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Islamic Golden Age
Within a century of 622, the year the Prophet Muhammad moved from Mecca to Medina, a state born in Arabia stretched from Spain to Central Asia. In Baghdad, Córdoba and Cairo scholars translated Greek, Persian and Indian works and added discoveries of their own in mathematics, medicine, astronomy and philosophy. The Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258 is usually taken as the end of the age.
From Medina to an empire
THEME ONE
After Muhammad's death in 632 his successors, the caliphs, led Arab armies against the exhausted Byzantine and Persian empires. Syria, Egypt and Iraq fell within a decade, and Persia soon after. The Umayyad caliphs ruled from Damascus and in 711 crossed into Spain. In 750 the Abbasids overthrew them, and one Umayyad prince escaped to Córdoba and founded a rival state in al-Andalus.
Baghdad and the House of Wisdom
THEME TWO
In 762 the caliph al-Mansur founded Baghdad as a round city on the Tigris, and within decades it was one of the largest cities in the world. Under al-Ma'mun (813 – 833) scholars of the House of Wisdom translated Aristotle, Galen, Euclid and Ptolemy into Arabic. Paper, learned from Chinese craftsmen, made books cheaper, and Baghdad's markets had whole streets of booksellers.
Science and medicine
THEME THREE
Around 820 al-Khwarizmi wrote the book that gave algebra its name, and his own name gave us the word "algorithm". Ibn al-Haytham showed by experiment that we see because light enters the eye. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) completed his Canon of Medicine in 1025, and European universities taught from it for some five hundred years. Hospitals, observatories and the astrolabe spread across the Islamic world.
Córdoba, Cairo and the end
THEME FOUR
By the 10th century there were rival caliphs in Córdoba and in Cairo, founded by the Fatimids in 969, and both cities rivalled Baghdad in learning. In Córdoba the philosopher Ibn Rushd (Averroes) wrote commentaries on Aristotle that shaped European thought. Political power passed to Turkish soldiers and sultans, crusaders arrived in 1096, and in 1258 the Mongols under Hulagu sacked Baghdad and killed the last Abbasid caliph there.
Periods
The first caliphates
622 – 750
The Prophet in Medina, the first four caliphs and the Umayyad caliphate of Damascus, which reaches from the Atlantic to the Indus.
The Abbasid golden age
750 – 945
Baghdad is founded, the translation movement brings Greek science into Arabic, and the caliphs rule much of the Islamic world until a Persian dynasty takes over Baghdad in 945.
Many centres
945 – 1258
Learning flourishes in Córdoba, Cairo, Bukhara and Isfahan while Seljuk sultans, crusaders and finally the Mongols fight over the Middle East.
Key dates
- 622The hijra - Muhammad moves from Mecca to Medina.
- 711Muslim armies cross into Spain.
- 762Caliph al-Mansur founds Baghdad.
- c. 820Al-Khwarizmi writes his book on algebra.
- 1025Ibn Sina completes the Canon of Medicine.
- 1258The Mongols sack Baghdad.
Questions and answers
Why is it called a golden age?
Because for several centuries the cities of the Islamic world were among the largest and richest on earth and led in science, medicine and philosophy. Scholars writing in Arabic - Muslims, Christians, Jews and others - preserved Greek, Persian and Indian knowledge and carried it further.
Which words come from Arabic science?
Algebra (from al-jabr in the title of al-Khwarizmi's book), algorithm (from his name), cipher and zero (both from sifr, "empty"), alchemy, zenith and azimuth, and the names of many stars, such as Aldebaran, Altair and Betelgeuse.