Science in the medieval Islamic world was the science developed and practised during theIslamic Golden Age under theAbbasid Caliphate ofBaghdad, theUmayyads ofCórdoba, theAbbadids ofSeville, theSamanids, theZiyarids and theBuyids inPersia and beyond, spanning the period roughly between 786 and 1258. Islamic scientific achievements encompassed a wide range of subject areas, especiallyastronomy,mathematics, andmedicine. Other subjects of scientific inquiry includedalchemy and chemistry,botany andagronomy,geography and cartography,ophthalmology,pharmacology,physics, andzoology.
Medieval Islamic science had practical purposes as well as the goal of understanding. For example, astronomy was useful for determining theQibla, the direction in which to pray, botany had practical application in agriculture, as in the works ofIbn Bassal andIbn al-'Awwam, and geography enabledAbu Zayd al-Balkhi to make accurate maps. Islamic mathematicians such asAl-Khwarizmi,Avicenna andJamshīd al-Kāshī made advances inalgebra,trigonometry,geometry andArabic numerals. Islamic doctors described diseases likesmallpox andmeasles, and challenged classical Greek medical theory.Al-Biruni, Avicenna and others described the preparation of hundreds ofdrugs made frommedicinal plants and chemical compounds. Islamic physicists such asIbn Al-Haytham, Al-Bīrūnī and others studied optics and mechanics as well as astronomy, and criticisedAristotle's view of motion.
During the Middle Ages, Islamic science flourished across a wide area around theMediterranean Sea and further afield, for several centuries, in a wide range of institutions.
| Part ofa series on |
| Islam |
|---|
 |
The Islamic era began in 622. Islamic armies eventually conqueredArabia,Egypt andMesopotamia, and successfully displaced thePersian andByzantine Empires from the region within a few decades. Within a century, Islam had reached the area of present-dayPortugal in the west andCentral Asia in the east. TheIslamic Golden Age (roughly between 786 and 1258) spanned the period of theAbbasid Caliphate (750–1258), with stable political structures and flourishing trade. Major religious and cultural works of theIslamic empire were translated intoArabic and occasionallyPersian.Islamic culture inherited Greek,Indic,Assyrian and Persian influences. A new common civilisation formed, based on Islam. An era ofhigh culture and innovation ensued, with rapid growth in population and cities. TheArab Agricultural Revolution in the countryside brought more crops and improved agricultural technology, especiallyirrigation. This supported the larger population and enabled culture to flourish.[1][2] From the 9th century onwards, scholars such asAl-Kindi[3] translatedIndian,Assyrian,Sasanian (Persian) andGreek knowledge, including the works ofAristotle, intoArabic. These translations supported advances by scientists across theIslamic world.[4]
Islamic science survived the initial Christianreconquest of Spain, including the fall ofSeville in 1248, as work continued in the eastern centres (such as in Persia). After the completion of the Spanish reconquest in 1492, the Islamic world went into an economic and cultural decline.[2] The Abbasid caliphate was followed by theOttoman Empire (c. 1299–1922), centred in Turkey, and theSafavid Empire (1501–1736), centred in Persia, where work in the arts and sciences continued.[5]
Medieval Islamic scientific achievements encompassed a wide range of subject areas, especiallymathematics,astronomy, andmedicine.[4] Other subjects of scientific inquiry includedphysics,alchemy and chemistry,ophthalmology, andgeography and cartography.[6][a]
The early Islamic period saw the establishment of theoretical frameworks inalchemy andchemistry. Thesulfur-mercury theory of metals, first found inSirr al-khalīqa ("The Secret of Creation", c. 750–850,falsely attributed toApollonius of Tyana), and in the writings attributed toJabir ibn Hayyan (written c. 850–950),[7] remained the basis of theories of metallic composition until the 18th century.[8] TheEmerald Tablet, a cryptic text that all later alchemists up to and includingIsaac Newton saw as the foundation of their art, first occurs in theSirr al-khalīqa and in one of the works attributed to Jabir.[9] In practical chemistry, the works of Jabir, and those of the Persian alchemist and physicianAbu Bakr al-Razi (c. 865–925), contain the earliest systematic classifications of chemical substances.[10] Alchemists were also interested in artificially creating such substances.[11] Jabir describes the synthesis ofammonium chloride (sal ammoniac) fromorganic substances,[7] and Abu Bakr al-Razi experimented with the heating of ammonium chloride,vitriol, and othersalts, which would eventually lead to the discovery of themineral acids by 13th-century Latin alchemists such aspseudo-Geber.[10]
Astronomy became a major discipline within Islamic science. Astronomers devoted effort both towards understanding the nature of the cosmos and to practical purposes. One application involved determining theQibla, the direction to face during prayer. Another wasastrology, predicting events affecting human life andselecting suitable times for actions such as going to war or founding a city.[12]Al-Battani (850–922) accurately determined the length of the solar year. He contributed to theTables of Toledo, used by astronomers to predict the movements of the sun, moon and planets across the sky.Copernicus (1473–1543) later used some of Al-Battani's astronomic tables.[13]
Al-Zarqali (1028–1087) developed a more accurateastrolabe, used for centuries afterwards. He constructed awater clock inToledo, discovered that the Sun'sapogee moves slowly relative to the fixed stars, and obtained a good estimate of its motion[14] for its rate of change.[15]Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201–1274) wrote an important revision toPtolemy's 2nd-century celestial model. When Tusi becameHelagu's astrologer, he was given an observatory and gained access to Chinese techniques and observations. He developedtrigonometry as a separate field, and compiled the mostaccurate astronomical tables available up to that time.[16]
The study of the natural world extended to a detailed examination of plants. The work done proved directly useful in the unprecedented growth ofpharmacology across the Islamic world.[17]Al-Dinawari (815–896) popularisedbotany in the Islamic world with his six-volumeKitab al-Nabat (Book of Plants). Only volumes 3 and 5 have survived, with part of volume 6 reconstructed from quoted passages. The surviving text describes 637 plants in alphabetical order from the letterssin toya, so the whole book must have covered several thousand kinds of plants. Al-Dinawari described the phases ofplant growth and the production of flowers and fruit. The thirteenth century encyclopedia compiled byZakariya al-Qazwini (1203–1283) –ʿAjā'ib al-makhlūqāt (The Wonders of Creation) – contained, among many other topics, both realistic botany and fantastic accounts. For example, he described trees which grew birds on their twigs in place of leaves, but which could only be found in the far-distant British Isles.[18][17][19] The use and cultivation of plants was documented in the 11th century byMuhammad bin Ibrāhīm Ibn Bassāl ofToledo in his bookDīwān al-filāha (The Court of Agriculture), and byIbn al-'Awwam al-Ishbīlī (also called Abū l-Khayr al-Ishbīlī) ofSeville in his 12th century bookKitāb al-Filāha (Treatise on Agriculture). Ibn Bassāl had travelled widely across the Islamic world, returning with a detailed knowledge ofagronomy that fed into theArab Agricultural Revolution. His practical and systematic book describes over 180 plants and how to propagate and care for them. It covered leaf- and root-vegetables, herbs, spices and trees.[20]
The spread of Islam across Western Asia and North Africa encouraged an unprecedented growth in trade and travel by land and sea as far away as Southeast Asia, China, much of Africa, Scandinavia and even Iceland. Geographers worked to compile increasingly accurate maps of the known world, starting from many existing but fragmentary sources.[21]Abu Zayd al-Balkhi (850–934), founder of the Balkhī school of cartography in Baghdad, wrote an atlas calledFigures of the Regions (Suwar al-aqalim).[22]Al-Biruni (973–1048) measured the radius of the earth using a new method. It involved observing the height of a mountain atNandana (now in Pakistan).[23]Al-Idrisi (1100–1166) drew a map of the world forRoger, the Norman King of Sicily (ruled 1105–1154). He also wrote theTabula Rogeriana (Book of Roger), a geographic study of the peoples, climates, resources and industries of the whole of the world known at that time.[24] TheOttomanadmiralPiri Reis (c. 1470–1553) made a map of the New World and West Africa in 1513. He made use of maps from Greece, Portugal, Muslim sources, and perhaps one made byChristopher Columbus. He represented a part of a major tradition of Ottoman cartography.[25]
Islamic mathematicians gathered, organised and clarified the mathematics they inherited from ancient Egypt, Greece, India, Mesopotamia and Persia, and went on to make innovations of their own. Islamic mathematics coveredalgebra,geometry andarithmetic. Algebra was mainly used for recreation: it had few practical applications at that time. Geometry was studied at different levels. Some texts contain practical geometrical rules for surveying and for measuring figures. Theoretical geometry was a necessary prerequisite for understanding astronomy and optics, and it required years of concentrated work. Early in the Abbasid caliphate (founded 750), soon after the foundation of Baghdad in 762, some mathematical knowledge was assimilated byal-Mansur's group of scientists from the pre-Islamic Persian tradition in astronomy. Astronomers from India were invited to the court of the caliph in the late eighth century; they explained the rudimentarytrigonometrical techniques used in Indian astronomy. Ancient Greek works such asPtolemy'sAlmagest andEuclid'sElements were translated into Arabic. By the second half of the ninth century, Islamic mathematicians were already making contributions to the most sophisticated parts of Greek geometry. Islamic mathematics reached its apogee in the Eastern part of the Islamic world between the tenth and twelfth centuries. Most medieval Islamic mathematicians wrote in Arabic, others in Persian.[26][27][28]
Al-Khwarizmi (8th–9th centuries) was instrumental in the adoption of theHindu–Arabic numeral system and the development ofalgebra, introduced methods of simplifying equations, and usedEuclidean geometry in his proofs.[29][30] He was the first to treat algebra as an independent discipline in its own right,[31] and presented the first systematic solution oflinear andquadratic equations.[32]: 14 Ibn Ishaq al-Kindi (801–873) worked on cryptography for theAbbasid Caliphate,[33] and gave the first known recorded explanation ofcryptanalysis and the first description of the method offrequency analysis.[34][35]Avicenna (c. 980–1037) contributed to mathematical techniques such ascasting out nines.[36]Thābit ibn Qurra (835–901) calculated the solution to achessboard problem involving an exponential series.[37]Al-Farabi (c. 870–950) attempted to describe, geometrically, therepeating patterns popular in Islamic decorative motifs in his bookSpiritual Crafts and Natural Secrets in the Details of Geometrical Figures.[38]Omar Khayyam (1048–1131), known in the West as a poet, calculated the length of the year to within 5 decimal places, and found geometric solutions to all 13 forms of cubic equations, developing somequadratic equations still in use.[39]Jamshīd al-Kāshī (c. 1380–1429) is credited with several theorems of trigonometry, including thelaw of cosines, also known as Al-Kashi's Theorem. He has been credited with the invention ofdecimal fractions, and with amethod like Horner's to calculate roots. He calculatedπ correctly to 17 significant figures.[40]
Sometime around the seventh century, Islamic scholars adopted theHindu–Arabic numeral system, describing their use in a standard type of textfī l-ḥisāb al hindī, (On the numbers of the Indians). A distinctive Western Arabic variant of theEastern Arabic numerals began to emerge around the 10th century in theMaghreb andAl-Andalus (sometimes calledghubar numerals, though the term is not always accepted), which are the direct ancestor of the modernArabic numerals used throughout the world.[41]
Islamic society paid careful attention to medicine, following ahadith enjoining the preservation of good health. Its physicians inherited knowledge and traditional medical beliefs from the civilisations of classical Greece, Rome, Syria, Persia and India. These included the writings ofHippocrates such as on the theory of thefour humours, and the theories ofGalen.[42]al-Razi (c. 865–925) identified smallpox and measles, and recognized fever as a part of the body's defenses. He wrote a 23-volume compendium of Chinese, Indian, Persian, Syriac and Greek medicine. al-Razi questioned the classical Greek medical theory of how the four humours regulatelife processes. He challenged Galen's work on several fronts, including the treatment ofbloodletting, arguing that it was effective.[43]al-Zahrawi (936–1013) was a surgeon whose most important surviving work is referred to asal-Tasrif (Medical Knowledge). It is a 30-volume set mainly discussing medical symptoms, treatments, and pharmacology. The last volume, on surgery, describes surgical instruments, supplies, and pioneering procedures.[44] Avicenna (c. 980–1037) wrote the major medical textbook,The Canon of Medicine.[36]Ibn al-Nafis (1213–1288) wrote an influential book on medicine; it largely replaced Avicenna'sCanon in the Islamic world. He wrote commentaries on Galen and on Avicenna's works. One of these commentaries, discovered in 1924, describedthe circulation of blood through the lungs.[45][46]
Optics developed rapidly in this period. By the ninth century, there were works on physiological, geometrical and physical optics. Topics covered included mirror reflection.Hunayn ibn Ishaq (809–873) wrote the bookTen Treatises on the Eye; this remained influential in the West until the 17th century.[49]Abbas ibn Firnas (810–887) developed lenses for magnification and the improvement of vision.[50]Ibn Sahl (c. 940–1000) discovered the law of refraction known asSnell's law. He used the law to produce the firstAspheric lenses that focused light without geometric aberrations.[51][52]
In the eleventh centuryIbn al-Haytham (Alhazen, 965–1040) rejected the Greek ideas about vision, whether the Aristotelian tradition that held that the form of the perceived object entered the eye (but not its matter), or that of Euclid and Ptolemy which held that the eye emitted a ray. Al-Haytham proposed in hisBook of Optics that vision occurs by way of light rays forming a cone with its vertex at the center of the eye. He suggested that light was reflected from different surfaces in different directions, thus causing objects to look different.[53][54][55][56] He argued further that the mathematics of reflection andrefraction needed to be consistent with the anatomy of the eye.[57] He was also an early proponent of thescientific method, the concept that a hypothesis must be proved by experiments based on confirmable procedures or mathematical evidence, five centuries beforeRenaissance scientists.[58][59][60][61][62][63]
Advances inbotany andchemistry in the Islamic world encouraged developments inpharmacology.Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi (Rhazes) (865–915) promoted the medical uses of chemical compounds.Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Abulcasis) (936–1013) pioneered the preparation of medicines bysublimation anddistillation. HisLiber servitoris provides instructions for preparing"simples" from which werecompounded the complex drugs then used. Sabur Ibn Sahl (died 869) was the first physician to describe a large variety of drugs and remedies for ailments.Al-Muwaffaq, in the 10th century, wroteThe foundations of the true properties of Remedies, describing chemicals such asarsenious oxide andsilicic acid. He distinguished betweensodium carbonate andpotassium carbonate, and drew attention to the poisonous nature ofcopper compounds, especially coppervitriol, and also oflead compounds.Al-Biruni (973–1050) wrote theKitab al-Saydalah (The Book of Drugs), describing in detail the properties of drugs, the role of pharmacy and the duties of the pharmacist.Ibn Sina (Avicenna) described 700 preparations, their properties, their mode of action and their indications. He devoted a whole volume to simples inThe Canon of Medicine. Works byMasawaih al-Mardini (c. 925–1015) and byIbn al-Wafid (1008–1074) were printed inLatin more than fifty times, appearing asDe Medicinis universalibus et particularibus byMesue the Younger (died 1015) and as theMedicamentis simplicibus byAbenguefit (c. 997 – 1074) respectively.Peter of Abano (1250–1316) translated and added a supplement to the work of al-Mardini under the titleDe Veneris.Ibn al-Baytar (1197–1248), in hisAl-Jami fi al-Tibb, described a thousand simples and drugs based directly on Mediterranean plants collected along the entire coast between Syria and Spain, for the first time exceeding the coverage provided byDioscorides in classical times.[64][17] Islamic physicians such as Ibn Sina describedclinical trials for determining the efficacy of medicaldrugs andsubstances.[65]
The fields of physics studied in this period, apart from optics and astronomy which are described separately, are aspects ofmechanics:statics,dynamics,kinematics andmotion. In the sixth centuryJohn Philoponus (c. 490 – c. 570) rejected theAristotelian view of motion. He argued instead that an object acquires an inclination to move when it has a motive power impressed on it. In the eleventh century Ibn Sina adopted roughly the same idea, namely that a moving object has force which is dissipated by external agents like air resistance.[66] Ibn Sina distinguished between "force" and "inclination" (mayl); he claimed that an object gainedmayl when the object is in opposition to its natural motion. He concluded that continuation of motion depends on the inclination that is transferred to the object, and that the object remains in motion until themayl is spent. He also claimed that a projectile in a vacuum would not stop unless it is acted upon. That view accords withNewton's first law of motion, on inertia.[67] As a non-Aristotelian suggestion, it was essentially abandoned until it was described as "impetus" byJean Buridan (c. 1295–1363), who was likely influenced by Ibn Sina'sBook of Healing.[66]
In theShadows,Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī (973–1048) describes non-uniform motion as the result of acceleration.[68] Ibn-Sina's theory ofmayl tried to relate the velocity and weight of a moving object, a precursor of the concept ofmomentum.[69] Aristotle's theory of motion stated that a constant force produces a uniform motion;Abu'l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī (c. 1080 – 1164/5) disagreed, arguing that velocity and acceleration are two different things, and that force is proportional to acceleration, not to velocity.[70]
The Banu Musa brothers, Jafar-Muhammad, Ahmad and al-Hasan (c. early 9th century) invented automated devices described in theirBook of Ingenious Devices.[71][72][73] Advances on the subject were also made byal-Jazari andIbn Ma'ruf.
Manyclassical works, including those of Aristotle, were transmitted from Greek to Syriac, then to Arabic, then to Latin in the Middle Ages.Aristotle's zoology remained dominant in its field for two thousand years.[74] TheKitāb al-Hayawān (كتاب الحيوان, English:Book of Animals) is a 9th-centuryArabic translation ofHistory of Animals: 1–10,On the Parts of Animals: 11–14,[75] andGeneration of Animals: 15–19.[76][77]
The book was mentioned byAl-Kindī (died 850), and commented on byAvicenna (Ibn Sīnā) in hisThe Book of Healing.Avempace (Ibn Bājja) andAverroes (Ibn Rushd) commented on and criticisedOn the Parts of Animals andGeneration of Animals.[78]
Muslim scientists helped in laying the foundations for anexperimental science with their contributions to thescientific method and theirempirical, experimental andquantitative approach to scientificinquiry.[79] In a more general sense, the positive achievement of Islamic science was simply to flourish, for centuries, in a wide range of institutions from observatories to libraries,madrasas to hospitals and courts, both at the height of the Islamic golden age and for some centuries afterwards. It did not lead to ascientific revolution like that inEarly modern Europe, but such external comparisons are probably to be rejected as imposing "chronologically and culturally alien standards" on a successful medieval culture.[2]
Ibn al-Haytham is regarded as the father of the modern scientific method.
Alhazen (or Al-Haytham; 965–1039 CE) was perhaps one of the greatest physicists of all times and a product of the Islamic Golden Age or Islamic Renaissance (7th–13th centuries). He made significant contributions to anatomy, astronomy, engineering,mathematics, medicine, ophthalmology, philosophy, physics, psychology, and visual perception and is primarily attributed as the inventor of the scientific method, for which author Bradley Steffens (2006) describes him as the "first scientist".
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help){{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)
Islam topics | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Background |  | |
|---|---|---|
| By era | ||
| By culture | ||
| Natural sciences | ||
| Mathematics | ||
| Social sciences | ||
| Technology | ||
| Medicine | ||
Authority control databases: National |
|---|
