Free essay on intellectual contributions of islam

Write a 700-word essay exploring the intellectual gifts of Islam. In the end, what was Islam’s attitude towards the discoveries of ancient scholars and how did that relationship spark the Renaissance
Perhaps, when thinking over what Islam gave essential to mankind, the first item comes to mind is a giving a significant unity to people practicing this religion. According to Islam, all of humanity comes from God, being a kind of a single family. All people are equal. People differ in a national belonging, skin color, eye shape and origin, as Allah has divided the people on these grounds only for distinguishing each other and for mutual enrichment (in terms of what the civilization has accumulated). In this context, when all people are equal in terms of social status, it creates a powerful basis for the promotion and maintenance of a just social order, and of a safety of society. In my opinion, the most important achievement of Islam was a call for knowledge, promotion of knowledge.
Following this postulate by the Muslim world allowed all human beings not to be deprived of their pre-Islamic teachings, including philosophy. Personally adherents of Islam preserved for future generations works of the great thinkers of antiquity. This nuance gave right and opportunity to many nations and peoples, representatives of non-Islam religions under the rule of the Muslims, to pursue art and science. Such an attitude to knowledge has allowed Islamic scholars to make an invaluable contribution to the history of the world. It refers to the openings in mathematics, astronomy, medicine and so on. In general, the aspect of knowledge – it is provided as part of the world harmony provided by Islam.
Special attention shall be given to the Golden Age of Islam – the historic period from about VIII to XIII century during which time the Arab Caliphate was the largest state of all known. Within that state a joint cultural Muslim space formed, which continued to exist after the fall of Caliphate. Due to this reason, Islamic scholars, writers and artists managed to contribute significantly to the development of world science and culture. After the collapse of the Arab Caliphate development of Islamic culture gradually slowed down, but the achievements of Muslim thinkers were widely known in Europe and gave impetus to the further development of the European culture. As many successful rulers like Caesar and Napoleon, they understood that political power and scientific progress go together, so scientists enjoyed great support from the rulers. This had a lot of reasons – and some of them practical. Knowledge of medicine helped to save lives, equipment – to win the war, knowledge of mathematics allowed to adjust public finances. Arabic language became the universal language of science. Scientists from different countries got a single language to communicate, which opportunity they didn`t have before in the world of multilingualism. Among other things, the Arabic language differed with its precision, which perfectly suited for scientific and technical terminology.
Now I will concentrate on narrating spheres of human life that were at a large extent affected by the touch of Islam culture.
Medicine, probably, was the highest achievement of Muslim scientists, and it is directly related with the appeals about finding treatments for diseases, call for hygiene and cleanliness. It is the Islamic caliphate where first hospitals and first medical institutions were built. A brilliant Islamic scholar Ibn Sina (known as Avicenna), in whose honour the medicine was his named, was a talented scholar who is credited with opening infectious diseases, anesthesia, connections of psychological and physical conditions, etc.
The study of experimental physics begins with the name of Ibn al-Haytham, the founder of optics whose work ” Book of Optics” is put on a par with the works of Isaac Newton for revolutionary ideas in opening laws of optics. Among the achievements of Islamic scholars in mathematics, special place is given to the advent algebra and algorithms that is associated with the name of the famous mathematician Muhammad al-Khwarizmi, who also introduced the decimal numeral system, fractions, trigonometric functions, and many other major accomplishments, without which no modern mathematics would exist.
Muslims have made great strides in agriculture, using three main its principles – well thought-out system of crop rotation, developed irrigation system and the use of a certain type of grain, depending on their features and requirements of soil.
Such scholars as al-Tusi and Ibn al-Shatir, first spoke of the possibility of the Earth’s rotation around its axis, and Copernicus when opening his heliocentric theory of the solar system took advantage of their works. In 1259 al-Tusi founded the world largest for those times observatory near Tabriz, which has had an exceptional impact on the observatories of many Eastern countries, including the observatory in Beijing.
Ancestor of Chemistry is thought to be Jabir Ibn Haiyan who developed an early version of the experimental methods in chemistry and described physical characteristics of many chemicals (including different acids). He made a systematic and experimental approach based on laboratory studies, significantly different from the approach of his predecessors – of the ancient Greek and Egyptian alchemists whose methods were often allegorical and confusing.
As I made certain, Muslim scholars who got acquainted with the ancient scientific heritage of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome more deeply developed the above mentioned sciences, as well as literature, architecture, military and naval craft. Scientists of medieval Islam preserved the tradition and experience of their predecessors, gathered together this giant scientific mosaic that was transmitted to them from distant countries worldwide, polished and widened and cautiously handed it over to succeeding generations for their benefit, handed it over to Men of Renaissance for their further developing. Concepts of Islam showed for the first time that science was above political framework and religious affiliation, that science is a set of knowledge that benefits all people and which main idea at all times would remain relevant.