by Ehsan Masood
1301–1400
1136–1506 Timurids rule in Central Asia and Middle East
Ibn-Khaldun writes on sociology and publishes his Introduction to History
Ibn-Batuta publishes his Travels
1281–1922 Ottoman empire
1401–1500
Ulugh Beg builds observatory in Samarkand
Islamic science and learning take off in the rest of Europe
1501–1600
Mughal dynasty established in India (1526)
Eclipse of Timbuktu as the Great City of Learning (1591)
Ottoman architect Sinan builds the Blue Mosque complex in Istanbul (1609–1616)
1526–1857 Mughal empire
Acknowledgements
This book would not have been possible without the efforts of the many individuals and institutions who gave up time, the benefit of their expertise, or who contributed in other ways.
First of all, sincere thanks go to Jim al-Khalili of the University of Surrey, without whose BBC television series this book would still be a distant idea to be pursued in my years of senior living. Thanks also to my agent Peter Tallack and to Simon Flynn and the staff of Icon Books for making it all happen. John Farndon, my colleague on the project and an eminent science writer and editor, turned my text drafts into stylish prose and also provided valuable research assistance. In addition, thank you to Merryl Wyn Davies for producing the timeline, to Alia Masood, Hassan Masood and Seema Khan for diligent proof-reading and fact-checking, and to Hibah Haider for compiling the bibliography.
There is a clear (and unintentional) Cambridge bias in many of the names to whom I owe a lot. I would like to offer thanks to: Sir Brian Heap, Fraser Watts, Julia Vitulo-Martin and Denis Alexander for giving me the opportunity to study the history of Islamic medicine as a Templeton Cambridge journalism fellow; and to Peter Jones, librarian of King’s College Cambridge and Jamil Ragep of McGill University for introducing me to the works of Nancy Siraisi, the foremost authority on ibn-Sina in Western Europe. Thanks also to the inspirational Fatima Azzam of the Islamic Texts Society for advice on ibn-Arabi; and to Yahya Michot (formerly of Oxford University) for teaching a lapsed scientist the rudiments of Islamic philosophy in five unforgettable lectures.
Several institutions helped in ways for which a simple acknowledgement will not be enough. They include: the International Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture in Istanbul, and in particular its founder Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu, for material on the history of science during the Ottoman empire, as well as the role of the observatory in Islam; and the Islamic World Academy of Sciences based in Amman, and in particular executive director Moneef Zou’bi who organised a history of science conference in Kazan, Russia, where I had the opportunity to listen to Columbia University historian George Saliba. Thanks also to Ismail Serageldin and the staff of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina for generous hospitality and insights into ibn al-Haitham.
The British Council, in particular Martin Rose and Stephan Roman of the council’s Our Shared Europe team, provided time and space to think about Islam in European history. Thanks also to my friend and colleague Mohamed Hassan of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, based in Trieste, who invited me to put together a one-day symposium on science and religion for visiting ministers of science and technology from the Islamic world.
Several individuals have encouraged me over the years to sustain my appetite for discovering science in the present-day Islamic world. They are the late John Maddox, David Dickson and Philip Campbell, my editors at Nature, and my two long-time mentors, Zia Sardar and Zafar Abbas Malik of Chicago’s East-West University.
Last but not least, my family have gallantly put up with frequent absences during the course of writing and researching this book. Alya, Huda, Hibah and Danyal, this book is dedicated to you.
While the utmost care and dedication have gone into checking the facts in this book, any errors, either of fact or of interpretation, are my own.
Sources
Most dates are sourced from the Concise Encyclopedia of Islam, by Cyril Glassé (Stacey, 1989) and the Book of Islamic Dynasties, by Luqman Nagy (Ta-Ha, 2008).
Asma Afsaruddin, The First Muslims (Oneworld, 2007)
Karen Armstrong, Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet (Phoenix, 1991)
Guy Attewell, Refiguring Unani Tibb (Orient Longman, India, 2007)
Zaheer Baber, The Science of Empire (State University of New York Press, 1996)
Laleh Bakhtiar, The Canon of Medicine: Avicenna (Great Books of the Islamic World, 1999)
Jonathan Barnes, Aristotle (Oxford University Press, 2000)
Lectures by Amira Bennison
J.L. Berggren, Episodes in the Mathematics of Medieval Islam (Springer, 2003)
Eric Broug, Islamic Geometric Patterns (Thames & Hudson, 2008)
Ross Burns, Damascus: A History (Routledge, 2005)
Ali Çaksu, Learning and Education in the Ottoman World (Research Center for Islamic Art and Culture, Turkey, 1999)
Christopher Catherwood, A Brief History of the Middle East (Avalon, 2008)
Peter Coates, Ibn Arabi and Modern Thought: The History of Taking Metaphysics Seriously (Anqa Publishing, 2002)
Louise Cochrane and Charles Burnett, Adelaard of Bath: The First English Scientist (Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, 2013)
Bernard S. Cohn, Colonialism and its Forms of Knowledge (Princeton University Press, 1996)
Michael Cook, The Koran: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2000)
Michael Cooperson, Al Ma’mun (Oneworld, 2005)
Patricia Crone and Martin Hinds, God’s Caliph: Religious Authority in the First Centuries of Islam (Cambridge University Press, 2003)
Natalie Day, Ehsan Masood, James Wilsdon, A New Golden Age? The Prospects for Science and Innovation in the Islamic World (The Royal Society, 2010)
Sayyed Misbah Deen, Science under Islam (Lulu, 2007) Ross E. Dunn, The Adventures of Ibn Battuta (California Press, 1992)
John Farndon, The Great Scientists (Arcturus, 2005)
Al-Ghazali (trans. Tobias Mayer), Letter to a Disciple (The Islamic Texts Society, 2005)
George Gheverghese Joseph, The Crest of the Peacock: Non-European Roots of Mathematics (Penguin, 1992)
Thomas Glick, Steven J. Livesey and Faith Wallis, Medieval Science, Technology and Medicine: an Encyclopedia (Routledge, 2005)
Nidhal Guessoum, Athar Osama, ‘Institutions: Revive Universities of the Muslim World’, Nature, 28 October 2015
Dimitri Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture (Routledge, 1998)
Heinz Halm, The Fatimids and their Traditions of Learning (I.B. Tauris in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2001)
Michael Hamilton Morgan, Lost History (National Geographic, 2006)
Mushirul Hasan, A Moral Reckoning (Oxford University Press, India, 2005)
Ahmad Y. al-Hassan and Donald R. Hill, Islamic Technology: An illustrated history (Cambridge University Press, 1992)
Ahmed Y. al-Hassan, Transfer of Islamic Science to the West (FSTC, 2007)
Salim T.S. al-Hassani (ed.), 1001 Inventions: Muslim Heritage in Our World (FSTC, 2007)
Lectures by Salim T.S. al-Hassani
John D. Hoag, Western Islamic Architecture: A Concise Introduction (Dover Publications, 1963)
E.J. Holmyard, Alchemy (Dober, 1991)
Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab People (Faber, 2005)
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu and Feza Günergun, Science in Islamic Civilisation (Research Center for Islamic Art and Culture, Turkey, 2000)
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu, Science, Technology and Learning in the Ottoman Empire (Ashgate Variorum, 2004)
Halil Inalcik, Turkey and Europe in History (Eren Publishing, Turkey, 2006)
Muhammad Iqbal, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (1938)
Ibn-Qayyim al-Jawziyya (trans. Penelope Johnstone), Medicine of the Prophet (Cambridge University Press, 1998)
&n
bsp; John Keay, India (HarperCollins, 2001)
Hugh Kennedy, When Baghdad Ruled the World (Da Capo, 2006)
Hugh Kennedy, The Great Arab Conquests (Phoenix, 2008)
Sadiq-ur-Rahman Kidwai, Gilchrist and the Language of Hindoostan (Rachna Prakashan, India, 1972)
David Landes, Revolution in Time (Viking, 2000)
David C. Lindberg, Theories of Vision: From Al-Kindi to Kepler (University of Chicago Press, 1981)
Oliver Leaman, A Brief Introduction to Islamic Philosophy (Polity Press, 1999)
G. Le Strange, Baghdad During the Abbasid Caliphate (Kessinger Publishing, 1883)
Martin Lings, Mecca: From Before Genesis Until Now (ArcheType, 2004)
Hafeez Malik, Political Profile of Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan (Adam Publishers, 2006)
Ehsan Masood, ‘Arabic Liberals Must Stay in the Game’, Nature, 12 August 2012
Maria Rosa Menocal, Ornament of the World (Back Bay Books/Little, Brown and Co., 2002)
Mustansir Mir, Iqbal (I.B. Tauris/Oxford University Press, 2006)
Roy Mottadeh, The Mantle of the Prophet (Oneworld, 2008)
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islamic Science (Tajir Trust, 1976)
Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Muzaffar Iqbal, Islam, Science, Muslims, and Technology: Conversations with Seyyed Hossein Nasr (Islamic Book Trust, Kuala Lumpur, 2007)
F.E. Peters, Mecca: A Literary History of the Muslim Holy Land (Princeton University Press, 1994)
Attilio Petruccioli and Khalil K. Pirani, Understanding Islamic Architecture (Routledge Curzon, 2002)
Peter E. Pormann and Emilie Savage-Smith, Medieval Islamic Medicine (The New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys, 2007)
Lectures by Peter Pormann, University of Warwick
Roshdi Rashed (ed.), Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science, Vol. 1 of 3 (Routledge, 1996)
Sayyid Athar Abbas Rizvi, A History of Sufism in India, Vol. 1 of 2 (Munshiran Manoharlal Publishers, India, 1986)
Chase F. Robinson, Abd al-Malik (Oneworld, 2005)
Adam Sabra, Poverty and Charity in Medieval Islam (Cambridge University Press, 2000)
K.G. Saiyidain, Iqbal’s Educational Philosophy (Muhammad Ashraf Press, India, 1938)
George Saliba, Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance (MIT Press, 2007)
Lectures by George Saliba
Abdulaziz Y. Saqqaf, The Middle East City: Ancient Traditions Confront a Modern World (Paragon House Publishers, 1987)
Aydin Sayili, The Observatory in Islam and its Place in the General History of the Observatory (The Turkish Historical Society, 1988)
Mark J. Sedgwick, Sufism: The Essentials (The American University in Cairo Press, 2000)
Zaid Shakir, The Heirs of the Prophets (Starlatch, 2001)
Muhammad Zubayr Siddiqi, Hadith Literature: Its Origin, Development and Special Features (The Islamic Texts Society, 1993)
Simon Singh, Big Bang (HarperPerennial, 2005)
Nancy G. Siraisi, Avicenna in Renaissance Italy (Princeton University Press, 1987)
Hugh Tait (ed.), Five Thousand Years of Glass (British Museum, 2005)
Richard Tapper and Keith McLachlan, Technology, Tradition and Survival: Aspects of Material Culture in the Middle East and Central Asia (Frank Cass, 2003)
F.W. Thomas and R.L. Turner, ‘George Abraham Grierson’, Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume 28, 1943
Rim Turkmani, Arabick Roots (Exhibition catalogue, The Royal Society, 2011)
Howard R. Turner, Science in Medieval Islam (University of Texas Press, 2002)
Manfred Ullmann, Islamic Medicine (Edinburgh University Press, 1978)
Tim Wallace Murphy, What Islam Did For Us (Watkins, 2006)
W. Montgomery Watt, Muslim Intellectual: A Study of Al-Ghazáli (Edinburgh University Press, 1971)
W. Montgomery Watt, The Faith and Practice of Al-Ghazáli (Oneworld, 2000)
Salah Zaimeche, Baghdad (FSTC, 2007)
Index
Abbasids, the 8–11, 27, 37–43, 46–9, 53–5, 59, 65–7, 69, 81–6, 103, 118, 120, 156, 161, 205
Abd al-Malik, Caliph, see caliphs
Abd al-Rahman III 69, 82
Abd al-Rahman, Prince 65–8
Abdus Salam, Muhammad 207–8
Abraham 21, 23, 32, 201
Abu al-Mansur Muwaffaq 160
Abu Bakr, Caliph, see caliphs
Abu Muslim 38
Abu’l-Abbas, Caliph, see caliphs
Abul Wafa 149
On those parts of geometry needed by craftsmen (book) 149
Adam and Eve 182–3
Afghanistan 35, 41
Africa 6, 17, 33
East Africa 80, 183
North Africa 18, 28, 66, 78, 82
Age of Reason, the 3
Aghlabids, the 82
Aix-la-Chapelle 12
Alamut 133–4
Alaric, King of the Visigoths 1
Al-Azhar University, see universities
al-Battani 74, 127, 136, 148–50
al-Biruni 49, 160
al-Buhturi 72
alchemy 36–7, 50, 99, 153–8, 160
Alcuin 7
Aldebaran 117
al-Din al-Afghani, Jamal 194
al-Din al-’Urdi, Mu’ayyad 135
al-Din al-Shirazi, Qutb 135
al-Din al-Tusi, Nasir 9, 92, 122, 132–4, 171, 206, 210
Tusi Couple, the 134–7
al-Din Abu-Ishaq al-Bitruji, Nur 86, 137
al-Din Ayyubi, Salah (Saladin) 90
al-Din Mahmud, Prince Nasir 164
Alexander the Great 17, 43
Alexandria 123
Al-Farabi 149, 171
Spiritual crafts and natural secrets in the details of geometrical figures (book) 149
al-Fazari, Ibrahim 123–5
algebra 4, 35, 139, 142–6, 149, 155, 169, 179, 212
development of 144
discovery of 142
new technique of 35
al-Ghazali, Abu Hamid 9, 76, 111–12, 146, 215
The Incoherence of the Philosophers (book) 9, 76, 112
al-Hakim, Caliph, see caliphs
al-Hanbali, Rajab 63
Heirs of the Prophets (book) 63
al-Hassani, Salim 5
Ali (Muhammad’s cousin) 59
Ali (Muhammad’s son-in-law) 26–7
al-Idrisi (of Cordoba) 79
Book of Roger (book) 79
Aliuddin, Nawab 201
al-jabr and al-muqabala, rules of 144
al-Jahiz 50, 183
The Book of Animals (book) 183
Book of Misers (book) 50
al-Jazira region 164
al-Khwarizmi, see ibn-Musa al-Kharwizmi, Abu Ja’far Muhammad 4–5, 35, 54, 58–9, 74, 128, 139–45, 149, 206, 212
al-Kimya, see alchemy
al-Kindi, Abu Yusuf 45, 49–52, 141, 171
Almagest, the, see Ptolemy, Claudius
al-Mahdi, see caliphs
al-Majisti, see Ptolemy, Claudius
al-Majriti, Maslama 73, 86, 127
al-Mamun, Caliph, see caliphs
al-Mansur, Caliph, see caliphs
al-Mansuri (hospital) 87, 110
al-Mutawakkil, Caliph, see caliphs
Almohads, the 79
Almoravids, the 78–9
al-Mulk, Nizam 87, 177
al-Mulk, Sitt 90
al-Nakhshabi, Muhammad 184
The Book of the Yield (book) 184
al-Qahirah 85
al-Rashid, Caliph see caliphs
al-Razi, Abu Bakr 99–105, 131, 135, 159–60, 172–3
Doubts about Galen (book) 100–2, 131
On The Fact That Even The Most Skillful of Physicians Cannot Heal All Diseases and Why People Prefer Quacks and Charlatans to Skilled Physicians (books) 100
al-Sadiq, Ja’far 155–6
al-Safadi 46–7
altair 117
al-Walid I, Caliph, see caliphs
al-Zahrawi, Abul-Qasim 75, 96, 108–9, 160
Tasrif (book) 108–9
al-Zaman al-Jazari, Badi 5, 9, 34, 161, 163, 164–5
Book of Ingenious Devices (book) 163
al-Zarqali 73–4, 79, 86, 163
Anastasius, Saint 28
anatomy 98
of the eye 47, 99
Andalusia 33–5, 65–80
Apollonius 130, 162
aql (human intelligence and reason), concept of 60
Arabia 19–20, 27, 40, 80, 97, 113, 117, 120, 163, 191
Arabian peninsula, the 20
Arabic, see languages
Arabic-speaking peoples, the 11, 13, 19, 33, 37, 51, 120, 141, 145, 153, 169
Aral Sea, the 140
Archimedes 3, 5, 59, 163
Aristotle 3, 42, 45–6, 55–7, 128, 170, 182, 200–2
Topics (book) 42
Asia 6, 17, 53, 133, 175
Central Asia 13, 18, 28, 37, 81, 84–5, 122, 140, 184, 188
South Asia 45, 97, 102, 108, 113, 133, 204
astrology 43, 50, 74–5, 83, 88, 114, 117–18, 121–5, 153
astronomy 2, 35, 46, 51, 58, 73–5, 83–4, 88, 100, 117–25, 128, 132–4, 148, 153, 169, 173, 175, 178–9, 212
Aswan 89
Ataturk, Kemal 211
Atlantic, the 28, 79–80, 84
Attewell, Guy 204
Austria 188
automation, field of 163
Ayurvedic medicine, see also medicine 202
Babington Macaulay, Thomas 199
Baca, well of, see Zamzam, well of
Badr, battle of 24
Baghdad 4–5, 9, 11, 39–44, 47–61, 67–70, 75, 81, 83, 85–6, 91–2, 96–9, 113, 120–2, 126, 154–6, 161–2, 171, 175, 177, 183, 187, 201, 210, 212
Balkh 41
Banu Musa brothers, the 5, 44, 48, 51, 58, 161–3, 165
Bar Penkayë, John 17
Barmakids, the 41, 87, 156
Basra 33–4, 40, 44, 89
Bede 7
Bedouin, the 19
Bennison, Amira 43
Betelgeuse 117
Bible, the 22, 45
bin Maymun, Musa (Maimonides) 69, 76, 127
Black Stone of Mecca, the 21
bloodletting (phlebotomy) 101–2
Bombay 196
Book of Kells, the 7
Boyle, Robert 3–4, 160
Brahmagupta 124, 144–5
British empire, the 195–6
British Museum, the 11
Bukhara 53, 85, 90, 103, 187
Buyids, the 82, 86
Byzantium 7, 12, 18–20, 24, 27–32, 36, 43–9, 55–60, 84, 97, 162, 179
