"Islamic Contributions to Civilization"
( With rare exceptions, most of
these important contributions were not included in the social studies
program I took in junior or senior high school.
Pass along the good news. There is much work that needs to be done to
assist people to better understand the Faith of Islam and the positive
impact it has had on the life of global society.
Reggie )
Algebra
The science of algebra owes much to gifted mathematicians of the Islamic
era. Its very name proves the magnitude of this debt, for the name itself
is Arabic, al gebr, "a binding together ." Though of Greek origin,
algebra was greatly expanded by Moslem mathematicians. From about 800 to 1200
the Arabs evolved a more critical study of equations, giving them for the
first time some element of scientific treatment. Algebra was then handed on
to Europe via Spain and Sicily.
Paper
The introduction of paper into the Moslem and European world was made possible
when Arab conquerors overran Asia and Africa in the eighth century. In 751
A.D. the Arabs in Samarkand, just north of India, were attacked by the Chinese.
During the successful repulse of this attack the Arab governor came across
the first piece of paper ever to find its way westward from China where it
had been invented before the time of Christ. The governor, eagerly questioning
captives taken in the battle, learned that among them were men skilled in
paper-making. These artisans were sent to Persia and to Egypt to give instruction
in the art of manufacturing paper from flax, rags and vegetable fibres.
The unusual interest of the Arab world in the manufacture of paper was perhaps
due to the fact that they were already acquainted with Egyptian papyrus, which
was beginning to displace the costly use of parchment for manuscripts and
books. The methods used in manufacturing paper and papyrus were somewhat similar,
but paper was far superior for printing. Paper-making was introduced into
Spain in the 12th century. From Toledo, the center of paper manufacturing,
it spread under the tutelage of the Moors to the Christian kingdoms of Spain.
Similarly the Moslems in Sicily taught the art of paper-making to the Italians.
The earliest recorded European document on paper was a deed of King Roger
of Sicily dating from 1102 A.D. Paper mills were first set up in Italy in
1276 A.D. in the town of Fabriano, and other factories soon followed in all
the important cities. Thus equipped with paper, Europe was prepared for the
making of books in large quantities when the !invention. of printing took
place around 1440 A.D. The Immense Importance of paper is made clear by the
realization that in the Middle Ages the making of books on vellum or parchment
was so expensive that only cathedrals and monasteries possessed libraries.
Gunpowder
The Arabs also learned from the Chinese how to make gunpowder, but they
put it to a use the Chinese had never conceived of. They experimented with
the idea that the ex-plosive power of gunpowder could be utilized to project
a missile from an enclosed chamber. It is claimed that the first effective
cannon was made in Egypt sometime in the twelfth century. Made of wood bound
with bands of metal, it discharged round stones. By the middle of the fifteenth
century the Moslems had so improved the cannon that it was employed in the
siege and capture of Constantinople.
The origin of small arms, of which the first known example was the
arquebus is shrouded in the mists of historical uncertainty. The earliest
important use, historically, of the arquebus was in Cortez's conquest of Mexico,
1519-20 A.D. In Europe it was first used effectively by a corps of Spanish
arquebusiers who took part in the Italian wars of 1522 A.D.
It would appear likely, then, that the small-arm originated in Spain. Some
historians place its appearance as early , as 1300 A.D. No connection has
yet been traced between the invention and development of the small-arm in
Spain and the previous invention and development of the cannon. But if the
small-arm originated in Spain during a cultural period which was Arabic-Islamic,
the presumption is that it was developed logically from the Arab's previous
use of gunpowder as an explosive. Moreover, the word arquebus suggests Arabic
derivation. .
Textiles
The clothing worn by Europeans during the Dark Ages and most of the
medieval period was as crude as their diet was meagre. The Goths had graduated,
it is true, from skins and furs to coarse clothing woven of wool and linen.
The Crusaders brought back glowing accounts of the rich fabrics of the East.
Soon these fabrics became a part of the regular trade building up between
the port cities of Italy and the cities of the Near East. Better still, the
Moors of .Spain and Sicily taught the Christians of those countries their
skills in textiles; and taught them also how to cultivate the silkworm for
the production of silk. As a result of this Arabic influence, Renaissance
Europe , blossomed out in delicate and lovely fabrics of delightful textures
and hues hitherto unknown to the sombre races of north Europe.
Agricultural Products
The diet of Medieval Europe was monotonous. It consisted chiefly of meats,
and bread washed down with wine, beer or ale; leeks, garlic and onions; cabbage
and a few root vegetables such as carrots and beets; and such fruit as was
native to Europe. The Crusaders were naturally envious of the rich and delicate
tables set by the Saracens; rice prepared in many ways and served with lamb
or chicken; lentils and other vegetables cooked appetizingly in olive oil;
and delicious sweetmeats or fruits unknown to Europe. The new foods gradually
entered Europe via Spain and Sicily. Rice made a welcome addition to the diet.
And the cultivation of small fruits-'-cherries. peaches, apricots and gooseberries-introduced
to Europe by the Arabs stimulated the European appetite. The Arabs
also contributed to Christendom a cup that cheers but does not inebriate coffee.
As alcoholic drinks were prohibited to them, the Moslems found that they could
derive a comparable enchantment from imbibing coffee made with fine powdered
grounds, brought to a quick boil and sipped piping hot. Those who have indulged
in the East in this form of "Dolce far niente" can appreciate what
coffee has meant to that Moslem world from which alcohol has been debarred
for some thirteen centuries. Coffee was introduced into Vienna in the seventeenth
century from Yemen, Arabia, its place of origin. Soon famous coffee-houses
sprang up all over Europe. The Dutch managed to smuggle the prohibited coffee
plant to Java where it was extensively cultivated; and enterprising British
made fortunes by raising it in Jamaica. Sugar, which originated in India about
the beginning of the Christian era, had proved so popular that its cultivation
soon spread from India eastward into China and west-ward into Persia. Learning
from the Persians in the tenth century, the Arabs raised it extensively in
Syria, Spain and Sicily. The Egyptians, believing sugar to have medicinal,
qualities, invented methods of refining it chemically. The Crusaders developed
in the East a taste for sugar and introduced it to Christendom. For years
Venice conducted a lively trade in sugar, trans-shipping it from Syria to
Europe.
The Rise of the
University
The Moslems, as we have seen, began to found universities in the ninth
century, first in Baghdad and soon in Cairo, Fez, Cordova and other Moslem
cities. The el-Azhar University of Cairo boasts of being the oldest existing
university in the world. It was founded in the tenth century and has remained
from that day the world's leading Islamic theological center . The Universities
of Cordova and Toledo were well known to Europeans, and their hospitals were
frequented by Christian princes in need of medical care such as Christian
Europe could not furnish. The first medical schools of Europe were the direct
and result of this Moorish influence, and of great importance to the development
of the scientific spirit in medieval Europe. For scientific inquiry, as it
had been developed by the Greeks has and Moslems, thus gained a foothold within
the precincts of a Europe dominated by the Church, by theology, and by ecclesiastical
culture. The first university of Europe -that of Salerno in Sicily, -had arisen
from just such medical foundations. The origins of this university are obscure.
But it is reputed to have been founded in the ninth century by a Latin, a
Greek, a Jew and a Moslem. Its textbooks were translated by Constantine the
African (an important figure in the history of learning) from Arabic works
which were themselves partly original and partly translated from the Greeks
and Hellenes.
Salerno was eclipsed by the establishment of the university of Naples
in 1224 A.D. by Frederick 11, who as we have seen was a proponent of the Moslem
culture. Frederick had the works of Aristotle translated from Arabic into
Latin, as well as the works of ibn Rushd (Averroes), the astronomer, physician,
Aristotelian commentator and greatest of the Moslem philosophers. During
the early thirteenth century universities sprang up al lover Europe:-Bologna,
Padua, Paris and Oxford. In these universities, and in others founded later,
the men of Christian Europe studied for the first time subjects that were
purely secular such as astronomy, philosophy and medicine, having at their
disposal texts created by the Greeks of classic and Hellenic days, and texts
created by the Moslem genius.
Machinery
Machinery can be traced from its early invention by the Greeks to its current
elaboration in our modern industrial age. Around the third century B.C. Archimedes
discovered the principle of the lever, the pulley and the screw and demonstrated
them successfully. Another Greek mechanical genius, Hero, developed the gear
and the crank and-more important-summed up all the mechanical knowledge of
his day in a three volume treatise, Mechanics. Nothing of importance was
lacking for the creation of a machine age except the will to produce it. But
this inclination was totally lacking in the Greeks. Slavery was prevalent
and the ancient world felt no need for labor-saving devices. Furthermore,
the Greek mentality was dedicated to theory and disdained the practical application
of science. When the Arabs in 641 conquered Egypt and took possession of
Alexandria, they fell heir to what remained of Greek creativity. Its influence
upon them grew as their own capacity evolved. They made translations of Hero's
Mechanics and applied its principles to two important inventions, the water-mill
and the windmill. The water-mill was an improvement over the Roman water-wheel,
and was employed extensively to irrigate regions of Spain and North Africa.
Its success there led to its adoption in medieval Europe, where it was known
by the Latin name noria, derived from the Arabic, naurah. The windmill,
as far as can be ascertained, actually originated with the Moslems. The first
wind-mill known to history was built around 640 A.D. by order of the Caliph
Omar. A few centuries later an Arab geographer reported that the windmill
was used widely in Persia to pump water for irrigation. From Persia and
Afghanistan the windmill spread throughout the Islamic world. It ground wheat,
crushed sugar-cane and pumped water. Later it came into use in Europe by way
of Morocco and Spain. Leonardo da Vinci somehow came into possession of Hero's
books and set about to improve the ancient Greek inventions. In this he was
followed by other Italians, notably Ramelli. By 1600 the science of mechanics
was well established in Europe.
To sum up, let us envision the seventh century world into which Islam was born, and realize the condition of the Graeco-Roman culture. This classic civilization had come to a standstill. It now lacked vigor, enterprise and spirit. In no world center was scientific activity being carried on. The Arabs, erupting into this ancient and tired civilization, picked up the threads of ancient science and technology anywhere available and wove them into a definite pattern of progress. They salvaged the science of the classic world and developed it for five centuries. They enlarged the boundaries of all the technologies then known. But they were more 59 than mere encyclopedists. They made practical application of this knowledge to the needs of the times. It was no accident that the Islamic peoples attained such wide-spread prosperity and felicity. In pursuit of these progressive goals the Arab scientists attained an experimental objectivity that the Greeks had disdained. They took a long step toward Bacon's noble vision of modern science: "by experimentation to discover truth and by the application of this truth to advance human progress." This Arabic-Islamic science and technology, reaching Europe via Sicily and Spain, awoke her from the Dark Ages in which she was slumbering. The detailed elaboration of the actual routes by which this transference took place have only recently been outlined by historians. A hundred years ago a statement of the full influence of the Arabic culture on Europe would have been incredible. But modem research has firmly established its incontestability. The Oxford History of Technology sums it up as follows: "There are few major technological innovations between 500 A.D. and 1500 that do not show some traces of the Islamic culture."
.
