Scientists That Contributed A Rise Of Science In Islamic Civilization (Essay Sample)

Sciences in the Islamic Civilization Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Sciences in the Islamic Civilization Science has played a very pivotal role not only in transforming the world but also in defining the way people live and interact. Science covers a lot more than that, and when discussing how different Islamic scientists contributed to civilization, it becomes clear how science helps the brain develop and hence find more knowledge. The Islamic civilization has played an important role in shaping the science of the 21st century. The origin of the Islamic science is a very important topic to research since a lot of people neglect the efforts made by the Muslims in defining civilization. Despite their huge number in the entire globe, there are only two Muslims who have ever won a Nobel Prizes in science. Muslims complete the second largest religious group in the entire world. This is however different from centuries ago where the representatives of Muslims were among the best medical surgeons, natural scientists, gastronomists, etc. This paper only focuses on the contributions made by the Muslims in the civilization of the 21st century. Having inherited the intellectual heritage from their folks, the Muslims were the first people to develop scientific theories that were international in nature. The main reason behind this is that as a culture, they had expanded throughout the world. There was a general spread of the Islamic culture through a large geographical region. The very first Muslim scientists gathered sources that came from India, Greece, and Persia. However, some of them also came from China after the Mongol invasion. The translation of the scientific works from the respective language to Arabic is probably one of the earliest signs of accelerated cultural transmission. There is a number of researchers who have tried to use both qualitative and quantitative methods to try and find out the actual contribution made by the Muslims in the science of today. Many of these people have divided the time in ages of about 50 years each to measure their impact on science and technology clearly. The most significant scientists are assigned a given age. Through this, an unbroken chain of succession from prominent scientists, such as Plate, Aristotle, and Euclid, just to mention but a few, can be easily seen. However, there is a very big gap of about 350 years where only the Christians and Judaists dominated the fields of mathematics, chemistry, and biology. In the absence of institutional arrangement, one of the major factors that contributed to the rise of Islamic science was the socio-political structure. There was a lot of Muslim politicians and elites who dominated the entire world. These individuals ensured enough funding that favored learning and science. The coordination of these events was done by first providing such services to the Muslims. For example, the children who attended classes on how to read in Arabic so that they could understand the Quran were also enrolled in science classes. There is a number of Muslims that have contributed to the civilization from various fields of science and technology. This paper will only focus on a few individuals who have played recognizable roles in the international field of science. For example, Ibn-al-Haitham was a prominent and intelligent man who transformed the science of optics. In Europe and the United States of America, he was commonly referred to as Alhazen. He was among the greatest physicists alive at his time. One of the major theories that he developed was the law that states a ray of light follows the easiest path and passes through a given medium. Alhazen also played an important role in helping identify the theory behind the law of inertia. This is recognized as the first law of motion in physics (Venkateswaran, 2016). Before Isaack Newton came to develop the theory, Alhazen had already defined it. This is an open and wide field that has really helped in developing other theories in the world of science. These works by the above scientists are still being applied in various areas that have helped in defining civilization such as the airplanes. For instance, the machine’s speed creates a thrust that will result in a drag and hence movement of the plane. Other important theories in science such as the laws behind refraction are among major works contributed by Ibn-al-Haitham. He mechanically described this by identifying the separation of light particles when passing through media of different densities. The scientist developed the rectangular law that aimed at describing the facts behind that theory. However, later, Newton rediscovered and elaborated this idea better. Isaac was not the only scientists who used Ibn-al-Haitham theory as Roger Bacon was seen to steal his ideas of optics. It is therefore not surprising that Bacon recognizes the Arabic contribution as he identifies this as the only true knowledge. Just like Ibn-al-Haitham, Al-Biruni was another important and intelligent scientist who worked in Afghanistan. He was an empirical scholar who had a great passion for his work. Al-Biruni is well known for his Galilean invariance of the theories of natural science (Abraham, 2017). In his researches, he anticipated the works of Galileo by about six centuries. The scholar was a Muslim who wanted to identify the science of the universe. One of his findings has helped the current scientists working in NASA to launch satellites in other planets successfully. Al-Biruni did this by explaining that the same theories in physics that are used here on earth apply even to the starts, the moon, and planets in the heavens. The contributions of the above scientists have really helped in bringing civilization. However, very few people have acknowledged their contributions as mentioned above. For example, some scientists from the western nations claim that the only thing that these Islamic scientists did was to follow the Greek traditional theories. However, as seen above, this only proves that these people are ignorant of the historical evidence. The main reason behind this is that the Islamic scientists demonstrated that what they knew was what was important. The Muslim scientists ensured that their children learned with what was available. They would then examine the doubts they had gathered from the readings with the final and important step being to identify important points, and this was done through observation and research. Therefore, the Islamic scientists really worked hard to ensure that their children knew the importance of science education. This is what has led to the current civilization not only in the Arabic nations but in the entire globe. Another important scientist that had a significant effect on the medical industry is Haly Abbas. In medical histories, the scholar is well identified as Ali ibn-al-Abbas who lived in Ahwaz. He was a very intelligent medical student, and hence, some teachers and students referred to him at times. His works in the medical industry are well remembered especially after the scientist built the famous Azudi hospital in Baghdad. As a physician, he set up different hospitals and research facilities where issues to do with medicine were researched and prepared. Also, Ali ibn-al-Abbas was a proficient writer who produced several books when he was alive. Some of his works had very strong influences on universities around the world. For example, in one of his writings, he in details organized medical theories that helped doctors and physicians in identifying key issues before proceeding with treatment of any kind. Ibn al-Quff was one more Muslim scientist who majored in theories not only concerning medicine but also natural science and philosophy. As discussed above, socio-political factors had a great influence on the Arabic science. One of the supporting evidence to this theory is the fact that Ibn al-Quff’s father was a prominent politician in Karak. He therefore used his political power to find prominent physicians such as Ibn Abi Usaybiah from Syria to teach his young son about healing art. The tutor was pleased with the brilliance and aptitude to know new things that Ibn al-Quff demonstrated. The scholar Ibn al-Quff later studied physics and medicine that landed him a job in the Mamluk army. The experience he got working for the government enabled him to come up with the theories that the scientist used to teach other young physicians. Just like Haly Abbas, he became an author who focused on medical compendium. One of his books that is still used in various countries to teach surgeons talked about how to identify what was needed to keep people healthy and avoid diseases. This boo...