This phenomenon can not be explained by any other way,
but only if we admit that those who practiced the sciences and the arts were
not the people of the wild Arabia, but men from other nations of the East,
who had embraced the new religion, that is, mohammedans of Syria, Egypt,
Persia, Asia Minor, and most of all Greeks... Most of the Muslims came from
races which changed their own faith, as are those that we said and also
others…
That Islam was created not by Arabs but by ancient peoples of the East,
having from before a spiritual growth dating back to the times of
Alexander
the Great, was supported with erudition by a wise French scholar named
Rimbaud, who lived for many years in Arabia and the East and studied well
and in place the Arabs. To the preface of his book “Hellenism in the first
ages of Islam” he writes:
“It seems to be verified and proved true by the facts, that all those
various works the spirit of the East produced at the dawn of the medieval
times, were the last gleam of the ancient civilizations before they were
darkened by Islam… The works of art and thinking of that important epoch,
when mohammedanism culminated, are works made by the Greeks”.
Truly, how could they reach Spain, on the one hand, and
on the other Persia, India, Sumatra and Java, even China, people like the
indigenous of Arabia, who never traveled and didn’t know what the sea is?
Persons from other races, and especially Greek sea-men or land travelers and
merchants were going to those far places, and by them there were written
also the imaginary traveling stories, as is Halima, which is the Arabic
Odyssey. Sebah the sea-man is the new Ulysses. During this time there was a
bloom of learning in Persia, Syria and Egypt, while Arabia was sunk in
ignorance and superstition, having no idea of Aristotle and algebra. Rimbaud
writes that “when Romans conquered Syria and Egypt, stayed very little in
these countries and their influence was insignificant. The basis of the
population of Asia Minor and Egypt remained Hellenic. Sciences, arts and
merchandise stayed in the sure hands of the Greek race.”
