Civilization #37: The Golden Age of Islam

Today, we will look at Islam, focusing on the Islamic Golden Age. We will explore three major questions:

1. While Europe was in its Dark Ages, Islam embarked on its Golden Age. How did this divergence happen?
2. What ended the Islamic Golden Age? Why did this period come to an end?
3. How did Christian Europe eventually overtake the Muslim world?

Quick Facts About Islam

Islam is the world's second-largest religion. Christianity has two billion followers, and Islam has one billion. They are divided into two major sects: the Shia, based primarily in Iran, and the Sunni, which is everywhere else.

As you can see, Islam extends across Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and into India. The most populous Muslim country in the world is actually Indonesia.

The only major difference between the Shia and the Sunni is that the Shia believe that only a direct descendant of Muhammad's grandson, Ali, can be the leader of the religion, whereas the Sunni do not believe this. This is a religion of one billion people, so there are many different belief systems and sects within this cosmology, but this is really the major difference between the Shia and the Sunni.

Muslim means to submit yourself to God, to believe in God, and to commit yourself wholeheartedly to him. Islam was founded by a man named Muhammad, whom Muslims consider the final prophet of God. Jesus was the penultimate prophet. The legend is that at age 40, Muhammad, who was a merchant or a trader, had a vision. He went into a cave to meditate, and the Archangel Gabriel visited him, revealing certain visions that he memorized. These visions became the basis for the holy book of the Muslim tradition, called the Quran.

Muhammad understood that his mission was to be a messenger of God and to reveal the truth of God to the pagan society in the Arabian world, specifically Mecca. When he tried to reveal this truth, he was met with a lot of resistance and was eventually forced out of Mecca. He went to Medina in a journey called the Hijra in the Muslim tradition—the pilgrimage.

When he went to Medina, he became the leader of the warring factions within the city, primarily between the pagans, the Muslim tribes, and the Jewish tribes. At this point, Muhammad created what is called the Constitution of Medina, which promised religious freedom to everyone. From the very beginning—and this is very important—the religion of Islam was an open, tolerant, and inclusive religion, and they maintained this tradition for the next thousand years.

Eventually, Islam spread from the Arabian desert all across the Middle East. They conquered the Persian Empire and took at least half of the Byzantine Empire, including its richest parts, which were Syria and Egypt. They also took Jerusalem, where they built the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Legend has it that Muhammad ascended to Heaven from this place.

What's really important for us to remember about this place is that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is still there in Jerusalem, and it is built on top of something called the Temple Mount. Remember, in the year 70, the Romans burned down the Second Temple of the Jews, the holiest site in the Jewish faith. Then the Muslims came and built the Al-Aqsa Mosque on top of the Temple Mount. This is a very strange thing to do if the Muslim tradition is open, inclusive, and tolerant, and Jews are welcome. Why would you build a mosque on top of the Jewish holy site? That doesn't really make any sense, and quite honestly, this has been a mystery to everyone. No one has been able to figure this out. Today, we will attempt to solve one of the great mysteries in the Islamic tradition: why was the Al-Aqsa Mosque built on top of the Jewish Temple Mount?

As I mentioned, the Arabs expanded from the desert of Arabia, conquering the Sasanian Persian Empire and taking at least half of the Byzantines. They tried to lay siege to Constantinople, but remember that the city was designed as an impenetrable fortress. There were two major sieges, and because of the walls and Greek Fire, they were unable to take the city.

The spread of Islam was lightning-fast. In less than 100 years, they spread from the desert of Arabia—really the poorest place in this entire region—throughout most of the Middle East.

The Umayyad Caliphate was established around the year 700. Let's just compare the Umayyad Caliphate with other empires, including the Tang Dynasty in China. The Tang really is the height of Chinese civilization, but as you can see, the Umayyad Caliphate was the largest empire in the world at this time, and eventually, they would also become the wealthiest.

The Five Pillars of Islam

It is an extremely simple and clear religion when compared with Christianity and Judaism. There are five pillars to the religion:

• First, you have to believe that Allah (God) is the only God. This mirrors the Christian and the Jewish faith.
• You are required to pray at least five times a day, facing the direction of Mecca.
• You must give money to the poor.
• You must fast during the holy days.
• The last thing is you must make the Hajj, which is a pilgrimage to the holy site in Mecca and perform rituals there. This is something that all Muslims must do. The poorest Muslims will save their entire lives just so that they can make this Hajj.

The Muslim people are probably the most devout, the most religious people you will meet. They take their religion very, very seriously.

The Three Great Mysteries of Early Islam

To summarize the introduction, there are three major mysteries to the history of Islam that we still haven't really solved today.

1. We know they have the Constitution of Medina, and we also know that literate Jews were part of the early movement of Islam. So why do we have no early records for the first 100 years of the movement? That's very, very strange. Another strange thing is, why would the Muslims go to war against two major empires, the Romans and the Persians? That's kind of suicidal. They didn't know they were going to win. So why did they go to war?
2. Remember I said that the Shia and the Sunni have a major sectarian divide. The Shia believe that only the descendants of Muhammad's grandson Ali can be the caliph, the leader of the Muslim people. The Sunnis don't. So why didn't Muhammad just name a successor and avoid the civil wars that would erupt after his death?
3. Why was Al-Aqsa built on the site of the Temple Mount? This is still a problem today because a lot of the conflict in the Middle East is driven by this problem, where the Jews want to rebuild the temple, but to do so they would have to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is the third holiest site in the Islamic world.

This is a very important question that is still relevant to us today. We will look at these three mysteries. Again, no one knows the answers to any of these three questions, and no one will ever know because so much of the historical record has been lost to us. But I will try to provide you with an explanation, given my understanding of the Islamic world, which by the way is extremely limited. So please ask questions and please challenge me.

The Islamic Golden Age

At the height of Islamic influence, there were a few centers of incredible cultural creativity. One such site is Bukhara, Uzbekistan. It's still there; you can get on a plane and visit it. It is an incredible city. I say that without actually having visited it, but I've heard terrific things, and you can go online as well and look at videos. It is an incredible city that shows you the immense artistic creativity of the Islamic Golden Age.

But the main cultural center of the Islamic Golden Age is Baghdad. It's not so beautiful now, but back then, it was really the center of the world. It's a round city, and it's a new city.

Baghdad was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, which started the Islamic Golden Age. The Abbasid Caliphate is the successor to the Umayyad Empire.

The thing that's really important for us to understand about the Abbasid Empire is that not only were they influential in the Muslim world, but they eventually would come to create the world that we live in today. When we think of globalization, we think of this as a recent phenomenon, but look at the trade route that the Abbasid Caliphate would create over its 300- to 400-year history. It connected the entire world.

Globalization has always existed to a certain extent in world history, but the Abbasids and the Muslim religion would take these existing networks and make them a lot richer, a lot more dense, and a lot faster. You may not know this, but the Abbasids traded heavily with the Tang and the Song dynasties. In fact, it is the Abbasids who would initiate the Maritime Silk Road. The Overland Silk Road had existed for a long time, but it is the Abbasids who would eventually create the Maritime Silk Road and bring China into the world to a greater extent than ever before.

The main center for cultural production in the Muslim world is the House of Wisdom. Its model is the Library of Alexandria. Remember we discussed the Library of Alexandria in Egypt; its mission was to be the first university to take all Hellenistic knowledge and culture and systematize it for dissemination. The House of Wisdom was doing the same thing, where it would take all knowledge and culture within the Islamic world and outside the Islamic world and systematize and codify it for mass dissemination.

The things that they were doing were taking Hindu numerals—0, 1, 2, 3, we still use them today—from India, and again, they standardized and disseminated this knowledge. They took works from Aristotle and Plato, translated them into Arabic and Persian, and then disseminated them. The main contribution of the Islamic Golden Age to world culture is actually in mathematics. They took all the math from the Greek world, the Persian world, and the Hindu world, and then they would systemize it and build on top of it.

This is a rendition of the House of Wisdom, where the three major creative civilizations would meet and exchange ideas: the Greeks, the Jews, and the Persians. They would also take ideas from the Indian and Chinese traditions as well.

The major literary work that we still have today from the Islamic Golden Age is The Arabian Nights. Scholars have looked at this very closely, and most believe that these stories are actually from India. Also, what's important for us to understand is that at the time this was translated, it was actually not that popular within the Muslim world. Poetry, philosophy, mathematics, and science were considered the high arts; this was considered low art. Why we have it today is that the Europeans would discover this centuries after the Islamic Golden Age, and they fell in love with these stories. That's why we still have them today, and Disney movies are based on this as well.

Key Thinkers and Contributions

Let's look at some of the major thinkers and philosophers of the Islamic Golden Age. At this time in world history, we don't differentiate between philosophers, poets, scientists, and mathematicians. All intellectuals engaged in all these different fields.

• One of the most famous is Rumi, who is a Persian poet, mystic, and philosopher.
• Ibn Sina is probably the most famous intellectual of the Islamic Golden Age. His books and works were admired in Europe. Islamic philosophy was being exported to Europe, where it would have a major influence on many of Europe's major thinkers. You may have heard of a man named Leonardo Fibonacci; you should have heard of him in math class. Well, at this particular time in history, he was going to Baghdad to study from the leading mathematicians of this time and taking their ideas and importing them all back to Europe. Ibn Sina's Latin name is Avicenna.
• Ibn Rushd (Averroes) is also a major intellectual at this time. Just to show you how influential these two were in Europe, let's look at Dante's Divine Comedy. Dante is in hell, and there in Limbo, he's meeting the most influential, the greatest philosophers in human history who have influenced European civilization. Obviously, he's going to name Socrates and Plato. But guess what? He also names Averroes and Avicenna. Dante is acknowledging the debt Europeans have to Islam. This is important for us because the Muslim intellectual influence on Europe has been whitewashed from history. This is something you do not learn in school usually, but you can make the argument that without Islam, Europe could not have modernized. Later on, I'll explain why that's the case.
• Omar Khayyam is another famous intellectual, poet, and philosopher.
• This man, Musa al-Khwarizmi, is considered the father of modern-day algebra. His Latin name is Algoritmi. If this sounds familiar, it's because his name will give us the modern English word algorithm. Both algebra and algorithm were originally Arabic words. Most of the math you're studying in school actually originated during the Islamic Golden Age.
• This name is Alhazen, and he basically invented physics and optics. Again, he was extremely influential, and these ideas would be imported back to Europe and become the basis of the Renaissance.
• Al-Zahrawi is the father of surgery. At this time in world history, the very best hospitals were in the Islamic world, by far. This is the first 24-hour hospital in Baghdad. What's also amazing about these hospitals is that if you were poor and could not pay, you could receive medical treatment for free. That was just part of the faith; all poor were treated with great charity and kindness.
• The University of Al-Qarawiyyin was founded in 859 in Fes, Morocco. This is important because this is actually the first degree-granting university in the whole world, and it's still there. This is the oldest university in the world. What's also amazing is it was founded by a woman who inherited a fortune from her father, and she spent all her money on building this university.

The End of the Golden Age and Lasting Influence

In 1258, the Islamic Golden Age officially came to an end, or that's what scholars believe. The reason why is that in 1258, the Mongols sacked Baghdad and burned all the books, or that's what the legend tells us.

Baghdad had a thriving bookstore culture, and this was unique in the world. Intellectuals, or the elite, spent a lot of their resources on buying books. They imported paper from China and learned how to make it, so books were extremely popular within Baghdad, especially among the elite. As well, because of the Quran, it was necessary for the elite to be literate. It was demanded of you to be literate, and the Quran would also standardize Arabic and make it the official language of the entire Muslim world.

But just because the Islamic Golden Age ended does not mean that creativity stopped in the Muslim world. This is Ibn Khaldun, and he is considered the father of social science: economics, quantitative history, politics. This man invented a lot of these disciplines. He is most famous for his idea of asabiyyah, which means social cohesion. He was actually the first to systematically think about grand history: why do civilizations rise and why do they decline? His conclusion is that the borderlands are able to conquer empires because the people there have asabiyyah, which just means that they are more egalitarian, more free, and more cohesive as a culture, whereas the empire, because it's so big, loses a lot of cohesion.

From 1300 to 1700, the world would be dominated by three major empires: the Ottomans, the Safavids in Iran, and the Mughals in India. They are collectively known as the Gunpowder Empires. What's amazing is that since its inception around 622 up until the year 1700, the Islamic religion dominated the world. The question for us is, why was that the case? How did Islam overtake Europe and overtake Christianity?

Solving the Three Mysteries

Let's go back to the three mysteries that I introduced earlier.

1. Why do we have no written records, even though we know that people within the movement—Jews and Christians—knew how to read and write?
2. Why didn't Muhammad name a successor?
3. Why was the Al-Aqsa Mosque built on top of the Temple Mount?

This is a paradox because Jews were an extremely important part of that early movement. So why would you offend the Jews like this? To understand what happened, let's go back in time. We know that in 622, Muhammad goes to Medina, and that's what starts the Islamic movement. But let's go over to Jerusalem and figure out what's happening there. Once we do that, then we're able to figure out what's going on.

It turns out that in 622, there's a major war going on between the two major powers at this time: the Persians and the Byzantines. It is a deadly war that is engulfing the entire Middle East. The Jews had aligned themselves with the Persians. Why? First of all, the Romans controlled Jerusalem, and in the year 70, the Romans burned down their temple. In the year 135, the Romans expelled the Jews from Jerusalem, their holy city. Ever since then, the Jews obviously wanted revenge, but they also wanted to return to their holy city and rebuild the temple. With the Persians, they saw this as an opportunity because, historically, the Persians and the Jews have gotten along very well.

So the Jews helped the Persians take Jerusalem and push out the Byzantines. But when that happened, the Christians in Jerusalem revolted and forced out the Jews. Then the Byzantines, under their Emperor Heraclius, returned to Jerusalem in the first crusade. This is the beginning of the idea of a crusade. They retook the city, and then they expelled the Jews from Jerusalem, obviously, but then they started to kill a lot of Jews.

Now these Jews have nowhere to go. But there's the Constitution of Medina in Arabia. There is a prophet, Muhammad, who is promising religious tolerance for all. All can practice their faith in peace. So it makes sense for a lot of these Jews—not all of them, but a lot of them—to join this early movement.

What's important for us to understand is that at this point, "Islam" or "Muslim" is not a distinct religion. All these people are called "Believers" because Muhammad saw himself as the final messenger of God. Abraham was the first, then you had Moses, then you have Jesus, and now Muhammad is the very last. So all these three different traditions—the Christian tradition, the Jewish tradition, and the Islamic tradition—in the beginning were all just one religion, one idea, which is to bring God to Earth and make everyone understand that God is the true God. To create monotheism on Earth—that's the origin of this new religion of Islam.

This is the Constitution of Medina, which is in the Quran and which we know to be historically true, maybe not the wording, but we know that this existed. These people were called Believers, and this would also include people who believed in Zoroastrianism because Zoroastrianism was also a monotheistic religion. The Constitution of Medina was an attempt to unite all monotheistic religions into one single tradition that fought for God.

Also, what's really important for us to understand is not only is there all this persecution going on against Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians, but this is also an apocalyptic age where all three traditions believed this was literally the end of the world.

• If you were Jewish, you believed in a final battle called Armageddon between the Messiah, who would lead you, and two enemies called Gog and Magog. Guess what? The Persians and the Romans were fighting each other. So you could easily interpret this to mean the Persians and the Romans were the Gog and Magog enemy in your tradition. This will be the final battle. This is when Jerusalem is most threatened. Well, the Byzantines just took your city and massacred your people. So in the Jewish tradition, this is the end of days. This is the final battle, and the Messiah would emerge to lead you to final victory. A lot of Jews could interpret that person to be Muhammad.
• For Christians, they also believed this is the end of days because there's a final battle between the Antichrist and the Messiah. The Antichrist is obviously Heraclius, who is the Emperor of the Byzantines, who've been persecuting Christians for a long time. Remember, the official religion of the Byzantines is the Holy Trinity, but most Christians didn't believe in the Holy Trinity and they were persecuted for their refusal to believe in it. So for Christians, this is also the final battle.
• Zoroastrians believe in the final battle between good and evil.

This is an apocalyptic age where everyone believes this is it, the final battle. Muhammad is saying to everyone, "Guys, we're all one people, united by God, and we are here to fight for him." This is very appealing for people.

The best evidence for my argument is actually the Quran. We don't have any written records of Muhammad, but we do believe the Quran is a collection of many of Muhammad's original sayings that have been redacted over time. Let's look at some passages from the Quran to better understand how Muhammad was thinking and what he was preaching to the Christians, the Jews, and the Zoroastrians.

O People of the Book, why do you argue about Abraham while the Torah and the Gospel were not revealed until after him? Then will you not reason? Here you are—those who have argued about that of which you have knowledge, but why do you argue about that of which you have no knowledge? And Allah knows, while you know not. Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but he was one inclining toward truth, a Muslim [submitting to Allah]. And he was not of the polytheists. (Quran 3:65-67)

He's saying, why are we arguing about scripture? Why are we arguing about belief? We all acknowledge that Abraham is our forefather, and Abraham came before the Bible, before the Old Testament and the New Testament. So what's the argument here? A Muslim is someone who believes in God as the only true God, and that includes Jews and Christians.

Let's also look at Muhammad responding to the Christian tradition. Remember, in the Christian tradition, a lot of conflict arises from a debate over the nature of Jesus and his relationship with God. What Muhammad is saying is, "Guys, the idea of Jesus makes no sense. Jesus cannot be God. Jesus at best can only be a messenger of God, just like me." The idea that Jesus is God makes no sense. Jesus was a human, just like me. God is God; he would not represent himself through a human.

They have certainly disbelieved who say, "Allah is the Messiah, the son of Mary" while the Messiah has said, "O Children of Israel, worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord." Indeed, he who associates others with Allah—Allah has forbidden him Paradise, and his refuge is the Fire. And there are not for the wrongdoers any helpers. They have certainly disbelieved who say, "Allah is the third of three." And there is no god except the one God. And if they do not desist from what they are saying, there will surely afflict the disbelievers among them a painful punishment. (Quran 5:72-73)

What he's saying—this is very important—is that the Holy Trinity is just nonsense. "They disbelieve those who say, 'Allah is a third of three.'" Allah cannot be a third, a fraction of anything. He is the one and only.

In our time, when we hear this, we don't really have an emotional reaction. But place yourself back in their time, the year 622. Most Christians are being persecuted for refusing to accept the Holy Trinity as scripture because it makes no sense. We discussed this before. But if you say it makes no sense, you could be killed. You'll be persecuted for sure. And now Muhammad is saying, "You guys were right all along. You should have believed in yourself all along. You were right."

Let's use an analogy. Let's just say, for example, we have a world government, and for whatever reason, the world government tells us the sky is red. And you're like, "Wait a minute, I know blue and I know red, and the sky is blue." But if you say the sky is blue, you will be put in jail. You are not allowed to say the sky is blue. And then you have people, teachers like me, telling you the reason why you believe the sky is blue and not red is your eyes lie to you. You cannot trust yourself. Your eyes are defective. That's a problem with human beings; we can't trust what we see. You have to go through life believing the sky is red, even though you know in your heart it's blue. But then one day, someone like a teacher says to you, "Actually, guys, we've been lying to you all along. The sky is blue." Imagine your sense of relief and empowerment and liberation when someone of authority actually tells you what you've always believed. That's what Muhammad is doing. Muhammad is confirming to everyone that what they believed, what they knew about God, was right all along.

Muhammad's final message to the people is that God is God and only God, and he is everywhere. You can see him, you can touch him, because he's everywhere. As such, you can feel him, and he can be inside of you. This idea occupies most of the Quran.

And with Him are the keys of the unseen; none knows them except Him. And He knows what is on the land and in the sea. Not a leaf falls but that He knows it. And no grain is there within the darknesses of the earth and no moist or dry [thing] but that it is [written] in a clear record. (Quran 6:59)

God is everywhere. You can see and touch him in everything. In other words, what's happening is that Islam is really the first monotheistic religion in the modern sense. When we think of monotheism, we're actually thinking of the Islamic version of monotheism.

The power and beauty of Islam comes from how it is able to unite two major intellectual traditions in the world. The first is paganism. Remember the Vikings? They told stories, they acted out rituals, and therefore there was an intimacy, concreteness, and interconnectedness to paganism that made us feel happy and good. It made us understand the world; it made us feel as though we could influence the world. That's the power of paganism. But Islam is doing the same thing by making God concrete. You can feel God. God is everywhere; he knows everything.

But what Islam is also doing is taking the simplicity, clarity, and absoluteness of monotheism. Monotheism is nice because with it, everything becomes clear to you. There's one God; therefore, I just have to follow him, I just have to believe in him. There are a million gods in paganism, so it's unclear what you should do or how you should relate to them. But here in monotheism, the relationship between God and you is very, very clear.

In other words, Islam is a major intellectual revolution in human history, and we have forgotten this because the idea of Islam has embedded itself into modernity itself. Islam really is the proto-modernity. When we say that modernity began in Europe, we forget that Islam really built the basis for it. It's completing the story in the Bible, bringing God to the people. You can now touch God, you can now know God. That's the beginning of the idea of Protestantism. And creating heaven on Earth—this is the idea of science. Why do we use science to make the world better? Because God wants us to make the world better.

A lot of the ideas that will underpin modernity—that God can be in us and that God expects us to make the world better—are already there in the beginnings of Islam. That's why we will have the Islamic Golden Age, because they are propelled by their devotion to the one true God.

Answering the Three Mysteries

Let me very quickly answer the three mysteries.

1. Why were there no written records? The answer is, first of all, Islam marks a revolution. It is overturning the social order. The problem, though, is that eventually, Islam will become the social order, so you obviously don't want to paint Muhammad as a revolutionary. Second, we know that his early followers, the companions, were all wiped out. They all died. The official history says that they died in military conflicts, but here's the amazing thing about early Islamic history: we don't have that much evidence of military conflict between the Arabs and the Persians and the Byzantines. We think that a lot of the conquest happened organically, or maybe their enemies surrendered to them rather than fighting them. That's why I would say it's a revolution, not a conquest. It's a revolution where ordinary people were so disgusted with the current leadership that they opted for a new belief system. The problem, though, is that once you amass power and it's a coalition, the question then is, who's now in charge? For the next 150 years, there will be a series of civil wars to determine who will be in charge. Those early companions were probably purged. They were wiped out, including the Jews and the Christians. We know for a fact that in the early days of Islam, Jews and Christians were part of the hierarchy. There's a man named St. John of Damascus who was very famous, and he was a lead official in the Umayyad Caliphate. We know that as a fact. But eventually, they were purged from the system. And if they're purged, what happens is they also purge history. Because if these are the companions of Muhammad—Christians and Jews—then they're legitimate, more legitimate than you are. Therefore, they have to purge that history. The third thing is that there will be a series of continuous civil wars among the Arabs to determine who will be the caliph, and obviously, they want to disguise this history of civil conflict. So the first 100 years were revolutionary, but they were also very tumultuous and bloody, and that's why they had to disguise the first 100 years of Islamic history. Another point is that the tradition of historiography comes to us from the Greeks and the Romans, who wrote everything down. But many cultures, including the Arabs at the time, did not have institutions or a tradition of writing down their history. We sort of take it for granted today, but back then, it was actually a pretty rare thing to want to write down your history.
2. Why didn't Muhammad name a successor? Again, this is just my theory, but if it's the end of days, if it's the end of the world, you don't need to name a successor because God's coming. What's the point? In fact, if you name a successor, then you are admitting defeat. What Muhammad is saying to everyone is that every one of your traditions—Jewish, Christian, Zoroastrian—is right. It's the end of days, God is coming, there will be peace on the world. Therefore, we will no longer need leaders. You won't need Muhammad; I'm the last prophet.
3. Why did they build the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount? This explanation is going to be very controversial. The Jews supported the Persians in the war against the Byzantines on the condition that the Persians would allow them to return to Jerusalem, but also on the condition that the Jews would be allowed to rebuild their temple, which is exactly what Cyrus the Great did. Cyrus the Great is called the Messiah in the Bible; he's the only foreign leader called the Messiah because he allowed them to rebuild the temple. So what I'm saying is this: the Al-Aqsa Mosque was originally the Third Temple. It is what the Arabs promised the Jews for their support. But over time, as these purges happened, as civil conflicts happened, the Arabs needed to consolidate their authority, so they turned the Third Temple into the Al-Aqsa Mosque. That's what I think happened. If you go into the very detailed history of how the Al-Aqsa Mosque was built, it was a process that took about 200 years. It's very possible that during these 200 years, intentions changed. Again, I know this is an extremely controversial statement, but I think that's what happened. Originally, it was meant to be the Third Temple, but then over time, the Arab leaders changed their minds and thought to themselves that if we do this, then we make the Jews into a very powerful political entity within the Muslim world.

Why the Golden Age Happened—And Why It Ended

Now that we've addressed the three mysteries, let's go back to the three original questions.

1. Why did Islam enter its Golden Age and Christian Europe enter its Dark Age?
2. Why did the Islamic Golden Age end?
3. How did Christian Europe overtake the Muslim world?

To answer these three questions, all we have to do is compare and contrast these three major religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. There are both strengths and weaknesses to all religions.

In the beginning, the very strengths of Islam gave rise to a tremendous period of creativity. But over time, these innovations became dogma, and they ossified and prevented further growth in society. The advantage of being contradictory, as the Bible is, is that you allow for different belief systems which come into conflict with each other. With this contradiction and conflict, it allows for innovation. That's why Catholicism will eventually give way to Protestantism, which is a reinterpretation of the Bible. But it's because the Bible is so contradictory that this innovation is able to happen. The Quran is extremely clear, but if that's the case, then you cannot allow for a radical rejection of the past and embrace of the future.

The Philosophical Divide: Plato vs. Aristotle

Let me reframe what I said in a different way by comparing Christianity with Islam. Christianity was developed by the Roman Empire in order to co-opt first the Jews and eventually the barbarian invaders. Therefore, the religion is one of empire and power. It's really about how to control people. The main mechanism of control for an empire is the idea of orthodoxy, which just means "the correct thinking." But if you have orthodoxy, then you have the idea of heresy. Orthodoxy is with God; heresy is against God. If you agree that the sky is red because I say the sky is red, then you are orthodox. But if you insist the sky is blue, then it is heretical. That constrains or limits the imagination. The philosopher that you base your society on is Plato. The idea of the bishop, the idea of the Pope—it's really the idea of Plato's philosopher-king.

Islam, as I just mentioned, is a revolutionary religion that must be open, inclusive, and tolerant in order to attract as many followers as possible. Therefore, you must activate the energy of all your followers. You must get them to believe and you must get them to fight. Therefore, it's a religion based on intuition. God is with you, you know God, God is inside you. And the idea of intuition is what allows for science. You can discover the truth by just observing, through empirical observation, through your own analysis, through your own belief. The person who argues this is, of course, Aristotle.

This is the argument I'm making. A lot of scholars believe the Islamic Golden Age happened because they had books and wealth. But the Byzantines also had access to all these major thinkers, Plato and Aristotle, and they had a lot of wealth. What I'm arguing is that a culture needs to have an attitude, a perspective, a worldview, an orientation. For the Byzantines and the Europeans, they chose Plato. But the Muslims chose Aristotle, and that is the major difference.

Plato's Philosophy (The European Model)

For Plato, the true God is called the Form of the Good. The Form of the Good is the beginning of everything. It is immutable, perfect, and eternal. This God thinks and emanates new concepts called ideals, like justice, reason, and beauty. These ideals manifest themselves into perfect forms, like a perfect horse or the perfect woman. This, we can say, is just heaven. We live in a shadow world, which is just a bad imitation of heaven, so everything sucks. In this conception of the universe, what we're trying to do is return to the Form of the Good. For Plato, you can do this through mathematics and geometry because mathematics is what is most like the Form of the Good. Augustine will take Plato and adapt it to the Christian faith. How do you leave this world? By not sinning, by having faith. If you do that, then you are allowed to go to heaven. In the Platonic-Augustinian understanding, all we have to do in this world is not make a mistake. Do nothing, and you'll be good.

Aristotle's Philosophy (The Islamic Model)

Aristotle has a different conception of the universe. He believes the Form of the Good is called a Prime Mover. God is the first thing that acts and moves things. When he creates motion, other things start to happen as well. We're constantly moving about. Where we're going is we are seeking truth, and it's called telos, which means purpose. Each of us by our nature has a purpose. If you're a soldier, your purpose is to be the best warrior. If you're a mathematician, your purpose is to be the best mathematician. That is the idea of truth: to fulfill your purpose. Therefore, you must be constantly acting. The beauty of this idea of motion is you can now study it through empirical observation. You can observe things and then start to understand their nature, and this gives rise to the idea of science.

The Muslim world had a decidedly Aristotelian perspective, whereas the European world had a Platonic perspective.

How Europe Overtook the Muslim World

The great thing about history and civilization is that the Europeans would learn from the Muslims. They'll copy the Muslims. They'll bring back Aristotle, they'll bring back science, and they'll bring back intuition. They will do so through three major events:

1. The Renaissance, where they bring back Aristotle.
2. The Protestant Reformation, where they will bring back God. Remember, in the Catholic religion, God is aloof and can only be understood through the Pope or the priest. But the Protestant religion says no, God is with us, God is in us. Through your actions, you can win God's favor.
3. The Scientific Revolution.

These are the three major events that will give us modernity. But guess what? The Europeans are just emulating the Muslims. But—and this is really important—they will improve on the Muslims.

The problem with science is yes, in the beginning, you will have all this discovery, but this innovation will eventually lead to dogma. What you need to do is create institutions to destroy dogma, and that's what the Europeans will do. This idea that dogma can be destroyed through discussion, debate, and analysis is what will become the basis of the Scientific Revolution, which will create the modern world that we live in today.

It's the Islamic Golden Age which will inspire the Europeans to do all three of these things, which in turn will create the modern world. That's why I believe that the Islamic Golden Age is really the proto-modernity of human history.