750-1250 AD: Why did technology flourish with Islam while Europe was in the dark ages?
The Golden Age of Islam generally refers to the rule of the Islamic world from 750-1250 AD. The Golden Age was after Muhammad’s death (632 AD) by the Abbasid Caliphs in Baghdad, their capitol. Baghdad was ideally located on trade routes between Europe and Asia. The active trading in Baghdad made the city a natural center for ideas and knowledge.
The House of Wisdom (aka Grand Library of Baghdad ) was an intellectual center in Baghdad which was the largest city in the world at the time.
The House of Wisdom was the center of the Graeco-Arabic translation movement which sought to translate mostly classical Greek works to Arabic. The goal was to translate all the classical works into Arabic and Persian. Muslims, Christians, and Jews worked on the translations. Similar smaller centers of the translation movement were in Damascus and Cairo. The fall of Baghdad to Mongol invaders and the complete destruction of the House of Wisdom and its contents in 1258 marks the end of the Islamic Golden Age.
In 793, paper began to replace parchment in Baghdad.
The importance of study of scripture in Islam made education and literacy central for the religion. In this era, literacy rates are believed to have been significantly higher in Islamic cultures than in Christian Medieval Europe.
Islamic Golden Age Inventions – 750-1250 AD
(Muhammad 571-632 AD)
1) Surgery Al Zahrawi wrote a 1500 page encyclopedia of surgery. He used of catgut to which dissolves after healing of wounds
2) Coffee Yemen 800’s AD
3) Flying machine 800’s AD
4) University Fez, Morocco, 859 AD
5) Algebra 800’s AD (Persia)
6) Optics 1000 AD, camera obscura inverted images
7) Music – Lute, rahab
8) Crankrod machine converts rotary to linear with lever
9) Hospital 800’s Egypt 872 AD Cairo
Islamic Golden Age bridged from the classical period to the Renaissance.
More important than inventions, the Islamic Golden Age preserved the teachings of classical Greece and Rome. During the European Dark Ages, the Islamic Golden Age bridged the gap between the fall of Rome in 476 AD and the Renaissance. Information and technology spread from Islamic centers in eastern Europe (Iberian Peninsula), from central Mediterranean (Sicily) and from the Levant Crusader Kingdoms in the west. Via the Silk Road and these three access points, gunpowder, the compass, advanced printing, and paper spread from China through the Middle East to Europe.
From 1000-1400 AD, many European students traveled to Muslim centers of learning for knowledge of the sciences, philosophy, and mathematics. Adelard of Bath (1080-1152), Constantine the African (circa 1050), and Leonardo Fibonacci (1170-1245) reintroduced Europe to classical teachings, translated Arabic books to Latin, and popularized the Hindu-Arabic number system in Europe. Al-Andalusia (Islamic Spain) occupied the southern Iberian peninsula. Muslims, Jews, and Christians intermingled in Al-Andalusia and spread Golden Age culture from Islam to Christian medieval Europe. Islamic scientists were among the first to experiment with quantitative methods to test competing theories (721-873). Therefore, the origins of scientific method were likely more Muslim than classical Greek.
Why did Europe flourish after 1450, while the Islamic world and China fell into their own dark age?
Most scholars attribute the rise of Europe after 1450 to several events: 1) the Renaissance in northern Italy was the rediscovery of ancient Greek writings. Importantly, Islamic preservation of classical writings contributed significantly to the Renaissance in Europe. 2) The printing press on paper with movable type invented in 1450 in Germany by Johannes Gutenberg. The adoption of the printing press by Europe and the failure of China and Islamic nations to embrace the printing press contributed to the divergence. 3) Invention of the caravel sailboat which began the Age of Discovery led by the Christopher Columbus discovery of the Americas. 4) The Reformation led by Martin Luther encouraged literacy and individual learning accelerating the Renaissance and leading to the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment.
