Was there a Shift from Faith-Neutral to Faith-Based Scholarly Communities in Islamic Societies from the Classical to the Post-Classical Period? 1

In 2002, Bernard Goldstein stressed the cooperation between scholars of different faiths as one of the most salient features of the early years of science in Islamic societies. One major historiographical problem in history of science in Islamic societies during the twentieth century was the observation that in later centuries scholarly products of the Islamic world fell short of the level reached between the eighth and the eleventh centuries. Examples for cross-denominational activities are rare and are mostly limited to reports about patron-client, servant-master, teacher-student and author-reader relationships. Foreign visitors could throw stones at them without being persecuted because the court physician rode a horse forbidden to the minorities. Patrons could be fickle and demand conversion in exchange for continued patronage. For practitioners of the mathematical sciences at least such a demand seems to be very difficult to satisfy.