I was taught about this during my history class, and if so, why is not today?
Hi there, while you wait for a more comprehensive answer, you may be interested in these older posts on the subject:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/22zg0d/did_mongols_cause_the_cultural_shift_from/
It's my first time answering here and if it's not up to the standards please remove it. Please keep in mind that it’s been a while since I wrote anything in English and therefore excuse any grammatical and syntax errors.
Firstly, I have to say that your question encompasses two great subjects that are intertwined, especially during the medieval era, science and religion. This seemingly paradoxical fact (science in religion) is being discussed for more than a thousand years by philosophers, theologians and scholars especially concerning the Islam faith in a great question, can Islam harmoniously live with science or does an irreconcilable conflict exists between them?
Again, take in mind that the retrograde and closed image that we might have of the Islam religion is a product of our time and therefore it must be contextualized. Since the XIII century that the scientific activity in muslin countries is in a lethargic level with no signs of recuperation. This reason is not easily explained but it’s a product of historical causes and ideological reasons, it’s an orthodoxly approach to the faith that recognizes the practice of science as an affront, or at least, something that is not part of Islam.
So how, like Franco Cardini said, was the “Iberian Peninsula is the true mother of scientific renovation of the west^1”?.
I’ll divide my answer in parts:
Firstly, it has to be said that, although orthodox Islam sees science as something profane that doesn’t necessarily means that the religion directly opposes to it. You can find in the Quran and trough the ahadith several passages regarding that fact, for instance Quran 16:11; 16:12; 16:13; 29:43; 39:9 or in the hadith The Prophet (s) said, “Seek knowledge even in China,”, not only they do not oppose the scientific development they stimulate it.
Also, the Islamic culture is by definition something heterogeneous, due to the rapid expansion they had to be able to accommodate different cultures and be able to be receptive of those differences.
They “created a civilization with the treasures of the known World (..)the extraordinary geographical expansion made the Arabs in contact with diverse techniques and sciences”^2 .
Regarding Arabic science, you can roughly divide the scientific production between the centuries VIII to IX where you have a dominance of translations of classic works from Greek to Arabic and from X to XIII where you have an own production of scientific works and the appearance of the biggest names in the Islamic science.
The translation of the classic works is connected with the Abbasid Caliphate, where they replaced the cultural byzantine influences (from the Ummyad caliphate) for Persian ones. With that, the setting of Baghdad for capital and the creation of the House of Wisdom^3 (where they translated Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Euclid, Plotinus, for instance) is a fact of capital importance in the development of Arabic culture and science.
In Europe, the Al-Andalus is the projection of the Islamic Empire and also shared the “golden Age” of the Islamic culture during the X and XII centuries, where Cordoba is the cultural centre. With more than 70 libraries and 17 schools of medicine^4 the birth of the Toledo School of Translators in 1085 gave a similar boost as the precedent House of Wisdom. This school of translators is regarded with a decisive influence in the diffusion of the Arabic knowledge to the rest of the Europe.
So to finalize and to answer your question if it’s true that the Islamic world was the home of science and research. I don’t like use the notion of what is the truth but there’s no denying of the importance of the Arabic and Islamic culture in the catalysing of the end of the medieval era. The thirst of knowledge gave way to an enormous movement of translation to Arabic of works from Greek, Persian, Sirian, Indian and Chinese authors that where incorporated into the Islamic culture. More so, the Arabic language was a necessary instrument of scientific, cultural and literary interchange. The language of the Quran replaced the Greek, the Persian and the Latin to the point that a Persian historian from the X century, al-Biruni claimed “the Arabic language is the depository of all the sciences of the earth ”.
^1 Franco Cardini. Nosotros y el Islam, Barcelona 2002, p.98
^2 Gonzalo Castrillón coord, Europa y el Islam, Madrid 2003, p.250
^3 Jim Al-Khalili, The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance, New York 2011
^4 Eduardo García del Real. “La medicina árabe española.” Revista nacional de educación, Madrid, 1944, n.45, p., 18.
^5 Véase A. Steiger, Aspectos del vivir islâmico en la España medieval, en Arbor, nº161 1959
As a follow-up question: I'm currently reading Jim al-Khalili's "Pathfinders. The Golden Age of Arabic Science". Is this considered a good and accurate popular science book on the subject?
Follow up question: Does the influence of Ancient Greece play into this?
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