From: ag3l+@andrew.cmu.edu (Arun K. Gupta)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.pakistan
Subject: Re: Can science come back to Islam ?
Date: 10 Apr 92 19:28:41 GMT
Organization: Physics, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA


>From: kam@philabs.philips.com (Khalid A Shahzad)
>Subject: Can science come back to Islam? [Part 3]
>Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 00:49:19 GMT

Some comments:

>The [Islamic ]teachings drove many great natural philosophers to their
>accomplishments: For example,

>al-Khawarizmi (d. 850) whose KITAB AL-JABR
>WAL'L MUQABALA laid the foundations of modern algebra;

True. A good part of the book, however, is an exposition of
Indian discoveries. In any case, it is one of the most influential
books in mathematics, in terms of the seeds it laid for further
achievement.

>al-Battani (d. 928) who measured the solar year as being only
>24 seconds longer than the currently accepted value;

He achieved a better description of the apparent solar orbit than
did Ptolemy. Copernicus cites al-Battani no fewer than 23 times in
his "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium. We are told that only one
copy of al-Battani's "Zij" survives in Arabic, and that in Spain.

In Europe he was know as Albategnius, and I think there is a major
crater on the moon that is named for him.

al-Battani is known also for his advancement of spherical trigonometry.

>al-Khazini (d. 971) whose THE BOOK OF THE BALANCE OF WISDOM
>first introduced the concept of center of gravity;

The concept of center of gravity dates back to Archimedes,
who proved several theorems about the center of gravity of
geometrical figures.

>ibn Sina (d. 1037) whose CANNONS OF MEDICINE was the standard
>medical text in Europe for 800 years;
>
>and Jabir ibn Hayyan (d. 815) who introduced scientific method
>into chemistry.
>
>For them, science was integral to Islam and equivalent to piety.
>Some of the best and most eloquent praises of science ever written
>come from the pens of the Muslim scientists who considered their
<work to be acts of worship; such as the great Andalusion scholar
>Abu Umar Yusuf al-Qurtubi (d. 1071) whose book THE COMPREHENSIVE
>ACCOUNT OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND VIRTUES OF SCIENCE AND OF THE
>PRE-REQUISITES OF TELLING ITS TRUTHS AND OF CARRYING ITS MISSION
>has no contemporary parallel. The same motives led to the

>establishment of al-azhar (c.800), the first university in the world;

Nalanda in Bihar in India had a university that was founded ~400 A.D.
we are told that it housed a population of several thousand teachers
and students which were maintained by the revenues of more than a
100 villages. Its fame drew students from abroad, but a strict admission
test kept the acceptance rate of 2-3 out of 10. More than 1500 teachers
discussed over 100 dissertations each day, covering the Vedas, logic,
grammar, philosophy, astronomy medicine. Lesser universities existed
in the towns of Valabhi, Vikramasila, Odantapuri and Jagaddala (see
the Britannica, for example.)

The older city of Taxila, near modern Rawalpindi in Pakistan, renowned
since ~500 B.C. and destroyed ~500 A.D., was a famous center of learning,
but we are told that its institutions didn't resemble a university in the modern
sense, unlike Nalanda.

>the Shammasiyah observatory (c. 828), the first in the world;

Hipparchus (B.C. 140 ?) is also said to have operated out of an
observatory.
>and the celebrated House of Wisdom (c. 815) of Baghdad.

>Clearly there is nothing in the teachings of Islam that militates
>against learning, against science and against technology!

There can be no question about this. If the point of the essay was
to establish this, there is absolutely no argument. If the essay is
to prove priority of innovation or discovery then one has to be
more precise.

***
arun gupta
ag3L@andrew.cmu.edu
***
Newsgroups: soc.culture.pakistan