The scientific revolution of the Abbasids would not have taken place if not for Islam - in contrast to the spread of Christianity over the preceding centuries, which had nothing like the same effect in stimulating and encouraging original scientific thinking. The brand of Islam between the beginning of the ninth and the end of the 11th century was one that promoted a spirit of free thinking, tolerance and rationalism. The comfortable compatibility between science and religion in medieval Baghdad contrasts starkly with the contradictions and conflict between rational science and many religious faiths in the world today.
The golden age of Arabic science slowed down after the 11th century. Many have speculated on the reason for this. Some blame the Mongols' destruction of Baghdad in 1258, others the change in attitude in Islamic theology towards science, and the lasting damage inflicted by religious conservatism upon the spirit of intellectual inquiry. But the real reason was simply the gradual fragmentation of the Abbasid empire and the indifference shown by weaker rulers towards science. Jim Al-Khalili, The Guardian, jan, 2008
For a deep understanding of the efflorescence of Medieval Muslim science and curiosity,
we want to probe the connections and the influences that enabled it.
Biographical literature reveals how Medieval scientists traveled across
the Muslim world joining their insights and techniques in a flourishing dialogue.
Also, they had an intimate dialogue with the past.
* The Babylonians, Persians, Greeks,
Romans, Indians, and Chinese,
all developed sciences in their day and
Medieval Middle Eastern scholars translated and work from these legacies.
* Renaissance in early modern era Europeans made Latin translations the Arabic in
turn and so the progress of invention and innovation continued into the modern period.
Until recently, Europeans little acknowledged the Medieval Arabic scientific discoveries,
even though these were often the basis upon
which European scientists began their own works.
As a result, we are seeing today something of
a U-turn in popular discussion of the history of science,
whereby articles and museum exhibits like the popular presentation
1001 inventions make claims about the 10 things we owe to Muslim inventors,
or how Islamic inventions changed the world.
To understand the field,
it is valuable now to try to find a position of
balance that pays due attention to the achievements of science from the Islamic world.
But also understanding the contexts.
The label 'Islamic'
During the period of the inventions we have described,
the Middle East was indeed ruled by Muslim leaders,
and they were influential patrons of scientific achievement.
But, some of the scientists themselves were Jews and Christians,
and much of the scientific work was grounded in books inherited from pre-Islamic peoples.
Babylonian astronomy, ancient Greek and Roman medicine, mathematics,
and philosophy alongside Indian works transmitted through pre-Islamic Persian,
framed the questions and set out the trajectories for Muslim scientists.
Of course, many Middle Eastern scientists were Muslim,
and they did find justification from the Koran and the
Hadith to explain why the study of natural science was worthwhile.
They reason that, since God created everything in the world,
the study of anything ultimately relates to understanding God's creation.
Hence, pure scientific research could be interpreted as a worshipful exercise.
But innovations were equally inspired by practical needs.
Thus, Islamic piety was only one of many drivers behind their research.
What we do see is that the structure of
medieval Muslim society formed a helpful background for research.
The initial spread of the caliphate and the Koran,
and its Arabic language enabled Arabic to emerge as
the one unified scientific language from the Atlantic to Central Asia.
Also, Muslim rulers funded researchers,
and religious motivations led them to found
hospitals and madrassas which encouraged further research.
So, the environment created by Islamic religious tolerance
also allowed scientists of all religious backgrounds to work together,
and talent rose to the top.
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| Elephant Clock manuscript by Al-Jazari from The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices (Left) A reproduction of the elephant clock in the Ibn Battuta Mall, Dubai (Right) Bron |
From the perspective of modern science,
the innovations of medieval Islam have naturally now receded into the background,
as several centuries of refinement and development have created new fields of inquiry,
and inventions of microscopes,
telescopes, and other tools of observation mean that
most results of the naked eyed medieval scientists are now superseded.
From the perspective of today therefore,
Islamic science can be understood as a foundation for modern science,
and it should be celebrated as a historical achievement of pre-modern societies.
Over-exaggeration does not do true justice to
the nature and impact of Medieval Muslim contributions to science.
Instead, the historically grounded approach will:
A: study
the precise ways in which scientists in
the Islamic world developed the pre-Islamic legacies they inherited,
B: locate concrete examples of how
Medieval Muslim culture influenced Western Europe
and ultimately helped shape the world as it is known today.
Civilizations rise and fall.
But scholars and scientists have
the good fortune of being able to pick up the achievements of the past,
develop them, and then hand them on to the next centers of civilization,
which perpetuate the process.
Science will flourish where there's both wealth and
an appreciation amongst the wealthy for the work of scientists.
It was between the eighth and 17th century that
a felicitous mix of affluence, state patronage, tolerance,
and communication networks across the Middle East enabled
science to flourish in Abbasid Baghdad, Mamluk Cairo,
and Ta'Lucia, Turkey, and Central Asia,
in a remarkably prolific and long lasting dialogue of exchange and innovation.
Despite countless studies on the topic,
the quick rise of Islam and the successful conquests
of huge empire remain a bit of a mystery.
Devout Muslims like to see it as proof of the truth of their religion.
Historians of course are trying to look for more worldly explanations.
One of the reasons offered is that the Arabian conquerors simply came at
the right time when the surrounding area was militarily weak.
Another explanation offered is that the Arabs conquered the area and demanded taxes,
but otherwise left the population to run their business as usual.
This attitude worked in their favor because it meant that
the conquered people did not mind the presence of the new rulers too much.
Though of course examples in the opposite direction can be found.
In general, early Islam proved flexible and
tolerant towards the cultures that it encountered.
Greek, Persian, and Indian scholarships on topics like medicine, mathematics,
and astronomy was by no means demonized as Pagan,
but readily embraced instead.
Why was this so?
First of all, the Islamic empire stretching from
the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Indian subcontinent in
the east brought for the first time under
one political cultural roof areas that used to belong to different,
even vehemently opposed empires,
the Sasanian and the Byzantines.
The Islamic empire reached even further into East and Southeast Asia,
the African subcontinent, the Balkans,
and the Mediterranean joining far remote areas.
Products, people, and ideas traveled freely between these regions.
And for example plants, agricultural,
and artisanal products, and techniques were shared across the empire.
This took place as we have seen at a time whenthe Muslim Empire was at its height economically and politically.Texas and prophets from trade reached a capitalBaghdad and were expended again on keeping their empire safe,ensuring the upkeep of infrastructure and building monuments.The capital attracted goods and people from far away,temporary ones in the form of traders, diplomats,Pilgrim, scholars, or adventurers,and permanent ones enticed by the city's fame and opportunities.There was money to fund science,literature, music, and other cultural expressions.And there were people who came to Baghdad to work in all these fields.Finally, the political and social economic stabilitystimulated the curiosity and open-mindedness,that is needed for science and culture to flourish.Indeed, this openness explains why all religious communities, Jews, Christians, Muslims,and Zoroastrians contributed to the scientific and cultural boom as scholars,without recognizably belonging to different religious denominations.
The so-called translation movement of Baghdad formed the crown of
this acceptance of the cultural achievements of proceeding civilizations.
The translations and related scientific work
was funded by the caliph and elite of Baghdad.
Greek, Syriac, and Sanskrit books were translated into Arabic.
The scope of the project was unknown for the time.
The idea of having a little army of full-time scholars
translating all the books that could be found was quite incredible.
The impact of the translations can hardly be overestimated,
and the manuscripts has resulted from its surface wide and far even centuries later.
By embracing the scholarship of adjacent cultures,
the Arabs in a way became the guardians of this knowledge.
And this at a time when it was neglected in some of
the places where it had originated, such as Europe.
But it would be a mistake to picture the Arabs as mere copyists,
keeping European heritage safe for some thousand years until
the Europeans themselves were ready again to develop these ideas further.
This view seems perhaps rather simplistic.
But it was in fact for centuries a widespread belief in Europe.
In reality,
the Arabs added extensively to the corpus through commentaries, reworkings,and entirely new discoveries and insightsbased on a knowledge made available to them by the ancients.
They also played an important part in
connecting scientific views from different traditions.
Most notably, Greek, Persian, and Indian.
When Europe began regained interest in Greek and Roman heritage,
Arabic texts played an important part.
Some of the ancient texts that had been lost in their
original were recovered through their Arabic translations.
But many Arabic writers themselves were translated into Latin,
even obtaining Latinized names.
- Ibn Sina became Avicenna,
- Ibn Rushd was known as Averroes,
They were part of the canon of European scientific writings in this period.
Thus, Thomas of Aquinas engaged with these two Muslim philosophers in his own work,
as he did with contemporaries from Western Europe and the classical thinkers.
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| Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden in 1610 van Woudanus in Stedeboeck der Nederlanden, Amsterdam: Willem Blaeu, 1649. |
When the first European universities were founded,
Arabic soon became part of the curriculum.
In the introduction module,
we mentioned that the Arabic here in Leiden was established in 1613.
The hunger for knowledge preserved in Arabic also explains why
Leiden University has such an extraordinary library collection of oriental manuscripts.
Early Leiden scholars travel to the Ottoman Empire in search of these texts,
which now form the foundation of the collection.
Though in a way these manuscripts have become relics,
they were intensely used as scholarly sources when they
first were brought to Leiden in the 17th century.
They form the basis for disciplines like medicine,
astronomy, and mathematics into Western Academy.
The question of why it ended.
The often heard Islamic answer is that Muslim stopped being pius devout believers,
and that their bad behavior led to the decline of Islamic culture.
This view has in fact had a significant political impacts,
leading to many revival movements within Islam,
some attempting to return to
excessively orthodox interpretations in the hope of becoming world leaders again.
Again, historians look for an answer of a less metaphysical nature.
- European military supremacy is often given as a cause of the Muslim worlds downturn.But in fact, it seems that the decay of Islamic civilization already set them before.
- The institutionalization of Islam.Whereas in a formative period,different interpretations existed alongside one another,or be not always amicably,later on Islam became more formalized.Flexibility and tolerance had to give way toinstitutionalized and more rigidly formulated religious opinions.The Islamic world never created an equivalent to the catholic church,where in a hierarchical structure,one man could achieve absolute leadership and religious authority.But nonetheless, religious leaders hold substantial interpretive power,and this did lead to increasing tension betweenreligious authority and scientific freedom and innovation.
The reasons for the decline of the Abbasid Empire.
Trade routes shifted, which now bypassed Baghdad.
Financial trouble was caused by
the very expensive slave armies and changes in the fiscal organization.
At the same time, problems arose to exploit agricultural resources.
And finally, the black death raged through the area.
We could add prolonged military pressure of the Crusades and the Mongols.
Indeed, the downturn in the financial position of the caliphate,
leading to political and social turmoil,
also calls the Islamic civilization from being focused on
new and innovative knowledge to turn inwards.
Not only was there less money to spend on science and culture,
the mood turned against the other and the unknown,
rather than embracing and exploring it.
How Early Islamic Science Advanced Medicine
The growth of Islam in the seventh century sparked a golden age of scientic discovery. Building on the wisdom of ancient civilizations, Muslim doctors pushed the boundaries of medical science into bold new places.
BYVÍCTOR PALLEJÀ DE BUSTINZA
