Decay of Arab Culture and Science:

The association of  science with kings, wealthy merchants and nobles which was initially very fruitful, ultimately proved  to be the weakness of Arab culture and science. The patronage provided opportunities  to translate, observe, experiment and reflect upon  various aspects of science. It also resulted in Arab science getting cut off  from the people, who began to suspcct that the learned advison of  the elite were upto no good. This made the wmmon people an easy prey  to religious fanaticism. The link also tied up the fortunes of science with  the strength of the kingdoms. After the eleventh century A.D.,  both the Byrantine and Islamic empires started breaking up  internally and grew more dependent for military and economic purposes on local kings. By  the time of  the Crusades (between eleventh to thirteenth century), the empires broke up  into local feudal estates where peasants and craftsmen were subjugated with  renewed brutality. This destroyed  the market for industry and the need  for innovative sclence. In  this situation of decay and stagnation came new barbarians from the steppe lands. They over-ran the Arab lands aid effectively st~fled  their culture. The genius of  Arab science lay  in the fact that  it provided a crucial link between the rise of modern science, and developments  in Greece, in  India and, to a lesser extent, in China in  the classical period. Modem science, &we know  it, arose in  the sixteenth century after  the Renaissance in  Europe. The Renaissancetook up the clasical science as it was transmitted by the Arabs and developed it  in  a revolutionary  sense. Thus started a new age  in which science and technology could play  pre-eminent roles, roles they  had  never been called upon  to play before.