ISCI490/ASTU400M Science and Civilization in Islam

My roomates and I were sitting around chatting yesterday and we somehow got onto the concept of religion, education, western perspective, and numerous other things that reminded me of this class. Discussions like that make me optimistic, to a certain extent, because they remind me that people are aware that the education system they’ve been through has a strong European, Christian approach to history, as hidden as it often appears to be. However, they also revive my original sentiments of frustration, and to a certain extent anger, that originally evoked the desire to start this course. Because people are open and willing to listen, to learn, but the information is so hard to find and simply just not taught in our Education system.

I’m not sure how different the education systems in Islamic countries actually are to ours – although I know some of you have experienced them. After reading those chapters on the “decline” of science in Islam, I have the impression that the colonial powers imposed their Education systems and more importantly the content taught and their approach to scientific learning on the Islamic countries which they occupied, and this has forever changed (or perhaps abolished) the tradition of learning that once existed in these places.

Anyways, my point in writing this post was that I think it’s important that we engage in these types of conversations with as many people as possible. Change of perspective starts one dinnertime discussion at a time.

I’m working on a paper for another class about how Cholera spread in India during the nineteenth century and how the British responded to it. What’s interesting is that religious pilgrimages were sites identified as places where the disease could easily be spread. Both in India and other parts of the world the British were afraid that religous gatherings would cause the disease to proliferate further. Oftentimes they identified the Hajj as a route of tranmission of the disease to Europe. Although they were entirely Eurocentric and they did not see how their actions in the world contributed to the spread of disease, the British were somewhat correct in saying that infectious disease could spread through close contact at religious gatherings(they blew things way out of proportion). This made me wonder, during the time before colonialism when Muslims ruled not only Mecca but lands surrounding it, did they see it as important to ensure hygenic conditions were upheld during the Hajj and journeys to it and that people were generally healthy. Alot is not written about this subject, but I feel that in all that wev’e learnt about medicine in Medeival Islam it would seem like physicians and rulers would want to promote healthy conditions at this time. That’s one thing which deserves attention-to look at how Medeival Islamic scholars, governments etc. promoted and organized public health beyond the upkeep of individual health.

I was reading another article about Science and Islam during the Golden Ages and the author referred to Leonardo Da Vinci and his drawing of the Vitruvian Man and mentioned that Da Vinci said a man’s center was not at his navel but lower. As you may or may not know FIVE centuries earlier the Brothers of purity or Ikhwan Al Safa said the same thing. I wonder if the exhibition had that fact or is this another thing that Mr. Leonardo left out. On that note I personally loved the exhibition I love art galleries, I find them really fascinating and it actually made quiet a good conversation with one of my friends the other day. Hope you all enjoyed it! I came out of the gallery wishing that I knew how to read Italian. And Yes Muslim scientists are amazing and it’s sad that they weren’t credited but we can’t deny that western scientists discovered some pretty amazing things too. We shouldn’t (not saying that we do) glorify one civilisation over the other whether it be Islamic or European civilisation.

So today in Arabic class we were learning more words and their roots. Every word in Arabic is derived from a root and one of the words we learnt is توحيد (tawhid) which is derived from وحد (wahad). The word tawhid means to promote oneness and wahad means to unify. Then the teacher says a lot of Islamic art ex. The dome and patterns, are seen as symbol of tawhid in Islam. At that point I was confused and intrigued at the same time. I was like is she saying that Islamic art is unifying because it’s structural? Or what? at the same time I wanted to learn more about this because we talked about Islamic art in class. Unfortunately the fire alarm rang, disrupted our class and I couldn’t ask her to elaborate. So I’m like ok whatever I’ll just Google it when I get home. From what I found on the internet (which was not much and if any not very thorough) is that there is a unifying characteristic about Islamic art which the Qur’anic message of tawhid produced. One particular site talked about how Islamic art is the unifying of history and geography together because Islamic art is spread over a vast region reaching from Spain to Asia and going south to Africa and history through the different materials used from the span of the 7th century to modern day. As we all learnt and saw, Islamic Art had a geometric element to it. Another website said that this geometric pattern might have expressed “the logic and order inherent in the Islamic vision of the universe.” Also noting the importance of science especially the study of geometry and astronomy, this in turn may have “nourished the Arabic passion for creating infinite, decorative pattern” or going back to tawhid, this form pattern unified both art and science to create Islamic art. There are probably tons more explanations but I thought this “unification” was the most interesting, because I think this is what truly represents Islam.

I was researching for modern Muslim contributions to science that weren’t covered in anyone’s presentations (and sadly I didn’t find all that much) but I did find out about this Malaysian surgeon by the name of Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor who was the first to perform biomedical research in outer space. He performed experiments relating to the growth of cancer cells – specifically liver cancer and leukemia cells and he also performed experiments on space protein (specifically lipase (a type of protein enzyme) crystallization. The experiments relating to protein crystallization could be financially beneficial for Malaysia because lipases are used in a large variety of products. It’s actually a cool story because he prayed in space and on Eid-ul-fitr he handed out cookies that he’d packed to the rest of crew at the station, but anyways that’s a side note. I also found out about Toffy Musivand, a Persian engineer who invented a various pieces of medical equipment, his most famous invention being the Artificial Cardiac Pump. If Mohammad hadn’t already talked about Dr. Farouk el Baz in his presentation I would’ve done my post on him because he is by far the most famous modern Muslim scientist [and he’s Egyptian of courseJ].

I noticed that something we didn’t really focus on in class was Islamic contributions to music, which is probably because our class focus was mainly Islamic contributions to science. Anyways, I was really surprised to find out that a lot of classical musical instruments are actually derived from Arabic instruments for example:

– the qitara gave rise to the guitar

– the qanun gave rise to the harp

– the rabab gave rise to the rebec, which is an ancestor of the violin

There are numerous other examples but these are the ones that really stood out to me. I honestly doubt that a lot of people know about this and I just found it really awesome. Anyways if you want to find out more about it, check out the book I referenced below by Henry George Farmer.

Farmer, Henry George (1930), Historical facts for the Arabian Musical Influence, Ayer Publishing, ISBN 040508496X, OCLC 220811631

Throughout this course we’ve explores some fascinating people and ideas from a long time period.  But a few times I have asked myself what my own reasons are for learning about these figures and why it would important for our society to acknowledge and explore this remarkable period of world history. To me there is no question at all that intellectual pursuits and science of historical Islamic societies represented a vibrant and influential learning tradition, but how is knowledge of this period going to help us today? This class and other intiatives can’t exist solely for the purpose of glorifying the period for a bunch of people who are interested, I think in studying any historical aspect of a society certain goals of the study must relate to contemporary contexts. Show how does the content of our class do this? I know we have many reasons, but oftentimes they are not entirely practical in the sense that even if a wider audience took our class or was educated on the topic it still may not result is changes that could be attributed to their new historical knowledge.

A few reasons that just come tothe top of my head for learning about science in Islamic civilizations is:

-it may allow Muslim nations to recover elements of their discourse which allowed historical societies to flourish in intellectual pursuits

-as students we know that sciences are not merely a European phenomenon, rather they have been an aspect of many societies who follow diverse cultural models of learning(why does this matter though?)

-it opens the door to pluralistic notions of education which remind us that many civilizations share common ambitions(positice ambitions) that are expressed and achieved in many ways, all of which are rich and fascinating in their own context-this is what I think is the most important becuase it affects us today in a world where on one hand due to globalization people are connected in new way(and thus require a hollistic understanding of one another, because a lot of clashes we see today are born out of mutual ignorance) and on the other many educated people(even students, both Muslim, non-Muslim, all types of peoples who learn) don’t feel the need to contextualize their learning or connect it to history. What we’ve learnt can be of great utility in this.

Why I wrote this as my final blog post is becuase I often felt with this course that we were studying Islamic science only to glorify it in an ideal way as a response to what we see in modern science. But I don’t think by saying that people today don’t appreciate Islamic contributions to science we are doing full justice to the topic because we are defining the subject matter in negative terms(by addresing something we feel is missing). To me there had to be more to it than this and I know there is, and I think that  the most lasting element from this course for me will be questions concerning what can be done with the knowledge wev’e acquired and why it is important to be curious about history that often feels very distant? I think alot of us will definitely leave with many questions(interesting and curious ones) from this course, and I really think that is awesome cause it will allow us to see more dimensions to what we have learnt and many of which will deal with our(individual and societal) current situations

Hello,

In my last post, I am going to talk about a Muslim scientist, philosopher, psychologist and musician named Abu Naser Al Farabi ( 872 – 951.) No one mentioned him in class so I thought it would be a good idea to highlight some of his work. I am going to focus on his contribution to music.

Al Farabi was known in the west as Alpharabius. He was an expert in the art and science of music and contributed to what we now know as music notes. He wrote a music book called “kitab al Musiqa” (The Book of Music) which heavily studies Arabic and Persian music at his time. The book discusses major topics as the science of sound, intervals, tetrachords, octave species, musical instruments, compositions, and the influence of music. He also invented several musical instruments.  He was also a sociologist, so he wrote another book called “ Meanings of the Intellect’ which dealt with music as a therapy believing that music affects one’s soul. It was mentioned that he could play music to the point where listeners either laugh or weep; depending on the music piece.

Rima

I’m sure most of you know about the King Abdullah University for Science and Technology. But why is this important, besides the fact that it may make huge advances in science and technology? Well first, according to them, the Institute is important because it is based on the notion to:

• Create an international community of scholars dedicated to advanced science.
• Welcome leaders in science, technology, commerce, business, and education through appointments and partnerships.
• Provide researchers the freedom to be creative and experiment.
• Embody the highest international standards of scholarship, research, education, and learning.
• Provide unfettered access to information and share knowledge, skills, and expertise to achieve economic growth and prosperity.
• Nurture and protect freedom of research, thought, and discourse relating to scholarly work

But why do I think it’s most important? Saudi Arabia is the stereotype of rigid and backwards “Islamists” as percieved by the West. I really think that this move on the part of the Kingdom will help to encourage non-Muslims and non-Muslim countries to acknowledge the contributions of Muslims and Islamic empires throughout history. It is a great way to get our foot back in the door of science, I guess you could say. It seems that this university is really grounded on similiar principles as that of the Islamic empire during the golden age in which scholars and scientists of all religions, nationalities and now genders are welcomed to contribute to the modern scientific enterprise.

Hilary

Website:

http://www.kaust.edu.sa/about/about.html

Last summer (I think around then) I went to see the IMAX film at Science World called Journey to Mecca. It is basically a short film depicting the life of Ibn Battuta during his travels to hajj. I happened to go on a special fundraiser night (I think we were raising money to help a few Palestinian refugee families). Anyways, to my surprise the night/film was actually sponsored by the “Muhammad Institute for Space Science” which I had never heard of before. The Muhammad Institute for Space Science is a Vancouver-based space science institute dedicated to the development in the Islamic World of advanced astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology, and space exploration. It works in collaboration with other scientific institutions around the globe and employs the expertise of scientists from all cultural backgrounds and religious persuasions. Their goal is to establish a mutually beneficial collaboration between the Islamic World and Canada in the space sciences, fostering the return of the Islamic community as a significant contributor to astronomy and related space technologies, and reinforcing Canada as a major player in aerospace on the international stage. I encourage every one to check out this organization (http://www.muhammadinstitute.org/index.php). I totally forgot about it until now but it is something that would have been interesting to look into in our studies. It is as if they are picking up where Islamic scientists left off after the Islamic golden age. Really cool!

Hilary