[quote=Arraya][quote=captcha] I’m starting to doubt that the Enlightenment can be enforced upon groups en masse. Voltaire and Rousseau need to come from within.[/quote]
Actually, they had their Enlightenment hundreds of years earlier. Of course the Arabs built on Greek(as well as Chinese and Indian) thought, as all knowledge is cumulative, but their additions made quantum leaps forward in all the sciences. Europe’s Enlightenment was built on Arab thinking much more than Greeks. Of course, this really irks some people. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Golden_Age%5B/quote%5D
I would say it was more Renaissance, not Enlightenment. And there is little or no continuity there, Seljuks did not truly embrace what they conquered.
I use the discrepancy in male and female literacy rate as a measure of gender equality and most of the Arab countries do bad on that test.
