Golden Age of
Islam
Golden age with respect to
Scientific and Philosophical
achievements
Abbasid Caliphate (8th to 13th century )
Following cities became centre of Knowledge
Baghdad
Samarkand
Bukhara
Cairo
Cordoba
Damascus
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Baghdad
Cairo
Cordoba
Caliph al-Mansur (built Baghdad)
Caliph al-Rashid (made Baghdad centre
of learning )
Caliph al-Ma’mun (made The House of
Wisdom)
House of Wisdom
In institutions like Bait-ul-Hikmah, the Abbasid
Dynasty funded scientific research and brought
scholars from all sort of backgrounds such as
Indian, Persian, Chinese, Latin, Greek, Egyptian,
Scandinavian etc. This brought together the
knowledge of many civilizations.
Translation
movement
Battle of Talas river(751 A.D.)
Muslims won against the Chinese Tang
Empire and got the technology of paper
production which helped in spread of
knowledge.
The paper made the spread of
knowledge easier.
With the fall of Rome, the cultural heritage of classical
Greece was lost to western Europe and next to no
European knew how to read Greek. Instead the texts
survived in translations into Arabic. The Abbasid Caliphate
sponsored these translations and the caliphs took a
personal interest in the work of the translators, which
preserved that knowledge in Arabic texts.
There were two main circles of translators in
Baghdad, centered on the scholars Hunayn ibn Ishaq
and al-Kindi, respectively. Having mastered Arabic,
Syriac, Greek and Persian, Hunayn translated no
fewer than 116 works, especially medical and
scientific texts.
Educational
System in
Abbasid
Caliphate
Elementary school
The child’s early education started as
soon as he was six. These schools
were held in mosques, private houses
and sometimes teacher’s own house.
Elementary curriculum
This is composed of reading, writing,
traditions of Prophet (P.B.U.H),
arithmetic principles and some poems
of devotion.
Senior Students
The senior students often studied
quranic criticism, jurisprudence,
scholastic theology and literature.
Scholars
Advanced scholars studied Astronomy,
Philosophy, Geometry, Music and
Medicine.
Women
Women were expected to read quran and
acquire religious knowledge. Those who
continued became masters of theology and
other subjects and they started teaching.
Teachers Under Abbasid.
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Mualim (elementary school teacher)
Muaddib(teachers of childern of higher
status)
Professors(professionals in feilds)
(Teachers usually had low pay)
Ijaza
The students that satisfied their
teachers that they learnt their subject
well received certificates called ijaza.
Scientific and philosophical Personalities
There were many great
scholars who made progress
in science and philosophy.
Their works are still valued
and their contributions are of
great worth to modern day
society.
Al-Khwarizmi(780 A.D.)
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Used Indian number system
Invented variables
Worked on quadratic equations
Father of Al-jebra
Banu
th
Musa(9
century)
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“The Book of Ingenious Devices.”
Focused on applications.
Built first ever crankshaft.
Avicenna
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“Cannon of medicine”
Surgery
Cataract surgery
Al-Marwani and Al-Buzjani(940 A.D.)
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6 Trigonometric functions
Ibn-al-Haytham(965 A.D.)
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Major contribution in optics
First pin hole camera
Newton studied his work
Al- Zahrawi(936 A.D.)
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Father of surgery.
His book remained a standard of surgery
in Europe for 500 years “al-tafsir li-man
ajza ‘ an al-talif”.
Invented more than 200 surgical tools.
Al-Biruni(973 A.D.)
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Movement of Earth around sun
Eclipse
Radius of Earth
Fatima al-Fihri(around 800 A.D.)
Lubna’ of
th
Cordoba(11
century)
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An excellent mathematician.
Perfect command on science.
Built a library of half a million books.
Mar’aim
th
al-Astrulabi(10
century)
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Female Astronomer
Expert in mathematics and geometry.
Developed complex astrolabes for
astronomy and navigation.
Ibn-e-Khaldun (1332 A.D.)
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Sociologist and philosopher.
His worked later formed historiography.
“Al-muqaddima” a famous book by him
describes the rise and fall of civilizations
Imam al-Ghazali (1058 A.D.)
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Imam Ghazali was a theologian,
philosopher, and a sufi.
He contributed significantly to Sufism and
its integration and acceptance in
mainstream Islam.
His book “The incoherence of philosophers”
is a significant landmark in the history of
philosophy.
Some people considered him a mujadid.
Down fall of Muslims
Wars and internal riots
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Muslims came to a point where their
thirst of knowledge no longer existed.
Instead, they more gave value to luxury
and power.
The crusades and Mongolian raids
proved to be a final nail in the coffin.
Crusades
Crusaders
Saladin
Saladin
Crusades
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First crusade (1096)
Liberation of Jerusalem (1187)
Mongols
Genghis Khan
Sack of Baghdad(1258 A.D.)
Sack of Baghdad(1258 A.D.)
Defeat of Mongols
Although the Mongols were invincible
some of them accepted Islam while the
others were defeated by the Turks.
Battle of Ain Jalut(1260 A.D.)