SCIENCE & ISLAM | The language of science (BBC)

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SCIENCE & ISLAM | The language of science (BBC)
OP - June 09, 2009, 07:37 AM

A BBC documentary examining the great leap in scientific knowledge that took place in the Islamic world between the 8th and 14th centuries.

Isaac Newton is, as most will agree, the greatest physicist of all time.
At the very least, he is the undisputed father of modern optics, or so we are told at school where our textbooks abound with his famous experiments with lenses and prisms, his study of the nature of light and its reflection, and the refraction and decomposition of light into the colours of the rainbow.

Yet, the truth is rather greyer; and I feel it important to point out that, certainly in the field of optics, Newton himself stood on the shoulders of a giant who lived 700 years earlier.

For, without doubt, another great physicist, who is worthy of ranking up alongside Newton, is a scientist born in AD 965 in what is now Iraq who went by the name of al-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham.

Most people in the West will never have even heard of him.
As a physicist myself, I am quite in awe of this man's contribution to my field, but I was fortunate enough to have recently been given the opportunity to dig a little into his life and work through my recent filming of a three-part BBC Four series on medieval Islamic scientists.
Modern methods
Popular accounts of the history of science typically suggest that no major scientific advances took place in between the ancient Greeks and the European Renaissance.
But just because Western Europe languished in the Dark Ages, does not mean there was stagnation elsewhere. Indeed, the period between the 9th and 13th Centuries marked the Golden Age of Arabic science.
Great advances were made in mathematics, astronomy, medicine, physics, chemistry and philosophy. Among the many geniuses of that period Ibn al-Haytham stands taller than all the others.

First shown on BBC4 05/01/2009
Professor Jim Al-Khalili presents Science and Islam

Part one of six:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-n2BoPE2GE&feature=related

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Re: SCIENCE & ISLAM | The language of science (BBC)
Reply #1 - June 09, 2009, 08:29 AM

I think my sig pretty much sums up the relationship Islam had with science, philosophy and mathmatics in it's golden age and it's current lack of. It's a shame the the golden age was never followed by something greater, like the renaissance being followed by the enlightenment.
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Re: SCIENCE & ISLAM | The language of science (BBC)
Reply #2 - July 22, 2009, 01:27 AM

Many things led to the decline of islamic knowledge.

The mongol invasion
The discovery of the Americas
Infighting.
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Re: SCIENCE & ISLAM | The language of science (BBC)
Reply #3 - July 22, 2009, 01:45 AM

Quote from: shadowq8 on July 22, 2009, 01:27 AM
Many things led to the decline of islamic knowledge.

The mongol invasion
The discovery of the Americas
Infighting.

Please elaborate on this point. I can understand the other two, but this?

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Re: SCIENCE & ISLAM | The language of science (BBC)
Reply #4 - July 22, 2009, 02:59 AM

Easy. If the Americas hadn't been "discovered" (by people who weren't there already, hey) then the US wouldn't have become a world power and gone into an evil alliance with the Elders of Zion and thereby oppressed Muslim knowledge kthnxbai.

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Re: SCIENCE & ISLAM | The language of science (BBC)
Reply #5 - July 22, 2009, 03:30 AM

Quote from: shadowq8 on July 22, 2009, 01:27 AM
Many things led to the decline of islamic knowledge.

The mongol invasion
The discovery of the Americas
Infighting.

Islam

My Book
My Blog
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Re: SCIENCE & ISLAM | The language of science (BBC)
Reply #6 - July 22, 2009, 05:15 AM

Al-Gazzali is to blame for the decline, he declared mathematics the work of Satan.

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Re: SCIENCE & ISLAM | The language of science (BBC)
Reply #7 - July 26, 2009, 06:41 AM

Quote from: awais on July 22, 2009, 01:45 AM
Please elaborate on this point. I can understand the other two, but this?

An economic advantage.
It poured a great amount of resources to europe and before the americas the spice trade had to pass through the Middle east giving Muslims at the time a great economic addvantage.

Spices back then along with salts were the few things that preserved food and were quote valuable.

South America opened a new source for these spices.
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Re: SCIENCE & ISLAM | The language of science (BBC)
Reply #8 - July 26, 2009, 06:43 AM

Quote from: Frollo on June 09, 2009, 08:29 AM
I think my sig pretty much sums up the relationship Islam had with science, philosophy and mathmatics in it's golden age and it's current lack of. It's a shame the the golden age was never followed by something greater, like the renaissance being followed by the enlightenment.

The renaissance was preceded by the enlightenment of the Muslim Scholars
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Re: SCIENCE & ISLAM | The language of science (BBC)
Reply #9 - July 26, 2009, 05:54 PM

Quote from: shadowq8 on July 26, 2009, 06:41 AM
An economic advantage.
It poured a great amount of resources to europe and before the americas the spice trade had to pass through the Middle east giving Muslims at the time a great economic addvantage.

Spices back then along with salts were the few things that preserved food and were quote valuable.

South America opened a new source for these spices.

Umm, no. Those spices that were traded via the Middle East did not grow in South America. To get them you still had to go through the traditional sources, which is why the East India Company was so profitable.

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Re: SCIENCE & ISLAM | The language of science (BBC)
Reply #10 - July 27, 2009, 01:48 AM

So you are saying that the discovery of the Americas had no effect on the spice trade?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spice_trade#The_New_World
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Re: SCIENCE & ISLAM | The language of science (BBC)
Reply #11 - July 27, 2009, 03:08 AM

Your statement was, and I quote, "South America opened a new source for these spices".

My statement was "Those spices that were traded via the Middle East did not grow in South America. To get them you still had to go through the traditional sources...."

Your statement was inaccurate. Mine was not. Yes, I have read the Wiki article but that doesn't change anything.

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Re: SCIENCE & ISLAM | The language of science (BBC)
Reply #12 - July 27, 2009, 11:19 AM

Quote from: shadowq8 on July 26, 2009, 06:43 AM
The renaissance was preceded by the enlightenment of the Muslim Scholars

That was thanks to Ibn al-Haytham and his Book of Optics.

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Re: SCIENCE & ISLAM | The language of science (BBC)
Reply #13 - August 02, 2009, 09:32 AM

Quote from: shadowq8 on July 26, 2009, 06:43 AM
The renaissance was preceded by the enlightenment of the Muslim Scholars

And the "enlightenment of the Muslim Scholars" was preceded by the Philosophical, mathematical and scientific breakthroughs of Classical antiquity.
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Re: SCIENCE & ISLAM | The language of science (BBC)
Reply #14 - August 03, 2009, 01:29 AM

except that some people decided not to aknowledge muslims scholars
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Re: SCIENCE & ISLAM | The language of science (BBC)
Reply #15 - August 03, 2009, 01:30 AM

Quote from: osmanthus on July 27, 2009, 03:08 AM
Your statement was, and I quote, "South America opened a new source for these spices".

My statement was "Those spices that were traded via the Middle East did not grow in South America. To get them you still had to go through the traditional sources...."

Your statement was inaccurate. Mine was not. Yes, I have read the Wiki article but that doesn't change anything.

Osmanthus merry go round much ?
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Re: SCIENCE & ISLAM | The language of science (BBC)
Reply #16 - August 03, 2009, 02:33 AM

Troll much?

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Re: SCIENCE & ISLAM | The language of science (BBC)
Reply #17 - August 08, 2009, 09:24 PM

Some would argue that "Islamic" science was the remnants of the hellenized culture present in the areas the muslims first conquered. Testament to this is the fact that many thinkers in the golden age were not from arabia, and a sizable amount were non muslim. Maimonides anyone?

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Re: SCIENCE & ISLAM | The language of science (BBC)
Reply #18 - August 10, 2009, 05:00 AM

Quote from: King Tut on July 22, 2009, 05:15 AM
Al-Gazzali is to blame for the decline, he declared mathematics the work of Satan.

I agree with this point. This "hero" of Sunni Islam is a major contributor to the stagnation of Islamic civilization and a retreat to dogma instead of reason. Unfortunately people like Ibn Rushd are only taken seriously for their fiqh and not their philosophy. He is more revered in the west. The result of ignoring this giant is there for all to see.
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