Sunday, September 26, 2010

When Baghdad was centre of the scientific world


Islamic science had its heyday in the ninth century, thanks to Abū Ja'far al-Ma'mūn's House of Wisdom, says Jim al-Khalili

Jim al-Khalili
(professor of physics, and professor of the public engagement in science, at the University of Surrey)
The Observer, Sunday 26 September 2010

"....Exactly 1,200 years after its foundation, I was born in Karradat Mariam, a Shia district of Baghdad with a large Christian community, a stone's throw away from today's Green Zone and a few miles south of the spot where one of Baghdad's most famous rulers was born in 786. His name was Abū Ja'far al-Ma'mūn. Half Arab, half Persian, this enigmatic caliph was destined to become the greatest patron of science in the cavalcade of Islamic rulers, and the person responsible for initiating the world's most impressive period of scholarship and learning since Ancient Greece.

By the eighth century, with western Europe languishing in its dark ages, the Islamic empire covered an area larger in expanse than either the Roman empire at its height or all the lands conquered and ruled by Alexander the Great. So powerful and influential was this empire that, for a period stretching over 700 years, the international language of science was Arabic......

Of course, we will never really know what life was like within the House of Wisdom. But it is well established and uncontroversial that the much earlier academy in Alexandria was likewise more than just a library, for it not only brought together under one roof much of the world's accumulated knowledge, but acted as a magnet for many of the world's greatest thinkers and scholars. The patronage of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, which provided travel, lodging and stipends to those men, is not so different from the government research grants that university academics worldwide receive today to carry out their research.....

I recall, as a boy growing up in Iraq, only hearing about the likes of al-Kindi and al-Khwārizmi during history lessons, rather than science lessons. Not only are their stories so rich to western ears, I hope that in reminding those in the Muslim world today of their rich scientific heritage, and how our current understanding of the natural world has been due in no small part to the contributions of these great scholars, that it might instil in many a sense of pride that can propel the importance of rational scientific enquiry back to where it belongs: at the very heart of what defines civilised and enlightened society."

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