Question 1:Discuss the main achievements in the major fields of arts and sciences during the golden age

of Abbasid caliphate? Explain the factors that led to the decline of that glorious period of time in the
history of Islam?

Ans: Achievements in the golden age of Abbasid Caliphate:

During the Abbasid Caliphate, the Islamic Empire produced significant advancements in a number of
disciplines, including mathematics, literature, philosophy, science, and medicine. The Islamic Golden Age
spanned from 790 to 1258.Education was highly valued in Islamic society at the time. In
Baghdad, the first public universities were built, where philosophy and literature were studied. Arab
storytellers drew on a variety of sources to create poetry, history, theology, philosophy, and fables.
"Thousand and One Nights," a compilation of Arab folk stories, was the most well-known. Muslim
philosophers' works were translated and preserved by Muslim scholars. This epoch
generated two philosophies: Falsafa, a logic based on Greek philosophy, mathematics, and science, and
Kalam, explanation and reasoning of Islamic religious belief.

Achievements in the field of arts and sciences are given below:

Arts: Islamic art and design flourished during this period. Complex geometric designs involving
tessellating shapes adorned floors and ceilings. Development in ceramics and glazes led to the
production of pottery. Beautiful gardens with water features brightened and cooled the city.

During the Abbasid era, Baghdad and Samarra were the cultural hubs of the Islamic world, and
artwork and architecture produced during this golden age is distinctive in its style and influences .
Abbasid art is characterized by its arabesque designs. The designs were geometric and repetitive,
featuring swirls, lines, and shapes. The style originated in wall carvings in mosques, houses and palaces.
As the arabesque design flourished, it spread to other sources of artwork, such as wood, metal and
pottery, and was no longer limited to wall carvings, but rather was created with paint, ink, and wood
carvings.

Color became an important factor in Abbasid pottery produced in Samarra. Pottery was glazed in
white and then painted over with luster, making the pottery gold and silver in color, which resembled
precious metals. Because of its sheen, lusterware looked expensive and quickly became popular and
sought after.

One of the most famous examples of early Abbasid architecture is, without a doubt, the Round City
of Baghdad or madina al-salam in the Romanized transcription. Built on the orders of caliph al-Mansur,
the Round City was meant to epitomize the might and authority of the Abbasid Empire.

Another important case of Abbasid architecture was the palace complex in Samarra, the second
capital city of the Abbasid caliphate. It was founded in 836 to replace Baghdad as the imperial center
and functioned as a seat of the dynasty until 892 when the capital moved back to Baghdad.

Science : A love of knowledge was evident in Baghdad, established in 762 CE as the capital city of
the Abbasid Caliphate in modern-day Iraq. Scholars, philosophers, doctors, and other thinkers all
gathered in this center of trade and cultural development.
 The translation movement from other languages into Arabic and the flourishing of Arabic science
did not start with the Caliph al-Ma’mun whose rule extended from 813 to 833 or with Hunayn ibn
Ishaq.It started during the Umayyad Caliphate and continued during the early Abbasid Caliphs.

Jabir flourished during the second half of the eighth century CE. He was a universal scholar, with a
wide-ranging knowledge, a real polymath. Scores of books carry his name. Scholars of recent times
raised doubts about the time of these works. One of them is Paul Kraus who claimed that such works
could not have been written in the second half of the eighth century and he conjectured that they were
written in the ninth century. He thought that Arabic science did not develop until the time of Hunyan
ibn Ishaq. He gave few other assumptions to prove that the Jabirian corpus was written in the
third/ninth century. The assumptions of Paul Kraus were refuted by several scholars.

Scholars living in Baghdad translated Greek texts and made scientific discoveries—which is why
this era, from the seventh to thirteenth centuries CE, is named the Golden Age of Islam.

Decline of glorious period of Islam:

it's generally accepted that the golden age of Islamic science stretched from about 800–1400 ad,
and its decline started more than a century before Western colonialism began in the late fifteenth
century. The period is traditionally said to have ended with the collapse of the Abbasid caliphate due to
sectarian violence and regional revolts , Mongol invasions and the Siege of Baghdad in 1258.After
around two hundred years, the caliphate fragmented into independent kingdoms. The main event that
led to the downfall of the Abbasid caliphate was the conquering of Baghdad by the Persians in 1055 C.E.

The ‘Abbasid caliphate in the fourth/tenth century suffered from a sharp economic decline. This
was the result of several factors, mainly civil wars, the Zanj and Qarmatian revolts, political interference
by the Turkish and Daylamite soldier, disunity among the Ummah, moral decadence, decline in
intellectual and scientific activity, loss of dynamism in Islam ...

The political power of the Abbasids largely ended with the rise of the Buyids and the Seljuq Turks
in 1258 CE. Though lacking in political power, the dynasty continued to claim authority in religious
matters until after the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517.