Scientists and Philosophers in the Islamic Golden Age

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The Islamic Golden Age was started in the year 622 when the religion of Islam began to rise. Spanning for much of the Middle Ages, the Islamic Golden Age helped develop many inventions that are exceptionally relevant today. The curiosity that helped create the Islamic Golden Age was especially celebrated in the Qu'ran, as there is one passage instructing Muslims to look at a camel and ask how it was created. The Islamic Empire spanned from the Middle East and Western Asia into the Iberian Peninsula and Northern Africa, and even portions of South-Eastern Asia, like China and the Philippines. Rich in culture and art, much of the Islamic Empire is no longer majority-Muslim due to the Spanish Inquisition of 1492, where "moors" were driven out of Spain and Portugal. 

Ibn Tufail's Hay ibn Yaqzan is a philosophical tale written in the Islamic Golden Age that follows Hayy, a man who was castaway as a young child. Hayy experiments with surgery and anatomy and discusses marvels of astronomy and botany, representing the scientific advancements of the time. 

Sources:

“Why the Dark Ages Weren’t Really Dark.” USA Today Magazine, vol. 139, no. 2793, June 2011, pp. 10–11. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rgm&AN=504866127&site=eds-live.

McLean, J. (n.d.). World Civilization. Retrieved November 08, 2020, from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldcivilization/chapter/the-islamic-golden-age/

Singer, Alan. “Science and Math from the Islamic Golden Age.” Social Science Docket, vol. 12, no. 1, Winter/Spring2012 2012, p. 51. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=72319331&site=eds-live.

Bayrakdar, Mehmet. “Al-Jāhiz and the Rise of Biological Evolutionism.” Hamdard Islamicus, vol. 8, no. 2, Sum 1985, pp. 31–39. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rfh&AN=ATLA0000960129&site=eds-live.

Carmona, Pippo. “The Birth of Science in a Darkened Room.” History Today, vol. 69, no. 4, Apr. 2019, pp. 18–20. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=30h&AN=135190580&site=eds-live.