Science and Technology in Islam (sample)

7/26/2019 Science and Technology in Islam (sample)

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Science and echnologyin Islam

I


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Science and echnologyin Islam

I

Institut fr Geschichte der ArabischIslamischen W issenschaften

an der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitt

Frankfurt am Main

Publications ofthe Institute for the History of

Arabic-Islamic Science

Edited by

Fuat Sezgin


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Institut fr Geschichte der ArabischIslamischen Wissenschaften

an der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitt

Frankfurt am Main

S C I E N C E A N D

TE C H NO LO G Y I N I S L A M

V O L U M E I

IN T RO DU C T I ON T O T H E H I S T O R Y

O F AR A B I C - I S L A M I C S C I E N C E S

by

FUAT S E Z G I N

ranslated by

R S and

S R S


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IS BN - - - - (Science and technology in Islam, Volumes IV)

IS BN - - - - (Science and technology in Islam, Volume I)

Institut fr Geschichte der ArabischIslamischen Wissenschaften

Westendstrasse , D Frankfurt am Main

www.uni-frankfurt.de/fb/igaiw

Federal Republic of Germany

Printed in XXX by

XXX

XXX


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Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii-xii

Summary of the catalogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Introduction to the history of ArabicIslamic sciences

I. Te developement of science in Islam from the / to the / century

/ century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

/ cen tu r y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . / cen tu ry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

/ ce nt ur y. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

/ ce ntur y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

/ cen tu r y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

/ cen tu r y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

/ ce nt ur y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

/ cen tu r y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

/ cen tu r y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

II. Reception and assimilation of Arab-Islamic science in the West

Route s of Arab- Islam ic Scien ces into Europe . . . . . .

. he rout e via Musli m Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. he route of reception via Sicil y et South- Italy . . .

. he route of recepti on via Byzantium . . . . . . . . . . . .

Conc lusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

III. Te Beginning of stagnation and the reasons for the end of creativity

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I. Per so na l Na me s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

II. echni cal er ms and Pl ace Nam es . . . . . . . .

III. i tl es of Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

C O N T E N T S


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P R E F A C E

A R movement, when, under the impact of thenewly established periodization that did not do justice to historical facts, thereprevailed a biased view of the Renaissance and a negation of the achievements

of the Middle Ages, Jean-Jacques Sdillot and his son Louis-Amlie published in the French translation of the manuscript preserved in Paris of the monumen-tal Arabic work by Abu l-asan al-Marrku (th/th c) on applied astronomyand astronomical instruments.Tis was followed ten years later by an admirablestudy of al-Marrkus book by Sdillot junior.No doubt, men like Johann Gott-

fried Herder (-), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (-), KurtSprengel (-), or Alexander von Humboldt (-), had previouslygiven due credit in the spirit of Humanism to the Muslims or Arabs for theirachievements in the history of science. Yet for decades Sdillot and his son foughtfor a more just approach by the scholarly world towards the achievements of theArabic-Islamic world, even though this was resented by their academic colleaguesand by the French Academy.

By a happy coincidence, the battle fought by the two Sdillots was supportedby the work of the indefatigable scholar Joseph-oussaint Reinaud (-).Produced with no less creativity and conviction, Reinauds oeuvre dealt with theareas of geography,Islamic archaeologyand the technology of warfare.In one ofhis publications, he gave meaningful expression to the concept of the unity of thehistory of science in the following words:Chance does not play such an impor-tant role in the progress of the technical sciences and the arts. In all its discoveries,humanity moves at an even pace, step by step, not by leaps and bounds. It does notalways march ahead with the same speed, but its [viii] progress is continuous. Man

rait des instruments astronomiques des Arabes, vols, Paris - (reprint Frankfurt, Islamic Mathematics and Astronomy, vol. ).

Mmoire sur les instruments astronomiques des Arabes, Paris (reprint in: Islamic Math-ematics and Astronomy, vol. , pp. -).

Among Reinauds numerous publications in this area, hisIntroduction gnrale la gographiedes Orientauxhad an especial impact on the historiography of geography; it appeared as the intro-ductory volume to his translation of the geographical work of Abu l-Fid (Gographie dAboulfda, vols., Paris , ; reprint Frankfurt asIslamic Geography, vols. -).

Monumens arabes, persans et turcs du cabinet de M. le Duc de Blacas, vols., Paris .In this area, mention may be made of the study produced in collaboration with Ildephonse

Fav: Du feu grgeois. Des feux de guerre et des origines de la poudre canon , Paris (reprint

Frankfurt , Natural Sciences in Islam, vol. ).J.-. Reinaud and I. Fav, Du feu grgeois, op. cit., p. .


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does not invent, he deduces. If we take any area of human knowledge, its history,that is to say the history of its progress, should form an uninterrupted chain; thefactual history provides us with parts of this chain, and our research must consist infinding the lost links so that we can join one part with the other.While Ernest Renan (-) propounded in his Averros et l Averrosme,

which appeared in , an entirely new outlook on the reception of Arabic phi-losophy in Europe an outlook that is surprising for the historian of science, an extra-ordinarily gifted young German scholar, who studied in Paris withAlexander von Humboldts support, published between and some fortystudies on Arabic mathematics. He was Franz Woepcke (-), who un-fortunately died too young at the age of . His works written in French, some of

which remain unsurpassed even today, constitute a solid foundation for the his-toriography of Arabic-Islamic mathematics of our times. Particularly impressivewas his dissertation Lalgbre dOmar Alkhayym, which appeared in . HereWoepcke establishes that the book on algebra by the philosopher, astronomer andmathematician Umar al-Haiyam from the second half of the th/th centurycontains a systematic treatment of cubic equations. Tis conclusion surprised thecontemporary mathematicians all the more because they remembered the sweep-ing judgment by Jean-tienne Montucla,who was considered an authority on thehistory of mathematics, to the effect that the Arabs did not go beyond quadratic

equations in algebra. Tus the intensive and extensive research and studies of thegreat Arabists J.-J. Sdillot, L.-A. Sdillot, J.-. Reinaud and F. Woepcke openedup remarkable and hitherto unanticipated perspectives for the future research onthe role of the Arabic-Islamic scholars in the universal history of science.Te powerful impulses given by these four scholars were not without conse-

quences, when in Eilhard Wiedemann (-) began his studies, whichhe was to continue for half a century. Wiedemann was a physicist and the majorityof his publications are in the field of physics and technology, yet, as time passed,he extended his interest to almost all branches of Arabic-Islamic science. Te writ-ten output of this indefatigable scholar appeared in more than articles andmonographs. His works, later collected in five extensive volumes,were of decisive

Histoire des mathmatiques, vol. , Paris , p. f.Te first two volumes, published by Wolfdietrich Fischer under the title Aufstze zur ara-

bischen Wissenschaftsgeschichte(Hildesheim and New York ), contain the articles by Wiede-mann which appeared in Sitzungsberichte der Physikalisch-medizinischen Soziett zu Erlangen.Te great majority of his other writings were collected in three volumes as Gesammelte Schriften

zur arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaftsgeschichteby Dorothea Girke and Dieter Bischoff (Frankfurt:Institut fr Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften ).


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influence on the historiography of natural sciences during the authors life-time asalso later on, and will be indispensable for future research.

[ix] Moreover, Wiedemann attracted a large number of pupils and entrusted themwith research on important aspects. Te work produced by them was as substantialas that of the teacher. Tis has constituted until now, and will continue to be so infuture, the building blocks for the historiography of the natural sciences cultivatedin the Arabic-Islamic world.

It is a pleasant duty for me to state that in our efforts to construct and recon-struct instruments, devices and tools which were used, developed, or invented inthe Arabic-Islamic world, we have once again Eilhard Wiedemann as the forerun-ner to be emulated. He reports in several of his writings that he and his assistants

reconstructed one or the other instrument. Unfortunately, I was not able to find outmore about the fate of his models, beyond the fact that in the Deutsches Mu-seum in Munich bought five pieces from Wiedemann and the mechanic F. Kelber,

who worked with him. Te correspondence on the astrolabe, which was amongthem, shows the difficulties that were encountered at that time, especially in repro-ducing the letters of the alphabet. Upon the request of the Museum to have theseengraved in Arabic, Wiedemann replied thus: I suggest that the numbers on theastrolabe be chiseled in our script. In Arabic script, they would need to be engraved,

which would be expensive and would also mean much trouble for me. We know

now that the prototype for Wiedemanns model was an astrolabe by MuammadIbn a-affr(/, see vol. II, p. ), which is now in the possession of theStaatsbibliothek at Berlin. Te instrument was manufactured; the doubtful areason the limb and on the back remained empty; instead of engraving the legends,appropriately printed papers were pasted on the plates and on the rete.Te instruments and apparatuses, tools and devices which are described in the

present Catalogue and are depicted in its illustrations were produced for the pur-pose of contributing together with the publications of the Institute for the His-tory of Arabic-Islamic Sciences which was founded in at the Johann Wolf-gang Goethe-University at Frankfurt towards a revision of the prevailing nega-tive notions about the achievements made over around eight hundred years in theArabic-Islamic world. While striving for such a revision, we proceed neither in ourbasic assumptions nor in our actions in a heuristic manner, but believe [x] in theunity of the history of science, thus adhering to the credo formulated by Reinaudand Fav to the effect that the common scientific heritage of mankind grows bycontinuous steps, though not always in a linear fashion but though with varying

Burkhardt Stautz, Die Astrolabiensammlungen des Deutschen Museums und des Bayerischen Na-tionalmuseums, Mnchen , pp. -.


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speed. When a particular culture area at a given time takes the lead, or rather, isled to take the scientific heritage further by yet another step, be it large or small,then the historical conditions and the level of progress achieved by the forerunnerare the factors that influence the speed and the progress, if any, of the successor.

Te dominant position of the Greeks is generally acknowledged and appreciatedby the historiography of science. Yet, there is still some uncertainty about the ques-tion, which Greek scholars do not like to discuss, about the directly or indirectlyinherited achievements from the previous and neighboring culture areas which theGreeks drew upon and elaborated further. On this, Otto Neugebauer said as lateas in : Every attempt to connect Greek [science] with pre-Greek [science]encounters strong opposition. Te possibility of having to modify the received no-

tion about the Greeks is always unwanted, in spite of all the changes which thereceived notion underwent from Winkelmanns time onwards by the simple factthat since then, to the years of history, another years more have beenadded, and the Greeks are therefore in the middle [of history] and not any moreat the beginning.

Here one may mention a fact to which, in my view, enough attention has notbeen paid so far in the history of science; namely that we can recognize the sourcesand the forerunners of the Arab-Islamic scholars more easily and more clearly thanin the case of other cultures known to us. Indeed Arab scholars were in the habit of

quoting their sources with precision and of mentioning their forerunners, in par-ticular the Greeks, with high respect and gratitude. Tus they enable us, for exam-ple, to trace the otherwise unknown instruments of the Greeks, or to recover fromquotations fragments of Greek writings, which have been lost in the original.

[xi] It is true that, since the powerful impetus we owe to J.-J.Sdillot, L.-A. S-dillot, F.-. Reinaud and F. Woepcke, much has been contributed by the Arabists,

who were interested in the history of science, towards modification of the prevalentunfounded notion about the achievements made by the Arabic-Islamic world in

Zur geometrischen Algebra, in: Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte der Mathematik, Astron-omie und Physik (Berlin) //-, esp. p. . In his innumerable publications, Neuge-bauer strove to clarify the question about the forerunners to the Greeks in the areas of astronomyand mathematics; see, besides his monumental workA History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy( vols., Berlin, Heidelberg, New York ), the following publications: ber griechische Mathema-tik und ihr Verhltnis zur vorgriechischen, in: Comptes rendus du Congrs international des math-maticiens (Oslo ), Oslo , pp. -; ber babylonische Mathematik und ihre Stellung zurgyptischen und griechischen, in: Atti des XIX Congresso Internazionale degli Orientalisti (Roma), Rome , pp. -; Te Survival of Babylonian Methods in the Exact Sciences of Antiquityand the Middle Ages, in: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society //-;

Babylonische Mathematik und Astronomie und griechische Wissenschaft, in: Jahre AkademischesGymnasium Graz. Festschrift, Graz , pp. -.


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the intellectual history of humankind. Even so, E. Wiedemanns lament of unfortunately remains valid: Again and again we encounter the view that the Ar-abs have merely preserved for us through translations the knowledge gained fromantiquity without, however, adding anything substantially new.Te reason ismainly to be seen in the fact that in the historiography of science there prevails apersistent attitude which ignores the approximately year long creative periodof the history of science, thereby also already decisively influencing schoolbooks,the basic notions of modern man with regard to the history of science. Tis judg-ment holds good not only for the Occident, but in its widest sense also for todaysArabic-Islamic world, where school books are designed according to American orEuropean models.

We hope the future visitors can acquaint themselves either in the Museum hereor in exhibitions elsewhere with the instruments and devices of our Museum,which are described in the present Catalogue; we hope that this acquaintance willcontribute to the concept of the unity of the history of science, which states thatin the period between late antiquity and the European modern age the Arabic-Islamic world was the one most capable of development and the most influentialcultural area and was the essential link between the Old World and the emergingOccident.Te introduction in the present first volume of the Catalogue is also to serve as

an aid to the hoped-for revision. At first, the introduction was planned as a simpleoutline in order to provide the user of the Catalogue with some historically helpfulinformation. During the course of writing, it took on the present form because thematerial to be communicated to the reader was much more than at first envisioned.

Te presentation appearing under the audacious title Introduction to the History ofArabic-Islamic Sciences is an attempt, perhaps the first of its kind, to summarizebriefly and in chronological order the relevant conclusions arrived at in research todate, without introducing just for their sake the eminent personalities who

were responsible for the development. It is an attempt, which may have its validityfor some time [xii] and, considering the research into Arabic-Islamic natural sci-ences which is fortunately progressing well today, it may soon hopefully serve as aspring board for an enlargement of this presentation.

In the case of a small portion of our astronomical and medical models, we havedepended upon the exhibits in museums without, of course, being able to achievethe perfection of the originals. Te largest part of our models are based on illustra-

Die Naturwissenschaften bei den orientalischen Vlkern, in: Erlanger Aufstze aus ernster Zeit,

Erlangen , pp. -, esp. p. (reprint in: E. Wiedemann, Gesammelte Schriften, vol. , pp.-, esp. p. ).


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tions and descriptions in Arabic, Persian, urkish or Latin sources, either on thebasis of the originals or of studies. A certain number of models were produced inour workshop. In the reconstruction of the larger part, we depended on the helpof people from outside. In this connection, my sincere thanks are due to GnterHausen (Frankfurt, Institut fr angewandte Physik), Herbert Hassenflug (Frank-furt, Physikalisches Institut), Matthias Heidel (Frankfurt), Werner Freudemann(Frankfurt), Gunnar Gade (Marburg), Professor Andr Wegener Sleeswyk (Gron-ingen), Dr. Gnther Oestmann (Bremen), Dr. Felix Lhning (Bremen), MahmutInci (Dsseldorf), Martin Brunold (Abtwil, Schweiz), Eduard Farr (Barcelona),Aiman Muhammad Al (Cairo), Abdalwahhb Kzim (Cairo), Al Waf (Cairo)and Kurultay Selvi (Istanbul).

For the preparation of the Catalogue, I owe thanks, besides to my colleague Eck-hard Neubauer, to Mr Danil Franke who designed the layout, prepared the photosand drawings, independently worked on the chapter on Antique Objects (Ch. )and who, with his knowledge and critical interest, substantially contributed to thesuccess of the undertaking, as also to my colleague Mr. Lutz Kotthoff, who fabri-cated many of the models in our workshop, made an inventory of the artifacts andcontributed technical drawings as well as descriptions of the instruments. I thankmy colleagues Dr. Gesine Yildiz, Dr. Carl Ehrig-Eggert and Norbert Lchter forcompiling the indices and bibliographies. Dr. Annette Hagedorn (Berlin) very

kindly took up the description of glass and ceramics with oriental designs (Ch.). My thanks are also due to UNESCO for the financial support for printing theFrench version of the Catalogue.

I cannot thank my wife adequately enough, not only for following the variousstages of the preparation of the manuscript of the Catalogue and for repeatedlyreading the proofs, but above all, for being at my side through all the difficulties

while setting up the museum and for giving me encouragement.

Frankfurt, August Fuat Sezgin


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Volume I :

Pre face . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v i ix i i

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Volume II :

l s t chapter: Astronomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Volume III :

nd chapter: Geography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

rd chapter: Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

th chapter: Clocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

th

chapter: Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . t h chapter: Optics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Volume IV :

th chapter: Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

th chapter: Chemistry and alchemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

th chapter: Minerals and fossile substances . . . . . . . . . . .

Volume V:

th chapter: Physics and technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

th chapter: Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

th chapter: Military echnology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

t h chapter : Antiques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

S U M M A R Y


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Science and Technology in Islam (sample)