Christ & Baha'u'llah by -G. Townshend- 5 Para

'Umar and the Caliphs who followed him rapidly extended the Muslim empire from the Pillars of Hercules to Calicut. In the midst of a dark and stagnant world there sprang up as if by magic a brilliant civilization. In 760 A.D. its rulers moved their capital from Damascus to Baghdad and founded.. a city which became at once a world centre of culture and commerce, and so remained for five centuries.. Schools and universities were founded.. Great works were produced on all manner of subjects; great libraries were collected containing hundreds of thousands of volumes.. Dictionaries, lexicons and encyclopaedias on a vast scale were prepared.. (45:2)

..In experimental science, in medicine and surgery, in chemistry and physics, in geography as well as in mathematics and astronomy, the Arabs led the world of that day. They invented a new and exquisite form of architecture.. They developed many branches of industry and improved methods of agriculture and horticulture. Introducing the use of the mariner's compass their ships traversed the seas while caravans maintained a trade between all provinces of the empire, carrying produce from India and China, Turkistan and Russia, from Africa and the Malayan Archipelago. (46:2)

The glory of Baghdad with its mosques and palaces, its temples of learning, its fragrant gardens, was reproduced.. in Basra, in Bokhara, in Granada and Cordoba. It is written of the last-named city that.. it contained more than 20,000 houses and more than a million inhabitants and that a man after sunset might walk in a straight line for ten miles along paved and illuminated streets-- yet in Europe centuries later there was not a paved street in Paris nor a public lamp in London. (47:1)

Cordoba was the first University founded in Europe, and in its halls multitudes of Christian scholars received instruction, among them being Gilbert who afterwards became Sylvester Ii, the brilliant Pope of Rome. (47:2)

Inevitably.. this advanced civilization influenced the course of life and thought in Europe. Through the Muslim outpost in Sicily and the scintillating brilliance of Muslim Spain, through.. scholars.. Muslim universities.. traders.. diplomats.. travellers.. soldiers.. sailors and reconquered peasants, new ideas, techniques, and attitudes passed from Islam to Western Europe. (47:3)

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