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Template:History of science sidebar Science in medieval Islam, formally known as Islamic or Arabic science, is the science developed in the Islamic world prior to the modern era, during what is known as the Islamic Golden Age between the 7th and 15th centuries.

In the course of the expansion of the Islamic world, scholars from this civilization studied the science, mathematics, and medicine of antiquity through the works of classical Greek authors such as Aristotle, Archimedes, Galen, Ptolemy, and Euclid. 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 ethnicities. A great portion were Persians and Arabs, in addition to Berbers, Moors and Turks. They were also from diverse religious backgrounds. Most were Muslims, but there were also many Christians and Jews, as well as Sabians, Zoroastrians and the irreligious.

The civilization of ancient Greece was centered on the eastern Mediterranean and northern Africa, and did not interact with most of Europe. When Greek learning was later discovered and claimed by European science during the Renaissance, it was not the ancient Greek knowledge, but rather the result of centuries of refinements and advances based upon that knowledge by scientists from Islamic civilization.

Overview

Historiography of Islamic science

The history of science in the Islamic world, like all history, is filled with questions of interpretation. Historians of science generally consider that the study of Islamic science, like all history, must be seen within the particular circumstances of time and place. A. I. Sabra opened a recent overview of Arabic science by noting, "I trust no one would wish to contest the proposition that all of history is local history ... and the history of science is no exception."

Some scholars avoid such local historical approaches and seek to identify essential relations between Islam and science that apply at all times and places. The Pakistani physicist, Pervez Hoodbhoy, portrayed "religious fanaticism to be the dominant relation of religion and science in Islam". Sociologist Toby Huff claimed that Islam lacked the "rationalist view of man and nature" that became dominant in Europe. The Persian philosopher and historian of science, Seyyed Hossein Nasr saw a more positive connection in "an Islamic science that was spiritual and antisecular" which "point the way to a new 'Islamic science' that would avoid the dehumanizing and despiritualizing mistakes of Western science."

Nasr identified a distinctly Muslim approach to science, flowing from Islamic monotheism and the related theological prohibition against portraying graven images. In science, this is reflected in a philosophical disinterest in describing individual material objects, their properties and characteristics and instead a concern with the ideal, the Platonic form, which exists in matter as an expression of the will of the Creator. Thus one can "see why mathematics was to make such a strong appeal to the Muslim: its abstract nature furnished the bridge that Muslims were seeking between multiplicity and unity."

Some historians of science, however, question the value of drawing boundaries that label the sciences, and the scientists who practice them, in specific cultural, civilizational, or linguistic terms. Consider the case of Nasir al-Din Tusi (1201–1274), who invented his mathematical theorem, the Tusi Couple, while he was director of Maragheh observatory. Tusi's patron and founder of the observatory was the non-Muslim Mongol conqueror of Baghdad, Hulagu Khan. The Tusi-couple "was first encountered in an Arabic text, written by a man who spoke Persian at home, and used that theorem, like many other astronomers who followed him and were all working in the "Arabic/Islamic" world, in order to reform classical Greek astronomy, and then have his theorem in turn be translated into Byzantine Greek towards the beginning of the 14th century, only to be used later by Copernicus and others in Latin texts of Renaissance Europe."

Views of historians and scholars

There are several different views on Islamic science among historians of science. The traditionalist view, as exemplified by Bertrand Russell, holds that Islamic science, while admirable in many technical ways, lacked the intellectual energy required for innovation and was chiefly important as a preserver of ancient knowledge and transmitter to medieval Europe. The revisionist view, as exemplified by Abdus Salam, George Saliba and John M. Hobson holds that a Muslim scientific revolution occurred during the Middle Ages, an expression with which scholars such as Donald Routledge Hill and Ahmad Y Hassan express the view that Islam was the driving force behind the Muslim achievements, while Robert Briffault even sees Islamic science as the foundation of modern science. The most prominent view in recent scholarship, however, as exemplified by Toby E. Huff, Will Durant, Fielding H. Garrison, Muhammad Iqbal, Hossein Nasr and Bernard Lewis, holds that Muslim scientists did help in laying the foundations for an experimental science with their contributions to the scientific method and their empirical, experimental and quantitative approach to scientific inquiry, but that their work cannot be considered a Scientific Revolution, like that which occurred in early modern Europe and led to the emergence of modern science.

The early periods of Islamic history

Islam was founded during the lifetime of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. After his death in 632 CE, Islam continued to expand under the leadership of its Muslim rulers, known as Caliphs. Struggles for leadership of the growing religious community began at this time, and continue today. The early periods of Islamic history after the death of Muhammad can be referred to as the Orthodox and Umayyad Caliphates.

During the Umayyad Caliphate, the Islamic empire began to consolidate its territorial gains. Arabic became the language of administration. The Arabs became a ruling class assimilated into their new surroundings across the empire, rather than occupiers of conquered territories.

The crystallization of Islamic thought and civilization

Through the Umayyad and, in particular, the succeeding Abbasid caliphate's early phase, lies the period of Islamic history known as the High Caliphate. This era can be identified as the years between 692 and 945 CE, and ended when the caliphate was marginalized by local Muslim rulers in Baghdad - its traditional seat of power. From 945 onward until the sacking of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1238 CE, the Caliph continued on as a figurehead, with power devolving more to local amirs.

During the High Caliphate, stable political structures were established and trade flourished. The Chinese were undergoing a revolution in commerce, and the trade routes between the lands of Islam and China boomed both overland and along the coastal routes between the two civilizations. Islamic civilization continued to be primarily based upon agriculture, but commerce began to play a more important role as the caliphate secured peace within the empire. The wars and cultural divisions that had separated peoples before the Arab conquests gradually gave way to a new civilization encompassing diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds. This new Islamic civilization used the Persian, Syriac and Arabic languages as transmitters of culture. Arabic increasingly became the language of commerce and government.

Over time, the great religious and cultural works of the empire were translated into Arabic, the population increasingly understood Arabic, and they increasingly professed Islam as their religion. The cultural heritages of the area included strong Indic and Persian influences as well as the Hellenic tradition left by Alexander the Great and the Byzantines. The Greek intellectual traditions were recognized, translated and studied broadly. Through this process, the population of the lands of Islam gained access to all the important works of all the cultures of the empire, and a new common civilization formed in this area of the world, based on the religion of Islam. A new era of high culture and innovation ensued, where these diverse influences were recognized and given their respective places in the social consciousness.

Domains of thought and culture in the High Caliphate

The pious scholars of Islam, men and women collectively known as the ulama, were the most influential element of society in the fields of Sharia law, speculative thought and theology. Their pronouncements defined the external practice of Islam, including prayer, as well as the details of the Islamic way of life. They held strong influence over government, and especially the laws of commerce. They were not rulers themselves, but rather keepers and upholders of the rule of law.

Conversely, among the religious, there were inheritors of the more charismatic expressions of Christianity and Buddhism, in the Sufi orders. These Muslims had a more informal and varied approach to their religion. Islam also expressed itself in other, more esoteric forms that could have significant influence over public discourse during times of social unrest.

Among the more worldly, adab - polite, worldly culture - permeated the lives of the professional, the courtly and genteel classes. Art, literature, poetry, music and even some aspects of religion were among the areas widely appreciated by those of a more refined taste among Muslim and non-Muslim alike. New trends and new topics flowed from the center of the Baghdad courts, to be adopted both quickly and widely across the lands of Islam.

Apart from these other traditions stood falsafa; Greek philosophy, inclusive of the sciences as well as the philosophy of the ancients. This science had been widely known across Mesopotamia and Iran since before the advent of Islam. These "sciences" were in many ways contrary to the teachings of Islam and the ways of the adab, but were nonetheless highly regarded in society. The ulama tolerated these outlooks and practices with reservation. Some faylasufs made a good living in the practices of astrology and medicine.

The Abbasid Caliphate

This article is missing information about section. Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page. (October 2010)

A major effort in the assimilation of Greek, and to a lesser extent Indian and Persian, science and philosophy by the Islamic world took place under the patronage of the Abbasid court in Baghdad, especially under the reign of al-Ma'mun which extended from 813-833.

See also

• Alchemy and chemistry in medieval Islam
• Astronomy in medieval Islam
• Hindu and Buddhist contribution to science in medieval Islam
• History of scientific method
• Islam and science
• Islamic contributions to Medieval Europe
  • Latin translations of the 12th century
• Islamic economics in the world
• Islamic Golden Age
  • Early Islamic philosophy
  • Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain
  • Inventions in the Muslim world
  • Muslim Agricultural Revolution
• Islamic philosophy
  • Logic in Islamic philosophy
• Islamic sociology
  • Sociology in medieval Islam
• Islamic studies
• List of Muslim scientists
  • Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine and Sciences
  • List of Arab scientists and scholars
  • List of Iranian scientists and scholars
  • List of Turkish Philosophers and scientists
• Mathematics in medieval Islam
• Medicine in medieval Islam
• Medieval Islamic astrology
• Physics in medieval Islam
• Psychology in medieval Islam
• Qur'an and science
• Scholasticism
• Timeline of Islamic science and technology

Notes

1. Sabra (2000) p. 216:

   he term Arabic (or Islamic) science denotes the scientific activities of individuals who lived in a region that roughly extended chronologically from the eighth century A.D. to the beginning of the modern era, and geographically from the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa to the Indus valley and from southern Arabia to the Caspian Sea-that is, the region covered for most of that period by what we call Islamic civilization, and in which the results of the activities referred to were for the most part expressed in the Arabic language.

2. Joseph A. Schumpeter, Historian of Economics: Selected Papers from the History of Economics Society Conference, 1994, y Laurence S. Moss, Joseph Alois Schumpeter, History of Economics Society. Conference, Published by Routledge, 1996, ISBN 0-415-13353-X, p.64.
3. ^ Ibn Khaldun, Franz Rosenthal, N. J. Dawood (1967), The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History, p. 430, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-01754-9.
4. Howard R. Turner (1997), Science in Medieval Islam, p. 270 (book cover, last page), University of Texas Press, ISBN 0-292-78149-0
5. Hogendijk, Jan P. (January 1999), Bibliography of Mathematics in Medieval Islamic Civilization
6. A. I. Sabra (1996). "Greek Science in Medieval Islam". In Ragep, F. J.; Ragep, Sally P.; Livesey, Steven John (eds.). Tradition, Transmission, Transformation: Proceedings of Two Conferences on Pre-modern Science held at the University of Oklahoma. Brill Publishers. p. 20. ISBN 9004091262. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
7. Bernard Lewis, The Jews of Islam, 1987, page 6
8. Salah Zaimeche (2003), Introduction to Muslim Science.
9. Hogendijk 1989
10. Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response
11. Harding, Sandra (1998). Is Science Multicultural?: Postcolonialisms, Feminisms, and Epistemologies. Indiana University Press. p. 28-29.
12. Harding, Sandra (1998). Is Science Multicultural?: Postcolonialisms, Feminisms, and Epistemologies. Indiana University Press. p. 28-29.
13. Harding, Sandra (1998). Is Science Multicultural?: Postcolonialisms, Feminisms, and Epistemologies. Indiana University Press. p. 35.
14. Sabra (2000) p. 216.
15. F. Jamil Ragep, "Freeing Astronomy from Philosophy: An Aspect of Islamic Influence on Science," Osiris, topical issue on Science in Theistic Contexts: Cognitive Dimensions, n.s. 16(2001):49-50, note 3
16. Nasr, Seyyed Hossein (1968). "The Principles of Islam". Science and Civilization in Islam. Harvard University Press. ISBN 094662111X. Retrieved 2008-02-03.
17. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Science and Civilization in Islam.
18. George Saliba (1999). Whose Science is Arabic Science in Renaissance Europe?
19. Bertrand Russell (1945), History of Western Philosophy, book 2, part 2, chapter X
20. Abdus Salam, H. R. Dalafi, Mohamed Hassan (1994). Renaissance of Sciences in Islamic Countries, p. 162. World Scientific, ISBN 9971-5-0713-7.
21. (Saliba 1994, pp. 245, 250, 256–257)
22. (Hobson 2004, p. 178)
23. Abid Ullah Jan (2006), After Fascism: Muslims and the struggle for self-determination, "Islam, the West, and the Question of Dominance", Pragmatic Publishings, ISBN 978-0-9733687-5-8.
24. Salah Zaimeche (2003), An Introduction to Muslim Science, FSTC.
25. Ahmad Y Hassan and Donald Routledge Hill (1986), Islamic Technology: An Illustrated History, p. 282, Cambridge University Press
26. Robert Briffault (1928). The Making of Humanity, p. 191. G. Allen & Unwin Ltd.
27. ^ (Huff 2003)
28. Saliba, George (Autumn 1999). "Seeking the Origins of Modern Science? Review of Toby E. Huff, The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West". Bulletin of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies. 1 (2). Retrieved 2008-04-10. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
29. Will Durant (1980). The Age of Faith (The Story of Civilization, Volume 4), p. 162-186. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-01200-2.
30. Fielding H. Garrison, An Introduction to the History of Medicine: with Medical Chronology, Suggestions for Study and Biblographic Data, p. 86
31. Muhammad Iqbal (1934, 1999). The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam. Kazi Publications. ISBN 0-686-18482-3.
32. Edmund, Norman W. (2005). End the Biggest Educational and Intellectual Blunder in History: A $100,000 Challenge to Our Top Educational Leaders. Scientific Method Publishing. p. 447. ISBN 0963286668.
33. Thomas Kuhn, The Copernican Revolution, (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Pr., 1957), p. 142.
34. Herbert Butterfield, The Origins of Modern Science, 1300-1800.
35. ^ Marshall Hodgson, The Venture of Islam Conscience and History in a World Civilization Vol 1. The University of Chicago, 1974, pg. 234.
36. Marshall Hodgson, The Venture of Islam Conscience and History in a World Civilization Vol 1. The University of Chicago, 1974, pg. 230.
37. ^ Marshall Hodgson, The Venture of Islam Conscience and History in a World Civilization Vol 1. The University of Chicago, 1974, pg. 233.
38. Marshall Hodgson, The Venture of Islam Conscience and History in a World Civilization Vol 1. The University of Chicago, 1974, pg. 235.
39. Marshall Hodgson, The Venture of Islam Conscience and History in a World Civilization Vol 1. The University of Chicago, 1974, pg. 236-238.
40. Marshall Hodgson, The Venture of Islam Conscience and History in a World Civilization Vol 1. The University of Chicago, 1974, pg. 238.
41. ^ Marshall Hodgson, The Venture of Islam Conscience and History in a World Civilization Vol 1. The University of Chicago, 1974, pg. 238-239.
42. Sabra (2000) pp. 218-22.

References

• Campbell, Donald (2001). Arabian Medicine and Its Influence on the Middle Ages. Routledge. (Reprint of the London, 1926 edition). ISBN 0-415-23188-4.
• d'Alverny, Marie-Thérèse. "Translations and Translators", in Robert L. Benson and Giles Constable, eds., Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century, p. 421-462. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Pr., 1982.
• Hobson, John M. (2004). The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521547245.
• Hudson, A. (2003). Equity and Trusts (3rd ed.). London: Cavendish Publishing. ISBN 1-85941-729-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Huff, Toby E. (2003). "The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China, and the West". Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-52994-8. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Joseph, George G. (2000). The Crest of the Peacock. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-00659-8.
• Katz, Victor J. (1998). A History of Mathematics: An Introduction. Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-321-01618-1.
• Levere, Trevor Harvey (2001). Transforming Matter: A History of Chemistry from Alchemy to the Buckyball. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-6610-3.
• Morelon, Régis; Rashed, Roshdi (1996). Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science. Vol. 3. Routledge. ISBN 0415124107. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Phillips, William D. (1992). The Worlds of Christopher Columbus. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-44652-X. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Sabra, A. I. (2000) "Situating Arab Science: Locality versus Essence," Isis, 87(1996):654-70; reprinted in Michael H. Shank, ed., The Scientific Enterprise in Antiquity and the Middle Ages," (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Pr.), pp. 215–231.
• Saliba, George (1994). A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam. New York University Press. ISBN 0814780237. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Turner, Howard R. (1997). Science in Medieval Islam: An Illustrated Introduction. University of Texas Press. ISBN 0292781490. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Further reading

• Daffa, Ali Abdullah al-; Stroyls, J.J. (1984). Studies in the exact sciences in medieval Islam. New York: Wiley. ISBN 0471903205.
• Nader El-Bizri, 'A Philosophical Perspective on Alhazen's Optics', Arabic Sciences and Philosophy (Cambridge University Press), Vol. 15 (2005), pp. 189–218.
• Nader El-Bizri, 'In Defence of the Sovereignty of Philosophy: al-Baghdadi's Critique of Ibn al-Haytham's Geometrisation of Place', Arabic Sciences and Philosophy (Cambridge University Press), Vol. 17 (2007), pp. 57–80.
• Hogendijk, Jan P. (2003). The Enterprise of Science in Islam: New Perspectives. MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-19482-1. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help) Reviewed by Robert G. Morrison at
• Hogendijk, Jan P.; Berggren, J. L. (1989). "Episodes in the Mathematics of Medieval Islam by J. Lennart Berggren". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 109 (4): 697–698. doi:10.2307/604119. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help))
• Hill, Donald Routledge, Islamic Science And Engineering, Edinburgh University Press (1993), ISBN 0-7486-0455-3
• Huff, Toby E. (1993, 2nd edition 2003), The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-52994-8. Reviewed by George Saliba at Seeking the Origins of Modern Science?
• Huff, Toby E. (2000). "Science and Metaphysics in the Three Religions of the Books" (PDF). Intellectual Discourse. 8 (2): 173–198.
• Kennedy, Edward S. (1970). "The Arabic Heritage in the Exact Sciences". Al-Abhath. 23: 327–344. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kennedy, Edward S. (1983). Studies in the Islamic Exact Sciences. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0815660677.
• Morelon, Régis; Rashed, Roshdi (1996). Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science. Vol. 2–3. Routledge. ISBN 0415020638. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Saliba, George (2007). Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance. The MIT Press. ISBN 0262195577.
• Nasr, Seyyed Hossein (1976). Islamic Science: An Illustrated Study. Kazi Publications. ISBN 1567443125.
• Nasr, Seyyed Hossein (2003). Science & Civilization in Islam (2nd ed.). Islamic Texts Society. ISBN 1903682401.
• Suter, Heinrich (1900). Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber und ihre Werke. Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematischen Wissenschaften Mit Einschluss Ihrer Anwendungen, X Heft. Leipzig.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

Popular

• Deen, S M (2007). Science Under Islam: Rise, Decline, Revival. LULU. ISBN 978-1-84799-942-9.

Television

• BBC (2010). Science and Islam.

External links

Academic institutes

• Commission on the History of Science and Technology in Islamic Societies at University of Barcelona

Other

• "How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs" by De Lacy O'Leary
• Saliba, George. "Whose Science is Arabic Science in Renaissance Europe?".
• Habibi, Golareh. Review article, Science Creative Quarterly.
• Islam, Knowledge, and Science
• The Islamization of science or the marginalization of Islam

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