Why are there no Islamic Middle Ages?

Islam was stuck in the Middle Ages, and was absent from the Renaissance, reform, and enlightenment. This is the common diagnosis. But what if there were no Islamic Middle Ages? Using many examples, Thomas Power illustrates how ancient times lived on in the Islamic world until the eleventh century, thus convincingly refuting the fixed boundaries of the era and our image of "Medieval" Islam that needs reform. For many centuries, ancient cities in the East thrived with baths, mosques, and other large stone buildings, while in Europe they turned into ruins. Galenic medicine persisted, natural sciences flourished, and love poetry was written. Copper coins, glass, roof tiles, and paper: daily life in the East was filled with ancient achievements that the inhabitants of Central Europe rediscovered at the beginning of the modern era. Thomas Power clearly describes how the ancient culture from Andalusia and Syria to Persia lived on and why the eleventh century was a turning point across Eurasia, from Hindu Kush to Western Europe, which was quickly followed by modern times in the Islamic world. A small masterpiece that briefly, clearly, and with the necessary harshness corrects the entrenched views of East and West.