al-biruni (aka Abu Rayhun Biruni, 973 – 1048 AD) and Ibn Khaldun (1332 – 1406) together demonstrate the period when Arab scholars led the way in science and philosophy. Since those times, western nations have largely forgotten that, without such great thinkers, the scene would not have been set for the Renaissance, the Age of Enlightenment, the discoveries of the new worlds and the industrial revolution.
The question is, if western academics and inventors have hogged the limelight since the Renaissance, where did the greats of the middle east go? Is this simply the Western world being selective over what information we soak up and pass on to our children? I dare say it is. Although, in the past 50 years there may be another reason.
If you were a brilliant bio-engineer or chemist with controversial theories up your sleeve; or a businessman with a new concept that you feel could make you a mint – would you really choose to stay in Iran, Syria or Saudi Arabia? How about an innovative film director wishing to tackle provocative subjects?
Take Jafar Panahi and his fellow film-maker Mohammad Ali Shirzadi, imprisoned earlier this year, essentially as prisoners of conscience; take Shirin Neshat, Iranian artist, photographer and film-maker, living in New York, but who tackles subjects that means she fears imprisonment back in Iran. The growing number of academics, medical practitioners and artists in exile from their mother countries is to the advantage of their adoptive countries, but what must the leaders back home think?
Indeed, will there ever come a time when a new leader in one of the Arab nations will be enlightened enough to surround themselves with modern day al-birunis, Avicennas and Ibn Khalduns, thereby sparking a new renaissance in the Muslim world?
