Islam’s Contributions to Modern Civilization and Thought

Modern civilization is often attributed to Judeo-Christian faith traditions with the exclusion of Islamic and other faith communities. It is argued that the West had achieved it all on its own without any help from outside. The global Muslim bridge to other civilizations was a key element in this historical breakthrough. Europe was reformed based upon many ready-made Islamic ideals such as Unitarianism, religious tolerance, diversity, limited monarchy, and rational discourse. This cross-cultural transmission and intellectual appropriation occurred when countless Europeans lived and worked in the Muslim Ottoman, Mughal, and Persian Empires from the early Sixteenth to early Eighteenth century, and transmitted manuscripts, ideas, practices, and values from the Orient to the Occident.