Rise and decline of science in Islam

with about 1.6 billion adherents Islam is the second largest religion on earth yet its followers represent less than 1% of the world's scientists only a handful of people from Muslim majority countries have won Nobel prizes in science however up until the Mongol siege of Bach taught in 1258 Islamic science was at the most advanced in the world in comparison with the past the modern disparity is staggering thus to understand the present-day lack of scientific accomplishments we must explore the past in this installment of a new series we will go over the rise and decline of Islamic attitudes towards science my name is Shivan and welcome to Caspian report have you want to support more original content like this visit patreon.com slash Caspian report for more information in pre-islamic times merchants from Africa Asia and Europe traded along ancient routes and exchanged goods for coins materials and other products the most valuable commodity was silk it was so precious that it was often used as an exchange currency silk was a luxurious item that universally represented power and wealth it was so valuable that the world's largest trading route was named after it the Romans and Persians had explored the Silk Road and constructed the required infrastructure to support and facilitate the incoming trade however since both sides had been preoccupied with war and conflict the full potential of the Silk Road never materialized in the 8th century of the Abbasid dynasty overthrew the Umayyad nobility and inherited the Roman and Persian empires just like that the Arabs came in possession of an empire that stretched from the Iberian Peninsula to the fringes of China and India of the absence of old political barriers enabled commodities and ideas of former civilizations to spread and interact with each other as caravans traveled along the Silk Road they exchanged Egyptian glass persian saffron powder Turkoman stallions tamil steel chinese lacquerware and porcelains and much more at the heart of the Silk Road was the Abbasid Empire meaning if the Romans wanted to import Gujarati sandalwood or Nubian slaves they had to travel along the Abbasid checkpoints to cope with the surge in commerce the abbasids founded new centers of trade cities along the Silk Road flourished such as bulk Samarkand Tabriz and more if is in this era of history that the lavishly wealthy and diverse city of Merve became known as the mother of earth meanwhile its competitor array nowadays located within Tehran was referred to as the gate of Commerce yet perhaps the city that stood out most was bartered elminster the second halluf of the Abbasid Empire had built the city at the site where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers were at their narrowest crossings it was such a success that the halluf proclaimed Baghdad as his capital instead of Damascus on that account the new capital grew into a metropolitan center with parks bath houses bazaars mosques schools courts forums and even hospitals public life and the city was surging by the end of the 10th century but that would become the largest city on earth as cities flourished in private enterprises a hunger for knowledge fine craftsmanship and exotic foods surged throughout the Abbasid realm it was one of the earliest forms of globalization people wanted to wear new clothes taste different foods and display exotic items one of these exotic commodities was Chinese paper which proved to be exceedingly useful for the vast Abbasid Imperial bureaucracy so the roller set up paper mills in cities such as Basra Alexandria and puffed out and over time writing materials became more affordable and more available subsequently the availability of paper encouraged record-keeping banking poetry and even scholarship as literacy increased and books became a common item it was no longer required to conduct manual labor to ensure a livelihood scholars could make a wealthy living by writing new ideas and books as a result an intellectual revolution ignited and the market for information surged since the Abbasids had started out as a Persian nationalist revolt the dynasty shared many of the sassanids traditions including maintaining a vast imperial library thus the availability of cheap paper contributed to the expansion of the Imperial library of al-rasheed the highly employed scholars to translate greek chinese Sanskrit and Persian works in the field of physics chemistry mathematics astronomy philosophy geography and other faculties into Arabic advances in technology helped to solve everyday problems for instance the study of astronomy and trigonometry helped to determine the direction to Mecca the time for prayer etc technological process also improved engineering techniques and even sparked an agrarian revolution as scholars worked tirelessly to translate every available scientific text the Abbasids without even realizing it had successfully globalized knowledge eventually this massive undertaking would become known as the translation movement and it established Arabic as a scientific language of antiquity as the movement gained momentum the Abbasid Empire which was already known as a military economic and cultural powerhouse also became an intellectual haven to death and ambitious scholars who sought peace and stability for their research emigrated to the Islamic world one such family was the Burma kids dynasty from bulk the household of Buddhist origins became known for their patronage of physicians and the study of medicine the dynasty was the book to show a Christian family of surgeons who helped translate these arrests Rhian and sassanid studies either way from Italy and Scandinavia to China and India and he wanted to pursue science the Abbasid Empire was the place to be the quest for scientific achievements accelerated during the reign of elmab moon the seventh opposite ruler he converted back dad's Imperial library into the House of Wisdom and thus established a formal institution of learning he also placed the physician even a shark in charge of the translation of foreign scripts even a shark was such an accomplished translator of Greek knowledge that he is often referred to as the shape of translators in any case the House of Wisdom was the most ambitious educational undertaking since the foundation of the Library of Alexandria it was the Silicon Valley of the Abbasids and it assured in the Islamic Golden Age as time passed more state-funded centers of learning or mattresses were established in the realm cities such as Nishapur Bukhara and kabul became centers of learning with the right people in charge the accumulation of knowledge flourished some of the great minds of this era include al-khwarizmi who combined the works of Greek and Indian scholars and made enormous contributions to the algebraic method and eben higham who made his renowned accomplishments to alchemy and strongly influenced the course of European chemistry this was also the era of al tabari who wrote the historical chronicle of the history of prophets and kings which serves as a crucial source for the history of the Middle East other important figures from this era include the Banu Musa brothers who made mechanical devices and worked on the foundation of geometry woman 2 searched in the sciences take el Fifi el astrology loopner of Cordoba and Alma Holly who all exceeded in mathematics in any case as the abbe came in contact with Greek philosophy Indian numeral system Persian rule of law and other Chinese and Roman studies the scholars became genuine students of Socrates Aristotle Plato Ptolemy Brahmagupta Sushruta and others it wasn't long before Persian and Arab scholars adapted foreign ideas and improved on those concepts one example was the assimilation of Neoplatonic philosophy and Aristotelian metaphysics in the Islamic context by L King Don who is unanimously hailed as the father of Arabic philosophy the translation movement is mostly lost in the modern educational curriculum but it's an acknowledgment that the receptiveness of the Muslim rulers and scholars to foreign ideas was the primary catalyst that paved the way for the Islamic Golden Age as the assimilation of knowledge ignited a trend towards Aristotelian ISM and Neoplatonism a new collective of scholars emerged its students who were known as the Muta's alights and their doctrine was mostly based on ancient Greek philosophy but adjusted within Islamic context a prime contention of the mutas ela belief was that the metaphysical world which includes objects and properties space and time cause-and-effect could be used to understand not just the physical world but also the nature of God and creation in other words its members were united in their conviction that it was necessary to give a rationally coherent account of Islamic beliefs what's more is that the group did not necessarily use the Quran and the Sunnah as the only sources of understanding they believed that human existence was not predetermined and that humankind made decisions independently of God's will as such the mutas alights believed in absolute free will nowadays it is difficult to imagine this because the modern situation differs so greatly from the past however at the time rationale with Tazz ilysm was the universal doctrine of the Muslim communities in fact the muta Zilla Creed was so appreciated that the opposite rulers formally enforced it but it is easy to get away with the glory of the past the truth is the Islamic Golden Age was a time of prosperity and growing divisions rebellions broke out in Persia and North Africa it was a time in which minorities such as Christians Jews and Shia Muslims would treat it with tolerance and at times repressed it was an era in which the global economy prospered due to the slave trade as well as the Silk Road at the time human trafficking was endorsed by every civilization on earth the Turks were a group of people that were particularly in demand in the slave markets originally from Central Asia the Turkish people were valued for their intelligence and bravery in sequence with their archery and horsemanship traditions it made them superb soldiers and diplomats for their valuable skills the Turks were enslaved transported to the Middle East and placed in the Royal Courts and armies of the Abbasid Empire while the scholars were busy assimilating knowledge Turkish mercenaries often referred to as Mamluks had climbed the ranks of the Abbasid army by the 9th century some Turkish Mamluks commanded entire armies while others were entrusted bodyguards for local rulers and dynasties it would not take long for the Turks to realize that they could just seize power for themselves in the year 833 Holly fell mamnoon the seventh Abbasid ruler saw an opportunity to acquire religious authority at the expense of the ulama scholars he formally institutionalized the Methuselah doctrine and sought to eradicate other theological schools as such the halav enforced an inquisition known as the meghna scholars who were employed in state-funded schools and mattresses were forced to profess their allegiance to meet easily and submit to the curricula of Neoplatonic philosophy and Aristotelian metaphysics those who refused were punished by lashing imprisonment or beheading Elma Blum passed away in the same year as he decreed the Inquisition but his policy was continued through his immediate successors most intellectuals submitted through the official muta sila Creed however a scholar named eben humble from bakit refused to recognize the rationalist doctrine he argued that the Quran was eternal and that it was not opened for interpretation or innovation hence the scholar and his followers rejected freewill metaphysics rationalism and subscribed to the literal interpretation of the Quran eben humbles theological view could not be more different than the mentally light scholars who argued that the anthropomorphic verses in the Quran which mentioned the hands eyes and face of God indicate that the holy book should not be interpreted literally building on that the Mumtaz alights stressed that the Quran was open to rational interpretation and innovation in any case for his defiance eben humble was imprisoned tortured and even banished from bhakta for over a decade the Abbasid rulers tried to break the scholar but in their pursuit The Hollies had inadvertently made even humble a folk hero over time the Inquisition became unpopular with the people and in some cases riots erupted in the streets of Baghdad in support of IBN hanbal under these circumstances in 847 al-mutawakkil ascended to the throne as the tenth Abbasid ruler at the age of 26 he reigned over the largest empire in the world yet his authority was in question and he needed to swiftly restore his legitimacy thereupon al-mutawakkil enforced a populous decision the halluf ended the inquisition and effectively endorsed the literal Creed of eben humble in the end the defiant scholar had outlived three Hollies as he was hailed a champion of his EBIT humble founded his own institution of theology that bore his name this had a profound impact on the course of Islamic civilization for one religious authority became an exclusive purview of the ulama scholars and the ha'la'tha role was reduced to political authority ii eben humbles defiance reduced the credibility of the Methuselah as such in the following decades a backlash against Muta's ilysm spread across the Abbasid realm and third the end of the inquisition facilitated the formation of more orthodox theological movements many of which are still active for instance at the present the Safa is school is predominant in East Africa and Southeast Asia while the Maliki school holds an influence in Africa's Maghreb and Sahil region meanwhile the Hanafi curricula prevails in the former Ottoman territories and Central Asia as for the school of eben humble in the 18th century it experienced a reformation in the Wahhabi Salafi movement and therefore its influence is limited but predominant in Saudi Arabia anyway al-mutawakkil who ended the Inquisition appointed his oldest son as his heir however over the years the highly shifted his favour to his second son this rivalry extended into the political sphere as well the eldest son al mutasa was favored by Turkish slave soldiers who at the backdrop of the scientific progress had turned from slaves to warriors to entrusted advisors and military commanders meanwhile the youngest son al mutas was backed by the traditional Abbasid elites al mutasarrif erred that his father was going to move against him so he decided to strike first as the eldest son had his father killed by a Turkish bodyguard and became the eleventh halluf but within half a year the new ruler was poisoned and passed away so the Turkish military leaders held a council and selected another Abhisit relative as the 12th caliph however plots and treachery were all and within a few years the new Holley abdicated power to al-mu'tasim the youngest son who assumed power at the age of 19 lasted for nearly three years until he was betrayed beaten and left in the scorching heat without food or water where he died three days later this era in history is known as the anarchy at Samara and what followed was a period of intense instability and violent successions of holly's as the Abbasid realm disintegrated from within turkish Mamluk slaves effectively seized power and reduced the authority of the ha'la'tha to a ceremonial role as such a mid ninth century rebellions popped up in every corner of the realm in North Africa a severe drought had resulted in food shortages as a result riots erupted in major cities in Tunisia and Egypt the central government in baghdad was incapable to provide for the basic needs of the remote settlements and so local rulers substituted these central authority in egypt even to loom a Turkish mom Luke took over the region's finances and established a military force that was loyal to himself he became virtually independent and founded the Tlingits dynasty that extended from Egypt to Syria elsewhere in North Africa the alibied dynasty had effectively proclaimed independence and ruled over Tunisia Libya and Sicily at the same time in the Caucasus the sachets and the services took over power while the Anatolian lands were controlled by the HMDA myths further east in modern-day in Central and South Asia the Terkel Persian dynasties of salmonids and safaris reigned over the land but it wasn't just the remote frontiers of the empire that detached rebellions even erupted in the proximity of the capital for instance in Basra these ng people who were East African slaves transported to the Middle East revolted against their Arab overlords at least half a million people lost their lives and it was one of the bloodiest rebellions in history in the same era a small group of radical Shiites as the karma Tian's and sometimes called the Bolsheviks of Islam sacked the holy city of Mecca and looted the sacred black stone from the Kaaba elsewhere in the realm the radical anarchist hwacha movement which had been responsible for the Islamic Civil War two centuries earlier rejuvenated their campaign to overthrow the Hollis unrest rebellions and revolutions were everywhere within a short span of time the effect of control of the halluf was reduced to the proximity of bathtub however the decay of the abbasids did not hinder the intellectual process since education and art had become a fabric of Islam many of the powerful regional dynasties continued their patronage for scholars as a result brilliant intellectuals emerged all over the Islamic world one of the most comprehensive thinkers was Al Farabi who made enormous contributions to physics chemistry mathematics and psychology he also excelled in philosophy ethics and music for his wide range of accomplishments Al Farabi is known as the second master after Aristotle another brilliant mind was al Hightown who wrote extensively about astronomy mathematics optics and visual perception he established the modern scientific method and thereby became the first legitimate scientist in history the golden age also saw advances in medicine thanks to eben Cena whose work remained in use for the following six centuries yet many of the great minds of the Islamic Golden Age were also fierce critics of the literal interpretation of the Quran for instance al biruni who calculated that the earth revolved around the Sun and rotated on its axis challenged the literal Creed of eben humbled by insisting that it was essential to question everything from religion to philosophy the irrational position was shared by al-razi who was a scholar of da Vinci's magnitude and once argued that Islam with our reason had no value then there was Higham one of the most influential thinkers of the Middle Ages he was a fierce page of humanism and expressed secular ideas in opposition to the design of Sharia law another leading scholar was even ruched who advocated for the emancipation of women and stressed that matters of belief should be decided only on the basis of reason and evidence it was clear that Timothy lights were fighting back against Orthodox theology however the political circumstances were not in their favor despite their best efforts within a century the great minds of the Islamic Golden Age would end up as dissidents in the tenth century a myth as alight scholar by the name of Al ashari had a major disagreement with his teacher he left the group and capitalized on the popular discontent against Amita Sela which had been steadily gaining ground since eben Campbell's Inquisition in the following years a Lashari became one of the most distinguished opponents of the meetha cheela he used the philosophical methods he had learned and gathered a following of distinguished former with desi lights the group which became known as the ashari combined the jurisprudential arguments of eben humble and the theological traits of the Methuselah as such the ashati believed in rationalism and the open interpretation of the Quran however the group gave precedence to a predestination and argued that reason was subservient to revelation meaning rational thought and freewill could be applied as long as it did not conflict with the sacred texts this was at odds with the meta Zilla who believed in absolute rationalism and free will over the course of the 10th century with desi lights asha rights and other theological schools debated and explored the existence of the universe hundreds of scientific works were written as there were many lingering questions on how to interpret new ethical inquiries such as the meaning of Revelation and humankind's responsibility as the rival schools of theology debated the sciences they often found themselves on opposite and accused one another as irrational and honest Lamech the attempts to grapple complex scientific questions is at the heart of the declining attitudes towards science in Muslim societies one of the most remarkable discoveries of the meetha cheela concerned the smallest matter the atom in earlier centuries Greek Persian and Indian scholars had explored the world of atoms as well but it was the mid tez alights who had successfully combined all three sources and formulated their findings yet what was one of their greatest achievements would turn out to be their greatest point of division as theological schools explored the atomic world it ignited a philosophical firestorm and the mid tez alights argued that atomic substances possessed properties and have the capacity to affect other properties this reasoning supported the freewill doctrine and emphasized that humankind created its own actions independently of God's will the Asha rights on the other hand supported the concept of atoms as well but since they insisted that reason was subservient to Revelation the group took a different view at the core of the ashari doctrine was the theory of occasional ism which denies natural causality the ashari stressed that as soon as an atomic accident was created it immediately cease to exist if there was no continuity between one moment in time and another for instance the shattering of a window and the skin color of a person was determined by God's continuous recreation of atoms at each instance in time the Asha rights argued that God determined the outcome of every single atom and that human existence was a series of events each willed by God essentially the group suggested that cause and effect as well as freewill were illusions because the existence of humankind was predestined such philosophic reasoning may seem strange now but at the time the Muslim scholars were the first explorers of the atomic world the concept of occasional ism became the fundamental building block that led the asha rights to deny the comprehensibility of the natural world it also provided the group with a basis for what was their belief in predestination it is not difficult to imagine how such a mindset in the span of centuries could influence the attitudes towards science at the backdrop of the theological debates the realm of the abbasids underwent a period of disintegration powerful dynasties rose up in arms throughout the empire meanwhile the ruling dynasty turned against itself as the apposite relatives openly challenged the seat of power as rough as this sounds it was about to get far worse for the Abbasids in the mid 10th century Egypt underwent an unusual heat and drought the crops had failed and famine spread through the cities which incited riots an estimated 600,000 people starved to death in Tunisia a Shia Muslim dynasty known as the Fatimids took matters into their own hands and invaded Egypt where they proclaimed a new holliford as such in the 10th century the Islamic world was decentralized along feudal lines which included dozens of separatist regions autonomous provinces influential dynasties and powerful Turkish Mamluk mercenaries however the rise of the Fatimid Caliphate established a third political stronghold in the Islamic world the first to be in Cordoba and batad of the Fatimid dynasty sought to secure its future and sealed an alliance with Byzantium to that end trade between the two flourished first at Alexandria and Constantinople became economic powerhouses the tides of fortune were now reversed as the Abbasid Empire crumbled from within the Byzantines attacked and gradually recovered their terror therese crete and cyprus were taken first followed by the city of Antioch and Odessa the revival of Constantinople dramatically altered the financial conditions the wealth trade and taxes that once flooded the Treasury of bar-top now flew to the Byzantine capital along with the revival of Byzantium Western Europe was recovering from the dark ages as well as wealth and stability slowly returned to the European continent people had taken a renewed interest in the life of Christ as such journeys to Jerusalem were being organized and within a century these Christian pilgrimages would lead to the Crusades all in all the circumstances were promising for Western Europe the Byzantines and the Fatimids for the Abbasids however the situation was desperate of the realm of the Holly had been reduced to the proximity of pocket in fact in 1945 the abbasids had even lost their capital to the poets which was a Shia Muslim dynasty of Persian origin under this state of affairs at the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries al-qadir the 25th a leaf of the opposite Empire condemned critical thought and ordered his subjects to distance themselves from the philosophers and free thinkers of the Methuselah as such Alcatel outlawed amita's ela creed and endorsed the theology of al-ashari as well as the jurisprudence of even humble it's not certain what prompted al-qadir to condemn critical thought since Islamic teaching such as HD heart actually requires Muslims to self-reflect and raise questions however present-day historians argue that it was based on the political situation the Caliph may have believed that the ashari predestination would stabilize the realm and make the common folk more content with the in Justices famines and corrupt authorities since these were supposedly part of God's plan whereas the Methuselah freewill incited critical thought which inspired rebellions and political unrest to enforce his policy al-qadir passed the law of apostasy prior to this there were legal institutions that circumvented harsh punishment as such the Abbasid Empire had been relatively secular however the new decree made it easier to condemn and punish dissidents skeptics and minorities on account of the law of apostasy Muslim rulers persecuted opposition forces by altering the curricula of the state regulated madrassas in this context the Methuselah teachings gradually disappeared from the educational system while the asha resources became the basis of mainstream sunni islam since the remnant Methuselah scholars could not formally disclose their beliefs most of them sought refuge in opposition movements such as the Shiites in Persia there the theology of the Methuselah would influence the jafari which was and still is the jurisprudential school of Shia Islam in any case caliph al Qaeda's reign lasted for 40 years and despite his efforts the opposite realm continued to decline in the lands of horizon-- in parts of modern-day Iran Afghanistan and Pakistan a new contender was about to advance on the Islamic world the Seljuk Turks were a highly militarized society and hailed from the rugged lands of Central Asia if their warriors were accustomed to fight numerically superior opponents and their skills of archery and horsemanship were unmatched Turkish nations such as the Seljuks and bull gars were introduced to Islam by Muslim missionaries who had blended pagan rituals with Islamic traditions which brought a sense of mysticism to Islam but this also made the mindset of the Seljuk Turks distinctly different from the Persian Arab and even Turkish mom Luke populations by the year 1040 the Seljuk roller Torill assembled an army over to the old dynasties and conquered the persian domain sensing an opportunity the Abbasids invited to grill to recapture bakit from the poets as such a decade later in 1055 the Seljuks entered baka since the Seljuks were new to islam their rulers didn't really care about the ashari and Methuselah debates over theology and jurisprudence so when to grill took upon himself the title of Sultan and subjugated the hadith he allowed the Abbasids to decide over matters of faith in addition to this by conquering bakit the Turks have become the new champions of Islam and so had to answer the call to war the Challenger being the Byzantine Empire in just a few decades the conflict between the Seljuk and Byzantine empires would lay the groundwork for the Crusades and at the backdrop of these events the scientific community of the Methuselah would be completely wiped out in the mid 11th century sultan al porcelain ascended to the throne of the seljuq empire under his leadership the seljuq holdings significantly expanded throughout the area but inevitably arsalan encountered Romano's of the Emperor of the Byzantine Empire in the year 1071 the two powers locked horns over the faith of the Middle East Romano's assembled an army and marched to meet the Turks but in an area called Man seeketh he was caught by surprise our Salons forces delivered the Byzantines and irreversible defeat not only had the Turks crushed an army that was at least twice their size but the Byzantine ruler the most powerful man in the Christian world was captured alive arsalan placed his foot on Roman asses neck and humiliated him then he raised the Romano's from the ground and treated him like a guest eventually after eight days the Seljuk ruler said his kin part free at this point in history illustrates how well our slum grasp are the political dynamics by releasing Romano's the Emperor was humiliated in Constantinople his authority waned and it triggered a series of civil wars within the Byzantine realm as a result most of Anatolia came under Turkish control and in the course of centuries the population assimilated into the Turkish identity what's more is that our salaam authorized his generals or at abase to carve their own principalities throughout the empire despite his military prowess our slums rain came to an abrupt end when he was assassinated his death triggered a succession crisis and the Seljuk houses focused in words it is in this period that the Turkish uh tibay principalities became virtually independent many of these principalities started exercising their sovereign T's by attacking one another as well as by harassing Christian pilgrims at the backdrop of the Seljuk crisis most of the domestic affairs were left to the local political advisors in the case of the deceased arsalan the closest advisor was Nizam al-maliki a brilliant figure who wrote the see Azad nama or the book of the government which is comparable to the Prince by Machiavelli the Seljuk advisor backed by regional dynasties nobility's and houses established the nizamiah guild which were educational institutions that were comparable with european universities the nizamiah represented the finest quality of education in the Islamic world and the most splendid Academy was the L nizamiah of Bach Todd al-maliki was later assassinated by a member of the assassins which was a secretive group that adhered through the Ismaili branch of Shia Islam and used stealth infiltration and political assassinations to wage an asymmetric war against the Sunni Muslim rulers for the assassins that of Alma Luke marked the first of many political assassinations however before the advisor perished he appointed the distinguished a Sharif scholar al-ghazali to supervise the Academy in batad few could imagine that in time this scholar would change the fundamental beliefs of Islamic civilization yet while al khazzani was preoccupied with giving lectures another major event was about to disrupt the Middle Eastern affairs by the year 1095 the Byzantines saw an opportunity in the Seljuk succession crisis if the new emperor alexios wanted to strike at the Turks but his realm was still in recovery so instead he appealed to the West European kingdoms for aid at the time feudalism in West Europe had created a disproportionate distribution of wealth power and knights for pope urban ii a military expedition to the holy lands presented an opportunity to strengthen his authority over the feudal Kings lords and barons of Western Europe just as the jihad was a way to unify the Muslim world so too was the crusade a way to bring the Christians together and exert internal force on the outside world as such in 1095 pope urban ii during a sermon in Clairemont convinced the courts of france england and the holy roman empire to take up arms and embark on an expedition to jerusalem the pope promised salvation for the participants and the sermon sparked a wave of religious fervour inspired Knights and Lords took upon the cross as their coat of arms and later would be known as the Crusaders however before the nobles could gather their numbers peasants and commoners in Europe assembled their own expedition and marched towards the Holy Land yet the careless undertaking of the peasants army left them ill-prepared for the journey East during their expedition in what became known as the people's crusade the peasants army looted and pillaged jewish-christian and even Byzantine settlements who were supposedly allies by the time that 20,000 strong people's crusade reached Anatolia they were swiftly crushed by the local Turkish Nobles the speed at which the peasants army was defeated surprised even the local seljuq rulers who mistakenly believed that the people's crusade was the primary fighting force of Europe the next year news spread that more Christian armies were coming but the Seljuk principalities were not impressed that they expected another army of peasants and in their complacency made no preparations as the day of the battle the Turkish Nobles were stunned to see a 60,000 strong well-trained and well-equipped army the result was the defeat of the local seljuqs at the Battle of darillium which allowed the Crusaders to march on a post from Anatolia to the Levant the Muslim rulers in Damascus and your Aleppo and muscle prepared to meet the Crusaders ahead but ended up fighting one another meanwhile Christian forces conquered city after city but fighting in a strange land did not always go as planned in Mara a city in Syria a lengthy fight came to an end when the French contingent broke the siege as the starving French Crusaders entered the food stricken City they resorted to cannibalism and fed on the dead bodies of people and animals alike soon rumours of invading cannibalistic barbarian armies spread across the region at one point the word French literally meant cannibal in Arabic which illustrates how the locals perceived the Crusaders further south in Egypt Fatimid officials who rivaled the Seljuks and were allied with the Byzantines believed that the Crusaders represented Byzantine reinforcements as such while the Crusaders conquered antio fathom it rulers moved against Jerusalem and their control over the city it didn't dawn on the Fatimids until it was too late that the Christian forces were not allies and were not interested in an alliance at the turn of the century in the year 1099 the Crusaders arrived at the gates of Jerusalem and began their assault eventually roughly a month later the city walls caved and the Crusaders burst into Jerusalem fuelled by religious frenzy they went on a rampage and massacred soldiers and civilians alike none of the city's religious communities fared well most of the Muslims were killed straightaway while the Jewish population had taken refuge in a large synagogue that was set ablaze even much of the Christian segments of Jerusalem was punished and sent into exile because the Catholic Crusaders saw the Orthodox population as heretics the shock and horror of the First Crusade and the fragmented political landscape of the Islamic world deeply distressed Muslim communities across the area people were in need of divine resolution and to that end a shoddy scholar al-ghazali stepped up to the forefront of the debate the ashari school of theology believed that reason was subservient to Revelation while the latter Methuselah group adhere to absolute rationalism decades earlier the latter had been banned for political reasons but pockets of Methuselah sympathizers still existed all over the Muslim world al-ghazali believed that violence could not subdue the rival school it required a battle of intellect as such in one of his most acclaimed works the incoherence of philosophers al-ghazali attacked scholars of rational thought and argued that rational philosophy was incompatible with Islamic teachings more precisely he classified science into three categories the first religious studies included jurisprudence theology Arabic grammar etc the second category included traditional faculties of science such as astronomy medicine mathematics chemistry and others and the final category concerned spiritual and cultural studies such as astrology as a terrorism and palmistry al-ghazali rejected the spiritual and cultural studies and deemed the study of traditional scientific faculties as useful as long as it was pursued for religious purposes the first category however religious studies was considered the finest because it brought people closer to God although some historians say that al-ghazali defended reason the truth is he did so only to the extent that it could be used as an instrument to undermine his opponents the width of al-ghazali's contributions is emphasized by the fact that many academics consider him as the single most influential figure in Islam after the Prophet Muhammad needless to say al-ghazali's work sealed the attitudes towards science in Islamic civilizations of the political elites and the commonfolk endorsed al-ghazali as the mujadid which according to tradition is a person who appears at desperate times to rejuvenate Islam to that end the scholar fostered the ashati believes into the mainstream culture although al-ghazali emphasized intellect and denounced violence his supporters however singled out and condemned great thinkers such as Al Farabi al biruni al Rwanda eben Cielo and even rushed their studies and properties were confiscated their teachings were deemed heresy their achievements were twisted and their books were burned anyone who expressed sympathy with Timothy ela was either imprisoned tortured or banished centuries earlier the myth has Allah had lit the flame of enlightenment and paved the way for a vibrant and innovative community of scholars some of the greatest minds in the world came from this movement but in the 11th century the meetha cheela faded away in the obscure pages of history have that said as the books of eben Russia were destroyed he famously stated that ideas have wings no one can stop their flight and so while the flame of enlightenment had been extinguished in the Islamic world European universities established faculties that focused on the translation of Arabic texts which would help to expedite the scientific findings during the Renaissance meanwhile as the ashari Dogma shifted the mindset of Sunni Muslims knowledge was seen through the prism of Revelation and many turned away from philosophy and the natural sciences this change however was not abrupt it would take centuries for the doctrines to sink in but its process was accelerated by the collapse of the Silk Road and a new threat that emerged from the Far East by the end of the 13th century as the world had changed the rationalist meetha cheela had faded away and remnants of their school had assimilated into the Shia Muslim Creed meanwhile the ashari establishment came to dominate the Sunni Muslim theology in Iberia the Muslim domains had been retaken by the Christian forces who subsequently absorbed the classical and scientific studies of Plato Aristotle Euclid as well as the commentaries of eben Xena Al Farabi eben ruched etc from the former territories of the Cordoba Caliphate scientific works filtered into Western Europe finding their way into libraries and monasteries across European cities in fact European translations of Arabic texts was so proficient that in the 13th century the curricula of the universities of Oxford Paris and Naples included Islamic Sciences from this practice came revolutionary thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas Duns Scotus and others meanwhile in the Middle East the mighty Seljuk Empire had been reduced to an empty shell from the ashes of the seljuqs rose the cuirass Mayan Empire which had conquered parts of Khorasan and Persia liquid ism dynasty of Turkish Persian tradition skillfully overthrew regional houses and consolidated their power throughout the area at the start of the 13th century shah mohammed ii ascended to the throne of the cuirass Mian Empire the shocked considered himself a military mastermind and sought to expand eastwards he conquered the current cities of Samarkand and Tashkent in modern-day use Pakistan and subjugated the kingdom's in Fergana Valley by 1217 shock mohammed ii had conquered all the lands between the Persian Gulf and the sectarian river in modern-day Kazakhstan the kawaras and Shah had heard rumors that further east in the corner of Central Asia a new mysterious ruler had unified the Mongol tribes his pairs referred to him as the universal ruler but for the outside world he was better known as Chinggis Khan Shah Mohammad the second however perceived this as an opportunity to expand further east rumors have it that Chinggis Khaan commanded vast legions of disciplined horsemen archers and soldiers but the rumors also stated that the Mongols lacked siege equipment which meant that they could not properly besiege fortified settlements mohammed ii designed his plans along these parameters he would provoke Chinggis Khaan to invade and once attrition started to take a toll on the Mongol armies of equalized means would counter-attack and conquered the Mongol homelands mohammed ii belief that he had set a brilliant trap as such he deliberately provoked a war and waited for the Mongol hun to strike first what mohammed ii didn't know was that Chinggis Khaan had just completed a devastating military incursion in china and had acquired the latest technologies in siege equipment in fact when the great car crossed the certain River about a thousand Chinese engineers accompanied the Mongol armies at a force of roughly 150,000 if the Mongol armies were not particularly large however their tactics strategies and the ferocity of their warriors was unlike anything the world had ever seen for one they used unique composite bows that could shoot further and harder than the bows used by the regional powers what's more is that the Mongol horses were smaller faster and sturdier and they were mounted by a people whose entire culture centered around horsemanship for instance in types of war Mongol warriors would slit a minor vein in the horse's neck and drained some blood in a cup which they were trained for nourishment so the Mongols could eat and sleep in the saddle and traveled great distances in remarkably short time often surprising their enemies also since the Mongols had more horses than manpower they would often confuse their opponents by mounting dummies on their horses to give the impression of an overwhelming horde at the level of ferocity and unique tactics in combination with superb horsemen and bowmen skills and advanced Chinese siege equipment made the Mongol armies the most devastating force in the world as the cuirass Mayan Empire didn't stand a chance once Chinggis Khaan destroyed equalise Mian armies and fortifications he raised the occupied territories to the ground the Great Khan lived up to his reputation as his armies pillaged towns and villages and committed acts of mass murder and atrocities across the Middle East and Central Asia great cities such as bahara and bulk and their treasures of Persian literature and scientific volumes were destroyed beyond recovery in Nishapur and entire cultures perished as mass murder rose in the hundreds of thousands in transoxiana the underground canal works which was the agricultural lifeline of southern Central Asia collapsed a fertile land turned to sand which it still is within a few years at least a quarter of the population of Persia and Khorasan had perished if the armies of Cinque Assad burnt the fields and crops and stripped the common folk of their livelihoods as famine set in millions of refugees migrated West as they brought with them apocalyptic stories of a carnivores species of half-human half-horse creatures that spread like a plague across the civilized world none wanted to confront and test the wrath of the Mongols when Chinggis Khaan passed away in the following decades his successors continued the campaign of extermination it was a period filled with fear and terror but at the backdrop of the destruction halav almoost azim of the Abbasid Empire held up a remarkably well the Abbasids had regained control over bucket and the Holly had assembled a significant standing army in his misplaced confidence almoost azim believed that he could manipulate the ANU mongol ruler haloo gohan to reassert Abbasid authority so the Holly sent word to the Han and invited him to attack his foes however the exact opposite happened haloo Gahan marched to Baghdad and demanded the khalif's complete surrender in his ultimatum haloo goo hyung wrote the following the past is over destroy your ramparts fill in your moats turn your kingdom over to your son and come to us if you do not heed our advice get ready when I lead my troops in wrath against Baghdad even if you hide in the sky or in the earth I shall bring you down I shall not leave one personal life in your realm and I shall put your city and country to the torch despite the warning halav almoost azim defied Eluga as such in early february 1258 the siege of baghdad commenced by the end of the month the great city had practically ceased to exist Colleyville most aseem had been captured alive and was imprisoned after a few days of starvation and the Holly asked the hunt for some food so haloo Gahan sent him a platter with gold when el most Aseem refused to eat gold hallo gu said if you can't eat it why did you hold it why didn't you give it to your men who were ready to die for you hal leuco denti-cal mooshka seemed to the broken gates of bhakta and said what good are these walls if there are no men to defend them following this interaction the Mongols rolled up the Holly Finn a carpet and trampled him to death by horses as for the citizens of pocket Nobles and common folk alike were decimated and true to his word haloo Gahan burnt the city to the ground mosques palaces and hospitals were ransacked magnificent libraries schools and institutions were destroyed millions of documents parchments books and testimonials were burned and thrown in the river by some accounts the river turned black with ink for days centuries of accumulated knowledge and records perished in Oblivion of the fall of bethought marked a turning point in history but not because of the sheer destruction the mongols would eventually be defeated by the turkish mum looks in Egypt and the remnant Mongol houses ended up converting to Islam but in the same era another major change had transpired in Europe the iberian kingdoms developed advanced Carrick's with deep sea navigable capabilities which allowed them to sail around the southern tip of Africa to reach Asia as European merchants established new maritime trading routes that bypassed the loud passages of the Middle East it said motion geo-economic transitions that led to the collapse of the Silk Road but the decline of the intercontinental Silk Road was not just an economic shift trade brought in new information as well as goods and commodities international commerce kept the Middle East integrated and aware of the outside world so the Silk Roads exchange of communication was as important as its commercial component in earlier centuries a thriving global trade network allowed for the Muslim societies to adapt and utilize new and foreign ideas which triggered the Islamic Golden Age thus as the Silk Road declined it also removed the conditions that made the Islamic world a Metropolitan civilization in the post Mongol Reconstruction era the decline of the Silk Road dramatically reshaped the attitudes of Islamic cultures open-mindedness towards the outside world shifted to rejection and Muslim communities focused extensively inwards as the Islamic world reinvented itself a shoddy theology became inseparable from the mindset of the mainstream population at the same time state madrassas which in the past helped to spread the ideals of rational thought focused exclusively on religious studies such as grammar the hadith and Sharia law as was recommended by the scholar al-ghazali the ashari concept of occasional ism which denies the comprehensibility of the physical world was integrated into the educational system meanwhile legitimate scientific studies were excluded from the curricula the dormancy of the educational system was a gradual process by the 14th century Muslim scholars shifted their focus from innovations to practical inventions a century later Europe had replaced the Muslim world as the center for learning and innovation the performances of Christianity and Islam in the scientific fields were now first major European events such as the Renaissance the age of discovery the Reformation and even the age of enlightenment passed unnoticed in the Muslim world the open-minded Islamic culture that had once produced libraries observatories and cities had now regressed into a closed world that was resentful and hostile to innovation it wasn't until Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798 that Muslim communities realized that they were no longer at the forefront of the world soon questions were asked about where a wrong turn was made and amidst the European colonization of the Middle East the future looked uncertain and people idolized the past if his in this period and that Muslim rulers tried to reverse the situation by borrowing Western technology and social political ideas such as secularism and nationalism others meanwhile believed that glory could be gained by returning to the pristine and pious past the latter mentality proved unable to cope with modernity and it is best explained by a deep sense of nostalgia for the classic islamic era without properly understanding the historic developments that occurred at the time the truth is that the reasons for the decline of science in Muslim communities are plenty but in general they can be attributed to political instability economic decline environmental change mass migrations and the lack of critical thinking due to the triumphs of Revelation over a reason as well as factors such as the Crusaders and the Mongols the combination of these conditions set Islamic civilization on a trajectory of self-destruction just as we explored the past to search for answers scholars of the Golden Age analysed their world as well historian al masud II in the 9th century was once asked why science had declined in the Roman Empire whilst the Islamic world have thrived he answered ancient Greeks and Romans had allowed the sciences to flourish then they adopted Christianity when they did so they effaced the science of learning eliminated its traces and destroyed its paths science was defeated by faith thank you for staying with us through these episodes I truly hope that the moral of the story is not lost in animosity science after all is a continuous product of human civilizations that by one or two but nearly all civilizations so this is truly something to be cherished also I want to thank our contributors for giving us the means to produce original content like this if you want to be part of our crowdfunding network or if you are searching for additional perks visit patreon.com slash caspian purport in any case thank you for your patience and sajo [Music]

Channel: CaspianReport

Views: 1,729,210

Keywords: Islam, Science, History, Contribution, Golden Age, Silk Road, Globalization, Knowledge, Mamluks, Mu'tazila, Ibn Hanbal, al-Farabi, al-Haytham, al-Biruni, al-Razi, Khayyam, Ibn Rushd, Ibn Sina, al-Mutawakkil, al-Muntasir, al-Mu’tazz, al-Ma’mun, Ibn Hayyan, Banu Musa, al-Kindi, al-Ash’ari, Byzantium, Abbasid, Philosophy, Theology, Seljuk, Romanos, Alp Arslan, Nizam al-Mulk, Nezamiyeh, Baghdad, al-Rawandi, al-Ghazali, Tughril, Khwarazmian, Mongol invasion, al-Musta'sim, Genghis Khan, Hulagu Khan, al-Masudi, Crusades

Id: 60JboffOhaw

Length: 62min 46sec (3766 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 24 2017