Islamic Golden Age

Photo taken from medieval manuscript by Qotbeddin Shirazi (1236–1311), a Persian Astronomer. The image depicts an epicyclic planetary model.

During the Islamic Golden Age, usually dated from the 8th century to the 13th century, scholars and engineers of the Islamic world contributed enormously to the arts, literature, philosophy, sciences, and technology, both by preserving and building upon earlier traditions and by adding their own inventions and innovations. Muslim philosophers and poets, artists and scientists, princes and laborers, created a unique culture that has influenced societies on every continent. Scientific and intellectual achievements blossomed in the Golden Age.

Foundations

The Islamic Golden Age was inaugurated by the ascension of the Abbassid Caliphate and the transfer of the capital from Damascus to Baghdad. The Abbassids were influenced by the Quranic injunctions and hadith such as "the ink of scientists is equal to the blood of martyrs" stressing the value of knowledge. During this period the Muslim world became the unrivaled intellectual center for science, philosophy, medicine and education as the Abbasids championed the cause of knowledge and established a "House of Wisdom" 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 advanced the works collected from the Chinese, Persian, Egyptian, North African, Greek, Spanish, Sicilian and Byzantine civilizations. Rival Muslim dynasties such as the Fatimids of Egypt, the Umayyads of al-Andalus were also major intellectual centers with cities such as Cairo and Córdoba rivaling Baghdad. Religious freedom helped create cross cultural networks by attracting Muslim, Christian and Jewish intellectuals and helped spawn the greatest period of philosophical creativity of the Middle Ages during the 12th and 13th centuries.

An 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 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 Baghdad and even public libraries began to become established, including the first lending libraries. From here paper-making spread west to Fez and then to al-Andalus and from there to Europe in the 13th century.

By the 10th century, Cordoba had 700 mosques, 60,000 palaces, and 70 libraries, the largest of which had 600,000 books, while as many as 60,000 treatises, poems, polemics and compilations were published each year in al-Andalus. The library of Cairo had more than 100,000 books, while the library of Tripoli is said to have had as many as three million books. The number of important and original Arabic works on science that have survived is much larger than the combined total of Greek and Latin works on science.

Much of this learning and development can be linked to geography. Even prior to Islam's presence, the city of Mecca served as a center of trade in Arabia and the Islamic prophet Muhammad was a merchant. The tradition of the pilgrimage to Mecca became a center 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 China, India (the Indian subcontinent now has over 450 million followers), Southeast Asia (which now has over 230 million followers), and the kingdoms of Western Africa and returned with new inventions. Merchants used their wealth to invest in textiles and plantations.

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 Southeast Asia.

Achievements

The Kharaghan twin towers, built in 1067 AD, Persia, contain tombs of Seljuki princes.

Architecture

Main article: Islamic architecture

The Great Mosque of Xi'an in China was completed circa 740, and the Great Mosque of Samarra in Iraq was completed in 847. The Great Mosque of Samarra combined the hypostyle architecture of rows of columns supporting a flat base above which a huge spiraling minaret was constructed.

The Spanish Muslims began construction of the Great Mosque at Cordoba in 785 marking the beginning of Islamic architecture in Spain and Northern Africa (see Moors). The mosque is noted for its striking interior arches. Moorish architecture reached its peak with the construction of the Alhambra, the magnificent palace/fortress of Granada, with its open and breezy interior spaces adorned in red, blue, and gold. The walls are decorated with stylized foliage motifs, Arabic inscriptions, and arabesque design work, with walls covered in glazed tiles.

Another distinctive sub-style is the architecture of the Mughal Empire in India in the 15-17th centuries. Blending Islamic and Hindu elements, the emperor Akbar constructed the royal city of Fatehpur Sikri, located 26 miles (42 km) west of Agra, in the late 1500s and his son Shah Jahan had constructed the mausoleum of Taj Mahal for Mumtaz Mahal in the 1650s, though this time period is well after the Islamic Golden Age.

An Arabic manuscript from the 13th century depicting Socrates (Soqrāt) in discussion with his pupils.

Arts

Main article: Islamic art

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 Persia. Calligraphy, an essential aspect of written Arabic, developed in manuscripts and architectural decoration.

Literature

Main article: Islamic literature

Further information: Arabic literature and Persian literature

"Ali Baba" by Maxfield Parrish.

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. 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. 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.

This epic has been influential in the West since it was translated in the 18th century, first by Antoine Galland. Many imitations were written, especially in France. Various characters from this epic have themselves become cultural icons in Western culture, such as Aladdin, Sinbad and Ali Baba. Part of its popularity may have sprung from the increasing historical and geographical knowledge, so that places of which little was known and so marvels were plausible had to be set further "long ago" or farther "far away"; this is a process that continues, and finally culminate in the fantasy world having little connection, if any, to actual times and places.

A number of elements from Arabic and Persian mythology are now common in modern fantasy, such as genies, bahamuts, magic carpets, magic lamps, etc. When L. Frank Baum proposed writing a modern fairy tale that banished stereotypical elements, he included the genie as well as the dwarf and the fairy as stereotypes to go.

The 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.

Medicine

Main article: Islamic medicine

Further information: Ophthalmology in medieval Islam

File:Avicenna Persian Physician.jpg

Abū Alī ibn Sīnā (Avicenna), considered the father of modern medicine, introduced systematic experimentation and quantification into physiology, discovered the contagious nature of infectious diseases, introduced the methods of quarantine and clinical trials, and described many medical treatments, including anesthetics and medical and therapeutic drugs, in The Canon of Medicine.

An Arabic manuscript describing the eye, dating back to the 12th century

Muslim physicians set up some of the earliest dedicated hospitals. In the medieval Islamic world, hospitals were built in all major cities; in Cairo for example, the Qalawun Hospital could care for 8,000 patients, and a staff that included physicians, pharmacists, and nurses. One could also access a dispensary, and research facility that led to the understanding of contagious diseases, and research into optics and the mechanisms of the eye. Muslim doctors were removing cataracts with hollow needles over 1000 years before Westerners dared attempt such a task. Hospitals were built not only for the physically sick, but for the mentally sick also. One of the first ever psychiatric hospitals that cared for the mentally ill was built in Cairo. Hospitals later spread to Europe during the Crusades, inspired by the hospitals in the Middle East. The first hospital in Paris, Les Quinze-vingt, was founded by Louis IX after his return from the Crusade between 1254-1260.

Muslim physicians contributed significantly to the field of medicine, including the subjects of anatomy, ophthalmology, pharmacology, pharmacy, physiology, surgery, and the pharmaceutical sciences. The Comprehensive Book of Medicine written by Al-Razi (Rhazes) in the 9th century, recorded clinical cases of his own experience and provided very useful recordings of various diseases, and with its introduction of measles and smallpox, it was very influential in Europe. The Arab doctor al-Kindi wrote the De Gradibus, in which he demonstrated the application of mathematics to medicine, particularly in the field of pharmacology. This includes the development of a mathematical scale to quantify the strength of drugs, and a system that would allow a doctor to determine in advance the most critical days of a patient's illness, based on the phases of the Moon.

Abu al-Qasim (Abulcasis), regarded as the father of modern surgery, contributed greatly to the discipline of medical surgery with his Kitab al-Tasrif ("Book of Concessions"), a 30-volume medical encyclopedia which was later translated to Latin and used in European medical schools for centuries. He invented numerous surgical instruments, including the first instruments unique to women, 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, and bone saw. Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen) made important advances in eye surgery, and he studied and correctly explained the process of sight and visual perception for the first time in his Book of Optics, published in 1021.

Abū Alī ibn Sīnā (Avicenna), who is considered the father of modern medicine and one of the greatest medical scholars in history, wrote The Canon of Medicine and The Book of Healing, which remained popular textbooks in the Islamic world and medieval Europe for centuries. Avicenna's contributions to medicine include his introduction of systematic experimentation and quantification into the study of physiology, the discovery of the contagious nature of infectious diseases, the introduction of quarantine to limit the spread of contagious diseases, the introduction of clinical trials, the first descriptions on bacteria and viral organisms, the distinction of mediastinitis from pleurisy, the contagious nature of phthisis and tuberculosis, the distribution of diseases by water and soil, and the first careful descriptions of skin troubles, sexually transmitted diseases, perversions, and nervous ailments, as well the use of ice to treat fevers, and the separation of medicine from pharmacology, which was important to the development of the pharmaceutical sciences.

In 1242, the Arab physician Ibn al-Nafis was the first to describe human blood circulation and pulmonary circulation. Ibn al-Lubudi (1210-1267) rejected the theory of four humours supported by Galen and Hippocrates, discovered that the body and its preservation depend exclusively upon blood, rejected Galen's idea that women can produce sperm, and discovered that the movement of arteries are not dependant upon the movement of the heart, that the heart is the first organ to form in a fetus' body (rather than the brain as claimed by Hippocrates), and that the bones forming the skull can grow into tumors.

During the Black Death bubonic plague in 14th century al-Andalus, Ibn Khatima and Ibn al-Khatib discovered that infecious diseases are caused by microorganisms which enter the human body. In the 15th century, the Persian work by Mansur ibn Ilyas entitled Tashrih al-badan ("Anatomy of the body") contained comprehensive diagrams of the body's structural, nervous and circulatory systems.

Other medical inventions and innovations from the Muslim world include oral anesthesia, inhalant anesthesia, distilled alcohol, medical drugs, chemotherapeutical drugs, injection syringe, and a number of antiseptics and other medical treatments. (See Islamic medicine for more details.)

Philosophy

Main articles: Islamic philosophy and Early Islamic philosophy

Further information: Logic in Islamic philosophy, Judeo-Islamic philosophies (800 - 1400), Early Muslim sociology, and Historiography of early Islam

Averroes, founder of the Averroism school of philosophy, is regarded as a founding father of modern secular thought.

Arab philosophers like al-Kindi, 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 China, and India, adding to them tremendous knowledge from their own studies. Three speculative thinkers, al-Kindi, al-Farabi, and Avicenna (Ibn Sina), fused Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism with other ideas introduced through Islam.

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, and who is regarded as a founding father of secular thought in Western Europe.

Ghazali, the famous Persian jurist and philosopher, wrote a devastating critique in his Tahafut al-Falasifa on the speculative theological works of Kindi, Farabi and Ibn Sina (Avicenna). Philosophy in the Muslim world never recovered from this critique, even though Ibn Rushd (Averroes) responded strongly in his Tahafut al-Tahafut to many of the points Ghazali raised.

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 Aristotle's concept of place (topos); and Ibn Khaldun, considered the father of the philosophy of history and a pioneer of social philosophy.

Sciences

Main article: Islamic science

Further information: Alchemy (Islam), Islamic astrology, Islamic astronomy, Islamic mathematics, and Timeline of science and technology in the Islamic world

File:Ibn haithem portrait.jpg

Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) has been described as the "father of optics", the "pioneer of the modern scientific method", and the "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.

Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber) is considered the father of chemistry, particularly for introducing the experimental method into the field. He also established the perfume industry.

The difference in attitudes of Byzantine scientists and their medieval Muslim peers was firm. Byzantium added little to no new knowledge of science of medicine to the Greco-Roman scientific tradition, stagnating in awe of their classical predecessors. This could perhaps be explained by the fact that the initial Islamic surge out of Arabia had captured three of its most productive cities: Alexandria, Carthage, and Antioch. Because of the loss of a highly skilled and centralized government, as well as continuous and devastating Arab conquests into Anatolia, most Byzantine cities could not support the arts and sciences, and there was a mass return to subsistence farming. Most notable Arab scientists and Iranian scientists lived and practiced during the Islamic Golden Age.

The modern scientific method was first developed in the Muslim world, where significant progress in methodology was made, especially in the works of Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) in the 11th century, who was the pioneer of experimental physics. 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, and he is known as the father of optics for empirically proving that vision occurred because of light rays entering the eye, as well as for inventing the camera obscura to demonstrate the physical nature of light rays. Ibn al-Haytham has also been described as the "first scientist" for his introduction of the scientific method, and some also consider him the founder of psychophysics and experimental psychology, for his pioneering work on the psychology of visual perception.

Among the achievements of Muslim scientists and mathematicians during this period included the development of algebra and algorithms (see Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī), the invention of spherical trigonometry, the beginning of modern optics and the development of the scientific method by Ibn al-Haytham, the beginning of chemistry by Geber, and significant advances in astronomy. These advances included the construction of the first observatory in Baghdad during the reign of Caliph Al-Ma'mun, the first elaborate experiments related to astronomical phenomena by Abū al-Rayhān al-Bīrūnī, the collection and correction of previous astronomical data, resolving significant problems in the Ptolemaic model, perfected forms of the astrolabe, the invention of numerous other astronomical instruments, and 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 laws of physics as Earth. Several Muslim astronomers also considered the possibility of the Earth's rotation on its axis and perhaps a heliocentric solar system. It is known that the Copernican heliocentric model in Nicolaus Copernicus' De revolutionibus was adapted from the geocentric model of the Maragheh school in a heliocentric context.

In the mechanics field of physics, early precursors to Newton's laws of motion were discovered by Muslim scientists. The law of inertia, known as Newton's first law of motion, and the concept of momentum, part of Newton's second law of motion, were discovered by Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen) and Avicenna. The proportionality between force and acceleration, foreshadowing Newton's second law of motion, was discovered by Hibat Allah Abu'l-Barakat al-Baghdaadi, while the concept of reaction, foreshadowing Newton's third law of motion, was discovered by Ibn Bajjah (Avempace). Theories foreshadowing Newton's law of universal gravitation were developed by Ja'far Muhammad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir, Ibn al-Haytham, and al-Khazini. It is known that Galileo Galilei's mathematical treatment of acceleration and his concept of impetus grew out of earlier medieval Muslim analyses of motion, especially those of Avicenna and Ibn Bajjah.

Many other advances were made by Muslim scientists in biology (botany, evolution, and zoology), mathematics (algebra, arithmetic, calculus, geometry, mathematical induction, number theory, and trigonometry), alchemy and chemistry, the earth sciences (anthropology, cartography, geodesy, geography, and geology), physics (optics, mechanics, and motion), psychology (experimental psychology, psychiatry, psychophysics, and psychotherapy), and the social sciences (demography, economics, history and historiography, and sociology).

Some of the most famous scientists from the Islamic world include Geber (polymath, father of chemistry), Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī (father of algebra and algorithms), al-Farabi (polymath), Abu al-Qasim (father of modern surgery), Ibn al-Haytham (universal genius, father of optics, founder of psychophysics and experimental psychology, pioneer of scientific method, "first scientist"), Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī (universal genius, father of Indology and geodesy, "first anthropologist"), Avicenna (universal genius, father of momentum and modern medicine), Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī (polymath), and Ibn Khaldun (father of demography, cultural history, historiography, the philosophy of history, sociology, and the social sciences), among many others.

Technology

File:Al-jazari pump.png

The valve-operated reciprocating suction piston pump of al-Jazari, the father of modern day engineering.

Main article: Inventions in the Muslim world

Further information: Timeline of science and technology in the Islamic world

A significant number of inventions and technological advances were made in the Muslim world, as well as adopting and improving technologies centuries before they were used in the West. For example, papermaking was adopted from China many centuries before it was known in the West. Iron was a vital industry in Muslim lands and was given importance in the Qur'an. The knowledge of gunpowder was also transmitted from China to Islamic countries, where Muslim chemists were the first to purify saltpeter to the weapons-grade purity for use in gunpowder, as potassium nitrate must be purified to be used effectively. This purification process was first described by Ibn Bakhtawayh in his Al-Muqaddimat in the early 11th century. Gunpowder weapons were employed by Muslim armies against Christian armies during the Crusades and Byzantine-Ottoman wars. Knowledge of chemical processes (alchemy and chemistry) and distillation (alcohol, kerosene and other chemical substances) also spread to Europe from the Muslim world. Numerous contributions were made in laboratory practices such as "refined techniques of distillation, the preparation of medicines, and the production of salts." Advances were made in irrigation and farming, using technology such as the windmill. Crops such as almonds and citrus fruit were brought to Europe through al-Andalus, and sugar cultivation was gradually adopted by the Europeans.

The programmable humanoid robots of al-Jazari, the father of robotics.

A significant number of other inventions were also produced by medieval Muslim scientists and engineers, including inventors such as Abbas Ibn Firnas, Taqi al-Din, and especially al-Jazari, who is considered the "father of robotics" and "father of modern day engineering".

Some of the other inventions from the Islamic Golden Age include the camera obscura, coffee, hang glider, hard soap, shampoo, distilled alcohol, liquefaction, crystallisation, purification, oxidisation, evaporation, filtration, uric acid, nitric acid, alembic, crankshaft, valve, 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, frequency analysis, cryptanalysis, three-course meal, glasses, Persian carpet, modern cheque, celestial globe, incendiary devices, rocket, torpedo, and royal pleasure gardens.

Commerce and urban life

Muslim cities grew unregulated, resulting in narrow winding city streets and neighborhoods separated by different ethnic backgrounds and religious affiliations. These qualities proved efficient for transporting goods to and from major commercial centers 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.

While varying in appearance due to climate and prior local traditions, Islamic cities were almost always dominated by a merchant middle class. Some peoples' loyalty towards their neighborhood was very strong, reflecting ethnicity and religion, while a sense of citizenship was at times uncommon (but not in every case). The extended family provided the foundation for social programs, business deals, and negotiations with authorities. Part of this economic and social unit were often the tenants of a wealthy landlord.

State power normally focused on Dar al Imara, the governor's office in the citadel. These fortresses towered high above the city built on thousands of years of human settlement. The primary function of the city governor was to provide for defence and to maintain legal order. This system would be responsible for a mixture of autocracy and autonomy within the city. Each neighborhood, and many of the large tenement blocks, elected a representative to deal with urban authorities. These neighborhoods were also expected to organize their young men into a militia providing for protection of their own neighborhoods, and as aid to the professional armies defending the city as a whole.

The head of the family was given the position of authority in his household, although a qadi, or judge was able to negotiate and resolve differences in issues of disagreements within families and between them. The two senior representatives of municipal authority were the qadi and the muhtasib, who held the responsibilities of many issues, including quality of water, maintenance of city streets, containing outbreaks of disease, supervising the markets, and a prompt burial of the dead.

Another aspect of Islamic urban life was waqf, a religious charity directly dealing with the qadi and religious leaders. Through donations, the waqf owned many of the public baths and factories, using the revenue to fund education, and to provide irrigation for Orchards outside the city. Following expansion, this system was introduced into Eastern Europe by Ottoman Turks.

While religious foundations of all faiths were tax exempt in the Muslim world, civilians paid their taxes to the urban authorities, soldiers to the superior officer, and landowners to the state treasury. Taxes were also levied on an unmarried man until he was wed. Instead of zakat, the mandatory charity required of Muslims, non-Muslims were required to pay the jizya, a discriminatory religious tax, imposed on Christians and Jews. During the Muslim Conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries conquered populations were given the three choices of either converting to Islam, paying the jizya, or dying by the sword.

Animals brought to the city for slaughter were restricted to areas outside the city, as were any other industries seen as unclean. The more valuable a good was, the closer its market was to the center of town. Because of this, booksellers and goldsmiths clustered around the main mosque at the heart of the city.

Commerce

Guilds were officially unrecognized by the medieval Islamic city, but trades were supervised by an official recognized by the city. Each trade developed its own identity, whose members would attend the same mosque, and serve together in the militia. Slaves were often employed on sugar plantations and salt mines, but more likely as domestic house servants or professional soldiers.

Technology and Industry of Islamic civilization was highly developed. Distillation techniques supported a flourishing perfume industry, while chemical ceramic glazes were developed constantly to compete with ceramics imported from China. A scientific approach to metallurgy made it easier to adopt and improve steel technologies from India and China. Primary exports included manufactured luxuries, such as wood carving, metal and glass, textiles, and ceramics.

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 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 check 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 were Jewish, not Muslim, innovations, as can be seen by the reference above to a synagogue. In particular it was the Radhanite Jews, important merchants from the 8th century to the 11th century, who laid the foundations for the modern economic system (see Radhanites, Radhanite Jews).

Transport was simple yet highly effective. Each city had an area outside its gates where pack animals were assembled, found in the cities markets were large secure warehouses, while accommodations were provided for merchants in cities and along trade routes by a sort of medieval motel.

Navigation

See also: Pre-Columbian Islamic contact theories

Apart from the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates, navigable rivers were uncommon, so transport by sea was very important. Navigational sciences were highly developed making use of a rudimentary sextant known as a kamal to altitudes of stars, and a magnetic compass. When combined with detailed maps of the period, sailors were able to sail across oceans rather than skirt along the coast. Muslim sailors were also responsible for reintroducing large three masted merchant vessels to the Mediterranean.

Several contemporary medieval Arabic reports suggest that Muslim explorers from Islamic Spain and Northwest Africa may have travelled in expeditions across the Atlantic Ocean, possibly to the Americas, between the 9th and 14th centuries, though this is pure speculation and there is no evidence. Ali al-Masudi (896-856) reported that the navigator Khashkhash Ibn Saeed Ibn Aswad, from Cordoba, Islamic Spain, sailed from Delba (Palos) in 889, crossed the Atlantic, reached an unknown land (which may have been the Americas), and returned with fabulous treasures. Another Muslim navigator, Ibn Farrukh, from Granada, sailed into the Atlantic on February 999, landed in Gando (Canary islands) visiting King Guanariga, and continued westward where he eventually saw and named two islands, Capraria and Pluitana. He arrived back in Spain in May 999. Other theories suggest that explorers from the Muslim West African Mali Empire may have reached the Americas, or possibly the Hui Chinese Muslim explorer Zheng He according to the 1421 hypothesis. When Christopher Columbus made his first voyage to the Americas in 1492, he was accompanied by a number of Muslim sailors (Andalusian Moors), who travelled with him to the New World.

Mongol invasion and the end of the Golden Age

Further information: Battle of Baghdad (1258)

In 1206, Genghis Khan from Central Asia established a powerful Mongol Empire. A Mongolian ambassador to the Caliph in Baghdad is said to have been murdered,[2] which may have been the cause of Hulagu Khan's sack of Baghdad in 1258.

The Mongols conquered most of the Eurasian land mass, including both China in the east and much of the old Islamic caliphate and Islamic Khwarezm, as well as Russia and Eastern Europe in the west, and subsequent invasions of the Levant. Later Mongol leaders, such as Timur, 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.

Eventually, the Mongols that settled in parts of Persia, Central Asia and Russia converted to Islam and in many instances became assimilated into various Muslim Iranian or Turkic peoples (for instance, one of the greatest Muslim astronomers in later times, Ulugh Beg, was a grandson of Timur). The Ottoman Empire rose from the ashes, but the Golden Age was over.

Causes of 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 Rome. Such questions are exceedingly complex and it is impossible to answer them in a simple way."

— George Sarton, The Incubation of Western Culture in the Middle East

The Islamic civilisation 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 century 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 in the 8th century, closure of the gates of ijtihad (independent reasoning) in the 12th century and the institutionalisation of taqleed (imitation) rather than ijtihad and creativity, foreign involvement by invading forces and colonial powers (11th, 13th and 19th centuries) and disruption to the cycle of equity (based on Ibn Khaldun's famous model of the rise and fall of civilisations).

Tolerance about different ideas reduced and faded. Seminaries systematically forbade philosophical thought which comprising both natural and theological aspects of world in Islamic context. Even polemic debates were abandoned after the 13th century. Institutions of science comprising Islamic universities, libraries (including the House of Wisdom), observatories, and hospitals, had been destroyed by foreign invaders like the Mongols and never promoted again. Not only wasn't new publishing equipment accepted but also wide illiteracy overwhelmed Muslim society.

Some historians have recently 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 century, of which the work of Ibn al-Shatir (1304–1375) in Damascus is considered one of the most noteworthy examples.

Criticism of Ascribing the Golden Age to Islam

The issue of Islamic Civilization being a misnomer has been raised by a number of recent scholars such as the secular Iranian historian, Dr. Shoja-e-din Shafa in his recent controversial books titled Rebirth (Persian: تولدى ديگر) and After 1400 Years (Persian: پس از 1400 سال) manifesting the intrinsic contradiction of expressions like "Islamic civilization", "Islamic science", "Islamic medicine", "Islamic astronomy", "Islamic scientists", etc. Shafa states that while religion has been a cardinal foundation for nearly all empires of antiquity to derive their legitimacy from, it does not possess adequate defining factors to advance a kingdom or domain in accumulation and furtherance of science, technology, arts, and culture in a way to justify attribution of such developments to existence and practice of a certain faith within that realm. While various empires in the course of mankind's history advocated and officialized the religion they deemed most appropriate to exercise their absolute authority over the masses, we never ascribe their achievements to the faith they practiced. Ergo, using Islamic attribute for the abovementioned terms is as impertinent as arbitrarily concocted namings such as "Christian Civilization" for the totality of "Roman Empire" as of Constantine I's reign onwards, "Byzantine Empire" and all subsequent European empires that advocated Christianity one way or another; or "Zoroastrian Architecture" for all the architectural innovations and marvels that pre-Islamic Persian Empire later loaned to its Muslim conquerors.

Shafa particularly points out that counting all scholars in the Islamic empires as muslims, can also be misleading, since with the harsh punishment and prosecution awaiting alleged heretics and Zendiqs, no sane scientist or intellectual would dare express his/her true faith and religious thoughts. To exemplify this matter, Shafa alludes to two of the most prominent physicians/philosophers of the Islamic era, namely Avicenna and Rhazes; the former being a true muslim that was charged with heresy for mere utterance of his philosophical ideas; and the latter daringly and openly criticizing revelational religions (viz. Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism) in three of his controversial treatises, exposing himself to great peril. Bearing this personality comparison in mind, factors other than Islamic thought should be considered to have contributed to the great achievements of such individuals.

But Bernard Lewis opposes this viewpoint.

"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. "

This of course is only one historian's opinion, and it can be argued that the defining aspect of Western Civilization is not in fact Christianity but the legacy of Ancient Rome and Greece.

References

• Donald Routledge Hill, Islamic Science And Engineering, Edinburgh University Press (1993), ISBN 0-7486-0455-3
• George Sarton, The Incubation of Western Culture in the Middle East, A Geroge C. Keiser Foundation Lecture, March 29, 1950, Washington DC, 1951
• Shoja-e-din Shafa, Rebirth (1995) (Persian Title: تولدى ديگر)
• Shoja-e-din Shafa, After 1400 Years (2000) (Persian Title: پس از 1400 سال)

See also

• Islamic science
• Timeline of science and technology in the Islamic world
• List of Arab scientists and scholars
• List of Iranian scientists
• List of the Muslim Empires
• Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain
• Latin translations of the 12th century
• Islamic studies
• Islamic scholars
• Islamic conquests
• Global Empire

External links

• Golden age of Arab and Islamic Culture
• Islamic web
• MuslimHeritage.com
• Sufism: General Essay
• The Islam Project: Overview of Muslim History
• The Story of Islam's Gift of Paper to the West
• Wiet, Gaston. "Baghdad: Metropolis of the Abbasid Caliphate." Chapter 5
• Free, downloadable PDF's online version of Lane's Arabic-English dictionary