Rise and Decline of Sciences in Medieval Islam (original) (raw)
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The Rise and Fall of Science and Philosophy in Islamic Civilizations
Islam arose in the seventh century. History has recorded a huge number of Muslim scientists between the eighth and the sixteenth century, who contributed to the civilizations that flourished in that era. Among them were astronomers and astrophysicists, chemists and alchemists, mathematicians, physicists, biologists, architects, geographers, etc. However, a great mystery which has engaged many contemporary scholars is that why the progress stopped. Why while Europe, after experiencing Renaissance, rapidly and increasingly developed in science and technology and, as a result, prospered materially, Islamic civilizations—mainly the Middle East, ceased to thrive? This essay is concerned with exploring the cause of decline of science and philosophy in Islamic world after a period, the three centuries of which has come to be called the Islamic Golden Age. In order to do so, first I need to demonstrate that there actually was a Golden Age, that is, a period of rise of great Muslim scientists and philosophers in the Muslim civilizations, which is taken to refer to the region which today is called the Middle East as well as the Medieval Muslim region of what is now Spain. These will be discussed in Part One. In Part Two, some of the most important proposed explanations for the decline will be looked at.
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A history of Muslims' contribution to present-day science and technology is the exploration of the missing account of their glorious past. Muslims integrated science, theology, and philosophy as they were urged to study, acquire knowledge, and learn from others' expertise and civilization. The significance of this study lies not in recounting the specific contribution of Muslims to the individual disciplines of science such as medicine, mathematics, astronomy, geometry, geology, mineralogy, chemistry, philosophy and architecture, and trigonometry. Those accounts though greatly important in their own right have been the central focus of a number of works. This paper highlights those aspects of Muslims' contribution to scientific body of knowledge that are subtle and perhaps more important to the development of the entire body of the scientific knowledge. Through an analysis of socio-cultural and historical context, the paper concludes that the contribution of Muslim scientist lies in (a) bringing to light the work of ancient Greek scholars in the field of science, and (b) bringing to the knowledge of Europe the works of Indian men of science, especially in mathematics, astronomy and medicine. Abstrak Sejarah sumbangan umat Islam terhadap bidang sains dan teknologi masa kini merupakan sejarah gemilang yang dilupakan. Umat Islam telah menyepadukan sains, ilmu agama, dan falsafah apabila mereka didesak untuk belajar dan mencari ilmu, serta mempelajari kepakaran dan ketamadunan masyarakat lain. Kajian ini sebenarnya tidak berfokus terhadap sumbangan-sumbangan yang spesifik oleh umat Islam dalam disiplin-disiplin sains seperti perubatan, matematik, astronomi, geometri, kaji bumi, mineralogi, kimia, falsafah dan senibina, serta trigonometri. Kajian-kajian menunjukkan bahawa pelbagai sumbangan orang Islam yang penting telah banyak diketengahkan. Walau bagaimanapun, kertas ini akan memberikan penekanan terhadap sumbangan umat Islam terhadap dunia sains ilmiah yang kurang ditonjolkan dan mungkin lebih penting peranannya dalam asas perkembangan terhadap dunia sains ilmiah secara keseluruhannya. Melalui analisis berdasarkan sosiobudaya dan konteks sejarah, kertas ini merumuskan bahawa sumbangan saintis Islam sebanarnya a) membantu menonjolkan hasil kerja orang Greek purba dalam bidang sains, dan b) mengetengahkan hasil kajian saintis-saintis India ke serata benua Eropah, terutamanya dalam bidang sains, matematik, astronomi dan perubatan.
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The role played by science and technology for the development of human society is crucial in the modern age. Contemporary Muslim societies, without scientific thinking, have little chance to progress. The quality of live, in the globalized world, is based on the intellectual value of the mind. The Holy Qur`an launched its glorious mission by "Iqra" due to the fact that the quality of thought directly affects the quality of action; and both of them affect the quality of live. At the opening of its golden age around the eighth century, and nearly for a thousand years, the Islamic civilization remained creative in science, technology and arts. The achievements of Muslim scientists surpassed all their contemporaries. The scientific worldview of Islam was the inspiring force of their inquiry and pursuit of knowledge. At that time the Muslim world was ranged from Spain and Morocco, through Damascus, Cairo and Baghdad, to Persia and North India. However, starting around the sixteenth century, the Islamic civilization began to wane; losing ground to other nations. Today, Muslim communities are struggling for development within the global challenges, especially scientific and technological challenges. There are many questions that need to be addressed by modern Muslim intellectuals: (1) What were the main factors behind the flourishing of science and technology in the early history of Islamic civilization? (2) What were the main causes of decadence of the scientific thinking? (3) How could Muslims restore their creative thinking again? The main objective of this work is to shed some light upon these questions.
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Science and Civilization in Islam by Seyyed Hossein Nasr: A Book Summary and Review
This article summarizes and reviews Science and Civilization in Islam by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, which was first published in 1968 by Harvard University Press, and later republished in 1987 by the same publisher. This book aims at presenting certain aspects of Islamic sciences through the historical perspective with the narrative descriptive method of writing. This book consists of thirteen chapters including the explanations about the characteristics of the figures who made contributions in the cultivation of Islamic sciences and civilization; classification of science in Islamic medieval world; educational and intellectual institutions; sciences such as cosmology, physics, mathematics, medicine, philosophy, alchemy (chemistry), gnostics (illuminative knowledge), and so on; and, more important, the nature of Islamic civilization and of Islamic sciences themselves.