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138-405: The Fihrist indexes authors, together with biographical details and literary criticism. Ibn al-Nadim's interest ranges from religions, customs, sciences, with obscure facets of medieval Islamic history, works on superstition, magic, drama, poetry, satire and music from Persia, Babylonia, and Byzantium. The mundane, the bizarre, the prosaic and the profane. Ibn al-Nadim freely selected and catalogued

276-514: A basic set of laboratory techniques , theories, and terms, some of which are still in use today. They did not abandon the Ancient Greek philosophical idea that everything is composed of four elements , and they tended to guard their work in secrecy, often making use of cyphers and cryptic symbolism. In Europe, the 12th-century translations of medieval Islamic works on science and the rediscovery of Aristotelian philosophy gave birth to

414-437: A book, to avoid copyists cheating buyers by passing off shorter versions. Cf. Stichometry of Nicephorus . He refers to copies by famous calligraphers, to bibliophiles and libraries, and speaks of a book auction and of the trade in books. In the opening section, he deals with the alphabets of 14 peoples and their manner of writing and also with the writing-pen, paper and its different varieties. His discourses contain sections on

552-408: A collection of deities that are each said to represent and protect a specific body part or region. Although those who practised Neidan prioritized meditation over external alchemical strategies, many of the same elixirs and constituents from previous Daoist alchemical schools of thought continued to be utilized in tandem with meditation. Eternal life remained a consideration for Neidan alchemists, as it

690-626: A condition, divide the patients into two groups, perform bloodletting only on one group, watch both, and compare the results." Astronomy in Islam was able to grow greatly because of several key factors. One factor was geographical: the Islamic world was close to the ancient lands of the Greeks, which held valuable ancient knowledge of the heavens in Greek manuscripts. During the new Abbasid Dynasty after

828-510: A flourishing tradition of Latin alchemy. This late medieval tradition of alchemy would go on to play a significant role in the development of early modern science (particularly chemistry and medicine ). Modern discussions of alchemy are generally split into an examination of its exoteric practical applications and its esoteric spiritual aspects, despite criticisms by scholars such as Eric J. Holmyard and Marie-Louise von Franz that they should be understood as complementary. The former

966-533: A gradual decline much earlier; thus, Khan (2003) identifies the proper golden age as being the two centuries between 750 and 950, arguing that the beginning loss of territories under Harun al-Rashid worsened after the death of al-Ma'mun in 833, and that the crusades in the 12th century resulted in a weakening of the Islamic empire from which it never recovered. Regarding the end of the Gola, Mohamad Abdalla argues

1104-588: A highly influential work. In Sanskrit, rasa translates to "mercury", and Nāgārjuna Siddha was said to have developed a method of converting mercury into gold. Scholarship on Indian alchemy is in the publication of The Alchemical Body by David Gordon White. A modern bibliography on Indian alchemical studies has been written by White. The contents of 39 Sanskrit alchemical treatises have been analysed in detail in G. Jan Meulenbeld 's History of Indian Medical Literature . The discussion of these works in HIML gives

1242-587: A long period of time the personal physicians of the Abbasid Caliphs were often Assyrian Christians . Among the most prominent Christian families to serve as physicians to the caliphs were the Bukhtishu dynasty. Throughout the 4th to 7th centuries, Christian scholarly work in the Greek and Syriac languages was either newly translated or had been preserved since the Hellenistic period. Among

1380-470: A man deprived of sense experience by being blindfolded and free falling would still be aware of his existence. In epistemology , Ibn Tufail wrote the novel Hayy ibn Yaqdhan and in response Ibn al-Nafis wrote the novel Theologus Autodidactus . Both were concerning autodidacticism as illuminated through the life of a feral child spontaneously generated in a cave on a desert island . Persian mathematician Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī played

1518-406: A method that could be generally used to determine the sum for any integral power. He used this to find the volume of a paraboloid . He could find the integral formula for any polynomial without having developed a general formula. Islamic art makes use of geometric patterns and symmetries in many of its art forms, notably in girih tilings. These are formed using a set of five tile shapes, namely

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1656-490: A more obvious connection to medicine. The philosopher's stone of European alchemists can be compared to the Grand Elixir of Immortality sought by Chinese alchemists. In the hermetic view, these two goals were not unconnected, and the philosopher's stone was often equated with the universal panacea ; therefore, the two traditions may have had more in common than initially appears. As early as 317 AD, Ge Hong documented

1794-482: A mosque, boarding house, and a library. It was maintained by a waqf (charitable endowment), which paid salaries of professors, stipends of students, and defrayed the costs of construction and maintenance. The madrasa was unlike a modern college in that it lacked a standardized curriculum or institutionalized system of certification. Muslims distinguished disciplines inherited from pre-Islamic civilizations, such as philosophy and medicine, which they called "sciences of

1932-465: A new form of alchemy. Neidan emphasized appeasing the inner gods that inhabit the human body by practising alchemy with compounds found in the body, rather than the mixing of natural resources that was emphasized in early Dao alchemy. For example, saliva was often considered nourishment for the inner gods and did not require any conscious alchemical reaction to produce. The inner gods were not thought of as physical presences occupying each person, but rather

2070-521: A number of pseudepigraphical texts written in Greco-Roman Egypt during the first few centuries AD. Greek-speaking alchemists often referred to their craft as "the Art" (τέχνη) or "Knowledge" (ἐπιστήμη), and it was often characterised as mystic (μυστική), sacred (ἱɛρά), or divine (θɛíα). Alchemists attempted to purify, mature, and perfect certain materials. Common aims were chrysopoeia ,

2208-431: A regular decagon , an elongated hexagon , a bow tie, a rhombus , and a regular pentagon . All the sides of these tiles have the same length; and all their angles are multiples of 36° (π/5 radians ), offering fivefold and tenfold symmetries. The tiles are decorated with strapwork lines (girih), generally more visible than the tile boundaries. In 2007, the physicists Peter Lu and Paul Steinhardt argued that girih from

2346-426: A significant role in the development of algebra , arithmetic and Hindu–Arabic numerals . He has been described as the father or founder of algebra . Another Persian mathematician, Omar Khayyam , is credited with identifying the foundations of Analytic geometry . Omar Khayyam found the general geometric solution of the cubic equation . His book Treatise on Demonstrations of Problems of Algebra (1070), which

2484-507: A source of law in place of qiyas and extension of the notion of sunnah to include traditions of the imams . The body of substantive Islamic law was created by independent jurists ( muftis ). Their legal opinions ( fatwas ) were taken into account by ruler-appointed judges who presided over qāḍī 's courts, and by maẓālim courts, which were controlled by the ruler's council and administered criminal law. Classical Islamic theology emerged from an early doctrinal controversy which pitted

2622-431: A summary of the contents of each work, their special features, and where possible the evidence concerning their dating. Chapter 13 of HIML, Various works on rasaśāstra and ratnaśāstra (or Various works on alchemy and gems ) gives brief details of a further 655 (six hundred and fifty-five) treatises. In some cases Meulenbeld gives notes on the contents and authorship of these works; in other cases references are made only to

2760-651: A wide variety of topics including optics , comparative linguistics , and medicine, composed his Great Work ( Latin : Opus Majus ) for Pope Clement IV as part of a project towards rebuilding the medieval university curriculum to include the new learning of his time. While alchemy was not more important to him than other sciences and he did not produce allegorical works on the topic, he did consider it and astrology to be important parts of both natural philosophy and theology and his contributions advanced alchemy's connections to soteriology and Christian theology. Bacon's writings integrated morality, salvation, alchemy, and

2898-455: A young age with study of Arabic and the Quran , either at home or in a primary school, which was often attached to a mosque. Some students would then proceed to training in tafsir (Quranic exegesis) and fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), which was seen as particularly important. Education focused on memorization, but also trained the more advanced students to participate as readers and writers in

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3036-504: Is a section on "Persian, Indian, Byzantine, and Arab books on sexual intercourse in the form of titillating stories", but the Persian works are not separated from the others; the list includes a "Book of Bahrām-doḵt on intercourse." This is followed by books of Persians , Indians, etc. on fortune-telling, books of "all nations" on horsemanship and the arts of war, then on horse doctoring and on falconry, some of them specifically attributed to

3174-541: Is as important a spiritual practice as Shangqing meditation. While Hongjing did not deny the power of alchemical elixirs to grant immortality or provide divine protection, he ultimately found the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs to be ambiguous and spiritually unfulfilling, aiming to implement more accessible practising techniques. In the early 700s, Neidan (also known as internal alchemy) was adopted by Daoists as

3312-457: Is generally understood to form the basis for Western alchemical philosophy and practice, called the hermetic philosophy by its early practitioners. These writings were collected in the first centuries of the common era. The dawn of Western alchemy is sometimes associated with that of metallurgy , extending back to 3500 BC. Many writings were lost when the Roman emperor Diocletian ordered

3450-562: Is listed in The Guinness Book Of Records as the world's oldest degree-granting university. The Al-Azhar University was another early madrasa now recognized as a university. The madrasa is one of the relics of the Fatimid caliphate. The Fatimids traced their descent to Muhammad's daughter Fatimah and named the institution using a variant of her honorific title Al-Zahra (the brilliant). Organized instruction in

3588-487: Is made up of lines of altitude and azimuth with an index, horizon, hour circle, zenith, Rete , star pointer, and equator to accurately show where the stars are at that given moment. Use of the astrolabe is best expressed in Al-Farghani 's treatise on the astrolabe due to the mathematical way he applied the instrument to astrology, astronomy, and timekeeping. The earliest known Astrolabe in existence today comes from

3726-416: Is no unambiguous definition of the term, and depending on whether it is used with a focus on cultural or on military achievement, it may be taken to refer to rather disparate time spans. Thus, one 19th century author would have it extend to the duration of the caliphate, or to "six and a half centuries", while another would have it end after only a few decades of Rashidun conquests, with the death of Umar and

3864-450: Is obligatory upon every Muslim". This injunction was seen to apply particularly to scholars, but also to some extent to the wider Muslim public, as exemplified by the dictum of al-Zarnuji , "learning is prescribed for us all". While it is impossible to calculate literacy rates in pre-modern Islamic societies, it is almost certain that they were relatively high, at least in comparison to their European counterparts. Education would begin at

4002-584: Is pursued by historians of the physical sciences , who examine the subject in terms of early chemistry , medicine , and charlatanism , and the philosophical and religious contexts in which these events occurred. The latter interests historians of esotericism , psychologists , and some philosophers and spiritualists . The subject has also made an ongoing impact on literature and the arts. The word alchemy comes from old French alquemie , alkimie , used in Medieval Latin as alchymia . This name

4140-627: Is quite peculiar to them, which in Sanskrit is called Rasāyana and in Persian Rasavātam . It means the art of obtaining/manipulating Rasa : nectar, mercury, and juice. This art was restricted to certain operations, metals, drugs, compounds, and medicines, many of which have mercury as their core element. Its principles restored the health of those who were ill beyond hope and gave back youth to fading old age. The goals of alchemy in India included

4278-446: Is still an open question whether these three strands share a common origin, or to what extent they influenced each other. The start of Western alchemy may generally be traced to ancient and Hellenistic Egypt , where the city of Alexandria was a center of alchemical knowledge, and retained its pre-eminence through most of the Greek and Roman periods. Following the work of André-Jean Festugière, modern scholars see alchemical practice in

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4416-438: Is supposed to have lasted from the end of the ninth to the end of the eleventh century. The era after this period is conventionally known as the "age of decline". A survey of literature from the nineteenth century onwards demonstrates that the decline theory has become the preferred paradigm in general academia. The various Quranic injunctions and Hadith (or actions of Muhammad ), which place values on education and emphasize

4554-653: Is traditionally said to have ended with the collapse of the Abbasid caliphate due to Mongol invasions and the Siege of Baghdad in 1258. There are a few alternative timelines. Some scholars extend the end date of the golden age to around 1350, including the Timurid Renaissance within it, while others place the end of the Islamic Golden Age as late as the end of 15th to 16th centuries, including

4692-474: The ahl al-hadith movement, led by Ahmad ibn Hanbal , who considered the Quran and authentic hadith to be the only acceptable authority in matters of faith, against Mu'tazilites and other theological currents, who developed theological doctrines using rationalistic methods. In 833 the caliph al-Ma'mun tried to impose Mu'tazilite theology on all religious scholars and instituted an inquisition ( mihna ), but

4830-721: The Al-Azhar Mosque began in 978. Arabic became a trade language . The Muslim-ruled Spanish capital of Córdoba , which surpassed Constantinople as the Europe 's largest city, also became a prominent world leading centre of education and learning producing numerous polymaths. Juristic thought gradually developed in study circles, where independent scholars met to learn from a local master and discuss religious topics. At first, these circles were fluid in their membership, but with time distinct regional legal schools crystallized around shared sets of methodological principles. As

4968-523: The First Fitna . During the early 20th century, the term was used only occasionally and often referred to as the early military successes of the Rashidun caliphs . It was only in the second half of the 20th century that the term came to be used with any frequency, now mostly referring to the cultural flourishing of science and mathematics under the caliphates during the 9th to 11th centuries (between

5106-453: The Iberian peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal) in the 10th century. It was easier to manufacture than parchment , less likely to crack than papyrus , and could absorb ink, making it difficult to erase and ideal for keeping records. Islamic paper makers devised assembly-line methods of hand-copying manuscripts to turn out editions far larger than any available in Europe for centuries. It

5244-613: The Indian subcontinent ; and Western alchemy, which occurred around the Mediterranean and whose center shifted over the millennia from Greco-Roman Egypt to the Islamic world , and finally medieval Europe . Chinese alchemy was closely connected to Taoism and Indian alchemy with the Dharmic faiths . In contrast, Western alchemy developed its philosophical system mostly independent of but influenced by various Western religions . It

5382-680: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy , translation of philosophical texts from Arabic to Latin in Western Europe "led to the transformation of almost all philosophical disciplines in the medieval Latin world". The influence of Islamic philosophers in Europe was particularly strong in natural philosophy, psychology and metaphysics, though it also influenced the study of logic and ethics. Ibn Sina argued his " Floating man " thought experiment concerning self-awareness , in which

5520-624: The Timurid Renaissance under the Timurid dynasty . With a new and easier writing system , and the introduction of paper , information was democratized to the extent that, for probably the first time in history, it became possible to make a living from only writing and selling books. The use of paper spread from China into Muslim regions in the eighth century through mass production in Samarkand and Khorasan , arriving in Al-Andalus on

5658-711: The Umayyad seat of Córdoba , the Andalusian scholar Abū Bakr al-Zubaydī , produced Ṭabaqāt al-Naḥwīyīn wa-al-Lughawīyīn (‘Categories of Grammarians and Linguists’) a biographic encyclopedia of early Arab philologists of the Basran , Kufan and Baghdad schools of Arabic grammar and tafsir (Quranic exegesis), which covers much of the same material covered in chapter II of the Fihrist . The Fihrist , written in 987, exists in two manuscript traditions, or "editions":

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5796-437: The law of sines is attributed; he wrote " The Book of Unknown Arcs of a Sphere " in the 11th century. This formula relates the lengths of the sides of any triangle, rather than only right triangles , to the sines of its angles. According to the law, where a , b , and c are the lengths of the sides of a triangle, and A , B , and C are the opposite angles (see figure). The earliest use of statistical inference

5934-415: The "world's first true scientist". Avicenna made rules for testing the effectiveness of drugs, including that the effect produced by the experimental drug should be seen constantly or after many repetitions, to be counted. The physician Rhazes was an early proponent of experimental medicine and recommended using control for clinical research. He said: "If you want to study the effect of bloodletting on

6072-609: The 13th century, Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon were the most notable of these, their work summarizing and explaining the newly imported alchemical knowledge in Aristotelian terms. Albertus Magnus, a Dominican friar , is known to have written works such as the Book of Minerals where he observed and commented on the operations and theories of alchemical authorities like Hermes Trismegistus , pseudo-Democritus and unnamed alchemists of his time. Albertus critically compared these to

6210-487: The 15th century resembled quasicrystalline Penrose tilings . Elaborate geometric zellige tilework is a distinctive element in Moroccan architecture . Muqarnas vaults are three-dimensional but were designed in two dimensions with drawings of geometrical cells. Jamshīd al-Kāshī 's estimate of pi would not be surpassed for 180 years. Ibn Muʿādh al-Jayyānī is one of the several Islamic mathematicians on whom

6348-402: The 2nd to 5th centuries mention the transmutation of base metals to gold. According to some scholars Greek alchemy may have influenced Indian alchemy but there are no hard evidences to back this claim. The 11th-century Persian chemist and physician Abū Rayhān Bīrūnī , who visited Gujarat as part of the court of Mahmud of Ghazni , reported that they have a science similar to alchemy which

6486-572: The 8th century to the 13th century. This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign of the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (786 to 809) with the inauguration of the House of Wisdom , which saw scholars from all over the Muslim world flock to Baghdad , the world's largest city by then, to translate the known world's classical knowledge into Arabic and Persian . The period

6624-565: The Arabic writings attributed to Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (written c. 850–950), would remain the basis of all theories of metallic composition until the eighteenth century. Likewise, the Emerald Tablet , a compact and cryptic text that all later alchemists up to and including Isaac Newton (1642–1727) would regard as the foundation of their art, first occurs in the Sirr al-khalīqa and in one of

6762-571: The Book of the Master Who Embraces Spontaneous Nature (317 AD), Hong argued that alchemical solutions such as elixirs were preferable to traditional medicinal treatment due to the spiritual protection they could provide. In the centuries following Ge Hong's death, the emphasis placed on alchemy as a spiritual practice among Chinese Daoists was reduced. In 499 AD, Tao Hongjing refuted Hong's statement that alchemy

6900-560: The Classical planets, Isis , Osiris , Jason , and many others. The central figure in the mythology of alchemy is Hermes Trismegistus (or Thrice-Great Hermes). His name is derived from the god Thoth and his Greek counterpart Hermes . Hermes and his caduceus or serpent-staff, were among alchemy's principal symbols. According to Clement of Alexandria , he wrote what were called the "forty-two books of Hermes", covering all fields of knowledge. The Hermetica of Thrice-Great Hermes

7038-640: The Composition of Alchemy") from an Arabic work attributed to Khalid ibn Yazid . Although European craftsmen and technicians pre-existed, Robert notes in his preface that alchemy (here still referring to the elixir rather than to the art itself) was unknown in Latin Europe at the time of his writing. The translation of Arabic texts concerning numerous disciplines including alchemy flourished in 12th-century Toledo, Spain , through contributors like Gerard of Cremona and Adelard of Bath . Translations of

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7176-538: The Greek term. The first was proposed by Zosimos of Panopolis (3rd–4th centuries), who derived it from the name of a book, the Khemeu. Hermann Diels argued in 1914 that it rather derived from χύμα, used to describe metallic objects formed by casting. Others trace its roots to the Egyptian name kēme (hieroglyphic 𓆎𓅓𓏏𓊖 khmi ), meaning 'black earth', which refers to the fertile and auriferous soil of

7314-618: The Greek texts a work as systematic as that which is presented, for example, in the Book of Seventy . Islamic philosophers also made great contributions to alchemical hermeticism. The most influential author in this regard was arguably Jabir. Jabir's ultimate goal was Takwin , the artificial creation of life in the alchemical laboratory, up to, and including, human life. He analysed each Aristotelian element in terms of four basic qualities of hotness , coldness , dryness , and moistness . According to Jabir, in each metal two of these qualities were interior and two were exterior. For example, lead

7452-402: The Greek texts shows that a very small part only was organized according to true experiments of laboratory: even the supposedly technical writings, in the state where we find them today, are unintelligible nonsense which refuses any interpretation. It is different with Jabir's alchemy. The relatively clear description of the processes and the alchemical apparati, the methodical classification of

7590-468: The Greek were mostly qualitative aspects of matter, not quantitative, as our modern elements are; "...True alchemy never regarded earth, air, water, and fire as corporeal or chemical substances in the present-day sense of the word. The four elements are simply the primary, and most general, qualities by means of which the amorphous and purely quantitative substance of all bodies first reveals itself in differentiated form." Later alchemists extensively developed

7728-717: The Islamic period. It was made by Nastulus in 927-28 AD and is now a treasure of the Kuwait National Museum . In about 964 AD, the Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi , writing in his Book of Fixed Stars , described a "nebulous spot" in the Andromeda constellation , the first definitive reference to what is now known to be the Andromeda Galaxy , the nearest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way . The geocentric system developed by Ptolemy placed

7866-504: The Jewess , Pseudo-Democritus , and Agathodaimon , but very little is known about any of these authors. The most complete of their works, The Four Books of Pseudo-Democritus , were probably written in the first century AD. Recent scholarship tends to emphasize the testimony of Zosimus, who traced the alchemical arts back to Egyptian metallurgical and ceremonial practices. It has also been argued that early alchemical writers borrowed

8004-488: The Middle Ages. The efforts of Berthelot and Ruelle to put a little order in this mass of literature led only to poor results, and the later researchers, among them in particular Mrs. Hammer-Jensen, Tannery, Lagercrantz, von Lippmann, Reitzenstein, Ruska, Bidez, Festugière and others, could make clear only few points of detail .... The study of the Greek alchemists is not very encouraging. An even surface examination of

8142-753: The Nile valley, as opposed to red desert sand. According to the Egyptologist Wallis Budge , the Arabic word al-kīmiya ʾ actually means "the Egyptian [science]", borrowing from the Coptic word for "Egypt", kēme (or its equivalent in the Mediaeval Bohairic dialect of Coptic, khēme ). This Coptic word derives from Demotic kmỉ , itself from ancient Egyptian kmt . The ancient Egyptian word referred to both

8280-730: The Persian contribution to this new Islamic civilization is of immense importance. The work of Iranians can be seen in every field of cultural endeavor, including Arabic poetry, to which poets of Iranian origin composing their poems in Arabic made a very significant contribution." While cultural influence used to radiate outward from Baghdad, after the Mongol destruction of the Abbasid Caliphate, Arab influence decreased. Iran and Central Asia, benefiting from increased cross-cultural access to East Asia under Mongol rule , flourished and developed more distinctively from Arab influence, such as

8418-489: The Persian texts written by Muslim scholars. Researchers have found evidence that Chinese alchemists and philosophers discovered complex mathematical phenomena that were shared with Arab alchemists during the medieval period. Discovered in BC China, the "magic square of three" was propagated to followers of Abū Mūsā Jābir ibn Ḥayyān at some point over the proceeding several hundred years. Other commonalities shared between

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8556-489: The Persians. Then we have books of wisdom and admonition by the Persians and others, including many examples of Persian andarz literature, e.g. various books attributed to Persian emperors Khosrau I , Ardashir I , etc. Gustav Flügel Bayard Dodge Islamic Golden Age The Islamic Golden Age was a period of scientific, economic and cultural flourishing in the history of Islam , traditionally dated from

8694-557: The Quran and hadith. The classical theory of Islamic jurisprudence elaborates how scriptures should be interpreted from the standpoint of linguistics and rhetoric. It also comprises methods for establishing authenticity of hadith and for determining when the legal force of a scriptural passage is abrogated by a passage revealed at a later date. In addition to the Quran and sunnah, the classical theory of Sunni fiqh recognizes two other sources of law: juristic consensus ( ijmaʿ ) and analogical reasoning ( qiyas ). It therefore studies

8832-592: The Roman Empire as originating from the Egyptian goldsmith's art, Greek philosophy and different religious traditions. Tracing the origins of the alchemical art in Egypt is complicated by the pseudepigraphic nature of texts from the Greek alchemical corpus. The treatises of Zosimos of Panopolis , the earliest historically attested author ( fl. c. 300 AD), can help in situating the other authors. Zosimus based his work on that of older alchemical authors, such as Mary

8970-600: The Taoist heavens, the ensuing deaths encouraged people to eschew this method of alchemy in favour of external sources (the aforementioned Tai Chi Chuan, mastering of the qi , etc.) Chinese alchemy was introduced to the West by Obed Simon Johnson . The introduction of alchemy to Latin Europe may be dated to 11 February 1144, with the completion of Robert of Chester 's translation of the Liber de compositione alchemiae ("Book on

9108-712: The adherents of the Church of the East ( Nestorians ), contributed to Islamic civilization during the reign of the Umayyads and the Abbasids by translating works of Greek philosophers and ancient science to Syriac and afterwards to Arabic . They also excelled in many fields, in particular philosophy , science (such as Hunayn ibn Ishaq , Yusuf Al-Khuri , Al Himsi , Qusta ibn Luqa , Masawaiyh , Patriarch Eutychius , and Jabril ibn Bukhtishu ) and theology . For

9246-508: The ancients" or "rational sciences", from Islamic religious sciences. Sciences of the former type flourished for several centuries, and their transmission formed part of the educational framework in classical and medieval Islam. In some cases, they were supported by institutions such as the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, but more often they were transmitted informally from teacher to student. The University of Al Karaouine , founded in 859 AD,

9384-507: The application and limits of analogy, as well as the value and limits of consensus, along with other methodological principles, some of which are accepted by only certain legal schools. This interpretive apparatus is brought together under the rubric of ijtihad , which refers to a jurist's exertion in an attempt to arrive at a ruling on a particular question. The theory of Twelver Shia jurisprudence parallels that of Sunni schools with some differences, such as recognition of reason ( ʿaql ) as

9522-420: The attempts to impose a caliphal writ in matters of religious orthodoxy ultimately failed. This controversy persisted until al-Ash'ari (874–936) found a middle ground between Mu'tazilite rationalism and Hanbalite literalism, using the rationalistic methods championed by Mu'tazilites to defend most substantive tenets maintained by ahl al-hadith . A rival compromise between rationalism and literalism emerged from

9660-400: The boundaries of the schools became clearly delineated, the authority of their doctrinal tenets came to be vested in a master jurist from earlier times, who was henceforth identified as the school's founder. In the course of the first three centuries of Islam, all legal schools came to accept the broad outlines of classical legal theory, according to which Islamic law had to be firmly rooted in

9798-587: The burning of alchemical books after suppressing a revolt in Alexandria (AD 292). Few original Egyptian documents on alchemy have survived, most notable among them the Stockholm papyrus and the Leyden papyrus X . Dating from AD 250–300, they contained recipes for dyeing and making artificial gemstones, cleaning and fabricating pearls, and manufacturing of imitation gold and silver. These writings lack

9936-402: The categories of their authors, together with their relationships, their times of birth, length of life, and times of death, the localities of their cities, their virtues and faults, from the beginning of the formation of science to this our own time (377 /987). An index as a literary form had existed as tabaqat  – biographies. Contemporaneously in the western part of the empire in

10074-613: The country and the colour "black" (Egypt was the "black Land", by contrast with the "red Land", the surrounding desert). Alchemy encompasses several philosophical traditions spanning some four millennia and three continents. These traditions' general penchant for cryptic and symbolic language makes it hard to trace their mutual influences and genetic relationships. One can distinguish at least three major strands, which appear to be mostly independent, at least in their earlier stages: Chinese alchemy , centered in China; Indian alchemy , centered on

10212-462: The creation of a divine body (Sanskrit divya-deham ) and immortality while still embodied (Sanskrit jīvan-mukti ). Sanskrit alchemical texts include much material on the manipulation of mercury and sulphur, that are homologized with the semen of the god Śiva and the menstrual blood of the goddess Devī. Some early alchemical writings seem to have their origins in the Kaula tantric schools associated to

10350-409: The demons "the guardians of places" ( οἱ κατὰ τόπον ἔφοροι , hoi katà tópon éphoroi ) and those who offered them sacrifices "priests" ( ἱερέα , hieréa ), it is fairly clear that he was referring to the gods of Egypt and their priests. While critical of the kind of alchemy he associated with the Egyptian priests and their followers, Zosimos nonetheless saw the tradition's recent past as rooted in

10488-426: The dominant approach by scholars is the "decline theory.": The golden age is considered to have come into existence through a gigantic endeavor to acquire and translate the ancient sciences of the Greeks between the eighth and ninth centuries. The translations era was followed by two centuries of splendid original thinking and contributions, and is known as the "golden age" of Islamic science. This so-called "golden age"

10626-518: The earth as 6339.6 km (modern value is c. 6,371 km), the best estimate at that time. Alchemy Alchemy (from the Arabic word al-kīmīā , الكیمیاء ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy , a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China , India , the Muslim world , and Europe . In its Western form, alchemy is first attested in

10764-436: The element's physical properties. The elemental system used in medieval alchemy also originated with Jabir. His original system consisted of seven elements, which included the five classical elements ( aether , air , earth , fire , and water ) in addition to two chemical elements representing the metals: sulphur , "the stone which burns", which characterized the principle of combustibility, and mercury , which contained

10902-692: The equivalent of professional athletes today. The House of Wisdom was a library established in Abbasid -era Baghdad , Iraq by Caliph al-Mansur in 825 modeled after the academy of Jundishapur . During this period, the Muslims showed a strong interest in assimilating the scientific knowledge of the civilizations that had been conquered. Many classic works of antiquity that might otherwise have been lost were translated from Greek , Syriac , Middle Persian , and Sanskrit into Syriac and Arabic, some of which were later in turn translated into other languages like Hebrew and Latin . Christians , especially

11040-577: The essence of objects flows into the eyes. Alhazen correctly argued that vision occurred when light, traveling in straight lines, reflects off an object into the eyes. Al-Biruni wrote of his insights into light, stating that its velocity must be immense when compared to the speed of sound. The early Islamic period saw the establishment of some of the longest lived theoretical frameworks in alchemy and chemistry . The sulfur-mercury theory of metals , first attested in pseudo-Apollonius of Tyana's Sirr al-khalīqa ("The Secret of Creation", c. 750–850) and in

11178-420: The establishment of organised scholarship in the House of Wisdom and the beginning of the crusades ), but often extended to include part of the late 8th or the 12th to early 13th centuries. Definitions may still vary considerably. Equating the end of the golden age with the end of the caliphates is a convenient cut-off point based on a historical landmark, but it can be argued that Islamic culture had entered

11316-509: The false promises of transmutation made by pseudo-alchemists. Roman Catholic Inquisitor General Nicholas Eymerich 's Directorium Inquisitorum , written in 1376, associated alchemy with the performance of demonic rituals, which Eymerich differentiated from magic performed in accordance with scripture. This did not, however, lead to any change in the Inquisition's monitoring or prosecution of alchemists. In 1404, Henry IV of England banned

11454-427: The first discourse on the scripts and the different alphabets) only the last four discourses, in other words, the Arabic translations from Greek, Syriac and other languages, together with Arabic books composed on the model of these translations. Perhaps it was the first draft and the longer edition (which is the one that is generally printed) was an extension. Ibn al-Nadim often mentions the size and number of pages of

11592-437: The idealized principle of metallic properties. Shortly thereafter, this evolved into eight elements, with the Arabic concept of the three metallic principles: sulphur giving flammability or combustion, mercury giving volatility and stability, and salt giving solidity. The atomic theory of corpuscularianism , where all physical bodies possess an inner and outer layer of minute particles or corpuscles, also has its origins in

11730-663: The importance of acquiring knowledge, played a vital role in influencing the Muslims of this age in their search for knowledge and the development of the body of science. The Islamic Empire heavily patronized scholars. The money spent on the Translation Movement for some translations is estimated to be equivalent to about twice the annual research budget of the United Kingdom's Medical Research Council . The best scholars and notable translators, such as Hunayn ibn Ishaq , had salaries that are estimated to be

11868-467: The influx of alchemical thought. The 11th-century St Anselm put forth the opinion that faith and rationalism were compatible and encouraged rationalism in a Christian context. In the early 12th century, Peter Abelard followed Anselm's work, laying down the foundation for acceptance of Aristotelian thought before the first works of Aristotle had reached the West. In the early 13th century, Robert Grosseteste used Abelard's methods of analysis and added

12006-738: The institution, and it placed its holder within a genealogy of scholars, which was the only recognized hierarchy in the educational system. While formal studies in madrasas were open only to men, women of prominent urban families were commonly educated in private settings and many of them received and later issued ijazas in hadith studies, calligraphy and poetry recitation. Working women learned religious texts and practical skills primarily from each other, though they also received some instruction together with men in mosques and private homes. Madrasas were devoted principally to study of law, but they also offered other subjects such as theology, medicine, and mathematics. The madrasa complex usually consisted of

12144-410: The late 7th and early 8th centuries through Syriac translations and scholarship. In the late ninth and early tenth centuries, the Arabic works attributed to Jābir ibn Hayyān (Latinized as "Geber" or "Geberus") introduced a new approach to alchemy. Paul Kraus , who wrote the standard reference work on Jabir, put it as follows: To form an idea of the historical place of Jabir's alchemy and to tackle

12282-413: The medieval Islamic world include the synthesis of ammonium chloride from organic substances as described in the works attributed to Jābir, and Abū Bakr al-Rāzī's experiments with vitriol , which would eventually lead to the discovery of mineral acids like sulfuric acid and nitric acid by thirteenth century Latin alchemists such as pseudo-Geber . Al-Biruni (973–1050) estimated the radius of

12420-413: The more complete edition contains ten maqalat ("discourses" - Devin J. Stewart chose to define maqalat as Book when considering the structure of Ibn al-Nadim's work). The first six are detailed bibliographies of books on Islamic subjects: Ibn al-Nadim claims he has seen every work listed or relies upon creditable sources. The shorter edition contains (besides the preface and the first section of

12558-453: The movement of the capital in 762 AD to Baghdad, translators were sponsored to translate Greek texts into Arabic. This translation period led to many major scientific works from Galen , Ptolemy , Aristotle , Euclid , Archimedes , and Apollonius being translated into Arabic. From these translations previously lost knowledge of the cosmos was now being used to advance current astrological thinkers. The second key factor of astronomy's growth

12696-747: The mystical aspects of this concept. Alchemy coexisted alongside emerging Christianity . Lactantius believed Hermes Trismegistus had prophesied its birth. St Augustine later affirmed this in the 4th and 5th centuries, but also condemned Trismegistus for idolatry. Examples of Pagan, Christian, and Jewish alchemists can be found during this period. Most of the Greco-Roman alchemists preceding Zosimos are known only by pseudonyms, such as Moses , Isis, Cleopatra , Democritus , and Ostanes . Others authors such as Komarios, and Chymes , we only know through fragments of text. After AD 400, Greek alchemical writers occupied themselves solely in commenting on

12834-463: The mystical, philosophical elements of alchemy, but do contain the works of Bolus of Mendes (or Pseudo-Democritus ), which aligned these recipes with theoretical knowledge of astrology and the classical elements . Between the time of Bolus and Zosimos, the change took place that transformed this metallurgy into a Hermetic art. Alexandria acted as a melting pot for philosophies of Pythagoreanism , Platonism , Stoicism and Gnosticism which formed

12972-496: The names that come directly from Arabic origins or are the translations of Ptolemy's Greek descriptions which are still in use today. Alhazen played a role in the development of optics . One of the prevailing theories of vision in his time and place was the emission theory supported by Euclid and Ptolemy, where sight worked by the eye emitting rays of light, and the other was the Aristotelean theory that sight worked when

13110-404: The origin of alchemy's character. An important example of alchemy's roots in Greek philosophy, originated by Empedocles and developed by Aristotle, was that all things in the universe were formed from only four elements: earth , air , water , and fire . According to Aristotle, each element had a sphere to which it belonged and to which it would return if left undisturbed. The four elements of

13248-417: The origins of philosophy, on the lives of Plato and Aristotle , the origin of One Thousand and One Nights , thoughts on the pyramids , his opinions on magic , sorcery , superstition , and alchemy etc. The chapter devoted to what the author rather dismissively calls "bed-time stories" and "fables" contains a large amount of Persian material. In the chapter on anonymous works of assorted content there

13386-564: The planets. One of the first to criticize this model was Ibn al-Haytham , a leader of physics in the 11th century in Cairo. Then in the 13th century Nasir al-Din al-Tusi constructed the Maragha Observatory in what is today Iran. Al-Tusi found the equant dissatisfying and replaced it by adding a geometrical technique called a Tusi-couple , which generates linear motion from the sum of two circular motions. Then, Ibn al-Shatir who

13524-481: The practice of multiplying metals by the passing of the Gold and Silver Act 1403 ( 5 Hen. 4 . c. 4) (although it was possible to buy a licence to attempt to make gold alchemically, and a number were granted by Henry VI and Edward IV). These critiques and regulations centered more around pseudo-alchemical charlatanism than the actual study of alchemy, which continued with an increasingly Christian tone. The 14th century saw

13662-451: The problem of its sources, it is advisable to compare it with what remains to us of the alchemical literature in the Greek language . One knows in which miserable state this literature reached us. Collected by Byzantine scientists from the tenth century, the corpus of the Greek alchemists is a cluster of incoherent fragments, going back to all the times since the third century until the end of

13800-561: The prolongation of life. His correspondence with Clement highlighted this, noting the importance of alchemy to the papacy. Like the Greeks before him, Bacon acknowledged the division of alchemy into practical and theoretical spheres. He noted that the theoretical lay outside the scope of Aristotle, the natural philosophers, and all Latin writers of his time. The practical confirmed the theoretical, and Bacon advocated its uses in natural science and medicine. In later European legend, he became an archmage. In particular, along with Albertus Magnus, he

13938-637: The prominent centers of learning and transmission of classical wisdom were Christian colleges such as the School of Nisibis and the School of Edessa , the pagan center of learning in Harran , and the renowned hospital and medical Academy of Gondishapur, which was the intellectual, theological and scientific center of the Church of the East. Many scholars of the House of Wisdom were of Christian background and it

14076-487: The rich culture of his time from various collections and libraries. The order is primarily chronological and works are listed according to four internal orders: genre; orfann (chapter); maqala (discourse); the Fihrist (the book as a whole). These four chronological principles of its underlying system help researchers to interpret the work, retrieve elusive information and understand Ibn al-Nadim's method of composition, ideology, and historical analyses. The Fihrist shows

14214-509: The rise of the Islamic gunpowder empires . The metaphor of a golden age began to be applied in 19th-century literature about Islamic history , in the context of the western aesthetic fashion known as Orientalism . The author of a Handbook for Travelers in Syria and Palestine in 1868 observed that the most beautiful mosques of Damascus were "like Mohammedanism itself, now rapidly decaying" and relics of "the golden age of Islam". There

14352-416: The rites of the Egyptian temples. Zosimos of Panopolis asserted that alchemy dated back to Pharaonic Egypt where it was the domain of the priestly class, though there is little to no evidence for his assertion. Alchemical writers used Classical figures from Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythology to illuminate their works and allegorize alchemical transmutation. These included the pantheon of gods related to

14490-590: The study and development of Greek alchemy in the Byzantine period. The 2nd millennium BC text Vedas describe a connection between eternal life and gold. A considerable knowledge of metallurgy has been exhibited in a third-century AD text called Arthashastra which provides ingredients of explosives (Agniyoga) and salts extracted from fertile soils and plant remains (Yavakshara) such as saltpetre/ nitre , perfume making (different qualities of perfumes are mentioned), granulated (refined) Sugar. Buddhist texts from

14628-408: The substances, mark an experimental spirit which is extremely far away from the weird and odd esotericism of the Greek texts. The theory on which Jabir supports his operations is one of clearness and of an impressive unity. More than with the other Arab authors, one notes with him a balance between theoretical teaching and practical teaching, between the 'ilm and the amal . In vain one would seek in

14766-457: The sun, moon, and other planets in orbit around the Earth. Ptolemy thought that the planets moved on circles called epicycles and that their centers rode on deferents . The deferents were eccentric , and the angular motion of a planet was uniform around the equant which was a point opposite the deferent center. Simply, Ptolemy's models were a mathematical system for predicting the positions of

14904-559: The teachings of the personality of Matsyendranath . Other early writings are found in the Jaina medical treatise Kalyāṇakārakam of Ugrāditya, written in South India in the early 9th century. Two famous early Indian alchemical authors were Nāgārjuna Siddha and Nityanātha Siddha. Nāgārjuna Siddha was a Buddhist monk. His book, Rasendramangalam , is an example of Indian alchemy and medicine. Nityanātha Siddha wrote Rasaratnākara , also

15042-488: The technique to purify the human soul ). They believed in the four elements and the four qualities as described above, and they had a strong tradition of cloaking their written ideas in a labyrinth of coded jargon set with traps to mislead the uninitiated. Finally, the alchemists practised their art: they actively experimented with chemicals and made observations and theories about how the universe operated. Their entire philosophy revolved around their belief that man's soul

15180-573: The time included the Turba Philosophorum , and the works of Avicenna and Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi . These brought with them many new words to the European vocabulary for which there was no previous Latin equivalent. Alcohol, carboy , elixir , and athanor are examples. Meanwhile, theologian contemporaries of the translators made strides towards the reconciliation of faith and experimental rationalism, thereby priming Europe for

15318-478: The tradition of commentary on the studied texts. It also involved a process of socialization of aspiring scholars, who came from virtually all social backgrounds, into the ranks of the ulema . For the first few centuries of Islam, educational settings were entirely informal, but beginning in the 11th and 12th centuries, the ruling elites began to establish institutions of higher religious learning known as madrasas in an effort to secure support and cooperation of

15456-465: The transmutation of " base metals " (e.g., lead ) into " noble metals " (particularly gold ); the creation of an elixir of immortality ; and the creation of panaceas able to cure any disease. The perfection of the human body and soul was thought to result from the alchemical magnum opus ("Great Work"). The concept of creating the philosophers' stone was variously connected with all of these projects. Islamic and European alchemists developed

15594-406: The two alchemical schools of thought include discrete naming for ingredients and heavy influence from the natural elements. The silk road provided a clear path for the exchange of goods, ideas, ingredients, religion, and many other aspects of life with which alchemy is intertwined. Whereas European alchemy eventually centered on the transmutation of base metals into noble metals, Chinese alchemy had

15732-415: The ulema. Madrasas soon multiplied throughout the Islamic world, which helped to spread Islamic learning beyond urban centers and to unite diverse Islamic communities in a shared cultural project. Nonetheless, instruction remained focused on individual relationships between students and their teacher. The formal attestation of educational attainment, ijaza , was granted by a particular scholar rather than

15870-532: The unpublished manuscripts of these titles. A great deal remains to be discovered about Indian alchemical literature. The content of the Sanskrit alchemical corpus has not yet (2014) been adequately integrated into the wider general history of alchemy. After the fall of the Roman Empire , the focus of alchemical development moved to the Islamic World. Much more is known about Islamic alchemy because it

16008-415: The unusual clarity with which they were described. By the end of the 13th century, alchemy had developed into a fairly structured system of belief. Adepts believed in the macrocosm-microcosm theories of Hermes, that is to say, they believed that processes that affect minerals and other substances could have an effect on the human body (for example, if one could learn the secret of purifying gold, one could use

16146-805: The use of gunpowder spread to Japan, the Mongols , the Muslim world, and Europe. Gunpowder was used by the Mongols against the Hungarians in 1241, and in Europe by the 14th century. Chinese alchemy was closely connected to Taoist forms of traditional Chinese medicine , such as Acupuncture and Moxibustion . In the early Song dynasty , followers of this Taoist idea (chiefly the elite and upper class) would ingest mercuric sulfide , which, though tolerable in low levels, led many to suicide. Thinking that this consequential death would lead to freedom and access to

16284-514: The use of metals, minerals, and elixirs in early Chinese medicine. Hong identified three ancient Chinese documents, titled Scripture of Great Clarity, Scripture of the Nine Elixirs , and Scripture of the Golden Liquor, as texts containing fundamental alchemical information. He also described alchemy, along with meditation, as the sole spiritual practices that could allow one to gain immortality or to transcend. In his work Inner Chapters of

16422-417: The use of observation, experimentation, and conclusions when conducting scientific investigations. Grosseteste also did much work to reconcile Platonic and Aristotelian thinking. Through much of the 12th and 13th centuries, alchemical knowledge in Europe remained centered on translations, and new Latin contributions were not made. The efforts of the translators were succeeded by that of the encyclopaedists. In

16560-502: The vocabulary of Greek philosophical schools but did not implement any of its doctrines in a systematic way. Zosimos of Panopolis wrote in the Final Abstinence (also known as the "Final Count"). Zosimos explains that the ancient practice of "tinctures" (the technical Greek name for the alchemical arts) had been taken over by certain "demons" who taught the art only to those who offered them sacrifices. Since Zosimos also called

16698-623: The wealth, range and breadth of historical and geographical knowledge disseminated in the literature of the Islamic Golden Age , from the modern to the ancient civilisations of Syria , Greece , India , Rome and Persia . Little survives of the Persian books listed by Ibn al-Nadim. The author's aim, set out in his preface, is to index all books in Arabic , written by Arabs and others, as well as their scripts, dealing with various sciences, with accounts of those who composed them and

16836-495: The work of al-Maturidi (d. c. 944), and, although a minority of scholars remained faithful to the early ahl al-hadith creed, Ash'ari and Maturidi theology came to dominate Sunni Islam from the 10th century on. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes) played a major role in interpreting the works of Aristotle, whose ideas came to dominate the non-religious thought of the Christian and Muslim worlds . According to

16974-439: The work of Jabir. From the 9th to 14th centuries, alchemical theories faced criticism from a variety of practical Muslim chemists, including Alkindus , Abū al-Rayhān al-Bīrūnī , Avicenna and Ibn Khaldun . In particular, they wrote refutations against the idea of the transmutation of metals . From the 14th century onwards, many materials and practices originally belonging to Indian alchemy ( Rasayana ) were assimilated in

17112-449: The works attributed to Jābir. Substantial advances were also made in practical chemistry. The works attributed to Jābir, and those of the Persian alchemist and physician Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (c. 865–925), contain the earliest known systematic classifications of chemical substances. However, alchemists were not only interested in identifying and classifying chemical substances, but also in artificially creating them. Significant examples from

17250-494: The works of these predecessors. By the middle of the 7th century alchemy was almost an entirely mystical discipline. It was at that time that Khalid Ibn Yazid sparked its migration from Alexandria to the Islamic world, facilitating the translation and preservation of Greek alchemical texts in the 8th and 9th centuries. Greek alchemy was preserved in medieval Byzantine manuscripts after the fall of Egypt , and yet historians have only relatively recently begun to pay attention to

17388-428: The writings of Aristotle and Avicenna, where they concerned the transmutation of metals. From the time shortly after his death through to the 15th century, more than 28 alchemical tracts were misattributed to him, a common practice giving rise to his reputation as an accomplished alchemist. Likewise, alchemical texts have been attributed to Albert's student Thomas Aquinas . Roger Bacon, a Franciscan friar who wrote on

17526-412: Was a significant step in the development of algebra, is part of the body of Persian mathematics that was eventually transmitted to Europe. Yet another Persian mathematician, Sharaf al-Dīn al-Tūsī , found algebraic and numerical solutions to various cases of cubic equations. He also developed the concept of a function . Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) discovered the sum formula for the fourth power, using

17664-489: Was believed that one would become immortal if an inner god were to be immortalized within them through spiritual fulfilment. Black powder may have been an important invention of Chinese alchemists. It is said that the Chinese invented gunpowder while trying to find a potion for eternal life. Described in 9th-century texts and used in fireworks in China by the 10th century, it was used in cannons by 1290. From China,

17802-419: Was better documented: indeed, most of the earlier writings that have come down through the years were preserved as Arabic translations. The word alchemy itself was derived from the Arabic word al-kīmiyā (الكيمياء). The early Islamic world was a melting pot for alchemy. Platonic and Aristotelian thought, which had already been somewhat appropriated into hermetical science, continued to be assimilated during

17940-440: Was credited with the forging of a brazen head capable of answering its owner's questions. Soon after Bacon, the influential work of Pseudo-Geber (sometimes identified as Paul of Taranto ) appeared. His Summa Perfectionis remained a staple summary of alchemical practice and theory through the medieval and renaissance periods. It was notable for its inclusion of practical chemical operations alongside sulphur-mercury theory, and

18078-563: Was divided within himself after the fall of Adam. By purifying the two parts of man's soul, man could be reunited with God. In the 14th century, alchemy became more accessible to Europeans outside the confines of Latin-speaking churchmen and scholars. Alchemical discourse shifted from scholarly philosophical debate to an exposed social commentary on the alchemists themselves. Dante , Piers Plowman , and Chaucer all painted unflattering pictures of alchemists as thieves and liars. Pope John XXII 's 1317 edict, Spondent quas non-exhibent forbade

18216-419: Was externally cold and dry, while gold was hot and moist. Thus, Jabir theorized, by rearranging the qualities of one metal, a different metal would result. By this reasoning, the search for the philosopher's stone was introduced to Western alchemy. Jabir developed an elaborate numerology whereby the root letters of a substance's name in Arabic, when treated with various transformations, held correspondences to

18354-430: Was from these countries that the rest of the world learned to make paper from linen. The centrality of scripture and its study in the Islamic tradition helped to make education a central pillar of the religion in virtually all times and places in the history of Islam. The importance of learning in the Islamic tradition is reflected in a number of hadiths attributed to Muhammad, including one that states "Seeking knowledge

18492-524: Was given by Al-Kindi (c. 801–873, also known as "Alkindus" in Europe), in Risalah fi Istikhraj al-Mu'amma ( A Manuscript on Deciphering Cryptographic Messages ) which contains the first description of the method of frequency analysis . Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) was a significant figure in the history of scientific method , particularly in his approach to experimentation, and has been described as

18630-529: Was itself adopted from the Arabic word al-kīmiyā ( الكيمياء ). The Arabic al-kīmiyā in turn was a borrowing of the Late Greek term khēmeía ( χημεία ), also spelled khumeia ( χυμεία ) and khēmía ( χημία ), with al- being the Arabic definite article 'the'. Together this association can be interpreted as 'the process of transmutation by which to fuse or reunite with the divine or original form'. Several etymologies have been proposed for

18768-498: Was led by Christian physician Hunayn ibn Ishaq , with the support of Byzantine medicine . Many of the most important philosophical and scientific works of the ancient world were translated, including the work of Galen , Hippocrates , Plato , Aristotle , Ptolemy and Archimedes . Persians also were a notably high proportion of scientists who contributed to the Islamic Golden Age. According to Bernard Lewis : "Culturally, politically, and most remarkable of all even religiously,

18906-440: Was the religious observances followed by Muslims which expected them to pray at exact times during the day. These observances in timekeeping led to many questions in previous Greek mathematical astronomy, especially their timekeeping. The astrolabe was a Greek invention which was an important piece of Arabic astronomy. An astrolabe is a handheld two-dimensional model of the sky which can solve problems of spherical astronomy. It

19044-660: Was working in Damascus in 1350 AD employed the Tusi-couple to successfully eliminate the equant as well as other objectionable circles that Ptolemy had used. This new model properly aligned the celestial spheres and was mathematically sound. This development by Ibn al-Shatir, as well as the Maragha astronomers remained relatively unknown in medieval Europe. The names for some of the stars used, including Betelgeuse , Rigel , Vega , Aldebaran , and Fomalhaut are several of

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