The Golden Age of Islam

Muslims in History

Sa
 Sources
The University of Calgary the Islamic World Until 1600
http://
www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/islam/index.ht

Cleveland, William L. The Development of Islamic

Civilization in A History of the Modern Middle
East (Third Edition) Part I pp. 5-57 (Westview,
2004)

Philip Hitti The Arabs: A Short History, ( Princeton

University Press: 1949).

Tarabay, Ali and Wakim, Jamal Arabs and Muslims in

History (
 Paper Question

 What were the characteristics of Arab and

Islamic civilization?
 In your opinion how did these
characteristics support in the
development of the Arts and Sciences?
 The Golden Age
 In the ninth century two imperial powers stood opposite to each
other Charlemagne in the West and Harun al-Rashid in the East.

 Harun al-Rashid and Charlemagne were allies they exchanged

letters of friendly relations.

 During the reign of Harun al-Rashid Baghdad was the world center
of wealth and international significance, standing against its rival of
Byzantium.

 Rashid’s era witnessed the core of the development of Byzantine

and Sasanide civilizations into a new awakening. This awakening
was due in large measure to foreign influences.
 The Golden Age

The Arabic reading world was in position of the chief philosophical works of Aristotle,
of chief Neo-Platonic Commentators and of most of the medical writings of Galen, as
well as Persian and Indian sciences works.


This development was enhanced by The Caliphs generous patronage of artists and
artisans of all kinds.

Economic prosperity and intellectual exchange was enhanced by the trade rout
established by the great 7,000-mile Silk Road from Xi’an [Sian], China to Baghdad—
then the two largest cities in the world—helped provide the wealth.
 Translation
 The ensuing literary florescence was promoted by the capture of a group of
Chinese papermakers at the Battle of Talas in 751.

 The Abbasid encouraged translation from pre-Islamic languages,

particularly Middle Persian, Greek, and Syriac.

 This activity provided a channel through which older thought could enter
and be reoriented by Islamic societies.

 In the field of mathematics, al-Khwārizmī, from whose name the word

algorithm is derived, creatively combined Hellenistic and Sanskritic
concepts.

 The word algebra derives from the title of his major work, Kitāb al-jabr wa
al-muqābalah (“The Book of Integration and Equation”).

Encyclopedia Britanica “The

Abbasides”
Tolerance and Pluralism
 The Abbasids ability to expand and develop the Arab
Islamic Civilization was mainly due to the principle of
tolerance leading to the development of a pluralistic
society.
 The State was secular administering Jews, Christians,
non believers, Zoroastrians and Muslims.
 In Medina the Prophet started this process by making a
defense alliance with the Jewish tribes that supported
him. ( Mithaq al-Madina). The Abbasid followed this
example.
 Jewish scholars as masters of Arabic, Hebrew and Latin
languages were seminal in the translation process.
 Characteristics of
Islamic
Civilization
 Arabic Language (Umayyad and
Arabization)
 Islam (Umar Conquest and spread of
Koranic Education)
 Tolerance ( Abbasid and equality with
non-Muslims)
 Translation ( Umar, Abbasid,
Umayyads)
 Paper and Education ( Islam and
 The Arts
 When studying Islamic art we should keep in mind that the
presence of Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian, and other artists in such
regions was instrumental in developing the civilizations of the
Sasanide and the Greek Byzantine Empires that were conquered by
the Arabs .

 Not all Islamic art had a specifically religious purpose, unique to the
Islamic faith. However, there are certain trends in the art of the
Islamic world that distinguish it from the art of other regions, and
which signify the influence of the Islamic faith and world outlook on
artistic work.

 One of the most important distinguishing features of Islamic art is

the absence of iconography in religious contexts
 Architecture
 The most important building in the Islamic
world was the mosque, followed by the
royal palace.
 Many early mosques were in fact
converted Christian churches or
Zoroastrian fire temples in the newly
acquired Islamic lands.
 Intricate tile designs on the Masjid-i Shah in Isfahan
Courtesy of IslamiCity
 Intricate tile designs on the Masjid-i Shah in Isfahan
Courtesy of IslamiCity
 Calligraphy
 From the Greek word for "beautiful writing," calligraphy was
considered the highest art form in Islam, for several reasons.

 Muslims believe that God used the Arabic language to recite the Qur'an
to Muhammad, and for that reason, it has a spiritual meaning for
Muslims.

 Using words as artistry avoided the problem of using pictorial images.

Whereas decorative writing all but disappeared in Europe with the
advent of the printing press, the Islamic world retained it as an art form
long after the necessity of writing longhand was removed by modern
technology.

 Calligraphy adorned architecture, decorative arts, coins, jewellery,

textiles, weapons, tools, paintings, and manuscripts.
 Calligraphy
 Although the Arabic language and script existed before Islam, the
spread of the religion also facilitated the spread of the language
throughout the new Muslim lands.

 Arabic became a basic component of Islamic culture, mostly

because it was the language of the Qur'an.

 Caliph Abd al-Malik (r. 685-705) decreed that Arabic should be the
administrative language of the empire.

 There were many Muslim regions, of course, in which Arabic was

not the native language. Persian was the major non-Arabic
language spoken in the Islamic world, and in the 7th century it had
its own script.
 Calligraphy
 The Persian language, also known as Farsi,
added four letters to the Arabic script to
represent sounds that existed in Persian, but not
in Arabic.
 The Turks later also added another letter to
render a distinctly Turkish sound, although
modern Turkish no longer uses the Arabic script.
The Arabic script is still used to write the
Kazakh, Uzbek, and Tajik languages in Central
Asia, as well as Urdu in present-day Pakistan.
Calligraphy
 Painting
 Islamic art discouraged the use of pictorial imagery, opting instead to use
such decorative arts as calligraphy or geometric shapes, painting in the
Muslim world was not completely devoid of human and animal images.

 The distinguishing feature of Islamic pictorial art was that it was secular.

 The earliest pictures occurred in illustrated manuscripts, particularly those

relating to science. Medical books featured drawings of the human body, for
example, which was acceptable because it did not have any religious
connotations.

 Although some theologians still disapproved, pictorial art grew in popularity

as Islamic rulers commissioned artists to develop new ways to portray their
world. Some of this art featured battle scenes or the enemy, the monarchs
themselves, musicians, dancers, or animals. In places such as Egypt, Iran,
and Central Asia, much of the early Islamic pictorial art was adopted from
pre-Islamic artistic traditions.
 Painting
 The Fatimid and Seljuk dynasties began painting
ordinary people in the 12th and 13th centuries, and
Persian miniature painting began under the patronage of
the Il-Khanate in the 14th century.

 The Il-Khans paid particular attention to patronizing the

arts, in an attempt to repair some of the damage their
invasion in the early 13th century had caused.

 With its Mongol roots, the Il-Khanate opened the door

for Chinese artistic influences to travel to Iran, which
can be seen in the Persian art of that period.
 Islam and Knowledge
 Throughout the Qur'an one can find a strong emphasis on the value
of knowledge in the Islamic faith.

 The Qur'an encourages Muslims to learn and acquire knowledge,

stemming from, but not limited to, the Muslim emphasis on knowing
the unity of God.

 Because Muslims believe that God is all-knowing, they also believe

that the human world's quest for knowledge leads to further
knowing of God.

 Muslims must thus pursue knowledge not only of God's laws, but of
the natural world as well, extending the frontiers of human
knowledge.
 Islam and Knowledge


Unlike the revealed knowledge of the

Qur'an, Muslims believe that human
knowledge is not perfect, and requires
constant exploration and advancement
through research and experimentation.
 According to the Qur'an, learning and gaining
knowledge is the highest form of religious
activity for Muslims, and the one which is most
pleasing to God.
 Islam and Knowledge
 In the medieval period of Islam, from about the 9th to the 14th centuries, the
Muslims led the world in their pursuit of knowledge.

 The Islamic world at this time was the most scientifically advanced region of the
globe, while also making important contributions in philosophy and literature.

 Part of the Muslim advantage came from the synthesis of ideas from diverse cultures
such as the Greek, Persian, Egyptian, Indian, and Chinese, when the Islamic empire
expanded in the 7th and 8th centuries.

 The Muslims made a priority of translating scholarly books from other cultures into
Arabic and using them in developing Muslim ideas.

 The Muslims took Aristotle's philosophy, Ptolemy's geography, Hippocrates' medicine,

as well as Persian and Indian works on astronomy and mathematics, and either
added to or contradicted them with new discoveries. Every major Islamic city in
medieval times had an extensive library; in Cordoba and Baghdad the libraries claim
to have had over 400,000 books.
 Medicine
 Muslim physicians were responsible for many notable developments
in the field of medicine. While European "hospitals" at this time were
usually simply monasteries where the sick were told they would live
or die according to God's will, not human intervention, Muslim
hospitals pioneered the practices of diagnosis, cure, and future
prevention.

 The first hospital in the Islamic world was built in Damascus in 707,
and soon most major Islamic cities had hospitals, in which hygiene
was emphasized and healing was a priority. Hospitals were open 24
hours a day, and many doctors did not charge for their services.

 The medical school at the University of Jundishapur, once the capital

of Sassanid Persia, became the largest in the Islamic world by the 9th
century. Its location in Central Asia allowed it to incorporate medical
practices from Greece, China, and India, as well as developing new
techniques and theories.
 Medicine

 Al-Razi, a 9th century Persian physician, made the first major Muslim
contribution to medicine when he developed treatments for smallpox
and measles. He also made significant observations about hay fever,
kidney stones, and scabies, and first used opium as an anesthetic.

 A generation later, Ibn Sina earned his place as one of the greatest
physicians in the world, with his most famous book used in European
medical schools for centuries.

 He is credited with discovering the contagious nature of diseases like

tuberculosis, which he correctly concluded could be transmitted
through the air, and led to the introduction of quarantine as a means
of limiting the spread of such infectious diseases.
 Medicine
 Other Muslim physicians accurately diagnosed
the plague, diphtheria, leprosy, rabies, diabetes,
gout, epilepsy, and hemophilia long before the
rest of the world.

 In the 10th century, Al-Zahravi first conducted

surgery for the eye, ear, and throat, as well as
performing amputations and cauterizations. He
also invented several surgical instruments,
including those for the inner ear, the throat, and
the urethra.
 Astronomy
 The medieval Islamic world made significant advancements in the
field of astronomy. Part of the reason for the Muslim interest in
astronomy is unique to the Islamic faith, and grew from the Muslim
attempt to solve practical problems.

 The Muslim calendar is a lunar calendar, for example, the ability to

see, and even predict, the arrival of the new moon was fundamental
to marking the beginning and ending of each month.

 This issue was particularly significant for the month of Ramadan,

when fasting is required during the day, and for determining the
date of the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

 Secondly, the study of astronomy grew out of a need to map the

coordinates of the stars, in order to determine the direction of Mecca
from any city, because Muslims are required to face that direction
when praying
 Pharmacology
 Muslims also advanced the field of pharmacology.

 They experimented with the medical effects of various herbs and

other drugs, and familiarized themselves with anesthetics used in
India.

 There is evidence that some Muslim physicians also adopted the

practice of acupuncture from China. Despite many advancements in
medicine, however, Muslim physicians still based their work on the
idea of the ancient Greek, Galen, that the body was made up of the
same four elements as the world in general - earth, air, fire, and
water.

 Contrary to Christian beliefs, Muslim physicians concluded that

illness was not due to supernatural forces, but rather to an
imbalance in the body's elements, which physicians were able, in
many cases, to correct.
 Astronomy
 Observatories were first established in the Islamic world, in major cities
such as Baghdad, Hamadan, Toledo, Maragha, Samarkand, and Istanbul,
and new instruments were developed.

 The Muslim invention of the astrolabe was one of the most important in
astronomy until the invention of the telescope in the 17th century.

 Muslims were also the first astronomers to challenge the long-accepted

theories of Ptolemy and Aristotle regarding eclipses, planetary orbits, and
the position of the stars.

 In the early 11th century, the Muslim physicist, Ibn al-Haytham, measured
the height of the earth's atmosphere to be the equivalent of about 52
kilometers; today we know it is about 50 kilometers.

 In the early 14th century, Ibn al-Shatir designed models for the movement
of the moon and the planet Mercury, which are very similar to those later
done by Copernicus in the 16th century.
 Mathematics
 Al-Khwarizmi was the first major Muslim mathematician, and he is most
famous for introducing the field of algebra into the discipline.

 He introduced Arabic numerals to Europe, which replaced Roman numerals

in many places by the 11th century and became known as algorithms,
derived from his name.

 Muslims also developed trigonometry as a distinct branch of mathematics.

 In the 9th century, Al-Batani was the first mathematician to use the concept
of signes and cotangents.

 Thabit Ibn Qurra studied conics, especially the parabola and ellipse, and
helped develop an early form of calculus.

 Al-Buzjani furthered their work a century later in developing theories of

triangles and conics.
 Philosophy
 The Islamic world produced many great philosophers in the medieval
period, and as in other religions, a rift between philosophy and
theology soon developed.

 The debate largely revolved around the nature and existence of God,
and the legitimacy of the prophecy.

 Many Muslim philosophers were influenced by the works of Aristotle

and Plato, and struggled to apply the principles of these ancient
Greeks to the Islamic world.

 That is not to say, however, that Islamic philosophy would not have
developed without the impetus of Greek thought. Muslim
philosophers also took ideas from the Qur'an as a starting point for
pondering philosophical issues.
 Philosophy


At the heart of the debate between

philosophy and theology were
arguments for faith versus reason. In
the event of a conflict between human
knowledge and revealed knowledge,
Muslim
the philosophers
philosophers were
asked, Muslims
which shouldfirst, and
philosophers second. Their faith in Islam led
prevail?
them to recognize that even reason could not be
used to fully understand God or his knowledge.
 Philosophy
 Al-Farabi and other early Muslim philosophers tried to find rational
arguments for the existence of God.

 Theologians, led by Al-Ghazali, defended religion by pointing out

contradictions and limitations to human reason.

 Ibn Rushd, one of Islam's greatest philosophers, responded to Al-

Ghazali's argument by urging philosophers to use reason to reach
genuine knowledge of the truth, independent of revelation.

 He attempted to show how Al-Ghazali's objections to philosophy

were based on his misunderstanding of Aristotle's ideas and their
effect on Islamic philosophy.
 Al Khawarizmi
 Abu Ja'far Muhammad Ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi was born in
Khwarizm, in present-day Uzbekistan. He thrived in Baghdad under
the patronage of the Abbasid Caliph, Al-Mamun, between 813 and
833, during a so-called "Golden Age" of Islamic science.

 A celebrated mathematician in his own time, as well as many

centuries later, Al-Khwarizmi is best known for introducing the
concept of algebra into mathematics.

 The title of his most famous book, Kitab Al-Jabr wa al-Muqabilah

("The Book of Integration and Equation") in fact provides the origin
of the word, algebra.

 Over the course of his work in mathematics, Al-Khwarizmi

introduced the use of Indo-Arabic numerals, which became known
as algorithms, a Latin derivative of his name. He also began using
the zero as a place-holder, paving the way for the development of
the decimal system.
 Al-Farabi
 Abu'l-Nasr Al-Farabi, a Muslim of Persian descent who
studied in Baghdad, was considered in his time to be the
greatest philosopher since Aristotle. Indeed, in the
Islamic world he was known as the "Second Teacher,"
with Aristotle being the first.

 He was fluent in several languages, and through his

translations of ancient Greek works, he was one of the
earliest Islamic philosophers to introduce Greek
philosophy to the Islamic world.

 Al Farabi wrote on numerous subjects, including logic,

sociology, political science, medicine, and music, but his
legacy lies in his work in philosophy.
 Al-Farabi
 In writing commentaries on the works of the ancient Greeks, Al-Farabi
sought to reconcile Aristotelian and Platonian thought with Islamic theology.
(‫النيدمال‬
‫ةلضاف ة‬

 Al-Farabi became the first Islamic philosopher to separate philosophy and

theology, influencing scholars of many different religions who followed him.

 He concluded that human reason, the tool of the philosopher, was superior
to revelation, the tool of religion, resulting in the advantage of philosophy
over religion.

 He claimed that philosophy was based on intellectual perception, while

religion was based on imagination. He thus attributed impressive
characteristics to the philosopher, and advocated the philosopher as the
ideal head of state. He blamed political upheavals in the Islamic world to the
fact that the state was not run by philosophers, whose superior powers of
reason and intellect would result in ideal leadership
 Ibn Sina
 Abu Ali al-Husayn Ibn Abdullah Ibn Sina was born in Bukhara in
980. Sometimes known in the West by the Latin name, Avicenna,
this Persian physician became the most famous and influential of all
the Islamic philosopher-scientists.

 He earned royal favor for treating the Kings of Bukhara and

Hamadan for ailments other physicians could neither diagnose nor
cure. His grave is still maintained in Hamadan, where he died in
1037. Though trained as a physician, Ibn Sina made important
contributions to philosophy, mathematics, chemistry, and
astronomy.

 His philosophical encyclopedia, Kitab al-Shifa ("Book of Healing")

brought Aristotelian and Platonian philosophy together with Islamic
theology in dividing the field of knowledge into theoretical
knowledge (physics, mathematics, and metaphysics) and practical
knowledge (ethics, economics, and politics).
 Al Biruni
 Abu Raihan Muhammad al-Biruni, a Persian scholar and scientist,
was a contemporary of the great physician Ibn Sina, with whom
he is known to have corresponded. With a gift for languages,
including Turkish, Persian, Sanskrit, Hebrew, and Arabic, Al-Biruni
caught the attention of the Ghaznavid ruler, Mahmud, whose
territory included northern India.

 Mahmud often brought Al-Biruni with him on campaigns to India,

where Al-Biruni spent his time studying the language, history, and
science of that region.

 One of his most famous books, Kitab al-Hind ("Book of India")

resulted from these travels. It was such a complete study of India
that further works on Indian history written under Akbar 600 years
later used it as a base.
 Al Biruni
 In addition to his work on culture and history, Al-Biruni was also an accomplished
scientist.

 In the field of astronomy, he pioneered the notion that the speed of light was much
greater than the speed of sound, observed solar and lunar eclipses, and accepted
the theory that the earth rotated on an axis long before anyone else.

 In geography, he calculated the correct latitude and longitude of many places, and
disputed the European Ptolemaic view that Africa stretched infinitely to the south; Al-
Biruni insisted it was surrounded by water.

 In his work on India, Al-Biruni also advanced the controversial view - later proved
correct - that the Indus valley was once a sea basin.

 He developed a theory for calculating the qibla - the direction of Mecca from any
place - which was necessary for Muslims to know in order to face Mecca when
praying.

 In physics, he accurately determined the densities of 18 precious stones and metals;

in botany, he observed that flowers have 3, 4, 5, 6, or 8 petals, but never 7 or 9;
and he was the first to establish trigonometry as a distinct branch of mathematics.
Because of his work in such diverse fields, Al-Biruni is considered to be one of the
greatest scientists of all time.
 Umar Ibn A Khaiyam

Born Ghiyath al-Din Abul Fatah Umar

Ibn Ibrahim al-Khayyam in 1044 in
Nishapur, a Persian city, Omar Khayyam
was a well-known mathematician,
astronomer, philosopher, and poet.
 He spent most of his life in Persian intellectual
centers such as Samarkand and Bukhara, and
enjoyed the favour of the Seljuk sultans who
ruled the region.
 Umar Ibn Al-Khayyam
 Khayyam's best-known scientific contributions were in algebra and
astronomy. His classification of algebraic equations was fundamental to the
advancement of algebra as a science, for example, just as his work on the
theory of parallel lines was important in geometry.

 In astronomy, Khayyam's greatest legacy is a remarkably accurate solar

calendar, which he developed when the Seljuk sultan, Malik-Shah Jalal al-
Din, required a new schedule for revenue collection. Khayyam's calendar,
called Al-Tarikh-al-Jalali after the sultan, was even more accurate than the
Gregorian calendar presently used in most of the world: the Jalali calendar
had an error of one day in 3770 years, while the Gregorian had an error of
one day in 3330 years.

 Khayyam measured the length of one year as 365.24219858156 days, which

is remarkably accurate. It has since been discovered that the number
changes in the 6th decimal place over a person's lifetime.

 For comparison of Khayyam's accuracy, the length of one year at the end of
the 19th century was 365.242196 days, and today it is 365.242190.
Although the calendar project was cancelled upon Malik-Shah's death in
1092, the Jalali calendar has survived and is still used in parts of Iran and
Afghanistan toda
 Al Ghazali
 Abu Hamid al-Ghazali was born in 1058 in the Persian
province of Khurasan. He was educated in Islamic
theology at renowned institutions in Nishapur and
Baghdad, and became a professor in religion and
philosophy at Nizamiyah University in Baghdad - one of
the Islamic world's most prominent institutions at that
time.

 In 1095, however, after a period of inner turmoil about

his faith, Al-Ghazali left the university, gave up his
material possessions, and became a wandering ascetic.

 He devoted himself to Sufism, the mystical branch of

Islam concerned with direct knowledge of God, and
travelled to Mecca, Syria, and Jerusalem before
returning to Nishapur to write.
 Al Ghazali
 Al-Ghazali's works on the relationship between philosophy and
religion contributed to an ongoing discussion in the Islamic world on
how to reconcile the two fields. In adopting the Aristotelian
principals of the humanist ancient Greeks, Islamic philosophers
since the 9th century, such as Al-Farabi and Ibn Sina, had come into
conflict with theologians who claimed that Aristotelian philosophy
contradicted Islamic doctrine.

 Al-Ghazali staunchly defended religion against attack by

philosophers, and in doing so helped bridge the gap between the
two streams of thought. Al-Ghazali also sought to reign in what he
believed were excessive views within Sufism, to bring it more in line
with orthodox Islam. He continued to stress the importance of
Sufism as the genuine path to absolute truth, but he sought to
redefine its extreme image as disobedient to the basic teachings of
Islam
 Al Ghazali
 Al-Ghazali wrote several famous books on these
subjects, one of which inspired the philosopher Ibn
Rushd to respond with a book of his own, after Al-
Ghazali's death. In Tuhafat al-Falasifa ("The Incoherence
of the Philosophers"), Al-Ghazali laid out several
arguments as to why philosophy was sometimes
heretical to Islam.

 He particularly objected to arguments made by Greek-

influenced philosophers questioning the immortality of
the soul, the resurrection of the body, reward and
punishment after death, God's knowledge of all things,
and the eternity of the world.
 Ibn Rushd
 Abu'l Waleed Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Ibn
Muhammad Ibn Rushd, born in 1126 in Cordoba,
then part of Muslim Spain, was one of the
greatest thinkers and scientists of the 12th
century.

 Known by the Latin name Averroes in the West,

Ibn Rushd influenced scholarship in both the
Islamic world and Europe for centuries, and is
best known in the West for his commentaries on
Aristotle's philosophy.
 Ibn Rushd
 Rushd spent his time among the ruling class of Marrakesh, Morocco,
as well as in the Spanish cities of Seville and Cordoba. Ibn Rushd
studied religion and philosophy.

 He was influenced by Greek philosophy, and he wrote several

commentaries on Aristotle's works. He used Greek arguments for
rationalism to question several tenets of Islamic theology, earning
the criticism of many Muslim religious scholars, such as Al-Ghazali.

 Despite his vehement defense of philosophy, Ibn Rushd was a

devoted Muslim who also tried to integrate Plato's political views
with the modern Islamic state, to bring Greek thought and Islamic
traditions into harmony.
 Ibn Khaldun


Abd al-Rahman Ibn Muhammad is considered to be the

founder of modern sociology and philosophy of history. Born
in Tunis, where his parents later died of the Black Death in
1349, Ibn Khaldun spent most of his life in North Africa and
Spain.

 He led a very political life, working for a number of royal

courts in North Africa, where he was also able to
observe the political and social dynamics of court life.
These observations would later influence his writings on
the history of civilizations.
 Ibn Khaldun
 Ibn Khaldun's most famous book is the Muqaddimah ("Introduction"), which
he wrote as the first volume of an intended multi-volume world history.

 In the Muqaddimah, Ibn Khaldun set out his philosophy of history, and his
views on how historical material should be analysed and presented. He
concluded that civilisations rise and fall, in a cycle, as a result of
psychological, economic, environmental, social, as well as political factors.

 His attention to more than just the political conditions of a civilisation was
revolutionary, as he sought to also examine social, religious, and economic
factors in explaining world history. He also pioneered the emphasis on
relating events to each other through cause and effect, and drawing
parallels between past and present, when writing history. He subjected his
study of history to objective, scientific analysis, and lamented the clearly
biased histories written before him.