WHEN Roman civilisation fell in the early centuries AD, the light of scholarship was extinguished. The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs transformed Western civilization by Jonathan Lyons, Bloomsbury Press, 20.00. Science and Islam: A history by Ehsan Masood, Icon Books, 14.99. Science writer Ehsan Masood weaves the story of these and other scientists into a compelling narrative, taking the reader on a journey through the Islamic empires of the middle ages, the cultural and religious circumstances that made this revolution possible, and its contribution to science in Western Europe. Science and Islam: A History by Ehsan Masood Today it is little acknowledged that the medieval Islamic world paved the foundations for modern science and. Science owes a debt to Islam, according to two new books. These scientists were part of a sophisticated culture and civilization that was based on belief in God - a picture which helps to scotch the myth of the 'Dark Ages' in which scientific advance faltered. It was Musa al-Khwarizmi, for instance, who developed algebra in 9th century Baghdad, drawing on work by mathematicians in India al-Jazari, a Turkish engineer of the 13th century whose achievements include the crank, the camshaft, and the reciprocating piston ibn Sina, whose textbook Canon of Medicine was a standard work in Europe's universities until the 1600s. Between the 8th and 15th centuries, scholars and researchers working from Samarkand in modern-day Uzbekistan to Cordoba in Spain advanced our knowledge of astronomy, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, medicine and philosophy to new heights.
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