There are an estimated 1.6 billion followers of Islam. Yet, Muslim-majority nations produce a disproportionately small share of the world’s scientific output. Annually, more books are translated into Spanish, than into Arabic in the last 1,000 years. The lack of scientific output is stunning. There is no single explanation for the negligence of science in the Islamic world. There is no single ruler who inaugurated it and no single event that fueled it. The truth is that the Islamic Golden Age, witnessed a complex sequence of unforeseen events.