Religions have been clashing with each other for years, each claiming that they were the one and only way to god and salvation. Christianity has gone a step further in a drive to be the only source of knowledge through a long history of pitting itself against science and scientists - at times going to the extreme length of burning books and their authors. Today we still see many church groups complaining about Darwin’s theory of evolution and even extending their push against science to deny the need of a vaccine to fight the current COVID 19 pandemic. Surprisingly, in many of my scientific readings, I find stray references to the Muslin religion actually encouraging and endowing Arabic scientists.
While I have read books about Greek, Roman, European, and American scientists, I have never come across a book focused on Arabic scientists. A recent volume I read made mention of al-Khwarizmi (780 – 850 CE) a Persian polymath who studied mathematics, astronomy, and geography and pretty much invented algebra. Searching for a book on al-Khwarizmi I came upon Michael Hamilton Morgan’s book Lost History; The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Scientists, Thinkers, and Artists. It was eye opening!
As opposed to many Western religions, Mohammedanism honors scientists. Muhammad urged his followers to "contemplate the wonders of creation" (Qurʾān 3:191). Taking this literally, for centuries Muslin leaders created libraries, schools, and “think tanks”, including the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, where scientists could strive to learn about the universe.
When Europe was in the “dark ages” and burning books the Muslin world was studying and preserving scientific works dating back to Plato and Aristotle. During the Renaissance much of this “lost” science was brought back to Europe as books by Greek, Roman, and Arabic scientists were translated from Arabic to Latin. While many Western scientists gave credit to ideas developed by Muslim scientists, over the years these credits have fallen away. For example, we are taught that Nicolaus Copernicus came up with the idea of our heliocentric system even thought he read about it in the works by Muslim astronomers who had advanced this idea centuries before.
In a 2019 survey, more than half of Americans polled felt that “Arabic numerals” should not be taught in public schools. Of course, Arabic numerals are standard symbols used across most of the world to denote numbers, i.e. 1, 2, 3. In fact, what we call Arabic numerals were invented by Hindus in India in the 6th or 7th century and made their to Europe through the writings of Middle Eastern mathematicians, especially al-Khwarizmi and al-Kindi.
This “Lost History” is what Morgan writes about in this book. Through extensive research he has unearthed facts long forgotten, censored, or distorted. In two hundred and ninety-one pages he reveals centuries of history, scientific inventions, power struggles, wars and conquests, and the eventual collapse of the Arabic empire. In each section he starts in current day and they winds back to show how the present is firmly built on the past. While his skipping around in history through the different chapters can be a little confusing, he starts the book with a four page Time Line so that you can follow along with the different individuals and events.
I found this book to be absolutely fascinating. Some of what Arabic scientists proposed hundreds of years ago has only recently been verified by modern technology. In an age well before computers they were able to calculate the size of the earth and the length of the year with astonishing accuracy. So much of science that we assume is modern and Western is, in fact, centuries old and comes from lands we now refer to as the Middle East.