Who are the Muslims?
Muslims come from all races, nationalities and
cultures across the globe. They have varied languages, foods, dress, and
customs; even the way they practice may differ. Yet they all consider
themselves to be Muslim.
Less than 15% of Muslims live in the Arab world;
a fifth are found in Sub-Saharan Africa; and the world’s largest Muslim
community is in Indonesia. Substantial parts of Asia, and almost all Central
Asian republics, are Muslims. Significant Muslim minorities are found in China,
India, Russia, Europe, North America and South America.
Over a billion people from all races,
nationalities and cultures across the globe are Muslims-from the rice farms of
Indonesia to the desert heart of Africa ; from the skyscrapers of New York to
the Bedouin tents in Arabia .
How did the spread of Islam
affect the World?
The Muslim community continued to grow after
Prophet Muhammad’s death. Within a few decades, vast numbers of people across
three continents-Africa, Asia and Europe- had chosen Islam as their way of
life.
One of the reasons for the rapid and
peaceful spread of Islam was the purity of its doctrine-Islam calls for faith
in only One God. This, coupled with the Islamic concepts of equality, justice
and freedom, resulted in a united and peaceful community. People were free to
travel from Spain to China without fear, and without crossing any borders.
As millions of people embraced Islam, they
brought with them the heritage of ancient civilizations like Egypt, Greece,
India, Persia, and Rome. Muslims cherished these cultures knowledge and took
great pains to preserve their libraries and honor the scholars residing in
their cities.
Many Muslims scholars traveled to these cities
seeking knowledge. They translated into Arabic volumes of philosophical and
scientific works from Greek and Syriac languages (the languages of Eastern
Christian scholars), from Pahlavi (the scholarly language of Pre-Islamic
Persia), and from Sanskrit (an ancient Indian language). As a result, Arabic became
the language of worldly scholarship, and people migrated from all over the
world to study in the Muslim Universities.
By 850, most of the philosophical and scientific
works of Aristotle; much of Plato and the Pythagorean School; and the major
works of Greek astronomy, mathematics and medicine such as the Almagest of
Ptolemy, the Elements of Euclid, and the works of Hippocrates and Galen, were
all rendered into Arabic. Further more, important works of astronomy,
mathematics and medicine were translated from Pahlavi and Sanskirt. For the
next 700 years, Arabic became the most important scientific language of the
world and the repository of much of the wisdom and the sciences of antiquity.
The achievement of scholars working in the
Islamic tradition went far beyond translation and preservation of ancient
learning. These scholars built upon the ancient heritage with their own
scientific advances. These advancements were a direct cause of the Renaissance
in Europe.
Muslims excelled in art, architecture, astronomy,
geography, history, language, literature, medicine, mathematics and physics.
Many crucial systems such as algebra, the Arabic numerals, and the very concept
of the zero (vital to the advancement of mathematics), were formulated by
Muslim scholars and shared with medieval Europe. Muslims invented sophisticated
instruments that made future European voyages of discovery possible: the
astrolabe, the quadrant, and detailed navigational maps and charts.
Muslims Contribution To Science
Astronomy
Muslims have always had a special interest in
astronomy. The moon and the sun are of vital importance in the daily life of
every Muslim. By the moon, Muslims determine the beginning and the end of the
months in their lunar calendar. By the sun the Muslims calculate the times for
prayer and fasting. It is also by means of astronomy that Muslims can determine
the precise direction of the Qiblah, to face the Ka'bah in Makkah, during
prayer. The most precise solar calendar, superior to the Julian, is the Jilali,
devised under the supervision of Umar Khayyam.
The Quran contains many references to astronomy.
"The heavens and the earth were ordered
rightly, and were made subservient to man, including the sun, the moon, the
stars, and day and night. Every heavenly body moves in an orbit assigned to it
by God and never digresses, making the universe an orderly cosmos whose life
and existence, diminution and expansion, are totally determined by the
Creator." [Quran 30:22]
These references, and the injunctions to learn,
inspired the early Muslim scholars to study the heavens. They integrated the
earlier works of the Indians, Persians and Greeks into a new synthesis.
Ptolemy's Almagest (the title as we know it is Arabic) was translated, studied
and criticized. Many new stars were discovered, as we see in their Arabic names
- Algol, Deneb, Betelgeuse, Rigel, Aldebaran. Astronomical tables were
compiled, among them the Toledan tables, which were used by Copernicus, Tycho
Brahe and Kepler. Also compiled were almanacs - another Arabic term. Other
terms from Arabic are zenith, nadir, albedo, azimuth.
Muslim astronomers were the first to establish
observatories, like the one built at Mugharah by Hulagu, the son of Genghis
Khan, in Persia, and they invented instruments such as the quadrant and astrolabe,
which led to advances not only in astronomy but in oceanic navigation,
contributing to the European age of exploration.
Geography
Muslim scholars paid great attention to
geography. In fact, the Muslims' great concern for geography originated with
their religion. The Quran encourages people to travel throughout the earth to
see God's signs and patterns everywhere. Islam also requires each Muslim to
have at least enough knowledge of geography to know the direction of the Qiblah
(the position of the Ka'bah in Makkah) in order to pray five times a day.
Muslims were also used to taking long journeys to conduct trade as well as to
make the Hajj and spread their religion. The far-flung Islamic empire enabled
scholar-explorers to compile large amounts of geographical and climatic
information from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Among the most famous names in the field of
geography, even in the West, are Ibn Khaldun and Ibn Batuta, renowned for their
written accounts of their extensive explorations.
In 1166, Al-Idrisi, the well-known Muslim scholar
who served the Sicilian court, produced very accurate maps, including a world
map with all the continents and their mountains, rivers and famous cities.
Al-Muqdishi was the first geographer to produce accurate maps in color.
It was, moreover, with the help of Muslim
navigators and their inventions that Magellan was able to traverse the Cape of
Good Hope, and Da Gama and Columbus had Muslim navigators on board their ships.
Humanity
Seeking knowledge is obligatory in Islam for every Muslim, man and woman.
The main sources of Islam, the Quran and the Sunnah (Prophet Muhammad's
traditions), encourage Muslims to seek knowledge and be scholars, since this is
the best way for people to know Allah (God), to appreciate His wondrous
creations and be thankful for them. Muslims were therefore eager to seek
knowledge, both religious and secular, and within a few years of Muhammad's
mission, a great civilization sprang up and flourished. The outcome is shown in
the spread of Islamic universities; Al-Zaytunah in Tunis, and Al-Azhar in Cairo
go back more than 1,000 years and are the oldest existing universities in the
world. Indeed, they were the models for the first European universities, such
as Bologna, Heidelberg, and the Sorbonne. Even the familiar academic cap and
gown originated at Al-Azhar University.
Muslims made great advances in many different
fields, such as geography, physics, chemistry, mathematics, medicine,
pharmacology, architecture, linguistics and astronomy. Algebra and the Arabic
numerals were introduced to the world by Muslim scholars. The astrolabe, the
quadrant, and other navigational devices and maps were developed by Muslim
scholars and played an important role in world progress, most notably in
Europe's age of exploration.
Muslim scholars studied the ancient civilations
from Greece and Rome to China and India. The works of Aristotle, Ptolemy,
Euclid and others were translated into Arabic. Muslim scholars and scientists
then added their own creative ideas, discoveries and inventions, and finally
transmitted this new knowledge to Europe, leading directly to the Rennaissance.
Many scientific and medical treatises, having been translated into Latin, were
standard text and reference books as late as the 17th and 18th centuries.
Mathematics
It is interesting to note that Islam so strongly urges mankind to study and
explore the universe. For example, the Holy Quran states:
"We (Allah) will show you (mankind) Our
signs/patterns in the horizons/universe and in yourselves until you are
convinced that the revelation is the truth." [Quran, 14:53]
This invitation to explore and search made
Muslims interested in astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, and the other
sciences, and they had a very clear and firm understanding of the correspondences
among geometry, mathematics, and astronomy.
The Muslims invented the symbol for zero (The
word "cipher" comes from Arabic sifr), and they organized the numbers
into the decimal system - base 10. Additionally, they invented the symbol to
express an unkown quantity, i.e. variables like x.
The first great Muslim mathematician,
Al-Khawarizmi, invented the subject of algebra (al-Jabr), which was further
developed by others, most notably Umar Khayyam. Al-Khawarizmi's work, in Latin
translation, brought the Arabic numerals along with the mathematics to Europe,
through Spain. The word "algorithm" is derived from his name.
Muslim mathematicians excelled also in geometry,
as can be seen in their graphic arts, and it was the great Al-Biruni (who
excelled also in the fields of natural history, even geology and mineralogy)
who established trigonometry as a distinct branch of mathematics. Other Muslim
mathematicians made significant progress in number theory.
Medicine
In Islam, the human body is a source of appreciation, as it is created by
Almighty Allah (God). How it functions, how to keep it clean and safe, how to
prevent diseases from attacking it or cure those diseases, have been important
issues for Muslims.
Prophet Muhammad himself urged people to
"take medicines for your diseases", as people at that time were
reluctant to do so. He also said,
"God created no illness, but established for
it a cure, except for old age. When the antidote is applied, the patient will
recover with the permission of God."
This was strong motivation to encourage Muslim scientists
to explore, develop, and apply empirical laws. Much attention was given to
medicine and public health care. The first hospital was built in Baghdad in 706
AC. The Muslims also used camel caravans as mobile hospitals, which moved from
place to place.
Since the religion did not forbid it, Muslim
scholars used human cadavers to study anatomy and physiology and to help their
students understand how the body functions. This empirical study enabled
surgery to develop very quickly.
Al-Razi, known in the West as Rhazes, the famous
physician and scientist, (d. 932) was one of the greatest physicians in the
world in the Middle Ages. He stressed empirical observation and clinical
medicine and was inrivalled as a diagnostician. He also wrote a treatise on hygeine
in hospitals. Khalaf Abul-Qasim Al-Zahrawi was a very famous surgeon in the
eleventh century, known in Europe for his work, Concessio (Kitab al-Tasrif).
Ibn Sina (d. 1037), better known to the West as
Avicenna, was perhaps the greatest physician until the modern era. His famous
book, Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb, remained a standard textbook even in Europe, for
over 700 years. Ibn Sina's work is still studied and built upon in the East.
Other significant contributions were made in
pharmacology, such as Ibn Sina's Kitab al-Shifa' (Book of Healing), and in
public health. Every major city in the Islamic world had a number of excellent
hospitals, some of them teaching hospitals, and many of them were specialized
for particular diseases, including mental and emotional. The Ottomans were
particularly noted for their building of hospitals and for the high level of
hygeine practiced in them.
23.10.2012
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