Influence of Islam on Science

Muslims had made immense leaps forward in the area of Science ever since Islam was born. Cities having modern and scientific Islamic Schools like Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo and Cordoba were the centers of civilization and were flourishing and Muslim scientists made tremendous progress in applied as well as theoretical Science and Technology.

The idea of the college was a concept which was borrowed from Muslims. The first colleges appeared in the Muslim world in the late 600’s and early 700’s. Where, Muslims were taught Quran Recitation as well as the relation of science with the religion and the concepts of creation of this world. In Europe, some of the earliest colleges are those under the University of Paris and Oxford they were founded around the thirteenth century.

Islamic contributions to Science were now rapidly being translated and transferred from Spain to the rest of Europe. Ibnul Hairham’s works on Optics, (in which he deals with 50 Optical questions put to Muslim Scholars by the Franks), was translated widely. The Muslims discovered the Principle of Pendulum, which was used to measure time. Many of the principles of Isaac Newton were derived from former Islamic scientific contributions. In the field of Chemistry numerous Islamic works were translated into Latin.

All of this knowledge transferred from the Muslims to the Europeans was the vital raw material for the Scientific Revolution. Muslims not only passed on Greek classical works but also introduced new scientific theories, without which the European Renaissance could not have occurred.