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=Analyze the influence and achievements of Islamic civilization during its "Golden Age."=

** Topics on this page: **

 * Overview of Islam's Golden Age **
 * The House of Wisdom **
 * ** Preservation and Expansion of Greek Thought **
 * Science **
 * Mathematics **
 * **See Special Topic page on Arabic and Islamic Mathematicians and Scientists**
 * Philosophy **
 * Architecture **
 * Agriculture **
 * **Norias**
 * **Ibn Al'Awwam, Book of Agriculture**
 * Women's Roles and Lives **

===**National Geographic: 1001 Invention and Awesome Facts from Muslim Civilization TEACHER's GUIDE**===
 * offers many different lesson plans and interesting activities for kids to learn about Muslim contributions

Overview of Islam's Golden Age
1001 Inventions and the Library of Secrets is a short film narrated by actor Ben Kingsley on the scientific heritage of Muslim civilization.
 * This is part of a larger exhibit and website, "1001 Inventions/Discovering the Muslim Heritage in Our World/Uncovering 1000 Years of Science & Technology."

For more, see AP World History Key Concept 3.1 and Key Concept 3.2
See Influential Biography Page on **Arabic and Islamic Mathematicians**

Cities of Lights clip focuses on the fresh contribution that Islamic civilization had to western civilization.

Click Here for a PBS timeline of the __History of the Islamic Empire__.

**The Golden Age of Islam** from the University of Chicago traces the background and areas of achievement of classical Islamic civilization from 610 to 1258 CE.


 * In 1258 CE the Mongols laid siege to Baghdad, destroying the House of Wisdom in the process. So many books were cast into the Tigris river during the sacking of Baghdad that its waters ran black with ink. This invasion is regarded by historians as signaling the close of Islam's Golden Age. Click here for an account of this event and for account of the events that preceded it.

Islamic civilization made global contributions in three main areas:
 * preservation and expansion of Greek thought
 * expansion of knowledge in the areas of science, philosophy and mathematics
 * development of Islamic architecture.

[[image:http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5131HFTXWWL._SS500_.jpg width="250" height="250" align="right"]]The House of Wisdom
According to Jim al-Khalili's book //The House of Wisdom//, "Astronomers laid the foundations for the heliocentric model of the solar system long before Copernicus; physicians accurately described blood circulation and the inner workings of the eye ages before Europeans solved those mysteries..." (Jim al-Khalili). For more information, see //The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance//. Jim al-Khalili (Penguin Press, 2011). The book answer two questions, what was the role of Islamic thought in the Middle Ages and also what contributions did Islamic learning contribute to the Western world as we know it?
 * But the biggest accomplishment for Middle Eastern science was the evidence-based approach, the lack of which kept Europeans in the dark during the Dark Ages.

The Origins of Islamic Science is an article in which "Dr Muhammad Abdul Jabbar Beg surveys the origins of Islamic science, with a special focus on its interaction with the previous intellectual traditions of the ancient world as well as a survey of the beginnings of scientific activity in Arabic. In this first part, he depicts in details the impact of Islamic principle in shaping the contours of the early scientific activity in the Muslim civilisation. Afterwards, in the second part, the author surveys some key contributions of the scientists of Islam in the fields of astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, and medicine."

**Preservation and expansion of Greek thought**
According to Duiker and Speilvogel in their book //Essential World History//,
 * "it was the Islamic world that was most responsible for preserving and spreading the scientific and philosophical achievements of ancient civilizations. At a time when Greek philosophy was largely unknown in Europe, key works by Aristotle, Plato, and other Greek philosophers were translated into Arabic and stored in a "house of wisdom" in Baghdad, where they were read and studied by Muslim scholars. Eventually, many of these works were translated into Latin and were brought to Europe, where they exercised a profound influence on the later course of Christianity and Western philosophy." (page 208).

Click here for an article on the House of Wisdom from the //The Guardian//, September 22, 2004.

 What statement best explains how Greek and Roman learning was preserved during the Middle Ages in Europe? A. Monasteries saw it as their mission to copy all of the older texts of the Greek and Roman philosophers. B. The works of Greek and Roman philosophers were preserved by both the Byzantine and the Islamic civilizations. C. The Roman Catholic Church maintained extensive libraries of Greek and Roman works throughout Europe. D. The collapse in Western Europe was not so great as to cause a shutdown of universities at the major population centers.
 * Sample Test Question**

CORRECT ANSWER IS B. Byzantines and the Islamic civilizations continued to study and expand upon Greek and Roman thought during the European Middle Ages. As Western Europe began to reengage in international trade, this knowledge found its way back into European centers of learning

SCIENCE
Anatomy Image to the right is from 11th century AH (17th century AD) Persian manuscript by Mansur ibn Muhammad Ahmad at the Majles Library, Tehran > The BBC has made a wonderful 3 part documentary called Science and Islam, in which Physicist Jim Al-Khalili travels the middle-east exploring the scientific achievements of the Islamic world during the Golden Age.
 * Astronomy
 * established an observatory at Baghdad
 * produced a map of the world with the knowledge that it was round in the 9th century
 * Discoveries in optics
 * Understanding of chemistry
 * Development of medicine as a scientific field: Click here for information on 'Al-Razi', and his contributions to medicine during Islam's Golden Age.
 * Click here for an article about the background of Islamic medicine.
 * Avicenna's medical encyclopedia (click here for excerpts)
 * [[image:Multimedia.png]]Here a video that shows Avicenna's medical encyclopedia.
 * ==== The astrolabe is a major contribution to science as it allows a user to make astronomical measurements, typically of the altitudes of celestial bodies, and aides in navigation for calculating latitude . Watch a TEDTalk demoing the astrolabe and explaining it's uses here!. ====

> From the great mathematician Al-Khwarizmi, who did much to establish the mathematical tradition we now know as algebra, to Ibn Sina, a pioneer of early medicine whose Canon of Medicine was still in use as recently as the 19th century, he pieces together a remarkable story of the often-overlooked achievements of the early medieval Islamic scientists > > He discovers how medieval Islamic scholars helped turn the magical and occult practice of alchemy into modern chemistry. In Cairo, he tells the story of the extraordinary physicist Ibn al-Haytham, who helped establish the modern science of optics and proved one of the most fundamental principles in physics - that light travels in straight lines. Prof Al-Khalili argues that these scholars are among the first people to insist that all scientific theories are backed up by careful experimental observation, bringing a rigor to science that didn't really exist before. >
 * **Episode 1: The Language of Science**. Physicist Jim Al-Khalili travels through Syria, Iran, Tunisia and Spain to tell the story of the great leap in scientific knowledge that took place in the Islamic world between the 8th and 14th centuries. Its legacy is tangible, with terms like algebra, algorithm and alkali being Arabic in origin and at the very heart of modern science. For Baghdad-born Al-Khalili this is also a personal journey and he uncovers a diverse, outward-looking culture, fascinated by learning and obsessed with science.
 * **Episode 2: The Empire of Reason**. He travels to northern Syria to discover how, a thousand years ago, the great astronomer and mathematician Al-Biruni estimated the size of the earth to within a few hundred miles of the correct figure.
 * **Episode 3: The Power of Doubt**. Al-Khalili turns detective, hunting for clues that show how the scientific revolution that took place in the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe had its roots in the earlier world of medieval Islam. He travels across Iran, Syria and Egypt to discover the huge astronomical advances made by Islamic scholars through their obsession with accurate measurement and coherent and rigorous mathematics.He then visits Italy to see how those Islamic ideas permeated into the West and ultimately helped shape the works of the great European astronomer Copernicus, and investigates why science in the Islamic world appeared to go into decline after the 16th and 17th centuries, only for it to re-emerge in the present day. Al-Khalili ends his journey in the Royan Institute in the Iranian capital Tehran, looking at how science is now regarded in the Islamic world. (Episode descriptions taken from the BBC4 website linked here.)

Mathematics
See Influential Biography Page on **Arabic and Islamic Mathematicians**
 * Islamic scholars adopted the numerical system of India
 * Introduction of the use of zero
 * Founding of algebra
 * Replacement of Roman numerals with Arabic numerals.
 * For more, see the Mathematics section of the website, //Cities of Light, The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain.//
 * //See also Arabic Mathematicians: Forgotten Brillance// from the University of St. Andrews
 * [[image:Multimedia.png link="@https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzcHatLa-CU"]]Click here for a video on Mathematics and Islam.**


 * Click here to gain a deeper understanding of the complex history of zero.**


 * Go here for information on the mathematician Muhammad Ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi.**


 * Click here for description of his book, The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing.**
 * [[image:Multimedia.png]]Click here for a 10 minutes video about the influence of geometry in Islamic art.**

MEDICINE
There are a great many contributions to medicine by Islamic scholars during this period, including,
 * Abu 'l-Qasim al-Zahrawi (in Latin Abulcasis/Albucasis)'s // Kitab al-Tasrif li-man 'ajiza 'an al-Ta'lif //which is a medical compendium which contains over 300 diseases, how they are treated and details of surgical instruments, illustrated, which had been used.

To read more about the medical contributions, and al-Zahrawi's book link here


 * Image to the right is an illustration of medieval Muslim surgical instruments taken from al-Zahrawi's Kitab al-Tasrif. Fifteenth century copy of an eleventh century manuscript **

PHILOSOPHY
Medieval Islamic philosophy was centered predominately around the tenants of the Islamic faith. Many philosophers dealt with the life and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad while others grappled with the nature of Allah. Here are examples of some famous philosophers from the Islamic Empire.


 * Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
 * Ibn Rushd (Averroes)
 * Musa Ibn Maymun (Moses Maimonides) a Hebrew philosopher whose books were written in Arabic, and whose life is testament to the fluid nature of issues such as religious tolerance during the Golden Age of Islam.

**ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE** Link here for an overview about Al-Aqsa Mosque and here for a short tour inside Al-Aqsa Mosque

The Dome of the Rock (Jerusalem): It is part of Al-Aqsa Mosque. Built as the proclamation of the spiritual and political legitimacy of Islam in 691.



Click here for a short video about the architecture of Islamic mosques.

Here is The Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, and here is a video that shows the architecture of the mosque.

The Great Mosque of Samarra. It has been designated by UNESCO as a world heritage site.

The Great Mosque of Cordoba (Spain)

AGRICULTURE
Click here for a detailed overview of Agriculture in the Muslim World media type="youtube" key="2uHhPDFRum0" width="560" height="315"
 * As Islamic caliphates expanded, by 711 Muslim settlers found farming practices that were virtually unchanged after the fall of the Roman empire and during Visigoth rule in Al-Andalus.
 * Merchants brought home exotic plants, expanding Arab botanical range
 * New crops needed new agricultural techniques, including irrigation
 * **Irrigation**
 * The Muslims advancements in math and science allowed them to create new modernized forms of irrigation that were much more advanced than Christian Europe's at the time
 * **Norias** are water wheels that were used throughout the Muslim world that aided in the transport of water and water power
 * This Noria is in Hama, Syria. It is a "Tentative World Heratage Site"
 * This site, as well as many other sites in Syria important to Islamic culture and to human history, are jeopardized by modern-day conflict. Hama was the site of some of the early conflicts of the war. [|Ancient History, Modern Destruction: Assessing the Status of Syria’s Tentative World Heritage Sites Using High-Resolution Satellite Imagery]
 * click to see the current condition of many of Syria's important historical sites in jeopardy
 * **Introduction of Important Crops**: The Moors introduced sugar cane, eggplant, spinach, rice, and a variety of Citrus to the confines of their civilization - all made possible by irrigational practices
 * **Qanats** were tunnels that carried water long distances underground so that it wouldn’t evaporate
 * **Islamic Gardens** Muslims used math and science to create exquisite gardens click here to learn more about Islamic Gardens
 * [[image:8099820116_a0f49d023f_b.jpg width="517" height="348" caption="El Generalife - Garden of the Alhambra, Granada, Spain"]]
 * Use of written language and new agricultural practices lead to local libraries being filled with written guides for agriculture across the civilization including:
 * Ibn al-‘Awwām : Book of Agriculture
 * media type="youtube" key="8oDaKMhl1Vc" width="560" height="315"
 * [[image:Female_Rose.png]]Women's History during the Islamic Empire.**


 * Click Here** for a detailed look at the lives of women in the Islamic Empire.

Contributions of women during the Golden Age. Click Here.

Sources:
William J. Duiker and Jackson J. Spielvogel, World History, Vol. 6 (Boston: Wadsworth).