FIMA Year Book 2009 - Federation of Islamic Medical Associations

Muslim Contributionsphilosophy. Khalifah al-Ma’mun(813-833 CE) and al-Mutawakkil(847-861 C.E.) were supportive toscience, research and development.Al-Mutawakkil reopened the Daral-Hikmah and further encouragedtranslation of books into Arabic.As a result, during the Umayyadand Abbasid periods, their capitalsDamascus and Baghdad attractedscholars and scientists from the thendeveloped world. When the centers ofpower moved to Cairo, Spain, Persiaand Istanbul, the flow of scholarsfollowed suit.Unfortunately with the political declineof the Islamic state, due to factorswithin and without, the lack of relevantpolitical patronage resulted in a paralleldecline in developments in knowledgeand with it science and technology.Indeed ibn Khaldun, in his book al-Muqaddima (23) described the factorsessential for the development of scienceand the decline which will ensue ifthese factors are lacking. Accordingto him knowledge is perfected andbecomes ubiquitous when the demandfor it increases because people try tolearn new knowledge but if there is nodemand for new knowledge then itbecomes neglected and will eventuallydisappear (24) .States, especially if politically stable, arethe greatest marketplaces for knowledgebase because of the huge demandsthey (the states) create. Consequently,if states were to decline, knowledgeand knowledge based professions willdecline too. Ibn Khaldun also describedthat if a region becomes weak, loses itsinfluence and its population decreases,the professions also decrease anddisappear(25). As for sciences, hedescribed that sciences increase withthe increase in prosperity and thegreatness of civilization in a region (26) .Baghdad, Cordoba, al-Qayrawan, al-Basra, and al-Kufa were cities whichwere populous and prosperous in theearly centuries of Islam. This led tocivilization and sciences to establishthemselves in these areas. But whenthese cities became less prosperousand their population also decreased,science and learning disappeared fromthese cities and moved to other regionsof Islam. The lack of political stabilitycreated a situation where furtherprogress became almost impossible. Forany further breakthroughs in science, arevolution was necessary to overthrowthe old dominant systems. This typeof revolution needs a well establishedcommunity of scientists working in astable and flourishing economy andsupportive atmosphere for a long time.This community was present in Europeafter the 15 th century and continued todevelop with the increase of Europeanwealth and population. Islamic worldwas lacking this type of communityand hence there was no developmentin scientific knowledge. Some authorssuggested the negative attitude ofMuslim theologians as an importantreason for the decline of science inIslamic regions especially in 19 thcentury (27, 28) .FIMA YearBook 2009109