It was the consistent patronage of great figures of eminent Muslim scholars scientists by the Abbasid rulers of Baghdad, especially Caliph Abdallah al-Mamun Al-Rasheed, and the Umayyad rulers of Andalusia (Muslim Spain), particularly Caliphs Abd ar-Rahman-III and Abd al-Hakem-II, that essentially contributed to the realization of the Golden Age of Muslims from 8th to 13th century.
During this time, the rulers devoted enormous resources for the support of scientific activity in Muslim societies. Until the rise of modern science, no other civilization engaged as many scientists, produced as many scientific books, or provided as varied and sustained support for scientific activity.
In the first half of the 9th century, Caliph al-Mamun took the Abbasid patronage of translation and scientific works to new heights by founding in Baghdad Bayt al-Hikma (House of Wisdom), where eminent scholars translated into Arabic the works of ancient science from Greek, Chinese and Indian civilizations. Over time, the House of Wisdom became the then Muslim world’s premier place for the production of innovative scientific works in philosophy, mathematics, algebra and astronomy by in-house scholars like Abu Yousuf Yaqoub al-Kindi, Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khawarizimi and several others.
Soon other leading Muslim cities of the time like Cairo, Fez, Samarkand and Cordova became centres of scientific learning and research. In Cordova, Rahman-III and Hakem-II played an exceptional role in promoting educational activities and patronising prominent scholars, thereby contributing to Andalusia’s Golden Age of Muslims that eventually contributed to European renaissance.
Motivating Factors
Before narrating how Muslim scholarship flourished under their respective rule, it is important to mention what factors encouraged them to patronise scientific scholarship. First, the intellectual and scientific quest of these Muslim rulers, like a number of those who preceded or succeeded them, was their “deep adherence to a faith in which the pursuit of knowledge was equated with an act of worship.”
Second, the Muslims sought useful knowledge and they translated only what they believed to be of practical use to them. Third, Islam guided Muslims to seek knowledge through istidlal (evidence). A forth factor was the “growing awareness in the new society of the status of Islamic civilization as heir to world civilizations. A final, perhaps more important factor was the Muslim rulers’ belief in a strong rationalist and liberal Islamic tradition carried on by a group of Muslim thinkers known as the Mutazilis.
Caliph al-Mamun
The scientific revolution in the world of Islam reached its zenith during the Abbasid rule, and one of the principal factors that spurred this revolution was the patronage of scholarly research and activity by successive Abbasid caliphs, most prominently Caliph al-Mamun, who ruled for 20 years from 813 to 833. His father Harun Al-Rasheed had built a Scientific Academy, which housed a library containing a huge collection of manuscripts on arts and sciences. Al-Mamun expanded the academy, renaming it Bayt al-Hikma, which became the principal institution of Islamic scientific learning at the time. It was here that translators, scientists, scribes, authors, men of letters and writers met every day for translation, reading, writing, scribing, dialogue and discussion.
Among the famous translators was Youhanna bin Al-Batriq Al-Turjuman, who translated the Book of Animals (Kitab Al-Haywan) by Aristotle. Also, there was Hunayn ibn Ishaq al-Ibadi, who translated some of the works by the Greek physician Hippocrates. Al-Mamun made Hunayn the Head of the Translation Department. The Caliph used to give him the equivalent weight in gold to that of the books he had translated into Arabic.
It was essentially the translation movement that laid the foundation of Islamic scientific civilization in Western dark ages. With consistent state sponsorship, Muslim scholars and scientists added to the translated works in astronomy, mathematics, medicine, philosophy and a host of other scientific fields produced by their predecessors in past civilizations, particularly Greek. The resulting Golden Age of Muslims, with Baghdad and Cordova becoming its two principal centres, eventually led to the rise of Western/European civilization, which is still with us.
Were it not to the deep personal interest that al-Mamun showed in the growth of Muslim scientific scholarship, we might not have heard about al-Kindi, the first and perhaps the greatest Arab Neo-Platonist philosopher, and al-Khawarizimi, Kitab al-Jabr wal-Muqabala (The Book of Algebra) is considered by Arab mathematicians as well as by early and late historians as an outstanding achievement in the history of mathematics.
Al-Mamun took the initiative of setting up astronomical observatories in which Muslim astronomers could build on the knowledge acquired by previous astronomers. The professed purpose of al-Mamun’s programme of astronomical observations was to verify the Ptolemaic observations by comparing the results derived by calculation, based on Ptolemaic models, with actual observations conducted in Baghdad and Damascus some seven hundred years after Ptolemy.
The results were compiled in al-Zij al-Mumtiihan (The verified tables). This program stressed the need for continuing verification of astronomical observations and for the use of more precise instruments. Al-Mamun gathered a group of wise men and asked them to prepare a map of the world, which they did. Named as Al-Mamounite Picture, the map far exceeded those produced during the lifetime of Ptolemy and other Greek geographers.
Al-Mamun employed 20 geographers to write a book about geography. The number of higher institutes during his reign reached 332, and they were packed with students pursuing various subjects in the Arts and in the Sciences.
Al-Mamun also built hospitals, which were crowded with their physicians, surgeons and dentists. Like other Abbasid rulers, the Caliph employed Nestorian physicians from the city of Gundishapur. Most of their writings on medicine were based on Hellenistic medicine, but even in the very early period some new treatises contained original features that were not found in the earlier Greek sources.
With his students, Hunayn translated almost all of the then known Greek medical works. At the same time these translations were made, original works were composed in Arabic. Hunayn, for example, composed a few medical treatises including al-Masail ft al-Tibb lil-Mutaallimin (Questions on Medicine for Students) and Kitab al-Ashr Maqalat fi al-Ayn (Ten Treatises on the Eye).
Ar-Rahman III & al-Hakam II
The role of al-Mamun as an enthusiastic patron of scientific activity at Baghdad is paralleled by that of ar-Rahman III and al-Hakam II a century later in Cordova, the capital of Andalusia.
From 8th to 13th century, Andalusia remained a beacon of learning in a Europe that, for most part, was languishing in the shadows of ignorance and socio-economic backwardness. It was during the period of Umayyad ruler Abd ar-Rahman III (912-961), the first to declare himself Caliph, that Andalusia flourished as a nation and reached its high point under his successor Abd al Hakam II (961-976).
Apart from making pioneering achievements in agriculture, textile industry and trade, the Muslim rulers contributed to the advancement of learning in arts and sciences. None of Andalusia's wealth in industry and trade would have been possible without a conscious state policy promoting science, as the driving force behind technological progress and overall economic growth. As with the policy pursued under the Abbasids in Baghdad, the Andalusian rulers promoted learning and patronized the arts as a means of raising the cultural level of the population.
“In no country and in no other cultural epoch was the drive for such extensive scientific travel so widespread, as in Muslim Spain, from the 10th century on. It was perfectly commonplace for inhabitants of the peninsula to make their way across the monstrous stretch on the North African coast, to Egypt and from there to Bukhara or Samarkand, in order to hear the lectures of a famous scholar." This was the spirit that gave rise to public schools for needy children, as well as splendid public libraries, 70 of which were still open in the 13th century, and to such high literacy rates that "almost everyone could read and write, whereas this was a privilege restricted to the clergy in northern Europe….The Great Library of Cordoba had thousands of magnificent books and manuscripts. One can only imagine its invaluable collection when one reads that after 1492 and during the Spanish Inquisition when about half-a-million of its priceless books and manuscripts were burnt.
Abd ar-Rahman I started building the Grand Mosque of Cordova in 785, an immense public-works project, which established the religious and educational centre of the capital. It was enlarged and extended by his successors ar Rahman II and III, and completed by al-Hakem II. The Grand Mosque is one of the most famed buildings not just for the impressive architecture, but also and above all for its intellectual role. It was by far the largest university for centuries to come.
Abd ar-Rahman III, was a brilliant governor who raised Muslim power in the peninsula to its apogee and who built Madinat az-Zahra, the royal court, where known scholars and poets of the time remained the most welcome guests. Cordova under his rule had 700 mosques, 300 public baths, numerous schools and colleges.
Hakem II extended education to the needy, by building 27 elementary schools in Cordoba for children of poor families. Three of these were located near the great mosque, and the remaining 24 in the suburbs “to impart free education.” In Cordova alone, there were 800 schools. In addition, a large orphanage was built in Cordova, as in many other towns. Thus, “the majority of Muslims could read and write.”
Lessons for Today
At present, the lack of state patronage of scientific research and scholarship is an important reason why the Muslim world is lagging behind the rest of the world in science and technology. Not only has government leadership in individual Muslim countries failed to devote necessary resources required for scientific learning and research, but Muslim world’s representative organisations, particularly the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), have been insensitive to the issue of patronizing Muslim scholarship.
All those reasons rooted in religious tradition or determined by social needs that had led to Caliphate-sponsored translation and research activity during Calpihs al-Mamun, Rahman-III or Hakem-II are still relevant today. The world of science and research today is a million times more competitive than was the case during the five hundred years of the Golden Age of Muslims.
Despite this, the Muslim leadership, neither at the state level nor at the level of intra-Muslim world organizations, has shown any willingness to come forward to patronise scholars, scientists and educationists so that the current crisis of learning and scholarship facing the world of Islam could be addressed adequately and urgently.
-- The article includes excerpts of the paper the author presented at an international conference on Islamic Science and the Contemporary World organized on January 9-10, 2008, by International Institute of Islamic Thought And Civilization (ISTAC), International Islamic University, Kuala-Lumpur Malaysia. The writer, an Associate Professor of International Relations at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, can be reached at ishtiaqahmad@qau.edu.pk
