Ehsan Masood

Ehsan Masood's Science and Islam serves as a brief yet enjoyable introduction to the historic Islamicate world's developments and contributions in science. But strictly for those who haven't delved deeply into the history already as it is at the end of the day, a slim introduction, but serves nicely as an exciting stepping stone towards further research (as was in my experience).

In it we find chronicled the founding of the religion to the conquests, the Umayyads, Abbasids (where most of the translation movement occurred), the Andalusians or 'Islamic Spain' and lastly the latter Ottoman and Mughal empires. We also find their immense influence upon Europe.

It seems as if the sciences which Islamic scholars were primarily concerned with were astronomy, medicine and mathematics. Why specifically these? Masood hypothesizes at one point it could be due to utility demanded of both the environment of the day as well as Islam itself. For example, astronomy was important for not only general navigation but necessary in the demands of the Islamic lunar calendar and prayer timings. It could also have been injunctions by the religion itself, such as for medicine, there is a hadith of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) stating how 'Allah has provided a cure for every disease' as well as the need for care-taking the sick.

I particularly appreciated Masood's linkage of the works of these scholars to latter European advances such as Copernicus' discovery of the heliocentric model, Ibn Sina's medical text being used as the foundational medical text for multiple centuries, or even the university system itself.

Though towards the end it leaves more questions than answers as to specifically why the intellectual activity decreased especially towards the latter empires of the Ottomans and Mughals. That is the million Dinar question isn't it?

Much of the chapters here are devoted to latent Ottoman attempts at reforms or the colonisation of the Indian subcontinent. There is little to no vibrant showcasing of scientific advancements here as earlier. Masood gives some reasons for the downfall such as Mughal India's loss of its administrative and scholarly Persian language in favour of Urdu, or a centuries old skepticism within the wider Muslim scholarly community of the rational sciences ever since Caliph al-Mamun's attempts in forcing the Mutazalite doctrine ('Rationalists' or 'Science' as Masood anachronistically describes them) down the scholars of Baghdad.

I am not really convinced, but I am inclined to give Masood sympathy upon further research. It seems as if within Academia there are a lot of disagreements and pretty much no consensus as to why there was an intellectual decline, or even if there was one in the first place.

I have tried scouring and asking for recommendations on this topic, some research:

0) There may have been no definite decline at all, as the 'Ottoman decline thesis' is largely debunked and new research is fastly underway. A lot of texts have not been translated and are sitting in dust. Peter Adamson states how people like al-Razi (1200s), Mulla Sudra (1600s) and Muhammad Iqbal (1900s) are unknown to the West because their works hadn't been translated or bothered to be read.[0]

1) There was no decline per se, as intellectual activity in the rational sciences were still buzzing, just in a different form (such as commentaries). Khaled El-Rouayheb's The Development of Arabic Logic (1200-1800) is a book outlining Arabic logic spanning still, further into 1200-1800.

2) There was a decline and it was due to the trend of the Ulama (Scholars) forming an alliance with the military states, which 'gradually hindered intellectual and economic creativity by marginalizing intellectual and bourgeois classes'. Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment: A Global and Historical Comparison by Ahmet T. Kuru.

3)There was no 'golden age of Islam' at all, rather it is an invented Orientalist myth. Rational Sciences were still commonly taught and developed, the reason for a latent decline is in colonisation and development of the printing press. This is a view offered by Asad Q. Ahmed[1]

[0]https://fivebooks.com/best-books/peter-adamson-philosophy-islamic-world/
[1]https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/openindia/islams-invented-golden-age/… (altro)