A mythshattering view of the Islamic worlds myriad scientific innovations and the role they played in sparking the European Renaissance. Many of the innovations that we think of as hallmarks of Western science had their roots in the Arab world of the middle ages a period when much of Western Christendom lay in intellectual darkness. Jim al Khalili a leading BritishIraqi physicist resurrects this lost chapter of history and given current EastWest tensions his book could not be timelier. With transporting detail alKhalili places readers in the hothouses of the Arabic Enlightenment shows how they led to Europes cultural awakening and poses the question Why did the Islamic world enter its own dark age after such a dazzling flowering show more