The world of the 21st century has become so interconnected that the phrase “the global village” has become acceptable as a term to describe modern society. Today information technology links people and places from all civilizations. Many human civilization had contributed to world in various ways, particularly in Science. Whether it is commerce or media, manufacturing or agriculture, the advancing globalization of human activity would be unthinkable without the development of science and technology. Examining a thousand years of missing history of “the Golden Age” in which historical inventions and innovations made by some of the greatest Muslim minds that shaped the world.
US President Obama, in his June 4, 2009 speech in Cairo said, “Contemporary Islam is not known for its engagement in the modern scientific project. But it is heir to a legendary “Golden Age” of Arabic science frequently invoked by commentators hoping to make Muslims and Westerners more respectful and understanding of each other.” He praised Muslims for their historical scientific and intellectual contributions to human civilization during the Golden Age of Islam.
The Golden Age of Islam, according to most historians, spanned the 8th to the 13th centuries, a time that happens to coincide with the heart of the Dark Ages in Europe. This will become significant later. Under the Abbasid Dynasty, Islam spread throughout the Mediterranean, the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa. The Abbasids were inspired by verses from the Quran and Hadiths that emphasize the value of knowledge rather than just religious devotion and they strongly pushed for advances in science, art, and commerce.
During the dark ages of medieval Europe, incredible scientific advances were made in the Muslim world. Geniuses in Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus and Cordoba took on the scholarly works of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Greece, India and China, developing what we would call “modern” science. New disciplines emerged, algebra, trigonometry and chemistry as well as major advances in medicine, astronomy, engineering and agriculture. Arabic texts replaced Greek as the fonts of wisdom, helping to shape the scientific revolution of the Renaissance.
It was Islam that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe’s Renaissance and Enlightenment. It was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation; our mastery of pens and printing; our understanding of how disease spreads and how it can be healed.
Around the year 1,000, the celebrated doctor Al Zahrawi published a 1,500 page illustrated encyclopedia of surgery that was used in Europe as a medical reference for the next 500 years. He also made surgery instruments that are still in use today.
In 9th century CE, Abbas ibn Firnas was the first person to make a real attempt to construct a flying machine and fly. In 859 a young princess named Fatima al-Firhi founded the first ever degree-granting university, “the he University of Al-Karaouine” in Fez, Morocco.
The first ever medical center was the Ahmad ibn Tulun Hospital, founded in 872 in Cairo. Many of the most important advances in the study of optics come from the Muslim world around the year 1000 via Ibn al-Haitham. Al- Khawrizmi gave Algebra The same mathematician, Al-Khwarizmi, was also the first to introduce the concept of raising a number to a power.
The Banu Musa brothers’ “ingenious devices” from 9th Century CE, the famous 12th century Al-Idrisi’s world map and 13th century’s Elephant Clock are among the notable Muslim inventions from “The Golden Age”.
The Muslims made innumerable discoveries and wrote countless Books about Medicine, Surgery, Physics, Chemistry, Philosophy, Astrology, Geometry and various other fields during the Golden Age of Islam.
Ibn Sina, the father of Early Modern Medicine and the Father of Clinical Pharmacology, Omar Khayyam the famous, mathematician, astronomer, and poet. Abu Bakr Al-Razi a great chemist and Physician. Jabir Ibn Haiyan, the father of old chemistry. Muhammad ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi, the mathematician. Thabit ibn Qurra the mathematician, physician and astronomer. Ibn Al-Haytham the astronomer and mathematician. Ibn Khaldun a historiographer and historian. Ibn Battuta, a famous explorer. These are among many contributors who systematically recorded the discoveries made by Islamic scientists in the Golden Age of Islam.
To anyone familiar with this Golden Age, roughly spanning the eighth through the thirteenth centuries a.d., the disparity between the intellectual achievements of the Middle East then and now, particularly relative to the rest of the world is staggering indeed.
In his 2002 book What Went Wrong?, historian Bernard Lewis notes that “for many centuries the world of Islam was in the forefront of human civilization and achievement.” “Nothing in Europe,” notes Jamil Ragep, a professor of the history of science at the University of Oklahoma, “could hold a candle to what was going on in the Islamic world until about 1600.” Algebra, algorithm, alchemy, alcohol, alkali, nadir, zenith, coffee, and lemon: these words all derive from Arabic, reflecting Islam’s contribution to the West.
Today, however, the spirit of science in the Muslim world is as dry as the desert but that was indeed a Golden Age of Islam.
— Writer is Shahdadpur based columnist. He has studied BS Pakistan Studies from University of Sindh and he can be reached at syedtahir926@gmail.com.