• If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

The Islamic Golden Age (redirected from Islam's Golden Age)

Page history last edited by Olivia Norton 3 weeks, 3 days ago Saved with comment


Focus Question: What were the achievements of Islamic civilization during its "Golden Age?"

 

Arab/Islamic world at greatest extent, c. 850. Image by Abbasids

 

Arab/Islamic world at greatest extent, c. 850.  Image by Abbasids

Topics on this page

 

Overview of Islam's Golden Age (750 to 1258)

 

Women's Roles and Lives

 
The House of Wisdom

  • Preservation and Expansion of Greek Thought

 

Science & Mathematics

 

Philosophy
 

Islamic Architecture
 

Agriculture

  • Norias
  • Ibn Al'Awwam, Book of Agriculture 

 

CROSS-LINK: Special Topic Page: The Arab Agricultural Revolution 

 

 

Overview of Islam's Golden Age

 

See Here: Golden Age of Islam

 

 

National Geographic: 1001 Invention and Awesome Facts from Muslim Civilization TEACHER's GUIDE

 

  • offers many different lesson plans and interesting activities for kids to learn about Muslim contributions 

 

  1001 Inventions and the Library of Secrets is a short film narrated by actor Ben Kingsley on the scientific heritage of Muslim civilization.

  • This is part of a larger exhibit and website, "1001 Inventions/Discovering the Muslim Heritage in Our World/Uncovering 1000 Years of Science & Technology."

 


Cities of Lights clip focuses on the fresh contribution that Islamic civilization had to western civilization.

 

external image 500px-Hebrew_timeline.svg.png Click Here for a PBS timeline of the History of the Islamic Empire.

external image Red_apple.jpgThe Golden Age of Islam from the University of Chicago traces the background and areas of achievement of classical Islamic civilization from 610 to 1258 CE.

  • In 1258 CE the Mongols laid siege to Baghdad, destroying the House of Wisdom in the process. So many books were cast into the Tigris river during the sacking of Baghdad that its waters ran black with ink. This invasion is regarded by historians as signaling the close of Islam's Golden Age. 


Islamic civilization made global contributions in three main areas:

  • preservation and expansion of Greek thought
  • expansion of knowledge in the areas of science, philosophy and mathematics
  • development of Islamic architecture.

 

THIS LINK https://muslimheritage.com/ 

 

  Women's History during The Golden Age 

 

See here: Extraordinary Women from the Golden Age of Muslim Civilization

 

The story of Al-Khayzuran bint Atta: The women who started her life as a slave, became a concubine to the Caliph, legally married Harun al-Rashid, the Caliph and went on to run the Islamic Empire at the height of its powers behind her husband and two sons. 

 

 

Contributions of women during the Golden Age. Click Here

 

Click Here To Learn More

 

 

external image 5131HFTXWWL._SS500_.jpgThe House of Wisdom

 

The House of Wisdom was a generic term used for a Scientific Library in the Middle East. There were many of these places, and in Arabic the word is al-Hikma. The first and most famous Houses of Wisdom was the Bayt al-Hikma. Most likely, when someone is referring to "The House of Wisdom", this is the one they are referring to. The Bayt al-Hikma was established in the 830s. There are rumors that the Mongols sacked this House of Wisdom in the 1200s and threw all the books into the river and that the river ran black with the ink from the books. However this is a myth, as this house of wisdom had not been as powerful or influential in hundreds of years, falling into obscurity. 

 

According to Jim al-Khalili's book The House of Wisdom, "Astronomers laid the foundations for the heliocentric model of the solar system long before Copernicus; physicians accurately described blood circulation and the inner workings of the eye ages before Europeans solved those mysteries..." (Jim al-Khalili). 

 

  • But the biggest accomplishment for Middle Eastern science was the evidence-based approach, the lack of which kept Europeans in the dark during the Dark Ages.

 

For more information, see The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance. Jim al-Khalili (Penguin Press, 2011).

 

  • The book answer two questions, what was the role of Islamic thought in the Middle Ages and also what contributions did Islamic learning contribute to the Western world as we know it?


The Origins of Islamic Science is an article in which "Dr Muhammad Abdul Jabbar Beg surveys the origins of Islamic science, with a special focus on its interaction with the previous intellectual traditions of the ancient world as well as a survey of the beginnings of scientific activity in Arabic. In this first part, he depicts in details the impact of Islamic principle in shaping the contours of the early scientific activity in the Muslim civilisation. Afterwards, in the second part, the author surveys some key contributions of the scientists of Islam in the fields of astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, and medicine."

Preservation and expansion of Greek thought

 

According to Duiker and Speilvogel in their book Essential World History"

 

  • "it was the Islamic world that was most responsible for preserving and spreading the scientific and philosophical achievements of ancient civilizations. At a time when Greek philosophy was largely unknown in Europe, key works by Aristotle, Plato, and other Greek philosophers were translated into Arabic and stored in a "house of wisdom" in Baghdad, where they were read and studied by Muslim scholars. Eventually, many of these works were translated into Latin and were brought to Europe, where they exercised a profound influence on the later course of Christianity and Western philosophy." (page 208).


Click here for an article on the House of Wisdom from the The Guardian, September 22, 2004. Note in this sources it mentions the river running red with the blood of scholars killed by the Mongols. This is also a myth, but it is so widely believed it ends up in text and history books often. 

 

 Sample Test Question

 
 What statement best explains how Greek and Roman learning was preserved during the Middle Ages in Europe?
A. Monasteries saw it as their mission to copy all of the older texts of the Greek and Roman philosophers.
B. The works of Greek and Roman philosophers were preserved by both the Byzantine and the Islamic civilizations.
C. The Roman Catholic Church maintained extensive libraries of Greek and Roman works throughout Europe.
D. The collapse in Western Europe was not so great as to cause a shutdown of universities at the major population centers.

CORRECT ANSWER IS B. Byzantines and the Islamic civilizations continued to study and expand upon Greek and Roman thought during the European Middle Ages. As Western Europe began to reengage in international trade, this knowledge found its way back into European centers of learning


SCIENCE

 

Anatomy Image to the right is from 11th century AH (17th century AD) Persian manuscript by Mansur ibn Muhammad Ahmad at the Majles Library, Tehran

 
external image 17th_century_Persian_anatomy.jpg

  • Astronomy
    • established an observatory at Baghdad
    • produced a map of the world with the knowledge that it was round in the 9th century
    • The astrolabe is a major contribution to science as it allows a user to make astronomical measurements, typically of the altitudes of celestial bodies, and aides in navigation for calculating latitude.

      • Watch a TEDTalk demoing the astrolabe and explaining its uses here!.

 

 

 

  • Understanding of chemistry

 

  • Development of medicine as a scientific field

 

  • Physics- Laws of physical bodies and
  • motion

 

  • Zoology- Biology of animals

 

  • Mathematics- Including algebra (India)

 

  • Geography- Written description of places, not maps

 

  • Metaphysics- Branch of philosophy concerned with existence

 

  • Cartography- mapmaking    

 

The BBC has made a wonderful 3 part documentary called Science and Islam, in which Physicist Jim Al-Khalili travels the middle-east exploring the scientific achievements of the Islamic world during the Golden Age.

 

  • Episode 1: The Language of Science. Physicist Jim Al-Khalili travels through Syria, Iran, Tunisia and Spain to tell the story of the great leap in scientific knowledge that took place in the Islamic world between the 8th and 14th centuries. Its legacy is tangible, with terms like algebra, algorithm and alkali being Arabic in origin and at the very heart of modern science. For Baghdad-born Al-Khalili this is also a personal journey and he uncovers a diverse, outward-looking culture, fascinated by learning and obsessed with science.
    From the great mathematician Al-Khwarizmi, who did much to establish the mathematical tradition we now know as algebra, to Ibn Sina, a pioneer of early medicine whose Canon of Medicine was still in use as recently as the 19th century, he pieces together a remarkable story of the often-overlooked achievements of the early medieval Islamic scientists

  • Episode 2: The Empire of Reason. He travels to northern Syria to discover how, a thousand years ago, the great astronomer and mathematician Al-Biruni estimated the size of the earth to within a few hundred miles of the correct figure.
    He discovers how medieval Islamic scholars helped turn the magical and occult practice of alchemy into modern chemistry. In Cairo, he tells the story of the extraordinary physicist Ibn al-Haytham, who helped establish the modern science of optics and proved one of the most fundamental principles in physics - that light travels in straight lines. Prof Al-Khalili argues that these scholars are among the first people to insist that all scientific theories are backed up by careful experimental observation, bringing a rigor to science that didn't really exist before.

  • Episode 3: The Power of Doubt. Al-Khalili turns detective, hunting for clues that show how the scientific revolution that took place in the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe had its roots in the earlier world of medieval Islam. He travels across Iran, Syria and Egypt to discover the huge astronomical advances made by Islamic scholars through their obsession with accurate measurement and coherent and rigorous mathematics.He then visits Italy to see how those Islamic ideas permeated into the West and ultimately helped shape the works of the great European astronomer Copernicus, and investigates why science in the Islamic world appeared to go into decline after the 16th and 17th centuries, only for it to re-emerge in the present day. Al-Khalili ends his journey in the Royan Institute in the Iranian capital Tehran, looking at how science is now regarded in the Islamic world. (Episode descriptions taken from the BBC4 website linked here.)

 

Mathematics

external image 1983_CPA_5426_%282%29.jpg

  • Islamic scholars adopted the numerical system of India

 

  • Introduction of the use of zero

 

  • Founding of algebra

 

  • Replacement of Roman numerals with Arabic numerals.

 



Click here to gain a deeper understanding of the complex history of zero.

Go here for information on the mathematician Muhammad Ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi.

Click here for description of his book, The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing.
 

 

Click here for a Ted-Ed video about the influence of geometry in Islamic art.


MEDICINE

external image Zahrawi1.png
There are a great many contributors to medicine by Islamic scholars during this period, including,

 

  • Abu 'l-Qasim al-Zahrawi (in Latin Abulcasis/Albucasis)'s Kitab al-Tasrif li-man 'ajiza 'an al-Ta'lif which is a medical compendium which contains over 300 diseases, how they are treated and details of surgical instruments, illustrated, which had been used.

 

 

  • Click here for an article about the background of Islamic medicine.

 

  • Avicenna's (Ibn Sina) medical encyclopedia (click here for excerpts)
      • Here a video that shows Avicenna's medical encyclopedia. 


To read more about the medical contributions, and al-Zahrawi's book link here

Image to the right is an illustration of medieval Muslim surgical instruments taken from al-Zahrawi's Kitab al-Tasrif. Fifteenth century copy of an eleventh century manuscript

 

PHILOSOPHY

 

Medieval Islamic philosophy was centered predominately around the tenets of the Islamic faith. Many philosophers dealt with the life and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad while others grappled with the nature of Allah. Here are examples of some famous philosophers from the Islamic Empire.



external image Avicenna-miniatur.jpg

external image Ibn_rushd.jpg

Moses Maimonides, portrait, 19th century.
Moses Maimonides, portrait, 19th century.

 

  • Musa Ibn Maymun (Moses Maimonides) a Hebrew philosopher whose books were written in Arabic, and whose life is testament to the fluid nature of issues such as religious tolerance during the Golden Age of Islam.


ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE

 
Link here for an overview about Al-Aqsa Mosque and here for a short tour inside Al-Aqsa Mosque


external image The_Dome_of_the_Rock_2007.jpg
The Dome of the Rock (Jerusalem): It is part of Al-Aqsa Mosque. Built as the proclamation of the spiritual and political legitimacy of Islam in 691.



Great Mosque of Samarra
Great Mosque of Samarra





Click here for a Ted-Ed video about the influence of geometry in Islamic art.

Click here for a short video about the architecture of Islamic mosques.

Here is The Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, and here is a video that shows the architecture of the mosque.

The Great Mosque of Samarra.



external image Mezquita_de_C%C3%B3rdoba_Mihrab.jpg
The Great Mosque of Cordoba (Spain)

AGRICULTURE

 

Click here for a detailed overview of Agriculture in the Muslim World

 

  • As Islamic caliphates expanded, by 711 Muslim settlers found farming practices that were virtually unchanged after the fall of the Roman empire and during Visigoth rule in Al-Andalus.

 

  • Merchants brought home exotic plants, expanding Arab botanical range

 

  • New crops needed new agricultural techniques, including irrigation

 

  • Irrigation
    • The Muslims advancements in math and science allowed them to create new modernized forms of irrigation that were much more advanced than Christian Europe's at the time

 

    • Norias are water wheels that were used throughout the Muslim world that aided in the transport of water and water power

 

 

    • Introduction of Important Crops: The Moors introduced sugar cane, eggplant, spinach, rice, and a variety of Citrus to the confines of their civilization - all made possible by irrigational practices

 

    • Qanats were tunnels that carried water long distances underground so that it wouldn’t evaporate

 

 

    • Use of written language and new agricultural practices lead to local libraries being filled with written guides for agriculture across the civilization including:

 

 

Sources:

William J. Duiker and Jackson J. Spielvogel, World History, Vol. 6 (Boston: Wadsworth).

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.