The House of Wisdom and its Contribution to the Preservation of Knowledge

Over the 100 years that Islam expanded, the Arabs collected a wealth of science, philosophy and arts from lands they had conquered as they grew. By the tenth century, nearly all Greek texts were translated into Arabic as a result of the Translation Movement. They preserved a lot of Greek works that would have been lost otherwise. At the time they were thought of as the greatest scholars because of all of the knowledge they combined from different countries. For example, the Greeks liked geometry, and the Hindus liked algebra and arithmetic, so the Arabians developed a combination of both called trigonometry, used for astronomical purposes with the ratios called trigonometric functions. The Islamic people contributed to transmission of knowledge in Europe by all of the writing they had sought after to make their own. It gave them so much more information than other countries. As more expansion occurred, the Greek scientific writings moved westward through the Islamic world and reached Spain by the 9th century.

19. The growth of cross cultural trade spread scientific and technological traditions influencing Greek philosophy and science throughout Europe, Greek and Indian math on Muslim followers, Eastern Asia’s gunpowder and printing technologies throughout Islam and Western

Salman Rushdie once said, “The word 'translation' comes, etymologically, from the Latin [word] for 'bearing across'. Having been borne across the world, we are translated men. It is normally supposed that something always gets lost in translation; I cling, obstinately to the notion that something can also be gained.”

For centuries in the Muslim land the harsh and dry conditions made it hard to collect store and transport water. Most of the progress made in technology and engineering. As said in the quote "Muslim engineers also perfected the waterwheel and built underground water channels some fifty feet underground. The underground channels had manholes (openings from the street) so that they could be cleaned and repaired."(document 7) They created these inventions to help keep water and keep it clean so that they would be able to survive and thrive in where they were staying. As for astronomy most of their work was based off Hellenistic and Indian writing. This could show they were in a golden age because they took the time and effort to figure out what would work and what wouldn’t work and try and fix it. Under one of the early caliphates most Muslim scholars started learning from these writings. As said in this quote "The astrolabe, pictured, allowed people to find their precise latitude by using the position of the stars. The astrolabe was later modified to be used on ships. This innovation allowed Europeans to begin exploring the seas more safely. This lead to the Europeans finding faster trade routes to Asia by sea and Christopher Columbus’s “discovery” of the New World."(Document 6) It talks about the creation and perfection of the astrolabe and how it helped people find their exact latitude using the positions of the stars. This didn’t just help throughout the Muslim time but helped other generations of people after. It helped the Europeans find trade routes faster and help Christopher Columbus “discover” the new world. Not only that but it helped people navigate through the seas more

HVII. INFLUENCE OF INDIA ON ISLAMIC THOUGHT: Indian mathematics grabbed the attention of places in the Dar al-Islam. Muslims found it attractive for both educational purposes and accounting. They adopted “Indian numerals,” which was later called the “Arab numerals,” since they learned it from the Arabian Muslims. Completely simplified bookkeeping.

(Doc 3) The medicine that was developed in that time is still incorporated today. Texts on the basics of surgery helped to create a better understanding on how to treat patients, and these have become the very basics doctors learn. (Doc 5) Trigonometry and Astronomy also impact us. Not only are these subjects taught to kids in schools around the globe, but they were used to study the skies and create calendars and maps. If it were not for this, we would not have been able to go further in the exploration of the world. (Doc 8) The culture of this time is also extremely prevalent, especially the expansion of Islam from the influence of the Quran and people like the Sufi poets. This is one of the foremost religions of the world today, which started in this time. Clearly, the legacy of the Islamic Civilization was extremely influential since their ideas and innovations and are still part of the world

This was one of the most significant events in the history of education. This way meant that scholars could easily communicate with each other, and “ideas were translated from Greek, Latin, ancient Egyptian, Chinese, and languages from other parts of the world's.” (Doc D). This knowledge could be read and discussed by scholars all over the Islamic Empire, which greatly defined the spread of ideas through the region. That was the last condition needed for the spread of math and science in the Islamic

The Abbasids were the first ones to study and translate important Greek and Indian mathematical book like Euclid's geometry text the Elements. They adopted a very Greek approach to mathematics of formulating theorems precisely and proving them formally in Euclid's ways.

Preceding the Islamic Golden Age, Indian culture had a revolution of thought which was seen in the Islamic Empire. One thing from Indian culture that transcended into Islamic culture was the concept of zero. This was something that was not considered in earlier mathematic studies. It read in “Math Roots: Zero: A Special Case,” “the Arabs recognized the value of the Hindu system, adapted the numerals and computation, and spread the ideas in their travels.” The Arabic people saw the power in this numbering system because there was a place holder number. This concept was accepted into Islamic thought; however, it was not received well in Europe. For the greater part of the European society, it was a strange system, in comparison to the Roman numeral system, and was not widely accepted. At the beginning of Arabic numeral introduction into European society, scholars and mathematicians were primarily the only ones who accepted

The mathematics had been developed for four thousand years, and Muslim inherited mathematics from Egyptian, Mesopotamians, Sumerian and Babylonian. Greek geometry and Hindu arithmetic and algebra reached at an early stage in Muslim lands and were translated in centers such as Gondeshapur and Baghdad. Starting out at intellectual center of Islam, they soon criticizing those concepts and formulation by finding inaccurate and inconsistent information and adapt their own ideas. At the same period in Western Europe, they still use Roman numerals and abacus to calculate numbers. The Babylonian already had concept of bases sixty computation with place value numerals. Muslim then developed a decimal arithmetic based on place value and joint concept of zero. In the ninth century, Banu Musa brothers who were three gifted sons of Musa, Muhammad, Ahmad, and Hassan ibn Musa lived in Baghdad studied problems in constructing interrelated geometrical figures. Later the characteristic of those line, space of geometrical shape was given intense study and utilized sophisticated geometry in designing waterwheels, in improving farming equipment, in developing new type of weapon used at war. Another person who make significant contribution on mathematics is Muhammad ibn al-Khwarizmi, a Persian born in the eighth century. He was the first person who originated both terms “algebra”, and

Omar was also a poet, philosopher, and astronomer. Omar’s works were translated in 1851, which was research on Euclid’s axioms. In the medieval period, he expanded on Khwarizmi’s and the Greeks mathematic works. He only worked with cubic equations only and focused on geometric and algebraic solutions of equations. In 1145AD, Al-Khwarizmi’s book was translated by Robert Chester, which made it possible for algebra to be introduced to Europe. After algebra was introduced in Europe, European mathematicians developed and expanded on algebra concepts. Even though algebra began in the Arabic countries, once European mathematicians obtained the information of algebra, they became the leaders of mathematical discoveries in the world (“Mathematics”).

What is mathematics? What is the distinct definition for it? Something that always has bewildered me is what maths really is.

After the Caliphate conquests had slowed down around 732 AD caliph Abū Jafar Abdullāh al-Māmūn ibn Harūn or Al-Ma’mun for short was in charge. One of the most miraculous events in history happened under his rule, something called the translation movement. Al-Ma’mun decreed that all knowledge be collected and brought to him for his library which would be placed in The House of Knowledge in the city of Baghdad in what is now present day Iraq. Legend has it that Al-Ma’mum would trade a books weight in gold for a translated copy if it was not already in his library. This drove people from all over to collect foreign wisdom and have it translated to put in his hands. In the years before, Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan would decree that the language of the entire Empire that stretched from west Africa to west Asia would now be speaking only Arabic, not just for his own ineligible purposes but because Arabic was believed to be the language of god.

Mathematics has contributed to the alteration of technology over many years. The most noticeable mathematical technology is the evolution of the abacus to the many variations of the calculator. Some people argue that the changes in technology have been for the better while others argue they have been for the worse. While this paper does not address specifically technology, this paper rather addresses influential persons in philosophy to the field of mathematics. In order to understand the impact of mathematics, this paper will delve into the three philosophers of the past who have contributed to this academic. In this paper, I will cover the views of three philosophers of mathematics encompassing their

Synopsis: The purpose of the book is to focus on potential similarities found in epistemological hierarchies of Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 1240) and Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328), and reflections of these similarities on their theologies. At the first part of the book, which comprises of two chapters, I examine revelation, the human intellect, and inspiration-unveiling as epistemological means used by both Ibn al-ʿArabī and Ibn Taymiyya. Both of them claim to have followed precisely the Quran and hadiths of the Prophet Muhammad when religious knowledge is in question. Unlike some philosophers and Kalam theologians, who may consider the human intellect valuable equally with the revelation, Ibn al-ʿArabī and Ibn Taymiyya affirm the highest status of the Quran and hadiths indisputably. Having confirmed the most elevated status of the revelation, namely the Quran and hadiths, they differ prominently. For Ibn al-ʿArabī the most reliable way of religious knowledge is unveiling while for Ibn Taymiyya, the human intellect must be given precedence over unveiling. Therefore, it can be said that the epistemological hierarchy of Ibn al-ʿArabī is constituted with the revelation,