RENE GUENON 22

Rene Guenon, Insights into Islamic Esoterism and Taoism (Collected Works of Rene Guenon), translated from the French by Henry D. Fohr, edited by Samuel D. Fohr (Hillsdale, NY: Sophia Perennis, 1973, 2003) (Form "The Influence of Islamic Civilization in the West": "Most Europeans [and Americans?] have not accurately assessed the importance of the contribution that Islamic civilization has made to its own, nor have they understood the nature of their borrowings from this civilization in the past, some going so far as to disregard totally all that is connected with it. This is because the history they are taught makes a travesty of the facts and seems to have been altered intentionally on a great many points. Indeed, this history goes to extremes in flaunting the little respect it has for Islamic civilization, the merits of which it habitually disparages each time an occasion presents itself. It is important to point out that the teaching of history in European universities pays no heed to the influences in question. On the contrary, the truths which ought to be told on this subject, whether though teaching or writing, are systematically set aside, especially concerning the most important events." Id. at 38, 38. "Even stranger is the Europeans consider themselves the direct heirs of Hellenic civilization, whereas the facts belie this claim. The truth is that Greek science and philosophy were transmitted to Europeans through Muslim intermediaries, as history itself incontestably bears out; in other words, the intellectual patrimony of the Greeks reached the West only after it had been seriously studied in the Near East, and had it not been for Islamic scholars and philosophers, Europeans would have remained in total ignorance of these teachings for a very long time, if indeed, they would ever have come to know them." Id. at 39.).