Astronomy Of The Islamic World

During the 1500s, thinkers applied the scientific method to the pursuit of knowledge, encouraging many others to uncover many unknown features. The heliocentric model of the world was just one important breakthrough that was introduced during

Document 1 explains why Muslims from the Islamic Empire preserved its knowledge and built upon it. Muslims advanced in science because they used reasoning to support their claims. Wealthy people and rulers wanted qualified people to do work for them. Religious people wanted math mathematicians to calculate when they needed to pray. Astronomers were hired to find out where Mecca

Astronomy is the branch of science that deals with celestial objects, space, and the physical universe as a whole. During the Middle Ages, a Roman astronomer named Ptolemy came up with a theory that everything in the solar system revolved around the Earth (Document C). During the Renaissance, a Polish astronomer named Copernicus relied mostly on mathematics, he developed a very different understanding of the universe (Document C). He came up with a theory that everything in the universe revolves around the sun. The ideas of Copernicus were upsetting to the Catholic Church. They were upsetting because they thought the Earth was the biggest planet and that everything should revolve around it. You can see that man's view was changing through astronomy because the way that people saw the universe was

To begin, astronomy changed man’s view of man in the time of the Renaissance. According to Document C, the drawings of the Middle Ages had different beliefs than the time of the Renaissance. In addition, the Roman astronomer Ptolemy’s drawing is geocentric, and the Polish

Celestial bodies - the sun, moon, planets, and stars - have provided us a reference for measuring the passage of time throughout human existence. Ancient civilizations like: China, India, Babylon, and Greece relied upon the apparent motion of these bodies through the sky to record and determine seasons, months, and years. We know little about the details of timekeeping in prehistoric eras. However, records and artifacts usually uncover that in every culture, people were preoccupied with measuring and recording the passage of time. Stonehenge, built over 4000 years ago in England has no written records, but its alignments show its purposes apparently included the determination of seasonal or celestial events, such as lunar

Nobody fully understands what drives people to undertake a mission, but it often causes people to take many risks. For example, Farah Ahmedi climbed a mountain on a prosthetic leg with a sick mother just to reach freedom. Rikki-Tikki fought for his life to save his family. John Steinbeck eavesdropped on people's conversations just to get material for his book. These stories show different people who had each set a goal for themselves. Ahmedi and Rikki-Tikki fought for their lives to survive and save their loved ones. While Steinbeck traveled to great lengths to write his book. Their goals may be different but they all had set a goal and they all eventually accomplished their goal.

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was a German astronomer who believed in the heliocentric theory. Kepler is a clear example of the narrow line that separated science and religion. Nonetheless, his ideas would show that things could be solved through reason alone. He believed that the harmony of the human soul could be found through numerical relationships that existed between planets. He found that the planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Uranus, Jupiter, and Saturn all revolved at different times. For example, the earth revolved around the sun in a year while Saturn revolved around the sun in fifty years. From this, Kepler found a mathematical ratio, nine to the two-thirds power, to explain this phenomenon. This was revolutionary to humanity’s place in the universe. People were shocked that the universe could be explained by math alone rather than religion. This went strongly

Astronomy was a highly debated topic between scientists and the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church believed that the Earth was the center of the universe and there was a place for all of the gods/zodiacs in it. An astronomer from the Middle Ages, Ptolemy, created the drawing of the universe which depicted the Earth in the very center of the universe, or geocentric. The geocentric universe, also contained an outer name in latin translating directly to “The Empire of Heaven and the Home of God and the Elect( document C )”. Contrary to the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church another astronomer from The Renaissance created a sun centered universe or heliocentric. This astronomers name was Copernicus, he created his universe based on observation of the movement of the planets and mathematics. During the Middle Ages it was strongly believed that the universe was geocentric, but now astronomers like Copernicus have disproved these beliefs with concrete

In summer of 1609, Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) pointed his revolutionary astronomical telescope to the heavens under the starry Venetian sky; his greatly important observations unveiled the mysteries of universe and would end up changing the course of scientific thought forever. Galileo lived in an age where there was much status quo, when scientists and philosophers would accept scientific and religious doctrine that had stood for hundreds, if not thousands, of years instead of challenging the accepted knowledge in favor of intellectual progress. Galileo’s scientific methods lead to significant discoveries explaining key scientific laws, such as the

First invented in Greece, the Muslims fully developed the astrolabe around 800. The valuable tool allowed locating and predicting the position of the sun, moon, planets, and stars from a specific site. As a navigation instrument, the astrolabe proved invaluable and it aided Muslim sailors. Further, the astrolabe made accurate mapping and surveying possible. In fact, it helped Muslims map the whole eastern hemisphere and estimate the size of the entire planet for the first time. In the early 12th century, Muslims introduced the astrolabe to Europe thereby advancing that culture as

Prior to Galileo’s time, the Greek and medieval mind, science was a kind of formalism, a means of coordinating data, which had no bearing on the ultimate reality of things. The point was to give order to complicated data, and all that mattered was the hypothesis that was simplest to understand and most convenient. Astronomy and mathematics were regarded as the playthings of intellectuals. They were accounted as having neither philosophical nor theological relevance. There was genuine puzzlement among Churchmen that they had to get involved in a quarrel over planetary orbits.

The Astrolabe object helped Islamics find time for prayers and was used in the islamic golden age. Eventually it helped the European’s Navigation because it was able to find the latitude on land and it can help locate the sun, moon and stars. Asia’s innovations in ship design influenced Europe's ship. The had larger ships and more efficient ships to travel on.

These changes indicated that man was not tied to the Church, and that he could think freely for himself. As can be seen, astronomy changed man’s view of man during the Renaissance by showing that the lives of people were not controlled by outside institutions.

The Scientific Revolution was at its height during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with many supporters and critics of the works of scientists. It was the transition from the medieval, philosophical and religious perspective to a secular and rational perspective. One of the biggest debates that defined the Scientific Revolution was the debate over whether the universe was geocentric (with the earth at the center of the universe), or heliocentric (with the earth revolving around the sun). The works of these scientists was influenced by political leaders for their desire in power, the clash of ideas between religious leaders and institutions, and differentiation towards female scientists and unorganization in research. In all, each of these three parts of society contributed to the Scientific Revolution in very important ways.

One of the main reasons why Muslims studied astronomy was for the purpose to tell time. The Muslims have an obligation to pray five times a day and each prayer has its own time, depending on where the sun is found. In the article, The Five Muslim Daily Prayer Times and What They Mean, shared information about when each prayer is in. The article mentioned, “In ancient times, one merely looked at the sun to determine the various times for prayer” (Huda, 2017). The first prayer of the day is called Fajr, which begins during the dawn time and when part of the sun is appears in the eastern horizon.