Innovation and tragedy

When we first started learning about Islamic influences I had no idea just how far they stretched and how much of my day-to-day life has its beginnings in Islam. Everyday I use medicine, paper, complex mathmatetics and textiles. It has always been an assumption of mine that these goods and ideas were created by those who lived in the more Western regions of Europe and China.

I again stand corrected. I thought I had a good grasp on the past and where certain things came from but some everyday things just didn’t occur to me to ask whom, how and when they were made. It was quite interesting to watch the movie on Islam in class and to learn about the beginnings of so many things. When the video began I was in awe of all the developments that came from Islam and especially from Baghdad and the House of Wisdom. I had previously never learned any Islam history and all I knew about it was that they were Muslim. The scientific discoveries of that time, as I said before affect me everyday. The innovation that came with the far-reaching trade routes and systems allowed for trade of goods across the entire continent and merging of culture, goods, ideas, and religion. I thought that only good had come from this until I learned of the Crusades. I had only briefly heard about the Crusades, which now seems impossible to me that I had not learned more about these events before. I guess that comes from growing up in a Catholic home.

The video, with its cheesy remake and dramatic voice-overs really changed what I knew about history. The movie depicted the events in a way that the book could not, as a violent and totally unnecessary massacre. The events during the Crusades parallel what is going on now and I just can’t help but think that we will never learn what we need to from history, and we will always be bound to repeat events. Who knows what kinds of further innovations could have been created from some of the great minds in Islam if they had not been killed in Jerusalem. Now a days we can see some more great minds coming out of Islam, just like in the past there was soap, spices, fine goods, and knowledge, today we can credit them with further medical innovations, engine technology, and popular iPhone applications, which shows that the influence of Islam can be seen in the past, present, and the future.

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=islamic+inventions&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8