Eighth to the Sixteenth Century - Rashid Islamic Center

62 • The Making of Islamic ScienceAstrolabes were in use in the Muslim world as early as the timeof al-Fazari, who died in 777. By the end of the eighth century, themaking of astrolabes had become an important art in the Muslimworld. Among the famous early authors who wrote treatises on theastrolabe are al-Marwarrudhi and his student Ali bin Isa, nicknamedal-Asturlabi. Al-Khwarizmi has also left us a compendium ofnumerous problems to be worked out with the astrolabe and a treatiseon its construction (Dizer 2001, 257).The subsequent history of the astrolabe is a fascinating tale of thecoordination and merger of various Islamic arts and handcraft withthe practical needs of astronomy. Numerous sophisticated astrolabesmade of wood, brass, and other metals exist in various collectionsworldwide. Many await proper study (King 1999, 17).PhysicsIn general, physics remained entrenched in the Aristotelianframework throughout the eight hundred years of the Islamicscientific tradition. It was thus conceived as a branch of sciencedealing with change. Change was studied in the general Aristotelianframework of form and matter, potentiality and actuality, and thefour causes. This was the position of the Muslim Peripatetics, whofollowed Aristotle in their understanding of physics. They held adominant (though not exclusive) position in the study of change.The Peripatetics were however opposed by scientists,philosophers, and religious scholars, who challenged Aristotle’s views,though for different reasons. While independent scientists such asAbu Bakr Zakaria al-Razi and al-Biruni opposed their coreligionistPeripatetics on scientific and philosophical grounds, theologianssuch as Abu’l Barakat al-Baghdadi (d. 1023) and Fakhr al-Dinal-Razi (d. 1209) opposed Aristotelian views from a religious andphilosophical perspective and formulated a view of time, space, andcausality distinct from Aristotle’s. In this non-Aristotelian conceptionof nature one finds distinct Islamic characteristics, both in the wayin which the creation of things was perceived as well as in the waychange takes place. For instance, the theory of balance proposed byAbu’l-Fath Abd al-Rahman al-Khazini (fl. 1115–1130) in his major