Robert Kilroy-Silk is a former British Labour politician turned TV pundit who recently made a fool of himself by branding Arabs as "suicide bombers, limb amputators, women repressors. The learned Kilroy-Silk went on to argue that: " We owe Arabs nothing, apart from oil, which was discovered, is produced and is paid for by the west, what do they contribute?" Well, quite a lot it seems, according to an informative rebuttal by Derek Brown in today's Guardian. The pointed arch, for example, which characterizes gothic architecture, was an idea brought back from the Middle East by the early crusaders.
In the field of literature:
Brown includes "some useful links for Mr Kilroy-Silk".
Arab achievements in mathematics
Abbasid golden age in Baghdad
The Defra view
Arab search engine
Andalucia
Granada
The Alhambra
Early Arab literatureArab music
The importance of poetry in Arab life
The Thousand and One Nights
Ancient and modern Arab art
Arabic calligraphy
Astronomy in Baghdad
Early Arab architecture (pictures)Contemporary Arab architecture
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