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The Scientific Improvements of the Great Arabic Empire. Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 a lot of people take them for granted, however do most of them think about how these numbers came to be? These numbers were introduced to the Western world by the Arabs. Among this, the Arabic Empire made a lot of tremendous improvements in the field of scientific knowledge.
By being open-minded and tolerant towards other cultures and science the Arabic Empire made great and numerous improvements in the field of science, realizing its importance. Furthermore they sought out the scientific knowledge of other cultures, improved on it, and introduced it to the West. This was an essential step and will have As much as the Arabs did, they didnt start from scratch. There was much work done before them, the most prominent by the ancient Greeks and the Hindus.
The Greeks had great minds, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Archimedes who is believed to be more like a modern scientist than anyone else. These people were the greatest of their time. They made a great deal of discoveries, improved the science. Each and every one of them had thousands of students, and what?
Archimedes discovered &# 61552; , did anyone else know about this? Europe was in the hunters-gatherers stage, and would be tribal for a long time. The Greeks could have made even more improvements if they knew what the Hindus were doing. Plus it can be easily seen that the government didnt care and didnt approve of science.
Socrates was the first great scientist. Plato was his student. In 399 B. C. E.
Socrates was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death. He was officially charged with corrupting the youth and worshipping false gods. Plato ran away and for a long time was in fear of execution. The Hindus made a lot of improvements in algebra. They made the decimal number system we use today and much more. But again, who knew?
efflorescence which reached its first glory under the Gutpa dynasty and was further enriched at a time when most of Europe was culturally in limbo. (McLeish 115) Hindus welcomed science, but not fully realizing its importance, didnt spread it. It was only the Arabs who fully realized what they were doing and spread it. Baghdad and Cordoba, the Eastern and Western Caliphates [were] like the two terminal points of a gigantic intercontinental system between which the intellectual current flowed through the superconductive cable of a single Arabic language The flow was from East to West because to carry on the metaphor in general the Orient was the transmitter and the West was the receiver. (Words by Karl Menninger, Mcleish 137) Everything was important and accepted form the smallest to the biggest discoveries. The Arab contributions are called The Renaissance of Number and Science. From the very beginning, unlike previous governments such as the Greeks, Arab governments welcomed and sought science. The second Abbasid Caliph, Al Mansur, put much effort into searching out and bringing men of science to the caliphate.
The third Caliph, Harun al Rashid, not only wanted, but ordered that a collection of Greek scientific works was made, the fourth, Al Mamun, created a House of Wisdom. Here all of the great scholars worked together. A lot of progress was made and a lot of Greek works translated. Another thing Al Mamun did was that he set up a large astronomical observatory in Baghdad in 829. (Mason 96) In this observatory observations were made by Al Battani the greatest astronomer of the caliphate. About this time, Al Khwarizmi, died c. 835, introduced Indian numerals and Indian Methods of calculation to the Muslim world, though his algebra was inferior to that of the Hindus. (Mason 96) Yes, the numbers that we use today were introduced to the world. This is a pure example of the Arabs seeking out science.
For example, the people of Mohenjo Do, an Indus Valley civilization of some 5000 years ago (2550 - 1550 B. C. E. ) used a simple decimal system, and had methods of counting, weighing and measuring far in advance of their contemporaries in Egypt, Babylon or Mycenaean Greece (McLeish 115) This was used in India in the 20 th century before the Common Era. Alexander the Great conquered India in the 4 th century B. C. E. , nothing was adopted even though this system by the 4 th century B.
C. E. was far more advanced and clearly easier to use. The Roman Empire who succeeded the Greeks took the science from them.
Their number system was clumsy and had many problems. The number 1997 was represented as MCMXCVII, what about a number such as 1, 234, 567? Try dividing CXLIV by XXIV. Also a bad number system prevented the Greeks (being very good in Geometry) make improvements in algebra. Pythagoras, even though he calculated the value of &# 61552; had great difficulty with decimals. However, India then, was a part of the Arabic Empire.
And the Arabs sought out their science. Since Al Khwarizmi died in 835 C. E. this was relatively early in the Empire. As much as the Muslims were tolerant towards Jews and Christians they didnt like pagans idol worshippers. The Hindu religion has many Gods.
So since this was relatively early, not a lot of the Hindus converted to Islam. There was no love to lose between them. The relation was bad, so there was no flow of science between the two. The Arabs would have to go and seek out the science. Al Khwarizmi organized and explained this system of numbers and the way the operations are done upon it in his book The book on Addition and Subtraction by Indian methods. (Mason 96) He made multiplication and division tables. He also dealt with fractions, decimals and powers quadratic equations, linear equations.
He knew that some equations have negative roots but never talked about it because it wasnt practical in real life. Furthermore he also introduced the binary and hexadecimal systems which are now used in computers. (McLeish 138 - 48) Of all the early Arabian astronomers the greatest and justly the most famous was without doubt Abu Abdallah al Battani. (Ronan 208) Al Battani was Muslim but came from a family of the Sabian religion and kept some of its beliefs. The Sabian religion is an ancient Mesopotamian religion and has astral theology and star lore (as defined in Ronan 208). This again shows the tolerance, seeking out and appreciation of great scientists. In the studies of Al Battani you again can see the seeking out of science.
His reputation rests largely on his Kitab al Zip or Book of Astronomical Tables. Before writing this book he studied the Greek observations of the stars extensively. He also studies the observations made before him by the Hindus and previous Arabs. He found a lot of mistakes in them, led him to try to improve theories about celestial motions and the inferences drawn from them based on new observations, just as Ptolemy had done using the observations of Hipparchos. (Ronan 208 - 09) He invented a lot of useful instruments for measuring sizes and distances of celestial one...
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Research essay sample on Scientific Improvements Of The Arabic Empire
