A History of Agriculture in India v2.c53.s7: Arabs Promote Science
A History of Agriculture in India v2.c53.s7
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Arabs Promote Science
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The Arabs also played a great role in the promotion of science. ‘If the Greek was the father, then the Arab was the foster-father of the scientific method,’ observed H.G. Wells. Chemistry, algebra, astronomy, optics and medicine flourished in the cities of Basra, Baghdad, Cairo and Cordoba.
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After paper, the greatest contribution of the Arabs to the advancement of knowledge was the introduction of the Hindu invention of the zero in arithmetic. Before this, the Roman numerals were in use and their range was limited. The zero liberated arithmetic, and people could now count in millions, billions and trillions.
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The leading work of Indian science, the Brahma-Siddhanta of Brahma Gupta, was translated into Arabic, and was given the name of Sind-Hind.
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With the aid of new instruments of observation, the Arab philosophers acquired the exact knowledge of the circumference of the earth, and the position and the number of planets. Astronomy began to outgrow its primitive form (divinations of astrology), and developed into an exact science. Although algebra had been invented by Diophantus of Alexandria, it did not become an object of common study until the age of Arabic learning. Botany was studied for medical purposes; yet the discovery of two thousand varieties of plants by Dioscorides represented the birth of a new science. Chemistry owes its origin and initial development to the industry of the Arabs. The most renowned of the alchemists was Jabir ibn Hayyan (fl. about A.D. 800), and Al-Razi (about A.D. 865-925), also known as Rhazes. The Arab alchemists discovered new substances, such as potash, nitrate of silver, and nitric and sulphuric acids. The word alcohol is Arabic.
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It was in the science of medicine that the Arabs made the greatest progress. Masua and Geber, the disciples of Galen, and Avicena (A.D. 980-1037), were born in Bukhara. They were great physicians. Avicena’s Qanun-i-Shifa is the greatest treatise in Moslem medicine, and was the textbook of Moslem physicians throughout the Middle Ages. The school of Salermo, the centre of medical learning in Europe until the sixteenth century, owed its origin to the Arabs.
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Al Farabi, a great physician, taught at Damascus as well as at Baghdad. His commentary on Aristotle was studied for centuries as an authoritative work. Roger Bacon learnt mathematics from his works.
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The Arabs were not merely the carriers of science, they were also innovators. In the eleventh century lived Al Hassan (A.D. 965-1039) of Basra, who deserves a place among the greatest scientists of all ages. Optics was his special subject. He corrected the mistaken notion of the Greeks that the rays of light issued from the eye. By anatomical and geometrical reasoning, he proved that the rays of light came from the object seen and impinged on the retina. There is ground for belief that Kepler borrowed his optical views from Al Hassan.
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The mechanical clock, introduced into Europe in the fourteenth century, was adopted from Moslem models. ‘The clock had great influence upon the development of Western technics and Western civilization in general’, observes Geise.
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Al Gazali, son of an Andalusian merchant, anticipated Descartes in reducing the standard of truth to self-consciousness.
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‘The distinctive merit of the Arab scholars was the zeal to acquire knowledge through observation,’ observes M. N. Roy. ‘They discarded the vanity of airy speculation, and stood firmly on the ground known to them.’
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They held that philosophy must be based on mathematics; and it should cease to be an idle speculation: abstract thought should be guided by precise reasoning, based on concrete facts and established laws in order to produce positive results.
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In navigation, the Arabs, with their improved astrolabe and mariner’s compass, were leaders. The astrolabe was invented by al-Fazari, about A.D. 775, at Baghdad. The magnetic compass was an invention of the Chinese, and the Arabs possibly borrowed it from them and improved upon it. In the ninth century, their ships reached Java and Sumatra. About the middle of the tenth century, Arab ships reached the Chinese town of Khanfu, now Canton. It may be mentioned that the word ‘admiral’ is of Arabic origin, and so are cable, average, shallop (sloop), barque, and monsoon.
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In the Moslem Spain, it was between A.D. 1058 and 1269 that a galaxy of men of genius flourished, e.g. Al-Bakri and Idrisi, the geographers, and Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar), the physician, Avempace, Averroes (Ibnrushd) and Ibn Tufayl, the philosophers, Ibn’ Arabi of Murcia, the mystic, Maimonides, the Jewish savant, and Ibn Jubayr, the traveller. Averroes (A.D. 1126-1198) taught at Cordoba, and among his students were many Christians. He made a sharp division between religious and scientific truth, and thus liberated science from the dogmas of Christianity and Islam. Averroes and Averroism dominated the scientific thought of Europe for four hundred years.
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From the ninth to the thirteenth century, the Moslem civilization was greatly superior to the civilization of Europe. ‘While Europe lay for the most part in misery and decay, both materially and spiritually, the Spanish Muslims created a splendid civilization and an organized economic life. Muslim Spain played a decisive part in the development of art, science, philosophy and poetry, and its influence reached even to the highest peaks of the Christian thought of the thirteenth century, to Thomas Aquinas and Dante. Then, if ever, Spain was "the torch of Europe".¹
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¹ Arnold, Sir Thomas and Guillaume, A. *The Legacy of Islam*, p. 5
Linked texts (1)
- Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta — Brahmagupta, Sanskrit