Civilization #37: The Golden Age of Islam

The Abbasid Caliphate was considered the Golden Age of Islam. Before the Mongolian conquest, the House of Wisdom in Baghdad was the global center of learning and literacy. Muslim scientists and mathematicians were respected and influential even in Europe.

Why did the Islamic world enter its Golden Age, while Europe was stuck in its Dark Ages? Why did this Golden Age come to an end? Why did Christianity eventually overtake the Islamic world?

In this lecture to his Chinese high school students, Jiang Xueqin explains that Islam was an intellectual revolution that combined the intimate inter-connectedness of paganism with the absolute clarity of monotheism. This revolution would initiate a new era of human creativity.