How Did Advances in Art Literature and Technology Impact the Rise of Muslim Empires

Learning Objective

Identify the causes of, and developments during, the Islamic Aureate Historic period

Primal Points

The Islamic Golden Age started with the rise of Islam and establishment of the commencement Islamic land in 622.
The introduction of paper in the tenth century enabled Islamic scholars to hands write manuscripts; Arab scholars also saved classic works of antiquity by translating them into various languages.
The Arabs assimilated the scientific noesis of the civilizations they had overrun, including the ancient Greek, Roman, Persian, Chinese, Indian, Egyptian, and Phoenician civilizations.
Scientists advanced the fields of algebra, calculus, geometry, chemistry, biological science, medicine, and astronomy.
Many forms of art flourished during the Islamic Golden Historic period, including ceramics, metalwork, textiles, illuminated manuscripts, woodwork, and calligraphy.

Terms

Averroës

A medieval Andalusian polymath famous for his translations and commentaries of Aristotle.

calligraphy

A visual art related to writing—the design and execution of lettering with a broad tip instrument or brush in ane stroke.

arabesque

A course of creative decoration consisting of surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils, and other elements.

Overview

The Islamic Golden Age refers to a menses in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 13th century, during which much of the historically Islamic world was ruled past diverse caliphates and science, economic development, and cultural works flourished. This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign of the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (786–809) with the inauguration of the Firm of Wisdom in Baghdad, where scholars from various parts of the globe with different cultural backgrounds were mandated to assemble and translate all of the world's classical cognition into the Arabic linguistic communication.

The terminate of the age is variously given every bit 1258 with the Mongolian Sack of Baghdad, or 1492 with the completion of the Christian Reconquista of the Emirate of Granada in Al-Andalus, Iberian Peninsula. During the Gold Age, the major Islamic uppercase cities of Baghdad, Cairo, and Córdoba became the main intellectual centers for science, philosophy, medicine, and education. The authorities heavily patronized scholars, and the best scholars and notable translators, such as Hunayn ibn Ishaq, had salaries estimated to be the equivalent of those of professional athletes today.

The School of Nisibis and later the School of Edessa became centers of learning and manual of classical wisdom. The House of Wisdom was a library, translation establish, and university, and the Library of Alexandria and the Imperial Library of Constantinople housed new works of literature. Nestorian Christians played an of import role in the germination of Arab culture, with the Jundishapur hospital and medical university prominent in the late Sassanid, Umayyad, and early Abbasid periods. Notably, eight generations of the Nestorian Bukhtishu family served as private doctors to caliphs and sultans between the 8th and 11th centuries.

Literature and Philosophy

With the introduction of paper, information was democratized and it became possible to brand a living from simply writing and selling books. The apply of newspaper spread from Cathay into Muslim regions in the 8th century, and then to Espana (and so the residue of Europe) in the 10th century. Paper was easier to manufacture than parchment and less likely to crack than papyrus, and could blot ink, making it difficult to erase and ideal for keeping records. Islamic paper makers devised assembly-line methods of hand-copying manuscripts to plow out editions far larger than any bachelor in Europe for centuries. The best known fiction from the Islamic earth is The Book of Ane Thousand and One Nights, which took form in the tenth century and reached its concluding form by the 14th century, although the number and type of tales vary.

Christians (specially Nestorian Christians) contributed to the Arab Islamic culture during the Ummayad and the Abbasid periods past translating works of Greek philosophers to Syriac and and then to Arabic. During the 4th through the 7th centuries, scholarly work in the Syriac and Greek languages was either newly initiated or carried on from the Hellenistic menstruum. Many classic works of antiquity might have been lost if Arab scholars had not translated them into Arabic and Persian and subsequently into Turkish, Hebrew, and Latin. Islamic scholars too absorbed ideas from China and India, and in turn Arabic philosophic literature contributed to the development of modern European philosophy.

Ibn Rushd

Ibn Rushd, likewise known by his Latinized proper noun Averroës (Apr 14, 1126–Dec 10, 1198), was an Al-Andalus Muslim polymath, a master of Aristotelian philosophy, Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Maliki law and jurisprudence, logic, psychology, politics, Andalusian classical music theory, medicine, astronomy, geography, mathematics, physics, and celestial mechanics. Averroes was born in Córdoba, Al-Andalus, present-day Espana, and died in Marrakesh, present-day Morocco.

The 13th-century philosophical movement based on Averroes' work is called Averroism. Both Ibn Rushd and the scholar Ibn Sina played a major part in saving the works of Aristotle, whose ideas came to dominate the non-religious thought of the Christian and Muslim worlds. Ibn Rushd has been described equally the "founding male parent of secular thought in Western Europe." He tried to reconcile Aristotle's organization of thought with Islam. Co-ordinate to him, in that location is no disharmonize betwixt organized religion and philosophy; rather they are different ways of reaching the same truth. He believed in the eternity of the universe. Ibn Ruhd also held that the soul is divided into 2 parts, one individual and one divine; while the private soul is non eternal, all humans at the basic level share one and the aforementioned divine soul.

Science and Mathematics

The Arabs assimilated the scientific knowledge of the civilizations they had conquered, including the ancient Greek, Roman, Persian, Chinese, Indian, Egyptian, and Phoenician civilizations. Scientists recovered the Alexandrian mathematical, geometric, and astronomical noesis, such as that of Euclid and Claudius Ptolemy.

Western farsi scientist Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī significantly developed algebra in in his landmark text, Kitab al-Jabr wa-l-Muqabala, from which the term "algebra" is derived. The term "algorithm" is derived from the name of the scholar al-Khwarizmi, who was also responsible for introducing the Standard arabic numerals and Hindu-Standard arabic numeral system beyond the Indian subcontinent. In calculus, the scholar Alhazen discovered the sum formula for the fourth ability, using a method readily generalizable to determine the sum for any integral power. He used this to find the volume of a paraboloid.

Medicine

Medicine was a cardinal part of medieval Islamic culture. Responding to circumstances of time and place, Islamic physicians and scholars developed a large and circuitous medical literature exploring and synthesizing the theory and exercise of medicine. Islamic medicine was congenital on tradition, importantly the theoretical and applied knowledge developed in India, Greece, Persia, and Rome. Islamic scholars translated their writings from Syriac, Greek, and Sanskrit into Arabic and then produced new medical knowledge based on those texts. In order to make the Greek tradition more accessible, understandable, and teachable, Islamic scholars organized the Greco-Roman medical knowledge into encyclopedias.

Art

Ceramics, glass, metalwork, textiles, illuminated manuscripts, and woodwork flourished during the Islamic Gold Historic period. Manuscript illumination became an important and profoundly respected fine art, and portrait miniature painting flourished in Persia. Calligraphy, an essential aspect of written Arabic, developed in manuscripts and architectural ornamentation.

Arabesque

Typically, though not entirely, Islamic art depicts nature patterns and Arabic calligraphy, rather than figures, considering many Muslims feared that the depiction of the human form is idolatry and thereby a sin against God, forbidden in the Quran. At that place are repeating elements in Islamic art, such as the utilise of geometrical floral or vegetal designs in a repetition known as the arabesque. The arabesque in Islamic art is ofttimes used to symbolize the transcendent, indivisible, and space nature of God. Mistakes in repetitions may be intentionally introduced every bit a show of humility by artists who believe only God can produce perfection, although this theory is disputed.

Calligraphy

The traditional musical instrument of the Arabic calligrapher is the qalam, a pen fabricated of dried reed or bamboo. Qalam ink is often in colour, and chosen such that its intensity tin vary greatly, then that the greater strokes of the compositions can be very dynamic in their effect. Islamic calligraphy is practical on a wide range of decorative mediums other than paper, such every bit tiles, vessels, carpets, and inscriptions. Before the advent of paper, papyrus and parchment were used for writing.

Coins were another back up for calligraphy. Commencement in 692, the Islamic caliphate reformed the coinage of the Near E by replacing visual depiction with words. This was particularly true for dinars, or gold coins of loftier value, which were inscribed with quotes from the Quran.

By the 10th century, the Persians, who had converted to Islam, began weaving inscriptions on elaborately patterned silks. These calligraphic-inscribed textiles were and so precious that Crusaders brought them to Europe equally prized possessions. A notable example is the Suaire de Saint-Josse, used to wrap the bones of St. Josse in the abbey of St. Josse-sur-Mer near Caen in northwestern French republic.

Architecture and Tilework

There were many advances in architectural construction, and mosques, tombs, palaces, and forts were inspired past Farsi and Byzantine architecture. Islamic mosaic art predictable principles of quasicrystalline geometry, which would not exist discovered for 500 more years. This art used symmetric polygonal shapes to create patterns that can keep indefinitely without repeating. These patterns have fifty-fifty helped modern scientists understand quasicrystals at the atomic levels.

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldcivilization/chapter/the-islamic-golden-age/