Islams Brilliant Era was Our Dark Ages

a theological essay by Sheila T. Harty

ince I was twelve, Ive been an Islamophile. That was 1960when my father, an Air Force officer, was stationed in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. As a result, I got a flying leap over others in exposure to Arab-Islamic culture. Although Arabic and Islamic are not interchangeable terms, their overlap is significant. The Arab world 1 extends beyond Saudi Arabia to the south and east coast of the Arabian Peninsula, the north coast of Africa, and northeast to Iraqbut not Iran, thats Persian but still Islamic. Yet, because Islam began within Arabia, other people who adopted Islam were often inadvertently influenced by Arab culture. 2

A good source for this cultural reach is Aramco 3 magazine, which Ive been reading since 1960. Despite the politics of oil, the profits of oil have allowed unlimited funding for Aramco to be a treasure trove in humanities documentation of the Arab world. The magazine has a high level of academic and journalistic research, plus serious archeology and quality photography. After reading the issue on Rediscovering Arab Science, 4 I wanted to share its coverage. So heres a spotlight on Islamic science during its brilliant peak, which was our Dark Ages.

The Rise and Fall of Cultures

have their infancy and adolescence as surely as they have their decline and fall. Rome did. Cultures We will, too. The Arab world didafter Rome and before usand has not risen since to its former glory, which deeply wounds its religious and ethnic pride. We could accomplish giant leaps in geopolitical diplomacy by merely acknowledging the once brilliant ascendancy of Arab-Islamic culture. The thousand years between the Grco-Roman Age and the Italian Renaissance were not a desert. In fact, the men of the desert played the pivotal role in advancing civilization across that expanse of time. The religion of Islam entered history in the 7th century in the deserts of Arabia. 5 By the next century, Islam was already a powerful force. The spectacular achievements in Arab science occurred between the 8th and the 12th centuries, which was the Golden Age of Science in the Islamic world. Indeed, European science was constructed upon the foundations laid by Arab and Muslim predecessors. In particular, Muslim scholars preserved our classical heritage of Greek knowledge and wisdom, which was lost to the West through time and war. Muslim scholars translated the original Greek classics into Arabic. Christian clergy and scholars had dismissed these suspect Greek writings as pagan. Islam did not have that prejudice. As a consequence of Islamic enlightenment, we have the works of Euclid, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Galen, Ptolemy, Pythagoras, and Archimedes. Unlike the Greek language, which was principally limited to the eastern Mediterranean, the Arabic language unified scholars across the Islamic world from the Atlantic to India: almost 4,000 milesfrom Cordoba in the Iberian peninsula (now Spain) beyond the Black and Caspian Seas to the ancient city of Samarkand (now in Uzbekistan). Even if scholars spoke Persian, Syriac, or Punjabi, they wrote their scholarly papers in Arabic. Eventually, the classical knowledge from Greek that was preserved in Arabic was then translated into Latin and subsequently spread gradually across Europe. Unfortunately, Arab refinements and advancements upon this Greek heritage as well as original Arab science were not as generously shared in the subsequent Arabic to Latin translations of the 13th century. Some great works of Arab science only recently became known in the West through modern research.
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2 3 4 5

Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Kuwait, Yemen, Egypt, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Djibouti, Palestine, Mauritania, Somalia, Comoros, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates. M. Cherif Bassiouni, Islamic Civilization: An Overview, Introduction to Islam (Washington DC: Middle East Institute, 1999). Now Saudi Aramco World of the Aramco Services Company, formerly the Arab-American Oil Company. Richard Covington, Rediscovering Arabic Science, Saudi Aramco World, May-June, 2007. The marking date for Islam is 622 CE, the Hijra, when the community of Muhammads followers moved upon invitation to the city Medina.

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Much more is still unknown, sitting untranslated in libraries around the world. Yet, for a time, Islamic civilization was the most advanced in the world. Let us pay our respects.

Islamic Value for Knowledge

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through the revelations in the Quran as received by the Prophet Muhammad. The Quran was memorized and then written down, preserving the words and passing them on as an Islamic inheritance of knowledge. From the Quran itself, we read: God will raise up in rank those of you who believe and have been given knowledge. 7 Mosques in early Islam housed libraries with books on religion, philosophy, science, and medicine. Indeed, Arab and Muslim scholars and scientists were centuries ahead of Europe. Al-Azhar University in Cairo, for example, began more than 200 years before any university in Europe. Wearing black academic gowns and dividing studies into undergraduate and graduate levels derive from traditions at al-Azhar University from the mid-10th century. 8 Arab esteem for classical knowledge began in 8th century Baghdad under Caliph al-Mansur. 9 He sent emissaries to the Byzantine emperor, requesting mathematical textsbut received only one. Yet, it was Euclids Elements, 10 which ignited a passion for learning the classics. This passion was further inflamed by Caliph al-Rashid, 11 who began collecting a private library. Al-Rashid built Baghdads first paper mill, which was critical for the spread of knowledge throughout the Arab world. The jealously guarded secret of Chinese papermaking was found out when Muslims captured Chinese engineers in battle at the eastern end of the Islamic empire. The next impetus to Arab-Islamic advance was a dream by the son of al-Rashid. Caliph al-Mamun 12 had a dream of Aristotle seated on a throne, advising him that the path to wisdom was through reason, law, and faith. Al-Mamun took this dream as a sign to amass knowledge. He sent 100 academics and translators to Byzantium 13 to bring scientific and philosophical manuscripts back to Baghdad for translation into Arabic. What had begun with the father as a private library blossomed with the son into a fully stocked archive of classical knowledge. Al-Mamuns collection became the library of the Academy in Baghdad known as the House of Wisdom 14 the great think tank of the medieval world. 15 In addition to its immense library, the House of Wisdom was a research and translation center for the preservation of classical knowledge, staffed with salaried Muslim and Christian scholars. Manuscripts were acquired for the House of Wisdom from around the Mediterranean and beyond for over two centuries. In Baghdad, the wisdom of India and China mingled with the wisdom of Persia, ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt. 16 Most of the manuscripts collected were in Greek, which further complicated this massively ambitious project, because most of the translators were more familiar with Syriac, an ancient Aramaic tongue. Thus, the Greek texts were first translated into Syriac and then into Arabic. Through the perseverance of scholars at Baghdads House of Wisdom, nearly the entire corpus of Greek philosophic and scientific thought was preserved. The obviously high value placed on knowledge was characteristic of Islamic enlightenment. From the Hadith or sayings of the Prophet, we learn that
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initially prompted the advance of Arab-Islamic civilization? As Muslims are one of the three What People of the Book, Arab Muslims were awakened to words as a vehicle of enlightenment

Ahl al-Kitab, meaning that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are scripture-based religions. Sura 58:11. 8 John R. Hayes, ed., The Genius of Arab Civilization: Source of Renaissance (New York NY: New York University Press, 1992). 9 The second Abbasid Caliph Abu Jafar abd-Allah al-Mansur (712-755). 10 Euclid, Greek mathematician in Alexandria, Egypt (circa 3rd century BCE). 11 The fifth Abbasid Caliph Haroun al-Rashid (763809). 12 The seventh Abbasid Caliph Abdallah al-Mamun (786833). 13 Formerly Constantinople, currently Istanbul. 14 The Bayt al-Hikmah. 15 Science & Mathematics in Medieval Islamic Cultures, from the Horace Mann webpage; http://www.sfusd.k12.ca.us/schwww/sch618/ScienceMath/ 16 Dr. Zachariah Matthew, The Golden Age of Islam, Salam Magazine, September-October 2004. http://www.famsy.com/salam/

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Muslims were encouraged to seek knowledge even as far as China. Indeed, Islamic Centers of Learning 17 arose across Muslim lands from the western Mediterranean to the borders of China.

From Language to Mathematics

an appreciation of knowledge in general to an expertise in science and mathematics in From particular, the city of Baghdad led the Islamic advance. Achievements in astronomy, medicine, optics, chemistry, and mathematics were spectacular. Let us first applaud Arab mathematics as most people recognize algebra and algorithm as Arabic words. Our source for both is the brilliant mathematician al-Khwarizmi, 18 a scholar of the 8th century at Baghdads House of Wisdom. Known as the Father of Algebra, al-Khwarizmi gave the name al-jabr to his math, which means restoration of balanceas on both sides of an equation. Clever, eh? The word algorithm, however, came from his Latinized name in the title of his first published work. 19 Al-Khwarizmis pioneering work was his book The Hindu Art of Reckoning. 20 This work was the first in the Islamic world to use zero in positional base notation, but the concept originated among the Hindus. 21 Al-Khwarizmi introduced the integers 1 through 9 from the Indian place-value system and explained how the Hindus used a symbol for an empty place (initially a dot, later a circle). Unlike archaic numerical systems (based on multiples of 5, 12, or 60) or cumbersome Roman numerals, what became known in the West as Arabic numerals made arithmetic vastly simpler and calculations more rapid. Despite the Hindus, which were likely influenced by the Babylonians, who were probably influenced by the Egyptians, 22 Arab mathematicians made significant contributions of their own. They were most famed for algebra and number theory as well as for geometry, trigonometry, and mathematical astronomy. 23 Al-Khwarizmis important work on Algebra was The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing. 24 In this, he converted Babylonian and Hindu numerals into a workable system that almost anyone could use. Algebra was a unifying theory, which allowed rational and irrational numbers as well as discrete and continuous numbers to all be treated as algebraic objects. 25 Al-Khwarizmi also solved linear and quadratic equations using algorithms, which are the basis of computer programming. In fact, al-Khwarizmi is sometimes known as the Grandfather of Computers. It is ironic that Arab scholars saved the Greek classics, because al-Khwarizmis book was lost in the Arabic original and only survived due to its Latin translation. Although Islamic mathematicians were centuries ahead of Europeans, Arab advances in mathematics were intended to solve everyday problems. Like astronomy, which evolved from the practical necessity of finding the directions and hours for prayer, Islamic mathematics was a practical byproduct of the marketplace to streamline computations for business deals. We may remember the algebraic notation of x for the root and a raised 2 for the square, but al-Khwarizmis algebra was done entirely in words with no symbols whatsoever! The first book on trigonometry 26 was written by the Persian mathematician al-Biruna 27 in the 10th century. Al-Biruni also found the radius of the Earth to be 6339.6 kma value not obtained in the West
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Cordoba, Toledo, Granada, Cairo, Istanbul, Damascus, Baghdad, Isfahan, Shiraz, Bukhara, and Samarkand. Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi (780850 CE). Algoritmi de Numero Indorum. 20 Al Kitab al-Jama wal-Tafreeq bil Hisab al-Hindi. 21 J.J. OConnor and E.F. Robertson, History Topics: A History of Zero (University of St. Andrews, Scotland: The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archives, November 2000). http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/PrintHT/Zero.html. 22 Nick Bartel, Medieval Islamic Cultures: Mathematics Advancements by Muslims (San Francisco CA: Horace Mann Middle School, November 2003). http://www.sfusd.k12.ca.us/schwww/sch618/ScienceMath/Math.html. 23 OConnor and Robertson, Arabic Mathematics: Forgotten Brilliance? (November 1999). http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/HistTopics/Arabic_mathematics.html 24 Al-Kitab al-Mukhtasar fi Hisab al-Jabr w'al-Muqabala. 25 OConnor and Robertson, Arabic Mathematics. 26 Shadows, 1021.

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until the 16th centuryand only 15 km off from todays measurement! In the previous century, a landmark map designed for Caliph al-Mamun at the House of Wisdom was the first accurate representations of longitude and the Earths circumferenceonly two or three degrees off the true measurement. That map was also the first to show the Atlantic and Indian Oceans as open bodies of water, not land-locked seas. A celebrated Treatise on Geometry, 28 written in the 11th century by al-Mutaman, 29 the king of Saragossa in Islamic Spain, had a round-about fate. The famous Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides 30 took this important manuscript from Cordoba to Cairo. The work then began circulating as far as Baghdad and was republished in Central Asia in the 13th century, whereupon knowledge of it remained lost to the Westuntil rediscovered by two 20th century researchers less than 30 years ago. 31 If any nonmath people are feeling lostand Im one of themlet me mention the Persian poet Omar Khayyam of The Rubaiyat. 32 Khayyam was also a mathematician and astronomer. He may have written his quatrains in Persian, but he wrote his mathematical work in Arabicand supported with Aristotelian logic. Khayyam developed a calendar more accurate than the Gregorian calendar of the 16th century. Khayyam also circulated a visionary critique of Euclids theories on parallel lines that prefigured nonEuclidean geometry, which didnt arise for another 800 years in Europe. Using the geometry of Euclid and Archimedes as starting points, Muslim mathematicians advanced it further than their Greek and Indian predecessors. Indeed, the Italian mathematician Fibonacci and the French mathematicians Pascal and Fermat stood on the shoulders of Muslim mathematicians.

In the Desert, Stars Reign

Astronomy as a bridge from math to science, I refer again to al-Biruni whom we met calculating Using the Earths radius. As a mathematician-astronomer, al-Biruni was captured by the Sultan Mahmud
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in the 10 century and traveled with him to India. By learning Sanskrit, he was able to advance Hindu and Arabic learning. He produced a comprehensive encyclopedia of astronomy 34 in which he explained that the planets revolved in elliptical orbits, instead of the circular orbits claimed by the Greeks. Al-Biruni also observed that the suns apogee, its highest point, was mobile, not fixed, as Ptolemy 35 had maintained. In addition, al-Biruni produced original work on pharmacology, botany, mineralogy, and geology. AlBiruni asserted that the desert was once covered by the sea. He supported this controversial thesis with detailed descriptions of perfectly preserved fossils of fish, paving the way for the science of paleontology. In Cairo at that time, the Arab astronomer Ibn Yunus 36 perfected calculation tables for measuring planetary motion to a then number-crunching nine figures after the decimal point. In Isfahan, a Sultan 37 commissioned the Persian astronomer al-Sufi 38 to create a magnificently illustrated catalogue of over 1,000 stars and constellations. This work reflects the great value that medieval Muslim society placed on astronomy. Indeed, the astrolabea mathematical jewelwas a specialty of the Arabs. 39 A number of Islamic astronomers struggled to reconcile the Greek universe of Ptolemys faulty concepts of celestial motion with their own observations. The Arab astronomer al-Battani 40 amended
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Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni (973-1048). Kitab al-Istikmal. Yusuf ibn Ahmad al-Mu'taman ibn Hud (d.1085). 30 Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (11351204). 31 Jan Hogendijk (Netherlands) and Ahmed Djebbar (Algeria). 32 Omar Khayyam (1048-1122). 33 Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna (997-1030). 34 Kitab al-Qanun al-Masudi, Latinized as Canon Masudicus, and dedicated to Mahmuds son and successor, Masud; thus, its title. 35 Egyptian astronomer and mathematician in Alexandria, 2nd century. 36 Abu'l-Hasan 'Ali Ibn 'Abd al-Rahman Ibn Ahmad Ibn Yunus al-Sadafi (950-1009). 37 Buwayid Sultan Adud al-Dawla (d. 990). 38 Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (903-986). 39 OConnor and Robertson, Arabic Mathematics. 40 Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Jabir al-Battani (850-929).

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Ptolemys figures for the inclination of the Earths axis. Copernicus even praised al-Battani as a source for his own heliocentric theory of the solar system. Using astronomy to introduce optics, I know is the reverse order. However, the 10th century Baghdad scholar Ibn Sahl, 41 a Jewish convert to Islam, came up with the basic principle of refraction 700 years before the Dutch did. 42 In the next century, the Cairo physicist Alhazen 43 wrote a book 44 on optics, which was one of the definitive scientific works of the Middle Ages. He reversed the false Greek notion that light is emitted from the eye. He correctly asserted that light rays reflect off the surface of objects and enter the eye for visual perception. His book remained the pre-eminent text in optics until Johannes Kepler more than six centuries later. 45 Alhazen also demonstrated that light emanates from an object in straight lines. From this, Alhazen devised the first rudimentary pinhole camerathe camera obscura, 46 an early progenitor of modern photography. Alhazen was one of the first to conclude that Ptolemys astronomical models were false, which led to a reform of planetary astronomy in the 13th century under al-Tusi. 47 The Persian mathematician-astronomer al-Tusi persuaded the Mongol conqueror Hulagu Khan to finance an astronomical observatory in the far city of Maragha (in present-day Azerbaijan). Far more sophisticated than Babylonian, Indian, or Egyptian observatories, Maragha had a copper foundry for manufacturing astronomical tools and thus was well equipped with astrolabes, sundials, and sextants. AlTusi and his colleagues at Maragha upended the Greek view of the universe by replacing Ptolemys model of planetary motion with a more accurate, although still geocentric, version. Yet, three centuries later, Copernicus borrowed al-Tusis model to refine.

The Science of Inquiry and Medicine

also introduced the experimental method of scientific proof, insisting that theories be Alhazen verified in practice. This key element to modern science was missing from the less empirical

Greek tradition. Arab scholars also introduced the practice of peer review and source citations to confirm their research.

The development of Chemistry in Europe can be traced directly to the 8th century Persian scientist Jabir, 48 known as the Father of Chemistry. Jabir, who established himself in Kufa (in present-day Iraq), helped evolve Chemistry as a science from its legendary roots in Alchemy. Indeed, the word chemistry is derived from the Arabic al-kimiya. Jabir emphasized experimentation and developed methods to reproduce results. He refined such techniques as crystallization, distillation, calcination, and evaporation. Jabir also concocted an array of previously unknown compounds, including sulfuric acid, caustic soda, and nitric oxide. The distillation of rosewater and other perfumes evolved into a Muslim specialty, which is not surprising in hot climates with scarce water. Arab chemists also manufactured waterproof fabrics, invisible inks, and mosquito repellents. Arabs were also the first aromatherapists. They used scents medicinally to treat migraines, epilepsy, and melancholy. Among the Hadith or sayings of the Prophet on medicine, we read: For every disease, Allah has given a cure. And Muslims were encouraged to find those cures. The greatest clinical doctor was the Persian Rhazes. 49 His medical writings advanced internal medicine, epidemiology, and psychotherapy. He recognized that healing success by quacks came from psychosomatic reception in the patient. Among Rhazes 200 books on medicine was a comprehensive

41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49

Ali ibn Sahl (940-1000). The Dutch mathematician, physicist, and astronomer Willebrord Snel van Roijen (1580-1626). Abu Ali al-Hasan Ibn al-Hasan bin al-Haitham (965-1040). Kitab al-Manazir (Book of Optics), 965. Matthews. The Persian Kamal ad-Din al-Farisi continued this work in the 13th century. Abu Jafar Muhammad Ibn al-Hasan Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201-1274). Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan (d. 803). Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Zakariyya al-Razi (864-930).

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encyclopedia, 50 a book on medical ethics, and the first on smallpox, 51 precisely distinguishing it from measles. Making the connection between bacteria and infection, Rhazes introduced the use of antiseptics a thousand years before Joseph Lister. 52 The most illustrious Islamic physician was the Persian Avicenna. 53 Eager for practical knowledge in his early years, he traveled around setting up free clinics to learn about new maladies from patients. He emphasized the health effects of clean air and water from mountain and coastal climates, which expanded on Hippocrates advice. 54 Avicennas esteemed reputation rests on his five-volume compendium of all known diseases in the world, the Canon of Medicine. 55 His early 11th century Canon remained one of the principal textbooks of medical science in European universities for a longer period than any medical book ever written. 56 To applaud the first hospitals in the Muslim world, we must return with admiration to the court of Caliph al-Rashid in Baghdad. The hospital under his patronage became the model for all other hospitals in the Muslim world. Arab hospitals typically had three buildings around a courtyard. In the courtyard were fountains, trees, and warbling birds, so that the sounds of nature were part of the healing process. Arabs also treated the mentally ill with music therapy. Arab hospitals far surpassed the Greek, Roman, or Persian models in organization and humane treatment. Setting the standard for a teaching hospital in the early 9th century, the Baghdad hospital had an extensive library, lecture halls, a pharmacy, and laboratory. In addition, doctors made daily rounds with their students, setting a precedent for medical schools to this day. A wonderful hospital was constructed in Marrakech in the 12th century under the Sultan of Morocco. 57 He provided the fortunate patients of his facility with running water in each room, wool blankets, silk sheets, free medicines, and 30 dinars a day for food and other necessities. When indigent patients got well enough to leave, they received a small sum of money to ease their reentry into working society. And 47 million Americans have no health insurance!

The Decline of Arab Science

ow could such a period of enlightenment decline so drastically? Surprisingly, not the Crusades, Hwhich energized Arab-Islamic science, as Muslims were challenged to discover their enemies secrets.
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The first severe blow occurred at the western end of the Islamic empire when Cordoba fell to the Christians in 1236; the second more devastating blow was in 1258 with the Mongol conquest of Baghdad, the intellectual heart of Islam. The Mongols massacred two million Muslims, destroyed laboratories and hospitals, and demolished the House of Wisdom, dumping all its books into the Euphrates. With the end of the influential Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad, the unifying power of the empire was broken and communities were separated into tribal isolation. A more subtle encroachment on the Islamic Renaissance was Aristotelian logic, which came into Islam through translation of Greek classics into Arabic. As a framework for advances in science and philosophy, logic also gave rise to skepticism and undermined orthodox faith. 59 Then, in the 15th century, Portuguese and Spanish navigators dominated trade routes, breaking the Arab monopoly on commerce with the Orient. With the fall of Granada in 1492 to Christian monarchs,

50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59

Al-Hawi. Kitab al-Tajarib. Matthews. Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Abdallah ibn Sina (981-1037). Airs, Waters, Places, circa 5th century BCE. Qanun fi l-tib. Hayes. Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur (1160-1199). 1097-1291. Matthews.

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Arab science went into an irreversible decline, succeeded in the 16th century by the aggressive expansion of the Ottoman Empire under Sleyman the Magnificent. By then, Latin had fully supplanted Arabic as the universal language of science. Yet, unlike Arabic, which was understood by all social classes, Latin was principally the language of academics and clergy in preference to common medieval Anglo-Saxon tongues. Thus, science in Latin became cordoned off as the preserve of an educated elite. During the more egalitarian Arab-Islamic ascendancy, ordinary people had access to scholarly and scientific knowledge. Whoever wanted to read or copy a book at Baghdads House of Wisdom could do so. By the 16th century, the dominance of the Roman Catholic hierarchy eclipsed Islams Golden Age. Ma sha Allah.

Copyright, Sheila T. Harty, 2011

Sheila Harty is a published and award-winning writer with a BA and MA in Theology. Her major was in Catholicism, her minor in Islam, and her thesis in scriptural Judaism. Harty employed her theology degrees in the political arena as applied ethics, working for 20 years in Washington DC as a public interest policy advocate, including ten years with Ralph Nader. On sabbatical from Nader, she taught Business Ethics at University College Cork, Ireland. In DC, she also worked for U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, the World Bank, the United Nations University, the Congressional Budget Office, and the American Assn for the Advancement of Science. She was a consultant with the Centre for Applied Studies in International Negotiations in Geneva, the National Adult Education Assn in Dublin, and the International Organization of Consumers Unions in The Hague. Her first book, Hucksters in the Classroom, won the 1980 George Orwell Award for Honesty & Clarity in Public Language. She moved to St. Augustine, Florida, in 1996 to care for her aging parents, where she also works as a freelance writer and editor. She can be reached by e-mail at sheilaharty@comcast.net. Her website is http:www.sheila-t-harty.com

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