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Arabic Science I

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Saved by Nicole Hagstrom
on October 1, 2008 at 2:57:01 am
 

Arabic Science I

 

   

     The rise of the Islamic empire led to the growth of natural philosophy. Islamic philosophy centered on the teachings of Mohammad and how to further them, helping to lead the Islamic world into greater discoveries in the mathematical sciences.

 

     The spread of Islam occurred within a very short timespan, about 200 years from the time Muhammad began to teach in Mecca. Islam's speedy expansion can be attributed to the forced conversions of pagans (non-Christians and non-Jews), the concept of Jihad (Holy War), and the use of Arabic as a common language. Such growth also helped create a diverse society in which the natural philosophies flourished. After the death of Mohammad, Islamic areas were separated into small kingdoms that were governed by caliphs.  The spread of Islam also brought down political barriers in all parts of the European world that had previously been separated into several empires and warring states.  Each cultural community's commerical world was widened and the dissemination of information spread more quickly through the Arab empire.  Trade with the Far East brought paper from China. The cheap, efficient form of recording and documentation helped spur translation.  Another catalyst for the large amount of translation that occurred (and occurred quickly) was the increased presence of a single language (Arabic) across many cultural boundaries.  This increased the rate of commercial, social, and scholarly interaction and in turn many scientific and philosophical texts that were written in several different languages all became consolidated into Arabic allowing for easier consumption and criticism. 

 

 Arabic Translation

 

     In Baghdad during the Abbasid Dynasty, under the supervision of Caliph Al-Mamun, a large movement to translate the Greek texts into Arabic was undertaken.  Al-Mamun sent out people to gather documents from across the Graecian and Arabic world to bring them back to the House of Wisdom so that they could translate the texts into Arabic. They found large amounts of Syriac texts from the Nestorian Christians, and these were translated.

 

     Three of the most important translators were Hunayn ibn-Ishaq, Hunyan's son Ishaq ibn-Hunayn, and Thabit ibn- Qurra.  Hunayn ibn-Ishaq, a Nestorian Christian, translated Galen, Plato's Timaeus, and some Aristotelian works.  His son, Ishaq ibn-Hunayn, translated Ptolemy's Almagest, Euclid's Elements and more of Aristotle's works (Lindberg 172).  And finally, Thabit ibn-Qurra translated "mathematical and astronomical treatises" (Lindberg 172). The majority of these translations were from Syriac to Arabic and done sentence by sentence to preserve the text's meaning (semantic translation). It is important to remember due to the philosophical and mathematical complexity of these works, simply understanding them was no small feat.  Translation, and even more so semantic translation, required high intelligence and intense study.  Not only were the works translated well, they 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 translations of the texts ranged from practical means to plain curiosity. Galen was useful because of his experience with medicine. Ptolemy's astronomical insight was needed in order to create a calendar to start the sacred months of the Islamic culture. Also, Ptolemy's astronomy was used to help determine the direction of Mecca, the city to which daily prayers are directed. Aristotle's logic was used to defend the Islamic faith. For the most part, Greek natural philosophy was used to aid in the practice of Islam. While most of the works in this time were focused on translation and practical use, the Islamic world began to question and discuss the very texts they were translating. Such contemplation led to the further development of natural philosophy, which was manifested in various commentaries.

 

Places of Learning  

 

     In practicing Islam, the Arabic world created libraries, located in Cairo, Toledo, and many other places scattered about the Islamic world. This effort helped to create the first observatories. At a young age, students learned the fundamentals of education, how to read and write, in a mosque or at a teacher's house.  Once mastered, students studied the Koran, other indigenous writings, poetry, and history; pedagogy focused on memorization.  This study also led to the creation of a “college”-like places called madrasas, private schools where one studied with a specific master in religious law and mathematics to aid in religious studies.

 

Major Achievements

 

  • Mathematics: Arabic numerals and the idea of “zero”, a concept which was borrowed from Indians, quickly spread across the land. Algebra is an Arabic invention as well, and while the subject was practiced differently during this time, it was used in many of the same ways as it is today. The idea of logarithms and trigonometry also came from the Islamic world.

 

  • Astronomy: Observatories came into existence, and new instruments such as the astrolab were created.  Islamic astronomy was largely based on the continuation of cosmologies and mathematics presented by the Greeks.  The Islamic astronomers focused on three main features, the first being further mastery of Ptolemy's Almagest, in which they corrected and checked the parameters of Ptolemaic planetary models.  The second focus was on the attempt to create planetary models that were accurate using calculations and mathematical predictions.  Lastly, Islamic scientists established astronomical observatories as institutional homes for astronomers and activities.  

 

  • Optics: Ibn Al-Haytham made great contributions to mathematical science, including resolving discrepancies between the mathematical models of Ptolemy's Almagest and the physical model he presented.  Qusta idn Luqa and Ahmad ibn Isa also studied reflection in concave mirrors, and Abu Ishaq al-Kindi claimed that light does not radiate from an object as a unit, but in all directions from each point on the surface of the object.  This theory, described in The Book of Optics along with other theories of vision, became Europe's fundamental principle on the science of optics.  Later, two other experimenters analyzed the refraction of light leading to the geometrical equivalent of Snell's Law, the modern law of refraction.

 

  • Medicine: Critical discussions on Galen were common. Pulmonary circulation was discovered before it's inception in Western Europe.

 


  

Primary Sources

 


 

Key Terms and Definitions

Caliph:  The succesive leaders of Islam and the Muslim world after Mohammed's death.

Koran:  The holy book of Islam containing the teachings of Mohammed.

Mosque:  A place of worship in the Islamic religion, also where some religious study was done in Islamic faith.

muqqawit:  A nmuslim timekeeper usually employed in mosques in order to find prayer times and other calendric tasks.

House of Wisdom: started by Caliph Al-Mamun and was the "clearing house" for the translation of the documents brought from around the known world. 

Madrasas: schools of religious thought and institutions of learning similar to colleges today.

 


 

Relevant Links

 

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