There are certainly multiple factors, and I've written elsewhere about how Islam began with its golden, "modern" period and ended up in its current medievalism, whereas the opposite was true for Christendom in the West. The geographical factor would be more like a center of gravity pulling a culture in a certain direction. Other factors can delay that inclination, but eventually the authentic zeitgeist wins out, as it were. Early Islam benefitted, too, from the medievalism of its Christian rivals. The key point is that I don't see much in the Quran that encourages anything like progressive, this-worldly humanism.

https://medium.com/@benjamincain8/the-audacity-of-the-quran-e72e0b6728cd?source=friends_link&sk=3b98d092d85f632c61c1308f97082ffe