User:Bless sins/Board

Science in medieval Islam, also known as Islamic or Arabic science, is a term used in the history of science to refer to the science developed in the Islamic world prior to the modern era, particularly during what is known as the Islamic Golden Age (dated variously between the 7th and 15th centuries). In the course of the expansion of the Islamic world, Muslim scholars encountered the science, mathematics, and medicine of antiquity through the works of Aristotle, Archimedes, Galen, Ptolemy, Euclid, and others. These works and the important commentaries on them were the wellspring of science during the Medieval period. They were translated into Arabic, the lingua franca of this period; scientists within the Islamic civilization were of diverse ethnicity (a great portion were Persians^[1]^[2] and Arabs,^[2] in addition to Berbers, Moors and Turks) and diverse religious backgrounds (mostly Muslims,^[3]^[4]^[5] in addition to many Christians and Jews,^[6]^[7] as well as Sabians, Zoroastrians and the irreligious).^[8]^[9]

^ Joseph A. Schumpeter, Historian of Economics: Selected Papers from the History of Economics Society Conference, 1994, y Laurence S. Moss, Joseph Alois Schumpeter, History of Economics Society. Conference, Published by Routledge, 1996, ISBN 0-415-13353-X, p.64. Excerpt: A great portion (and most of the best) of medieval Muslim philosophers, physicians, ethicists, scientists, Islamic jurists, historians, and geographers were Persian-speaking Iranians
^ ^a ^b Ibn Khaldun, Franz Rosenthal, N. J. Dawood (1967), The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History, p. x, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-01754-9. page 430: "Only the Persians engaged in the task of preserving knowledge and writing systematic scholarly works. Thus, the truth of the following statement by the Prophet becomes apparent:"If scholarship hung suspended in the highest parts of heaven, the Persians would attain it. [...] This situation continued in the cities as long as the Persians and the Persian countries, the 'Iraq, Khurasan, and Transoxania, retained their sedentary culture. But when those cities fell into ruins, sedentary culture, which God has devised for the attainment of sciences and crafts, disappeared from them. Along with it, scholarship altogether disappeared from among the non-Arabs (Persians), who were (now) engulfed by the desert attitude. Scholarship was restricted to cities with an abundant sedentary culture. Today, no (city) has a more abundant sedentary culture than Cairo (Egypt). It is the mother of the world, the great center (Iwan) of Islam, and the mainspring of the sciences and the crafts. Some sedentary culture has also survived in Transoxania, because the dynasty there provides some sedentary culture. Therefore, they have there a certain number of the sciences and the crafts, which cannot be denied. Our attention was called to this fact by the contents of the writings of a (Transoxanian) scholar, which have reached us in this country. He is Sa'd-ad-din at-Taftazani. As far as the other non-Arabs (Persians) are concerned, we have not seen, since the imam Ibn al-Khatib and Nasir-ad-din at-Tusi, any discussions that could be referred to as indicating their ultimate excellence."
^ Howard R. Turner (1997), Science in Medieval Islam, p. 270 (book cover, last page), University of Texas Press, ISBN 0-292-78149-0:
"Muslim artists and scientists, princes and laborers together made a unique culture that has directly and indirectly influenced societies on every continent."
^ Hogendijk, Jan P. (January 1999), Bibliography of Mathematics in Medieval Islamic Civilization:
"Although most of the mathematicians in this period of Islamic civilization were Muslims, some prominent mathematicians had other religious backgrounds (Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian)."
^ A. I. Sabra (1996). "Greek Science in Medieval Islam". In Ragep, F. J.; Ragep, Sally P.; Livesey, Steven John (eds.). Tradition, Transmission, Transformation: Proceedings of Two Conferences on Pre-modern Science held at the University of Oklahoma. Brill Publishers. p. 20. ISBN 9004091262. Of crucial importance in the first stage were of course the agents of transmission, the Christians and Sabians who served their Muslim employers. They did not for the most part adopt the new faith; and while they wrote on scientific matters in Arabic for their patrons, they continued to write in Syriac on matters of religious concern to their co-religionists. As genuine believers in the values of the Hellenistic tradition which they propagated they cannot be merely considered as mercenaries, but they remained, in a sense, outsiders. Their heirs in the second stage were mostly Muslims who came from all parts of the Muslim world. [...] But the general outlook which determined the direction of their thought and in terms of which they sought to interpret their own religion and expound their views on the place of religion and of rational thought in the organization of society was uncompromisingly Hellenistic. A look at the later centuries, what I called the third stage, reveals a clearly noticeable change. The carriers of scientific and medical knowledge and techniques now largely consisted of men who were not only Muslim by birth and faith, but who were imbued with Muslim learning and tradition, and whose conceptual framework had been produced in the process of forging a consciously Muslim outlook.
^ Bernard Lewis The Jews of Islam 1987 page 6 "Similarly, Islamic science means mathematics, physics, chemistry, and the rest, produced within this Islamic civilization and expressed normally in Arabic, occasionally in one of the other languages of Islam. Much of this science, as of this art, is the work not of Muslims but of Christians and Jews living in Islamic lands and constituting a part of the Islamic civilization in which they were formed."
^ Salah Zaimeche (2003), Introduction to Muslim Science.
Many of the scientists under Islam have nothing Muslim about them. Thus, some of Islam earliest and most prominent scientists at the Abbasid court, Ishaq Ibn Hunayn and Hunayn Ibn Ishaq were Nestorian Christians. Thabit Ibn Qurrah, the astronomer, was a Sabean. The Baktishtu family who held most prominent positions in the court in the ninth century were Christians, too. So were the historian-physician Abul Faraj; Ali Ibn Ridwan, the Egyptian, who was the al-Hakem’s Doctor; Ibn Djazla of Baghdad and Isa Ibn Ali, another famed physicist; and so on. Yaqut al-Hamawi, one of Islam’s greatest geographer-historian, was of Greek antecedents, and so was Al-Khazin (the champion author of the Balance of Wisdom). The Jews had the most glorious pages of their civilisation under Islam, too. To name just a couple, Maimonides (philosopher-physicist) was Salah Eddin Al-Ayyubi’s doctor, and Hasdai Ibn Shaprut, followed by his sons, held some of the most prominent positions in terms of learning and power in Muslim Spain. The Ben-Tibbon family were the ones who played a most prominent role in scattering Islamic learning in all provinces other than Spain (such as the South of France). Nearly all Muslim envoys to Christian powers were Jews; and about all Muslim trade was in the hands of the Jews, too.
^ Hogendijk 1989
^ Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response:
"There have been many civilizations in human history, almost all of which were local, in the sense that they were defined by a region and an ethnic group. This applied to all the ancient civilizations of the Middle East — Egypt, Babylon, Persia; to the great civilizations of Asia — India, China; and to the civilizations of Pre-Columbian America. There are two exceptions: Christendom and Islam. These are two civilizations defined by religion, in which religion is the primary defining force, not, as in India or China, a secondary aspect among others of an essentially regional and ethnically defined civilization. Here, again, another word of explanation is necessary."

"In English we use the word “Islam” with two distinct meanings, and the distinction is often blurred and lost and gives rise to considerable confusion. In the one sense, Islam is the counterpart of Christianity; that is to say, a religion in the strict sense of the word: a system of belief and worship. In the other sense, Islam is the counterpart of Christendom; that is to say, a civilization shaped and defined by a religion, but containing many elements apart from and even hostile to that religion, yet arising within that civilization."

[1] Joseph A. Schumpeter, Historian of Economics: Selected Papers from the History of Economics Society Conference, 1994, y Laurence S. Moss, Joseph Alois Schumpeter, History of Economics Society. Conference, Published by Routledge, 1996, ISBN 0-415-13353-X, p.64. Excerpt: A great portion (and most of the best) of medieval Muslim philosophers, physicians, ethicists, scientists, Islamic jurists, historians, and geographers were Persian-speaking Iranians

[Franz-2] Ibn Khaldun, Franz Rosenthal, N. J. Dawood (1967), The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History, p. x, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-01754-9. page 430: "Only the Persians engaged in the task of preserving knowledge and writing systematic scholarly works. Thus, the truth of the following statement by the Prophet becomes apparent:"If scholarship hung suspended in the highest parts of heaven, the Persians would attain it. [...] This situation continued in the cities as long as the Persians and the Persian countries, the 'Iraq, Khurasan, and Transoxania, retained their sedentary culture. But when those cities fell into ruins, sedentary culture, which God has devised for the attainment of sciences and crafts, disappeared from them. Along with it, scholarship altogether disappeared from among the non-Arabs (Persians), who were (now) engulfed by the desert attitude. Scholarship was restricted to cities with an abundant sedentary culture. Today, no (city) has a more abundant sedentary culture than Cairo (Egypt). It is the mother of the world, the great center (Iwan) of Islam, and the mainspring of the sciences and the crafts. Some sedentary culture has also survived in Transoxania, because the dynasty there provides some sedentary culture. Therefore, they have there a certain number of the sciences and the crafts, which cannot be denied. Our attention was called to this fact by the contents of the writings of a (Transoxanian) scholar, which have reached us in this country. He is Sa'd-ad-din at-Taftazani. As far as the other non-Arabs (Persians) are concerned, we have not seen, since the imam Ibn al-Khatib and Nasir-ad-din at-Tusi, any discussions that could be referred to as indicating their ultimate excellence."

[Turner-3] Howard R. Turner (1997), Science in Medieval Islam, p. 270 (book cover, last page), University of Texas Press, ISBN 0-292-78149-0:
"Muslim artists and scientists, princes and laborers together made a unique culture that has directly and indirectly influenced societies on every continent."

[4] Hogendijk, Jan P. (January 1999), Bibliography of Mathematics in Medieval Islamic Civilization:
"Although most of the mathematicians in this period of Islamic civilization were Muslims, some prominent mathematicians had other religious backgrounds (Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian)."

[5] A. I. Sabra (1996). "Greek Science in Medieval Islam". In Ragep, F. J.; Ragep, Sally P.; Livesey, Steven John (eds.). Tradition, Transmission, Transformation: Proceedings of Two Conferences on Pre-modern Science held at the University of Oklahoma. Brill Publishers. p. 20. ISBN 9004091262. Of crucial importance in the first stage were of course the agents of transmission, the Christians and Sabians who served their Muslim employers. They did not for the most part adopt the new faith; and while they wrote on scientific matters in Arabic for their patrons, they continued to write in Syriac on matters of religious concern to their co-religionists. As genuine believers in the values of the Hellenistic tradition which they propagated they cannot be merely considered as mercenaries, but they remained, in a sense, outsiders. Their heirs in the second stage were mostly Muslims who came from all parts of the Muslim world. [...] But the general outlook which determined the direction of their thought and in terms of which they sought to interpret their own religion and expound their views on the place of religion and of rational thought in the organization of society was uncompromisingly Hellenistic. A look at the later centuries, what I called the third stage, reveals a clearly noticeable change. The carriers of scientific and medical knowledge and techniques now largely consisted of men who were not only Muslim by birth and faith, but who were imbued with Muslim learning and tradition, and whose conceptual framework had been produced in the process of forging a consciously Muslim outlook.

[6] Bernard Lewis The Jews of Islam 1987 page 6 "Similarly, Islamic science means mathematics, physics, chemistry, and the rest, produced within this Islamic civilization and expressed normally in Arabic, occasionally in one of the other languages of Islam. Much of this science, as of this art, is the work not of Muslims but of Christians and Jews living in Islamic lands and constituting a part of the Islamic civilization in which they were formed."

[7] Salah Zaimeche (2003), Introduction to Muslim Science.
Many of the scientists under Islam have nothing Muslim about them. Thus, some of Islam earliest and most prominent scientists at the Abbasid court, Ishaq Ibn Hunayn and Hunayn Ibn Ishaq were Nestorian Christians. Thabit Ibn Qurrah, the astronomer, was a Sabean. The Baktishtu family who held most prominent positions in the court in the ninth century were Christians, too. So were the historian-physician Abul Faraj; Ali Ibn Ridwan, the Egyptian, who was the al-Hakem’s Doctor; Ibn Djazla of Baghdad and Isa Ibn Ali, another famed physicist; and so on. Yaqut al-Hamawi, one of Islam’s greatest geographer-historian, was of Greek antecedents, and so was Al-Khazin (the champion author of the Balance of Wisdom). The Jews had the most glorious pages of their civilisation under Islam, too. To name just a couple, Maimonides (philosopher-physicist) was Salah Eddin Al-Ayyubi’s doctor, and Hasdai Ibn Shaprut, followed by his sons, held some of the most prominent positions in terms of learning and power in Muslim Spain. The Ben-Tibbon family were the ones who played a most prominent role in scattering Islamic learning in all provinces other than Spain (such as the South of France). Nearly all Muslim envoys to Christian powers were Jews; and about all Muslim trade was in the hands of the Jews, too.

[8] Hogendijk 1989

[9] Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response:
"There have been many civilizations in human history, almost all of which were local, in the sense that they were defined by a region and an ethnic group. This applied to all the ancient civilizations of the Middle East — Egypt, Babylon, Persia; to the great civilizations of Asia — India, China; and to the civilizations of Pre-Columbian America. There are two exceptions: Christendom and Islam. These are two civilizations defined by religion, in which religion is the primary defining force, not, as in India or China, a secondary aspect among others of an essentially regional and ethnically defined civilization. Here, again, another word of explanation is necessary."

"In English we use the word “Islam” with two distinct meanings, and the distinction is often blurred and lost and gives rise to considerable confusion. In the one sense, Islam is the counterpart of Christianity; that is to say, a religion in the strict sense of the word: a system of belief and worship. In the other sense, Islam is the counterpart of Christendom; that is to say, a civilization shaped and defined by a religion, but containing many elements apart from and even hostile to that religion, yet arising within that civilization."

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]