Or provide Europe with an ideological base of reaching for knowledge.
If there is one thing that unites Bharat, Zhongguo, and the Dar-al-Islam above all, it is their under-current of... not philosophy, but a certain drive of learning new things, and having an educated class that examines those new things. Despite all the coups, wars, censures, and empire break-ups, the three regions always had tradition for having a learned class of people that tries to tinker with what they had.
Zhongguo has their Confucian mandarins, Bharat has their mathematicians, and Islamic cities like Cordoba and Esfahan have their clerical polymaths. All three regions have a class of learned men that learned new things, and what's more, all three regions have an... undercurrent of reaching for knowledge. Wasn't there one Arabic figure whom said: "Seek knowledge, even if it leads you to Nippon." ?
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