ABSTRACT
The lack of emphasis on classical science and engineering began before Byzantium had to go it alone, as it were, without the Latin west. Combined with mathematical and algebraic thinking from India and the engineering of the West the Islamic practioners such as Muhammad-Ibn-Musa went on to develop concepts for the zero and the decimal system. Arab scientists and engineers used the books on which the translations were written and went on to improvements, refinements, and inventions based on this knowledge. Justinian’s great offensive thrust was the last attempt by the Byzantine Empire at real imperialism. In 827 Islamic armies from north Africa began the conquest of Byzantine Sicily. As concerned with religion as the Byzantines the Arabs and Islam in general were able to compartmentalize the secular and sacred to the advantage of practical life. The Umayyads brought Syrian engineers to transform al-Andalus from a backwater to the brightest jewel of the Islamic world.
