I've been saying this for years. At the risk of hyperbole, it's not an accepted explanation bc teaching such in school would be tantamount to saying something other than Western culture has value.

Can down voters please explain why you disagree? (Unless hn is just overrun with deluded brainwashed lunatics.)

My guess is:

1) Because it is not a widely accepted POV, although there is overwhelming evidence for it.

2) Because Classic Islamic philosophy is often seen as mistaken by Scholastic philosophers (even if Scholastic philosophy would not exist without Averroism) and those philosophers are the precursors of modern philosophers.

3) Because Ancient Greeks are considered Western but Islamic caliphates are not.

4) Because the Crusades were associated with significant revisionism, including book burning of Arabic books, which makes it harder but not impossible to susbstantiate this POV.

5) Because some people (usually the far right people that listen to historically inaccurate podcasts and radio shows) believe that the West civilized the world and a POV that sounds opposite to that and credits their religious/ideological adversaries cause them to become very, very upset.

I'd say the invention of the printing press had a far more profound influence.

The printing press becomes a practical invention only once:

1) You have something to print on

2) You have content worth printing

The introduction of paper to Europe and the Latin translations in Toledo and Sicily (cities in former Islamic territories) are the answer to 1 and 2.

Paper is cheap, scalable, durable and portable. Pre-paper technology such as papyrus, parchments, tablets and carvings have issues in those regards.

Greek literature from Archimedes, Aristotle, Apollonius, Euclid, Diocles, Galen, Hippocrates, Ptolomy, and many others, was reintroduced to the West through those translations.