Arabic Science: Forgotten Brilliance

Islamic Science: Forgotten Brilliance

By Muhtar Ahat (Feb. 14, 2005)

In the eyes of Europeans, the Arabic/Islamic (including Turkic) people in middle age only did some translations and preserved the Greek learning so that it was available to the Europeans at the end of the Dark Age. This kind of view is held widely not only by Europeans but also by Japanese, Chinese. No surprise that such views are held generally, since many leading historians of science have contributed to the views by omitting any mention of Arabic/Islamic science in the historical development of the subject. They only thought that: “Arabic science only reproduced the teachings received from Greek science”. There may have been a more complicate reason for that; or it may have been originated from the cultural differences.

Many of the great ideas in mathematics which were previously thought to have been developed by European mathematicians in the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries, they are now known to have been developed by Arabic/Islamic mathematicians much earlier. The Arabic/Islamic (including Turkic) scientists, they not only contributed to the mathematics such that Algebras, Trigonometry, Analytic Geometry, etc. but also developed Astronomy, Navigation Method, Medical Science (especially in surgical method), Social Science, Philosophy.

(1) There were many famous mathematicians, scientists, philosophers such as Al-Khwarizmi, Omar Khayyam, Al-Kindi, Banu Musa brothers, Hunayn ibn Ishaq, Ulugh Beg, Mahmud Al-Kashghari… Among them, Al-Khwarizmi (he or his ancestors came from the Khwaizm south of the Aral sea in central Asia, now in Kazaksatn) was one of the most famous mathematician, his contributions to the mathematics praised by today’s historians as: he was one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. He composed the oldest works on arithmetic and algebra. They were the principal source of mathematical knowledge for centuries in the East and the West.

(2) Omar Khayyam, generally, is known as a famous Persian poet. Khayyam’s fame in the poetry (the Rubaiyat) has caused most people to forget his scientific achievements which were much more substantial. A literal translation of the name al-Khayyami means 'tent maker' and this may have been the trade of Ibrahim his father.

Khayyam was an outstanding mathematician and astronomer; he wrote several books on music and algebra before he was 25 years old. Later, he moved to Samarkand in Uzbekistan which is one of the oldest cities of Central Asia. In Samarkand, he wrote his most famous algebra work, Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra. Around 1073, Malik-Shah, the ruler of Esfahan (the capital of Seljuk Turk dynasty), invited him to Esfahan to set up an Observatory there. Other leading astronomers were also brought to the Observatory in Esfahan. For 18 years Khayyam led the scientists and produced work of outstanding quality such as astronomical tables, cubic equations and calendar reform (in 1079). Khayyam measured the length of the year as 365.24219858156 days with an incredible confidence at this degree of accuracy. For comparison the length of the year (at the present time) is 365.242190 days.

(3) Now we come to another great scientist, Ulugh Beg. He was the grandson of the conqueror Timur, who is often known as Tamerlane. Timur, Ulugh Beg's grandfather, came from the Turkic Barlas tribe which was a Mongol tribe that was living in Uzbekistan. He united several Turko-Mongol tribes, set out on a conquest on the area now occupied by Iran, Iraq, and eastern Turkey. After death of Timur, Ulugh Beg's father Shah Rukh had gained overall control of most of the empire, including Iran and Turkistan. Samarkand had been the capital of Timur's empire. In 1409 Shah Rukh decided to make a new capital in Khorasan. However Shah Rukh did not give up Samarkand, rather he decided to give it to his son Ulugh Beg who was more interested in making the city a cultural center than he was in politics or military conquest.

Ulugh Beg was a scientist, in particular a mathematician and an astronomer. However, he did not neglect the arts, writing poetry, history and studying the Qur'an. In 1417, to push forward the study of astronomy, Ulugh Beg began building a madrasah which is a center for higher education. After the madrasah was completed, Ulugh Beg began to appoint the best scientists he could find to positions there as lecturers. Ulugh Beg invited al-Kashi to join his madrasah in Samarkand, as well as around sixty other scientists. Ulugh Beg led scientific meetings where problems in astronomy were freely discussed. In addition to the madrasah, Ulugh Beg also built an observatory. The director of the Observatory was Ali-Kudschi, a Muslim astronomer. Al-Kashi and other mathematicians and astronomers appointed to the madrasah also worked at Ulugh Beg's Observatory. The achievements of the scientists at the Observatory are included as following: the Catalogue of the stars (this star catalogue, the Zij-i Sultani, set the standard for such works up to the seventeenth century and it gives the positions of 992 stars); calculation the length of the year (365.242535 days); methods for giving accurate approximate solutions of cubic equations; work with the binomial theorem; formulas of spherical trigonometry; the accurate tables of sins and tangents in which the approximations corrected up to eight decimal place; as a example:

sin 1 = 0.017452406437283571; today it is: sin 1 = 0.017452406437283512820 .

As mentioned above, we had great traditions in scientific research since the sixth or seventh centuries. Unfortunately, we lost most of these great heritages and forgot that our ancestors had made great contributions to science. This is the time to rediscover our great heritages left by Ulugh Beg, Al-Khwarizmi, Omar Al-Khayyam, Mahmud Al-Kashghari, and rediscover ourself. Let us go back to origin again, stand at the starting point and go forward to rediscover the power of science.