The Quran

The Quran is the holy book of Islam and the foundation of Islamic civilization, shaping the spiritual lives of 1.8 billion adherents worldwide. Its teachings established the principles of Sharia law and inspired the creation of one of history's greatest civilizations, stretching from Spain to Central Asia.

Revealed to the Prophet Muhammad between 610 and 632, the Quran became the foundation of Sharia and Islamic governance. Under the Quran's banner, Arab armies conquered from Spain to Central Asia within a century, spreading Islamic civilization across the known world. The House of Wisdom in ninth-century Baghdad served as a hub for scholars—including Muslims, Christians, and Jews—to translate and study classical texts. While Greek philosophy profoundly shaped Islamic intellectual culture—from Al-Farabi to Averroes engaging deeply with Aristotle and Plato—the classical Greek corpus was never lost: Byzantine scholars preserved at least 75% of surviving Greek classics, and Western monasteries maintained Latin learning throughout. Arabic translations of Greek works, often via Syriac intermediaries from conquered Byzantine territories, provided an important transmission route to medieval Latin Europe before Renaissance scholars accessed the Greek originals directly from Byzantium.