In magnificent centers of learning from Damascus to Baghdad to Cairo, Islamic mathematicians a thousand years ago developed algebra, algorithm and trigonometry, the foundations upon which modern technology is built. Inventors devised the crankshaft, the early version of the torpedo and the parachute. Physician’s techniques ranged from orthodontia to asthma care to tracheotomy. Muslim astronomers calculated the Earth’s diameter and circumference, at a time when most people thought the world was flat. They preserved the works of the Classical Greeks and Hindus. Muslim contribution to modern science and thought are beyond counting. Islamic scholars such as, Ibn al-Haytham, Ibn Sina, al-Tusi, al-Khwarizmi, and Albucasis built the foundations for later European giants including Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton. The Muslims excelled in many fields; however, this text will briefly discuss the Islamic achievements in mathematics, astronomy and medicine and their influence on the modern world and Europe.
Mathematics: “…and He [Allah] has enumerated everything in numbers.” (Qur’an, LXXII: 28)
A pivotal force in creating these numbers and formulas was a man named Muhammad al-Khwarizmi. In Latin he was known as Algoritmi, where the name algorithm derives from. He was born in about 780 in the town of Khiva, a way station on the Silk Road that stretched from China to Rome. During that time the Muslims believed that God and His universe can be revealed through reason, knowledge and numbers (Lyons, 79). In this quest to find God in numbers, Khwarizmi led a great mathematical revolution.
At the founding of the House of Wisdom in 832 in Baghdad, Khwarizmi was summoned by the Caliph himself to assist in the search for God in the numerical. When he arrived at the House of Wisdom, he found mathematical translations of the great Greek and Hindu scholars. However, Khwarizmi realized that the very process of writing mathematics needed to be revised. The Roman numerals and the Arabic letter characters were too inefficient. Therefore, using a Hindu text, he derived the simple numerical values we use today, 0 to 9. If arranged in different combinations, Khwarizmi realized that the numbers can reach positive and negative infinity. He also developed the decimal system (the possibility of infinity between the numbers), which would help later scholars represent scientific values more accurately. This new Arabic-Indian number and decimal system was Latinized and incorporated into Europe (“Islam and Science”). The new system made mathematics and science much simpler and easier. Today we use this system every single day of our life. It is so basic that we hardly ever think about it, or remember who the founder was.
Aside from the numerical values, Khwarizmi also developed algebra, trigonometry and as mentioned before, algorithm. He wrote books on astronomy, astronomical tables, revised and corrected Ptolemy’s theories and maps of the world. His major work on geography based on Ptolemy gave latitudes and longitudes for more than 2,400 places including cities, regions, oceans, rivers and mountain ranges, providing the foundation of a world map and the later European explorations (Morgan, 106). These vast achievements would later on be so commonly used that they will fade away. However, he will be best remembered for his invention of algebra.
The very modern name we use for this mathematics, algebra, is taken from the title of his book Al-Jabr wa al-Muqabala, translated as The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing. Algebra is the first step in detaching the source of mathematics from the physical and moving it into the purely abstract. He created a system that provided the foundation for creating 100-story buildings, mile long bridges; calculating the reaction of nuclear physics; the cellular processes of biotechnology and pharmaceutical and marketing research; the calculus of a global economy; the language and intelligence of software and the confidentiality of a phone conversation (Morgan, 107). However, one day many Europeans and then the world would forget who he was or what he did.
By the time his works begin to be translated into Latin, he has been dead for 300 years, and yet the Europeans had never seen anything like his books. Until about the 16th century, 700 years after his death, Europeans honored him in everything they postulated with the concluding footnote, “dixit Algoritmi” or “so says al-Khwarizmi.” His works would be the foundation for university mathematics and astronomy in both Europe and the Muslim world. After Khwarizmi’s death, many more Muslim mathematics giants would arrive from all over the empire. Their influence would be as big as Khwarizmi. Mathematicians such as al-Batani, Ibn al-Haytham and al-Tusi would greatly influence Copernicus, Galileo and Newton. For example, in Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, he directly cites and thanks Batani and Tusi for providing him with accurate mathematical data and calculations (“Science and Islam”). The Muslims greatly developed our modern mathematical system, and Khwarizmi’s number system, algebra and algorithm are a perfect example of the massive influence the Muslims had on Europe and the world.
Astronomy: “It is not for the sun to overtake the moon nor doth the night outstrip the day. They float each other in an orbit.” (Qur’an XIV: 39)
Copernicus was the first to prove mathematically that the earth revolves around the sun. He published his works in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, a book that many historians say started the European Scientific Revolution. However, it is a bit odd that no one mentions where Copernicus had gotten his ideas from or who he was influenced by. The people that influenced Copernicus are all part of the lost history of the Muslims. In his book, Copernicus explicitly references a 9th century Muslim mathematician and astronomer named al-Batani, for providing him with great observational data. Copernicus’ book contains Batani’s Arabic treatise on the stars along with their Latin translation (“Science and Islam”).
Little is known about Batani’s life. However, one of Batani’s best-known achievements in astronomy is the determination of the solar year as being 365 days, 5 hours, 46 minutes and 24 seconds, strikingly accurate for his time and only 2 minutes away from modern calculations. To calculate this he used only his naked eye and an astrolabe. Batani even discovered the earth’s tilt to be 24 degrees, only half a degree off from modern calculations. He measured variations in the sun’s diameter, and discovered that the distance from the earth to the sun changes from one year to another. Batani also developed an accurate table that showed the position of the sun and the moon from one year to another. This table that Copernicus referred to 600 years later set a new standard for accuracy and precision. These observations and accuracy led Batani to conclude that Ptolemy’s geocentric view of our galaxy was flawed (Morgan, 110).
Batani’s works were published in the Kitab az-Zij, or The Book of Astronomical Tables, which showed that Ptolemy was wrong. The book was translated into Latin as De Motu Stellarum and it was frequently quoted by Kepler and Galileo. Batani’s data continues to be used in geophysics even today. However, the most important aspect of Batani is that he established a new way of scientific thinking, thinking through doubts. By proving Ptolemy’s theories wrong many times, Batani showed that it is alright to doubt past scholars (Morgan, 111).
Later Arab scientists started doubting the works of the Greeks. One of them was Ibn Haytham. He argued for the first time that scientific ideas are only valid if they are mathematically consistent and matches with reality, and not just philosophically as the Greeks had believed. Today’s science is built upon this Islamic idea, that science is only accurate if it is mathematically consistent and matches with reality. Most importantly, Haytham established the scientific method and laid the ground works for all scientists to come. He wrote the “Doubts on Ptolemy,” where he argued that Ptolemy’s geocentric view made little sense. Haytham knew the earth revolved around the sun, but could not prove it (Lyons, 86). The final proof would come from Copernicus.
Al-Tusi was another one of Copernicus’ Islamic influences. Tusi was the final Islamic scientist to overthrow the geocentric view. He came up with the Tusi Couple that would some 300 hundred years later find its way into Copernicus’ desk. The Tusi Couple explains the relationship of the planets to the sun. Even though a brief interruption came to Tusi’s work with the invasion of the Mongols, who sacked every major Islamic city, Tusi built the greatest observatory of his time. He brought together some of the greatest astronomers and invented other systems of planetary movements. Tusi was able to calculate consistent systems for Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars and the sun and the moon. He started a new view of astronomy. However, the work was not done; Tusi was not able to give a mathematical study of the Earth’s position. Copernicus, based on Tusi’s data, would finish the job 300 years later in Italy. Using 500 years of Islamic astronomy, Copernicus finally described the Earth’s position (“Islam and Science”). However, the Islamic part of Copernicus’ work is forgotten.
Medicine: “God did not send down a disease, but also established for it a cure.” (Tirmidhi: 2038)
Some of the greatest medicinal techniques during the middle ages were developed in the Islamic Empire. Scholars such as Albucasis and Avicenna greatly shaped medicine both in the East and the West. Albucasis is considered the greatest surgeon in medieval times and the father of modern surgery. His most significant contribution to medicine is the Kitab al-Tasrif, a thirty-volume encyclopedia of medical practices. His pioneering procedures and instruments in surgery are still applied in medicine. He was also the first physician to describe an ectopic pregnancy, and the first physician to identify the hereditary nature of hemophilia (“Islam and Science”). Even with all of these achievements, Albucasis does not receive the full credit he deserves.
His real name is Abu al-Qasim. In the West he was known as Albucasis. Being born in Spain (then part of the Islamic Empire), he published the Kitab al-Tasrif in the year 1000 that covered a broad range of medical topics from dentistry to childbirth. It contained data that he had accumulated during his career of 50 years as a teacher and doctor. Kitab Al-Tasrif was later translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona in the 12th century. For five centuries it was the primary source for European medical knowledge, and served as a reference for doctors and surgeons (“Islam and Science”).
Doctors and surgeons, even today, refer to Albucasis, for he discovered and invented many of the modern medical practices that we still use. He introduced over 200 surgical instruments, including some for eye surgery that are still in use. His use of catgut for internal stitching is still practiced in modern surgery. The catgut appears to be the only natural substance capable of dissolving and is acceptable by the body. Albucasis also invented the forceps for extracting a dead fetus as illustrated in the Al-Tasrif (“Science and Islam”). He truly is one of the greatest men of medicine of all time. However, very few people know about him.
Another great giant of medicine is Ibn Sina, or as he was known in the West, Avicenna. He wrote 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived. In particular, 150 of his surviving treatises concentrate on philosophy and 40 of them concentrate on medicine. His corpus included writing on philosophy, astronomy, alchemy, geology, psychology, Islamic theology, logic, mathematics, physics, as well as poetry. His most famous works are The Book of Healing, a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopedia, and The Canon of Medicine, which was a primary medical text at many medieval universities. The Canon of Medicine also set the standard of medicine and was in use in Europe for more than 700 years (Morgan, 186).
The book presents a clear and organized summary of all the medical knowledge of the time. Originally written in Arabic, the book was later translated into a number of other languages, including Persian, Latin, Chinese, Hebrew, German, French, and English with lots of commentaries. The Canon is considered one of the most famous books in the history of medicine. It was translated into Latin as Canon Medicinae by Gerard of Cremona in the 12th century. Henceforth the Canon served as the chief guide to medical science in the West and is said to have influenced Leonardo da Vinci. Its encyclopedic content, its systematic arrangement and philosophical plan soon worked its way into a position of pre-eminence in the medical literature of Europe, displacing the works of Galen and becoming the text book for medical education in the schools of Europe. The first three books of the Latin Canon were printed in 1472, and a complete edition appeared in 1473. In the last 30 years of the 15th century it passed through 15 Latin editions (Lyons, 190). The book organized all types of diseases in categories and outlined their treatments. It is one of the greatest books of medicine and influenced Europe and the world greatly. However, Ibn Sina, just as most other Islamic scholars, is forgotten history.
How did this knowledge get to Europe?
So far we have discussed briefly some of the Islamic influences on Europe, but how did the Islamic knowledge get to Europe? It was mostly through trade and the Crusades. Venice was one route. Venice for a long time considered itself separate from Europe and consistently traded with the East. It was home to rich merchants, and traders. With trade, Islamic influence became strong, from Arabic coffee culture to Islamic architecture. Through Muslim trade, came Muslim books. The 9th century book of algebra came to Europe in the 12th century. Islamic astronomical tables, medicinal books, all came before the 15th century with trade and the Crusaders (“An Islamic History of Europe”).
Another important route was Spain, then part of the Islamic empire. Through Spanish trade and wars many ideas were exchanged with the Europeans. With the Reconquista in the late 15th century, the Europeans engulfed the legacies of the Muslims and inherited the Muslim intellectual tradition there (“An Islamic History of Europe”). However, why are the Muslims given no credit? Why are all their achievements forgotten? This question is still in debate, but the most favorable opinion is colonization. In order for European kings and queens to successfully rule the Arabs and Muslims, they had to make the Muslims forget about their greatness.
The Muslims had a great civilization during the middle ages that contributed many things to Europe and the world, from basic numbers to algebra to medicine. Much of the basic technology we use today directly derives from the contributions of Muslim mathematicians and astronomers. Many of the surgical tools, medicine and philosophy of the Muslims shaped the world we live in today. For example, Aristotle is at the heart of western philosophy; however, his works were not available to the Europeans during the dark ages. It was Muslim commentaries on Aristotle that reached Europe in the 12th century and shaped European Renaissance and Enlightenment minds (“An Islamic History of Europe”). In an era of conflict between the Muslims and the West, it is very easy to forget our debt, as a global civilization, to the Islamic thinkers of the middle ages. We must understand the history of the Muslims, and give proper credit to thinkers such as al-Khwarizmi, Ibn Sina and al-Tusi, to solve the conflict between the West and the Middle East.
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