Haven't been through the whole thread (will do) but serious Euro historians usually def acknowledge the fact that A LOT of science and whatnot came from Arabs/Muslims. But when people here talk about the "Dark Ages" it's also often a direct critique of the power the Church held over Europe, especially the Catholic Inquisition which was basically a reign of terror under the guise of religion. Ironically what Christians now accuse (some) Muslims of doing in certains countries
Another thing I think should be more studied is the fact that the so-called Enlightenment really blew up when vast amounts of money came into Europe as slavery was developping. People talk about Italy, but the Enlightnment was happening in France, Belhium, Netherlands, etc...as well, all countries greatly benefiting from slavery. There's no way, in my opinion, that those two things are unrelated : I think that that vast money coming in freed some people from manual work, allowed kings and princes to invest much more in art (thus creating a bigger market for artists, thus creating more artists) as well as money trickling down to intellectuals, writers, etc. Lest we forget that, indeed, slaves in both Greece and Arabia freed citizens to pursue intellectual and artistic work. It was not despite slavery, but thanks to it. But I've never yet read anything talking about this, so maybe I'm wrong
