science in the medieval Islamic world

{{Islam|expanded=history}}

File:Map of expansion of Caliphate.svg:

{{legend|#a1584e|under Muhammad, 622–632}}

{{legend|#ef9070|under Rashidun caliphs, 632–661}}

{{legend|#fad07d|under Umayyad caliphs, 661–750}}]]

{{Further|History of Islam}}

The Islamic era began in 622. Islamic armies eventually conquered Arabia, Egypt and Mesopotamia, and successfully displaced the Persian and Byzantine Empires from the region within a few decades. 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 786 and 1258) spanned the period of the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258), with stable political structures and flourishing trade. Major religious and cultural works of the Islamic empire were translated into Arabic and occasionally Persian. 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.{{cite book |last=Hodgson |first=Marshall |author-link=Marshall Hodgson |title=The Venture of Islam; Conscience and History in a World Civilisation Vol 1 |publisher=University of Chicago |date=1974 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ventureofislamco00hodg/page/233 233–238] |isbn=978-0-226-34683-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/ventureofislamco00hodg/page/233 }}McClellan and Dorn 2006, pp.103–115 From the 9th century onwards, scholars such as Al-Kindi{{cite encyclopedia |title=Al-Kindi |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-kindi/ |encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |date=17 March 2015}} 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.{{cite book |editor-last=Robinson |editor-first=Francis |editor-link=Francis Robinson |title=The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Islamic World |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1996 |pages=228–229}}

File:Abbasids850.png, 750–1261 (and later in Egypt) at its height, c. 850]]

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. The Abbasid caliphate was followed by the Ottoman Empire ({{circa}} 1299–1922), centred in Turkey, and the Safavid Empire (1501–1736), centred in Persia, where work in the arts and sciences continued.Turner 1997, p.7

Medieval Islamic scientific achievements encompassed a wide range of subject areas, especially mathematics, astronomy, and medicine. Other subjects of scientific inquiry included physics, alchemy and chemistry, ophthalmology, and geography and cartography.Turner 1997, Table of contents{{efn|{{harvnb|Lindberg|Shank|2013|loc=chapters 1–5}} cover science, mathematics and medicine in Islam.}}

{{Main |Alchemy and chemistry in the medieval Islamic world}}

The early Islamic period saw the development of theoretical frameworks in alchemy and chemistry, laying the foundation for later advancements in both fields. The sulfur-mercury theory of metals, first found in Sirr al-khalīqa ("The Secret of Creation", c. 750–850, falsely attributed to Apollonius of Tyana), and in the writings attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan (written c. 850–950),{{cite book |last=Kraus |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Kraus (Arabist) |year=1942–1943 |title=Jâbir ibn Hayyân: Contribution à l'histoire des idées scientifiques dans l'Islam. I. Le corpus des écrits jâbiriens. II. Jâbir et la science grecque |publisher=Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale |location=Cairo |oclc=468740510 |isbn=978-3-487-09115-0}} vol. II, p. 1, note 1; {{cite book |last=Weisser |first=Ursula |editor-first1=Otto |editor-last1=Spies |title=Das "Buch über das Geheimnis der Schöpfung" von Pseudo-Apollonios von Tyana |publisher=De Gruyter |year=1980 |location=Berlin |doi=10.1515/9783110866933 |page=199|isbn=978-3-11-007333-1 }} remained the basis of theories of metallic composition until the 18th century.{{cite journal |last=Norris |first=John |year=2006 |title=The Mineral Exhalation Theory of Metallogenesis in Pre-Modern Mineral Science |journal=Ambix |volume=53 |issue=1 |pages=43–65 |doi=10.1179/174582306X93183|s2cid=97109455 }} The Emerald Tablet, a cryptic text that all later alchemists up to and including Isaac Newton saw as the foundation of their art, first occurs in the Sirr al-khalīqa and in one of the works attributed to Jabir.{{cite book |last=Weisser |first=Ursula |editor-first1=Otto |editor-last1=Spies |title=Das "Buch über das Geheimnis der Schöpfung" von Pseudo-Apollonios von Tyana |publisher=De Gruyter |year=1980 |location=Berlin |doi=10.1515/9783110866933|isbn=978-3-11-007333-1 }} p. 46. On Newton's alchemy, see {{cite book |last=Newman |first=William R. |author-link=William R. Newman |title=Newton the Alchemist: Science, Enigma, and the Quest for Nature's Secret Fire |year=2019 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton |isbn=978-0-691-17487-7}} In practical chemistry, the works of Jabir, and those of the Persian alchemist and physician Abu Bakr al-Razi (c. 865–925), contain the earliest systematic classifications of chemical substances.{{cite journal |last1=Karpenko |first1=Vladimír |last2=Norris |first2=John A. |year=2002 |title=Vitriol in the History of Chemistry |journal=Chemické listy |volume=96 |issue=12 |pages=997–1005 |url=http://www.chemicke-listy.cz/ojs3/index.php/chemicke-listy/article/view/2266}} Alchemists were also interested in artificially creating such substances.See {{cite book |last=Newman |first=William R. |author-link=William R. Newman |year=2004 |title=Promethean Ambitions: Alchemy and the Quest to Perfect Nature |location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-57524-7}} Jabir describes the synthesis of ammonium chloride (sal ammoniac) from organic substances, and Abu Bakr al-Razi experimented with the heating of ammonium chloride, vitriol, and other salts, which would eventually lead to the discovery of the mineral acids by 13th-century Latin alchemists such as pseudo-Geber.

File:Lunar phases al-Biruni.jpg's explanation of the phases of the moon ]]

{{Main|Astronomy in the medieval Islamic world| Cosmology in medieval Islam}}

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.Turner 1997, pp.59–116 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.Masood 2009, pp.74, 148–150

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 motionLinton (2004), [https://books.google.com/books?id=aJuwFLGWKF8C&pg=PA97 p.97)]. Owing to the unreliability of the data al-Zarqali relied on for this estimate, its remarkable accuracy was fortuitous. for its rate of change.Masood 2009, pp.73–75 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.Masood 2009, pp.132–135

{{Further|Arab Agricultural Revolution}}

File:A Quince Tree, a Cypress Tree, and a Sumac Tree in Zakariya al-Qazwini's Wonders of Creation.jpg, 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.{{citation|last=Fahd |first=Toufic |title=Botany and agriculture| page=815}}, in Morelon & Rashed 1996, pp.813–852Turner 1997, pp.138–139Turner 1997, pp.162–188 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 (also called Abū l-Khayr al-Ishbīlī) of Seville in his 12th century book Kitāb al-Filāha (Treatise on Agriculture). Ibn Bassāl had travelled widely across the Islamic world, returning with a detailed knowledge of agronomy that fed into the Arab Agricultural Revolution. 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.{{cite web |title=Ibn Baṣṣāl: Dīwān al-filāḥa / Kitāb al-qaṣd wa'l-bayān |url=http://www.filaha.org/author_Ibn_bassal.html |website=The Filaha Texts Project: The Arabic Books of Husbandry |access-date=11 April 2017}}

File:Piri reis world map 01.jpg of Piri Reis (1513)]]

{{Main|Geography and cartography in medieval Islam}}

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.Turner 1997, pp.117–130 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).{{cite book |author1=Edson, E. |author2=Savage-Smith, Emilie |title=Medieval Views of the Cosmos |pages=61–63 |publisher=Bodleian Library |date=2004 |isbn=978-1-851-24184-2}}

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).{{cite encyclopedia |last=Pingree |first=David |author-link=David Pingree |title=BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN iv. Geography |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Iranica |date=March 1997 |publisher=Columbia University |isbn=978-1-56859-050-9}} 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.Masood 2009, pp.79–80 The Ottoman admiral Piri Reis ({{circa}} 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.Turner 1997, pp.128–129

File:TabulaRogeriana upside-down.jpg| Modern copy of al-Idrisi's 1154 Tabula Rogeriana, upside-down, north at top

File:Image-Al-Kitāb al-muḫtaṣar fī ḥisāb al-ğabr wa-l-muqābala.jpg's Algebra]]

{{Main|Mathematics in medieval Islam}}

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 by al-Mansur's group of scientists 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.{{cite book |last=Meri |first=Josef W. |title=Medieval Islamic Civilization, Volume 1: An Encyclopedia |date=January 2006 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-96691-7 |pages=484–485}}Turner 1997, pp.43–61{{cite journal |first1=Jan P. |last1=Hogendijk |last2=Berggren |first2=J. L. |title=Episodes in the Mathematics of Medieval Islam by J. Lennart Berggren |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=109 |issue=4 |year=1989 |pages=697–698 |doi=10.2307/604119 |jstor=604119}}

File:Khayyam-paper-1stpage.png's "Cubic equation and intersection of conic sections"]]

Al-Khwarizmi (8th–9th centuries) was instrumental in the adoption of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system and the development of algebra, introduced methods of simplifying equations, and used Euclidean geometry in his proofs.Toomer, Gerald (1990). "Al-Khwārizmī, Abu Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Mūsā". In Gillispie, Charles Coulston. Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 7. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. {{ISBN|978-0-684-16962-0}}.Masood 2009, pp.139–145 He was the first to treat algebra as an independent discipline in its own right,{{citation |last=Gandz |first=S. |title=The Sources of Al-Khowārizmī's Algebra |journal=Osiris |volume=1 |year=1936 |pages=263–277|doi=10.1086/368426 |s2cid=60770737 }}, page 263–277: "In a sense, al-Khwarizmi is more entitled to be called "the father of algebra" than Diophantus because al-Khwarizmi is the first to teach algebra in an elementary form and for its own sake, Diophantus is primarily concerned with the theory of numbers". and presented the first systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations.Maher, P. (1998). From Al-Jabr to Algebra. Mathematics in School, 27(4), 14–15.{{rp|14}}

Ibn Ishaq al-Kindi (801–873) worked on cryptography for the Abbasid Caliphate,Masood 2009, pp.49–52 and gave the first known recorded explanation of cryptanalysis and the first description of the method of frequency analysis.{{cite journal |last=Broemeling |first=Lyle D.|title=An Account of Early Statistical Inference in Arab Cryptology |journal=The American Statistician |date=1 November 2011 |volume=65 |issue=4 |pages=255–257 |doi=10.1198/tas.2011.10191|s2cid=123537702}}{{cite journal | last1=Al-Kadi | first1=Ibrahim A. | year=1992 | title=The origins of cryptology: The Arab contributions | journal=Cryptologia | volume=16 | issue=2| pages=97–126 | doi=10.1080/0161-119291866801}}

Avicenna ({{circa}} 980–1037) contributed to mathematical techniques such as casting out nines.Masood 2009, pp.104–105 Thābit ibn Qurra (835–901) calculated the solution to a chessboard problem involving an exponential series.Masood 2009, pp.48–49

Al-Farabi ({{circa}} 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.Masood 2009, pp.148–149 Omar Khayyam (1048–1131), known in the West as a poet, calculated the length of the year to within 5 decimal places, and found geometric solutions to all 13 forms of cubic equations, developing some quadratic equations still in use.Masood 2009, pp.5, 104, 145–146 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 has been 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.O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Ghiyath al-Din Jamshid Mas'ud al-Kashi", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews.

Sometime around the seventh century, Islamic scholars adopted the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, describing their use in a standard type of text fī l-ḥisāb al hindī, (On the numbers of the Indians). A distinctive Western Arabic variant of the Eastern Arabic numerals began to emerge around the 10th century in the Maghreb and Al-Andalus (sometimes called ghubar numerals, though the term is not always accepted), which are the direct ancestor of the modern Arabic numerals used throughout the world.{{citation |first=Paul |last=Kunitzsch |chapter=The Transmission of Hindu-Arabic Numerals Reconsidered |editor1=J. P. Hogendijk |editor2=A. I. Sabra |title=The Enterprise of Science in Islam: New Perspectives |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_AUtLNtg3nsC&pg=PA3 |year=2003 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-19482-2 |pages=3–22}}

File:Mansur1911.jpg's Anatomy, {{circa|1450}}]]

{{Main| Medicine in the medieval Islamic world}}

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.Turner 1997, pp.131–161 al-Razi ({{circa}} 865–925) 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.Masood 2009, pp.74, 99–105

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.Masood 2009, pp.108–109 Avicenna (c. 980–1037) wrote the major medical textbook, The Canon of Medicine. Ibn al-Nafis (1213–1288) wrote an influential book on medicine; it largely 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.Masood 2009, pp.110–111Turner 1997, pp.131–139

File:Cheshm manuscript.jpg, {{circa|1200}}]]

{{Main|Physics in the medieval Islamic world#Optics|Ophthalmology in medieval Islam}}

File:Hazan.png (Alhazen), (965–1039 Iraq). A polymath, sometimes considered the father of modern scientific methodology due to his emphasis on experimental data and on the reproducibility of its results.{{cite web |title=The 'first true scientist'|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7810846.stm |work=BBC News |first=Jim |last=Al-Khalili |date=4 January 2009 |quote=Ibn al-Haytham is regarded as the father of the modern scientific method.}}{{cite book |title=Mind, Brain, and Education Science: A Comprehensive Guide to the New Brain-Based Teaching|year=2010|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-70607-9 |author=Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa |page=39 |quote=Alhazen (or Al-Haytham; 965–1039 CE) was perhaps one of the greatest physicists of all times and a product of the Islamic Golden Age or Islamic Renaissance (7th–13th centuries). He made significant contributions to anatomy, astronomy, engineering, mathematics, medicine, ophthalmology, philosophy, physics, psychology, and visual perception and is primarily attributed as the inventor of the scientific method, for which author Bradley Steffens (2006) describes him as the "first scientist".}}]]

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.Masood 2009, pp.47–48, 59, 96–97, 171–72

Abbas ibn Firnas (810–887) developed lenses for magnification and the improvement of vision.Masood 2009, pp.71–73

Ibn Sahl ({{circa}} 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.K. B. Wolf, "Geometry and dynamics in refracting systems", European Journal of Physics 16, p. 14–20, 1995.R. Rashed, "A pioneer in anaclastics: Ibn Sahl on burning mirrors and lenses", Isis 81, p. 464–491, 1990

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.{{cite book |last=Dallal |first=Ahmad |title=Islam, Science, and the Challenge of History |url=https://archive.org/details/islamsciencechal0000dall |url-access=registration |publisher=Yale University Press |date=2010 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/islamsciencechal0000dall/page/38 38–39]}}{{cite book |last=Lindberg |first=David C.|year=1976 |title=Theories of Vision from al-Kindi to Kepler |publisher=University of Chicago Press, Chicago |isbn=978-0-226-48234-7|oclc=1676198}}{{cite book |last=El-Bizri |first=Nader |author-link=Nader El-Bizri |title=A Philosophical Perspective on Alhazen's Optics |work=Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, Vol. 15 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2005 |pages=189–218}}{{cite web |last=El-Bizri |first=Nader |url=http://www.muslimheritage.com/article/nader-el-bizri-ibn-al-haytham-introduction |publisher=Muslim Heritage |title=Ibn al-Haytham |date=30 March 2011 |access-date=9 July 2017}} He argued further that the mathematics of reflection and refraction needed to be consistent with the anatomy of the eye.Masood 2009, pp.173–175 He was also an early proponent of the scientific method, the concept that a hypothesis must be proved by experiments based on confirmable procedures or mathematical evidence, five centuries before Renaissance scientists.{{citation |last=Ackerman |first=James S. |title=Distance Points: Essays in Theory and Renaissance Art and Architecture |date=August 1991 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-01122-8}}Haq, Syed (2009). "Science in Islam". Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages. {{ISSN|1703-7603}}. Retrieved 22 October 2014.G. J. Toomer. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/228328?pg=464 Review on JSTOR, Toomer's 1964 review of Matthias Schramm (1963) Ibn Al-Haythams Weg Zur Physik] Toomer p.464: "Schramm sums up [Ibn Al-Haytham's] achievement in the development of scientific method."{{cite web|url=http://www.light2015.org/Home/ScienceStories/1000-Years-of-Arabic-Optics.html|title=International Year of Light - Ibn Al-Haytham and the Legacy of Arabic Optics|access-date=2019-04-09|archive-date=2014-10-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141001171116/http://www.light2015.org/Home/ScienceStories/1000-Years-of-Arabic-Optics.html|url-status=dead}}{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7810846.stm |work=BBC News |title=The 'first true scientist' |last=Al-Khalili |first=Jim |date=4 January 2009 |access-date=24 September 2013}}{{Cite journal |last=Gorini |first=Rosanna |title=Al-Haytham the man of experience. First steps in the science of vision |url=http://www.ishim.net/ishimj/4/10.pdf|journal=Journal of the International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine |volume=2 |issue=4 |pages=53–55 |date=October 2003 |access-date=25 September 2008}}

File:Avicenna Expounding Pharmacy to his Pupils Wellcome L0008688.jpg teaching the use of drugs. 15th-century Great Canon of Avicenna]]

{{Further|History of pharmacy}}

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-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. 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 ({{circa}} 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. Ibn al-Baytar (1197–1248), in his Al-Jami fi al-Tibb, described a thousand simples and drugs based directly on Mediterranean plants collected along the entire coast between Syria and Spain, for the first time exceeding the coverage provided by Dioscorides in classical times.{{cite book |last=Levey |first=M. |date=1973 |title=Early Arabic Pharmacology |publisher=E. J. Brill}} Islamic physicians such as Ibn Sina described clinical trials for determining the efficacy of medical drugs and substances.{{cite book |first1=Curtis L. |last1=Meinert |first2=Susan |last2=Tonascia |title=Clinical trials: design, conduct, and analysis |year=1986 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i1oAxuE29MUC&pg=PA3 |isbn=978-0-19-503568-1 }}

File:Banu musa mechanical.jpg's treatise on mechanical devices, c. 850]]

{{Main|Physics in the medieval Islamic world}}

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 ({{circa|490|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.{{cite journal |last=Sayili |first=Aydin |title=Ibn Sina and Buridan on the Motion the Projectile |journal=Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences |volume=500 |issue=1 |pages=477–482 |doi=10.1111/j.1749-6632.1987.tb37219.x |year=1987 |s2cid=84784804 }} 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.{{cite journal |last=Espinoza |first=Fernando |title=An Analysis of the Historical Development of Ideas About Motion and its Implications for Teaching |journal=Physics Education |volume=40 |issue=2 |doi=10.1088/0031-9120/40/2/002 |year=2005 |pages=139–146|bibcode=2005PhyEd..40..139E |s2cid=250809354 }} As a non-Aristotelian suggestion, it was essentially abandoned until it was described as "impetus" by Jean Buridan (c. 1295–1363), who was likely influenced by Ibn Sina's Book of Healing.

In the Shadows, Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī (973–1048) describes non-uniform motion as the result of acceleration.{{cite web| title=Biography of Al-Biruni| publisher=University of St. Andrews, Scotland |url=http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Al-Biruni.html}} Ibn-Sina's theory of mayl tried to relate the velocity and weight of a moving object, a precursor of the concept of momentum.{{cite book |last1=Nasr |first1=S. H. |last2=Razavi |first2=M. A. |title=The Islamic Intellectual Tradition in Persia |date=1996 |publisher=Routledge}} 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.{{cite book |title=Studies in Arabic versions of Greek texts and in mediaeval science |volume=2 |first=Shlomo |last=Pines |author-link=Shlomo Pines |publisher=Brill Publishers |year=1986 |isbn=978-965-223-626-5 |page=203}}

The Banu Musa brothers, Jafar-Muhammad, Ahmad and al-Hasan (c. early 9th century) invented automated devices described in their Book of Ingenious Devices.Masood 2009, pp.161–163{{Cite book |last=Lindberg |first=David |title=Science in the Middle Ages |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1978 |pages=23, 56}}{{Cite book |editor-last=Selin |editor-first=Helaine |editor-link=Helaine Selin |title=Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures |publisher=Kluwer Academic Publishers |year=1997 |pages=151, 235, 375}} Advances on the subject were also made by al-Jazari and Ibn Ma'ruf.

File:Al-Jahiz - pages from Kitaab al Hayawaan 3.jpg. Ninth century]]

{{Further|Kitāb al-Hayawān}}

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.{{cite book |last=Hoffman |first=Eva R. |title=Translating Image and Text in the Medieval Mediterranean World between the Tenth and Thirteenth Centuries|work=Mechanisms of Exchange: Transmission in Medieval Art and Architecture of the Mediterranean, ca. 1000–1500 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XaNjNFu8fnEC&pg=PA288 |year=2013 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-25034-5 |pages=288–}} 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,Kruk, R., 1979, The Arabic Version of Aristotle's Parts of Animals: book XI–XIV of the Kitab al-Hayawan, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Amsterdam-Oxford 1979. and Generation of Animals: 15–19.{{cite book |last1=Contadini |first1=Anna |title=A World of Beasts: A Thirteenth-Century Illustrated Arabic Book on Animals (the Kitab Na't al-Hayawan) in the Ibn Bakhtishu' Tradition) |date=2012 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mf0xAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA39|isbn=978-90-04-22265-6 }}Kruk, R., 2003, "La zoologie aristotélicienne. Tradition arabe", DPhA Supplement, 329–334

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.{{cite book |last=Leroi |first=Armand Marie |author-link=Armand Marie Leroi |title=The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science |title-link=Aristotle's Lagoon |publisher=Bloomsbury |date=2014 |isbn=978-1-4088-3622-4 |pages=354–355}}

{{Further|Islamic world contributions to Medieval Europe|Latin translations of the 12th century}}

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.Durant, Will (1980). The Age of Faith (The Story of Civilization, Volume 4), p. 162–186. Simon & Schuster. {{ISBN|978-0-671-01200-7}}. Garrison, Fielding H., An Introduction to the History of Medicine: with Medical Chronology, Suggestions for Study and Bibliographic Data, p. 86. {{Cite book |title=What Went Wrong? : Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response |first=Bernard |last=Lewis |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-19-514420-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/whatwentwrongwes00lewi/page/79 79] |url=https://archive.org/details/whatwentwrongwes00lewi/page/79 }} In a more general sense, 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 did not lead to a scientific revolution like that in Early modern Europe, but such external comparisons are probably to be rejected as imposing "chronologically and culturally alien standards" on a successful medieval culture.

{{Portal|Islam|Science|Middle Ages}}

{{div col}}

• 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 Muslim world

{{div col end}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Notelist|30em}}

• {{Cite book | last=Linton | first=Christopher M. | title=From Eudoxus to Einstein—A History of Mathematical Astronomy | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2004 | isbn=978-0-521-82750-8 }}
• {{Cite book |last=Masood |first=Ehsan |title=Science and Islam: A History |author-link=Ehsan Masood |publisher=Icon Books |year=2009 | isbn=978-1-785-78202-2 }}
• {{Cite book |editor1-last=McClellan |editor1-first=James E. III |editor2-last=Dorn |editor2-first=Harold |title=Science and Technology in World History |edition=2 |year=2006 |publisher=Johns Hopkins |isbn=978-0-8018-8360-6 }}
• {{Cite book |last1=Morelon |first1=Régis |last2=Rashed |first2=Roshdi |year=1996 |title=Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science |volume=3 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-12410-2 |title-link=Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science }}
• {{Cite book |last=Turner |first=Howard R. |title=Science in Medieval Islam: An Illustrated Introduction |publisher=University of Texas Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-292-78149-8 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/scienceinmedieva0000turn }}

• {{cite book |last1=Al-Daffa |first1=Ali Abdullah |author-link=Ali Abdullah Al-Daffa |first2=J.J. |last2=Stroyls |title=Studies in the exact sciences in medieval Islam |publisher=Wiley |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-471-90320-8 |ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last=Hogendijk |first=Jan P. |author-link=Jan Hogendijk |author2=Sabra, Abdelhamid I. |year=2003 |title=The Enterprise of Science in Islam: New Perspectives |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-19482-2 |ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last=Hill |first=Donald Routledge |author-link=Donald Hill |title=Islamic Science And Engineering |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |date=1993 |isbn=978-0-7486-0455-5 |ref=none}}
• {{cite book|last1=Huff|first1=Toby|author1-link=Toby Huff|date=1993|title=The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China, and the West|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}
• {{cite book |last=Kennedy |first=Edward S. |title=Studies in the Islamic Exact Sciences |year=1983 |publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0-8156-6067-5 |ref=none}}
• {{cite book |editor1-last=Lindberg|editor1-first=D. C.|editor1-link=David C. Lindberg|editor2-last=Shank|editor2-first=M. H.|date=2013|title=The Cambridge History of Science. Volume 2: Medieval Science|publisher=Cambridge University Press}} (chapters 1–5 cover science, mathematics and medicine in Islam)
• {{cite book |last1=Morelon |first1=Régis |last2=Rashed |first2=Roshdi |author-link2=Roshdi Rashed |year=1996 |title=Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science |volume=2–3 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-02063-3|title-link=Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science |ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last=Saliba |first=George |author-link=George Saliba |title=Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance |publisher=MIT Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-262-19557-7 |ref=none}}

{{Commons category|History of Islamic science}}

• [http://www.aina.org/books/hgsptta.pdf "How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs"] by De Lacy O'Leary
• {{cite web |url=http://www.columbia.edu/~gas1/project/visions/case1/sci.1.html |title=Whose Science is Arabic Science in Renaissance Europe? |first=George |last=Saliba |author-link=George Saliba |ref=none}}
• Habibi, Golareh. [https://www.scq.ubc.ca/is-there-such-a-thing-as-islamic-science-the-influence-of-islam-on-the-world-of-science/ is there such a thing as Islamic science? the influence of Islam on the world of science], Science Creative Quarterly.

{{Islam topics |Studies |state=collapsed}}

{{History of science}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Science In Medieval Islam}}

.Science

Category:Medieval history of the Middle East

Islamic world