SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT IN EARLY ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY

JACK G. L. MEDRANA, M.D., M.Sc.

Department of Biology, College of Science
University of the Philippines Baguio
• Metaphysics and knowing the natural world was
generally subsumed into how life and society
should be lived according to the Islamic faith

• Scientific thought in the early Islamic era built on

the philosophical traditions of the Greek and
Roman periods

• A set of Islamic scientific thought was created by

folding in non-European philosophies and
traditions (esp. Indian & Persian)
• Islamic philosophers and authors conveyed much
of Classical-Hellenistic thought into Medieval
Europe

• Islamic philosophy in the 1st & early 2nd millennium

CE supported the growth of science and
technology
 Constantinople

Eastern Roman Empire

Sassanid Empire

Medina

Mecca

Southwest Asia, early 7th century CE

 Constantinople
Eastern Roman Empire

Damascus Rashidun Caliphate (632-661 CE)

Umayyad Caliphate (661-750 CE)

Medina

Mecca

Southwest Asia, mid 7th century-early 8th CE

 Constantinople
Eastern Roman Empire

Abbasid Caliphate
Baghdad

Mecca

Southwest Asia, 750-1258 CE

Abbasid Caliphate

• 750 CE – 1258 CE

• Rulers were from descendants of Prophet Mohammed’s

Uncle Abbas

• “Islamic Golden Age”

• The highest moment of science was during the reign of

Al-Mamun (813-833 CE)

• Baghdad was the Abbasid’s capital, patterned after

Alexandria
Efforts facilitating the development of
science and technology

1) Muslims interpreted several passages in the Quran and

Hadith as giving importance to building knowledge &
investigating the natural world

2) Establishment of schools, the Madrasa

3) Establishment of the House of Wisdom by Caliph Al-

Mamun in Baghdad

4) Employment of Persian and Greek scholars

5) Using the technology of other cultures (eg, Chinese

prisoners captured in Transoxiana in 751 taught the
technology of papermaking)
Translation of works of different
traditions within and around the
Islamic realm

• Translation into Arabic (from Greek, Persian, Latin)

• To acquire arguments for disputing issues through kalam

(Islamic theology) with other religious traditions through
falsafa (philosophy)

• According to some authors (Cohen 2010), Islamic rulers

wished to be the heirs of Classical-Hellenistic culture to
define themselves in their anti-Byzantine policy

• Utilitarian purposes
Characteristics of Early Islamic
Scientific Thought

• Had Greek philosophical foundations

• In the early phase, thinkers held a Platonic

perspective (e.g., Doctrine of Ideal Forms) that went
well with Islamic theology: narratives about creation
& the human soul

• Debates between the ideas of Plato and Aristotle

Characteristics of Early Islamic
Scientific Thought

• Later, thinkers became predominantly Aristotelian in

perspective. Al-Andalus became a bastion of
Aristotelian thinkers

“The astronomical science of our days surely offers nothing from which one can derive an
existing reality. The model that has been developed in the times in which we live accords with
computations, not with existence.”

- Ibn Rushd

(Cohen 2010)
Al-Andalus

• Ibn-Rushd (12th century) – Qur’an instructed humans to look for knowledge; believed that revelation
in Qur’an to be the highest form of knowledge, but because many people cannot understand this, a
theology based on human reason (which is simpler to grasp) is needed.

• Ibn-Arabi (12th century) – the idea of a “unity of existence,” stating that everything is connected to
each other and to God/Allah
• Al-Farabi (870-950) – Doctrine of Emanationism: Universe emanates from the
Divine; the universe is composed of spheres, one inside the other, the outer
being the realm of God and heavens, and the innermost the human realms

• Ibn Sina (980-1037) – Polymath; God is the only absolutely uncompounded,

simple entity

• Ibn Al-Nafis (13th century) -

a) Concept of metabolism (catabolism & anabolism) in organisms: “Both the body

and its parts are in a continuous state of dissolution and nourishment,
inevitably undergoing permanent change”
b) Argument for bodily resurrection, which possibly caused him to formulate a
theory for pulmonary circulation: “Right ventricle is filled with blood and left
ventricle is filled with spirit”
Characteristics of Early Islamic
Scientific Thought

Science and technology was used to further cultural &

religious concerns:

• The quest to transmute metals

• Employment of astronomy & mathematics to accord

with correct religious rituals – e.g., direction & time
of prayers, etc.

• Developing further the field of medicine founded on

Galenic principles & practice
Al-Kindi (9th century) Polymath (astronomy, metallurgy; recipes for
perfumes; ideas on time, space, relative movement);
made efforts in reconciling religious faith and
reason; did not believe in astrology and alchemy
Al-Khwarizmi (750-850) Introduced the number system of India (based on
powers of 10) to the west
Jabir Ibn Hayyan (8th-9th Developed techniques of evaporation, sublimation,
centuries) melting, crystallization
Al-Battani (9th century) Introduced the (trigonometric) sine from India
Al-Haytham (10th century) Optics; attributed bending of light in refraction to
change in the speed of life when it passes from one
medium to another
Al-Biruni (11th century) Invented a method to measure earth’s circumference
Islamic Philosophical Schools

1) Mu’tazila

2) Maturadiyyah

3) Ash’ariyyah
Mu’tazila

• Qur’an is God’s Word, but it did not existed from time

immemorial, and it was created under God’s guidance

• Reasoning not based solely from Qur’an and Hadith

• The metaphysical world (space, time, cause, etc.) can be

used to understand God and world

• Atomic substances have properties that can affect other

properties

• Man can create actions independent of God’s will

Mu’tazila

• Supported by caliph Al-Mamun

• Forced their beliefs on others and persecuted those who

had beliefs different from theirs

• One of those arrested by the inquisition created by the

Mu’tazilites was Ibn-Hanbal, who suggested that the
caliph may decide on political matters but not religious
matters

• Opposition to the Mu’tazilites grew with Ibn-Hanbal’s

followers like Al-Hanbali, who portrayed the Mu’tazilites,
Al-Mamun, and their rationalist/scientific thought as
tyrannical and unfavorable.
Maturidiyyah

• Only reasoning alone can prove the existence of God

• Man can determine what is good or evil

• Placed a premium on freewill

Ash’ariyyah

• Revelation over reason: reason is valid as long as it did

not conflict with scriptures

• As soon as an atomic “accident” happens, it immediately

ceases to exist

• Free will is only available from the possibilities given by

Allah
• Omar Khayyam (11th-12th centuries, Persia) – astronomer, literary figure, religious
skeptic (atheist)

• Al-Ghazali (11th century) – whatever happens is a singular occasion, governed

not by any laws of nature but by the will of God (Occasionalism)
• The Islamic philosophers, most of whom are
believers in God, influenced how European
Christians see God, His Existence, the human
soul, & also the universe

• The Islamic translations preserved the corpus of

Greco-Roman thought for the west to see and
study it by the beginning of the 2nd millennium CE

• Early Islamic science gave the impetus for

European medieval thinkers and inventors to
pave the way for modern science
Naimbag nga aldaw cadacayo amin!

Magandang araw sa inyong lahat!

Good day to all!