ancient city of Alexandria

The Alexandrian Sciences in Baghdad

Inspired by a treasure trove of ancient Greek and Alexandrian learning and philosophy, Muslims created a society in Baghdad and elsewhere in the Middle Ages that was the scientific center of the world. The Arabic language was synonymous with learning and science for 500 hundred years, a golden age that served as a precursor to modern universities, algebra, and even the notion of science as an empirical inquiry. Europe did not match the scientific learning of the Islamic world until about 1600.