Arabic Science I

     The rise of the Islamic empire led to the growing of Greek natural philosophy.  Primarily though Islamic philosophy centered on the teachings of Muhammad and how to further his teachings. This helped lead the Islamic world into greater discoveries in the Mathematical sciences.

     The spread of Islam happened in a very short time, just about 200 years from the time Muhammad began to teach in Mecca. This fast spreading of Islam occurred because of many reasons: the forded conversions of non-Christians and non-Jews, the Jihad, and the use of a common language, Arabic. This fast spreading of Islam also helped to create a diverse society in which the natural philosophies flourished. The areas of Islam were separated into small kingdoms, that were governed by caliphs. These people controlled what went on as a whole in the region.

     In Baghdad under the Abbasid Dynasty by Caliphate Al-Mamun a large movement to translate the Greek texts into Arabic was done. Al-Mamun sent out people to gather documents from across the Grecian and Arabic world to translate texts into Arabic. They found large amount of Syriac texts from the Nestorian Christians which they translated .

     Three of the most important translators were Hunayn ibn-Ishaq, translated Galen, Timaeus, and Aristotle, Ishaq ibn-Hunayn, translated the Almagest, and Thabit ibn-Qurra, who translated Greek mathematics. The majority of these translations were from Syriac to Arabic and done sentence by sentence to keep the meaning of the text. Also, not only were they translated in a better manner the texts were also compared to other translations to ensure the accuracy of the translations in circulation. By 1000 A.D., nearly all of the Greek corpus had been translated into Arabic.

     The reasons for the text translations ranged from practical means to plain curiosity. Galen was needed because of his experience with medicine. Ptolemy was needed so the calender could be created to start the sacred months of the Islamic culture. Also, Ptolemy's astronomy was used to help find  where Mecca was located when they needed to look to pray during the day. Aristotle's logic was used as well to defend the Islamic faith. For the most part, Greek natural philosophy was used to help in the practice of Islam.

     In practicing Islam the Arabic world created many libraries. Some located in Cairo, Toleto, and many other places scattered about the Islamic world. This effort helped to created the first observatories. This studying also led to the creation of a “college” like place  called Madrasas, which was a private school where one studied with a specific master in the religious law and mathematics to aid in their religious studies.

     The major achievements of the Islamic period was as follows in each subject.

     Mathematics: Arabic Numerals and the idea of “zero” while borrowed from the Indians the idea became spread about. Algebra also came about, not in the sense we have today but it could figure out what we use algebra for today. The idea of logarithms and trigonometry also came from the Islamic world.

     Astronomy: Observatories came into existence. Also new instruments were created.

     Most importantly the Islamic world began to question and discuss the text they were translating helping to increase and add on the knowledge they were translating from the Greeks.

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