For centuries following the fall of Rome, Western Europe was backward & benighted, locked into the Dark Ages & barely able to tell the time of day. Arab culture, however, was thriving, & had become a powerhouse of intellectual exploration & discussion that dazzled the likes of British adventurer Adelard of Bath. The Arabs could measure the earth`s circumference (a feat not matched in the West for eight hundred years); they discovered algebra; were adept at astronomy & navigation, developed the astrolabe, translated all the Greek scientific & philosophical texts including, importantly, those of Aristotle. Without them, & the knowledge that travelers like Adelard brought back to the West, Europe would have been a very different place over the last millennium. Jonathan Lyons restores credit to the Arab thinkers of the past in this riveting history of science
- from its earliest & most thrilling days.