Editing History of science (section)

===Islamic world===
{{Further|Science in the medieval Islamic world|Timeline of science and engineering in the Muslim world}}
[[File:Islamic MedText c1500.jpg|thumb|upright| right | 15th-century manuscript of [[Avicenna]]'s ''[[The Canon of Medicine]]''.]]
This was the period (8th–14th century CE) of the [[Islamic Golden Age]] where commerce thrived, and new ideas and technologies emerged such as the importation of [[papermaking]] from China, which made the copying of manuscripts inexpensive.

====Translations and Hellenization====
The eastward transmission of Greek heritage to Western Asia was a slow and gradual process that spanned over a thousand years, beginning with the Asian conquests of [[Alexander the Great]] in 335 BCE to the [[Timeline of Islamic history|founding of Islam in the 7th century CE]].<ref name= "lindberg2007h"/> The birth and expansion of Islam during the 7th century was quickly followed by its [[Hellenization]]. Knowledge of [[Science in classical antiquity|Greek conceptions of the world]] was preserved and absorbed into Islamic theology, law, culture, and commerce, which were aided by the translations of traditional Greek texts and some [[Syriac language|Syriac]] intermediary sources into [[Arabic language|Arabic]] during the 8th–9th century.

====Education and scholarly pursuits====
[[File:Cour mosquee Suleymaniye Istanbul.jpg|thumb|[[Süleymaniye Mosque]]]]
[[Madrasa]]s were centers for many different religious and scientific studies and were the culmination of different institutions such as mosques based around religious studies, housing for out-of-town visitors, and finally educational institutions focused on the natural sciences.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Moosa|first=Ebrahim|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ei9ZBwAAQBAJ&dq=Madrasa+history&pg=PP1|title=What Is a Madrasa?|date=2015-04-06|publisher=UNC Press Books|isbn=978-1-4696-2014-5|access-date=25 November 2021|archive-date=30 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730040037/https://books.google.com/books?id=ei9ZBwAAQBAJ&dq=Madrasa+history&pg=PP1|url-status=live}}</ref> Unlike Western universities, students at a madrasa would learn from one specific teacher, who would issue a certificate at the completion of their studies called an [[Ijazah]]. An Ijazah differs from a western university degree in many ways one being that it is issued by a single person rather than an institution, and another being that it is not an individual degree declaring adequate knowledge over broad subjects, but rather a license to teach and pass on a very specific set of texts.<ref name="barker2017">{{Cite journal|last=Barker|first=Peter|date=2017-12-15|title=The Social Structure of Islamicate Science|url=https://scholarworks.iu.edu/iupjournals/index.php/jwp/article/view/1259|journal=Journal of World Philosophies|volume=2|issue=2|issn=2474-1795|access-date=24 November 2021|archive-date=24 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211124005530/https://scholarworks.iu.edu/iupjournals/index.php/jwp/article/view/1259|url-status=live}}</ref> Women were also allowed to attend madrasas, as both students and teachers, something not seen in high western education until the 1800s.<ref name="barker2017" /> Madrasas were more than just academic centers. The [[Süleymaniye Mosque|Suleymaniye Mosque]], for example, was one of the earliest and most well-known madrasas, which was built by [[Suleiman the Magnificent]] in the 16th century.<ref name="architecturecourses2021">{{Cite web|title=Süleymaniye Mosque, Turkey|url=https://www.architecturecourses.org/s%C3%BCleymaniye-mosque-turkey|access-date=2021-11-24|website=architecturecourses.org|archive-date=24 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211124005536/https://www.architecturecourses.org/s%C3%BCleymaniye-mosque-turkey|url-status=live}}</ref> The Suleymaniye Mosque was home to a hospital and medical college, a kitchen, and children's school, as well as serving as a temporary home for travelers.<ref name="architecturecourses2021" />

Higher education at a madrasa (or college) was focused on Islamic law and religious science and students had to engage in self-study for everything else.<ref name="lindberg2007h" /> And despite the occasional theological backlash, many Islamic scholars of science were able to conduct their work in relatively tolerant urban centers (e.g., [[Baghdad]] and [[Cairo]]) and were protected by powerful patrons.<ref name="lindberg2007h" /> They could also travel freely and exchange ideas as there were no political barriers within the unified Islamic state.<ref name="lindberg2007h" /> Islamic science during this time was primarily focused on the correction, extension, articulation, and application of Greek ideas to new problems.<ref name="lindberg2007h" />

====Advancements in mathematics====
Most of the achievements by Islamic scholars during this period were in mathematics.<ref name= "lindberg2007h"/> [[Mathematics in the medieval Islamic world|Arabic mathematics]] was a direct descendant of Greek and Indian mathematics.<ref name= "lindberg2007h"/> For instance, what is now known as [[Arabic numerals]] originally came from India, but Muslim mathematicians made several key refinements to the number system, such as the introduction of [[Decimal separator|decimal point]] notation. Mathematicians such as [[Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi]] (c. 780–850) gave his name to the concept of the [[algorithm]], while the term [[algebra]] is derived from ''al-jabr'', the beginning of the title of one of his publications.<ref>[[Gerald J. Toomer|Toomer, Gerald]] (1990). "Al-Khwārizmī, Abu Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Mūsā". In Gillispie, Charles Coulston. Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 7. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. {{ISBN|978-0-684-16962-0}}.</ref> Islamic trigonometry continued from the works of Ptolemy's ''[[Almagest]]'' and Indian ''[[Siddhānta Shiromani|Siddhanta]]'', from which they added [[trigonometric functions]], drew up tables, and applied trignometry to spheres and planes. Many of their engineers, instruments makers, and surveyors contributed books in applied mathematics. It was in [[Islamic astronomy|astronomy]] where Islamic mathematicians made their greatest contributions. [[Al-Battani]] (c. 858–929) improved the measurements of [[Hipparchus]], preserved in the translation of [[Ptolemy]]'s ''Hè Megalè Syntaxis'' (''The great treatise'') translated as ''[[Almagest]]''. Al-Battani also improved the precision of the measurement of the precession of the Earth's axis. Corrections were made to Ptolemy's [[geocentric model]] by al-Battani, [[Ibn al-Haytham]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rosen |first=Edward |year=1985 |title=The Dissolution of the Solid Celestial Spheres|journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=19–21 |doi=10.2307/2709773|jstor=2709773 }}</ref> [[Averroes]] and the [[Maragheh observatory|Maragha astronomers]] such as [[Nasir al-Din al-Tusi]], [[Mu'ayyad al-Din al-Urdi]] and [[Ibn al-Shatir]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rabin|first=Sheila|url=http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/stanford/entries/copernicus/index.html|title=Nicolaus Copernicus|journal=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]|year=2004|access-date=24 June 2012|archive-date=15 July 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120715113006/http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/stanford/entries/copernicus/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Saliba |first=George |author-link=George Saliba |year=1994 |title=A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam |publisher=[[New York University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8147-8023-7 |pages=254, 256–257 }}</ref>

Scholars with geometric skills made significant improvements to the earlier classical texts on light and sight by Euclid, Aristotle, and Ptolemy.<ref name= "lindberg2007h"/> The earliest surviving Arabic treatises were written in the 9th century by [[Al-Kindi|Abū Ishāq al-Kindī]], [[Qusta ibn Luqa|Qustā ibn Lūqā]], and (in fragmentary form) Ahmad ibn Isā. Later in the 11th century, [[Ibn al-Haytham]] (known as Alhazen in the West), a mathematician and astronomer, synthesized a new theory of vision based on the works of his predecessors.<ref name= "lindberg2007h"/> His new theory included a complete system of geometrical optics, which was set in great detail in his ''[[Book of Optics]]''.<ref name= "lindberg2007h"/><ref>[https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=hZvL5eYAAAAJ&hl Sameen Ahmed Khan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305131051/http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=hZvL5eYAAAAJ&hl |date=5 March 2016 }}, Arab Origins of the Discovery of the Refraction of Light; Roshdi Hifni Rashed (Picture) Awarded the 2007 King Faisal International Prize, Optics & Photonics News (OPN, Logo), Vol. 18, No. 10, pp. 22–23 (October 2007).</ref> His book was translated into Latin and was relied upon as a principal source on the science of optics in Europe until the 17th century.<ref name= "lindberg2007h"/>

====Institutionalization of medicine====
The medical sciences were prominently cultivated in the Islamic world.<ref name= "lindberg2007h"/> The works of Greek medical theories, especially those of Galen, were translated into Arabic and there was an outpouring of medical texts by Islamic physicians, which were aimed at organizing, elaborating, and disseminating classical medical knowledge.<ref name= "lindberg2007h"/> [[Medical specialty|Medical specialties]] started to emerge, such as those involved in the treatment of eye diseases such as [[cataract]]s. Ibn Sina (known as [[Avicenna]] in the West, c. 980–1037) was a prolific Persian medical encyclopedist<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Nasr|first=Seyyed Hossein|year=2007|title=Avicenna|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9011433/Avicenna|access-date=3 June 2010|archive-date=31 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071031092920/https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9011433/Avicenna|url-status=live}}</ref> wrote extensively on medicine,<ref name="Jacquart, Danielle 2008">Jacquart, Danielle (2008). "Islamic Pharmacology in the Middle Ages: Theories and Substances". European Review (Cambridge University Press) 16: 219–227.</ref><ref>David W. Tschanz, MSPH, PhD (August 2003). "Arab Roots of European Medicine", Heart Views 4 (2).</ref> with his two most notable works in medicine being the ''Kitāb al-shifāʾ'' ("Book of Healing") and [[The Canon of Medicine]], both of which were used as standard medicinal texts in both the Muslim world and in Europe well into the 17th century. Amongst his many contributions are the discovery of the contagious nature of infectious diseases,<ref name="Jacquart, Danielle 2008"/> and the introduction of clinical pharmacology.<ref>{{cite journal | last1=Brater | first1=D. Craig | last2=Daly | first2=Walter J. | year=2000 | title=Clinical pharmacology in the Middle Ages: Principles that presage the 21st century | journal=Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics | volume=67 | issue=5| pages=447–450 [448] | doi=10.1067/mcp.2000.106465 | pmid=10824622| s2cid=45980791 }}</ref> Institutionalization of medicine was another important achievement in the Islamic world. Although hospitals as an institution for the sick emerged in the Byzantium empire, the model of institutionalized medicine for all social classes was extensive in the Islamic empire and was scattered throughout. In addition to treating patients, physicians could teach apprentice physicians, as well write and do research. The discovery of the pulmonary transit of blood in the human body by [[Ibn al-Nafis]] occurred in a hospital setting.<ref name= "lindberg2007h"/>

====Decline====
Islamic science began its decline in the 12th–13th century, before the [[Renaissance]] in Europe, due in part to the [[Reconquista|Christian reconquest of Spain]] and the [[Mongol conquests]] in the East in the 11th–13th century. The Mongols [[Siege of Baghdad (1258)|sacked Baghdad]], capital of the [[Abbasid Caliphate]], in 1258, which ended the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasid empire]].<ref name= "lindberg2007h"/><ref name="Erica Fraser 1600">Erica Fraser. The Islamic World to 1600, University of Calgary.</ref> Nevertheless, many of the conquerors became patrons of the sciences. [[Hulagu Khan]], for example, who led the siege of Baghdad, became a patron of the [[Maragheh observatory]].<ref name= "lindberg2007h"/> Islamic astronomy continued to flourish into the 16th century.<ref name= "lindberg2007h"/>