Chapter 2, Science (The Siege, Micrographia, Osman and Fritz, Tanzimat Tours, From Istanbul to Jerusalem) Summary and Analysis

Since the inception of Islam, Christians and Muslims have fought, but over the last 300 years, the Christians have almost always won. Why? Ferguson thinks this is due to the superiority of Western science, an advantage the West did not always have. In the 9th through the 11th century, Muslims made most of the great scientific gains and Muslim mathematics built on Greek and Indian foundations. The first truly experimental scientist was Ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi in the 9th century. Muslims also produced the first algebra textbook. Even Roger Bacon admitted that philosophy was drawn from the Muslims. So given this, how did the Muslim world fall behind? And how did science all the West to take...