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We get told about Islam preserving greek thought/history. Did Islam not do the same for Indian thought/history?

The main preservation of greek texts was the byzantine empire not the Arab world. If you take a second to think about it was the Greek Roman Empire. Until it fell it was the heart of the knowledge of Rome and Greece.

"Muslim empires preserved Greek learning" is a half-truth, because the medieval Latins traded more with the Arabs than they did with Byzantium. Thus when they got Aristotle etc. it tended to be from Arab sources, even though Constantinople had much better copies.

> because the medieval Latins traded more with the Arabs than they did with Byzantium

That’s really not even remotely true. The Empire was the primary foreign market for all the Italian merchant republics.

They almost always had a significant presence in Constantinople and in later periods almost controlled internal trade in the empire.

The Venetians especially were highly reliant on their trade with Constantinople until quite late.

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