The Achievements of the Islamic Golden Age

[Cypress]

I acquired this video course, and am looking forward in anticipation with sweaty palms.

The History and Achievements of the Islamic Golden Age

The study of Western Civilization traditionally follows a well-known but incomplete arc: the grand achievements of Greece and Rome, several hundred years of the “Dark Ages,” and then the bright emergence of the European Renaissance. But most students of history have only a passing familiarity with a significant period known as the Islamic Golden Age in the Greater Middle East, from about 750 to 1258. Advancements in medicine, algebra and astronomy; influential figures like Avicenna and Averroes: these asides in the traditional story of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance only gloss the surface of one of the most important periods of world history.

It is nearly impossible to overstate the power and importance of this crucial 500-year history, headquartered in Baghdad but impacting the wider world. The Abbasid Empire, which ruled the Middle East as well as much of Northern Africa and Central Asia in much of the Middle Ages, is a vitally important bridge between the ancient and modern worlds. While much of Europe was quietly passing the time, the Abbasid Empire was an international, multicultural hub of trade, travel, education, art, science, and much more. Just a few of the many events and achievements of the era include:

Advancements in mathematics, including the birth of algebra and new insights into geometry and trigonometry.
The origins of the scientific method, along with the development of chemistry, physics, and astronomy as discrete fields of inquiry.
The invention of the modern “teaching hospital” and a medical encyclopedia that served Europe for the next 600 years.
The preservation and translation of the world’s great literature, from the Hadith to the master works of Greece and Rome.
Ontological philosophy that served future Jewish, Christian, and Muslim theologians concerned with the nature of God and the relationship between faith and reason.

Although the word wasn’t coined until much later, today we would call many of the influential figures of the Islamic Golden Age “scientists”—experimental thinkers who researched everything from the circumference of the Earth to the classifications of chemical compositions. This period saw the birth of the scientific method—including the origins of the “control” in an experiment—and ushered in transitions from what we would call astrology to astronomy, and from alchemy to chemistry.

source credit: Eamonn Gearon, Johns Hopkins University

 

[kudzu]

I acquired this video course, and am looking forward in anticipation with sweaty palms.

It was a remarkable time.. Jews had their own Guilds or joined Muslim Guilds and apparently Muslim and Jewish scholars worked side by side translating, copying and preserving writings on medicine, astronomy, science etc.

This was the time of RamBam.

Moshe ben Maimon was born in 1138 or late 1137. “Maimonides” is the Greek translation of “Moses, son of Maimon,” whereas the acronym RamBaM (רמבּ״ם) is its Hebrew equivalent.

He grew up in Córdoba, in what is now southern Spain.

Reared in a prosperous, educated family, the young Maimonides studied traditional Jewish texts like Mishnah, Talmud and Midrash under the tutelage of his father, Maimon.

 

[Cypress]

It was a remarkable time.. Jews had their own Guilds or joined Muslim Guilds and apparently Muslim and Jewish scholars worked side by side translating, copying and preserving writings on medicine, astronomy, science etc.

This was the time of RamBam.

Moshe ben Maimon was born in 1138 or late 1137. “Maimonides” is the Greek translation of “Moses, son of Maimon,” whereas the acronym RamBaM (רמבּ״ם) is its Hebrew equivalent.

He grew up in Córdoba, in what is now southern Spain.

Reared in a prosperous, educated family, the young Maimonides studied traditional Jewish texts like Mishnah, Talmud and Midrash under the tutelage of his father, Maimon.

I have concluded that in any attempt to be a knowledgeable human, a person steeped in the history of western civilization, it is not enough for me to merely know about Greco-Roman civilization nor Judeo-Christian philosophy, but I need to cast a much wider net.

 

[kudzu]

I have concluded that in any attempt to be a knowledgeable human, a person steeped in the history of western civilization, it is not enough for me to merely know about Greco-Roman civilization nor Judeo-Christian philosophy, but I need to cast a much wider net.

The cities of Spain were so far advanced compared to cities in Europe..

Under the leadership of the Umayyads, the region flourished.

The city of Cordoba became one of the greatest cities in Europe.

Unlike the dark and dirty cities of most of Europe, Cordoba had wide paved streets, hospitals, running water, and public bath houses.

Scholars from around the Mediterranean traveled to Cordoba to visit the library and to study subjects such as medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and art.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

I acquired this video course, and am looking forward in anticipation with sweaty palms.

That ended 500 years ago. The major reason why is that the Middle East and Islamic culture is they are stuck in a middle age medieval aristocratic/peasant-serf social structure where the have not adopted the enlightenment egalitarian principals of the modern industrial era. It has left them weak politically, economically and militarily and susceptible to domination by the Western powers. The Islamic nations have not experienced anything comparable to a reformation, renaissance or age of enlightened like the West or the Far East during the 20th Century.

Until the ME does they will remain weak, politically unstable and a hot spot of radicalization.

 

[kudzu]

That ended 500 years ago. The major reason why is that the Middle East and Islamic culture is they are stuck in a middle age medieval aristocratic/peasant-serf social structure where the have not adopted the enlightenment egalitarian principals of the modern industrial era. It has left them weak politically, economically and militarily and susceptible to domination by the Western powers. The Islamic nations have not experienced anything comparable to a reformation, renaissance or age of enlightened like the West or the Far East during the 20th Century.

Until the ME does they will remain weak, politically unstable and a hot spot of radicalization.

What do you remember about Modern European history in the 200 years following the Protestant Reformation?

 

[Mott the Hoople]

I have concluded that in any attempt to be a knowledgeable human, a person steeped in the history of western civilization, it is not enough for me to merely know about Greco-Roman civilization nor Judeo-Christian philosophy, but I need to cast a much wider net.

That’s true but you should also study how that era ended with the rise of the Mongol Empire and what a horrific catastrophe that was for Islamic culture and how that coincided with the rise of the West and how Islamic culture never recovered from that human catastrophe.

 

[Cypress]

That’s true but you should also study how that era ended with the rise of the Mongol Empire and what a horrific catastrophe that was for Islamic culture and how that coincided with the rise of the West and how Islamic culture never recovered from that human catastrophe.

A great point, that I was only dimly aware of.

 

[kudzu]

Muslim trade dominated the East from Egypt and Mesopotamia to the Indus Valley until the rise of the British ...

 

[Cypress]

That ended 500 years ago. The major reason why is that the Middle East and Islamic culture is they are stuck in a middle age medieval aristocratic/peasant-serf social structure where the have not adopted the enlightenment egalitarian principals of the modern industrial era. It has left them weak politically, economically and militarily and susceptible to domination by the Western powers. The Islamic nations have not experienced anything comparable to a reformation, renaissance or age of enlightened like the West or the Far East during the 20th Century.

Until the ME does they will remain weak, politically unstable and a hot spot of radicalization.

It is a complex socio-economic-cultural issue.

History tells us that imperialism and colonialism constrains and retards socio-economic development. I wonder how much colonialization in the Arab world constrained their development - first by the Mongols, then by the Ottomans, then by the British and French.

 

[countryboy]

I acquired this video course, and am looking forward in anticipation with sweaty palms.

And what have they accomplished since then? Nothing.

 

[countryboy]

It is a complex socio-economic-cultural issue.

History tells us that imperialism and colonialism constrains and retards socio-economic development. I wonder how much colonialization in the Arab world constrained their development - first by the Mongols, then by the Ottomans, then by the British and French.

LOL! Why do libs believe, "it's always someone else's fault"? How long ago did imperialism and colonialism end in the ME?

 

[kudzu]

LOL! Why do libs believe, "it's always someone else's fault"? How long ago did imperialism and colonialism end in the ME?

Before WWI and WWII Europe controlled almost all of Africa and most is Asia. This was most annoying to the USA.

To achieve world dominance they have to get ride of this obstacle. By diplomacy and massive propaganda did USA undermine the foundation of the French and Brittish colonial Empires.

Colonial rule was depicted as an ultimate evil (this critisism was if course not applied to colonialism imposed by USA). Weakend after WWII GB could not withstand the attack and had to surrander their Empires.

France first fought with fury to preserve their colonial rule. This was disastrous. France was on the edge of collapse after the war in Algeria. Then de Gaulle came up with a genial solution. The colonies was offered independence but also a package of cooperation with France. The remaining colonies gain independence but remeined under control of France.

 

[countryboy]

Before WWI and WWII Europe controlled almost all of Africa and most is Asia. This was most annoying to the USA.

To achieve world dominance they have to get ride of this obstacle. By diplomacy and massive propaganda did USA undermine the foundation of the French and Brittish colonial Empires.

Colonial rule was depicted as an ultimate evil (this critisism was if course not applied to colonialism imposed by USA). Weakend after WWII GB could not withstand the attack and had to surrander their Empires.

France first fought with fury to preserve their colonial rule. This was disastrous. France was on the edge of collapse after the war in Algeria. Then de Gaulle came up with a genial solution. The colonies was offered independence but also a package of cooperation with France. The remaining colonies gain independence but remeined under control of France.

Lol, never did answer my very simple question.

 

[Cypress]

LOL! Why do libs believe, "it's always someone else's fault"? How long ago did imperialism and colonialism end in the ME?

Not that long ago, in historical context.
And that is not to mention the artificial boundaries, borders, and divisions Europeans drew on a map, dividing tribes, linguistic groups, and natural associations of people in the ME and Africa. That could not possibly have helped their natural development.

We can hardly demand that the Middle East live up to our western liberal democratic values, when British and Americans have a history of installing dictators in the Middle East, undermining their democratic elections, and exploiting their oil resources to our benefit and at their expense.

I suspect things are getting better incrementally in the Middle East, on balance, and over the decades. But it is a historical fact that an imperialist and colonial legacy is a tough hurdle to overcome and it takes time. It took the Chinese over a century to overcome.

 

[kudzu]

Thomas Noer (1985: 17, 64, 60) found that the Second World War image of the United States “as an anticolonial advocate was inaccurate”. Washington, he added, “was not prepared to exert strong pressure on the Europeans to divest themselves of colonies”.

With the Cold War, the United States position on decolonization, says Noer, “grew more conservative”.

United States leaders now saw independence for the colonies not only as inimical to Western European recovery and the anti-Soviet alliance, but also believed that it “would create weak nations unable to resist penetration and subversion by Moscow”.

Following his study of the United States role in Indonesia’s transition to independence, Robert McMahon (1981: 45) concluded that anticolonialism “was never an overriding principle of American foreign policy” before or during the Second World War.

Roosevelt’s anticolonialism was, according to Scott Bills (1990: 6-19, 204), “non-committal”.

He found that Roosevelt “was anticolonial in everything he said and in little that he did”. What follows is a historiographical overview of this perspective, drawing on the various dimensions of Roosevelt’s anticolonialism. Source: THE U.S. AND DECOLONIZATION Journals Open Edition

 

[Minister of Truth]

The period of 632-750 was much more impressive than the period after 750. The Muslims conquered Syria, the Holy Land, Egypt, North Africa, and Iberia, as well as Persia. That represents the true spirit of Islam.

 

[ThatOwlWoman]

Interesting discussion; thanks for starting it. I have always wondered how the glory of the Arabic people, with all of their accomplishments in mathematics and science, could have degraded so badly since. I wonder how much the rise of fundamentalist Islam had to do with that. Fundamentalism seems to turn human minds away from present reality and the wonders of this life. Its adherents set their eyes on the next realm, rather than rejoicing in this one.

 

[Cypress]

And what have they accomplished since then? Nothing.

I did not realize you are an accomplished Middle Eastern studies scholar, with the training, education, and intellect to make such a sweeping generalization about a culture of 700 million people.

I am pretty sure my thread was quite clear and explicit that I am interested in what the Islamic Golden Age means to the broad arc of the history of liberal western civilization. Scholars universally agree that western civilization owes an immense debt to the scientific, mathematical, and philosophical tenets that came from the golden age of Islam.

If you want to make the case that the Muslim world has been worthless in the last 500 years, that is a different topic than the one I articulated in this thread. The course I am taking has its own take on the reasons for the demise of the Islamic Golden Age. Among which was a trend in the ME towards religious conservatism and dogma, and away from liberal tolerance and enlightenment.

Bernard Lewis, the British-American historian of the Middle East, once wrote that “[before the rise of Islam] virtually all civilisations…were limited to one region, one culture and usually one race. The Islamic culture of the Middle East was the first that was truly international, intercultural, interracial, in a sense, even intercontinental, and its contribution—both direct and indirect—to the modern world is immense.”

The Islamic Golden Age was an essential intellectual bridge between the ancient empires of Greece and Rome and the later European Renaissance that began in Florence during the 14th century. Even the dullest critic is forced to concede that the rebirth of Western European culture did not happen without the rediscovery of Greek and Roman culture. At the same time, the native Muslim scholars and others who brightened the course of the Islamic Golden Age were no mere custodians of earlier empires.

- Eamonn Gearon, Johns Hopkins University

 

[Cypress]

The period of 632-750 was much more impressive than the period after 750. The Muslims conquered Syria, the Holy Land, Egypt, North Africa, and Iberia, as well as Persia. That represents the true spirit of Islam.

I rate it below Christianity's conquest of the Americas, which included the forced conversion, enslavement, and even murder of tens of millions of indigenous people of the western hemisphere.