Jo Marchant's review of two new books, which rightly highlight Islamic intellectual development from the 7th century onwards, states: "caliphs who... sponsored the translation of scientific texts from lands they had conquered" (21 February, p 46). Many of these texts would have come from the Byzantines, the inheritors of Greece and Rome. Some credit must accrue to them as well as to the Islamic scientists with whom they worked. The Byzantines - Orthodox Christians rather than Roman - are almost completely left out of historical accounts produced under the sway of the western churches.
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