With about 1.6 billion adherents, Islam is the second largest religion on Earth. Yet, its followers represent less than one percent of the world’s scientists. Only a handful of people from Muslim-majority countries have won Nobel Prizes in science. However, up until the Mongol siege of Baghdad in 1258, Islamic science was the most advanced in the world. In comparison with the past, the modern disparity is staggering. Thus, to understand the present-day lack of scientific accomplishments, we must explore the past. In this first instalment of a new series, we will go over the rise and decline of Islamic attitudes towards science.