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Islamic Golden Age
The Islamic Golden Age, also sometimes
known as the Islamic Renaissance,[1]
was traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 13th century,[2]
but has been extended to the 15th[3] and 16th[4] centuries by recent scholarship. During this period, engineers, scholars and traders in the Islamic
world contributed to the arts, agriculture,
economics,
industry, law, literature,
navigation,
philosophy,
sciences, and technology,
both by preserving and building upon earlier traditions and by adding
inventions and innovations of their own.[5] Howard R. Turner writes: "Muslim artists and scientists, princes and labourers
together made a unique culture that has directly and indirectly influenced
societies on every continent."[5] [edit] Foundations
Further
information: Early reforms under Islam and Muslim
conquests
Age of the Caliphs Expansion
under Muhammad,
622-632 Expansion during the Rashidun Caliphate, 632-661 Expansion during the
Umayyad Caliphate,
661-750 During the Muslim conquests of the 7th and early
8th centuries, Rashidun armies established the Islamic
Empire, which was one of the ten largest empires in history. The Islamic Golden Age
was soon inaugurated by the middle of the 8th century by the ascension of the Abbasid Caliphate and
the transfer of the capital from Damascus to the Persian
city of Baghdad
illustrating the strong Persian presence in the Abbasid Caliphate.
The Abbassids were influenced by the Qur'anic
injunctions and hadith
such as "The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of
martyrs" stressing the value of knowledge. During this period the Muslim
world became the unrivalled intellectual centre for science, philosophy,
medicine and education as the Abbasids championed the cause of knowledge and
established a "House of Wisdom" (Arabic:بيت
الحكمة) in Baghdad; where both Muslim and
non-Muslim scholars sought to translate and gather all the world's knowledge
into Arabic. Many classic works of antiquity that would
otherwise have been lost were translated into Arabic and later in turn
translated into Turkish, Persian,
Hebrew
and Latin.
During this period the Muslim world was a cauldron of cultures which collected,
synthesized and significantly advanced the knowledge gained from the ancient Iraqi, Roman,
Chinese, Indian,
Persian,
Egyptian,
North
African, Greek and Byzantine
civilizations. Rival Muslim dynasties such as the Fatimids of Egypt and the Umayyads of al-Andalus
were also major intellectual centres with cities such as Cairo and Córdoba
rivaling Baghdad.[6] A major innovation of this period was paper - originally a
secret tightly guarded by the Chinese. The art of papermaking
was obtained from prisoners taken at the Battle
of Talas (751), resulting in paper mills
being built in the Persian cities of Samarkand and
Baghdad. The
Arabs improved upon the Chinese techniques of using mulberry bark
by using starch
to account for the Muslim preference for pens vs. the Chinese for brushes. By
AD 900 there were hundreds of shops employing scribes and binders for books in Much of this learning and development can be
linked to topography. Even prior to Islam's presence, the city of Mecca served as a
centre of trade in Arabia.
The tradition of the pilgrimage to Mecca became a centre for
exchanging ideas and goods. The influence held by Muslim merchants over African-Arabian
and Arabian-Asian trade routes was tremendous. As a result, Islamic
civilization grew and expanded on the basis of its merchant economy, in
contrast to their Christian, Indian and Chinese peers who built societies from
an agricultural landholding nobility. Merchants brought goods and their faith
to Aside from traders, Sufi missionaries also
played a large role in the spread of Islam, by bringing their message to
various regions around the world. The principal locations included: Persia, Ancient Mesopotamia, Central
Asia and North Africa. Although, the mystics also
had a significant influence in parts of Eastern
Africa, Ancient Anatolia (Turkey), South Asia,
East Asia
and South-east Asia.[8][9] Ethics
Main
articles: Islamic ethics and Early reforms under Islam Further
information: Islamic democracy and Constitution of Medina Many medieval Muslim thinkers pursued humanistic,
rational
and scientific discourses in their search for knowledge,
meaning and values.
A wide range of Islamic writings on love poetry, history and philosophical theology show that medieval
Islamic thought was open to the humanistic ideas of individualism,
occasional secularism,
skepticism
and liberalism.[10][11] Religious
freedom, though society was still controlled under Islamic values, helped
create cross-cultural networks by attracting Muslim, Christian and
Jewish
intellectuals and thereby helped spawn the greatest period of philosophical
creativity in the Middle Ages from the 8th to 13th centuries.[6] Another reason the Islamic world flourished during this
period was an early emphasis on freedom
of speech, as summarized by al-Hashimi (a cousin of Caliph al-Ma'mun)
in the following letter to one of the religious opponents he was attempting to convert through reason:[12] "Bring
forward all the arguments you wish and say whatever you please and speak your
mind freely. Now that you are safe and free to say whatever you please appoint
some arbitrator who will impartially judge between us and lean only towards the
truth and be free from the empary of passion, and that arbitrator shall be Reason, whereby God
makes us responsible for our own rewards and punishments. Herein I have dealt
justly with you and have given you full security and am ready to accept
whatever decision Reason may give for me or against me. For "There is no
compulsion in religion" (Qur'an 2:256) and I have only invited you to accept our
faith willingly and of your own accord and have pointed out the hideousness of
your present belief. Peace be with you and the blessings of God!" The earliest known treatises dealing with environmentalism
and environmental science, especially pollution,
were Arabic treatises written by al-Kindi, al-Razi, Ibn Al-Jazzar, al-Tamimi, al-Masihi, Avicenna, Ali
ibn Ridwan, Abd-el-latif, and Ibn
al-Nafis. Their works covered a number of subjects related to pollution
such as air pollution, water
pollution, soil contamination, municipal solid waste mishandling, and environmental impact assessments of
certain localities.[13]
Cordoba, al-Andalus
also had the first waste containers and waste
disposal facilities for litter collection.[14] Institutions
Further
information: Madrasah,
Bimaristan,
Islamic astronomy, Sharia, Fiqh, and Islamic economics in the world A number of important educational and scientific
institutions
previously unknown in the ancient world have their origins in the medieval
Islamic world, with the most notable examples being: the public
hospital (which replaced healing
temples and sleep temples)[15] and psychiatric hospital,[16]
the public
library and lending library, the academic
degree-granting university, and the astronomical observatory
as a research institute[15] (as opposed to a private observation
post as was the case in ancient times).[17] The first universities which issued diplomas were the
Bimaristan
medical university-hospitals of the medieval Islamic world, where medical
diplomas were issued to students of Islamic
medicine who were qualified to be practicing doctors of medicine from the 9th century.[18]
The Guinness Book of World Records recognizes
the University of Al Karaouine in Fez,
Morocco as the oldest degree-granting university in the world with its
founding in 859 CE.[19]
Al-Azhar University, founded in Cairo, Egypt in the 975 CE, offered a variety
of academic degrees, including postgraduate degrees, and is often considered
the first full-fledged university. The origins of the doctorate
also dates back to the ijazat attadris wa 'l-ifttd ("license to teach and
issue legal opinions") in the medieval Madrasahs which
taught Islamic law.[20] By the 10th century, Cordoba
had 700 mosques,
60,000 palaces,
and 70 libraries,
the largest of which had 600,000 books. In the whole al-Andalus,
60,000 treatises,
poems,
polemics and compilations
were published each year.[21] The library of Cairo had two million
books,[22]
while the library of Tripoli is said to have had as many as three
million books before it was destroyed by Crusaders.
The number of important and original medieval Arabic works on the mathematical
sciences far exceeds the combined total of medieval Latin and Greek
works of comparable significance, although only a small fraction of the
surviving Arabic scientific works have been studied in modern times.[23] A number of distinct features of the modern
library were introduced in the Islamic world, where libraries not only served
as a collection of manuscripts as was the case in ancient libraries, but also
as a public library and lending library, a centre for the instruction and
spread of sciences and ideas, a place for meetings and discussions, and
sometimes as a lodging
for scholars or boarding school for pupils. The concept of the library
catalogue was also introduced in medieval Islamic libraries, where books
were organized into specific genres and categories.[24] Several fundamental common law
institutions may have been adapted from similar legal institutions in Islamic law
and jurisprudence,
and introduced to England by the Normans after the Norman conquest of England and the Emirate
of Sicily, and by Crusaders during the Crusades. In
particular, the "royal English contract
protected by the action of debt is identified with the Islamic Aqd, the English assize of novel disseisin is identified
with the Islamic Istihqaq, and the English jury is identified with
the Islamic Lafif." Other legal institutions introduced in Islamic
law include the trust and charitable
trust (Waqf),[25][26]
and the agency and aval (Hawala),[27]
and the lawsuit
and medical peer review.[28]
Other English legal institutions such as "the scholastic
method, the license
to teach,"
the "law
schools known as Inns of Court in England and Madrasas in
Islam" and the "European commenda" (Islamic Qirad) may have
also originated from Islamic law. These influences have led some scholars to
suggest that Islamic law may have laid the foundations for "the common law
as an integrated whole".[20] Polymaths
Another common feature during the Islamic Golden
Age was the large number of Muslim polymath
scholars, who were known as "Hakeems", each of whom contributed to a
variety of different fields of both religious and secular learning,
comparable to the later "Renaissance Men" (such as Leonardo
da Vinci) of the European Renaissance period. During the Islamic Golden Age,
polymath scholars with a wide breadth of knowledge in different fields were
more common than scholars who specialized in any single field of learning.[29] Notable medieval Muslim polymaths included al-Biruni, al-Jahiz, al-Kindi, Avicenna, al-Idrisi, Ibn Bajjah,
Ibn Zuhr, Ibn Tufail,
Averroes, al-Suyuti,[30]
Geber,[31]
Abbas
Ibn Firnas,[32]
Alhacen,[33]
Ibn
al-Nafis,[34]
Ibn
Khaldun,[35]
al-Khwarizmi,
al-Masudi,
al-Muqaddasi,
and Nasīr al-Dīn
al-Tūsī, among others.[29] Economy
Age of discovery
Main
article: Islamic geography See also: Islamic economics in the world, Inventions in the Muslim world, Ibn Battuta,
and Pre-Columbian
Andalusian-Americas contact theories The Islamic
Empire significantly contributed to globalization
during the Islamic Golden Age, when the knowledge, trade and economies from
many previously isolated regions and civilizations
began integrating due to contacts with Muslim explorers, sailors, scholars,
traders, and travelers.
Some have called this period the "Pax Islamica" or "Afro-Asiatic
age
of discovery", in reference to the Muslim South-west
Asian and North African traders and explorers who travelled most
of the Old
World, and established an early global
economy[36] across most of Asia and Africa and much of Europe, with their
trade networks
extending from the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean
Sea in the west to the Indian Ocean and China Sea
in the east.[37] This helped establish the Islamic
Empire (including the Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid and Fatimid caliphates)
as the world's leading extensive economic power throughout the 7th-13th
centuries.[36] Several contemporary medieval Arabic reports also suggest
that Muslim explorers from al-Andalus and the Maghreb may have
travelled in expeditions across the Agricultural
Revolution
Main
article: Muslim Agricultural Revolution
The valve-operated reciprocating suction piston pump with crankshaft-connecting
rod mechanism invented by al-Jazari in the 12th century. The Islamic Golden Age witnessed a fundamental
transformation in agriculture known as the "Muslim Agricultural Revolution", "Arab
Agricultural Revolution", or "Green
Revolution".[39]
Due to the global economy established by Muslim traders across
the Old
World, this enabled the diffusion of many plants and farming
techniques between different parts of the Islamic world, as well as the
adaptation of plants and techniques from beyond the Islamic world. Crops from Africa such as sorghum, crops
from China such as
citrus
fruits, and numerous crops from India such as mangos, rice,
and especially cotton
and sugar
cane, were distributed throughout Islamic lands which normally would not be
able to grow these crops.[40] Some have referred to the diffusion of numerous crops
during this period as the "Globalisation
of Crops",[41]
which, along with an increased mechanization
of agriculture (see Industrial growth below), led to major changes in economy, population distribution, vegetation
cover,[42]
agricultural production and income, population levels, urban
growth, the distribution of the labour force,
linked industries,
cooking and diet, clothing, and
numerous other aspects of life in the Islamic world.[40] During the Muslim Agricultural Revolution, sugar production was
refined and transformed into a large-scale industry by the
Arabs, who built the
first sugar refineries and sugar plantations.
The Arabs and Berbers
diffused sugar throughout the Islamic
Empire from the 8th century.[43] Muslims introduced cash cropping[44] and the modern crop
rotation system where land was cropped four or more times in a two-year
period. Winter crops were followed by summer ones, and in some cases there was
in between. In areas where plants of shorter growing season were used, such as spinach and eggplants, the
land could be cropped three or more times a year. In parts of Yemen, wheat yielded two harvests a year
on the same land, as did rice in Market economy
Main
article: Islamic economics in the world Early forms of proto-capitalism
and free
markets were present in the Caliphate,[46]
where an early market economy and early form of merchant capitalism was developed between the
8th-12th centuries, which some refer to as "Islamic capitalism".[47]
A vigorous monetary economy was created on the basis of the
expanding levels of circulation of a stable high-value currency (the dinar) and the
integration of monetary
areas that were previously independent. Innovative new business
techniques and forms of business organisation were introduced by economists, merchants and
traders during this time. Such innovations included early trading
companies, credit cards, big businesses, contracts, bills
of exchange, long-distance international trade, early forms of partnership
(mufawada) such as limited partnerships (mudaraba), and
early forms of credit, debt, profit, loss, capital (al-mal), capital accumulation (nama al-mal),[44] circulating capital, capital expenditure, revenue, cheques, promissory
notes,[48]
trusts (waqf), startup
companies,[49]
savings
accounts, transactional accounts, pawning, loaning, exchange
rates, bankers, money
changers, ledgers,
deposits, assignments, the double-entry bookkeeping system,[50]
and lawsuits.[51]
Organizational
enterprises
similar to corporations independent from the state also existed in
the medieval Islamic world.[52][53]
Many of these early proto-capitalist concepts were adopted and further advanced
in medieval Europe from the 13th century onwards.[44] The systems of contract relied
upon by merchants
was very effective. Merchants would buy and sell on commission, with money loaned to them by
wealthy investors,
or a joint investment
of several merchants, who were often Muslim, Christian and Jewish. Recently, a
collection of documents was found in an Egyptian synagogue
shedding a very detailed and human light on the life of medieval Middle Eastern
merchants. Business partnerships would be made for many commercial
ventures, and bonds of kinship enabled trade networks to form
over huge distances. Networks developed during this time enabled a world in
which money could
be promised by a bank
in Baghdad and
cashed in Spain,
creating the cheque
system of today. Each time items passed through the cities along this
extraordinary network, the city imposed a tax, resulting in high
prices once reaching the final destination. These innovations made by Muslims
and Jews laid the foundations for the modern economic
system. Though medieval Islamic economics appears to
have been closer to proto-capitalism, some scholars have also found a number of
parallels between Islamic economic jurisprudence and communism,
including the Islamic ideas of zakat and riba.[54] Industrial
growth
Further
information: Muslim Agricultural Revolution:
Industrial growth and Inventions in the Muslim world
The Iranian born Jabir ibn Hayyan
(Geber) introduced the experimental method to chemistry. He also
established the chemical industry and perfumery
industry. Muslim engineers in the Islamic world made a
number of innovative industrial uses of hydropower,
and early industrial uses of tidal power, wind power,
steam
power,[55]
fossil
fuels such as petroleum, and early large factory complexes
(tiraz in Arabic).[56]
The industrial uses of watermills in the Islamic world date back to the 7th
century, while horizontal-wheeled and vertical-wheeled water mills were both in
widespread use since at least the 9th century. A variety of industrial mills were being
employed in the Islamic world, including early fulling mills, gristmills, hullers, paper mills,
sawmills,
shipmills, stamp
mills, steel
mills, sugar mills, tide mills
and windmills.
By the 11th century, every province throughout the Islamic world had these
industrial mills in operation, from al-Andalus
and North
Africa to the Middle East and Central
Asia.[57]
Muslim engineers also invented crankshafts and water
turbines, employed gears
in mills and water-raising machines, and pioneered the use of dams as a source of water
power, used to provide additional power to watermills and water-raising
machines.[43] Such advances made it possible for many industrial
tasks that were previously driven by manual
labour in ancient times to be mechanized
and driven by machinery
instead in the medieval Islamic world. The transfer of these technologies to
medieval A number of industries were generated due to the
Muslim Agricultural Revolution, including early industries for agribusiness,
astronomical instruments, ceramics, chemicals,
distillation
technologies, clocks,
glass, mechanical hydropowered
and wind
powered machinery,
matting, mosaics, pulp and paper, perfumery, petroleum, pharmaceuticals, rope-making, shipping, shipbuilding,
silk, sugar, textiles,
water,
weapons, and the
mining of minerals such as sulphur, ammonia, lead and iron. Early large factory complexes
(tiraz) were built for many of these industries, and knowledge of these
industries were later transmitted to medieval
Europe, especially during the Latin translations of the 12th
century, as well as before and after. For example, the first glass
factories in Europe were founded in the 11th century by Egyptian craftsmen in
Greece.[59]
The agricultural
and handicraft
industries also experienced high levels of growth during this period.[37] Labour
Further
information: Muslim Agricultural Revolution - Labour The labour force in the Caliphate
were employed
from diverse ethnic
and religious
backgrounds, while both men and women were involved in diverse occupations and economic
activities.[60]
Women were employed in a wide range of commercial activities and diverse
occupations[61] in the primary sector (as farmers for
example), secondary sector (as construction workers, dyers, spinners, etc.) and tertiary sector (as investors, doctors, nurses, presidents of
guilds, brokers, peddlers, lenders, scholars, etc.).[62]
Muslim women also had a monopoly over certain branches of the textile industry.[61] Technology
Main
articles: Inventions in the Muslim world, Muslim Agricultural Revolution, and Timeline of Muslim
scientists and engineers
The programmable automata of al-Jazari. A significant number of inventions were produced
by medieval Muslim engineers and inventors, such as Abbas
Ibn Firnas, the Banū
Mūsā, Taqi al-Din, and most notably al-Jazari. Some of the inventions believed to have come
from the Islamic Golden Age include the camera
obscura, coffee,
soap bar, shampoo, pure distillation,
liquefaction,
crystallisation,
purification,
oxidisation,
evaporation,
filtration,
distilled alcohol, uric acid, nitric acid,
alembic, crankshaft,
valve, reciprocating suction piston pump, mechanical
clocks driven by water and weights, programmable humanoid
robot, combination lock, quilting,
pointed arch, scalpel, bone saw, forceps, surgical
catgut, windmill, inoculation,
smallpox
vaccine, fountain pen, cryptanalysis,
frequency analysis, three-course
meal, stained
glass and quartz glass, Persian
carpet, modern cheque,
celestial
globe, explosive
rockets and incendiary
devices, torpedo,
and artificial pleasure gardens.[63] Urbanization
Further
information: Muslim Agricultural Revolution:
Urbanization As urbanization
increased, Muslim cities
grew unregulated, resulting in narrow winding city streets and neighbourhoods
separated by different ethnic backgrounds and religious affiliations. These
qualities proved efficient for transporting goods[citation needed] to and from
major commercial
centres while preserving the privacy valued by Islamic family life. Suburbs lay
just outside the walled city, from wealthy residential communities, to working
class semi-slums. City garbage dumps were located far from the city, as were
clearly defined cemeteries which were often homes for criminals. A place of
prayer was found just near one of the main gates, for religious festivals and
public executions. Similarly, Military Training grounds were found near a main
gate. Muslim cities also had advanced domestic water systems with sewers, public
baths, drinking fountains, piped drinking
water supplies,[64]
and widespread private and public toilet and bathing
facilities.[65]
By the 10th century, Cordoba had 700 mosques, 60,000
palaces, and 70 libraries.[21] Sciences
Main
article: Islamic science Further
information: Islamic contributions to
Medieval Europe, Timeline of
science and technology in the Islamic world, and List of Muslim scientists
Ibn
al-Haytham (Alhazen) was a Persian
pioneer of modern optics,
and some have also described him as a "pioneer of the modern scientific
method" and "first scientist".
He also invented the camera obscura and pinhole
camera, was the first to discover the principle of least time and first law of motion, and laid the foundations
for telescopic
astronomy. The traditional view of Islamic
science was that it was chiefly a preserver and transmitter of ancient
knowledge.[66]
For example, Donald Lach argues that modern science originated in Scientific
method
Further
information: Islamic science: Scientific method Early scientific
methods were developed in the Islamic world, where significant progress in
methodology was made, especially in the works of Ibn
al-Haytham (Alhazen) in the 11th century, who is considered the pioneer of experimental physics.[73][82] The most important development of the scientific method
was the use of experimentation and quantification
to distinguish between competing scientific theories set within a generally empirical
orientation. Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) wrote the Book
of Optics, in which he significantly reformed the field of optics, empirically
proved that vision occurred because of light rays
entering the eye, and invented the camera
obscura to demonstrate the physical nature of light rays.[83][84] Ibn al-Haytham has also been described as the
"first scientist" for his introduction of the scientific method,[85]
and his pioneering work on the psychology of visual
perception[86][87]
is considered a precursor to psychophysics
and experimental psychology.[88] Peer review
The earliest medical peer review, a process by which a
committee of physicians investigate the medical care rendered in order to
determine whether accepted standards of care have been met, is found in the Ethics
of the Physician written by Ishaq bin Ali al-Rahwi (854–931) of al-Raha in Syria. His work, as
well as later Arabic medical manuals, state that a visiting physician must
always make duplicate notes of a patient's condition on every visit. When the
patient was cured or had died, the notes of the physician were examined by a
local medical council of other physicians, who would review the
practising physician's notes to decide whether his/her performance have met the
required standards of medical care. If their reviews were negative, the
practicing physician could face a lawsuit from a maltreated patient.[89] The first scientific peer review,
the evaluation of research findings for competence, significance and
originality by qualified experts, was described later in the Medical Essays
and Observations published by the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1731. The
present-day scientific peer review system evolved from this 18th century
process.[90] Astronomy
Main
article: Islamic astronomy Further
information: Maragheh observatory, Islamic
astrology, List of Muslim astronomers, and List of Arabic star names
Photo taken from medieval
manuscript by Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi (1236–1311), a Persian
astronomer. The image depicts an epicyclic planetary model. Some have referred to the achievements of the Maragha school
and their predecessors and successors in astronomy as
a "Maragha Revolution", "Maragha School Revolution" or
"Scientific Revolution before the Renaissance".[3] Advances in astronomy by the Maragha school and their
predecessors and successors include the construction of the first observatory
in Baghdad
during the reign of Caliph
al-Ma'mun,[91]
the collection and correction of previous astronomical data, resolving
significant problems in the Ptolemaic
model, the development of universal astrolabes,[92]
the invention of numerous other astronomical instruments, the beginning of astrophysics
and celestial mechanics after Ja'far Muhammad ibn
Mūsā ibn Shākir discovered that the heavenly bodies and celestial
spheres were subject to the same physical
laws as Earth,[93]
the first elaborate experiments related to astronomical phenomena and the
first semantic
distinction between astronomy and astrology by Abū
al-Rayhān al-Bīrūnī,[94]
the use of exacting empirical observations and experimental techniques,[95]
the discovery that the celestial spheres are not solid and that the
heavens are less dense than the air by Ibn
al-Haytham,[96]
the separation of natural philosophy from astronomy by Ibn
al-Haytham and Ibn al-Shatir,[97]
the first non-Ptolemaic models by Ibn al-Haytham and Mo'ayyeduddin Urdi, the rejection of the
Ptolemaic model on empirical rather than philosophical
grounds by Ibn al-Shatir,[3] the first empirical observational
evidence of the Earth's rotation by Nasīr al-Dīn
al-Tūsī and Ali al-Qushji, and al-Birjandi's
early hypothesis on "circular inertia."[98] Several Muslim astronomers also considered the
possibility of the Earth's rotation on its axis and perhaps a heliocentric
solar system.[99][71] It is known that the Copernican heliocentric model in Nicolaus Copernicus' De
revolutionibus was adapted from the geocentric
model of Ibn al-Shatir and the Maragha school (including the Tusi-couple)
in a heliocentric context,[100]
and that his arguments for the Earth's rotation were similar to those of
Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī and Ali al-Qushji.[98] Chemistry
Main
article: Alchemy (Islam) Geber (Jabir ibn Hayyan) is considered a pioneer of chemistry,[101][102]
as he was responsible for introducing an early experimental
scientific method within the field, as well as
the alembic, still, retort,[63] and the chemical
processes of pure distillation, filtration,
sublimation,[103]
liquefaction,
crystallisation,
purification,
oxidisation
and evaporation.[63] The study of traditional alchemy and the
theory of the transmutation of metals were first refuted by al-Kindi,[104]
followed by Abū Rayhān
al-Bīrūnī,[105]
Avicenna,[106]
and Ibn
Khaldun. In his Doubts about Galen, al-Razi was the
first to prove both Aristotle's theory of classical
elements and Galen's
theory of humorism
false using an experimental method.[107] Nasīr al-Dīn
al-Tūsī stated an early version of the law of conservation of mass, noting that a body of matter is able to
change, but is not able to disappear.[108]
Alexander von Humboldt and Will Durant
consider medieval Muslim chemists to be founders of chemistry.[71][69] Mathematics
Main
article: Islamic mathematics Among the achievements of Muslim mathematicians
during this period include the development of algebra and algorithms by
the Persian
and Islamic
mathematician Muhammad ibn
Mūsā al-Khwārizmī,[109][110]
the invention of spherical trigonometry,[111]
the addition of the decimal point notation to the Arabic
numerals, the discovery of all the trigonometric functions besides sine, al-Kindi's
introduction of cryptanalysis and frequency analysis, al-Karaji's
introduction of algebraic calculus and proof by mathematical induction, the development of analytic
geometry and the earliest general formula for infinitesimal
and integral
calculus by Ibn al-Haytham, the beginning of algebraic geometry by Omar
Khayyam, the first refutations of Euclidean geometry and the parallel postulate by Nasīr al-Dīn
al-Tūsī, the first attempt at a non-Euclidean geometry by Sadr al-Din, the
development of symbolic algebra by Abū al-Hasan
ibn Alī al-Qalasādī,[112]
and numerous other advances in algebra, arithmetic,
calculus, cryptography, geometry, number
theory and trigonometry.
An Arabic manuscript describing
the eye, dating back to the 12th century Medicine
Main
article: Islamic medicine Further
information: Islamic psychology, Bimaristan,
and Ophthalmology in medieval Islam Muslim physicians
made many significant contributions to medicine,
including anatomy,
experimental medicine, ophthalmology,
pathology,
the pharmaceutical sciences, physiology,
surgery, etc.
They also set up some of the earliest dedicated hospitals,[113] including the first medical
schools[114] and psychiatric hospitals.[115]
Al-Kindi
wrote the De Gradibus, in which he first demonstrated the
application of quantification and mathematics to medicine and
pharmacology, such as a mathematical scale to quantify the strength of drugs and the
determination in advance of the most critical days of a patient's illness.[116]
Al-Razi
(Rhazes) discovered measles and smallpox, and in his Doubts about Galen, proved Galen's humorism false.[107] Abu
al-Qasim (Abulcasis) helped lay the foudations for modern surgery,[117]
with his Kitab al-Tasrif, in which he invented numerous surgical instruments, including the first
instruments unique to women,[118] as well as the surgical uses of catgut and forceps, the ligature, surgical
needle, scalpel,
curette, retractor,
surgical spoon, sound, surgical hook, surgical rod, and specula,[119]
and bone saw.[63] Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen) made important advances in eye surgery,
as he correctly explained the process of sight and visual
perception for the first time in his Book
of Optics.[118]
The Persian
scientist Avicenna
introduced experimental medicine, discovered contagious diseases, introduced quarantine
and clinical
trials, and described many anaesthetics
and medical and therapeutic drugs, in The Canon of Medicine. Avicenna helped lay the foundations for modern medicine,[120]
with The Canon of Medicine, which was
responsible for introducing systematic experimentation
and quantification
in physiology,[121]
the discovery of contagious disease, introduction of quarantine
to limit their spread, introduction of experimental medicine, evidence-based medicine, clinical
trials,[122]
randomized controlled trials,[123][124]
efficacy
tests,[125][126]
and clinical pharmacology,[127]
the first descriptions on bacteria and viral organisms,[128]
distinction of mediastinitis from pleurisy,
contagious nature of tuberculosis, distribution of diseases by water
and soil, skin
troubles, sexually transmitted diseases, perversions,
nervous
ailments,[113] use of ice to treat fevers, and
separation of medicine from pharmacology.[118] Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) was the earliest known experimental
surgeon.[129]
In the 12th century, he was responsible for introducing the experimental method
into surgery, as he was the first to employ animal
testing in order to experiment with surgical procedures before applying
them to human patients.[130]
He also performed the first dissections and postmortem autopsies on
humans as well as animals.[131] Ibn
al-Nafis laid the foundations for circulatory physiology,[132]
as he was the first to describe the pulmonary circulation[133]
and coronary circulation,[134][135]
which form the basis of the circulatory system, for which he is considered
"the greatest physiologist of the Middle Ages."[136]
He also described the earliest concept of metabolism,[137]
and developed new systems of physiology and psychology
to replace the Avicennian
and Galenic
systems, while discrediting many of their erroneous theories on humorism, pulsation,[138]
bones, muscles, intestines, sensory
organs, bilious canals,
esophagus,
stomach, etc.[139] Ibn al-Lubudi rejected the theory of humorism, and
discovered that the body
and its preservation depend exclusively upon blood, women cannot
produce sperm, the
movement of arteries
are not dependent upon the movement of the heart, the heart is
the first organ to form in a fetus' body, and the bones forming the skull can grow into tumors.[140]
Ibn Khatima and Ibn al-Khatib discovered that infectious diseases are caused by
microorganisms
which enter the human body.[141]
Mansur
ibn Ilyas drew comprehensive diagrams of the body's structural, nervous
and circulatory systems.[5] Physics
Main
article: Islamic physics The study of experimental physics began with Ibn
al-Haytham,[142]
a pioneer of modern optics,
who introduced the experimental scientific
method and used it to drastically transform the understanding of light and vision
in his Book of Optics, which has been ranked alongside Isaac
Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis
Principia Mathematica as one of the most influential books in the history of physics,[143]
for initiating a scientific revolution in optics[144]
and visual perception.[145] The experimental scientific method was soon
introduced into mechanics by Biruni,[146]
and early precursors to Newton's laws of motion were discovered by
several Muslim scientists. The law of inertia, known as
Newton's first law of motion, and the concept of momentum were
discovered by Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen)[147][148]
and Avicenna.[149][150]
The proportionality between force and acceleration, considered "the fundamental law of classical mechanics" and foreshadowing
Newton's second law of motion, was discovered by Hibat Allah Abu'l-Barakat
al-Baghdaadi,[151]
while the concept of reaction, foreshadowing Newton's third law of
motion, was discovered by Ibn Bajjah (Avempace).[152]
Theories foreshadowing Newton's law of universal
gravitation were developed by Ja'far Muhammad ibn
Mūsā ibn Shākir,[153]
Ibn
al-Haytham,[154]
and al-Khazini.[155]
Galileo
Galilei's mathematical treatment of acceleration
and his concept of impetus[156]
was enriched by the commentaries of Avicenna[149] and Ibn Bajjah to Aristotle's Physics as well as the Neoplatonist
tradition of Alexandria, represented by John
Philoponus.[157] Other sciences
Main
article: Islamic science Further
information: Islamic geography, Islamic psychology, Early Muslim sociology, and Historiography of early Islam Many other advances were made by Muslim
scientists in biology
(anatomy, botany, evolution, physiology
and zoology),
the earth
sciences (anthropology, cartography,
geodesy, geography and
geology), psychology
(experimental psychology, psychiatry,
psychophysics
and psychotherapy),
and the social sciences (demography,
economics,
sociology,
history and historiography). Other famous Muslim scientists during the
Islamic Golden Age include al-Farabi (a polymath), Biruni (a polymath
who was one of the earliest anthropologists
and a pioneer of geodesy),[158]
Nasīr al-Dīn
al-Tūsī (a polymath), and Ibn Khaldun
(considered to be a pioneer of several social
sciences[159]
such as demography,[160] economics,[161]
cultural
history,[162]
historiography[163]
and sociology),[164] among others. Other achievements
The Kharaghan
twin towers, built in 1067 AD, Architecture
Main
article: Islamic architecture The Great Mosque of Xi'an in The Spanish Muslims began construction of the Great Mosque at Cordoba in 785 marking the
beginning of Islamic architecture in
Selimiye Mosque, built by Sinan in 1575. Edirne, Turkey. Another distinctive sub-style is the
architecture of the Mughal Empire in In the Sunni Muslim Ottoman
Empire massive mosques with ornate tiles and calligraphy
were constructed by a series of sultans including the Süleymaniye Mosque , Sultanahmet Mosque, Selimiye
Mosque, and Bayezid II Mosque
An Arabic manuscript from the
13th century depicting Socrates (Soqrāt) in discussion with his pupils. Arts
Main
article: Islamic
art Further
information: Islamic calligraphy, Arabesque, Iranian art,
and Persian miniature See also: Islamic
music, Arabic music, and Persian traditional music The golden age of Islamic (and/or Muslim) art
lasted from 750 to the 16th century, when ceramics, glass, metalwork, textiles,
illuminated manuscripts, and woodwork
flourished. Lusterous glazing became the greatest Islamic contribution to
ceramics. Manuscript illumination became an important and greatly respected
art, and portrait miniature painting flourished in Literature
Main
articles: Islamic literature, Arabic
literature, Arabic epic literature, and Persian literature The most well known fiction from the
Islamic world was The Book of One Thousand and
One Nights (Arabian Nights), which was a compilation of many
earlier folk tales told by the Persian
Queen Scheherazade.
The epic took form in the 10th century and reached its final form by the 14th
century; the number and type of tales have varied from one manuscript to
another.[165] All Arabian fantasy tales
were often called "Arabian Nights" when translated into English,
regardless of whether they appeared in The Book of One Thousand and One
Nights, in any version, and a number of tales are known in Europe as
"Arabian Nights" despite existing in no Arabic manuscript.[165]
"Ali Baba" by Maxfield
Parrish. This epic has been influential in the West since
it was translated in the 18th century, first by Antoine
Galland.[166]
Many imitations were written, especially in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh,
the national epic of Iran,
is a mythical and heroic retelling of Persian
history. Amir Arsalan was also a popular mythical Persian
story, which has influenced some modern works of fantasy fiction, such as The Heroic Legend of Arslan. A famous example of Arabic
poetry and Persian poetry on romance
(love) is Layla and Majnun, dating back to the Umayyad era in
the 7th century. It is a tragic story of undying love much like the
later Romeo and Juliet, which was itself said to
have been inspired by a Latin version of Layli and Majnun to an extent.[169] Ibn Tufail (Abubacer) and Ibn
al-Nafis were pioneers of the philosophical novel. Ibn Tufail wrote the first
fictional Arabic novel
Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (Philosophus Autodidactus)
as a response to al-Ghazali's The Incoherence of the Philosophers,
and then Ibn al-Nafis also wrote a fictional novel Theologus Autodidactus as a response to Ibn
Tufail's Philosophus Autodidactus. Both of these narratives had protagonists
(Hayy in Philosophus Autodidactus and Kamil in Theologus Autodidactus)
who were autodidactic feral
children living in seclusion on a desert
island, both being the earliest examples of a desert island story. However,
while Hayy lives alone with animals on the desert island for the rest of the
story in Philosophus Autodidactus, the story of Kamil extends beyond the
desert island setting in Theologus Autodidactus, developing into the
earliest known coming of age plot and eventually becoming the first
example of a science fiction novel.[170][171] Theologus Autodidactus, written by the Arabian polymath Ibn
al-Nafis (1213-1288), is the first example of a science
fiction novel. It deals with various science fiction elements such as spontaneous
generation, futurology, the end of the
world and doomsday, resurrection, and the afterlife.
Rather than giving supernatural or mythological explnations for these events,
Ibn al-Nafis attempted to explain these plot elements using the scientific
knowledge of biology, astronomy,
cosmology
and geology
known in his time. His main purpose behind this science fiction work was to
explain Islamic
religious teachings in terms of science
and philosophy through the use of fiction.[172] A Latin translation of Ibn Tufail's work, Philosophus
Autodidactus, first appeared in 1671, prepared by Edward
Pococke the Younger, followed by an English translation by Simon
Ockley in 1708, as well as German
and Dutch
translations. These translations later inspired Daniel
Defoe to write Robinson Crusoe, regarded as the first novel in English.[173][174][175][176] Philosophus Autodidactus also inspired Robert
Boyle to write his own philosophical novel set on an island, The
Aspiring Naturalist.[177] The story also anticipated Rousseau's Emile: or, On Education in some ways,
and is also similar to Mowgli's story in Rudyard
Kipling's The Jungle Book as well as Tarzan's story, in
that a baby is abandoned but taken care of and fed by a mother wolf.[178] Dante
Alighieri's Divine Comedy, considered the greatest epic of Italian literature, derived many features of and
episodes about the hereafter directly or indirectly from Arabic works on Islamic eschatology: the Hadith and the Kitab
al-Miraj (translated into Latin in 1264 or shortly before[179] as Liber Scale Machometi, "The Book of
Muhammad's Ladder") concerning Muhammad's
ascension to Heaven, and the spiritual writings of Ibn Arabi.
The Moors also had
a noticeable influence on the works of George
Peele and William Shakespeare. Some of their works featured
Moorish characters, such as Peele's The Battle of Alcazar and Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, Titus
Andronicus and Othello, which featured a Moorish Othello as its title character. These works are
said to have been inspired by several Moorish delegations
from Morocco
to Elizabethan England at the beginning of the
17th century.[180] Music
The lute was adopted from
the Arab world. 1568 print. Main
articles: Islamic music and Arabic
music A number of musical instruments used in Western
music are believed to have been derived from Arabic
musical instruments: the lute was derived from the al'ud, the rebec (ancestor of violin) from the rebab, the guitar from qitara,
naker from naqareh, adufe from al-duff, alboka from al-buq,
anafil from al-nafir,
exabeba from al-shabbaba (flute), atabal (bass drum) from al-tabl, atambal from al-tinbal,[181]
the balaban, the castanet from kasatan,
sonajas
de azófar from sunuj al-sufr, the conical bore wind
instruments,[182]
the xelami from the sulami or fistula
(flute or musical
pipe),[183]
the shawm and dulzaina from
the reed instruments zamr and al-zurna,[184]
the gaita
from the ghaita,
rackett from iraqya
or iraqiyya,[185]
the harp and zither from the qanun,[186]
canon
from qanun, geige
(violin) from ghichak,[187]
and the theorbo
from the tarab.[188] A theory on the origins of the Philosophy
Main
articles: Islamic philosophy and Early Islamic philosophy Further
information: Logic in Islamic philosophy, Judeo-Islamic philosophies (800
- 1400), and List of Muslim philosophers See also: Early Muslim sociology, Historiography of early Islam, Avicennism,
and Averroism
Averroes,
founder of the Averroism school of philosophy, was influential in the rise
of secular
thought in Western Europe.[191] Arab philosophers like al-Kindi
(Alkindus) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Persian
philosophers like Ibn Sina (Avicenna) played a major role in preserving the
works of Aristotle,
whose ideas came to dominate the non-religious thought of the Christian and
Muslim worlds. They would also absorb ideas from From Spain
the Arabic philosophic literature was translated into Hebrew,
Latin, and Ladino,
contributing to the development of modern European philosophy. The Jewish
philosopher Moses Maimonides, Muslim sociologist-historian Ibn Khaldun,
Carthage
citizen Constantine the African who translated Greek
medical texts, and the Muslim Al-Khwarzimi's
collation of mathematical techniques were important figures of the Golden Age. One of the most influential Muslim philosophers
in the West was Averroes
(Ibn Rushd), founder of the Averroism school of philosophy, whose works and
commentaries had an impact on the rise of secular thought
in Western
Europe.[191] He also developed the concept of "existence precedes essence".[192] Another infuential philosopher who had a
significant influence on modern
philosophy was Ibn Tufail. His philosophical novel, Hayy
ibn Yaqdhan, translated into Latin as Philosophus Autodidactus
in 1671, developed the themes of empiricism, tabula rasa, nature versus nurture,[193]
condition of possibility, materialism,[194]
and Molyneux's Problem.[195]
European scholars and writers influenced by this novel include John Locke,[196]
Gottfried Leibniz,[176] Melchisédech Thévenot, John Wallis,
Christiaan Huygens,[197]
George
Keith, Robert Barclay, the Quakers,[198]
and Samuel
Hartlib.[177] Al-Ghazali also had an important influence on Jewish thinkers
like Maimonides[199][200]
and Christian
medieval philosophers such as Thomas
Aquinas[201]
and René Descartes, who expressed similar ideas to that
of al-Ghazali in Discourse on the Method.[202] However, al-Ghazali also wrote a devastating critique
in his The Incoherence of the Philosophers
on the speculative theological works of Kindi, Farabi and Ibn Sina. The study
of metaphysics declined in the Muslim world due to this critique, though Ibn
Rushd (Averroes) responded strongly in his The Incoherence of the Incoherence
to many of the points Ghazali raised. Nevertheless, Avicennism
continued to flourish long after and Islamic philosophers continued making
advances in philosophy through to the 17th century, when Mulla Sadra
founded his school of Transcendent Theosophy and developed the
concept of existentialism.[203] Other influential Muslim philosophers include al-Jahiz, a
pioneer of evolutionary
thought and natural selection; Ibn
al-Haytham (Alhacen), a pioneer of phenomenology
and the philosophy of science and a critic of Aristotelian natural philosophy and Aristotle's
concept of place (topos); Biruni, a critic of
Aristotelian natural philosophy; Ibn Tufail
and Ibn
al-Nafis, pioneers of the philosophical novel; Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi, founder of Illuminationist philosophy; Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, a critic of Aristotelian
logic and a pioneer of inductive logic; and Ibn Khaldun,
a pioneer in the philosophy of history[164] and social
philosophy. End of the Golden Age
Mongolian
invasion
After the Crusades from
the West which resulted in the instability of the Islamic world during the 13th
century, a new threat came from the East during the 12th century: the Mongol
invasions. In 1206, Genghis Khan from Central
Asia established a powerful Mongol
Empire. A Mongolian ambassador to the Abbasid Caliph in The Mongols conquered
most of the Eurasian
land mass, including both China in the east and parts of the old Islamic
Caliphate and Persian Islamic Khwarezm, as well as Russia and Eastern
Europe in the west, and subsequent invasions of the Levant. Later
Mongol leaders, such as Timur, though he himself became a Muslim, destroyed many cities,
slaughtered thousands of people and did irrevocable damage to the ancient
irrigation systems of Mesopotamia. These invasions transformed a civil society
to a nomadic one. Traditionalist Muslims at the time, including
the polymath Ibn al-Nafis, believed that the Crusades and Mongol
invasions may have been a divine punishment from God against Muslims deviating
from the Sunnah.
As a result, the falsafa, some of whom held ideas incompatible
with the Sunnah, became targets of criticism from many traditionalist Muslims,
though other traditionalists such as Ibn al-Nafis made attempts at reconciling reason with revelation
and blur the line between the two.[205] Eventually, the Mongols that settled in parts of
Causes of decline
See also: Islamic science: Decline "The
achievements of the Arabic speaking peoples between the ninth and twelfth centuries
are so great as to baffle our understanding. The decadence of Islam and of
Arabic is almost as puzzling in its speed and completeness as their phenomenal
rise. Scholars will forever try to explain it as they try to explain the
decadence and fall of — George
Sarton , The Incubation of Western Culture in the The Islamic civilization which had at the outset
been creative and dynamic in dealing with issues, began to struggle to respond
to the challenges and rapid changes it faced during the 12th and 13th centuries
onwards towards the end of the Abbassid rule. Despite a brief respite with the
new Ottoman rule, the decline continued until its eventual collapse and
subsequent stagnation in the 20th century. Despite a number of attempts by many writers,
historical and modern, none seem to agree on the causes of decline. The main
views on the causes of decline comprise the following: political mismanagement
after the early Caliphs (10th century onwards), closure of the gates of ijtihad (12th
century), institutionalisation of taqlid rather than bid'ah (13th
century), foreign involvement by invading forces and colonial powers (11th
century Crusades,
13th century Mongol Empire, 15th century Reconquista,
19th century European colonial empires), and the disruption to the cycle
of equity based on Ibn Khaldun's famous model of Asabiyyah
(the rise and fall of civilizations) which points to the decline being mainly
due to political and economic factors.[4] Tolerance about different ideas reduced and
faded, with some seminaries systematically forbidding speculative philosophy, while polemic debates also
appear to have been abandoned after the 13th century. A significant
intellectual shift in Islamic philosophy is perhaps demonstrated by al-Ghazali's
late 11th century polemic work The Incoherence of the Philosophers,
which lambasted metaphysical philosophy in favor of the primacy of
scripture, and was later criticized in The Incoherence of the Incoherence
by Averroes.
Institutions of science comprising Islamic
universities, libraries (including the House
of Wisdom), observatories, and hospitals,
were later destroyed by foreign invaders like the Crusaders and
particularly the Mongols,
and were rarely promoted again in the devastated regions.[207]
Not only wasn't new publishing equipment accepted but also wide illiteracy
overwhelmed the devastated lands, especially in Mesopotamia. Recent scholarship has come to question the
traditional picture of decline, pointing to continued astronomical activity as
a sign of a continuing and creative scientific tradition through to the 15th
and 16th centuries, with the works of Ibn
al-Shatir, Ulugh Beg, Ali
Kuşçu, al-Birjandi and Taqi al-Din
considered noteworthy examples.[208][209]
This was also the case for other fields, such as medicine,
notably the works of Ibn al-Nafis, Mansur
ibn Ilyas and Şerafeddin Sabuncuoğlu; mathematics,
notably the works of al-Kashi and al-Qalasadi;
philosophy,
notably Mulla
Sadra's Transcendent Theosophy; and the social
sciences, notably Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah
(1370), which itself points out that though science was declining in Iraq, al-Andalus
and Maghreb,
it continued to flourish in Persia, Syria and Egypt during his time.[4] Notes
"Modern science originated in Europe during the sixteenth
century as an amalgam of medieval technology, Greek learning, medicine, and
mathematics."
"The notion (of Ibn Sînâ) that the blood in the right side
of the heart is to nourish the heart is not true at all, for the nourishment of
the heart is from the blood that goes through the vessels that permeate the
body of the heart."
References
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