The Origin of the Word Bank

According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, the word 'bank' is dated to 
13th century.  It says it came 'from Old Italian banca, literally, bench, 
of Germanic origin; akin to Old English benc'

However, due to prejudice or some other reasons, this history is what 
you will not find there:

During the crusade times, two hundred years war between the Arabs 
and Europeans, there were European prisoners of war (POW) in the 
hands of Arabs.  The reason of the war was that the Muslim Arabs had 
taken over of the land of Israel.  The Pops of Europe were very 
disturbed because Israel was the birthplace of Jesus.  For that reason, 
they decided to drive the Muslims out of Israel by force.  After 200 
years of attacks, the Europeans failed.  They only left behind their 
POWs, dead bodies and ashes.  History has recorded that the crusaders 
plundered, killed and raped.  Even nuns were not spared from their 
beastly rapes.  They were the most savage people at that time.  During 
that time, Europe was on 'Dark Ages.'  90% of the people were 
illiterate.  They used to hang witches and persecute scientists.

On the other hand, the Middle East was the most civilized people.  The 
so called un-leaned of them had shelves filled with books.  There was a 
great civilization from the central Asia to the waters of Mediterranean.  
Only prejudice denies that fact.  They communicated with one 
language, Arabic; they were great traders and navigators.  They built 
great Architectures, such as, Tajmahal of India.

They discovered the number zero, algebra, alchemy (later became 
Chemistry), arithmetic (modern math), etc.  Any thing that starts with 
'al' has an Arabic origin.  Without zero, there would not be computers 
or the internet today.  As you may know, computers only understand 0 
and 1.  0 symbolizes for off; and 1 symbolizes for on.  Before the 
discovery of zero, people used to count only until 9.

If you are trapped in the communist ideology or western philosophy, 
you will not understand this.  Because, they will tell you the current 
civilization was due to the influence of the civilization that started in 
the Middle East.  Yet, due to prejudice or other reason, they will not tell 
you that it was founded because of Islam.  

Some call it Islamic civilization, others Arab civilization and others 
Middle East civilization.  However, non-of them really do justice to 
that civilization.  There were Christian, Jews, Buddhists, and Muslims 
that contributed to that civilization.  Peace and Justice flourished for all.  
During Spanish Inquisition, after the crusaders kicked the Jews out of 
Spain, the Jews were given freedom to exercise their religion in 
Northern Africa.

To go beyond this may take us beyond the scope of this topic.    Let's 
go back to the word bank and wrap this up.  As I mentioned earlier, the 
European POWs saw civilazation that was something that they have never 
seen before.  Especially, the Arabs excelled in trade business.  They 
saw establishments for the custody, loan, exchange, or issue of money 
on tables (or banko in Italian).  Thereupon the word bank was originated.

Any questions, corrections or comments are most welcome.

Yours truly,
Barnabas.