Islamic Golden Age

The Islamic Golden Age refers to the period in the history of Islam during the Middle Ages when much of the Muslim world was ruled by various caliphates, experiencing a scientific, economic, and cultural flourishing.
began during the reign of the Abbasid caliph Harun ar-Rashid (786 to 809)
with the inauguration of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad,
where scholars from various parts of the world sought to translate and gather all the known world's knowledge into Arabic.

It is taken to have ended with the collapse of the Abbasid Caliphate with the Mongol invasions and the Sack of Baghdad in 1258.
Several contemporary scholars, however, place the end around the 15th to 16th centuries.


Love of Learning

The Abbassids were influenced by the Qur'anic injunctions and hadith such as "the ink of a scholar is more holy than the blood of a martyr" stressing the

value of knowledge.

During this period the Muslim world became an intellectual center for science, philosophy, medicine and education.
The Abbasids championed the cause of knowledge and established the House of Wisdom in Baghdad;
extraordinary cross-fertilization of once separate intellectual traditions that occurred
as a result of the Muslim conquests of the seventh and early eighth centuries.

Meeting place for Persians, Greeks, Indians, Copts, Berbers, Sogdians, Turks and even Chinese.

These conquests united the ancient civilizations of the Middle East - to say nothing of North Africa and Spain. under a single rule for the first time since Alexander the Great, and Baghdad, from its foundation in 763, became a meeting place for Persians, Greeks, Indians, Copts, Berbers, Sogdians, Turks and even Chinese.

These people spoke many different languages, represented a great variety of cultures and an even wider variety of religions.

Jews, Christians - of every possible variety - Manicheans, Hindus, Buddhists and even pagans jostled each other in the streets of the new capital.
Yet the Abbasids, who tended to encourage talented men whatever their origin,
absorbed them all and they, eager to contribute their talents helped to transform the empire.

The most single striking effect of the unification - of Anatolia, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Palestine, North Africa and Spain -

under Islamic rule was the opening of formerly closed frontiers -
frontiers that had been closed politically, linguistically and intellectually since the death of Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C.

For centuries the Byzantines had been at war with the Persians;
now that major political and cultural frontier had fallen and students from the ancient university at Gondeshapur
were able to meet colleagues from the philosophical schools of Alexandria in the streets of Baghdad and the effects were dramatic:

Baghdad, Cairo, and Córdoba
became the main intellectual centers for science, philosophy, medicine, trade, and education.
The Muslims during this period showed a strong interest in assimilating the scientific knowledge of the civilizations that had been conquered.
Many classic works of antiquity that might otherwise have been lost were translated into
Arabic and Persian and later in turn translated into Turkish, Hebrew, and Latin.
They assimilated, synthesized, and advanced the knowledge gained from the ancient
Greek, Roman, Persian, Indian, Chinese, Egyptian, and Phoeniciancivilizations.

Government Patronage
The government heavily patronized scholars.
The money spent on the Translation Movement for some translations is estimated to be so high.
The best scholars and notable translators, such as Hunayn ibn Ishaq, had salaries that are estimated to be the equivalent of professional athletes today.

Paper Introduced:

The Barmakids were also responsible for establishing the first paper mill in Baghdad.
With a new, easier writing system and the introduction of paper, information was democratized to the extent that for probably the first time in history, it became possible to make a living from simply writing and selling books.
The use of paper spread from China into Muslim regions in the eighth century, arriving in Al-Andalus on the Iberian peninsula, present-day Spain in the 10th century.
It was easier to manufacture than parchment, less likely to crack than papyrus, and could absorb ink, making it difficult to erase and ideal for keeping records.
It was from these countries that the rest of the world learned to make paper from linen.

Translation of works of Greek philosophers to Arabic.
centers of translation and learning functioned at Merv, Salonika, Nishapur andCtesiphon situated just south Baghdad.

The Age Of Translations:
It began during Al Mansur,Haroon,Al Mamun.
The House of Wisdom was a library, translation institute and academy established in Abbasid-era Baghdad, Iraq.
At the House of Wisdom, important ideas from around the world came together.

The introduction of Indian numerals, which have become standard in the Islamic and Western worlds, greatly aided in mathematic and scientific discovery.


Scholars such as Al-Kindi revolutionized mathematics
and synthesized Greek philosophy with Islamic thought.

Progress in Science

The reigns of Harun al-Rashid (786–809) and his successors fostered an age of great intellectual achievement.

Scientific method

"world’s first true scientist".
Ibn Al-Haytham (Alhazen) was significant in the history of scientific method, particularly in his approach to experimentation,

Jim Al-Khalili gives the example of the classification of materials as a sign of new ways of thinking.
While the classification of the material world by the ancient Greeks into
Air,
Earth,
Fire and
Water was more philosophical,

Medieval Islamic scientists used practical, experimental observation to classify materials.

Rhazes, for example, classified minerals into six groups based on their observed chemical properties;
Spirits, which were flammable,
Material Bodies.
malleable.
Stones,
Salts, which could dissolve in water, and
Boraxes.

Jabir ibn Hayyan

His name was Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan and he born in 721 in Kufah,Iraq. He is known as the father of Arab chemistry.
Worked under patronage of barmakis during khalifa Haroon Rashid.
Jabber was the one who laid the foundations for modern scientific chemistry.
Work and Discoveries:

Jabir ibn Hayyan is widely considered as the father of Chemistry but he was also an astronomer, pharmacist, physician, philosopher and engineer.
He was credited for the discovery of nineteen (19) different substances which we call element in modern chemistry.
He was the first person to introduce the experimental method in chemistry.

Use of chemical processes: distillation, crystallization and sublimation.
He was First to discover nitric acid.
He was First to discover hydrochloric acid .
He was First to retrieve the sulfuric acid and termed it Alzaj oil.

He produced acetic acid from vinegar.

Perfume:

People have enjoyed perfume for centuries.
The hard work of two talented chemists,
Jabir ibn Hayyan (born 722) and al-Kindi (born 801) helped lay the foundations and established the perfume industry.
Through different techniques they made various perfumes from plants.

Aqua Regia:

The discoveries of these acids especially aqua regia helped the chemists to extract and purify gold and other metals for the next thousand years.

Other discoveries and Inventions:

Discovery of “caustic soda”

He Introduced improvements to the evaporation methods of liquidation,distillation, fusion and crystallization.
He explained purification of metals and dyeing of fabrics.
He manufactured incombustible paper.
He made some sort of paint that prevents iron rust.
He was the first to introduce the method of separating gold from silver.

Experimental work:

He made experiments compulsory in science. He said that without experiments science is nothing. It is an experiment after which we are able to test
anything and find the results. We should concentrate not only the theory but experiments too.


MUHAMMAD BIN MUSA AL-KHAWARIZMI (MATHEMATICIAN)

He contributed richly in the fields of Mathematics, Astronomy and Geography. He was considered an authority on Mathematics.

He composed the oldest works on arithmetic, algebra and astronomical tables.

His work “Hisab al-Jabr Wal Muqabala” was translated in Latin.

He wrote a great treatise on Algebra containing analytical solutions of linear and quadratic equations; solution of a cubic equation.

He authored the following important books:

a) Hisab Al-Hindi b) Al-Jama- Wat Tafriq


ABU ALI IBN-E-SINA

Wrote a famous book named “AL-QANNUN FIL TIB” in which he discussed human physiology and medicine.
The main division is into five books, of which the first deals with general principles;
the second with simple drugs arranged alphabetically;
the third with diseases of particular organs and members of the body from the head to the foot;
the fourth with diseases which though local in their inception spread to other parts of the body, such as fevers and
the fifth with compound medicines.
This book is known as CANON in Latin ,It was an encyclopedia of medicine, which surveyed the entire medical knowledge available from ancient and muslim sources.
76O, diseases affecting all parts of the body from head to foot, specially pathology and pharmacopoia.
Was translated in many languages and it remained the sole textbook of medicine for several hundred years in western universities


Ibn Sina described the minute and graphic description of different parts of the eye, such as cornea, choroid, iris, retina, layer lens, aqueous humour, optic nerve .
He observed that Aorta at its origin contains three valves which open when the blood rushes into it .
Further, he observes that liver spleen and kidney do not contain any nerves but the nerves are embedded in the covering of these organs.
He also recognised contagious nature of Tuberculosis.
Distribution of diseases by water and soil.




AL-BIRUNI

Abu Rayhan Muhammad Al-Biruni was born in A.D 973. He was simultaneously a physician, astronomer, mathematician, physicist, geographer and historian.

He learnt Sanskarit language in order to investigate Indian knowledge.

He explained the problems of advanced trigonometry.
It was he who discovered that light travels faster than sound.
He gave an understanding to them terms of longitudes and latitudes.

a) Tahqiq Al-Hind b) Qamun Al-Masudi



IBN AL-HAITHAM (OPTICIAN)

i) Ibn Al-Haitham, better known as Alhazan in the West, was born in A.D 975.

ii) He was an outstanding mathematician, physiologists and optician.

iii) He was more known for his optical works.
He explained the refraction of light rays through transparent objects,
discovered magnifying lenses,
Described the function of retina as the seat of vision.

iv) He identified gravity as a force, a theory which was later on developed by Newton.

v) His famous books are:

a) Kitab Al-Manzir b) On Twilight Phenomena. c) Mizanul Hikma



UMER AL KHAYAM

Umar Khayyam (1048-1123 AD, Neyshapur, Iran), was a Persian polymath, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer and above all poet.
He has also become established as one of the major mathematicians and astronomers of the medieval period.
He was the author of the most important treatise on algebra Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra giving a geometric method for solving cubic equations .
Omar Khayyam introduced several reforms to the Persian calendar, largely based on ideas from the Hindu calendar.
In 1079, Sultan Malik Shah I accepted this corrected calendar as the official Persian calendar.

ABU ISHAQ KINDI (PHYSICIST)

i) He was great physicist, known as Al-Kindus in the West.

ii) He wrote a treatise on geometrical and physiological optics. He also endeavoured to ascertain the laws that govern the fall of bodies.

iii) No less than 265 works are ascribed to him of several on specific weights, tides, optics and on the reflection of light.


Institutions

Islamic universities
University of Al Karaouine

In 859, a young princess named Fatima al-Firhi founded the first degree-granting university in Fez, Morocco.

Her sister Miriam founded an adjacent mosque and together the complex became the al-Qarawiyyin Mosque and University.
Still operating almost 1,200 years later, the center still reminds people that learning is at the core of the Islamic tradition
and that the story of the al-Firhi sisters will always inspire young Muslim women around the world.

The Guinness World Records recognizes it as the world's oldest degree-granting university.

The Al-Azhar of Cairo

The Al Azhar University was the first university in the East and perhaps the oldest in history.

The universities of Cordova and Salerno:
Diffused knowledge to students composed of all communities who flocked to these seats of learning from distant parts of the world including Europe.

Nizamiyah and Mustansariya at Baghdad,

Mustansiriya Madrasah:,
was established in 1227 by the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mustansir and was one of the oldest universities in the world.

HOSPITALS

Bimaristan

In 809, the Caliph Harun al-Rashid founded the Bimaristan first hospital in the Islamic World, and within a short time no major city in the empire was without one.
Every major Islamic city in the Middle Ages had a hospital;
with separate wards for fevers, ophthalmic, dysentery and surgical cases.
One of the leading Muslim doctors is

Tulun Hospital Cairo founded in 872 in Cairo

Hospitals as we know them today, with wards and teaching centers.
The first such medical center was the Ahmad ibn Tulun Hospital,.
Tulun hospital provided free care for anyone who needed it —
a policy based on the Muslim tradition of caring for all who are sick.
From Cairo, such hospitals spread around the Muslim World.


Qalawun hospital Cairo: one of the largest at the time was in Cairo, which had more than 8000 beds,

A 13th-century governor of Egypt Al Mansur Qalawun ordained a foundation for the Qalawun hospital that would contain a mosque and a chapel,
separate wards for different diseases, a library for doctors and a pharmacy.
"It served 4,000 patients daily.
Hospitals in this era were the first to require medical diplomas to license doctors.
Medical facilities traditionally closed each night, but by the 10th century laws were passed to keep hospitals open 24 hours a day,
and hospitals were forbidden to turn away patients who were unable to pay.
Eventually, charitable foundations called waqfs were formed to support hospitals, as well as schools.

Technology:


Toothbrush

The Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) popularized the use of the first toothbrush in around 600. Using a twig from the Meswak tree,
he (PBUH) cleaned his teeth and freshened his breath. Substances similar to Meswak are used in modern toothpaste.


Refinement

Distillation, the means of separating liquids through differences in their boiling points, was invented around the year 800 by Islam's foremost scientist,
Jabir ibn Hayyan, who invented many of the basic processes and apparatus still in use today —
liquefaction, crystallisation, distillation, purification, oxidisation, evaporation and filtration.
As well as discovering sulphuric and nitric acid, he invented the alembic still, giving the world intense rosewater and other perfumes and alcoholic spirits.

Vaccination

The technique of inoculation was not invented by Jenner and Pasteur but was devised in the Muslim world and brought to Europe from Turkey by the wife of the English ambassador to Istanbul in 1724. Children in Turkey were vaccinated with cowpox to fight the deadly smallpox at least 50 years before the West discovered it.

Fountain Pen

The fountain pen was invented for the Sultan of Egypt in 953 after he demanded a pen which would not stain his hands or clothes.
It held ink in a reservoir and, as with modern pens, fed ink to the nib by a combination of gravity and capillary action.

water clocks

Islamic examples of complex water clocks and automata are believed to have strongly influenced the European craftsmen who produced the first mechanical clocks in the 13th century.[64]

The knowledge of gunpowder was also transmitted from China via Islamic countries, where the formulas for pure potassium nitrate and an explosive gunpowder effect were first developed.

It has been argued that the industrial use of waterpower had spread from Islamic to Christian Spain,

Paper mills were widely established

A number of industries were generated during the Arab Agricultural Revolution, including early industries for textiles, sugar, rope-making, matting, silk, and paper.

Muslim engineers in the Islamic world made a number of innovative industrial uses of hydropower,

Windmill

The windmill was invented in 634 for a Persian caliph and was used to grind corn and draw up water for irrigation.
In the vast deserts of Arabia, when the seasonal streams ran dry, the only source of power was the wind which blew steadily from one direction for months.
Mills had six or 12 sails covered in fabric or palm leaves.
It was 500 years before the first windmill was seen in Europe.

The industrial uses of watermills in the Islamic world date back to the 7th century,

while horizontal-wheeled and vertical-wheeled water mills were both in widespread use since at least the 9th century.
A number of very practical innovations took place, especially in the field of agriculture.

Improved methods of irrigation
allowed more land to be cultivated, and new types of mills and turbines were used to reduce the need for labor.

Crops and farming techniques

were adopted from far-flung neighboring cultures. Rice, cotton, and sugar were taken from India, citrus fruits from China, and sorghum from Africa.

Surgical instruments of Zahrawi.

Shampoo

Washing and bathing are religious requirements for Muslims, which is perhaps why they perfected the recipe for soap which we still use today.
The ancient Egyptians had soap of a kind, as did the Romans who used it more as pomade.
But it was the Arabs who combined vegetable oils with sodium hydroxide and aromatics such as thyme oil.
One of the Crusaders' most striking characteristics, to Arab nostrils, was that they did not wash.
Shampoo was introduced to England by a Muslim who opened Mahomed's Indian Vapour Baths on Brighton seafront in 1759
and was appointed Shampooing Surgeon to Kings George IV and William IV.


First Flying machine by Abbas ibn Firnas

Arts Islamic influences on Western art

Literature

The best known fiction from the Islamic world was The Book of One Thousand and One Nights.

Islamic Decorative Arts

Islamic decorative arts were highly valued imports to Europe throughout the Middle Ages.

Textiles were especially important,
used for church, shrouds, hangings and clothing for the elite.

ornamental
small hunting scenes,
Mosaics and metal inlays,
sculpture, and bronzeworking.
ceramics (lusterware),
Glass, metalwork, textiles,
Illuminated manuscripts, and
woodwork flourished.
Portrait miniature painting flourished in Persia.
Calligraphy, an essential aspect of written Arabic,
developed in manuscripts and architectural decoration.

The Arabic Kufic script was often imitated for decorative effect in in textiles,
to produce what is known as pseudo-Kufic:

Islamic pottery of everyday quality was still preferred to European wares.


Islamic carpets
Islamic carpets of Middle-Eastern origin,
were a significant sign of wealth and luxury in Europe.

Music
A number of musical instruments used in European music were influenced by Arabic musical instruments,
the rebec from the rebab,
the guitar from qitara,
the naker from naqareh