It seems the question I posed shall remain unanswered while we digress into discussions of the world before jove.....Great science has occured in all sorts of places in the world through history,but sadly stopped in the Islamic world qiute a few centuries ago...Today is where we are at,and as al of us (to give it the biblical description) have something in the order of only 3 score and ten to live. sadly reciting the parables of the ages wont stop our beloved world being ripped to shreds by crazed religious zealots in the name of a so called God the spawning of minds from a darker age...

Chas regards what this has to with music...perhaps you should refer back to Roman history and Nero who fiddled while Rome burned...