“In the last century the Arab thinker Jamal al-Afghani wrote: 'Every Muslim is sick and his only remedy is in the Koran.' Unfortunately the sickness gets worse the more the remedy is taken.” LastsTakenAtheismCenturySickSicknessAlsThinkerRemedy Author:Conor Cruise O'Brien
“Alas, Islam turned against science in the twelfth century. The most influential figure was the philosopher Abu Hamid al-Ghazzali, who argued in The Incoherence of the Philosophers against the very idea of laws of nature, on the ground that any such laws would put God's hands in chains. According to al-Ghazzali, a piece of cotton placed in a flame does not darken and smoulder because of the heat, but because God wants it to darken and smoulder. After al-Ghazzali, there was no more science worth mentioning in Islamic countries.” WantDoeIdeasCountryHandsLawPiecesCenturyFiguresIslamPhilosopherChainsFlamesHeatIslamicAlsAlasLaws Of NatureInfluentialCottonIncoherence Author:Steven Weinberg
“There were a hundred booksellers in the old round city founded by the eighth-century caliph al-Mansur. The café and wine-drinking culture of Baghdad has been famous for centuries; there was a whole school of Iraqi poets who wrote poems about the wine bars of medieval Baghdad - the khamriyaat, or wine songs, that I quote in the book.” Has BeensBookWholeSchoolSongCultureCitiesCenturyPoetHundredWineDrinkingRoundsBarsAlsMedievalBaghdadDrinking WineCaliphsBooksellers Author:Annia Ciezadlo