I don't mean to lessen the output of muslim scholars, but if their contribution was so significant, then why did the renaissance blossom in Florence, instead of a ME center, e.g. Baghdad? I don't think that preserving existing knowledge is a huge contribution, given there would be no need of preserving without the muslim conquest. And what happened to muslim science since their golden age?
Please see my other comment in this thread. And who said that Muslims scientists only preserved knowledge? I just listed a number of fields that Muslims significantly contributed by the way.
The Islamic world peaked in the 15th century, then began to slowly decline. The current lack of output from Muslim scientists is in my opinion primarily due to petty internal religious conflict, poor unity due to conflicting interests, the colonisation of most of the larger Muslim countries which led to them skipping the more critical periods of scientific development and education, the lack of interest in innovation, and the lack of freedom to innovate because of perceived religious contradictions.
