Fall of Islam

I have heard how Islam society used to be very advanced in mathematics and science. We (Western Civilization) got the concept of zero from Arabia. They had astronomers and philosophers and doctors and libraries. But all this is in the past tense. Now the only thing we hear about the Middle East is goats and oil, and Jihad of course. So what happened to the Muslim world that caused this change?

So I asked my friend Jack. He is something of a history buff. He definitely knows more about it than I do. His take on it is that the leadership of the Arab world made a conscious decision to cut off contact with the West and to suppress science around the year 1050. This is about the same time that the Crusades were going on in the Middle East, and also about the same time that the Moors suffered a serious defeat in Tours, France. That's what I recall from our conversation anyway. And Jack says that his interpretation based on reading between the lines, but it will do until someone comes up with another theory. And you know, it could have been the Persians and not the Arabs, but that's a distinction that's lost on me. They both follow Mohammed and they are both from the Middle East. I need something substantial to be able to tell them apart.

The Muslim world was not alone in cutting off contact with the outside world. The Chinese did it, as did the Japanese, so it was possible, and with a happy populace and/or a repressive regime, it could be done now.