Science in the medieval Islamic world: Difference between revisions

This article treats the science developed under the Islamic civilisation between the 8th and 15th centuries.

For information on the practice of science in the context of Islam, see The relation between Islam and science.

In the history of science, Islamic science refers to the science developed under the Islamic civilisation between the 8th and 15th centuries (the Islamic Golden Age).^[1] It is also known as Arabic science due to most texts during this period being written in Arabic, the lingua franca of the Islamic civilization. Despite these names, not all scientists during this period were Muslim or Arab, as there were a number of notable non-Arab scientists, as well as some non-Muslim scientists, contributing to science in the Islamic civilization.

A number of modern scholars, notably Robert Briffault, Oliver Joseph Lodge, Will Durant, Fielding H. Garrison, Alexander von Humboldt, Muhammad Iqbal, and Abdus Salam, consider modern science to have begun in the Islamic civilization, in particular, due to the development of the scientific method by Muslim scientists.

During the early Muslim conquests, the Muslim Arabs led by Khalid ibn al-Walid conquered the Sassanid Persian Empire and much of the Byzantine Roman Empire, establishing the Arab Empire across the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa, followed by further expansions across Pakistan, southern Italy and the Iberian Peninsula. As a result, the Islamic governments inherited "the knowledge and skills of the ancient Middle East, of Greece, of Persia and of India. They added new and important innovations from outside, such as positional numbering from Ancient India," as Bernard Lewis wrote in What Went Wrong?

Another innovation was paper - originally a secret tightly guarded by the Chinese. The art of papermaking was obtained from two prisoners at the Battle of Talas (751), resulting in paper mills being built in Samarkand and Baghdad. The Arabs improved upon the Chinese techniques using linen rags instead of mulberry bark.

Much of this learning and development can be linked to geography. Even prior to Islam's presence, the city of Mecca served as a center of trade in Arabia and the Islamic prophet Muhammad was a merchant. The tradition of the pilgrimage to Mecca became a center for exchanging ideas and goods. The influence held by Muslim merchants over African-Arabian and Arabian-Asian trade routes was tremendous. As a result, Islamic civilization grew and expanded on the basis of its merchant economy, in contrast to their Christian, Indian and Chinese peers who built societies from an agricultural landholding nobility.

Muslim scientists placed far greater emphasis on experiment than had the Greeks. This led to the modern scientific method being developed in the Muslim world, where significant progress in methodology was made. In particular, the empirical experiments of Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) on optics from circa 1000 is seen as the beginning of the modern scientific method.^[2] The most important development of the scientific method was the use of experiments to distinguish between competing scientific theories set within a generally empirical orientation, which began among Muslim scientists.

Rosanna Gorini writes:

"According to the majority of the historians al-Haytham was the pioneer of the modern scientific method. With his book he changed the meaning of the term optics and established experiments as the norm of proof in the field. His investigations are based not on abstract theories, but on experimental evidences and his experiments were systematic and repeatable."^[3]

Ibn al-Haytham, who is now known as the father of optics,^[4] used the scientific method to obtain the results in his Book of Optics. In particular, he combined observations, experiments and rational arguments to show that his modern intromission theory of vision, where rays of light are emitted from objects rather than from the eyes, is scientifically correct, and that the ancient emission theory of vision supported by Ptolemy and Euclid (where the eyes emit rays of light), and the ancient intromission theory supported by Aristotle (where objects emit physical particles to the eyes), were both wrong.^[5] It is known that Roger Bacon (who is sometimes erroneously given credit for the scientific method) was familiar with Ibn al-Haytham's work.

The development of the scientific method is considered to be so fundamental to modern science that some — especially philosophers of science and practicing scientists — consider earlier inquiries into nature to be pre-scientific. Some have described Ibn al-Haytham as the "first scientist" for this reason.^[6] Robert Briffault wrote in The Making of Humanity:

"The debt of our science to that of the Arabs does not consist in startling discoveries or revolutionary theories; science owes a great deal more to Arab culture, it owes its existence. The ancient world was, as we saw, pre- scientific. The astronomy and mathematics of the Greeks were a foreign importation never thoroughly acclimatized in Greek culture. The Greeks systematized, generalized and theorized, but the patient ways of investigation, the accumulation of positive knowledge, the minute methods of science, detailed and prolonged observation, experimental inquiry, were altogether alien to the Greek temperament. [...] What we call science arose in Europe as a result of a new spirit of inquiry, of new methods of investigation, of the method of experiment, observation, measurement, of the development of mathematics in a form unknown to the Greeks. That spirit and those methods were introduced into the European world by the Arabs."^[7]

Science is the most momentous contribution of Arab civilization to the modern world, but its fruits were slow in ripening. Not until long after Moorish culture had sunk back into darkness did the giant to which it had given birth, rise in his might. It was not science only which brought Europe back to life. Other and manifold influences from the civilization of Islam communicated its first glow to European life."^[8]

Oliver Joseph Lodge wrote in the Pioneers of Science:

"The only effective link between the old and the new science is afforded by the Arabs. The dark ages come as an utter gap in the scientific history of Europe, and for more than a thousand years there was not a scientific man of note except in Arabia."^[9]

"It is clear from the large number of Qur’anic verses, a few of which have been quoted above, and from the writings of numerous eastern as well as western scholars, that modern science owes its very existence to Islam. The new spirit of enquiry and the new methods of experiment, observation, and measurement, on which modern science is based, are all contributions of those who followed the teaching of Islam."^[10]

George Sarton, the father of the history of science, wrote:

"The main, as well as the least obvious, achievement of the Middle Ages was the creation of the experimental spirit and this was primarily due to the Muslims down to the 12th century."^[11]

Muhammad Iqbal wrote in The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam:

"Thus the experimental method, reason and observation introduced by the Arabs were responsible for the rapid advancement of science during the medieval times."^[12]

From the 12th century onwards, Islamic science and the numbers of Islamic scientists began declining. After the 13th century, the Islamic civilization would still produce occasional scientists but they became the exception, rather than the rule (see List of Islamic scholars). Some historians have recently come to question the traditional picture of decline, pointing to continued astronomical activity as a sign of a continuing and creative scientific tradition through to the 15th century, of which the work of Ibn al-Shatir (1304–1375) in Damascus is considered the most noteworthy example.^[13][14]

One reason for the scientific decline can be traced back to the 10th century when the orthodox school of Ash'ari challenged the more rational school of Mu'tazili theology, or even earlier when caliph Al-Mutawakkil (847-861) attempted to suppress the Mu'tazili theology. The orthodox Sunni Muslims fought the Shia Muslims and other Muslim branches, as well as several invaders, such as the Crusaders and Mongols, on Islamic lands between the 11th and 13th centuries.

Another important reason for the rapid decline of Islamic science was the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. As they made their way across Central Asia, the Mongols destroyed Muslim libraries, observatories, hospitals, and universities, culminating in the sack of Baghdad, the Abbasid capital and intellectual centre, in 1258. The destruction of Baghdad marked the end of the Islamic Golden Age.^[15]

In the end, the more strict Ash'ari school replaced Mu'tazili thoughts in the Islamic lands. That replacement and numerous wars and conflicts created a climate which made Islamic science less successful than before.

With the fall of Islamic Spain in 1492, scientific and technological initiative generally passed to Christian Europe and led to what we now call the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment.

Contributing to the growth of European science was the major search by European scholars for new learning which they could only find among Muslims, especially in Spain and Sicily. These scholars translated new scientific and philosophical texts from Arabic into Latin.

One of the most productive translators in Spain was Gerard of Cremona, who translated 87 books from Arabic to Latin,^[16] including al-Khwarizmi's On Algebra and Almucabala, Jabir ibn Aflah's Elementa astronomica,^[17] al-Kindi's On Optics, al-Farghani's On Elements of Astronomy on the Celestial Motions, al-Farabi's On the Classification of the Sciences,^[18] the chemical and medical works of al-Razi (Rhazes),^[19] the works of Thabit ibn Qurra (Thebit) and Hunayn ibn Ishaq,^[20] and the works of al-Zarqali (Arzachel), Jabir ibn Aflah, the Banu Musa, Abu Kamil, Abu al-Qasim (Abulcasis), and Ibn al-Haytham (including the Book of Optics).^[16]

Other Arabic works translated into Latin during the 12th century include the works of al-Battani (Albategni) and al-Khwarizmi (including The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing),^[17] the works of Abu al-Qasim (Abulcasis) (including the Al-Tasrif),^[21][16] Muhammad al-Fazari's Great Sindhind (based on the Surya Siddhanta and the works of Brahmagupta),^[22] the works of al-Razi (Rhazes) and Avicenna (including The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine),^[23] the works of Ibn Rushd (Averroes),^[21] the works of Thabit ibn Qurra (Thebit), al-Farabi, and al-Farghani, Hunayn ibn Ishaq, and his nephew Hubaysh ibn al-Hasan,^[24] the works of al-Kindi, Abraham bar Hiyya's Liber embadorum, Ibn Sarabi's (Serapion Junior) De Simplicibus,^[21] the works of Qusta ibn Luqa (Costa ben Luca),^[25] the works of Maslamah Ibn Ahmad al-Majriti, Abu Ma'shar, and al-Ghazali,^[16] the works of al-Betrugi (Alpetragius), including On the Motions of the Heavens,^[26][19] Ali ibn Abbas al-Majusi's medical encyclopedia, The Complete Book of the Medical Art,^[19] Abū Ma'shar's Introduction to Astrology,^[27] the works of Maimonides, Ibn Zezla (Byngezla), Masawaiyh (Mesue), Serapion, al-Qifti, and Albe'thar.^[28] Abu Kamil's Algebra,^[17] the chemical works of Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber), and the De Proprietatibus Elementorum, an Arabic work on geology written by a pseudo-Aristotle.^[19] At the close of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth centuries, Mark of Toledo translated the Qur'an (once again) and various medical works.^[29]

Fibonacci presented the first complete European account of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system from Arabic sources in his Liber Abaci (1202).^[19] The astronomical corrections to the Ptolemaic model made by al-Battani, Averroes, Mo'ayyeduddin Urdi (Urdi lemma), Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (Tusi-couple) and Ibn al-Shatir were later adapted into the Copernican heliocentric model. Al-Kindi's (Alkindus) law of terrestrial gravity influenced Robert Hooke's law of celestial gravity, which in turn inspired Newton's law of universal gravitation. Abū al-Rayhān al-Bīrūnī's Ta'rikh al-Hind and Kitab al-qanun al-Mas’udi were translated into Latin as Indica and Canon Mas’udicus respectively. Omar Khayyám's works on algebra and geometry were later influential in Europe from the 18th century.^[30]

In the Middle Ages, especially during the Islamic Golden Age, Muslim scholars made significant advances in science, mathematics, medicine, astronomy, engineering, and many other fields. During this time, Islamic philosophy developed and was often pivotal in scientific debates — key figures were usually scientists and philosophers.

Islamic astrology, in Arabic ilm al-nujumis the study of the heavens by early Muslims. In early Arabic sources, ilm al-nujum was used to refer to both astronomy and astrology. In medieval sources, however, a clear distinction was made between ilm al-nujum (science of the stars) or ilm al-falak (science of the celestial orbs), referring to astrology, and ilm al-haya (science of the figure of the heavens), referring to astronomy. Both fields were rooted in Greek, Persian, and Indian traditions. Despite consistent critiques of astrology by scientists and religious scholars, astrological prognostications required a fair amount of exact scientific knowledge and thus gave partial incentive for the study and development of astronomy.

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 (c. 100-178). 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 sidereal 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 under Arab, Persian and other Muslim astronomers and astrologers. The astronomical tables of Al-Khwarizmi and of Abu al-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.

From the 10th century, Muslim astronomers began questioning the Ptolemaic system. Many of them made changes and corrections to his model within a geocentric framework. In particular, the corrections of Al-Battani, Averroes, Mo'ayyeduddin Urdi (Urdi lemma), Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (Tusi-couple) and Ibn al-Shatir were later adapted into the Copernican heliocentric model.^[31][32] Several Muslim astronomers also discussed the possibility of a heliocentric model with elliptical orbits, such as Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), Abū al-Rayhān al-Bīrūnī, Abu Said Sinjari, 'Umar al-Katibi al-Qazwini, and Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi.^[33] The optical writings of Ibn al-Haytham are reported to have laid the foundations for the later European development of telescopic astronomy.^[34]

In biology, as well as zoology, al-Jahiz considered the effects of the environment on the likelihood of an animal to survive, and first described the struggle for existence, an important precursor to evolution and natural selection.^[35][36]

Ibn al-Haytham went even further, writing a book in which he argued explicitly for evolutionism (although not natural selection), and numerous other Islamic scholars and scientists, such as Ibn Miskawayh, and the great polymaths al-Biruni, Nasir al-Din Tusi, and Ibn Khaldun, discussed and developed these ideas. Significant advances were also made in the field of botany. Translated into Latin, these works began to appear in the West after the Renaissance and probably had a large (though subterranean) impact on Western science.

An early scientific method for chemistry began emerging among early Muslim chemists. One of the most influential among them was the 9th century chemist Geber, who some considered to be the father of chemistry.^[37][38][39] Other influential Muslim chemists included Al-Razi, Abū al-Rayhān al-Bīrūnī and Al-Kindi. Alexander von Humboldt regarded the Muslim chemists as the founders of chemistry.^[40]

Will Durant wrote in The Story of Civilization IV: The Age of Faith:

"Chemistry as a science was almost created by the Moslems; for in this field, where the Greeks (so far as we know) were confined to industrial experience and vague hypothesis, the Saracens introduced precise observation, controlled experiment, and careful records. They invented and named the alembic (al-anbiq), chemically analyzed innumerable substances, composed lapidaries, distinguished alkalis and acids, investigated their affinities, studied and manufactured hundreds of drugs. Alchemy, which the Moslems inherited from Egypt, contributed to chemistry by a thousand incidental discoveries, and by its method, which was the most scientific of all medieval operations."^[41]

George Sarton, the father of the history of science, wrote in the Introduction to the History of Science:

"We find in his (Jabir, Geber) writings remarkably sound views on methods of chemical research, a theory on the geologic formation of metals (the six metals differ essentially because of different proportions of sulphur and mercury in them); preparation of various substances (e.g., basic lead carbonatic, arsenic and antimony from their sulphides)."^[42]

Geber's writings became more widely known in Europe through the Latin writings of a pseudo-Geber, an anonymous alchemist born in 14th century Spain, who translated Geber's books into Latin and wrote some of his own books under the pen name of "Geber".

Muslim scientists, notably Abū al-Rayhān al-Bīrūnī, made a number of contributions to the Earth sciences. In particular, Biruni is regarded as the father of geodesy for his important contributions to the field,^[43][44] along with his significant contributions to geography and geology.

Among his writings on geology, Biruni wrote the following on the geology of India:

"But if you see the soil of India with your own eyes and meditate on its nature, if you consider the rounded stones found in earth however deeply you dig, stones that are huge near the mountains and where the rivers have a violent current: stones that are of smaller size at a greater distance from the mountains and where the streams flow more slowly: stones that appear pulverised in the shape of sand where the streams begin to stagnate near their mouths and near the sea - if you consider all this you can scarcely help thinking that India was once a sea, which by degrees has been filled up by the alluvium of the streams."^[45]

John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson write in the MacTutor History of Mathematics archive:

"Important contributions to geodesy and geography were also made by al-Biruni. He introduced techniques to measure the earth and distances on it using triangulation. He found the radius of the earth to be 6339.6 km, a value not obtained in the West until the 16th century. His Masudic canon contains a table giving the coordinates of six hundred places, almost all of which he had direct knowledge."^[46]

Fielding H. Garrison wrote in the History of Medicine:

"The Saracens themselves were the originators not only of algebra, chemistry, and geology, but of many of the so-called improvements or refinements of civilization..."

George Sarton, the father of the history of science, wrote in the Introduction to the History of Science:

"We find in his (Jabir, Geber) writings remarkably sound views on methods of chemical research, a theory on the geologic formation of metals (the six metals differ essentially because of different proportions of sulphur and mercury in them)..."^[42]

In cartography, the Piri Reis map drawn by the Ottoman cartographer Piri Reis in 1513, was one of the earliest world maps to include the Americas, and perhaps the first to include Antarctica. His map of the world was considered the most accurate in the 16th century.

In the history of mathematics, "Islamic mathematics" refers to the mathematics developed by mathematicians of the Islamic culture, from the beginning of Islam until the 17th century — mostly including Arab and Persian mathematicians, as well as other Muslims and non-Muslims that were a part of the Islamic culture. Islamic mathematics is also known as Arabic mathematics due to most of the texts on Islamic mathematics being written in Arabic. Islamic mathematics is one of the main aspects of the greater history of Islamic science, and also an important part of the history of mathematics.^[47]

Islamic science and mathematics flourished under the Islamic Caliphate (also known as the Arab Empire or Islamic Empire) established across the Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa, Sicily, the Iberian Peninsula, and in parts of France and Pakistan (known as India at the time) in the 8th century. Although most Islamic texts on mathematics were written in Arabic, they were not all written by Arabs, since — much like the status of Greek in the Hellenistic world — Arabic was used as the written language of non-Arab scholars throughout the Islamic world at the time. Many of the most important Islamic mathematicians were Persians.

John J. O'Connor and Edmund F. Robertson wrote in the MacTutor History of Mathematics archive:

"Recent research paints a new picture of the debt that we owe to Islamic mathematics. Certainly many of the ideas which were previously thought to have been brilliant new conceptions due to European mathematicians of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are now known to have been developed by Arabic/Islamic mathematicians around four centuries earlier."^[48]

The mathematician Al-Khwarizmi, from whose name the word algorithm derives, contributed significantly to algebra, which is named after his book, Kitab al-Jabr, the first book on elementary algebra.^[49] He also introduced what is now known as Arabic numerals, which originally came from India, though Muslim mathematicians did make several refinements to the number system, such as the introduction of decimal point notation.

The first known proof by mathematical induction appears in a book written by Al-Karaji around 1000 AD, who used it to prove the binomial theorem, Pascal's triangle, and the sum of integral cubes.^[50] The historian of mathematics, F. Woepcke,^[51] praised Al-Karaji for being "the first who introduced the theory of algebraic calculus." Ibn al-Haytham was the first mathematician to derive the formula for the sum of the fourth powers, and using the method of induction, he developed a method for determining the general formula for the sum of any integral powers, which was fundamental to the development of integral calculus.^[52] In the 11th century, the poet-mathematician Omar Khayyám was the first to find general geometric solutions of cubic equations and laid the foundations for the development of analytic geometry and non-Euclidean geometry. In the 12th century, Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi found algebraic and numerical solutions to cubic equations and was the first to discover the derivative of cubic polynomials, an important result in differential calculus.^[53]

In the mechanics field of physics, the eldest Banū Mūsā brother, Muhammad ibn Musa, in his Astral Motion and The Force of Attraction, discovered that there was a force of attraction between heavenly bodies in the 9th century,^[54] foreshadowing Newton's law of universal gravitation.^[55] His contemporary, Thabit ibn Qurra, rejected the Peripatetic and Aristotelian notions of a "natural place" for each element. He instead proposed a theory of motion in which both the upward and downward motions are caused by weight, and that the order of the universe is a result of two competing attractions (jadhb): one of these being "between the sublunar and celestial elements", and the other being "between all parts of each element separately".^[56]

In the early 11th century, Ibn al-Haytham discussed the theory of attraction between masses, and it seems that he was aware of the magnitude of acceleration due to gravity. Ibn al-Haytham also discovered Galileo Galilei's law of inertia, known as Newton's first law of motion, when he stated that a body moves perpetually unless an external force stops it or changes its direction of motion.^[57]

Nobel Prize winning physicist Abdus Salam wrote the following on Ibn al-Haytham:

"Ibn-al-Haitham (Alhazen, 965-1039 CE) was one of the greatest physicists of all time. He made experimental contributions of the highest order in optics. He enunciated that a ray of light, in passing through a medium, takes the path which is the easier and 'quicker'. In this he was anticipating Fermat's Principle of Least Time by many centuries. He enunciated the law of inertia, later to become Newton's first law of motion. Part V of Roger Bacon's "Opus Majus" is practically an annotation to Ibn al Haitham's Optics."^[11]

Ibn al-Haytham's contemporary, Avicenna, discovered the concept of momentum, when he referred to impetus as being proportional to weight times velocity, a precursor to the concept of momentum in Newton's second law of motion.^[58] He is thus considered the father of the fundamental concept of momentum in physics.^[59] His theory of motion was also consistent with the concept of inertia in Newton's first law of motion.^[58]

In the early 12th century, Ibn Bajjah (Avempace) was the first to state that there is always a reaction force for every force exerted, a precursor to Gottfried Leibniz's idea of force which underlies Newton's third law of motion.^[60] His theory of motion had an important influence on later physicists like Galileo Galilei.^[61] Avempace's contemporary, Hibat Allah Abu'l-Barakat al-Baghdaadi, was the first to negate Aristotle's idea that a constant force produces uniform motion, and he instead argued that a force applied continuously produces acceleration, a fundamental law of classical mechanics.^[62] He described acceleration as the rate of change of velocity, a precursor to the concept of acceleration in Newton's second law of motion.^[63]

In 1121, al-Khazini, in his treatise The Book of the Balance of Wisdom, was the first to propose the theory that the gravities of bodies vary depending on their distances from the centre of the Earth. This phenomenon was not proven until Newton's law of universal gravitation in the 18th century. Al-Khazini was also one of the first to clearly differentiate between force, mass, and weight, and he showed awareness of the weight of the air and of its decrease in density with altitude, and discovered that there was greater density of water when nearer to the Earth's centre.^[64]

Islamic medicine (al-tibb) was a genre of medical writing intended as an alternative to the Greek-based medical system (See: Galen). Although it initially encouraged traditional medical practices of Muhammad's time (those mentioned in the Qur'an), Muslim physicians continued to make many advances in the field of medicine.

Muslim physicians contributed significantly to the field of medicine, including the subjects of anatomy and physiology. Abu al-Qasim (Abulcasis), regarded as the father of modern surgery,^[65] contributed greatly to the discipline of medical surgery with his Kitab al-Tasrif ("Book of Concessions"), a 30-volume medical encyclopedia which was later translated to Latin and used in European and Muslim medical schools for centuries. Avicenna, who is considered the father of modern medicine and one of the greatest medical scholars in history, wrote The Canon of Medicine and The Book of Healing, which remained popular textbooks in the Islamic world and medieval Europe for centuries. The Arab physician Ibn al-Nafis was the first to describe the pulmonary circulation of the blood. In the 15th century, the Persian work by Mansur ibn Muhammad ibn al-Faqih Ilyas entitled Tashrih al-badan ("Anatomy of the body") contained comprehensive diagrams of the body's structural, nervous and circulatory systems. Other medical advancements came in the fields of pharmacology and pharmacy.^[66]

George Sarton, the father of the history of science, wrote in the Introduction to the History of Science:^[42]

"Through their medical investigations they not merely widened the horizons of medicine, but enlarged humanistic concepts generally. [...] Thus it can hardly have been accidental that those researches should have led them that were inevitably beyond the reach of Greek masters. If it is regarded as symbolic that the most spectacular achievement of the mid-twentieth century is atomic fission and the nuclear bomb, likewise it would not seem fortuitous that the early Muslim's medical endeavor should have led to a discovery that was quite as revolutionary though possibly more beneficent."

"A philosophy of self-centredness, under whatever disguise, would be both incomprehensible and reprehensible to the Muslim mind. That mind was incapable of viewing man, whether in health or sickness as isolated from God, from fellow men, and from the world around him. It was probably inevitable that the Muslims should have discovered that disease need not be born within the patient himself but may reach from outside, in other words, that they should have been the first to establish clearly the existence of contagion."

"One of the most famous exponents of Muslim universalism and an eminent figure in Islamic learning was Ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna (981-1037). For a thousand years he has retained his original renown as one of the greatest thinkers and medical scholars in history. His most important medical works are the Qanun (Canon) and a treatise on Cardiac drugs. The 'Qanun fi-l-Tibb' is an immense encyclopedia of medicine. It contains some of the most illuminating thoughts pertaining to distinction of mediastinitis from pleurisy; contagious nature of phthisis; distribution of diseases by water and soil; careful description of skin troubles; of sexual diseases and perversions; of nervous ailments."

"We have reason to believe that when, during the crusades, Europe at last began to establish hospitals, they were inspired by the Arabs of near East.... The first hospital in Paris, Les Quinze-vingt, was founded by Louis IX after his return from the crusade 1254-1260."

Medical inventions in the Muslim world included oral anesthesia, inhalant anesthesia, distilled alcohol, medical drugs, chemotherapeutical drugs, injection syringe, a number of antiseptics, and many other medical treatments and surgical instruments.

In the optics field of physics, Ibn Sahl (c. 940-1000), a mathematician and physicist connected with the court of Baghdad, wrote a treatise On Burning Mirrors and Lenses in 984 in which he set out his understanding of how curved mirrors and lenses bend and focus light. Ibn Sahl is now credited with first discovering the law of refraction, usually called Snell's law.^[67][68] He used this law to work out the shapes of lenses that focus light with no geometric aberrations, known as anaclastic lenses.

Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen) (965-1039), the father of optics and the pioneer of the scientific method, in his Book of Optics, developed a broad theory of light and optics that explained vision, using geometry and anatomy, which stated that each point on an illuminated area or object radiates light rays in every direction, but that only one ray from each point, which strikes the eye perpendicularly, can be seen. The other rays strike at different angles and are not seen. He used the example of the camera obscura and pinhole camera, which produces an inverted image, to support his argument. This contradicted Ptolemy's theory of vision that objects are seen by rays of light emanating from the eyes. Alhazen held light rays to be streams of minute particles that travelled at a finite speed. He improved accurately described the refraction of light, and discovered the laws of refraction.

He also carried out the first experiments on the dispersion of light into its constituent colours. His major work Kitab al-Manazir was translated into Latin in the Middle Ages, as well as his book dealing with the colors of sunset. He dealt at length with the theory of various physical phenomena like shadows, eclipses, and the rainbow. He also attempted to explain binocular vision and the moon illusion. Through these extensive researches on optics, he is considered the father of modern optics.

Ibn al-Haytham also correctly argued that we see objects because the sun's rays of light, which he believed to be streams of tiny particles traveling in straight lines, are reflected from objects into our eyes. He understood that light must travel at a large but finite velocity, and that refraction is caused by the velocity being different in different substances. He also studied spherical and parabolic mirrors, and understood how refraction by a lens will allow images to be focused and magnification to take place. He understood mathematically why a spherical mirror produces aberration.

Robert S. Elliot wrote the following on Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen):

"Alhazen was one of the ablest students of optics of all times and published a seven-volume treatise on this subject which had great celebrity throughout the medieval period and strongly influenced Western thought, notably that of Roger Bacon and Kepler. This treatise discussed concave and convex mirrors in both cylindrical and spherical geometries, anticipated Fermat's law of least time, and considered refraction and the magnifying power of lenses. It contained a remarkably lucid description of the optical system of the eye, which study led Alhazen to the belief that light consists of rays which originate in the object seen, and not in the eye, a view contrary to that of Euclid and Ptolemy."^[69]

In psychology, the Arab physician Al-Razi (Rhazes) was the first to study psychotherapy and made significant advances in psychiatry in his landmark texts El-Mansuri and Al-Hawi in the 10th century, which presented definitions, symptoms, and treatments for problems related to mental health and mental illness. He also ran the psychiatric ward of a Baghdad hospital. Such institutions could not exist in Europe at the time because of fear of demonic possessions.

Ibn al-Haytham is considered the founder of psychophysics and experimental psychology,^[70] for his pioneering work on the on the psychology of visual perception in the Book of Optics.^[71] In Book III of the Book of Optics, Ibn al-Haytham was the first scientist to argue that vision occurs in the brain, rather than the eyes. He pointed out that personal experience has an affect on what people see and how they see, and that vision and perception are subjective. He explained possible errors in vision in detail, and as an example, describes how a small child with less experience may have more difficulty interpreting what he/she sees. He also gives an example of an adult that can make mistakes in vision because of how one's experience suggests that he/she is seeing one thing, when he/she is really seeing something else.^[72]

Ibn al-Haytham was also the first to combine physics and psychology to form psychophysics, and his investigations and experiments on psychology and visual perception included sensation, variations in sensitivity, sensation of touch, perception of colours, perception of darkness, the psychological explanation of the moon illusion, and binocular vision.^[70]

Significant contributions were made to the social sciences in the Islamic civilization.

Abū al-Rayhān al-Bīrūnī (973-1048) has been described as "the first anthropologist".^[43] He wrote detailed comparative studies on the anthropology of peoples, religions and cultures in the Middle East, Mediterranean and South Asia. Biruni's anthropology of religion was only possible for a scholar deeply immersed in the lore of other nations.^[73] Biruni has also been praised by several scholars for his Islamic anthropology.^[74] Biruni is also regarded as the father of Indology.^[75] His contemporary, al-Muqaddasi, also made contributions to the social sciences.

Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) is regarded as the father of demography,^[76] cultural history,^[77] historiography,^[78] the philosophy of history,^[79] sociology,^[76][79] and the social sciences,^[80] and is viewed as one of the forerunners of modern economics. He is best known for his Muqaddimah (Latinized as Prolegomenon). Some of the ideas he introduced in the Muqaddimah include social philosophy, social conflict theories, social cohesion, social capital, social networks, dialectics, the Laffer curve, the historical method, systemic bias, and the rise and fall of civilizations. Other ideas introduced in early Muslim sociology include feedback loops, systems theory, and corporate social responsibility.

Franz Rosenthal wrote in the History of Muslim Historiography:

"Muslim historiography has at all times been united by the closest ties with the general development of scholarship in Islam, and the position of historical knowledge in MusIim education has exercised a decisive influence upon the intellectual level of historicai writing....The Muslims achieved a definite advance beyond previous historical writing in the sociological understanding of history and the systematisation of historiography. The development of modern historical writing seems to have gained considerably in speed and substance through the utilization of a Muslim Literature which enabled western historians, from the seventeenth century on, to see a large section of the world through foreign eyes. The Muslim historiography helped indirectly and modestly to shape present day historical thinking."^[81]

A significant number of inventions and technological advances were made in the Muslim world, as well as adopting and improving technologies centuries before they were used in the West. For example, papermaking was adopted from China many centuries before it was known in the West.^[82] Iron was a vital industry in Muslim lands and was given importance in the Qur'an.^[83][84] The knowledge of gunpowder was also transmitted from China to Islamic countries, through which it was later passed to Europe.^[85] Knowledge of chemical processes (alchemy and chemistry) and distillation (alcohol) also spread to Europe from the Muslim world. Numerous contributions were made in laboratory practices such as "refined techniques of distillation, the preparation of medicines, and the production of salts."^[86] Advances were made in irrigation and farming, using technology such as the windmill. Crops such as almonds and citrus fruit were brought to Europe through al-Andalus, and sugar cultivation was gradually adopted by the Europeans.^[87]

Fielding H. Garrison wrote in the History of Medicine:

"The Saracens themselves were the originators not only of algebra, chemistry, and geology, but of many of the so-called improvements or refinements of civilization, such as street lamps, window-panes, firework, stringed instruments, cultivated fruits, perfumes, spices, etc..."

A significant number of other inventions were also produced by medieval Muslim scientists and engineers, including inventors such as Abbas Ibn Firnas, Taqi al-Din, and especially al-Jazari, who is considered the "father of robotics"^[39] and "father of modern day engineering".^[88] Some of the inventions produced by medieval Muslim scientists and engineers include the camera obscura, coffee, hang glider, hard soap, shampoo, distilled alcohol, liquefaction, crystallisation, purification, oxidisation, evaporation, filtration, uric acid, nitric acid, alembic, crankshaft, valve, suction piston pump, mechanical clocks driven by water and weights, programmable humanoid robot, combination lock, quilting, pointed arch, scalpel, bone saw, forceps, surgical catgut, windmill, inoculation, smallpox vaccine, fountain pen, frequency analysis, cryptanalysis, three-course meal, glasses, Persian carpet, modern cheque, celestial globe, incendiary devices, rocket, torpedo, and royal pleasure gardens.^[39]

The history of science in the Islamic world, like all history, is filled with questions of interpretation. Historians of science generally consider that the study of Islamic science, like all history, must be seen within the particular circumstances of time and place. A. I. Sabra opened a recent overview of Arabic science by noting, "I trust no one would wish to contest the proposition that all of history is local history ... and the history of science is no exception."^[89]

Some scholars avoid such local historical approaches and seek to identify essential relations between Islam and science that apply at all times and places. The Pakistani physicist, Pervhez Hoodbhoy, portrayed "religious fanaticism to be the dominant relation of religion and science in Islam". Sociologist Toby Huff maintained that Islam lacked the "rationalist view of man and nature" that became dominant in Europe. The Persian philosopher and historian of science, Seyyed Hossein Nasr saw a more positive connection in "an Islamic science that was spiritual and antisecular" which "point[ed] the way to a new 'Islamic science' that would avoid the dehumanizing and despiritualizing mistakes of Western science."^[90]

Nasr identified a distinctly Muslim approach to science, flowing from Islamic monotheism and the related theological prohibition against portraying graven images. In science, this is reflected in a philosophical disinterest in describing individual material objects, their properties and characteristics and instead a concern with the ideal, the Platonic form, which exists in matter as an expression of the will of the Creator. Thus one can "see why mathematics was to make such a strong appeal to the Muslim: its abstract nature furnished the bridge that Muslims were seeking between multiplicity and unity."^[91]

Rather than identifying such essential relations between Islam and science, some historians of science question the value of drawing boundaries that label the sciences, and the scientists who practice them, in specific cultural, civilizational, or linguistic terms. Consider the case of Nasir al-Din Tusi (1201–1274), who invented his mathematical theorem, the Tusi Couple, while he was director of Maragheh observatory. Tusi's patron and founder of the observatory was the non-Muslim Mongol conqueror of Baghdad, Hulagu Khan. The Tusi-couple "was first encountered in an Arabic text, written by a man who spoke Persian at home, and used that theorem, like many other astronomers who followed him and were all working in the "Arabic/Islamic" world, in order to reform classical Greek astronomy, and then have his theorem in turn be translated into Byzantine Greek towards the beginning of the fourteenth century, only to be used later by Copernicus and others in Latin texts of Renaissance Europe."^[92]

• Timeline of Islamic science and technology
• Islamic studies
• Inventions in the Muslim world
• List of Muslim scientists
  • List of Arab scientists and scholars
  • List of Iranian scientists and scholars
• Islamic Golden Age
  • Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain
• Latin translations of the 12th century
• Scholasticism

• Campbell, Donald (2001). Arabian Medicine and Its Influence on the Middle Ages. Routledge. (Reprint of the London, 1926 edition). ISBN 0415231884.
• d'Alverny, Marie-Thérèse. "Translations and Translators", in Robert L. Benson and Giles Constable, eds., Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century, p. 421-462. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Pr., 1982.
• Eglash, Ron (1999). African Fractals: Modern Computing and Indigenous Design. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-2614-0.
• Hobson, John M. (2004). The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521547245.
• Huff, Toby E. (2003). The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China, and the West. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521529948.
• Joseph, George G. (2000). The Crest of the Peacock. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691006598.
• Katz, Victor J. (1998). A History of Mathematics: An Introduction. Addison Wesley. ISBN 0321016181.
• Levere, Trevor Harvey (2001). Transforming Matter: A History of Chemistry from Alchemy to the Buckyball. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-6610-3.
• Mintz, Sidney W. (1986). Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History (Reprint ed.). Penguin (Non-Classics). ISBN 978-0140092332.
• Phillips, William D. (1992). The Worlds of Christopher Columbus. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052144652X. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Turner, Howard R. (1997). Science in Medieval Islam: An Illustrated Introduction. University of Texas Press. ISBN 0292781490.

• Saliba, George. "Whose Science is Arabic Science in Renaissance Europe?".
• Habibi, Golareh. Review article, Science Creative Quarterly.
• An interactive guide to Muslim scientists whose multi-disciplinary contributions sparked the flame of learning and productivity
• Islam, Knowledge, and Science
• History of Science and Technology in Islam
• Islamic Civilization
• The Islamization of science or the marginalization of Islam
• Muslimheritage
• 1001inventions
• Science and religion in Islam