Islamic Golden Age
The learning of the Islamic world from about 750 to 1258 CE: the Baghdad translation movement, Arabic philosophy, science and scholarship, and their transmission to Europe. Political and military history is not included.
Category: Culture
- c. 750Baghdad translates Greek philosophy into Arabic
From the mid-8th to the late 10th century the Abbasids sponsor translation of Greek science and philosophy at Baghdad, often via Syriac. Al-Mansur is credited with the House of Wisdom and al-Ma'mun with its peak. Hunayn ibn Ishaq and his circle are the main translators.
- 794Baghdad builds its first paper mill
In 794-795 Baghdad gets its first paper mill, and paper soon spreads across the Islamic world and begins to replace papyrus. The tradition that Chinese prisoners taken at Talas (751) brought papermaking to Samarkand is doubted, since paper was already used in Central Asia.
- c. 808Hunayn ibn Ishaq translates Galen into Arabic
Hunayn ibn Ishaq, a Nestorian Christian physician in Baghdad (born c. 808-809, died 873 or 877), translates 129 works of Galen and others from Greek via Syriac into Arabic. His Ten Treatises on the Eye is the first known systematic work on ophthalmology.
- c. 820Al-Khwarizmi writes the book that names algebra
Around 820 Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi writes in Baghdad his Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, classing quadratic equations into six types. The word "algebra" comes from its title. Robert of Chester translates it into Latin in 1145.
- c. 833Al-Kindi works Aristotle into Arabic philosophy
Al-Kindi (c. 801-873) oversees translations at Baghdad under al-Ma'mun and al-Mu'tasim. In On First Philosophy, dedicated to al-Mu'tasim, he blends Aristotelian and Neoplatonic ideas into an Islamic framework. Much standard Arabic philosophical vocabulary traces to him.
- c. 859The Qarawiyyin mosque is founded at Fez
Most sources date the Qarawiyyin mosque to 857-859 and credit Fatima al-Fihri; an inscription naming Dawud ibn Idris says 877, and some doubt Fatima. Clear evidence of teaching dates from 1121. It is called the oldest university, though scholars call it a madrasa.
- c. 865Al-Razi, physician and critic of Galen
Al-Razi (born 864 or 865 at Ray, died 925 or 935) heads hospitals at Ray and Baghdad. He writes on smallpox and measles and in Doubts about Galen challenges humoral theory. His al-Hawi and Liber Almansoris reach Latin in 1279 and c. 1180.
- c. 950Al-Farabi, "the Second Teacher", dies
Al-Farabi (c. 870-950), who works at Baghdad and Aleppo, is called the Second Teacher, after Aristotle. He writes commentaries on Aristotle's logic, De Interpretatione, Poetics and Nicomachean Ethics, and shapes Avicenna, Averroes and Maimonides. He dies at Damascus.
- 961Al-Hakam II builds a great library at Córdoba
Caliph al-Hakam II (r. 961-976) collects books at Córdoba from Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo and elsewhere. Accounts claim over 600,000 volumes and a 44-volume catalogue, figures only reported, not verified. After his death Almanzor is said to have destroyed "ancient science" books.
- 970The Fatimids found Al-Azhar in Cairo
The Fatimids begin the Al-Azhar mosque at Cairo in 970 and finish it in 972. In 988 the vizier Ya'qub ibn Killis makes it a centre of higher learning with 35 scholars. Saladin later turns it Sunni. Whether it was a university before 1961, or a madrasa, is disputed.
- 1011Ibn al-Haytham writes the Book of Optics
Ibn al-Haytham (c. 965-c. 1040) writes the seven-book Book of Optics in 1011-1021, arguing that sight occurs when light enters the eye, not through rays sent from it, with experimental arguments. Its Latin version, De aspectibus, appears c. 1200 and is printed in 1572.
- 1025Avicenna completes the Canon of Medicine
Avicenna completes the Canon of Medicine in 1025 at Hamadan: five books, from principles and some 800 simple drugs to diseases and 650 compound drugs. Gerard of Cremona is credited with the Latin version. It is printed in 1472 and used in universities for centuries.
- 1027Avicenna publishes the Book of Healing
Begun in 1014 and published in 1027, Avicenna's Book of Healing is an encyclopedia in four parts: logic, natural sciences, mathematics and metaphysics. A partial Latin version, Sufficientia, appears some fifty years later and influences Albertus Magnus and Aquinas.
- c. 1030Al-Biruni completes his study of India
Al-Biruni (973-c. 1050), taken to Ghazni in 1017 and soon on Mahmud's campaigns in India, completes his Kitab al-Hind around 1030. His earth-radius measurement at Nandana, by horizon dip, survives; its accuracy depends on a cubit length that is unclear.
- 1065Nizam al-Mulk founds the Nizamiyya of Baghdad
In 1065 Nizam al-Mulk founds the Nizamiyya madrasa at Baghdad, one of a network across Seljuk lands and among the first well-organised higher schools. Al-Ghazali later teaches there. Some scholars see the network as meant to counter Ismaili influence.
- c. 1077Constantine the African translates Arabic medicine
Constantine the African, a monk at Monte Cassino (1077 by one account), translates Arabic medical works into Latin, among them the Pantegni and Viaticum. He often omitted the authors' names, so Renaissance scholars called him a plagiarist. He died before 1098.
- 1095Al-Ghazali writes The Incoherence of the Philosophers
In 1095, as a professor at Baghdad, al-Ghazali attacks Avicenna and al-Farabi for following Greek philosophy against Islam. Of its 20 points, 17 are called heretical and three disbelief: the world's eternity, God knowing only universals, and denial of bodily resurrection.
- c. 1126Adelard of Bath brings Arabic science into Latin
Adelard of Bath, who travelled in Sicily and the East, is back in the West by 1126. He translates al-Khwarizmi's astronomical tables and makes the oldest surviving Latin Euclid, from an Arabic text. His death is placed anywhere from c. 1142 to c. 1160.
- c. 1126Toledo becomes a translation centre
After Toledo falls in 1085, Archbishop Raymond (1126-51) starts translation work there. Gerard of Cremona arrives in 1167 and renders Aristotle's Posterior Analytics and Physics; Michael Scot translates Averroes and the History of Animals (1220). Jews and Mozarabs help.
- 1154Al-Idrisi completes the Tabula Rogeriana
In 1154, weeks before Roger II of Sicily dies, al-Idrisi finishes at Palermo a world atlas that took about 15 years: 70 sectional maps and a silver planisphere, with south at the top. The originals were destroyed in a 1160 rebellion; the oldest copy dates to about 1300.
- 1169Averroes begins his commentaries on Aristotle
In 1169 Ibn Tufayl introduces Averroes (1126-1198) to the Almohad caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf, who asks him to explain Aristotle. His commentaries follow. In the Latin West he becomes known as "the Commentator". He is also appointed qadi of Seville that year.
- 1178Averroes answers al-Ghazali
In 1178 Averroes writes On the Harmony of Religions and Philosophy, arguing that Islam and philosophy are compatible. In 1180 his Incoherence of the Incoherence answers al-Ghazali, defending the philosophers passage by passage as a dialogue.
- c. 1190Maimonides writes the Guide for the Perplexed
Maimonides (d. 1204) composes the Guide c. 1185-1190, seeking to reconcile Aristotelianism and science with the Torah. It is highly controversial in his day; French rabbis burn copies at Montpellier.
- 1195Averroes is condemned and his books burned
In 1195 a tribunal at Córdoba condemns Averroes's teachings, orders his works burned and banishes him to Lucena. He is later recalled to Marrakesh and restored to favour, and dies there in 1198.
- 1202Fibonacci writes the Liber Abaci
Leonardo of Pisa (Fibonacci), who studied arithmetic at Bugia in North Africa, writes the Liber Abaci in 1202, helping bring Hindu-Arabic numerals and place-value notation to Europe. A revised version follows in 1228. Adoption was slow, widespread only by the late 16th century.
- June 14, 1325Ibn Battuta sets out from Tangier
Ibn Battuta leaves Tangier on 14 June 1325 for the hajj and does not return to Morocco for 24 years, travelling about 117,000 km. He serves six years as a qadi at Delhi. Doubts remain about parts of his account, including his chronology and whether he reached China.