Science in the

medieval Islamic
world

The Tusi couple, a mathematical device invented by

Nasir al-Din Tusi in 1247 to model the not perfectly
circular motions of the planets
circular motions of the planets

Science in the medieval Islamic world

was the science developed and practised
during the Islamic Golden Age under the
Umayyads of Córdoba, the Abbadids of
Seville, the Samanids, the Ziyarids, the
Buyids in Persia, the Abbasid Caliphate
and beyond, spanning the period c. 800
to 1250. Islamic scientific achievements
encompassed a wide range of subject
areas, especially astronomy,
mathematics, and medicine. Other
subjects of scientific inquiry included
alchemy and chemistry, botany,
geography and cartography,
ophthalmology, pharmacology, physics,
and zoology.

Medieval Islamic science had practical

purposes as well as the goal of
understanding. For example, astronomy
was useful for determining the Qibla, the
direction in which to pray, botany had
practical application in agriculture, as in
the works of Ibn Bassal and Ibn al-
'Awwam, and geography enabled Abu
Zayd al-Balkhi to make accurate maps.
Islamic mathematicians such as al-
Khwarizmi, Avicenna and Jamshīd al-
Kāshī developed methods in algebra,
geometry and trigonometry. Islamic
doctors described diseases like smallpox
and measles and challenged classical
Greek medical theory. Al-Biruni, Avicenna
and others described the preparation of
hundreds of drugs made from medicinal
plants and chemical compounds. Islamic
physicists studied optics and mechanics
(as well as astronomy) and criticised
Aristotle's view of motion.

The significance of medieval Islamic

science has been debated by historians.
The traditionalist view holds that it lacked
innovation, and was mainly important for
handing on ancient knowledge to
medieval Europe. The revisionist view
holds that it constituted a scientific
revolution. Whatever the case, science
flourished across a wide area around the
Mediterranean and further afield, for
several centuries, in a wide range of
institutions.

Context

Islamic expansion:
   under Muhammad, 622–632
   under Rashidun caliphs, 632–661
   under Umayyad caliphs, 661–750
The Abbasid Caliphate, 750–1261 (and later in
Egypt) at its height, c. 850

The Islamic era began in 622. Islamic

armies conquered Arabia, Egypt and
Mesopotamia, eventually displacing the
Persian and Byzantine Empires from the
region. Within a century, Islam had
reached the area of present-day Portugal
in the west and Central Asia in the east.
The Islamic Golden Age (roughly between
692 and 945) spanned the periods of the
Umayyad Caliphate (661-750) and, in
particular, the early phase of the
succeeding Abbasid Caliphate (750–
1258), with stable political structures and
flourishing trade. Major religious and
cultural works of the Islamic empire were
translated into Arabic. Islamic culture
inherited Greek, Indic, Assyrian and
Persian influences. A new common
civilisation formed, based on Islam. An
era of high culture and innovation
ensued, with rapid growth in population
and cities. The Arab Agricultural
Revolution in the countryside brought
more crops and improved agricultural
technology, especially irrigation. This
supported the larger population and
enabled culture to flourish.[1][2] From the
8th century onwards, scholars such as
Al-Kindi[3] translated Indian, Assyrian,
Sasanian (Persian) and Greek knowledge,
including the works of Aristotle, into
Arabic. These translations supported
advances by scientists across the Islamic
world.[4]

Islamic science survived the initial

Christian reconquest of Spain, including
the fall of Seville in 1248, as work
continued in the eastern centres (such as
in Persia). After the completion of the
Spanish reconquest in 1492, the Islamic
world went into an economic and cultural
decline.[2] The Abbasid caliphate was
followed by the Ottoman Empire (c.
1299–1922), centred in Turkey, and the
Safavid Empire (1501–1736), centred in
Persia, where work in the arts and
sciences continued.[5]

Fields of inquiry
Medieval Islamic scientific achievements
encompassed a wide range of subject
areas, especially mathematics,
astronomy, and medicine.[4] Other
subjects of scientific inquiry included
physics, alchemy and chemistry,
ophthalmology, and geography and
cartography.[6]

Alchemy and chemistry

Alchemy, already well established before

the rise of Islam, stemmed from the belief
that substances comprised mixtures of
the four Aristotelian elements (fire, earth,
air, and water) in different proportions.
Alchemists regarded gold as the noblest
metal, and held that other metals formed
a series down to the basest, such as
lead. They believed, too, that a fifth
element, the elixir, could transform a base
metal into gold. Jabir ibn Hayyan (8th–9th
centuries) wrote on alchemy, based on
his own experiments. He described
laboratory techniques and experimental
methods that would continue in use when
alchemy had transformed into chemistry.
Ibn Hayyan identified many substances,
including sulphuric and nitric acids. He
described processes such as
sublimation, reduction and distillation. He
made use of equipment such as the
alembic and the retort stand.[7][8][9]

Astronomy and cosmology

al-Biruni's explanation of the phases of the moon

Astronomy became a major discipline

within Islamic science. Astronomers
devoted effort both towards
understanding the nature of the cosmos
and to practical purposes. One
application involved determining the
Qibla, the direction to face during prayer.
Another was astrology, predicting events
affecting human life and selecting
suitable times for actions such as going
to war or founding a city.[10] Al-Battani
(850–922) accurately determined the
length of the solar year. He contributed to
the Tables of Toledo, used by
astronomers to predict the movements of
the sun, moon and planets across the
sky. Copernicus (1473-1543) later used
some of Al-Battani's astronomic
tables.[11]

Al-Zarqali (1028–1087) developed a more

accurate astrolabe, used for centuries
afterwards. He constructed a water clock
in Toledo, discovered that the Sun's
apogee moves slowly relative to the fixed
stars, and obtained a good estimate of its
motion[12] for its rate of change.[13] Nasir
al-Din al-Tusi (1201–1274) wrote an
important revision to Ptolemy's 2nd-
century celestial model. When Tusi
became Helagu's astrologer, he was
given an observatory and gained access
to Chinese techniques and observations.
He developed trigonometry as a separate
field, and compiled the most accurate
astronomical tables available up to that
time.[14]

Botany
Quince, cypress, and sumac trees, in Zakariya al-
Qazwini's 13th century Wonders of Creation

The study of the natural world extended

to a detailed examination of plants. The
work done proved directly useful in the
unprecedented growth of pharmacology
across the Islamic world. Al-Dinawari
(815–896) popularised botany in the
Islamic world with his six-volume Kitab
al-Nabat (Book of Plants). Only volumes 3
and 5 have survived, with part of volume
6 reconstructed from quoted passages.
The surviving text describes 637 plants in
alphabetical order from the letters sin to
ya, so the whole book must have covered
several thousand kinds of plants. Al-
Dinawari described the phases of plant
growth and the production of flowers and
fruit. The thirteenth century encyclopedia
compiled by Zakariya al-Qazwini (1203–
1283) - ʿAjā'ib al-makhlūqāt (The Wonders
of Creation) - contained, among many
other topics, both realistic botany and
fantastic accounts. For example, he
described trees which grew birds on their
twigs in place of leaves, but which could
only be found in the far-distant British
Isles.[15][16][17] The use and cultivation of
plants was documented in the 11th
century by Muhammad bin Ibrāhīm Ibn
Bassāl of Toledo in his book Dīwān al-
filāha (The Court of Agriculture), and by
Ibn al-'Awwam al-Ishbīlī of Seville in his
12th century book Kitāb al-Filāha
(Treatise on Agriculture).[18] Ibn Bassāl
had travelled widely across the Islamic
world, returning with a detailed
knowledge of agronomy. His practical
and systematic book describes over 180
plants and how to propagate and care for
them. It covered leaf- and root-
vegetables, herbs, spices and trees.[19]
Abū al-Khayr (c. 11th century) described
in minute detail how olive trees should be
grown, grafted, treated for disease, and
harvested. He gave similar detail for
crops such as cotton.[18]

Geography and cartography

Surviving fragment of the first World Map of Piri

Reis (1513)
The spread of Islam across Western Asia
and North Africa encouraged an
unprecedented growth in trade and travel
by land and sea as far away as Southeast
Asia, China, much of Africa, Scandinavia
and even Iceland. Geographers worked
to compile increasingly accurate maps of
the known world, starting from many
existing but fragmentary sources.[20] Abu
Zayd al-Balkhi (850–934), founder of the
Balkhī school of cartography in Baghdad,
wrote an atlas called Figures of the
Regions (Suwar al-aqalim).[21]Al-Biruni
(973–1048) measured the radius of the
earth using a new method. It involved
observing the height of a mountain at
Nandana (now in Pakistan).[22] Al-Idrisi
(1100–1166) drew a map of the world for
Roger, the Norman King of Sicily (ruled
1105-1154). He also wrote the Tabula
Rogeriana (Book of Roger), a geographic
study of the peoples, climates, resources
and industries of the whole of the world
known at that time.[23] The Ottoman
admiral Piri Reis (c. 1470–1553) made a
map of the New World and West Africa in
1513. He made use of maps from Greece,
Portugal, Muslim sources, and perhaps
one made by Christopher Columbus. He
represented a part of a major tradition of
Ottoman cartography.[24]
 Modern copy of al-Idrisi's 1154 Tabula
Rogeriana, upside-down, north at top

Mathematics

A page from al-Khwarizmi's Algebra

Islamic mathematicians gathered,
organised and clarified the mathematics
they inherited from ancient Egypt,
Greece, India, Mesopotamia and Persia,
and went on to make innovations of their
own. Islamic mathematics covered
algebra, geometry and arithmetic.
Algebra was mainly used for recreation: it
had few practical applications at that
time. Geometry was studied at different
levels. Some texts contain practical
geometrical rules for surveying and for
measuring figures. Theoretical geometry
was a necessary prerequisite for
understanding astronomy and optics, and
it required years of concentrated work.
Early in the Abbasid caliphate (founded
750), soon after the foundation of
Baghdad in 762, some mathematical
knowledge was assimilated from the pre-
Islamic Persian tradition in astronomy.
Astronomers from India were invited to
the court of the caliph in the late eighth
century; they explained the rudimentary
trigonometrical techniques used in Indian
astronomy. Ancient Greek works such as
Ptolemy's Almagest and Euclid's
Elements were translated into Arabic. By
the second half of the ninth century,
Islamic mathematicians were already
making contributions to the most
sophisticated parts of Greek geometry.
Islamic mathematics reached its apogee
in the Eastern part of the Islamic world
between the tenth and twelfth centuries.
Most medieval Islamic mathematicians
wrote in Arabic, others in Persian.[25][26][27]

Omar Khayyam's "Cubic equation and intersection

of conic sections"
al-Khwarizmi (8th–9th centuries),
considered the greatest mathematician of
Islamic civilization, became instrumental
in the adoption of the Indian system ot
notation. He developed algebra, which
also had Indian antecedents, introduced
methods of simplifying equations, and
used Euclidean geometry in his
proofs.[28][29]Ibn Ishaq al-Kindi (801–873)
worked on cryptography for the
caliphate.[30]Avicenna (c. 980–1037)
contributed to mathematical techniques
such as casting out nines.[31] Thābit ibn
Qurra (835–901) calculated the solution to
a chessboard problem involving an
exponential series.[32]al-Farabi (c. 870–
950) attempted to describe,
geometrically, the repeating patterns
popular in Islamic decorative motifs in his
book Spiritual Crafts and Natural Secrets
in the Details of Geometrical Figures.[33]
Omar Khayyam (1048–1131), known in
the West as a poet, calculated the length
of the year to within 5 decimal places. He
found geometric solutions to all 13 forms
of cubic equations. He developed some
quadratic equations still in use.[34]
Jamshīd al-Kāshī (c. 1380–1429) is
credited with several theorems of
trigonometry, including the law of
cosines, also known as Al-Kashi's
Theorem. He is often credited with the
invention of decimal fractions, and with a
method like Horner's to calculate roots.
He calculated π correctly to 17 significant
figures.[35]

Medicine

A coloured illustration from Mansur's Anatomy, c.

1450
Islamic society paid careful attention to
medicine, following a hadith enjoining the
preservation of good health. Its
physicians inherited knowledge and
traditional medical beliefs from the
civilisations of classical Greece, Rome,
Syria, Persia and India. These included
the writings of Hippocrates such as on
the theory of the four humours, and the
theories of Galen.[36] al-Razi (c. 854–
925/935) identified smallpox and
measles, and recognized fever as a part
of the body's defenses. He wrote a 23-
volume compendium of Chinese, Indian,
Persian, Syriac and Greek medicine. al-
Razi questioned the classical Greek
medical theory of how the four humours
regulate life processes. He challenged
Galen's work on several fronts, including
the treatment of bloodletting, arguing that
it was effective.[37]al-Zahrawi (936–1013)
was a surgeon whose most important
surviving work is referred to as al-Tasrif
(Medical Knowledge). It is a 30-volume
set mainly discussing medical symptoms,
treatments, and pharmacology. The last
volume, on surgery, describes surgical
instruments, supplies, and pioneering
procedures.[38] Avicenna (c. 980–1037)
wrote the major medical textbook, The
Canon of Medicine.[31] ibn al-Nafis (1213–
1288) wrote an influential book on
medicine; it is believed to have replaced
Avicenna's Canon in the Islamic world.
He wrote commentaries on Galen and on
Avicenna's works. One of these
commentaries, discovered in 1924,
described the circulation of blood
through the lungs.[39][40]

Optics and ophthalmology

The eye according to Hunayn ibn Ishaq, c. 1200

Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), (965–1039 Iraq). A
polymath, considered by some the father of modern
scientific methodology due to his emphasis on
experimental data and on the reproducibility of its
results.[41][42]

Optics developed rapidly in this period.

By the ninth century, there were works on
physiological, geometrical and physical
optics. Topics covered included mirror
reflection. Hunayn ibn Ishaq (809–873)
wrote the book Ten Treatises on the Eye;
this remained influential in the West until
the 17th century.[43]Abbas ibn Firnas
(810–887) developed lenses for
magnification and the improvement of
vision.[44]Ibn Sahl (c. 940–1000)
discovered the law of refraction known as
Snell's law. He used the law to produce
the first Aspheric lenses that focused
light without geometric aberrations.[45][46]

In the eleventh century Ibn al-Haytham

(Alhazen, 965–1040) rejected the Greek
ideas about vision, whether the
Aristotelian tradition that held that the
form of the perceived object entered the
eye (but not its matter), or that of Euclid
and Ptolemy which held that the eye
emitted a ray. Al-Haytham proposed in
his Book of Optics that vision occurs by
way of light rays forming a cone with its
vertex at the center of the eye. He
suggested that light was reflected from
different surfaces in different directions,
thus causing objects to look
different.[47][48][49][50] He argued further
that the mathematics of reflection and
refraction needed to be consistent with
the anatomy of the eye.[51]

Pharmacology
Ibn Sina teaching the use of drugs. 15th-century
Great Canon of Avicenna

Advances in botany and chemistry in the

Islamic world encouraged developments
in pharmacology. Muhammad ibn
Zakarīya Rāzi (Rhazes) (865–915)
promoted the medical uses of chemical
compounds. Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi
(Abulcasis) (936–1013) pioneered the
preparation of medicines by sublimation
and distillation. His Liber servitoris
provides instructions for preparing
"simples" from which were compounded
the complex drugs then used. Sabur Ibn
Sahl (died 869) was the first physician to
describe a large variety of drugs and
remedies for ailments. Al-Biruni (973–
1050) wrote the Kitab al-Saydalah (The
Book of Drugs), describing in detail the
properties of drugs, the role of pharmacy
and the duties of the pharmacist. Ibn Sina
(Avicenna) described 700 preparations,
their properties, their mode of action and
their indications. He devoted a whole
volume to simples in The Canon of
Medicine. Works by Masawaih al-Mardini
(c. 925–1015) and by Ibn al-Wafid (1008–
1074) were printed in Latin more than fifty
times, appearing as De Medicinis
universalibus et particularibus by Mesue
the Younger (died 1015) and as the
Medicamentis simplicibus by Abenguefit
(c. 997 – 1074) respectively. Peter of
Abano (1250–1316) translated and added
a supplement to the work of al-Mardini
under the title De Veneris. Al-Muwaffaq,
in the 10th century, wrote The
foundations of the true properties of
Remedies, describing chemicals such as
arsenious oxide and silicic acid. He
distinguished between sodium carbonate
and potassium carbonate, and drew
attention to the poisonous nature of
copper compounds, especially copper
vitriol, and also of lead compounds.[52][16]

Physics

Self trimming lamp in Ahmad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir's

treatise on mechanical devices, c. 850

The fields of physics studied in this

period, apart from optics and astronomy
which are described separately, are
aspects of mechanics: statics, dynamics,
kinematics and motion. In the sixth
century John Philoponus (c. 490 – c. 570)
rejected the Aristotelian view of motion.
He argued instead that an object acquires
an inclination to move when it has a
motive power impressed on it. In the
eleventh century Ibn Sina adopted
roughly the same idea, namely that a
moving object has force which is
dissipated by external agents like air
resistance.[53] Ibn Sina distinguished
between "force" and "inclination" (mayl);
he claimed that an object gained mayl
when the object is in opposition to its
natural motion. He concluded that
continuation of motion depends on the
inclination that is transferred to the
object, and that the object remains in
motion until the mayl is spent. He also
claimed that a projectile in a vacuum
would not stop unless it is acted upon.
That view accords with Newton's first law
of motion, on inertia.[54] As a non-
Aristotelian suggestion, it was essentially
abandoned until it was described as
"impetus" by Jean Buridan (c. 1295–
1363), who was influenced by Ibn Sina's
Book of Healing.[53]

In the Shadows, Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī

(973–1048) describes non-uniform motion
as the result of acceleration.[55] Ibn-Sina's
theory of mayl tried to relate the velocity
and weight of a moving object, a
precursor of the concept of
momentum.[56] Aristotle's theory of
motion stated that a constant force
produces a uniform motion; Abu'l-
Barakāt al-Baghdādī (c. 1080 – 1164/5)
disagreed, arguing that velocity and
acceleration are two different things, and
that force is proportional to acceleration,
not to velocity.[57]

Ibn Bajjah (Avempace, c. 1085–1138)

proposed that for every force there is a
reaction force. While he did not specify
that these forces be equal, this was still
an early version of Newton's third law of
motion.[58]

The Banu Musa brothers, Jafar-

Muhammad, Ahmad and al-Hasan (c.
early 9th century) invented automated
devices described in their Book of
Ingenious Devices.[59][60][61]

Zoology

Page from the Kitāb al-Hayawān by Al-Jahiz

Many classical works, including those of
Aristotle, were transmitted from Greek to
Syriac, then to Arabic, then to Latin in the
Middle Ages. Aristotle's zoology
remained dominant in its field for two
thousand years.[62] The Kitāb al-Hayawān
(‫ﻛﺘﺎب اﻟﺤﻴﻮان‬, English: Book of Animals) is
a 9th-century Arabic translation of History
of Animals: 1–10, On the Parts of
Animals: 11–14,[63] and Generation of
Animals: 15–19.[64][65]

The book was mentioned by Al-Kindī

(died 850), and commented on by
Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā) in his The Book of
Healing. Avempace (Ibn Bājja) and
Averroes (Ibn Rushd) commented on and
criticised On the Parts of Animals and
Generation of Animals.[66]

Significance
Historians of science differ in their views
of the significance of the scientific
accomplishments in the medieval Islamic
world. The traditionalist view, exemplified
by Bertrand Russell,[67] holds that Islamic
science, while admirable in many
technical ways, lacked the intellectual
energy required for innovation and was
chiefly important for preserving ancient
knowledge, and handing it on to medieval
Europe. The revisionist view, exemplified
by Abdus Salam,[68] George Saliba[69] and
John M. Hobson[70] holds that a Muslim
scientific revolution occurred during the
Middle Ages.[71] Scholars such as Donald
Routledge Hill and Ahmad Y. Hassan
argue that Islam was the driving force
behind these scientific achievements.[72]

According to Ahmed Dallal, science in

medieval Islam was "practiced on a scale
unprecedented in earlier human history or
even contemporary human history".[73]
Toby Huff takes the view that, although
science in the Islamic world did produce
localized innovations, it did not lead to a
scientific revolution, which in his view
required an ethos that existed in Europe
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but
not elsewhere in the world.[74][75][76] Will
Durant, Fielding H. Garrison, Hossein
Nasr and Bernard Lewis held that Muslim
scientists helped in laying the foundations
for an experimental science with their
contributions to the scientific method and
their empirical, experimental and
quantitative approach to scientific
inquiry.[77][78][79][80]

James E. McClellan III and Harold Dorn,

reviewing the place of Islamic science in
world history, comment that the positive
achievement of Islamic science was
simply to flourish, for centuries, in a wide
range of institutions from observatories to
libraries, madrasas to hospitals and
courts, both at the height of the Islamic
golden age and for some centuries
afterwards. It plainly did not lead to a
scientific revolution like that in Early
modern Europe, but in their view, any
such external comparison is just an
attempt to impose "chronologically and
culturally alien standards" on a
successful medieval culture.[2]

See also
 Arab Agricultural Revolution
Continuity thesis
Indian influence on Islamic science
History of scientific method
History of Islamic economics
Islamic philosophy
Islamic attitudes towards science
Scholasticism
Timeline of science and engineering in
the Islamic world

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the Islamic Golden Age or Islamic
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made significant contributions to
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Further reading
Al-Daffa, Ali Abdullah; Stroyls, J.J.
(1984). Studies in the exact sciences in
medieval Islam. Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-
90320-8.
Hogendijk, Jan P.; Sabra, Abdelhamid
I. (2003). The Enterprise of Science in
Islam: New Perspectives. MIT Press.
ISBN 978-0-262-19482-2.
Hill, Donald Routledge (1993). Islamic
Science And Engineering. Edinburgh
University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-
0455-5.
Kennedy, Edward S. (1983). Studies in
the Islamic Exact Sciences. Syracuse
University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-
6067-5.
Morelon, Régis; Rashed, Roshdi (1996).
Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic
Science. 2–3
2–3. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-
415-02063-3.
 Saliba, George (2007). Islamic Science
and the Making of the European
Renaissance. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-
262-19557-7.

External links
"How Greek Science Passed to the
Arabs" by De Lacy O'Leary
Saliba, George. "Whose Science is
Arabic Science in Renaissance
Europe?" .
Habibi, Golareh. is there such a thing
as Islamic science? the influence of
Islam on the world of science , Science
Creative Quarterly.
Retrieved from
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title=Science_in_the_medieval_Islamic_world&oldi
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