Eighth to the Sixteenth Century - Rashid Islamic Center

Islam, Transmission, and the Decline of Islamic Science • 139I declare my implacable hatred for the Saracens and as long asI live shall never cease to fight them. For who can tolerate a pastand its ravings among mankind any longer—except those whowish for the Christian world to perish altogether. Let us thereforereturn to the sources and draw from them the pure andunadulterated water of medical knowledge. (Walter 1977, 384)In sum, initially material translated from the Islamic scientific andphilosophical traditions was deemed necessary for the development ofscience in Medieval Europe. Later a change took place in Europeanattitude toward Islamic scientific tradition. The colonization of theMuslim world also contributed toward European attitudes towardIslam and its tradition of learning, including the sciences. Thiscolonizer–colonized relationship also affected European attitudestoward Islam and Muslims. In the meanwhile, the Muslim world itselfwas going through basic internal changes that drastically weakenedthe Islamic scientific tradition and finally choked it altogether. Thenext section explores this process of withering.Islam and the Decline of ScienceSince this book is mainly concerned with the relationship betweenIslam and science, we will limit discussion on the historical demiseof Islamic scientific tradition to the question mentioned at thebeginning of the chapter: was Islam responsible for the decline ofscience in Islamic civilization? To explore this question, it is necessaryto examine certain related questions: What is meant by the declineof Islamic scientific tradition? When did it take place? Where? Didit take place all across the Muslim world at the same time or did ithappen in stages? Did all branches of science suffer the same fate atthe same time or was it a stepwise process?These questions have of course been asked by historians of science.The answers vary depending on the perspective taken by the authoras well as his or her personal inclinations, ideological commitments,and general attitude toward Islam. The perspective and personalpreferences can sometimes even alter the question. Thus, insteadof looking into the process of decline of Islamic scientific tradition,some scholars have tended to overshadow this question with another: