How Did Islamic Scholars Influence Science and Math?

[salem14]

New info for some:

Islamic Contributions to Science: History
http://198.65.147.194/english/Science/2001/02/article12.shtml

ISLAMIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE
http://web.umr.edu/~msaumr/reference/articles/science/contribution.html

Islamic Contributions to Science and Math
http://www.netmuslims.com/info/contributions.html

Muslims and medical history
http://www.islamicmedicine.org/history.htm

 

[Eh]

Who the hell cares?

 

[kuengb]

Who the hell cares?

Who has asked you?

 

[Eh]

Does it matter? It was a valid question, and I'm not sure what the aim of posting that was.

 

[humanino]

I speak for myself, but : Salem, this is not welcome especially in the GD forum, especially during these days. You posted another dicussion, joke about informatics, which is highly welcomed here I think. It does not make you less guilty of intruding for the second time with your propaganda

 

[decibel]

Maybe the aim of the post was to educate people on the Islamic contributions to science and math?

 

[quantumdude]

I speak for myself, but : Salem, this is not welcome especially in the GD forum, especially during these days.

I speak for myself too, when I say let's not be so cranky towards this. I can completely understand it if salem is a Muslim who wants to present his countrymen as cultured, educated people given the hostility towards them by those in the West who are not so cultured or educated.

 

[Eh]

It just looks an awful lot like the usual religious post and run topics we're all familiar with. Maybe I'm just more pessimistic than others.

 

[humanino]

I apologize to Salem after Tom's post. Two other discussions have recently been closed, that was my reason, especially one of them very much like this one.

Muslims brought to the world the greatest math invention of all time : the zero. Also the digits.

My ancestry, goes in Perse, and I always like to imagine one of them was astrologist and poet, because it is the root of astronomy. I swear.

 

[Evo]

I speak for myself too, when I say let's not be so cranky towards this. I can completely understand it if salem is a Muslim who wants to present his countrymen as cultured, educated people given the hostility towards them by those in the West who are not so cultured or educated.

I also agree. The links posted for the specific topics are not of a religious nature, it is about culture and history.

Ignorance breeds hatred. People fear what they don't understand. I think the links are very interesting and educational.

I think people should read the information posted before forming an opinion.

 

[humanino]

Maybe al-Khwarizmi is my grand-grand-grand...grand father.

I really apologize Salem. I swear I did not make up that Perse ancestry story.

 

[Gokul43201]

Muslims brought to the world the greatest math invention of all time : the zero.

Umm, I tend to disagree there.

However, they are responsible for the development (not invention) of algebra, as well as tons of work on geometry (including the majority of work on Euclid's parallel line axiom) and of course, were the first to crack the monoalphabetic substitution cipher through frequency analysis.

PS : Haven't visited the links yet, but I will.

 

[humanino]

Oops. Sorry. I googled it :

The oldest zero in history was in Babylon. The Babylonian mathematicians and astronomers developed a genuine zero to signify the absence of sexagesimal units of a certain order.

Is this correct ?

 

[Gokul43201]

The Babylonian zero was the forerunner of today's zero. It was used to symbolize 'nothing' but had little use at the time.

In about the 5th century AD, an Indian mathematician, Aryabhatta first used the zero as a magnitude representer. A number that was tree orders of magnitude bigger than x was written as x000. I'm not sure what else he proposed.

The zero as the additive identity (and with the property that x*0 = 0*x = 0), was first proposed by Brahmagupta, another Indian mathematician, about a century later.

Okay, here's what Wikipedia says - it's a little different from my explanation, so I may not be accurate in the details. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero

 

[Evo]

Don't feel bad humanino, I had also thought the zero was an arabic invention, but what they actually get credit for is passing the zero on to the Europeans. Gokul43201 is, as usual, correct.

 

[Chronos]

Last time I checked, no culture has cornered the market on facts. Couching the question in a preferred reference frame is what makes most of us uncomfortable. Personally, I think the morality of science is superior to the morality of any culture. I would even argue this is self evident. Our collective knowledge of science is more advanced than our collective ability to apply it and achieve responsible, mutually constructive results.

 

[salem14]

Racism is something hard.
I think I am not welcome here but I just want to say that I don't outbid on Islam .Islam a brilliant religion by itself and doesn't need me or any preaching or missionary work. I wrote in this community not to convince people to be converted to Islam because this is completely their choice and believe which I respect very much.

To prove my point that Islam does not need any preaching like Christianity, It becomes the fastest-growing religion in America and in the world? Although religion is no longer dominates everyday life in Western society.

A NATION CHALLENGED: AMERICAN MUSLIMS; Islam Attracts Converts by the Thousand, Drawn Before and After Attacks
By JODI WILGOREN
Source: The New York Times: October 22, 2001, Monday
Section: National Desk

http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/3016/fastest.htm

"Islam is the fastest-growing religion in America, a guide and pillar of stability for many of our people..." Hillary Rodman Clinton, Los Angeles Times, May 31, 1996, p.3

Famous people are affected too:

Singer "Cat Stevens" Hear his story as told him
http://www.islamtomorrow.net/converts/yusuf_islam.htm

 

[Smurf]

Salem, you are very welcome here, do not be swayed by the less flexible members.

 

[Gokul43201]

Racism is something hard.
I think I am not welcome here but I just want to say that I don't outbid on Islam .Islam a brilliant religion by itself and doesn't need me or any preaching or missionary work. I wrote in this community not to convince people to be converted to Islam because this is completely their choice and believe which I respect very much.

To prove my point that Islam does not need any preaching like Christianity, It becomes the fastest-growing religion in America and in the world? Although religion is no longer dominates everyday life in Western society.

A NATION CHALLENGED: AMERICAN MUSLIMS; Islam Attracts Converts by the Thousand, Drawn Before and After Attacks
By JODI WILGOREN
Source: The New York Times: October 22, 2001, Monday
Section: National Desk

http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/3016/fastest.htm

"Islam is the fastest-growing religion in America, a guide and pillar of stability for many of our people..." Hillary Rodman Clinton, Los Angeles Times, May 31, 1996, p.3

Famous people are affected too:

Singer "Cat Stevens" Hear his story as told him
http://www.islamtomorrow.net/converts/yusuf_islam.htm

Salem, your original post was very much welcome. It spoke of contributions to math and science from the Muslims.

This may have caused some people to react, who were either : (#1)biased, or (#2) had imagined that this thread was going to spark attacks and defenses of religion. Subsequently, people did embrace your post and discussed the metter in the context free of religious innuendo, but not ignoring the cultures/races that were involved - which is the only way it may be discussed here.

Now, it looks like you feel that you are not welcome here, and that is not the case. However, if you choose to post as you just did, that would definitely be considered inappropriate. You said "Islam a brilliant religion by itself and doesn't need me or any preaching or missionary work." Had you stopped there, this would all be okay. Yet you chose to go against your own words and provide proof for the "power of Islam". That kind of material is what is not welcome here.

I'm just trying to tell you what I think is considered appropriate for this Forum, perhaps Evo can clarify this further (or negate what I've just said).

Here's my final words on the matter : No one here (there is always a small minority who may take offense, or react unreasoably - this is true anywhere) is attacking Islam. Let's stick to the original intent of the thread lest we veer into attacking or defending some religion.

 

[Evo]

Salem14, you are very welcome here, just remember we don't allow religious discussions here.

 

[physicsuser]

Maybe the aim of the post was to educate people on the Islamic contributions to science and math?

who care what religion a scientist is? If you do something good they will give you recognition for what ever you do and not because you are a Jew, Muslim, or what ever. When I think of Newton I think of him as a scientist who described gravity; not as a christian who described gravity. When I think of Einstein I think of a scientist who came up with e=mc^2; not as a Jew who came up with e=mc^2.

 

[quantumdude]

Well salem14, in one stroke you lost the support I was willing to extend to your position.

Racism is something hard.
Islam a brilliant religion by itself and doesn't need me or any preaching or missionary work.

Then please don't engage in missionary work at Physics Forums.

To prove my point that Islam does not need any preaching like Christianity,

Of course it does. No one is born knowing Islam. People have to be taught Islam, just like they have to be taught Christianity.

When I read your first post, I felt that a correction needed to be made. I refrained from making it, thinking that it may be attributable to the fact that English is not your first language. I'll offer the correction now:

Islam[/color] has never contributed anything to science.

But Arabs[/color] have made contributions to science.

Let's stick to that, OK?

 

[devious_]

Islam[/color] has never contributed anything to science.

But Arabs[/color] have made contributions to science.

Let's stick to that, OK?

Hmm.. I'll offer my correction:

Muslims have made contributions to science.

 

[decibel]

Come on guys, let's not make a big deal out of this. I suggest we close this thread.

 

[selfAdjoint]

Hmm.. I'll offer my correction:

Muslims have made contributions to science.

Muslims of Arabic ethnicity have made contributions, Muslims of Persian ethnicity have made contributions, Muslims of Packistani nationality have made contributions, and the contributions have crossed ethic boundaries and were supported in the old days by Islamic authorities.

 

[quantumdude]

Hmm.. I'll offer my correction:

Muslims have made contributions to science.

Makes no difference to me as long as it's people being promoted, and not ideologies.

 

[recon]

I've always wondered how religion can 'contribute' to any scientific endeavour. As far as I'm concerned, religion was invented to keep society in order with clearly-stated and static guidelines. The curiosity to explore is an innate behaviour, not one fueled by religion. People learn science to able to understand this world created by God.

However, we must understand that God has many definitions for different kinds of people, so I say that salem14's post which tries to proof the brilliance of Islam is irrelevant.

 

[Bystander]

Quoting from Salem14's 2nd link,

"The Islamic ability to reconcile monotheism and science proofs to be a first time in human thought that theology, philosophy, and science were finally harmonized in a unified whole. Thus their contribution was "one of the first magnitude, considering its effect upon scientific and philosophic thought and upon the theology of later times" (Hitti 580). One of the reason for such development of science is probably due to God's commandment to explore the laws of nature,"

the cultural divide becomes apparent --- how soon we "chilluns of the the West" forget the Cold War. Very few of us on this forum have had the misfortune to be raised in Maoist China or the Stalinist Soviet --- if the younger members can find the time to hit the Russian journals from the age of "detente," they'll find the same curious blend of mysticism and science in the introductory sections of otherwise reasonably competent scientific papers.

The alternative statement: unless you've walked a mile in the shoes of the unfortunates who've grown up and been educated in a totalitarian (be it religious or political) culture, cut 'em a little slack when they start spouting ideological nonsense in conjunction with their science.

 

[recon]

I spent three years at school studying a religion against my will, and so I've grown up in a religiously totalitarian school environment.

I see that I was wrong when I said that religion does not contribute to scientific endeavour. I was simply reasoning from the fact that scientific explorations seem to take place the world over, with no regard to religion. Since people of almost any faith take to scientific exploration, then it must be an innate behaviour.

 

[BoulderHead]

Makes no difference to me as long as it's people being promoted, and not ideologies.

Ditto.
I had some documents once detailing contributions made by people with black skin, and the list was extensive. I think of Jewish people too, not only in terms of a great scientific mind but of wonderful and creative entertainers, and so much more. Inevitably through such ponderings I begin to understand and appreciate just how much poorer our world would be without the whole of humanity and the contributions made by so many.