Abbasid Caliphate
During the time that Europe was still grappling with the Dark Ages, civilization and knowledge revolution was being adopted in Baghdad. In this regard, Muslim scholars were gathered in the House of Wisdom under the leadership of the Abbasid Caliphate. The House of Wisdom was instituted with the focus of promoting the translation of scientific related texts and concepts. They endeavored to conserve information related to classical civilizations which lay a basis for the formation of academic disciplines which still maintain their relevance in the current society.
The Abbasid Caliphate sought to spread Islam through conquest and conversion in lands they acquired. In the process, the dynasty maintained the knowledge related to the newly acquired religions and consolidated it with their own facts. As such, inventions such as perfumes, coffee, among other inventions, was established in this regard. This paper will analyze and evaluate these contributions by Muslim scholars and the influence of their work in fields such as science, literature, philosophy, theology, and mathematics.
Science
Muslim scholars made tremendous accomplishments in the fields of science such as medicine. In this regard, as indicated above, the Muslim scholars assimilated the scientific knowledge they acquired from other cultures such as Greeks, and Indian in an attempt to understand the essence of different fields as such implement practical knowledge that could be adopted in their particular contexts. As a result, the scientists managed to recover Alexandrian astronomical knowledge such as the Euclid and Claudius Ptolemy.
The caliph Harun al-Rashid led the establishment of an academy specialized in scientific studies that was known as Bayt al-Hikma or Dar al-Hikma. The establishment of this centre was inspired by the previous caliphates Abu Jafar al-Mansur and Muhammad al-Mahdi that had already started the storage of books in book centers. In this regard, large book collections were housed in a large book store referred to as Khizanat al-Kutub. These centers were managed by famous translators who decoded information from other languages to the Arabian contexts.
However, the most profound development and growth of Arabian scientific knowledge started developing from upon the knowledge of the existence of Greek medicine. In this regard, at this point in time, the famous Greek scholars such as Plato, Archimedes, Aristotle, and Hippocrates formed the basis of this knowledge accumulation. In this case, Muslim scholars translated such texts, which were of a predominant Greek nature, to Syriac and later to Arabic.
Under the leadership of the Abbasids, the higher scientific education was carried out mostly on an individual basis as opposed to established institutions. Medical knowledge fascinated Muslim scholars and in this case, translation work on from Greek medical texts for the Arabic context was flagged off by the Caliph, Amir Muawiyah. One notable Muslim scholar was Yuhanna Ibn Masawayh who was a private physician of the caliph Harun al-Rashid. His work on various medical discoveries commanded respect from other individuals. In this regard, Yuhanna was responsible for his work on Barley water and its application in the treatment and enumeration of its nutritional and medicinal value.
In addition, Yuhanna also paced the way for further discoveries of food and drink and their nutritional value from their intake, as well as their respective making. In addition, Yuhanna also wrote scholarly articles about the monitoring of one’s health in accordance with the status of one’s condition in which case was referred to as Tadbir al-Asihhah, as well as medicinal knowledge that was associated with bathing practices, aversion of the unhealthy effects of the consumption of certain foods, and also the determination of the existence of various poisons as well as their respective cures.
Also, Ibn Masawayh authored a guide, Kitab al-mushajjar al-Kabir, on medicine, with a specific focus on the description of certain diseases, their symptoms, diagnosis, and respective treatments, as well as required diets. Another scholar, Isa Ibn Ali authored a book on ophthalmology called Tadhirat al-kahhalin. In this regard, Ibn Ali sought to discuss various external eye diseases, the anatomy of the eye, and internal eye infections. Another notable Muslim scholar was Ar Razi who focused on the human psyche. In this regard, he authored the book of medicine that comprised of various works revolving around psychotherapy and psychology. This book became available and used for more than a century in the field of medicine in Europe. The compilation of the Kitab Al-Hawi fit Tibb or the Liber Continens comprised of various scholarly works related with Pharmacy, in which case detailed the art of healing, combination of medicines, and the respective pharmaceutical dosage as well as toxicology. In addition, the book comprised of various medical formulas which were experimented in the quest of development of appropriate pharmaceutical dosages that were available both in Islam and the West.
Mathematics
The notable Persian scientist who was assimilated in the Islam culture was a famous mathematician who made notable discoveries in the field. In this regard, Muhammad Ibn Musa developed the aspect of algebra through the widely recognized landmark text, Kitab al-jabr wa-I-Muqabala from which provided the tern ‘algebra’ was determined.
In addition, another mathematical scholar al-Khwarizmi, from whose name led to the development of the term ‘algorithm’ is recognized as a significant contributor of the mathematics field as he was responsible for the introduction of Arabic numerals as well as the Hindu-Arabic numeral system which transcended the geographical boundaries of the Indian subcontinent. This system is still predominantly applied in the current mathematical field.
With regards to the aspect of Calculus, the Muslim scholar Alhazen perpetuated and caused the discovery of the total value of the fourth power. He managed to achieve this feat through a system that provided a generalized concept that sought to determine the sum total of any integral power. In this regard, he adopted this system to calculate the volume of a parabloid.
Literature
Following the discovery of paper, information became a democratized commodity as it became readily available to the masses. This aspect perpetuated the creation of the practice of writing as well as selling of books. This discovery perpetuated Islamic paper makers to create an assembly approach that sought to produce hand-copy manuscripts that could have the capacity to release editions that were considered far larger than those in Europe.
In addition, notable literature pieces also developed from Arabic contexts. One of this is the Book of One Thousand and One Nights which was established by the 10th century through to the 14th century, in which case the number as well as number of tales varies.
Philosophy
The contributions by Muslim scholars with regards to this field encompassed mostly works that revolved around translation. In this regard, Nestorian Christians contributed significantly, in the Abbasid period, to the Arabic-Islamic civilization. In this regard, between the periods 4th -7th centuries, the initiation of Greek and Syriac languages were initiated and implemented, through the Hellenistic period.
In this regard, many antiquity classical works would have been lost if Arabic scholars had not translated them to different languages such as Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, and Latin. As was the practice of Muslim scholars, they assimilated knowledge from other cultures to create relevance in accordance with their own contexts. In this regard, Muslim scholars adopted knowledge from China and India, into the creation of the Arabic philosophic literature. This aspect laid the basis for the establishment of modern European philosophy.
Theology
The theological progress established by the Abbasid was predominantly influenced by the Islamic religion. In this regard, during the first half of the Abbasids rule, they imposed strong religious links in the context of their leadership. As such, upon the dominance of other lands, the conversion of individuals to Islam, whether willfully or forcefully made was ensured during such times. As such, this aspect played a significant role in the spread of Islam across different regions and in which case, Islamic religious practices are still maintained till the present time.
Bibliography
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Falagas, Matthew, Zarkadoulia, Effie., & Samonis, George. Arab science in the golden age (750-1258 C.E) and today. The FASEB Journal. Vol. 20, No. 10, 2010.
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