Short answer: The Mongols.
Long answer: The Mongols, the Ottomans, the French, the British and the United States of America. I'll explain.
Ah, the usual "it's not their fault, the others conspired against them" argument. Let's see...
Once upon a time, the Islamic world was far ahead of everyone else. The Islamic world was pretty awesome back then
As I explained in my previous post, it was initially more advanced because t
he Muslims had better access to the products of higher civilizations of Rome (Byzantines), Persia (Sassanids), India and many others.
It's really not fair or acceptable to compare it with Europe, which was (during the Dark Ages) recovering from the chaos of countless barbarian invasions (Germanics, Slavs, Avars, Vikings, Magyars the list goes on). It is a fact that many of the knowledge produced by the Islamic world in this period was in fact derived from the work of others, mainly the Persians and Romans.
Then the Mongols killed almost everyone. Seriously, they killed over 95% of the people in what is now Iran. They razed Baghdad, then the greatest centre of learning and culture in the world. They destroyed irrigation systems which fed millions and took thousands of years to build. They murdered everyone, and then started killing each other. Civilisation does not survive that without a few wounds.
Mongol invasions were bad, that is true, but they
a) did not destroy the whole muslim world
b) 95%? that's an overestimation
c) Europe suffered some pretty bad catastrophies too: Black Plague wiped out at least 1/3 of Europe's population, perhaps even more.
d) most imporant point: other civilizations have been devastated by the Mongols too, but they recovered: China gradually assimilated them and then become more powerful than ever before.
They haven't recovered, yet. The Mongols ruled for centuries, and did no good at all. They were replaced in the Middle East by the Ottomans, who were just as bad. The Ottomans lasted until 1918, when the Europeans took over, did a terrible job, and then left. Less than a lifetime ago.
That's not an explanation. Again, China recovered, Russia recovered, Hapsburgs recovered.
FYI, Mameluks were the first one who defeated the Mongols, they were the most powerful Muslim civilization in that time. You can't say that they succumbed to
MUSLIM Ottomans because they were weakened by the Mongols.
Ottoman Empire was a Muslim country and it had the opportunity to develop, instead it hindered technological progress. Again, why? I say it happened because of their Islamic culture, which they adopted.
Persia on the other hand was doing alright once they started existing again in the 16th Century, although they'd have done a great deal better without Britain/France/Russia invading. Their current problems mostly stem from pre-WWII Imperial British muckery, followed by post WWII US muckery. Each sought to ruin the region's government in order to control Persian oil wells, cliché as that has become. The Western-installed Pahlavi dynasty Shahs were spectacularly rubbish, and the inevitable revolution was hijacked by crazy fundamentalists. Result: crazy people in charge. That was only forty years ago - they'll recover, eventually. Provided the US stays far, far, far away, rather than ruining everything again.
Again, you are trying to lay blame on external factors without thinking about the internal factors - why were the Muslims lagging behind and incapable of resisting the Europeans? You know my answer to that.
It has absolutely nothing to do with Islam, just as Europe being a craphole in the seventh century had nothing to do with Christianity.
Actually, it had a lot to do with Christianity. Islam is even more intrusive religion than Christianity, and it influenced the culture much more. You can't say that islam had nothing to do with that, it would be as stupid as to say that Christianity had nothing to do with Crusades
In an odd sort of way, Islam was a uniting factor in the region: since faith was considered more important than nationality, the various Caliphates had really pretty multiethnic government systems. A mostly Turkic military, a largely Persian government and civil service, a largely Arabic priesthood, and so on. Saladin himself was a Kurdish king of Arabic Egypt, and that was fine.
Consider this equally dodgy generalisation: South America is mostly crap, too, by the same measure. They alternate between corrupt semi-anarchy and corrupt megalomaniacal dictatorships. South America is also very Christian. Therefore, South American misery is entirely due to Christianity.
A completely absurd analogy, which is not really worth a comment.
Sure, powerful orthodox religious institutions have a lovely way of perpetuating miserable situations, but they don't often cause them. Prosperous civilisations mostly tolerate or ignore the doomsayers and the firestarters, rather than follow them.
[I'd probably drop some blame for the Islamic World's misery on Al-Ghazali, too - a theologian who basically rejected rational thought (too Pagan Greek) in favour of the assumption of divine will in all things (nice and pious). Essentially the father of Muslim Fundamentalism. He got far more say than he deserved, the bastard.]
Clearly, it's not just him. Islam as a whole is at odds with modernity, with all the ideologies which are essential for modernization.
Long story short: It wasn't until the Mongols, and it wouldn't still be if certain Empires could have kept their bloody hands out of it. It'll be okay in the future, if certain other nations could do the same.[/QUOTE]
. Damn those sneaky Muslims!
