Science in the medieval Islamic world: Difference between revisions

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This is a subarticle to Islamic studies and science.

Islamic science is science in the context of traditional religious ideas of Islam, including its ethics and philosophy. The modern advancement of Islamic science can be seen as part of the broader movement of the Islamization of knowledge.

A Muslim engaged in this field is called a Muslim scientist. This is not the same as science as conducted by Muslims in the secular context. However, certain liberal movements in Islam eschew the practice of Islamic science, arguing that science should be considered separate from religion. For example, see the Fatwa Against Production, Stockpiling and use of Nuclear Weapons.

Qur'anic passages regarding science

Fields

According to Robert Briffault,

`science owes a great deal more to the Arab culture, it owes its existence.'[1]

These are some of the fields Islamic science have worked with:

Scientific method

During the Middle Ages, Islamic scholars made significant advances in mathematics, medicine, astronomy, engineering, and many other fields. During this time Islamic philosophy developed and was often pivotal in scientific debates—key figures were usually scientists and philosophers.

The prominent Iranian scientist Ibn Al-Haitham used the scientific method to obtain the results in his book Optics. In particular, he performed experiments and used the scientific method to show that the intromission theory of vision supported by Aristotle was scientifically correct, and that the emission theory of vision supported by Ptolemy and Euclid was wrong. It is known that Roger Bacon (who is usually erroneously given the credit for having founded the scientific method) was familiar with Ibn Al-Haitham's work.

Science was one of the most powerful areas of the Islamic culture of the period.

Mathematics

Greek and Indian mathematics had an important role in the foundations of early Islamic science, especially works like Euclid's classic geometry and Brahmagupta's arithmetic and algebra, and it is thought that they helped create the era of Islamic scientific innovation that lasted until the 14th century. Many ancient Greek books are only known because they were transcribed by Islamic scholars.

Islamic interest in mathematics ran parallel to the interest in astronomy. Noteworthy in this regard was the Almagest of Greek-speaking Egyptian scholar Ptolemy (A.D. c. 100–c. 178). The Almagest was a landmark work in its field, assembling, as Euclid's Elements had previously done with geometrical works, all extant knowledge in the field of astromony that was known to the author. This work was originally known as The Mathematical Composition, but after it had come to be used as a text in astronomy, it was called The Great Astronomer. The Islamic world called it The Greatest prefixing the Greek work megiste (greatest) with the article al- and it has since been known to the world as Al-megiste or, after popular use in Western translation, Almagest. Ptolemy also produced other works such as, Optics, Harmonica, and some suggest he also wrote Tetrabiblon.

The Almagest was a particularly unifying work for its exhaustive lists of sidereal phenomena. He drew up a list of chronological tables of Assyrian, Persian, Greek, and Roman kings for use in reckoning the lapse of time between known astronomical events and fixed dates. In addition to its relevance to calculating accurate calendars, it linked far and foreign cultures together by a common interest in the stars and astrology.

The work of Ptolemy was replicated and refined over the years Persian and Islamic astronomers and astrologers. The astronomical tables of al-Khwarizmi and of Abu'l-Qasim Maslama b. Ahmad (al-Majriti) served as important sources of information for latinized European thinkers rediscovering the works of astronomy, where extensive interest in astrology was discouraged.

Basic arithmetical skills can first be seen in Greek works by Nichomachus and others of the Pythagorean school. Basic arithmetic had been used for millennia without any rigorous theoretical development. Perhaps numerical understanding was encumbered by clumsy written systems found in Greek, Egyptian, and Roman cultures. Over the years of study and practice, the Islamic world seems to have encountered the concept of 'zero.' Use of our zero requires that one be successful not simply with counting, but with understanding the importance of place value in a written number system. The man who succeeded is unknown. We only know that he was a Hindu living no later than the 9th century.

Hindus call the symbol sunya, meaning empty. Arabs came to call this symbol sifr, which also means empty. In English this becomes cypher and we get the word zero from an archaic word zephirum. The speed of arithmetical computation was increased dramatically, not to mention the space saved in tabulating the sums, and hence paper and ink. Islamic advances in astronomy were the most advanced in the world at their time, and often they calculated tables with the longitude of Baghdad. Later authors, however, after a Caliphate was declared in Spain, used Cordoba for its tables. With a compact numbering system, tremendous advances in astronomy, astrology, and arithmetic were made possible.

The former Babylonian mathematical traditions formed great fruit under Arab rule. The study of trigonometry was a Babylonian discipline different from the Greeks. (The Babylonians were also the first to establish a place-value system of numbers, but this also was replaced by the 10-digit Hindu method.) Persian mathematician Omar Khayyám (1048-1131) combined the use of trigonometry and approximation theory to provide methods of solving algebraic equations by geometrical means. Khayyam solved the cubic equation x^3 + 200x = 20x^2 + 2000 and found a positive root of this cubic by considering the intersection of a rectangular hyperbola and a circle. An approximate numerical solution was then found by interpolation in trigonometric tables.

Medicine

Prophetic Medicine (al-tibb) was a genre of medical writing intended as an alternative to the Greek-based medical system (See:Galen). It advocated the traditional medical practices of Muhammad's time (those mentioned in the Qur'an). Al-tibb therapy did not require the patient's undergoing any surgical procedures.

The "Kitab fi al-jadari wa-al-hasbah", with its introduction on measles and smallpox was also very influential in Europe.

In referring to the pre-modern Islamic contribution to embryology, Joseph Needham writes that: "Arabic science, so justly famed for its successes in certain fields such as optics and astronomy, was not of great help to embryology."^[1]

Astrology

Islamic astrology, in Arabic ilm al-nujumis the study of the heavens by early Muslims. In early Arabic sources, ilm al-nujum was used to refer to both astronomy and astrology. In medieval sources, however, a clear distinction was made between ilm al-nujum (science of the stars) or ilm al-falak (science of the celestial orbs), referring to astrology, and ilm al-haya (science of the figure of the heavens), referring to astronomy. Both fields were rooted in Greek, Persian, and Indian traditions. Despite consistent critiques of astrology by scientists and religious scholars, astrological prognostications required a fair amount of exact scientific knowledge and thus gave partial incentive for the study and development of astronomy.

Astronomy

Islamic astronomy closely parallels the genesis of other Islamic sciences in its assimilation of foreign material and the amalgamation of the disparate elements of that material to create a science that was essentially Islamic. These include Indian and Sassanid works in particular. Some Hellenistic texts were also translated and built upon as well.

Islamic interest in astronomy ran parallel to the interest in mathematics. Noteworthy in this regard was the Almagest of Greek-speaking Egyptian scholar Ptolemy (A.D. c. 100 - c. 178). The Almagest was a landmark work in its field, assembling, as Euclid's Elements had previously done with geometrical works, all extant knowledge in the field of astromony that was known to the author. This work was originally known as The Mathematical Composition, but after it had come to be used as a text in astronomy, it was called The Great Astronomer. The Islamic world called it The Greatest prefixing the Greek work megiste (greatest) with the article al- and it has since been known to the world as Al-megiste or, after popular use in Western translation, Almagest. Ptolemy also produced other works such as, Optics, Harmonica, and some suggest he also wrote Tetrabiblon.

The Almagest was a particularly unifying work for its exhaustive lists of sidreal phenomena. He drew up a list of chronological tables of Assyrian, Persian, Greek, and Roman kings for use in reckoning the lapse of time between known astronomical events and fixed dates. In addition to its relevance to calculating accurate calendars, it linked far and foreign cultures together by a common interest in the stars and astrology.

The work of Ptolemy was replicated and refined over the years Persian and Islamic astronomers and astrologers. The astronomical tables of al-Khwarrizmi and of Abu'l-Qasim Maslama b. Ahmad (al-Majriti) served as important sources of information for latinized European thinkers rediscovering the works of astronomy, where extensive interest in astrology was discouraged.

Inventions

Several Invention were made in the Islamic world, many of them with direct implications for Fiqh related issues.

Modern Islamic philosophy of science

Modern Islamic philosophy has, in response to challenges of secular science and concerns that secular society is unwilling or unable to limit its uses of "dangerous technology", especially nuclear weapon or biotechnology, begun to look at the origins of science to determine what ethics or limits can or should be imposed, and what goals or visions are appropriate for science. Key figures in these debates are:

Ismail al-Faruqi who proposed an Islamization of knowledge.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr who focuses on interpretations of "khalifa".
Ziauddin Sardar who advocates the creation of a modern Islamic science to tackle problems facing Muslims today.
Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas who first coined the phrase "Islamization of knowledge".
Muhammad Nijatullah Siddiqui who focuses more specifically on Islamic economics.
F. Rosenthal, Knowledge Triumphant, explored the central importance of knowledge in Muslim civilization and explains how it generated "science". It is more a work of history. Also of some note in these debates have been
- Nasim Butt, Science and Muslim Societies, an introduction
- Ahmad Y. al-Hassan and Donald R. Hill, Islamic Technology: An Illustrated History

References

^ Joseph Needham, A History of Embryology

External links

[needham-1] Joseph Needham, A History of Embryology

[1]

@@ Line 49: / Line 49: @@
 The "Kitab fi al-jadari wa-al-hasbah", with its introduction on [[measles]] and [[smallpox]] was also very influential in [[Europe]].
-====Embryology====
-{{sect-stub}}
 In referring to the pre-modern Islamic contribution to embryology, [[Joseph Needham]] writes that: "Arabic science, so justly famed for its successes in certain fields such as optics and astronomy, was not of great help to embryology."<ref name="needham"> Joseph Needham, ''A History of Embryology''</ref>

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