Islamic Golden Age
Expansion of the Islamic Caliphate, 622–750.
Scholars at an Abbasid library, from the Maqamat of al-Hariri
by Yahya ibn Mahmud al-Wasiti, Baghdad, 1237 AD
The Islamic Golden Age refers to a period in the
history of Islam, traditionally dated from the 8th cen-
tury to the 13th century, during which much of the his-
torically Islamic world was ruled by various caliphates
and science, economic development and cultural works
flourished.[1][2][3] This period is traditionally understood cesses of the Rashidun caliphs. It was only in the sec-
to have begun during the reign of the Abbasid caliph
Harun al-Rashid (786 to 809) with the inauguration of the
House of Wisdom in Baghdad, where scholars from vari-
ous parts of the world with different cultural backgrounds
were mandated to gather and translate all of the world’s
classical knowledge into the Arabic language.[4][5] This
period is traditionally said to have ended with the col-
lapse of the Abbasid caliphate due to Mongol invasions
and the Sack of Baghdad in 1258 AD.[6] A few contem-
porary scholars place the end of the Islamic Golden Age
as late as the end of 15th to 16th centuries.[1][2][3]
1 History of the concept
The metaphor of a golden age began to be applied in 19th-
century literature about Islamic history, in the context of
the western aesthetic fashion known as Orientalism. The
author of a Handbook for Travelers in Syria and Pales-
tine in 1868 observed that the most beautiful mosques
of Damascus were “like Mohammedanism itself, now 2 Causes
rapidly decaying” and relics of “the golden age of Islam”.
Expansion under Muhammad, 622–632
Expansion during the Rashidun Caliphate, 632–661
Expansion during the Umayyad Caliphate, 661–750
[7]
There is no unambiguous definition of term, and depend-
ing on whether it is used with a focus on cultural or on
military achievement, it may be taken to refer to rather
disparate time spans. Thus, one author would have it ex-
tend to the duration of the caliphate, or to “six and a half
centuries”,[8] while another would have it end after only
a few decades of Rashidun conquests, with the death of
Umar and the First Fitna.[9]
During the early 20th century, the term was used only
occasionally, and often referred to the early military suc-
ond half of the 20th century that the term came to be
used with any frequency, now mostly referring to the cul-
tural flourishing of science and mathematics under the
caliphate during the 9th to 11th centuries (between the
establishment of organised scholarship in the House of
Wisdom and the beginning of the crusades),[10] but of-
ten extended to include part of the late 8th or the 12th to
early 13th centuries.[11] Definitions may still vary consid-
erably. Equating the end of the golden age with the end
of the caliphate is a convenient cut-off point based on
a historical landmark, but it can be argued that Islamic
culture had entered a gradual decline much earlier; thus,
Khan (2003) identifies the proper golden age as being the
two centuries between 750–950, arguing that the begin-
ning loss of territories under Harun al-Rashid worsened
after the death of al-Ma'mun in 833, and that the crusades
in the 12th century resulted in a further weakening of the
Abbasid empire from which it never recovered.[12]
1
2 3 PHILOSOPHY

2.1 Religious influence 2.3 Government sponsorship

Main article: Islamic attitudes towards science
The various Quranic injunctions and Hadith, which place
values on education and emphasize the importance of ac-
quiring knowledge, played a vital role in influencing the
Muslims of this age in their search for knowledge and the
development of the body of science.[13][14][15]
2.2 Earlier cultural influence
The Muslim government heavily patronized scholars.
The money spent on the Translation Movement for some
translations is estimated to be equivalent to about twice
the annual research budget of the United Kingdom’s
Medical Research Council.[35] The best scholars and no-
table translators, such as Hunayn ibn Ishaq, had salaries
that are estimated to be the equivalent of professional
athletes today.[35] The House of Wisdom was a library,
translation institute, and academy established in Abbasid-
era Baghdad, Iraq by Caliph Harun al-Rashid and his son
al-Ma'mun.[36][37]

Main articles: Greek contributions to Islamic world,

2.4 New technology
Indian influence on Islamic science, Christian influences
in Islam, and Chinese influences on Islamic pottery

During this period, the Muslims showed a strong interest

in assimilating the scientific knowledge of the civiliza-
tions that had been conquered. Many classic works of
antiquity that might otherwise have been lost were trans-
lated from Greek, Persian, Indian, Chinese, Egyptian,
and Phoenician civilizations into Arabic and Persian, and
later in turn translated into Turkish, Hebrew, and Latin.[5]
Christians, especially the adherents of the Church of the
East (Nestorians), contributed to Islamic civilization dur-
ing the reign of the Ummayads and the Abbasids by trans-
lating works of Greek philosophers and ancient science
to Syriac and afterwards to Arabic.[16][17] They also ex- A manuscript written on paper during the Abbasid Era.
celled in many fields, in particular philosophy, science
(such as Hunayn ibn Ishaq,[18][19] Qusta ibn Luqa,[20] With a new and easier writing system, and the
Masawaiyh,[21][22] Patriarch Eutychius,[23] and Jabril ibn introduction of paper, information was democratized to
Bukhtishu[24] ) and theology. For a long period of time the extent that, for probably the first time in history, it be-
the personal physicians of the Abbasid Caliphs were often came possible to make a living from simply writing and
Assyrian Christians.[25][26] Among the most prominent selling books.[38] The use of paper spread from China
Christian families to serve as physicians to the caliphs into Muslim regions in the eighth century, arriving in
were the Bukhtishu dynasty.[27][28] Al-Andalus on the Iberian peninsula, present-day Spain
in the 10th century. It was easier to manufacture than
Throughout the 4th to 7th centuries, Christian schol-
parchment, less likely to crack than papyrus, and could
arly work in the Greek and Syriac languages was either
absorb ink, making it difficult to erase and ideal for keep-
newly translated or had been preserved since the Hel-
ing records. Islamic paper makers devised assembly-line
lenistic period. Among the prominent centers of learn-
methods of hand-copying manuscripts to turn out editions
ing and transmission of classical wisdom were Chris-
far larger than any available in Europe for centuries.[39] It
tian colleges such as the School of Nisibis[29] and the
was from these countries that the rest of the world learned
School of Edessa,[30] and the renowned hospital and med-
to make paper from linen.[40]
ical academy of Jundishapur, which was the intellec-
tual, theological and scientific center of the Church of
the East.[31][32][33] The House of Wisdom was founded
in Baghdad in 825, modelled after the Academy of 3 Philosophy
Gondishapur. It was led by Christian physician Hunayn
ibn Ishaq, with the support of Byzantine medicine. Many Main article: Islamic Philosophy
of the most important philosophical and scientific works Ibn Rushd and Ibn Sina played a major role in sav-
of the ancient world were translated, including the work ing the works of Aristotle, whose ideas came to dom-
of Galen, Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Ptolemy and inate the non-religious thought of the Christian and
Archimedes. Many scholars of the House of Wisdom Muslim worlds. Ibn Sina and other philosophers such
were of Christian background.[34] as al-Kindi and al-Farabi combined Aristotelianism and

Islamic architecture in Alhambra, Al-Andalus, in modern-day
Spain
Neoplatonism with other ideas introduced through Islam.
Arabic philosophic literature was translated into Latin
and Ladino, contributing to the development of modern
European philosophy. During this period, non-Muslims
were allowed to flourish relative to treatment of religious
minorities in the Christian Byzantine Empire. The Jewish
philosopher Moses Maimonides, who lived in Andalusia,
is an example.
3.1 Metaphysics
Avicenna argued his "Floating man" thought experiment
concerning self-awareness, in which a man prevented of
sense experience by being blindfolded and free falling
would still be aware of his existence.[41]
3.2 Epistemology
In epistemology, Ibn Tufail wrote the novel Hayy
ibn Yaqdhan and in response Ibn al-Nafis wrote the
novel Theologus Autodidactus. Both were concerning
autodidacticism as illuminated through the life of a feral
child spontaneously generated in a cave on a desert island.
3
4 Mathematics
Main article: Mathematics in medieval Islam
4.1 Algebra
Geometric patterns: an archway in the Sultan’s lodge in the Ot-
toman Green Mosque in Bursa, Turkey (1424), its girih strap-
work forming 10-point stars and pentagons
Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī played a signifi-
cant role in the development of algebra, algorithms, and
Hindu-Arabic numerals.
4.2 Geometry
Main article: Islamic geometric patterns
Islamic art makes use of geometric patterns and sym-
metries in many of its art forms, notably in girih tilings.
These are formed using a set of five tile shapes, namely
a regular decagon, an elongated hexagon, a bow tie, a
rhombus, and a regular pentagon. All the sides of these
tiles have the same length; and all their angles are mul-
tiples of 36° (π/5 radians), offering fivefold and ten-
fold symmetries. The tiles are decorated with strapwork
lines (girih), generally more visible than the tile bound-
aries. In 2007, the physicists Peter Lu and Paul Stein-
hardt argued that girih from the 15th century resem-
bled quasicrystalline Penrose tilings.[42][43][44][45] Elabo-
rate geometric zellige tilework is a distinctive element
in Moroccan architecture.[46] Muqarnas vaults are three-
dimensional but were designed in two dimensions with
drawings of geometrical cells.[47]
4 6 PHYSICS

4.3 Trigonometry early proponent of experimental medicine and recom-

mended using control for clinical research. He said: “If
you want to study the effect of bloodletting on a condi-
B tion, divide the patients into two groups, perform blood-
a
letting only on one group, watch both, and compare the
C results.”[56]
Jim Al-Khalili gives the example of the classification of
materials as a sign of new ways of thinking.[57] While the
classification of the material world by the ancient Indians
c and Greeks into Air, Earth, Fire and Water was more
philosophical, medieval Islamic scientists used practi-
b cal, experimental observation to classify materials.[57]
Rhazes, for example, classified minerals into six groups
based on their observed chemical properties: Spirits,
which were flammable, Material Bodies, which were
A shiny and malleable, Salts, which could dissolve in wa-
ter, Vitriols, Stones,and Boraxes.[57]
A triangle labelled with the components of the law of sines. Cap-
ital A, B and C are the angles, and lower-case a, b, c are the
sides opposite them. (a opposite A, etc.)
6 Physics
Ibn Muʿādh al-Jayyānī is one of several Islamic mathe-
maticians to whom the law of sines is attributed; he wrote 6.1 Astronomy
his The Book of Unknown Arcs of a Sphere in the 11th
century. This formula relates the lengths of the sides of
Main article: Astronomy in medieval Islam
any triangle, rather than only right triangles, to the sines
In about 964 AD, the Persian astronomer Abd al-
of its angles.[48] According to the law,

sin A sin B sin C

= = .
a b c
where a, b, and c are the lengths of the sides of a triangle,
and A, B, and C are the opposite angles (see figure).

4.4 Calculus
Alhazen discovered the sum formula for the fourth power,
using a method that could be generally used to determine
the sum for any integral power. He used this to find the
volume of a paraboloid. He could find the integral for-
mula for any polynomial without having developed a gen-
eral formula.[49]

5 Scientific method Tusi couple

See also: Science in the medieval Islamic world Rahman al-Sufi, writing in his Book of Fixed Stars, de-
scribed a “nebulous spot” in the Andromeda constella-
Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) was a significant figure in the tion, the first definitive reference to what we now know is
history of scientific method, particularly in his approach the Andromeda Galaxy, the nearest spiral galaxy to our
to experimentation,[50][51][52][53] and has been described galaxy.[58]
as the “world’s first true scientist”.[54] Nasir al-Din al-Tusi invented a geometrical technique
Avicenna made rules for testing the effectiveness of called a Tusi-couple, which generates linear motion from
drugs, including that the effect produced by the experi- the sum of two circular motions to replace Ptolemy's
mental drug should be seen constantly or after many rep- problematic equant[59] The Tusi couple was later em-
etitions, to be counted.[55] The physician Rhazes was an ployed in Ibn al-Shatir's geocentric model and Nicolaus
8.2 Evolution 5

Copernicus' heliocentric Copernican model[60] although ventricles at this point.[62] Instead, he correctly argued
it is not known who the intermediary is or if Copernicus that all the blood that reached the left ventricle did so af-
rediscovered the technique independently. ter passing through the lung.[62] He also stated that there
must be small communications, or pores, between the
pulmonary artery and pulmonary vein, a prediction that
6.2 Optics preceded the discovery of the pulmonary capillaries of
Marcello Malpighi by 400 years. The Commentary was
Further information: Islamic physics rediscovered in the twentieth century in the Prussian State
Library in Berlin; whether its view of the pulmonary cir-
Alhazen played a significant role in the development of culation influenced scientists such as Michael Servetus is
optics, experimental physics, and theoretical physics. unclear.[62]
In the nervous system, Rhazes stated that nerves had
motor or sensory functions, describing 7 cranial and 31
7 Chemistry spinal cord nerves. He assigned a numerical order to the
cranial nerves from the optic to the hypoglossal nerves.
Al-Kindi warned against alchemists attempting the trans- He classified the spinal nerves into 8 cervical, 12 thoracic,
mutation of simple, base metals into precious ones like 5 lumbar, 3 sacral, and 3 coccygeal nerves. He used this
gold in the ninth century.[55][61] to link clinical signs of injury to the corresponding loca-
tion of lesions in the nervous system.[63]

8 Biology 8.2 Evolution

8.1 Anatomy Modern commentators have likened medieval accounts

of the “struggle for existence” in the animal kingdom to
the framework of the theory of evolution. Thus, in his
survey of the history of the ideas which led to the the-
ory of natural selection, Conway Zirkle noted that al-
Jahiz was one of those who discussed a “struggle for exis-
tence”, in his Kitab al-Hayawan (Book of Animals), writ-
ten in the 9th century.[64] In the 13th century, Nasir al-
Din al-Tusi believed that humans were derived from ad-
vanced animals, saying, “Such humans [probably anthro-
poid apes][65] live in the Western Sudan and other distant
corners of the world. They are close to animals by their
habits, deeds and behavior.”[65] In 1377, Ibn Khaldun in
his Muqaddimah stated, "“The animal kingdom was de-
veloped, its species multiplied, and in the gradual process
of Creation, it ended in man & arising from the world of
the monkeys.”[66]

9 Engineering
See also: List of inventions in the medieval Islamic world

The Banū Mūsā brothers, in their Book of Ingenious

Devices, describe an automatic flute player which may
have been the first programmable machine.[67] The flute
The eye, according to Hunain ibn Ishaq. From a manuscript sounds were produced through hot steam and the user
dated circa 1200. could adjust the device to various patterns so that they
could get various sounds from it.[68]
In the cardiovascular system, Ibn al-Nafis in his
Commentary on Anatomy in Avicenna’s Canon was the
first to contradict the contention of the Galen School
that blood could pass between the ventricles in the heart 10 Social sciences
through the cardiac inter-ventricular septum that sepa-
rates them, saying that there is no passage between the Ibn Khaldun is regarded to be among the found-
6 11 HEALTHCARE

ing fathers of modern sociology,[n 1] historiography, conditions of consideration and payment, none
demography,[n 1] and economics.[69][n 2] is objected to or even indirectly hinted at for
non-payment.”[72]

11 Healthcare
11.2 Pharmacies
11.1 Hospitals
By the ninth century, there was a rapid expansion of pri-
vate pharmacies in many Muslim cities. Initially, these
were unregulated and managed by personnel of incon-
sistent quality. Decrees by Caliphs Al-Ma'mun and Al-
Mu'tasim required examinations to license pharmacists
and pharmacy students were trained in a combination of
classroom exercises coupled with day-to-day practical ex-
periences with drugs. To avoid conflicts of interest, doc-
tors were banned from owning or sharing ownership in
a pharmacy. Pharmacies were periodically inspected by
government inspectors called muhtasib, who checked to
see that the medicines were mixed properly, not diluted
and kept in clean jars. Violators were fined or beaten.[55]

11.3 Medicine

Entrance to the Qawaloon complex which housed the notable Main article: Islamic medicine
Qawaloon hospital.

Hospitals in this era were the first to require medical Rhazes differentiated through careful observation the two
diplomas to license doctors.[70] In the medieval Islamic diseases smallpox and measles, which were previously
world, hospitals were built in most major cities. The hos- lumped together as a single disease that caused rashes.[75]
pitals were typically run by a three-man board compris- This was based on location and the time of the appearance
ing a non-medical administrator, a physician who served of the symptoms and he also scaled the degree of sever-
as mutwalli (dean) and the shaykh saydalani, the chief ity and prognosis of infections according to the color and
pharmacist, who oversaw the dispensary. location of rashes.[76] Al-Zahrawi was the first physician
to describe an ectopic pregnancy, and the first physician
Medical facilities traditionally closed each night, but by to identify the hereditary nature of haemophilia.[77]
the 10th century laws were passed to keep hospitals open
24 hours a day, and hospitals were forbidden to turn On hygienic practices, Rhazes, who was once asked to
away patients who were unable to pay.[71] Eventually, choose the site for a new hospital in Baghdad, suspended
charitable foundations called waqfs were formed to sup- pieces of meat at various points around the city, and rec-
port hospitals, as well as schools.[71] This money sup- ommended building the hospital [56]
at the location where the
ported free medical care for all citizens. [71]
In a notable meat putrefied most slowly.
example, a 13th-century governor of Egypt Al Mansur For Islamic scholars, Indian and Greek physicians and
Qalawun ordained a foundation for the Qalawun hospi- medical researchers Sushruta, Galen, Mankah, Atreya,
tal that would contain a mosque and a chapel, separate Hippocrates, Charaka, and Agnivesa were pre-eminent
wards for different diseases, a library for doctors and a authorities.[78] In order to make the Indian and Greek tra-
pharmacy.[72] The Qalawun hospital was based in a for- dition more accessible, understandable, and teachable, Is-
mer Fatimid palace which had accommodation for 8,000 lamic scholars ordered and made more systematic the vast
people - [73] “it served 4,000 patients daily.”[74] The waqf Indian and Greco-Roman medical knowledge by writing
stated, encyclopedias and summaries. Sometimes, past schol-
ars were criticized, like Rhazes who criticized and re-
"...The hospital shall keep all patients, men futed Galen’s revered theories, most notably, the Theory
and women, until they are completely recov- of Humors and was thus accused of ignorance.[56] It
ered. All costs are to be borne by the hospi- was through 12th-century Arabic translations that me-
tal whether the people come from afar or near, dieval Europe rediscovered Hellenic medicine, includ-
whether they are residents or foreigners, strong ing the works of Galen and Hippocrates, and discovered
or weak, low or high, rich or poor, employed ancient Indian medicine, including the works of Sushruta
or unemployed, blind or sighted, physically or and Charaka.[79][80] Works such as Avicenna's The Canon
mentally ill, learned or illiterate. There are no of Medicine were translated into Latin and disseminated
 7

throughout Europe. During the 15th and 16th centuries a university. Al Azhar University now has the claim of
alone, The Canon of Medicine was published more than being the oldest University still functioning.[85]
thirty-five times. It was used as a standard medical text-The intellectual life in Egypt during the Fatimid era
book through the 18th century in Europe.[81] reached a great degree of progress and activity due to
the number of scholars who either lived in Egypt, or
came from outside, as well as the number of books avail-
11.4 Surgery able. The Fatimid Caliphs gave prominent positions
to the scholars in their courts and encouraged the stu-
Al-Zahrawi was a tenth century Spanish physician. He dents. Fatimids paid attention to establishing libraries in
is sometimes referred to as the “Father of surgery”.[82] their palaces so that the scholars might polish up their
He describes what is thought to be the first attempt knowledge and benefit from what their predecessors had
at reduction mammaplasty for the management of done.[85]
gynaecomastia.[82]

12 Education 13 Commerce and travel

An entrance to the Al Azhar University, Cairo

The Guinness World Records recognizes the University Introductory summary overview map from al-Idrisi's 1154 world
of Al Karaouine, founded in 859 AD, as the world’s oldest atlas (note that South is at the top of the map).
degree-granting university.[83]
The Al-Azhar University was the first university in the
East, and perhaps the oldest in history. The madrasa is Apart from the Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates, navigable
one of the relics of the Fatimid dynasty era of Egypt, rivers were uncommon in the Middle East, so transport
descended from Fatimah, daughter of Muhammad. Fa- by sea was very important. Navigational sciences were
timah was called Az-Zahra (the brilliant), and it was highly developed, making use of a rudimentary sextant
named in her honor.[84] It was founded as a mosque by the (known as a kamal). When combined with detailed maps
Fatimid commander Jawhar, at the orders of the Caliph of the period, sailors were able to sail across oceans rather
Al-Muizz as he founded the city for Cairo. It was (prob- than skirt along the coast. Muslim sailors were also re-
ably on Saturday) in Jamadi al-Awwal in the year 359 sponsible for reintroducing large, three-masted merchant
A.H. Its building was completed on the 9th of Ramadan vessels to the Mediterranean. The name caravel may de-
in the year 361 A.H. Both Al-'Aziz Billah and Al-Hakim rive from an earlier Arab boat known as the qārib.[86]
bi-Amr Allah added to its premises. It was further re- Many Muslims went to China to trade, and these Mus-
paired, renovated, and extended by Al-Mustansir Billah lims began to have a great economic impact and influ-
and Al-Hafiz Li-Din-illah. Fatimid Caliphs always en- ence on the country. Muslims virtually dominated the
couraged scholars and jurists to have their study-circles import/export industry by the time of the Sung dynasty
and gatherings in this mosque, and thus it was turned into (960-1279).[87]
8 14
14 Arts and culture
14.1 Poetry
The 13th century Persian poet Rumi wrote some of the
finest Persian poetry and is still one of the best selling
[88][89]
poets in America.
14.2 Art
Main article: Islamic art
The golden age of Islamic art lasted from 750 to the 16th on its axis by two cupolas.[90]
A Seljuq shatranj (chess) set, glazed fritware, 12th century
Marquetry and tile-top table from the year 1560
century, when ceramics (especially lusterware), glass,
metalwork, textiles, illuminated manuscripts, and wood-
work flourished. Manuscript illumination became an im-
portant and greatly respected art, and Persian miniature
painting flourished in the Persianate world. Calligraphy,
an essential aspect of written Arabic, developed in
manuscripts and architectural decoration.
The Fatimid era was also known for their exquisite arts.
A type of ceramic, lustreware, was prevalent during the
Fatimid period. Glassware and metalworking was also
popular.
ARTS AND CULTURE
14.3 Architecture
Main article: Islamic architecture
The Great Mosque of Kairouan (in Tunisia), the ances-
tor of all the mosques in the western Islamic world,[90]
is one of the best preserved and most significant exam-
ples of early great mosques. Founded in 670, it dates
in its present form largely from the 9th century.[91] The
Great Mosque of Kairouan is constituted of a three-tiered
square minaret, a large courtyard surrounded by colon-
naded porticos, and a huge hypostyle prayer hall covered
The Great Mosque of Samarra in Iraq was completed in
847. It combined the hypostyle architecture of rows of
columns supporting a flat base, above which a huge spi-
ralling minaret was constructed.
The beginning of construction of the Great Mosque at
Cordoba in 785 marked the beginning of Islamic ar-
chitecture in Spain and Northern Africa. The mosque
is noted for its striking interior arches. Moorish ar-
chitecture 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 de-
sign work, with walls covered in geometrically patterned
glazed tiles.
Many traces of Fatimid architecture exist in Cairo today,
the most defining examples include the Al Azhar Univer-
sity and the Al Hakim mosque.
• Islamic architecture
• The
Great Mosque of Kairouan, also known as the
Mosque of Uqba, founded in 670, dates in its
present state from the 9th century; one of the
masterpieces of Islamic architecture.[92] Located in
Kairouan, Tunisia.
14.4 Freedom of expression 9

• The
Al-Hakim Mosque in Cairo, of Al-Hakim bi-Amr
Allah, the sixth Caliph, as renovated by Dawoodi
Bohra

• Dome of the Trea-

sury of the Great Mosque of Damascus, built in 789.

• Laser
scan data image of the Bab al-Barqiyya Gate in
the 12th-century Ayyubid Wall. This fortified gate
• The Al-Azhar
was constructed with interlocking volumes that
Mosque, of medieval Islamic Cairo
surrounded the entrant to provide greater security
and control than typical city wall gates.

14.4 Freedom of expression

A significant feature of the Fatimid era were the freedoms
given to the people and liberties given to the mind and rea-
son. People could believe whatever they liked provided
they did not infringe other’s rights. The Fatimids reserved
separate pulpits for different Islamic sects, and scholars
expressed their ideas in whatever manner they pleased.
The Fatimids gave patronage to scholars and invited them
from every place, financially supported them, and ignored
• Alhambra what they believed in, even when it went against Fatimid
Palace, Granada, Spain beliefs.[85][93]

15 Decline

15.1 Invasions
The Crusades put the Islamic world under pressure with
invasions in the 11th and 12th centuries, but a far greater
threat emerged from the East during the 13th century:
in 1206, Genghis Khan established a powerful dynasty
among the Mongols of central Asia. During the 13th cen-
• Court of tury, this Mongol Empire conquered most of the Eurasian
the Lions, Alhambra land mass, including China in the east and much of the
old Islamic caliphate (as well as Kievan Rus) in the west.
10
Trade routes inherited by the Muslim civilization were ruined
by invading Mongols, which according to Ibn Khaldun ruined
economies. Later the European Age of Exploration bypassed the
land routes
The destruction of Baghdad and the House of Wisdom by
Hulagu Khan in 1258 has been seen by some as the end
of the Islamic Golden Age.[94] Later Mongol leaders, such
as Timur, destroyed many cities, slaughtered hundreds of
thousands of people, and did irrevocable damage to the
ancient irrigation systems of Mesopotamia. Muslims in
lands subject to the Mongols now faced northeast, toward
the land routes to China, rather than toward Mecca.
In the Iberian Peninsula, the Catholic Monarchs com-
pleted the Reconquista with a war against the Emirate of
Granada that started in 1482 and ended with Granada’s
complete annexation in early 1492, which also marks, for
some historians, the end of the Islamic Golden Age. The
Ottoman conquest of the Arabic-speaking Middle East in
1516-17 placed the traditional heart of the Islamic world
under Ottoman Turkish control. The rational sciences
continued to flourish in the Middle East during the Ot-
toman period.[95]
15.2 Economics
To account for the decline of Islamic science, it has been
argued that the Sunni Revival in the 11th and 12th cen-
turies produced a series of institutional changes that de-
creased the relative payoff to producing scientific works.
With the spread of madrasas and the greater influence of
religious leaders, it became more lucrative to produce re-
ligious knowledge.[96]
Ahmad Y. al-Hassan has rejected the thesis that lack of
creative thinking was a cause, arguing that science was
always kept separate from religious argument; he instead
analyzes the decline in terms of economic and political
factors, drawing on the work of the 14th-century writer
Ibn Khaldun. Al-Hassan extended the golden age up to
the 16th century, noting that scientific activity continued
to flourish up until then.[3] Several other contemporary
scholars have also extended it to around the 16th to 17th
centuries, and analysed the decline in terms of political
17 NOTES
and economic factors.[1][2] More recent research has chal-
lenged the notion that it underwent decline even at that
time, citing a revival of works produced on rational sci-
entific topics during the seventeenth century.[97][98]
16 See also
• Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain
• Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine and Sci-
ences
• Islamic astronomy
• Islamic studies
• List of Iranian scientists
• Ophthalmology in medieval Islam
• Timeline of Islamic science and technology
• Christian influences in Islam
• Emirate of Sicily
17 Notes
[1] • "...regarded by some Westerners as the true father
of historiography and sociology”.[99]
• “Ibn Khaldun has been claimed the forerunner of a
great number of European thinkers, mostly sociolo-
gists, historians, and philosophers”.(Boulakia 1971)
• “The founding father of Eastern Sociology”.[100]
• “This grand scheme to find a new science of so-
ciety makes him the forerunner of many of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries system-builders
such as Vico, Comte and Marx.” “As one of the
early founders of the social sciences...”.[101]
[2] • “He is considered by some as a father of modern
economics, or at least a major forerunner. The
Western world recognizes Khaldun as the father of
sociology but hesitates in recognizing him as a great
economist who laid its very foundations. He was
the first to systematically analyze the functioning of
an economy, the importance of technology, special-
ization and foreign trade in economic surplus and
the role of government and its stabilization poli-
cies to increase output and employment. More-
over, he dealt with the problem of optimum tax-
ation, minimum government services, incentives,
institutional framework, law and order, expecta-
tions, production, and the theory of value”.Cosma,
Sorinel (2009). “Ibn Khaldun’s Economic Think-
ing”. Ovidius University Annals of Economics
(Ovidius University Press) XIV:52–57

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14 20 EXTERNAL LINKS

19 Further reading
• Josef W. Meri (2005). Medieval Islamic Civilization:
An Encyclopedia. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-96690-
6. pp. 1088.

• Tamara Sonn: Islam: A Brief History. Wiley 2011,

ISBN 9781444358988, pp. 39–79 (online copy, p.
39, at Google Books)

• Maurice Lombard: The Golden Age of Islam.

American Elsevier 1975

• George Nicholas Atiyeh; John Richard Hayes

(1992). The Genius of Arab Civilization. New
York University Press. ISBN 0814734855, ISBN
9780814734858. pp. 306.

• Falagas, M. E.; Zarkadoulia, Effie A.; Samonis,

George (1 August 2006). “Arab science in the
golden age (750-1258 C.E.) and today”. The FASEB
Journal. 20 (10): 1581–1586. doi:10.1096/fj.06-
0803ufm. PMID 16873881.
• Allsen, Thomas T. (2004). Culture and Conquest in
Mongol Eurasia. Cambridge University Press. ISBN
978-0521602709.

20 External links
• Islamic web

• Wiet, Gaston. “Baghdad: Metropolis of the Abbasid

Caliphate.” Chapter 5

• The Kirkor Minassian Collection at the Library of

Congress contains examples of Islamic book bind-
ings.
 15

21 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

21.1 Text
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