Science and Technology of Early Islamic World

From roughly 780 CE until 1248 CE, the Islamic Golden Age, science and technology were in full swing. Middle Eastern academics made significant strides in the study of mathematics, physics, geography, and medicine during this time.

What caused the boom in science and technology at this time?

For a variety of reasons, science and technology advanced throughout the Islamic Golden Age. First, both the Islamic religion and the Islamic state promoted the pursuit of knowledge. People admired scholars, and the government supported them. Chinese paper technology was introduced at the same period, enabling the creation of books. Large libraries were constructed in several of the Muslim empire’s towns, allowing experts to share technology and information.

Mathematics

Islamic academics investigated the mathematical systems of ancient Greece, India, and China. After then, they made progress in a variety of fields, including geometry and trigonometry. The field of algebra saw perhaps the most significant mathematical breakthrough. Algebra became a distinct branch of mathematics thanks to the contributions of two outstanding Islamic mathematicians, al-Khwarizmi and Omar Khayyam. Actually, the word “algebra” means “reunion of broken parts” in Arabic, from the word “al-jabr.”

Astronomy

A significant component of Islamic science was astronomy. It served as a navigational aid, a reliable calendar, and a religious tool (for identifying the direction of Mecca and the hours of prayer). Large observatories were created by Islamic astronomers to observe the stars. Additionally, they created intricate celestial globes that displayed the positions of the planets and stars in reference to Earth. The astrolabe and the quadrant were two of the new tools created.

Medicine

For the time, Islamic medicine was quite advanced. In medical school, where they studied the writings of the Ancient Greeks and Indians, doctors were expected to enrol. New medical theories and concepts were contributed to this text by Islamic experts. Every major city has a sizable hospital that was open to the public. It was stated that one of Cairo’s biggest hospitals helped 4,000 people per day.

Ibn Sina’s medical text, The Canon of Medicine, had one of the longest-lasting effects on Islamic medicine. For hundreds of years, both throughout the Islamic world and all of Europe, this book served as the de facto medical textbook.

Engineering

Islamic engineers focused a lot of their efforts on developing methods to store and move water because of how precious and significant it is in the Middle East. They constructed cisterns, aqueducts, waterwheels, irrigation canals, dams, and waterwheels. Additionally, they developed numerous techniques for controlling and measuring water flow.

Islamic engineers achieved important advancements in the fields of chemistry, optics, mechanics, clocks, and wind power.

Facts about the Islamic Golden Age’s science and technology

Arabic became the dominant language of science and study around the world as a result of the sizeable libraries and enormous number of books written in the Muslim world.

Islamic academics contributed to the replication of the work of numerous Greek mathematicians and scientists, including Aristotle.

Later astronomers like Galileo and Copernicus were greatly influenced by the work of Islamic astronomers.

Ibn al-Haytham, an Arab scientist, is regarded as one of the first theoretical physicists in history. He created the scientific theory and authored the Book of Optics, a well-known work on vision and light.