But vitally, Italian alum mines didn't bring victory over the Turks, or cause them to lose all their profits, just as mining and drilling at home never obviate the need for trade. Okay, one last way the Islamic world helped to create the European Renaissance, if indeed it happened, the Muslim world was the source of many of the writings that Renaissance scholars studied. For centuries, Muslim scholars have been working their way through ancient Greek writings, especially Ptolemy and Aristotle, who, despite being consistently wrong about everything, managed to be the jumping off point for thinking both in the Christian and Muslim worlds. And the fall of Constance in Opulence 1453 helped further spread Greek ideas because Byzantine scholars fled for Italy, taking their books with them, so we had the Ottomans to thank for that, too. And even after it became a Muslim capital, Istanbul was still like the number one destination for book nerds searching for ancient Greek texts. Plus, if we stretch our definition of Renaissance thought to include scientific thought, there is a definite case to be made that Muslim scholars influenced Copernicus, arguably the Renaissance's greatest mind. Oh, it's time for the open letter?