Islamic Culture
Islamic Culture
Islamic culture is interspersed with remarkable development across various verticals of civilization progress indicia, including, but not limited to science, philosophy, art and various streams of humanities. The reconciliation between science and Islam is historical in nature. As rightly pointed out in an online study published by the Oxford University Press authored by Professor Ibrahim Kalin; the holy Qur’an itself contains guidance for the faithful to investigate and conduct an intellectual enquiry about the world and various signs of God. To this end, Professor Ibhraim points out that the Holy Qur’an contains detailed reference about cosmology and the various natural occurrences and phenomena. Professor Ibhraim further points out that the scientific outlook is indicated by the fact the various verse of the Holy Quran is also referred to as “Ayah”. In this regard, the meaning of the word “Ayah” means sign that is indicative of the fact that the Holy Qur’an mandates the follower to study creation and elaborates upon various issues like natural order, the creationist theory, the design theory and the relationship between man and nature.
In light of the guiding spirit enunciated in the Holy Qur’an, historically, Muslim scientists, mathematicians and experts invented, discovered and developed host of products, including coffee perfumes, cameras, suction pump etc. that has great utility even today. Muslim scholars and scientist made striding progress across various spheres of science, medicine, literature in the medieval ages that is rightly termed as the “Golden Period” of Islam. As pointed out by Alexandra Lutz, the “Golden Period” of Islam refers to the period of Abbasid Caliphate that commenced on 750 AD and continued until 1258 AD.
Architecture: Islamic architecture style and concept, without doubt, is one of the most influential styles across the world. Islamic architecture has influenced architectural style of various civilizations, including, but not limited to the European Gothic architecture and the Chinese architectures. The central characteristic feature of Islamic architecture is the domes, minarets and spires. The minute calligraphy on the walls and the minarets that is used for the purpose of accentuating the beauty of the imposing structures is one of the most remarkable contributions of Islam to the world of architecture. Islamic architecture is found in a host of countries, including India, Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and a whole lot of Middle Eastern countries. The Golden Age of Islam is especially well-known for architecture, which combines many of these other art forms. As pointed out by Alexandra Lutz in an online publication, Islamic architecture relied and borrowed heavily from the Byzantine Empire. Alexandra Lutz further points out that domes and minarets are beautifully decorated with geometric designs, calligraphy and arabesques. As pointed out in the book of “1001 Inventions-Discover the Muslim Heritage in our World” the principles of engineering, maths and geometry was combined by Muslim civil engineers with the view to improve and strengthen the tent structure. The basis of the innovation was the inherent strength rooted in the triangle structure. The Muslim civil engineers crossed several hurdles of effectively supporting huge structure by building and deploying arches of new shapes. Thus, it can be reasonably concluded that even though Muslim architecture did borrow ideas from the surroundings, it developed its unique architectural style on account of the distinct spiritual and religious requirements.
Literature: The first thing that comes to anyone’s mind who is distantly interested in literature vis-à-vis Islamic literature is Arabian Nights. In this regard, as pointed out in an online study by Maha, Arabian Night is a compilation of traditional folk stories that is narrated by the central character. Islamic literature covers all streams ranging from philosophy to fiction writing to scientific write up. The scientific novels published in the Middle Eastern culture during the golden age commented upon concepts like resurrection, futurology and doomsday. To this end, as rightly argued by Maha in an online article, the first scientific novel in the Islamic world was written by Ibn al-Nafis. The name of the novel was Theologus Autodidactus, and it elucidated on topics of doomsday and futurology. Aside to the scientific literature, Maha further points out that Islamic literature abounds with literatures concerning various heroic tales. To this end, the contribution of authors like Mohammad Ali Naqib al-Mamalek, a legendary story teller who established the famous character of Amir Arsalan is worth taking note of. As pointed out in an online research paper, pursuant to the invention of the paper making art by the Chinese, Islamic scholars took up the humungous task of translating thousands of literary work from across the world into Arabic with the intention of preserving several classical literally work. Several talented Muslim writers penned down classic original piece of literary work and also wrote numerous commentaries and adapted tales influenced by traditional empire based folklores.
Medicine and Pharmacy: The contribution of Islamic culture to the field of medicine and pharmacy is also distinguishable. There were very sophisticated and refined rule of pharmacy in the Muslim world. As pointed out in the book “1001 Invention-Discover the Muslim Heritage in Our World” the Muslim world had very sophisticated and refined pharmaceuticals almost eight hundred years ago. They also had strict rules and regulations for governing sales of pharmacy products (P 52). From the recorded historical data, it can be ascertained that Caliph Umar (640 CE) had appointed a woman inspector in the city of Medina for ensuring implementation of pharmacy rules. (P 52) As pointed out in an online publication on “The Muslim’s Contribution to the Medicine” several books on medicines were written historically in the Middle East out of which the book known as At-Tasreef Liman `Ajaza `an At-Ta'leef written by Abu Al-Qaasim Az-Zahraawi is one of the most popular book. This book can rightly be labelled as the first encyclopaedia on the subject of surgery and medicine. It is remarkable to note that this book has been heavily relied upon by several European scholars on medicines across several centuries. This book was so famous that it was also translated into Latin.
Consumer Products like cameras/coffee/perfumes: The contribution of the Muslim world to the discovery and development of consumer goods product like cameras/coffee and perfumes are worth taking note of. As pointed out in “1001 Invention-Discover the Muslim Heritage in our World” the invention of camera took place a long time ago by a renowned Muslim Scientist known as Abu Ali al-Hasan Ibn al-Haitham. It has been rightly pointed out in the foregoing book that the work carried out by Al-Haitham is indeed revolutionary in nature and highly influential as Al Haitham conducted several experiments and recorded his studies. The biggest contribution of Al-Haitham was the discovery about the nature of light. In the foregoing discovery, Al Haitham successfully proved that as light travels in straight lines, we are able to view/see any object only pursuant to reflection of the light from the object and entering of the light into the eye pursuant to the reflection. (P 10) This basic research formed the premises for the invention of modern camera. This is, without doubt, one of the most relevant contributions of Islam to the world. As pointed out in the book of “1001 Inventions-Discover the Muslim Heritage of our World” another relevant discovery of Muslim world is that of coffee. In this regard, coffee was discovered accidentally pursuant to the observation by a goat-herd who was an Ethiopian about the livelier behaviour of his goats after consuming a particular plant. (P 18) Thus, the discovery of coffee can rightly be attributed to the Muslim culture. It has undoubtedly become one of the most renowned and popular beverage of the world thanks to the discovery carried out several years ago. Lastly, as pointed out in the book “1001 Inventions-Discover the Muslim Heritage of the World” Muslims played a pre-dominant role in the invention of wide variety of scents and perfumes. To this end, due credit should be given to Al-Kindi, and Al Jabir Ibn Hayyan, both born in modern day Iraq. Each of the foregoing chemists created a large number of formulations for manufacturing different kind of scents and cosmetics that are popular even now. The influence and contribution of the Muslim culture in the domain of perfume is indeed tremendous.
It can be reasonably concluded that the contribution and influence of Islamic culture across various verticals of knowledge domain is indeed remarkable. It is because of the intrinsic characteristics and demand of Islamic culture that the development in the field of art, science and humanities became feasible. It is this development that greatly influenced and shaped the world culture at large.
WORK CITED
- Maha “Art and Literature during the Golden Age” Retrieved From: http://muslimgirl.net/1365/day-2030-art-and-literature-during-the-golden-age/
- Alexandra Lutz “Muslim Learning: Scientific, Artistic, Medical & Literary Accomplishments” Retrieved From: http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/muslim-learning-scientific-artistic-medical-literary-accomplishments.html#lesson
- The Muslim’s Contribution to Medicine: Retrieved from: http://www.islamweb.net/kidsen/Kids%20Corner%201,2/subjects/eshamatteb.html
- “1001 Inventions: Discover the Muslim Heritage in our World” ghttp://muslimheritage.com/1001/1001i_Teachers_Pack_Abu_Dhabi_English.pdf
