HISTORY AND

PHILISOPHY OF SCIENCE

2. Middle Ages
Middle Ages
 In the Middle Ages the classical learning continued in
three major linguistic cultures and civilizations:
 Greek (the Byzantine Empire), played an important
role in the transmission of classical knowledge to
the Islamic world and to Renaissance Italy, and
also in the transmission of Islamic science to
Renaissance Italy.

 Arabic (the Islamic world),

 Latin (Western Europe)

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 Byzantine Empire
 Known as the “Greek” Roman Empire, which
lasted from the collapse of the Roman Empire in
the 5th century A.D. until Constantinople (current-
day Istanbul, Turkey) fell to the Ottoman Empire in
1453.

 Invented ship mill

 First appearance of
grenades.

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Ship mill
Byzantine Empire
 Isidore of Miletus (6th century) compiled
Archimedes' mathematical works in the
Archimedes Palimpsest, where all
Archimedes' mathematical contributions were
collected and studied.
 John Philoponus, was the first to question
Aristotle's teaching of physics, introducing the
theory of impetus.

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 Byzantine Empire
 Sophia Hagia - former Greek
Orthodox Christian patriarchal
cathedral, later an Ottoman
imperial mosque and now a
museum in Istanbul, Turkey. Built
in AD 537, it was the world's
largest building and an
engineering marvel of its time. It
is considered the epitome
of Byzantine architecture and is
said to have "changed the
history of architecture
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 Byzantine Empire
 Uses Greek fire as incendiary weapon in naval battles.
The composition of Greek fire remains a matter of
speculation and debate, with various proposals including
combinations of pine resin, naphtha, quicklime, calcium
phosphide, sulfur, or niter

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A Byzantine ship uses Greek fire against a ship of the rebel, Thomas
the Slav, 821. 12th century illustration from the Madrid Skylitzes
Byzantine Empire
 First record of separating conjoined twins
(900s) when the surgeons tried to separate a
dead body of a pair of conjoined twins. The
next recorded case of separating conjoined
twins was 700 years later in Germany.
 During the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, a
number of Greek scholars flee to North Italy
in which they fueled the era later commonly
known as "Renaissance”

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Middle Ages
 In the Middle Ages the classical learning continued in
three major linguistic cultures and civilizations:
 Greek (the Byzantine Empire),
 Arabic (the Islamic world), began in 622. Islamic
armies conquered Arabia, Egypt and Mesopotamia,
eventually displacing the Persian and Byzantine
Empires from the region.

 Latin (Western Europe)

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 Islamic World
 7th century to 13th century, a period of Muslim
scholarship, known as the Islamic Golden Age. The
end was marked by the destruction of the
intellectual center of Baghdad, the capital of the
Abbasid caliphate in 1258
 Scientific method began developing in the Muslim
world, where significant progress in methodology
was made, beginning with the experiments of Ibn
al-Haytham (Alhazen) on optics from c. 1000, in his
Book of Optics.
 Sometimes dubbed as "first scientist" for his 9

development of the modern scientific method.

 Islamic World
 Ibn al-Haytham

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 Islamic World
 Jābir ibn Hayyān (c. 721–815) is
"considered by many to be the father of
chemistry".
 He described laboratory techniques and
experimental methods that would continue in
use when alchemy had transformed into
chemistry. He identified many substances,
including sulphuric and nitric acids. He
described processes such
as sublimation, reduction and distillation. He
made use of equipment such as the alembic 11

(distilling apparatus) and the retort stand.

 Islamic World
 Mathematician Muhammad ibn
Musa al-Khwarizmi (c. 780–850)
was instrumental in the adoption of
the Hindu-Arabic numeral system,
while the term algebra is derived
from al-jabr, the beginning of the
title of one of his publications.
 He was the first to treat algebra as
an independent discipline in its own
right, and presented the first
systematic solution of linear and 12

quadratic equations
 Islamic World
 Al-Battani (850–922)
accurately determined the
length of the solar year,
improved the measurements of
Hipparchus, preserved in the
translation of Ptolemy's Hè
Megalè Syntaxis (The great
treatise) translated as
Almagest.

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 Islamic World
 Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn
Zakariyyā al-Rāzī (c. 854–
925/935) identified smallpox
and measles, and
recognized fever as a part of
the body's defenses.
 He has been described as a
doctor's doctor, the father
of pediatrics, and a pioneer
of ophthalmology.
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 Islamic World
 Ibn Sina (Avicenna, c. 980–1037) is regarded as
the most influential philosopher of Islam.
 He pioneered the science of experimental medicine
and was the first physician to conduct clinical trials.
His two most notable works in medicine are: Kitāb
al-shifāʾ ("Book of Healing") and The Canon of
Medicine, both of which were used as standard
medicinal texts in both the Muslim world and in
Europe well into the 17th century.
 Notable contributions are discovery of the
contagious nature of infectious diseases, and the
introduction of clinical pharmacology. 15
 Islamic World
 Al-Zarqali (1028–1087) developed a more
accurate astrolabe, used for centuries afterwards
 The works of Arabic scientists influenced Roger
Bacon who introduced the empirical method to
Europe, and later Isaac Newton.

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 Islamic World
 Scientists from the Islamic world include:
 al-Farabi (polymath),
 Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (pioneer of surgery),
 Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī (pioneer of Indology, geodesy
and anthropology)
 Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī (polymath),
 Ibn Khaldun (forerunner of social sciences such as
demography, cultural history, historiography,
philosophy of history and sociology), among many
others.
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