[quote]Sifu wrote:
PRCalDude wrote:
Gkhan wrote:
yeah, but it’s also centuries old…and the only pro they ever seem to come up with.
oh yeah, that and the fact that they were in a period of enlightenment while Europe was in the dark ages. Yet, before Rome fell, the opposite could easily be said for Arab culture.
This period of “enlightenment,” upon closer inspection, involved a distant 2nd class citizenship of non-Muslims and a system of slavery. Non-Muslims paid a crushing jizya and were subjected to floggings when they couldn’t come up with the money to pay it. They were subjected to constant harassment for being non-Muslims and were forced to wear special clothing (have special haircuts even), to house Muslims upon demand, and were under penalty of death for various things including spreading their religion.
Really, Islamic civilization became the backwater we see today as they began to run out of dhimmis, who were the ones responsible for paying most of the taxes and doing most of the Muslim’s work. Once that tax base eroded due to constant persecution, forced conversion, and emigration, the Muslims were forced to come up with their own discoveries and generate their own tax revenue. There are various Islamic presuppositions that counteract the pursuit of scientific knowledge amongst Muslims.
The dark ages is a prime example of the bad that Islam has done to the world and the general ignorance that westerners have about their history.
The dark ages occurred when western civilization lost the knowledge and advancement of Rome. The cause of this was the Muslim conquest of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) empire.
Today we are told the Muslims kept the knowledge of Rome alive during the dark ages. The fact that the Muslim theft of that knowledge caused the dark ages is something that gets ignored. [/quote]
Oh please.
There are historians that date the beginning of the modern age not with Columbus (1492) but with the fall of Constantinople 1453.
The Dark ages were part of the Medieval Age which is dated from 476, fall of Rome (the city) and 1453 or 1492, however you may want to date it.
So, at best, the fall of Constantinople ended the Dark Ages.
West Rome by the way was destroyed by German tribes fleeing from the Huns.
edited, because I happened to notice that east is the other west.