Quote:
Originally posted by baltassoc
I don't think Islam is inherently handicapped. I'm just noting that something stopped the innovation and expansion.
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As long as we're both saying it's not an inherent handicap, I think we agree that the decline was gradual in relation to the rise of the West. The West was probably passing the Islamic world by about 1540 or so. But I still don't see how the military and administrative failures that led to the losses of Spain, etc. were related to any dogmatic shift, which is how I would see the religion "causing" the economic stagnation. I don't think the converse has had all that profound effect in the same regions. For example, the rise of a secular Turkish republic has probably been a good thing, but I wouldn't say Turkey is leaps-and-bounds better off under the republic than under the Ottoman Empire, economically speaking.
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