The famous Turkish scholar and researcher Fuat Sezgin is a dedicated defender of the reputation of Arab science. He realised at a young age that its contribution to human knowledge was being misrepresented and downgraded, even among Arabs themselves.
He tells a story from his childhood, where such assumptions were passed on to him before he would go on to question and research many of the common misapprehensions about the history of science and the origin of the modern Renaissance.
In his own words: “I heard my teacher in the first weeks of my enrolment in primary school, saying: ‘The Arabs believed that the Earth was carried on a bull’s two horns forever.’
In the school textbooks, the modern European Renaissance was defined as the continuation of Greek science, without reference to any role of Arabs and Muslims in the history of human heritage, except when it was necessary to mention their translation of Greek books into Arabic before the books were translated from Arabic into Latin.”
Sezgin explains that he grew up in an environment that was dominated by two things: “Viewing with contempt the Arab scientific heritage, and considering the modern renaissance as a pure European product.”
His perspective started to change when he met the German orientalist Helmut Ritter in 1943, who told him he had to specialise in the natural sciences and mathematics, where Arab scholars such as Al-Khwarizmi, Ibn Yunus, Ibn Al-Haytham, Al-Biruni were the equals of their European peers.
This surprised Sezgin, and the encounter stayed with him: “On the way home and in bed, I was confused between this talk and what I learned in schools when I was growing up. I spent the night without sleep; I was waiting for the morning to go back to my teacher to ask him many questions.”
From then, Sezgin took it upon himself to confront these common and misleading ideas about the history of science in human civilisation.
He became one of the leading scientists specialized in the study of the history of Arab and Islamic sciences, and established specialised scientific centres in this field, in Germany and other European and Arab countries.
Even after Sezgin’s work, a distorted view of the contribution of the Arabs to global science and their scientific and cultural heritage persists to this day, not only in European societies but in the Arab world itself.
Lack of awareness explained
The biggest reason for this is a general lack of awareness of the rich scientific heritage in the Arab world, but it is also due to the purpose the narratives about Arab science have served. Stories about scientific breakthroughs have been told in the context of confrontation with the West and inciting emotions.
That approach stripped scientific discourse of its rationality and undermined the status it deserves, curtailing a wider understanding of its history and the Arab world’s contribution through it to civilisation.
A better understanding of Arab heritage and history here is important. It would help the Arab world to see its true belonging within human civilisation, the way in which we influence others and become influenced, and how we have contributed such a significant role to the fundamental building blocks of science and wider human civilisation.
After all, knowledge of our true place in history becomes one of the primary ways to ensure progress can be made.
Names of stars come from Arabic
Astronomy is one of the areas where the Arabs’ contribution to human knowledge is both vast and under-recognised.
Over two thirds of prominent stars known today in the night sky have Arabic names. This is due to the "stellar" navigational skills of Muslim astronomers 1000 years ago, during the Golden Age of Islam.⁰
A thread on stars & the art astronomy in Islamic history... pic.twitter.com/uZwQVvAudE
— Bayt Al Fann (@BaytAlFann) August 22, 2022
It was thought that Arabs based their understanding of the universe on myths and legends. This idea spread through fatwas – or the opinion of contemporary jurisprudence – that dealt with such issues, making things worse in terms of false and misleading information.
Refuting these common ideas is time-consuming. But it is clear that the Arabs have a long and deep intellectual history with the human understanding of the stars. This is evidenced by scientific and mathematical records but also by poetry, arts and parables.
More than 260 stars have Arabic names. Of the 300 stars that have been named, over 200 originate from Arabic names recorded in Latin, with Arabic pronunciation. These names appear in scientific history books and astronomy books and atlases.
