From 750 to 1258 CE, a new era began. In Mecca, a new religion began. One that would spark an era of extroardinary intellectual, scientific, economic, and cultural achievements across the ancient world. The religion of Islam has begun, and with it, Islam's Golden Age.
The bell rings and you walk into a small classroom. On the board, there is already an equation: 2.5x+3.2=8y. As you start to solve it, you wonder; Where did this complicated math come from? A look into the past can give you an answer. Muslim scholars based their mathematical contributions on Greece. To make their calculations more accurate, they adopted the decimal number system which we still use today. Remember that equation on the board? That was an algabraic equation. Algebra was created when Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī wrote the The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, also known as Al-Jabr. Algebra's name came from that book.
The mathematical term "algebra" comes from the word Al-Jabr", a book on calculation written by the Persian mathematician Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī in 820-830 CE.
If you have an event on your schedule, you usually check your watch. Well in ancient Islam, they invented the astrolobe to calculate the time and direction of their religious activies. Over time, the astrolabe evolved into modern clocks, watches, and compasses.
The astrolabe was used to tell time and direction in ancient Islam.
Modern medicine is very advanced, but ancient Islam contributed many inventions and discoveries. For example, Ibn al-Haytham discovered how our eyes work when he made a pinhole camera that showed how light passing through a small hole projects an inverted image onto a surface. This discovery contributes to modern ophthalmology. More inventions include scalpels, bone saws, and forceps. Some major practices invented during the golden age are vaccinations, surgery, and anatomy. These inventions and discoveries are major contributions to modern medicine.
Vaccinations were invented during Islam's Golden Age.
Many major science advancements are based off of discoveries from ancient Islam. One major invention is the scale. The ancient muslims used it to precisely measure objects like we do today. Another major invention was distillation. This process involved vaporizing a liquid, then collecting the condenstaion. This purifies the liquid and separates the individual components. The distillation process is used today for perfumes, food flavorings, and colorants.
The muslims used the distillation process to make perfumes.
The muslims were very interested in the arts. Literature, architecture, calligraphy, and arabesque are just a few used in ancient Islam. The most admired form of literature was poetry. One Thousand and One Nights was a very popular book that was similar to Aladdin. The most important Arabic text in ancient Islam was the Qur'an. This was the religious text of Islam. They believed it was the direct word of god. The Qur'an was written in calligraphy, a style of writing. The muslims used calligraphy to write many major Islamic texts.
The muslims incorporated calligraphy into paintings and architecture."