Science in the medieval Islamic world

Science in medieval Islam , also known as Islamic or Arabic science , is a term used in the history of science to refer to the science developed in the Islamic world prior to the modern era , particularly during what is known as the Islamic Golden Age (dated variously between the 7th and 15th centuries). In the course of the expansion of the Islamic world, Muslim scholars encountered the science, mathematics, and medicine of antiquity through the works of Aristotle , Archimedes , Galen , Ptolemy , Euclid , and others that had been preserved in Persia and the Byzantine Empire . These works and the important commentaries on them were the wellspring of science during the Medieval period. They were translated into Arabic , the lingua franca of this period; scientists within the Islamic civilization were of diverse ethnicity (a great portion were Persians and Arabs , in addition to Berbers , Moors and Turks ) and diverse religious backgrounds (mostly Muslims, in addition to many Christians and Jews , as well as Sabians , Zoroastrians and the irreligious ). Excerpt: A great portion (and most of the best) of medieval Muslim philosophers, physicians, ethicists, scientists, Islamic jurists, historians, and geographers were Persian-speaking Iranians Ibn Khaldun , Franz Rosenthal, N. Thus, the truth of the following statement by the Prophet becomes apparent:"If scholarship hung suspended in the highest parts of heaven, the Persians would attain it. [...] This situation continued in the cities as long as the Persians and the Persian countries, the 'Iraq, Khurasan, and Transoxania, retained their sedentary culture. But when those cities fell into ruins, sedentary culture, which God has devised for the attainment of sciences and crafts, disappeared from them. Along with it, scholarship altogether disappeared from among the non-Arabs (Persians), who were (now) engulfed by the desert attitude. Scholarship was restricted to cities with an abundant sedentary culture. Today, no (city) has a more abundant sedentary culture than Cairo (Egypt). It is the mother of the world, the great center (Iwan) of Islam, and the mainspring of the sciences and the crafts. Some sedentary culture has also survived in Transoxania, because the dynasty there provides some sedentary culture. Therefore, they have there a certain number of the sciences and the crafts, which cannot be denied. Our attention was called to this fact by the contents of the writings of a (Transoxanian) scholar, which have reached us in this country. He is Sa'd-ad-din at-Taftazani . As far as the other non-Arabs (Persians) are concerned, we have not seen, since the imam Ibn al-Khatib and Nasir-ad-din at-Tusi , any discussions that could be referred to as indicating their ultimate excellence." Howard R. (January 1999), Bibliography of Mathematics in Medieval Islamic Civilization : "Although most of the mathematicians in this period of Islamic civilization were Muslims, some prominent mathematicians had other religious backgrounds (Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian)." A. They did not for the most part adopt the new faith; and while they wrote on scientific matters in Arabic for their patrons, they continued to write in Syriac on matters of religious concern to their co-religionists. As genuine believers in the values of the Hellenistic tradition which they propagated they cannot be merely considered as mercenaries, but they remained, in a sense, outsiders. Their heirs in the second stage were mostly Muslims who came from all parts of the Muslim world. [...] But the general outlook which determined the direction of their thought and in terms of which they sought to interpret their own religion and expound their views on the place of religion and of rational thought in the organization of society was uncompromisingly Hellenistic. A look at the later centuries, what I called the third stage, reveals a clearly noticeable change. The carriers of scientific and medical knowledge and techniques now largely consisted of men who were not only Muslim by birth and faith, but who were imbued with Muslim learning and tradition, and whose conceptual framework had been produced in the process of forging a consciously Muslim outlook. Bernard Lewis The Jews of Islam 1987 page 6 "Similarly, Islamic science means mathematics, physics, chemistry, and the rest, produced within this Islamic civilization and expressed normally in Arabic, occasionally in one of the other languages of Islam. Much of this science, as of this art, is the work not of Muslims but of Christians and Jews living in Islamic lands and constituting a part of the Islamic civilization in which they were formed." Salah Zaimeche (2003), Introduction to Muslim Science. Many of the scientists under Islam have nothing Muslim about them. Thus, some of Islam earliest and most prominent scientists at the Abbasid court, Ishaq Ibn Hunayn and Hunayn Ibn Ishaq were Nestorian Christians. Thabit Ibn Qurrah, the astronomer, was a Sabean. The Baktishtu family who held most prominent positions in the court in the ninth century were Christians, too. So were the historian-physician Abul Faraj; Ali Ibn Ridwan, the Egyptian, who was the al-Hakem’s Doctor; Ibn Djazla of Baghdad and Isa Ibn Ali, another famed physicist; and so on. Yaqut al-Hamawi, one of Islam’s greatest geographer-historian, was of Greek antecedents, and so was Al-Khazin (the champion author of the Balance of Wisdom). The Jews had the most glorious pages of their civilisation under Islam, too. To name just a couple, Maimonides (philosopher-physicist) was Salah Eddin Al-Ayyubi’s doctor, and Hasdai Ibn Shaprut, followed by his sons, held some of the most prominent positions in terms of learning and power in Muslim Spain. The Ben-Tibbon family were the ones who played a most prominent role in scattering Islamic learning in all provinces other than Spain (such as the South of France). Nearly all Muslim envoys to Christian powers were Jews; and about all Muslim trade was in the hands of the Jews, too. Hogendijk 1989 Bernard Lewis , What Went Wrong ? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response : "There have been many civilizations in human history, almost all of which were local, in the sense that they were defined by a region and an ethnic group. This applied to all the ancient civilizations of the Middle East — Egypt , Babylon , Persia ; to the great civilizations of Asia — India , China ; and to the civilizations of Pre-Columbian America . There are two exceptions: Christendom and Islam. These are two civilizations defined by religion, in which religion is the primary defining force, not, as in India or China, a secondary aspect among others of an essentially regional and ethnically defined civilization. Here, again, another word of explanation is necessary." "In English we use the word “ Islam ” with two distinct meanings, and the distinction is often blurred and lost and gives rise to considerable confusion. In the one sense, Islam is the counterpart of Christianity; that is to say, a religion in the strict sense of the word: a system of belief and worship. In the other sense, Islam is the counterpart of Christendom ; that is to say, a civilization shaped and defined by a religion, but containing many elements apart from and even hostile to that religion, yet arising within that civilization."

Science in the medieval Islamic world (also known, less accurately, as Islamic science or Arabic science ) is the science developed and practiced in the medieval Islamic world during the Islamic Golden Age (8th century CE – c. 1258 CE , sometimes considered to have extended to the 15th or 16th century). During this time, Indian, Assyrian, Iranian and Greek knowledge was translated into Arabic. These translations became a wellspring for scientific advances, by scientists from the Muslim ruled areas, during the Middle Ages. Scientists within the Muslim ruled areas were of diverse ethnicities, including Persians , Arabs , Assyrians , Kurds and Egyptians . They were also from diverse religious backgrounds. Most were Muslims, but there were also some Christians , Jews and irreligious . The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Islamic World .

Science developed and practised during the Islamic Golden Age The Tusi couple , a mathematical device invented by Nasir al-Din Tusi to model the not perfectly circular motions of the planets Science in the medieval Islamic world was the science developed and practised during the Islamic Golden Age under the Umayyads of Córdoba , the Abbadids of Seville , the Samanids , the Ziyarids , the Buyids in Persia , the Abbasid Caliphate and beyond, spanning the period roughly between 786 and 1258. Islamic scientific achievements encompassed a wide range of subject areas, especially astronomy , mathematics , and medicine . Other subjects of scientific inquiry included alchemy and chemistry , botany and agronomy , geography and cartography , ophthalmology , pharmacology , physics , and zoology . Medieval Islamic science had practical purposes as well as the goal of understanding. Islamic mathematicians such as Al-Khwarizmi , Avicenna and Jamshīd al-Kāshī made advances in algebra , trigonometry , geometry and Arabic numerals . Islamic doctors described diseases like smallpox and measles , and challenged classical Greek medical theory. Al-Biruni , Avicenna and others described the preparation of hundreds of drugs made from medicinal plants and chemical compounds. Islamic physicists such as Ibn Al-Haytham , Al-Bīrūnī and others studied optics and mechanics as well as astronomy, criticised Aristotle 's view of motion. The significance of medieval Islamic science has been debated by historians. The traditionalist view holds that it lacked innovation, and was mainly important for handing on ancient knowledge to medieval Europe . The revisionist view holds that it constituted a scientific revolution. Whatever the case, science flourished across a wide area around the Mediterranean and further afield, for several centuries, in a wide range of institutions.

Science developed and practised during the Islamic Golden Age "Islamic science" redirects here. The Tusi couple , a mathematical device invented by the Persian polymath Nasir al-Din Tusi to model the not perfectly circular motions of the planets Science in the medieval Islamic world was the science developed and practised during the Islamic Golden Age under the Umayyads of Córdoba , the Abbadids of Seville , the Samanids , the Ziyarids , the Buyids in Persia , the Abbasid Caliphate and beyond, spanning the period roughly between 786 and 1258. Islamic scientific achievements encompassed a wide range of subject areas, especially astronomy , mathematics , and medicine . Other subjects of scientific inquiry included alchemy and chemistry , botany and agronomy , geography and cartography , ophthalmology , pharmacology , physics , and zoology . Medieval Islamic science had practical purposes as well as the goal of understanding. Islamic mathematicians such as Al-Khwarizmi , Avicenna and Jamshīd al-Kāshī made advances in algebra , trigonometry , geometry and Arabic numerals . Islamic doctors described diseases like smallpox and measles , and challenged classical Greek medical theory. Al-Biruni , Avicenna and others described the preparation of hundreds of drugs made from medicinal plants and chemical compounds. Islamic physicists such as Ibn Al-Haytham , Al-Bīrūnī and others studied optics and mechanics as well as astronomy, and criticised Aristotle 's view of motion. During the Middle Ages, Islamic science flourished across a wide area around the Mediterranean Sea and further afield, for several centuries, in a wide range of institutions.

The Tusi couple , a mathematical device invented by the Persian polymath Nasir al-Din Tusi to model the not perfectly circular motions of the planets Science in the medieval Islamic world was the science developed and practised during the Islamic Golden Age under the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad , the Umayyads of Córdoba , the Abbadids of Seville , the Samanids , the Ziyarids and the Buyids in Persia and beyond, spanning the period roughly between 786 and 1258. Islamic scientific achievements encompassed a wide range of subject areas, especially astronomy , mathematics , and medicine . Other subjects of scientific inquiry included alchemy and chemistry , botany and agronomy , geography and cartography , ophthalmology , pharmacology , physics , and zoology . Medieval Islamic science had practical purposes as well as the goal of understanding. Islamic mathematicians such as Al-Khwarizmi , Avicenna and Jamshīd al-Kāshī made advances in algebra , trigonometry , geometry and Arabic numerals . Islamic doctors described diseases like smallpox and measles , and challenged classical Greek medical theory. Al-Biruni , Avicenna and others described the preparation of hundreds of drugs made from medicinal plants and chemical compounds. Islamic physicists such as Ibn Al-Haytham , Al-Bīrūnī and others studied optics and mechanics as well as astronomy, and criticised Aristotle 's view of motion. During the Middle Ages, Islamic science flourished across a wide area around the Mediterranean Sea and further afield, for several centuries, in a wide range of institutions.