Yesterday, I listened to a lecture given by a British scientific writer. The lectured was entitled: A whole new world: Science and Language. Most of the lecture went on the Arabic language and how it was one day a language of Science and today, unfortunately, it has become nothing of that. The lecturer gave example of the Ottoman Empire (12th – 20th century AD) and how at its peak there was massive development of sciences and knowledge as there were 300 educational centres nationwide and the military technologies were superior. At this time, Arabic and Persian were the languages of Science. Anyway, while I was listening to this my mind went to Spain and remembered the Islamic State in Andalusia and how it gave a perfect example of the flourishing era of Arab and Muslim scientists and more importantly how it was a cosmopolitan centre of cross-cultural dialogue.
During the Islamic reign over Andalucia (7th – 13th century AD), all the major cities like Cordoba and Sevilla (Ashbeliya) were centres for enlightening to all of Europe and North Africa. Chemistry, Algebra, Physics, Philosophy, Medicine and many other branches of knowledge witnessed big leaps forward thanks to the scientists that lived their from Muslims, Christians and Jews. At this stage of history Arabic was the language of Science. All the famous scientific and philosophical writings of the Greeks and Romans were translated. This knowledge was well understood and then came the huge contributions of the Arab Scientists in all aspects of knowledge. There was a real revolution then. The contribution of Ibn Rushd (Aver roes), for instance, is well known and acknowledged now. He wrote many books in Medicine and Astrology and he was the first to "re-discover" the writings of the great Greek philosophers like Aristotle and Socrates. Also Ibn Khaldoun who wrote his very famous forward (muqademmah) is now considered as the founder of Sociology. The impact of the work of the Andalucian scholars on Science can't be mistaken today. In modern European languages, several Arabic words still persist from this time. We have words like Chemistry, cipher, Algebra, Arsenal, logarithm…and many other words that have come directly from Arabic. Even the name of some Spanish cities is still close to its Arabic name like Valladolid (Balad Al-Waleed).
What is really amazing about this civilization is how there was absolute harmony between all the peoples of the country. Muslims, together with Christians and Jews, contributed to the flourishing of their community without any discrimination or extremism and in perfect tolerance and this is how the capital Cordoba was a real cosmopolitan city and people from different places came to it. The Jewish physician Ibn Maimoun (Maimonides) sets a good example for this. Although he wasn't Muslim, he gained all the knowledge and fame in Andalucia that he was requested to be the Doctor of the Sultan of Egypt, Salah El-Din. Another point that's to be learned is how scholars sought the knowledge from everywhere whether it's through translation, learning from the others or through personal research without any kind of intolerance. Then, they assimilated all what they had known and gave the world of the essence of human knowledge. It's to be said that the Renaissance that took place in Europe years after pays a lot of tributes to the wonderful civilization of Andalucia.
That's what I thought of and wanted to share!
