By Ambassador (Retd) Pascal Alan Nazareth
Islam’s advent in 622AD was the dawn of a bright new chapter in world civilisation & culture. At that time except for the Nabateans and Lakhimids all the desert Arabs were illiterate. So was Prophet Mohammed himself. The fact that The Revelation was made to him, not just in one but many installments & that too in the most elegant Arabic is clear proof that it was Divine revelation.
The Arabic alphabet & language gestated from that of ancient Nabataea (Petra was its capital)’ which was a dialect of Aramaic. It has 28 letters but some additions have been made to aide languages such as Farsi, Dari, and Urdu which use the Arabic script.
The greatest asset of the Arabic language is that The Holy Qur’an was revealed in it.
Prophet Mohammed first preached his gospel in his hometown of Mecca but as attempts were made to kill him because he proscribed idol worship, he emigrated to Medina in 622 AD. The Islamic calendar begins from this date.
By 632AD, when Prophet Mohammad died, most Arab tribes had converted to Islam and it had brought about an amazing transformation among them. They gave up their long standing idol worship and internecine warfare and emerged as a united nation with a zeal to spread their new religion.
Within 100 years of the Prophet’s death Arab armies had on the one hand conquered Egypt, all of North Africa and most of Spain and on the other conquered Syria & Persia and arrived on the west bank of the Indus River. In all the countries they conquered they first built a fort, then a mosque and a Madrasa, the last mentioned is particularly notable. It was built because of the God’s injunction to seek knowledge and proclaim the Glory of God, as in the following Suras of the Koran :
“It is He who made the sun to be a shining glory and the moon to be a light (of beauty), and measured out stages for it, that ye might know the number of years and the count (of time). Nowise did Allah create this but in truth and righteousness. (Thus) doth He explain His Signs in detail, for those who know.”
(Sura10 : verse 5 )
“And if all the trees on earth were pens and the Ocean (were ink), with seven Oceans behind it to add to its (supply), yet would not the Words of Allah be exhausted (in the writing): for Allah is Exalted in power, Full of Wisdom.” (Sura 31; verse 27)
“(Here is) a Book which We have sent down unto thee, full of blessings, that they may meditate on its Signs, and that men of understanding many receive admonition.”
(Sura 38 ; verse 29)
“Proclaim! (or Read!) in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, who created — Created man, out of a leech-like clot: Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful, — He Who taught (the use of) the Pen, — Taught man that which he knew not.” (Sura 96; Verses 1-5)
These Suras clearly herald a new era of learning and enlightenment.
In presenting Islam’s contributions to world civilization and culture I will do so in nine separate spheres : 1) Religion, music and painting, 2)Astronomy & Navigation, 3)Architecture, calligraphy and other forms of decoration, 4) History, Geography and Travel writing, 5 ) Law & Governance 6) Translation / diffusion of ancient knowledge; 7) Medicine & Chemistry, 8). Mathematics & Physics, 9 ) Philosophy.
Contributions in the sphere of Religion, calligraphy painting& music:
Islam’s greatest contribution to world civilization and culture is its strict monotheism, reverence for a holy book and emphasis on knowledge, justice, charity as also on religious tolerance particularly for the other two ‘Religions of the Book ; Judaism & Christianity.
Since Islam forbids pictorial or sculptural representation of God and his prophets, artists used calligraphy and miniature painting to decorate hand written Korans and later to decorate mosques, madrasas & tombs Calligraphy & miniature thus blossomed into a major new art form.
In the initial period music was forbidden. Subsequently it was permitted for Koranic incantations. But with the founding of Sufism by Mansur al Hallaj in Baghdad in the 10th century and the salience which Jallaluddin Rumi gave it in Persia, Amir Khusro in India & the Whirling Dervishes in Turkey, music came to be widely used. Musiqa, the Arabic word for Music parented it in English and other European languages.
After the 15th century, miniature painting was patronized by many royal courts to illustrate biographies of their rulers.
Contributions in the sphere of Astronomy and Navigation:
The Arabs, were originally a nomadic people who traded with camel caravans, generally by night because of the Arabian desert’s intense daytime heat. Thus, they became stargazers & adept initially in navigating their camel caravans and later sailing ships with the aid of stars. Unlike Greeks & Indians, who developed mathematical systems for their astronomy, the Arabs relied entirely on empirical observations of the rising/setting of stars. This was known as Anwa. With the advent of Islam, Anwa was much used because of Qibla, for determining exact times for prayers & fasts.
The first astronomical texts translated into Arabic were Indian and Persian. Most notable among them was Zij al-Sindhind, an 8th-century Indian text, translated by Ibrahim al-Fazariin 770. In 805 Zij al-Shah, a collection of Sassanid Persian astronomical tables were translated.
In 810 & 815, Caliph Al-Ma’mun established ‘Houses of Wisdom’ in Baghdad & Damascus. These were primarily libraries. In 830 AD, astronomical observatories were set up at Baghdad, Mosul and Samarkhand.
The first major Arab astronomical work was by al-Khwarizmi. Published in 850 AD, it contained tables of the movements of the moon and five planets known at that time.
In 890 AD, al-Farghani wrote Kitab fi Jawani (meaning “A science of stars”). He summarised Ptolemaic astronomy and corrected some of Ptolemy’s findings. This book was subsequently translated into Latin at Toledo in Spain.
International Astronomical Centre has listed 165 star names of Arabic origin. Some of them are :Acamar (Akhir an-Nahr) ; Aldebaran (Ad-Dabaran); Deneb (Dhanab ad-Dulfin ); Kaus Borealis (Al-Qaus); Rigel (Ar-Rijl); Vega (Al-Waqi’)
The Arabs also invented & improved many astronomical instruments such as astrolabes, quadrants, and sextants. Ibn Yunus made the most remarkable astrolabe of solid copper with a diameter over a metre.
3. Contributions in the sphere of Architecture,
The magnificent mosques at Mecca, Damascus, Jerusalem, Cairo, and Cordoba are the best examples of Islamic architecture. Some of them also contain blue and green mosaics of rare beauty. The wood carving (masharabiyah) in some of them are stunning. The best of these are in Cairo’s Ibn Tulun Mosque and the Isfahan Mosque.
The Ka’ba in Mecca and the Mosque of Umar (“Dome of the Rock”) in Jerusalem are best examples of Islamic architectural genius in dome construction.
The Alhambra palace in Granada, Spain, built in 1230 AD is the best example of Islamic manorial architecture.
4. Contributions in the field of History, Geography and Travel Writing :
Because the Qur’an states that God created diverse peoples to know and serve Him, there was a thirst for knowledge about them & the lands they live in. The extensive Ummayad, Abbasid, Mali & Ghana empires provided ample opportunities to travel to diverse countries and learn about their people, cultures and histories. Some wrote erudite books about them. The best example is Al-Tabari’s Universal History, written in Baghdad about 900 AD. In this multi-volume work he has given a comprehensive history of prophets, caliphs and rulers from Abraham to the tenth century.
Sicilian geographer Al Idrisi, who wrote ‘Travels through the World’ in 1154, was the first to apply scientific methods to geography. He made accurate maps of those parts of Africa, Asia and Europe he travelled in. In his later years he worked at the court of King Roger of Sicily. There he made a globe shaped map of the then known world, in solid silver.
Ibn Batuta, (1304-1377) of Tangier began his travels when he was only 23 years old and travelled as far west as Ghana and as far east as China, which was far more extensive than those of Marco Polo. His travelogue is titled ‘Tuhfat al-anzar fi gharaaib al-amsar waajaaib al-asfar (A gift to those who contemplate the wonders of cities and the marvels of traveling), but is widely known as Ibn Battuta’s Rihla ( journey).
Columbus is said to have studied Idrissi’s maps before undertaking his historic westward journey to India in 1492. Vasco da Gama, after rounding Africa’s southern tip in 1498 and reaching Mombasa was guided from there to Calicut in India by a Muslim navigator named Ibn Majid, who then authored ‘Kitab al Fawaid’ ( Nautical Discovery )
5.Contributions in the field of Law and Governance.
In his 2011 essay titled ‘Islam and Islamic Law in European Legal History’Richard Potzhas written: “It was traditionally assumed that the influence of Islam on Western jurisprudence was far less than on natural sciences, philosophy and theology. Nevertheless, Europe also has an Islamic legal inheritance. The Islamic inputs were on the one hand territorial i.e. in those parts of Europe which were under Islamic rule, and on the other hand factual i.e. in commercial law.” As far as “territorial inputs” were concerned, it is pertinent to recall that in the Christian countries the Arabs conquered (Spain and Sicily) there were anti-Jewish laws. These were abrogated as the Koran requires equal respect for all the three Abrahamic religions
As far as Governance is concerned, the Abbasid rulers conceived of a global Islamic polity based on religious affiliation ( to Islam and two other Abrahamic faiths) rather than nationality or race. This enabled people of differing cultural, racial, and intellectual heritages to interact freely and on equal terms with each other in every sphere. Thus astronomers, mathematicians, physicians. philosophers, architects and traders from Spain, Egypt Persia and India could work side by side with their counterparts from other countries in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo and Cordoba
The extensive Abbasid empire (4,300,000 sq mi)[2] and 62 million people (29% of the then world population), erased the previous national boundaries which had kept people apart, linguistically, politically, and intellectually. For the first time since the Roman Empire, former rivals and enemies could meet and interact peacefully with each other under the protection of a single state. Even during the Umayyad period when wars with Christian Byzantium were frequent, the Christians in Caliphate lands were not discriminated against. On the contrary they were provided official posts even though some of them belonged to families which had served Byzantium.
The Christian and Jewish communities were also granted autonomy. Their religious heads handled all their intra-community judicial matters. The Christians and Jews were required to pay the Jizyah tax but this was not more than what the Moslems had to pay as Zakat.
The Abbassid Caliphs improved this enlightened policy by creating a welfare state financed with Zakat and Jijiya collections. They built Madrasas, Maktabats (libraries) and hospitals that were open to and free for all, irrespective of religion or race.
Tenth century Baghdad had 300 schools. Alexandria had a smaller number but over 12,000 students. Many teachers in these madrasas were women. Rich and poor students received the same education.
The two most renowned Maktabats were Bait al-Hikmah in Baghdad (founded in 820 AD) and Dar al-Ilm in Cairo (founded in 998 AD).
The best Islamic universities were in Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo and Cordoba. Of these, Cairo’s Al-Azhar (founded in 969 A.D.) is the most renowned and is still functioning. All these universities were founded three centuries before Europe’s now renowned Oxford, Sorbonne, Uppsala & Heidelberg Universities.
Among Islamic hospitals the one in Baghdad, set up by renowned 9th century physician Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi in 810AD and Ahmad ibn Tulun hospital at Cairo set up by reputed Al-Zahrawi in 872 are the most famed. The latter hospital was the first to treat mental patients & have a Caesarian surgery.
During the Abbasid period that Arabic, the sacred language of Islam’s Divine Revelation, emerged as the international language of diplomacy, trade & medical, scientific, philosophical & ordinary discourse.
Two interesting sidelights of the great expansion of trade during the Abbasid period was exchange of envoys & gifts between Caliph Harun al-Rashid (786-809) & the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, in 805AD, and Harun al-Rashid setting up the ‘Christian Pilgrims’ Inn’ in Jerusalem, as promised by his predecessor Caliph Umar to Bishop Sophronius, to permit free access & shelter to Christian pilgrims when they visited this sacred city.
Despite their focus on education, medicine, science, philosophy and trade the Abbasids did not neglect agriculture. Andrew Watson in his 1974 scholarly essay has lauded them for transforming agriculture by promoting cultivation of durum wheat, Asiatic rice, sorghum & cotton as also irrigation & water conservation in their empire’s arid regions. He has described its beneficial results the Abbasid Green Revolution.
6.Translation / Transmission of Ancient Knowledge
Pre-Islamic oral poetry was compiled during the Umayyad period (661-750 A.D.) when the Caliphate was based in Damascus. Best known of these compilations are ‘Seven Odes’, ‘Book of Songs’ , ‘Poems of Bravery’ and ‘Days of the Arabs’.
Post – Islamic translation / transmission of ancient Greek knowledge is truly remarkable. The Umayyad dynasty found many Greek-speaking Syrian, Coptic and Nestorian Christians in Damascus when they conquered it in 661 AD. They employed many of them in their central & provincial administrations as all the laws & regulations in force were in Greek and these needed to be translated into Arabic. Later some of them were employed to translate “Gnomologia” (Greek wisdom). Prince Khalid, son of second Umayyad Caliph, commissioned the first of these translations, which were of Aristotle’s works. By the time the Umayyad empire ended in 750 most of Aristotle’s works had been translated.
During the reign of Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur (754-775AD) Euclid’s ‘Elements’ was translated into Arabic at Baghdad. This ignited widespread scholarly interest to learn about other Greek sciences as also its philosophy. The renowned translators during this period were Yaha Ibn Al-Bitriq, Thabit ibn Qurra & Hunayn Ibn Ishaq who translated Archimedes ‘Measurement of the Circle and 70 other Greek scientific and medical books. Caliph al-Ma’mun is said to have paid each of them in gold the weight of the books they translated.
During the same period an equally impressive translation work was taking place in Al Andalus (Islamic Spain). The main translation centre here was Toledo where the mentioned Greek, Persian & Indian works were translated from Arabic into Latin and Hebrew. The renowned translator here was Maestro Pedro, a Jew. Among the many works he translated into Latin was the Koran.
Toledo was the main point of entry into Europe of ancient Greek, Persian, Indian and Arabic “knowledge and wisdom”. This was Western Europe’s first acquaintance with the works of Aristotle, Plato, Hippocrates &Archimedes as all their works had been treated as “pagan wisdom” after the Eastern Roman Empire adopted Christianity, made Byzantium its capital & renamed it as Constantinople in 330AD.
Sadly, this epic translation saga ended in 1492, when King Ferdinand of Castile “reconquered” all of Spain & expelled all Moslems & Jews, except those who converted to Christianity. Most of the expelled Jews emigrated to Morocco, Egypt & Ottoman Turkey.
The translations at Baghdad had came to an earlier and sadder end when the Mongols attacked & devastated it on February 13, 1253. The Abbasid Empire then splintered into diverse emirates some of which were taken over by the Seljuk and others by Ottoman Turks.
7.Contributions in the fields of Medicine and chemistry:
The medical sciences were largely progressed by Al-Razzi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), and Husayn bin Ishak al-Ibadi, who translated works of Hippocrates & other Greek physicians. Al-Razzi (860-940) wrote over 50 books on various aspects of medicine, a 25 volume Encyclopedia of Medicine and a book on medical ethics. Ibn Sina (980-1037) wrote 16 books and an Encyclopedia on all the then known diseases in the world.
Husayn bin lshaq translated the entire Greek medical canon into Arabic, including the Hippocratic oath, which was obligatory for physicians then as now. He wrote many articles most important of which are ten essays on ophthalmology.
Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, known to the West as Rhazes, was the greatest of all Islamic physicians. He wrote 184 books on medicine & medical treatment & was the first to conduct medical experiments. It is said that before he set up his first hospital in Baghdad he had chunks of mutton hung in various parts of the City. Where they decayed the least in three days, was the site chosen for the hospital. Similar hospitals were later set up in Damascus & Cairo where treatment and medicines were provided to everyone, free of cost.
Ibn Baytar who compiled a list of 1400 drugs, is the most renowned in the field of Pharmacology.
Islamic medical science also gestated chemistry, pharmacology, zoology, and veterinary medicine. The word “chemistry” derives from the Arabic word al-kemia..
Al Jabr bin Hayyan (9th century) is reputed as the “Father of Chemistry”. Of the over 500 books and essays he wrote the most remarkable is his ‘Chemical Compositions’. It became & remained a reference manual on this subject until the end of the 18th century. He postulated that everything on earth is made up of 102 basic elements. He discovered Potassium –its chemical symbol K indicates its Arabic name al-Kali.
Al Razi’s 10th century treatise ‘Secret of Secrets’ is the first chemistry laboratory manual. He also wrote a thesis on small pox and the treatment for it.
8) Contributions in the field of Mathematics and Physics:
The theory of numbers developed and expanded from the original Indian numbers, became the “Arabic numerals” 1 to 9 and zero. Without the zero neither modern mathematics, algebra, nor cybernetics would have been possible. The Arabic word for algebra was al-jabr. The most renowned in this field was Basra born Ibn al-Haytham (965-1030), who made great contributions in the fields of physics and optics.
Geometry was gestated by the Banu Musa (Sons of Musa) all of whom were sons of Musa ibn Shakir, Caliph al-Ma’mun’s court astronomer. Al-Hassan, one of these sons, became the foremost geometrician of his time, translating six books of the ‘Elements’.
Al Haytham’s ‘Book of Optics’ is widely considered to be the genesis of this science.
In the 11th century Al Biruni conducted experiments on the laws of motion, momentum and gravitation, almost five centuries before Galileo. He made precise determinations of the earth’s radius & its solar orbit.
9. Contributions in the sphere of Philosophy
Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Al-Ghazali, Ibn Rushd (Averroes)& Al-Farabi made the greatest contributions in this field. Having deeply studied the translated works of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle & others, they elaborated on and added new dimensions to them..
Ibn Sina (Avicenna: (980 -1037AD), revered by many as the greatest Islamic philosopher theorized about the nature of the soul. Best known among the many books he wrote are ‘A Theory of Knowledge and Psychology.’
Al-Ghazali, (1058 -1111AD) was a Sufi Muslim who enunciated a “religious” interpretation of Greek philosophy. In his controversial book ‘The Incoherence of Philosophers‘, he critiqued the skeptics of Divine Revelation and gave primacy to the ‘Will of God’ in human affairs
Ibn Rushd (Averroes : 1126 -1198 AD ), renowned as the “founding father of secular thought in Western Europe” made a strong rebuttal of Al Ghazali, with his book ‘The Incoherence of Incoherence’ . In it, he also made a strong defence of rationalistic philosophy. His other works are ‘ Fasl al-Maqal’ and ‘Kitab al-Kashf’.
Al Farabi (872 -951 AD) in his book “The Gathering of the Ideas of Two Philosophers ideas” wrote about the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle and held that the latter was greater.
The greatest of all intellectuals in ‘Al Andalus’ (Islamic Spain) was Moses Maimonides (1135-1204). He was a Jew who lived in Cordoba and a contemporary of the eminent Arab philosopher Averroes. In his seminal work ‘Guide to the Perplexed’, he made an impressive Aristotelian interpretation of Judaism.
The other important Jewish philosopher was Levi ben Geson (1288-1344), generally known as Gesonides. In his book ‘Wars of the Lord”. he elaborated on those aspects of Aristotelianism which Maimonides had inadequately dealt with.
Two other of Cordoba’s eminent intellectuals, Hasdai Ibn Shaprut and Samuel Nagid were also Jewish. The former was the first Jew at the Royal Court in Cordoba and renowned as a physician, scholar and diplomat. His mansion became the meeting place of Jewish intellectuals and poets, and the cradle of a new school of Hebrew Poetry. The latter, a century later, rose from humble origins to be Vizier to the Amir of Granada. Under his patronage, Jewish learning and Talmudic colleges flourished there.
Though Jewish, these four philosophers and scholars are listed among Arab philosophers as they wrote their books and essays in Arabic.
Ibn Khaldun’s (1332 – 1406 ) Muqaddimah has been lauded by many including Arnold J. Toynbee as the first ” philosophy of history”. It is undoubtedly a seminal work in this genre and still pertinent in the contemporary scenario because he defines government as, “an institution which prevents injustice other than such as it commits itself” and affirms that “the sovereign exists for the good of the people… The necessity of a Ruler arises from the fact that human beings have to live together and unless there is someone to maintain order, society would break into pieces.” He is also lauded as the founder of sociological sciences as his work deals a lot with the social aspects of nomadic and urban life and the many demerits of the latter.
Will Durant, in his ‘Story of Civilization’ has written: “Only at the peaks of history has a society produced so many illustrious men – in government, education, literature, philology, geography, history, mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, philosophy, and medicine – as Islam did in the four centuries between Harun al-Rashid and Averroes. Part of this brilliant activity fed on Greek leavening, but much of it, above all in statesmanship and Philosophy, was original and invaluable..
