The ancient Greeks were the masters of philosophy and science for over 1,000 years. The Agora of Athens, which once resounded with the discussions of Socrates, Plato and Sophocles, is silent and empty today, with broken pillars covered with weeds.

Rome once ruled the Mediterranean and beyond, but today it is associated with Italian cuisine, fashion and art in the shadow of the ruins of the dreaded Colosseum, where Roman emperors were entertained by gladiators fighting to the death.

That is the trajectory of all civilisations that reached great heights and then tumbled into fragmentation, their past glory all but forgotten.

Islamic civilisation was also once the most significant custodian of learning and, like the Greeks, many of its inventions, philosophies and laws are still an integral part of modern societies.

A famous hadith says that the ink of the scholar is superior to the blood of the martyr. Why then did Muslim societies lose their drive for knowledge?

Unlike the Greek and Roman empires, the achievements of the Islamic empire began to be systematically erased. The 15th century Renaissance was presented solely as a European revival of Greek learning, bypassing the role of Islamic scholarship in preserving Greek texts and developing new ideas and inventions in science, medicine, astronomy, navigation, music and architecture.

Arab culture was propagated as nothing more than harems, flying carpets and bedouins galloping across the desert. The discovery of oil in the Middle East in the first part of the 20th century created the need to balance dependency of Western countries on access to the oil, while retaining political and cultural dominance.

To understand how this became a relatively easy task, one has to travel back in time, to understand how Muslim societies lost their intellectual edge and political authority.

Some attribute the loss of the investigative nature of Islamic scholarship to Al Ghazali’s 11th century teachings in Tahafut al-Falasifa [Incoherence of the Philosophers], considered a turning point in Islamic philosophy. He stated that pursuing pure science causes a straying from metaphysical truth. Others reject this theory, instead proposing it was the jurist Nizam al-Mulk, who introduced the Nizamiyah education system around the same time, that focused purely on religious studies, where previously, sciences and Islamic law were taught together.

Over four centuries, Nizamiyah colleges were established in major cities and graduates were given priority in key government jobs, although independent scientific enquiry continued outside these colleges.

One must also take into account the 13th century destruction by the Mongols of Baghdad and its legendary library Bait ul Hikmat, where all scholars of note were educated. In Spain, another important centre of learning, thousands of Arabic manuscripts were burnt when it was conquered by Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile in 1492. Over three million Arabs and Jews were executed or exiled.

Yet another factor was the Black Death, a pandemic that struck the Middle East, along with Europe and North Africa, in the mid-14th century and which killed up to 75 million people. Many scholars and Sufis left the cities for rural areas or other countries, including India, and the dynamic centres of learning ceased to exist.

Colonialism and the creation of the nation state finally atomised the integrity of the transnational Muslim Empire. Muslim nations were divided up between European countries and isolated from one another, and the last symbol of a unified ummah, the Khilafat, was abolished. Colonialism imposed European educational systems, laws and administrative structures.

Muslim scholars are now more likely to conduct research in American or European universities than in their own countries. As the rebel poet Ahmaq Phapondvi wrote:

“Nayi had-bandiyan honay ko hain aaeen-i- gulshan mein/ Kaho bulbul se ab anday na rakhay aashiyanay mein” [New limitations are being imposed in the administration of the garden/ Ask the nightingale to not place her eggs in her nest.]

Any resistance, such as against the creation of Israel in the Palestinian state, is dubbed an act of terror.

Now, as the balance of power in the world seems to be faltering, a new digital transnational generation is emerging, in a manner not dissimilar to the exchange of knowledge, technology and culture on the trade routes of the past. It enables academic freedom, once the hallmark of Muslim scholarship, to re-emerge. A hadith says, “The ink of the scholar is superior to the blood of the martyr.”

Asad Ibn al-Furat, about to launch a naval attack on Sicily in 827 AD, motivated his troops with:

“I have been given this appointment because of my achievements with the pen, not the sword. I urge you all to spare no effort, no fatigue in searching out wisdom and learning. Seek it out, and store it up, add to it and persevere through all difficulties and you will be assured of a place both in this life and in the life to come.”

Durriya Kazi is a Karachi-based artist. She may be reached at durriyakazi1918@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, February 2nd, 2025