Thanks for mentioning this. Though I think it is well known that Arabic and Indian societies were ahead of Europe with regards to mathematics for a long time, I have never thought about the lack of famous mathematicians outside of Europe. That being said, any serious mathematician would say that being a great mathematician is just as much as being at the right place at the right time as a being a genius. It is sad that these names are, if not lost to history, at least not well known, but praising any name of a discipline that builds on previous works in the way mathematics does is a little wrong in the first place. Even the dickhead Newton admitted as much with the “shoulders of giants” comment with regards to himself.

Why spare the pity though? It is complacency that is the problem. Imo pity is the first step towards solidarity and the quote feels off for me since I can imagine a number of contexts that would give it a terrible look. The whole idea that one can forge the future to one’s will with hard work is just capitalist propaganda.