The Hi, I'm Peter Adamson, and you're listening to the History of Philosophy Podcast, brought to you with the support of King's College London and the

LMU in Munich online at www. History of Philosophy.net. Today's episode, Golden Ages, the later Eastern traditions.

Last year, the biologist and atheist provocateur, Richard Dawkins,

posted the following comment on the social media website Twitter.

Quote, all the world's Muslims have fewer Nobel Prizes than Trinity College Cambridge.

They did great things in the middle ages though."

If Dawkins was trying to unleash anger and controversy, he certainly succeeded.

Furious reactions focused on the first sentence, the part about the Nobel Prize, but I was more struck by the second sentence.

They did great things in the Middle Ages, though.

That's a standard caveat you'll hear from people who want to criticize Islam as a religion or Muslim culture,

but who are enlightened enough to realize that once upon a time a long, long time ago, like in the middle ages, Muslims were capable of scientific discovery, fabulous

works of art, and in short all the things we expect from a great civilization.

Of course we are here in the realm of political and religious

polemic rather than sober and careful history. But behind this, what have the

Muslims done for us lately question is a serious historical puzzle. The puzzle would go something like this.

From the seventh to 12th centuries, which I suppose is what people like Dawkins mean by the

Middle Ages, the Muslims conquered a vast empire, produced scientists and mathematicians

like Ibn Al-Hytham and Al-Qwarizmi and philosophers like Avicenna and Averois.

Sadly, starting in the 13th century or so, we have a situation of

terminal decline, both politically and intellectually. The Muslims are pushed back and then

pushed out completely in Spain.

In the eastern heartlands, the Abassid Caliphate ends with the murder of the last caliph

...