14 - Mathematics and applied science

Summary

As a result of the great conquests of the first century of Islam, the Arabs became the heirs of the ancient civilizations of western Asia and north Africa. They also inherited the links that those civilizations had maintained over the centuries with their neighbours, and thereby came into possession of a considerable corpus of written material covering a wide field of knowledge, including scientific subjects. Many Greek manuscripts were preserved in Byzantium, but the Byzantines did little more than preserve, and made few significant contributions to the progress of science. Of greater significance were the Greek schools set up in Asia Minor soon after the council of Nicaea in AD 325. The Nestorian church made one of these schools, that of Edessa, their scientific centre. In AD 489 this school was transferred to Nisibin, then under Persian rule, with its secular faculties at Jundishāpūr in Khūzistān. Here, the Nestorian scholars, together with pagan philosophers banished by Justinian from Athens, carried out important research in medicine, astronomy and mathematics. To assist in instruction a number of Greek works were translated into Syriac. At about the same time the sect of the Monophysites, who like the Nestorians were subject to persecution by the Orthodox church, were working on similar lines in Syria. They also made translations of philosophical and scientific works into Syriac. A group who were to provide some of the greatest translators and scientists of Islam were the Ṣabians of Ḥarrān in Mesopotamia.