Reply #26: That would be the Caliph Omar. [View All]

[DrWeird]

And the famous quote in question comes from a christian scholar, who got it admittedly from a second hand account. The muslims actually were quite good in taking care of ancient texts. They were much like the Irish in that regard.

As for Archimedes, I believe there was a recent translation of a work accredited to him, where he sees a need for calculus, and is attempting to work it out, yet can't quite get there. Can't blame the guy for trying though, hell, algebra wasn't even invented by the Arabs until, what, the 8th century?