QUESTION NUMBER ONE: Discuss influences that Persian, Greek, Indian and Chinese cultures had on the development of Islamic arts and sciences.
             It would seem pertinent at the beginning of this paper to put Islam into an historical context, and place it in properly among the greatest cities of the world in terms of its art, science, literature and advanced culture.
             In fact, what most Westerners know today as Baghdad – the capitol city of the nation that Saddam Hussein ruled and that American fighter jets attacked in their campaign to overthrow Hussein; the city that is presently the scene of bloody daily suicide bombings by Islamic terrorists ("insurgents") opposed to the U.S. occupation – was a very different city when it was in its prime in around 800 CE. Indeed, Islam was a very different culture during that time period.
             "The city...formed two vast semi-circles on the right and left banks of the Tigris, twelve miles in diameter," according to William Stearns Davis' book (Davis 365). On both sides of the river for miles one could see "palaces, kiosks, gardens and parks of the grandees and nobles, marble steps led down to the water's edge," and the river was the scene of "thousands of gondolas," Davis described.
             The palaces were normally several stories high, made of marble, and "lavishly gilded," decorated with "beautiful tapestry and hangings of brocade or silk," Davis' research reveals.
             The Caliph lived in a palace in the middle of a vast park "...beside a menagerie and aviary" which was within an enclosure "for wild animals reserved for chase." Streets that were "forty cubits wide, traversed the city from one end to the other," and the waterways were "guarded night and day by relays of soldiers stationed on the watch towers of both sides of the river," according to the account of Davis.
             The ci...