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How the Arabs Invented the West -- Caulfield

Published: 28 May 2008

Presented by Jonathan Lyons, researcher at the Global Terrorism Research Centre and a PhD candidate in sociology. He is also co-author, with Geneive Abdo, of Answering Only to God: Faith and Freedom in 21st Century Iran. Before coming to Monash, Jonathan spent more than 20 years as a correspondent and editor at Reuters, with posts in Moscow, New York, Ankara, Istanbul, Tehran, Washington, and Jakarta.

The sudden arrival in the Christian West of Arab science and philosophy transmuted the backward West into a technological superpower. Like the elusive "elixir" -- from /al-aksir/ of the Arab alchemists -- for changing lead into gold, Muslim science altered Europe beyond recognition. Suddenly, the eyes of Christendom opened to the world around it. It even regained the lost art of telling time. Without control over clock and calendar, the rational organisation of society had been unthinkable. And so was the development of science and industry, as well as the liberation of man from the thrall of nature. Muslim science rescued the Christians from ignorance; without it, the very idea of the West would have been impossible.

Time: 4 pm to 6 pm
Date: Wednesday, 4 June 2008
Venue: RM H5.101, Caulfield campus