Western scholarly and scientific development was, of course, eminently indebted to Islamic civilization in fields from medicine (Avicenna’s Qanun was used as the standard medical textbook in Europe through the seventeenth century) to scholastic theology (Thomas Aquinas admitted relying heavily on Averroes to understand Aristotle). Yet Renaissance heralds of Europe’s newfound scientific promise could not admit their vast indebtedness to the hated, infidel Saracens. Avicenna, Averroes and other undeniably prominent Muslims in the Western scholarly pantheon had to be uprooted completely from
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