian families were afraid of losing their traditional majority positions, basically leading to a "rediscovery" of scientific enquiry in order to outrank other families. Islam's contribution to this all was the fact that basically everyone was equal in being Muslim (even though in practice this hardly turned out to be the case) and that for the first time in a lot of years, there was actually a large area under relatively stable rule, and from what we know, the Caliphs in Baghdad patronised scholars and artisans and stuff. In any case, the book is called "Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance". It's interesting enough, but it has its own flaws and didn't really match my expectations. Still, Saliba is really competent at identifying multiple theories about the Islamic Golden Age.
Good, well, that's the first thing one should always remember. That there's always more to learn.
People who are critical of something they don't know about are just noise. Still there is a lot more I can learn.
For someone critical of Islam, you seem to know more about it than most. I admire that.
