Civilization: The West and the Rest

The second chapter focuses on the development of science in the West and in the Islamic world. Ferguson uses the Ottoman Empire as a representative of the latter because they “had been the standard bearers of Islam since their conquest of Constantinople” (51). He describes the relationship between the West and the Islamic civilization as antagonistic and argues that “the West has consistently won this clash of civilizations” militarily in the latter part of the Middle Ages as well as the Early Modern period because of “the superiority of science” (50).

Initially, Medieval Muslim scholars and culture left a great impact on the West in the realm of philosophy, optics, medicine, mathematics, and cartography. For instance, the Islamic world built “upon Greek and especially Indian foundations” to establish algebra (51). Yet Ferguson argues that the West later surpassed it.

Ferguson frames his discussion by examining the military confrontations between the Ottoman Empire and Europe such as the Siege of Vienna in 1529 and the Battle of Vienna in 1683. To demonstrate the eventual decline of the Ottoman Empire, he relies on the use of applied science for military purposes as well as its extension to social sciences per philosopher David Hume.