Posted on 06/04/2002 7:11:14 PM PDT by restornu
Medieval Muslims made invaluable contributions to the study of mathematics, and their key role is clear from the many terms derived from Arabic. Perhaps the most famous mathematician was Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (ca. 800-ca. 847), author of several treatises of earth-shattering importance. His book On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals, written about 825, was principally responsible for the diffusion of the Indian system of numeration (Arabic numerals) in the Islamic lands and the West.
Traditional systems had used different letters of the alphabet to represent numbers or cumbersome Roman numerals, and the new system was far superior, for it allowed people to multiply and divide easily and check their work. The merchant Leonardo Fibonacci of Pisa, who had learned about Arabic numerals in Tunis, wrote a treatise rejecting the abacus in favor of the Arab method of reckoning, and as a result, the system of Hindu-Arabic numeration caught on quickly in Central Italy. By the fourteenth century, Italian merchants and bankers had abandoned the abacus and were doing their calculations using pen and paper, in much the same way we do today.
In addition to his treatise on numerals, al-Khwarizmi also wrote a revolutionary book on resolving quadratic equations. These were given either as geometric demonstrations or as numerical proofs in an entirely new mode of expression. The book was soon translated into Latin, and the word in its title, al-jabr, or transposition, gave the entire process its name in European languages, algebra, understood today as the generalization of arithmetic in which symbols, usually letters of the alphabet such as A, B, and C, represent numbers. Al-Khwarizmi had used the Arabic word for "thing" (shay) to refer to the quantity sought, the unknown. When al-Khwarizmi's work was translated in Spain, the Arabic word shay was transcribed as xay, since the letter x was pronounced as sh in Spain. In time this word was abbreviated as x, the universal algebraic symbol for the unknown.
Robert of Chester's translation of al-Khwarzmi's treatise on algebra opens with the words dixit Algorithmi, "Algorithmi says." In time, the mathematician's epithet of his Central Asian origin, al-Khwarizmi, came in the West to denote first the new process of reckoning with Hindu-Arabic numerals, algorithmus, and then the entire step-by-step process of solving mathematical problems, algorithm.
ASTRONOMY
As in the other sciences, astronomers in the Muslim lands built upon and greatly expanded earlier traditions. At the House of Knowledge founded in Baghdad by the Abbasid caliph Mamun, scientists translated many texts from Sanskrit, Pahlavi or Old Persian, Greek and Syriac into Arabic, notably the great Sanskrit astronomical tables and Ptolemy's astronomical treatise, the Almagest. Muslim astronomers accepted the geometrical structure of the universe expounded by Ptolemy, in which the earth rests motionless near the center of a series of eight spheres, which encompass it, but then faced the problem of reconciling the theoretical model with Aristotelian physics and physical realities derived from observation.
Some of the most impressive efforts to modify Ptolemaic theory were made at the observatory founded by Nasir al-Din Tusi in 1257 at Maragha in northwestern Iran and continued by his successors at Tabriz and Damascus. With the assistance of Chinese colleagues, Muslim astronomers worked out planetary models that depended solely on combinations of uniform circular motions. The astronomical tables compiled at Maragha served as a model for later Muslim astronomical efforts. The most famous imitator was the observatory founded in 1420 by the Timurid prince Ulughbeg at Samarkand in Central Asia, where the astronomer Ghiyath al-Din Jamshid al-Kashi worked out his own set of astronomical tables, with sections on diverse computations and eras, the knowledge of time, the course of the stars, and the position of the fixed stars. Essentially Ptolemaic, these tables have improved parameters and structure as well as additional material on the Chinese Uighur-calendar. They were widely admired and translated even as far away as England, where John Greaves, professor at Oxford, called attention to them in 1665.
PAPER & PUBLISING
Muslims were responsible for the transfer of papermaking from China, where it had been invented in the centuries before Christ, to Europe, where it fueled the print revolution in the late fifteenth century. Muslims encountered paper when they conquered Central Asia in the eighth century. Paper quickly supplanted papyrus (which was made only in Egypt) and parchment (which was made from animal skins), for it could be made virtually anywhere from rags and waste fibers. Although it was not cheap, paper had the great advantage of being difficult to erase, an important consideration when documents and records had to be secure from forgery. The use of paper soon spread from government offices to all segments of society. By the middle of the ninth century the Papersellers' Street in Baghdad had more than one hundred shops in which paper and books were sold.
Medieval Islamic society had a paper economy, where both wholesale and retail merchants conducted commerce on credit. Orders of payment, the equivalent of modern checks (the Persian word sakk is the origin of our word "check"), were drawn in amounts upwards from one dinar (a gold coin roughly equivalent to half a month's salary). By the ninth century paper was used for copying scientific and other types of utilitarian texts, although it took longer for Muslims to accept the use of paper as a fitting support for God's word. The first paper manuscript of the Koran to survive dates from 972, but from this date paper soon became standard for all books. Medieval Islamic libraries had hundreds of thousands of volumes far outstripping the relatively small monastic and university libraries in the West.
ALGEBRA & TRIGONOMETRY
Medieval Muslims made invaluable contributions to the study of mathematics, and their key role is clear from the many terms derived from Arabic. Perhaps the most famous mathematician was Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (ca. 800-ca. 847), author of several treatises of earth-shattering importance. His book On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals, written about 825, was principally responsible for the diffusion of the Indian system of numeration (Arabic numerals) in the Islamic lands and the West.
Traditional systems had used different letters of the alphabet to represent numbers or cumbersome Roman numerals, and the new system was far superior, for it allowed people to multiply and divide easily and check their work. The merchant Leonardo Fibonacci of Pisa, who had learned about Arabic numerals in Tunis, wrote a treatise rejecting the abacus in favor of the Arab method of reckoning, and as a result, the system of Hindu-Arabic numeration caught on quickly in Central Italy. By the fourteenth century, Italian merchants and bankers had abandoned the abacus and were doing their calculations using pen and paper, in much the same way we do today.
In addition to his treatise on numerals, al-Khwarizmi also wrote a revolutionary book on resolving quadratic equations. These were given either as geometric demonstrations or as numerical proofs in an entirely new mode of expression. The book was soon translated into Latin, and the word in its title, al-jabr, or transposition, gave the entire process its name in European languages, algebra, understood today as the generalization of arithmetic in which symbols, usually letters of the alphabet such as A, B, and C, represent numbers. Al-Khwarizmi had used the Arabic word for "thing" (shay) to refer to the quantity sought, the unknown. When al-Khwarizmi's work was translated in Spain, the Arabic word shay was transcribed as xay, since the letter x was pronounced as sh in Spain. In time this word was abbreviated as x, the universal algebraic symbol for the unknown.
Robert of Chester's translation of al-Khwarzmi's treatise on algebra opens with the words dixit Algorithmi, "Algorithmi says." In time, the mathematician's epithet of his Central Asian origin, al-Khwarizmi, came in the West to denote first the new process of reckoning with Hindu-Arabic numerals, algorithmus, and then the entire step-by-step process of solving mathematical problems, algorithm.
ENGINEERING
Medieval Muslim scientists often focused on practical matters, particularly hydraulic engineering, as water was always a precious resource in the arid lands where Islam traditionally flourished. Engineers designed various kinds of water-raising machines, some powered by animals, others powered by rivers and streams. The waterwheels along the Orontes River in Syria were used to irrigate until modern times. Watermills were used to grind corn and other grains, though in Iran water power was often supplemented or replaced by wind.
Bridges and dams were needed to channel water. In addition to the standard beam, cantilever and arch bridges, engineers also designed bridges of boats to span rivers. Dams were widely used to divert rivers into irrigation canals. Perhaps the most ingenious hydraulic technologies were the distribution networks of canals and qanats, subterranean aqueducts that sometimes carried water for hundreds of miles. Cisterns and underground ice-houses were used for storage. Various instruments were used to measure water flow, and the Nilometer built in 861-62 still stands on Rawda Island in Cairo.
In addition to these machines and technologies related to water, Muslim engineers also designed several types of siege engines, notably the traction and the counterweight trebuchet. Their ingenuity is clear from the many kinds of fine machines they also perfected, ranging from clocks and automata to fountains. Some were meant for practical purposes but others were designed for amusement or aesthetic enjoyment, and their components and techniques were of great importance for the development of machine technology.
MEDICINE
Medieval Muslims revolutionized the science and practice of medicine, as physicians began to question the medical traditions inherited from both East and West and distinguish one disease from another. For example, Ibn al-Haytham (ca. 965-1039), the so-called "father of optics," explained how human vision takes place by integrating physical, mathematical, experimental, physiological, and psychological considerations. His treatise had an enormous impact on all later writers on optics, both in the Muslim world and through a medieval Latin translation in the West. Similarly, the great Egyptian physician Ibn al-Nafis (d. 1288), discovered the minor, or pulmonary, circulation of the blood. Ibn Sina (980-1037), known in the West as Avicenna, synthesized Aristotelian and later Greek theories with his own original views, and his Canon of Medicine became the most famous medical book in the East or West, translated at least 87 times.
Muslims also expanded the practice of medical schools and hospitals. The Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid used the Sasanian academy of Jundishapur in southwestern Iran as his model when he founded his own hospital in Baghdad (ca. 800). Hospitals were soon established throughout the empire. They were staffed by dozens of specialists, from physiologists, oculists, and surgeons, to bonesetters. They even had special wards for the mentally ill and separate wings for men and women. These hospitals were often incorporated into large charitable foundations and were supported by endowments made by powerful and wealthy individuals. One of the most famous was that founded by the Mamluk sultan Qalawun in Cairo. In addition, traveling clinics and dispensaries provided services to rural areas.
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Dear Educator:
The resources offered here are designed to help you use the PBS Islam: Empire of Faith video series and companion Web site in secondary social studies, civics, religion, and language arts classes. Islam: Empire of Faith may be taped off-air and used for up to a year following broadcast, or you may choose to purchase it through Shop PBS for Teachers. The lesson plans may also be adapted for use as stand-alone resources.
Please let us know what you think! Send your feedback to teachersource@pbs.org.
Lesson One: An Introduction to Islam and Muhammad
Lesson Two: The Fascinating World of Islam
Lesson Three: Creating a Textile Museum Piece from the Islamic Empire
Lesson Four: Great Thinkers and Accomplishments of Islam Fact Cubes
Lesson Five: Renaissance Man Comparison Poster
ShopPBS for Teachers
Islam: Empire of Faith: An Empires Special 3PK (INDEX)
Not by winners of any spelling bee,
of that much we can be sure.
If the dog hadn't stopped to S*** he'd a caught the rabbit.
Muslims are are very well-controlled people. When was the last time you saw one of them lose control, express anger or be extremely rude? When was the last time you saw a Muslim get hot headed in an arguement? At least not here. Not yet. Not until they arrive at 20-30% of the population. They'll wait. They are patient.
Looks like inbreeding to me....
That's what they want you to believe. They will lie to you, which is acceptable to their religion, in order to convert you, or even kill you. Is this not apparent?
.taht tuoba yrroS
Note the contributions to "islamic" science, cited in this article from Greeks (both classical and Byzantine), Hindus, Syriac Christians, Persians (i.e., Zoroastrians), and Chinese (via Central Asia, in the transmission of the invention of paper). Moreover, many "islamic" scientists were not orthodox muslims. For example, Al-Khwarizmi may have been (although little is known about his life) a Zoroastrian, at least in his youth, if not (despite pretending to be a muslim) all his life. (See Al-Khwarizmi)
Once the Abassid empire broke up, and especially after Baghdad fell (conquered by the Mongols--who became muslims--the Crusaders had NOTHING to do with the decline of islam), islamic science declined dramatically. Quranic literalism and persecution of and jihad against "infidels" and "disbelievers" of course completely destroys the possibility of science, acheivement, and progress. That is especially true in the imperial model of cultural acheivement followed by medieval islam, which depended on at least some degree of tolerance of non-muslims and unorthodox muslims.
Detail they might have omitted: Ulughbeg was the son of Tamarlane, who raped, pillaged, and burned his way across asia and used enslaved artisans to build his palace in Samarkand.
Ulughbeg's observatory is beautiful, if it's the building I have in mind. I understand that he survived his father by only two years. He was murdured. By his own son.
You might ask: why would a son murder his father?
Answer: The son thought his father was decadent, corrupt. The son did it for the glory of Allah.
I'll bet all the cultural innovations mentioned were achieved in cultures muslims now consider decadent.
Evidently our language iz.
"Everywhere they went, the German "Nazis" brought up to date "autobahn" motorways, clean drinking water, and the best standards of engineering and high culture."
So you don’t like the way I coin words tuff!
Would you like me to apologize for my affliction?
First, I didn't know you were so afflicted. The comment was directed at the headline, regardless of who wrote it. Maybe you should put in parenthesis (dyslexic) after "restornu" so you won't feel picked on.
Second, I would like for you to get a life and take on some coloring for that transparent skin of yours.
"CELL PHONES PRIVACY SEAT BELTS SPEECH MONITOR"
IS AMERICA BEING DE-WESTERNIZED?- ARE HIGH PLACES INFILTRADED? IS OUR FREEDOMS BEING ISLAMIZED?
1. IS AMERICA BEING DE-WESTERNIZED?-
What do I mean by that? I was using the word De as in demoralized, destroy, deny, denounce, to take away Western way of life!
2. ARE HIGH PLACES INFILTRADED?
What does that mean, because at some time in the pass these road blocks were establish making us impotent in defending ourselves. Is it not another form of the Trojan Horse?
3. IS OUR FREEDOMS BEING ISLAMIZED?
As we see the Trojan Horse method has restrain us from protecting ourselves, and now our quality of life is being chipped away with these thorny laws as in seatbelts, cell phones, policing sport behavior etc., laws are being instituted in every little area of our lives now. Just like in the Islam nations, no radios, no haircuts, burkes, learning denied to women etc.
Peace
The problem is that you DIDN'T say it in your post. All you did was write a provocative title, and keywords, and then posted an article that, while excellent, seemingly had nothing whatsoever to do with your title. ESP is not one of my talents.
Friendly word of advice: your point here is quite valid; it's the way you delivered it that is hard to fathom. Now that you've explained it, yes, I DO get your point. But NOT until now. Sorry to have seemed critical; it just frustrates me when I can't link the title to the text. Cheers!
I guess the citizens of 17th-century Vienna might have a slightly different opinion on that....
After WWI, Kemal Attaturk and his "young turks" purposely and rather aggressively secularized Turkey's government.
Not surprisingly, Turkey is a modern, responsible, and relatively peaceful member of civilization.
I guess as I was caught up in the documentary, I was fuming at the propaganda that was diluting us in the WEST as they told how kind and gentle Islam is, and the mean spirited WEST. I am sure there are many good people in that religion, but they might also be brainwashed
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