Islamic science
Encyclopedia : I : IS : ISL : Islamic science
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Vocabulary of Islam |
- ''This is a subarticle to Islamic studies and science.
A Muslim engaged in this field is called a Muslim scientist. This is not the same as science as conducted by Muslims in the secular context. However, certain liberal movements in Islam eschew the practice of Islamic science, arguing that science should be considered separate from religion. For example, see the Fatwa Against Production, Stockpiling and use of Nuclear Weapons
Qur'anic passages regarding Science
Muslims quote verses from the Qur'an where God is encouraging people, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, to engage in different scientific studies, in order to prove the existence of God to those that don't believe it.
- ''Note: all verses are translated by Sher Ali.
Science in general
- :''Soon WE will show them Our Signs in farthest regions of the earth and among their own people until it becomes manifest to them that it is the truth. It is not enough that thy Lord is Witness over all things? Aye, they are, surely, in doubt concerning the meeting with their Lord; aye, HE, certainly, encompasses all things.
History and archeology
- :''Say, `Go about in the earth and see what was the end of those who treated the Prophets as liars.'
- :''So this day WE will save thee in thy body alone that thou mayest be a Sign to those who come after thee. And surely many of mankind are heedless of Our Signs.
Astronomy
- :''In the creation of the heavens and the earth and in the alternation of the night and the day there are indeed Signs for men of understanding.;
Embryology
- : Verily, WE created man from an extract of clay; Then WE placed him as a drop of sperm in a safe depository; Then We made the seed a clot, then We made the clot a lump of flesh, then We made (in) the lump of flesh bones, then We clothed the bones with flesh, then We caused it to grow into another creation, so blessed be Allah, the best of the creators. [link]
Atmospheric Science
- :Seest thou not that ALLAH drives the clouds slowly, then joins them together, then piles them up so that thou seest rain issue forth from the midst thereof? And HE sends down from the sky clouds like mountains wherein is hail, and HE smites therewith whom HE pleases, and turns it away from whom HE pleases. The flash of its lightning may well-nigh take away the sight. [link]
Geology
- :''Have WE not made the earth as a bed, And the mountains as pegs?
Physical cosmology
- :''Do not the disbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were a closed up-mass, then WE opened them out? And WE made of water every living thing. Will they not then believe?
Modern Islamic philosophy of science
Modern Islamic philosophy has, in response to challenges of secular science and concerns that secular society is unwilling or unable to limit its uses of dangerous technology, especially nuclear weapon or biotechnology, begun to look at the origins of science to determine what ethics or limits can or should be imposed, and what goals or visions are appropriate for science. Key figures in these debates are:
- Ismail al-Faruqi who proposed an Islamization of knowledge
- Seyyed Hossein Nasr who focuses on interpretations of "khalifa"
- Ziauddin Sardar who advocates the creation of a modern Islamic science to tackle problems facing Muslims today
- Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas who first coined the phrase "Islamization of knowledge".
- Muhammad Nijatullah Siddiqui who focuses more specifically on Islamic economics
- F. Rosenthal, Knowledge Triumphant, explored the central importance of knowledge in Muslim civilization and explains how it generated "science". It is more a work of history. Also of some note in these debates have been
- Nasim Butt, Science and Muslim Societies, an introduction
- Ahmad Y. al-Hassan and Donald R. Hill,
Fields
These are some of the fields Islamic science have worked with:
Scientific method
The scientific method in its modern form arguably developed in early Muslim philosophy, in particular, using experiments to distinguish between competing scientific theories, citation ("isnad"), peer review and open inquiry leading to development of consensus ("ijma" via "ijtihad"), and a general belief that knowledge reveals nature honestly. During the middle ages, significant advances in mathematics, medicine, astronomy, engineering, and many other fields originated from the Islamic civilization. During this time Islamic philosophy developed and was often pivotal in scientific debates–key figures were usually scientists and philosophers.Prominent Arab scientist, Ibn Al-Haitham, used the scientific method to obtain the results in his book Optics. In particular, he performed experiments and used the scientific method to show that the intromission theory of vision supported by Aristotle was scientifically correct, and that the emission theory of vision supported by Ptolemy and Euclid was wrong. It's known that Roger Bacon (who is usually erroneously given the credit for having founded the scientific method) was familiar with Ibn Al-Haitham's work.
Science was one of the most powerful areas of the Islamic Culture.
Mathematics
Ancient Greek mathematics had an important role in the evolution of Islamic science, especially works like Euclid's classic geometry, and it is thought that they helped create the era of Islamic scientific innovation that lasted until the 14th century. Many ancient Greek books are only known because they were transcribed by Islamic scholars.
Islamic interest in mathematics ran parallel to the interest in astronomy. Noteworthy in this regard was the Almagest of Greek-speaking Egyptian scholar Ptolemy (A.D. c. 100 - c. 178). The Almagest was a landmark work in its field, assembling, as Euclid's Elements had previously done with geometrical works, all extant knowledge in the field of astromony that was known to the author. This work was originally known as The Mathematical Composition, but after it had come to be used as a text in astronomy, it was called The Great Astronomer. The Islamic world called it The Greatest prefixing the Greek work megiste (greatest) with the article al- and it has since been known to the world as Al-megiste or, after popular use in Western translation, Almagest. Ptolemy also produced other works such as, Optics, Harmonica, and some suggest he also wrote Tetrabiblon.
The Almagest was a particularly unifying work for its exhaustive lists of sidreal phenomena. He drew up a list of chronological tables of Assyrian, Persian, Greek, and Roman kings for use in reckoning the lapse of time between known astronomical events and fixed dates. In addition to its relevance to calculating accurate calendars, it linked far and foreign cultures together by a common interest in the stars and astrology.
The work of Ptolemy was replicated and refined over the years Persian and Islamic astronomers and astrologers. The astronomical tables of al-Khwarrizmi and of Abu'l-Qasim Maslama b. Ahmad (al-Majriti) served as important sources of information for latinized European thinkers rediscovering the works of astronomy, where extensive interest in astrology was discouraged.
Basic arithmetical skills can first be seen in Greek works by Nichomachus and others of the Pythagorean school. Basic arithmetic had been used for millennia without any rigorous theoretical development. Perhaps numerical understanding was encumbered by clumsy written systems found in Greek, Egyptian, and Roman cultures. Over the years of study and practice, the Islamic world seems to have encountered the concept of 'zero.' Use of our zero requires that one be successful not simply with counting, but with understanding the importance of place value in a written number system. The man who succeeded is unknown. We only know that he was a Hindu living no later than the 9th century.
Hindus call the symbol sunya, meaning empty. Arabs came to call this symbol sifr, which also means empty. In English this becomes cypher and we get the word zero from an archaic word zephirum. The speed of arithmetical computation was increased dramatically, not to mention the space saved in tabulating the sums, and hence paper and ink. Islamic advances in astronomy were the most advanced in the world at their time, and often calculated they tables with the longitude of Baghdad. Later authors, however, after a Caliphate was declared in Spain, used Cordoba for its tables. With a compact numbering system, tremendous advances in astronomy, astrology, and arithmetic were made possible.
The former Babylonian mathematical traditions formed great fruit under Arab rule. The study of trigenometry was a Babylonian discipline different from the Greeks. (The Babylonians were also the first to establish a place-value system of numbers, but this also was replaced by the 10-digit Hindu method.) Persian mathematician Omar Khayyám (1048-1131) combined the use of trigonometry and approximation theory to provide methods of solving algebraic equations by geometrical means. Khayyam solved the cubic equation x3 + 200x = 20x2 + 2000 and found a positive root of this cubic by considering the intersection of a rectangular hyperbola and a circle. An approximate numerical solution was then found by interpolation in trigonometric tables.
Medicine
Prophetic Medicine (al-tibb) was a genre of medical writing intended as an alternative to the Greek-based medical system (See:Galen). It advocated the traditional medical practices of Muhammad's time (those mentioned in the Qur'an). Al-tibb therapy did not require the patient's undergoing any surgical procedures.
The "Kitab fi al-jadari wa-al-hasbah", with its introduction on measles and smallpox was also very influential in Europe.
Astronomy
In its origins and development, Islamic astronomy closely parallels the genesis of other Islamic sciences in its assimilation of foreign material and the amalgamation of the disparate elements of that material to create a science that was essentially Islamic. These include Indian and Sassanid works in particular. Some Hellenistic texts were also translated and built upon as well.
Islamic interest in astronomy ran parallel to the interest in mathematics. Noteworthy in this regard was the Almagest of Greek-speaking Egyptian scholar Ptolemy (A.D. c. 100 - c. 178). The Almagest was a landmark work in its field, assembling, as Euclid's Elements had previously done with geometrical works, all extant knowledge in the field of astromony that was known to the author. This work was originally known as The Mathematical Composition, but after it had come to be used as a text in astronomy, it was called The Great Astronomer. The Islamic world called it The Greatest prefixing the Greek work megiste (greatest) with the article al- and it has since been known to the world as Al-megiste or, after popular use in Western translation, Almagest. Ptolemy also produced other works such as, Optics, Harmonica, and some suggest he also wrote Tetrabiblon.
The Almagest was a particularly unifying work for its exhaustive lists of sidreal phenomena. He drew up a list of chronological tables of Assyrian, Persian, Greek, and Roman kings for use in reckoning the lapse of time between known astronomical events and fixed dates. In addition to its relevance to calculating accurate calendars, it linked far and foreign cultures together by a common interest in the stars and astrology.
The work of Ptolemy was replicated and refined over the years Persian and Islamic astronomers and astrologers. The astronomical tables of al-Khwarrizmi and of Abu'l-Qasim Maslama b. Ahmad (al-Majriti) served as important sources of information for latinized European thinkers rediscovering the works of astronomy, where extensive interest in astrology was discouraged.
Notes
See also
- Scholasticism
- List of Islamic terms in Arabic
- Philosophy of science
- Islamic banking
- Applied ethics
- Muslim flat-earth theories
- History of science in the Islamic World
- Islamic Golden Age
- Timeline of Islamic science and technology
- Islamic studies
- Islamic scholars
- Islamic medicine
- Ophthalmology in medieval Islam
- Astronomy in Islam
- List of Iranian scientists
- Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain
- The Bible, The Qur'an and Science by Maurice Bucaille
- Keith L. Moore
- Professor Tejatat Tejasen
External links
- [History of Islamic Science]
- [Islam, Knowledge, and Science]
- [Islamic Science: an illustrated study], by Nasr, Seyyed Hossein
- [History of Science and Technology in Islam]
- [A history of Islamic culture]
- [Islamic Civilization]
- [Harun Yayha, An Invitation to The Truth]
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