Why did Islamic science collapse?

[Game theory]

In Contrast with Europe where an emerging mercantile class used science to develop the navigational skills needed to get rich from global trade.

Anyone?

[mospike]

Read Shaykh Abul Hasan Nadwis book, entitled Islam and the World

also listen to this talk on Islamic Finance by Sh Tauha Karaan

http://www.mediafire.com/?4rac3f0m3gczur4

[Game theory]

Read Shaykh Abul Hasan Nadwis book, entitled Islam and the World

also listen to this talk on Islamic Finance by Sh Tauha Karaan

http://www.mediafire.com/?4rac3f0m3gczur4

Thanks for the link and will look into it. However, Jim Al Khalili from Oxford University did a BBC series on science and islam fairly recently. Part of his argument was that printing with moveable type took longer to catch on in the Islamic world due to arabic script being much more difficult to reproduce in this form. This in turn held back the spread of ideas whilst Europe benefitted from the sudden abundance of cheap, mass produced books.

But I think all this was was entirely bogus reason, for a start it is always possible to change a convention. For example, both Europeans and Arabs took to Hindu numbers as they were easier to utilize. It wouldn't have been impossible to alter the script or adopt the Latin. It also doesn't take into account that natural philosophy had been in decline for several centuries in the Islamic world before the advent of printing, whilst it was flourishing in Christendom.

[Game theory]

bump....

[Starting_anew]

This is an incredibly difficult question to answer. We can't give physical causal links, but then perhaps we don't need to.

How did a bunch of (formerly) jahilliya arabs become the most civilized nation on earth? How did they bring, peace and justice to the centre of the known world? How did they spread civilisation and prosperity wherever they went? How did they feed the poor and protect the weak?
How was it places like cordoba had modern levels of literacy (80% plus I believe in the 12th century) when European kings and queens were illiterate? How was it that Muslim Spain had such advanced food production, and hygiene standards that it had a higher population than the ENTIRETY of Christian Europe put together?

And how did we fail to uphold their legacy? We know how they did that. Deep down, this isn't a question, we know the answer. They truly believed in the Quran and they truly believed in the Hadith. They had taqwa. Now do we? Do all of us? Why is it that more people in our ummah do not pray namaz than do? More do not pay zakat than do? We are like the bits of foam on the sea. Numerous, numberless but powerless.
Inshallah we will rise again, we already are slowly. Day by day we're becoming stronger, I can feel it, you can feel it to. Islamic science is just one aspect of who we were. It will naturally follow and develop in a strong confident ummah.

[Straightpath]

Its a natural cycle of history. Things continously change.

On a shorter scale of time however, in Europe and the US, doors were made open for scientists from all over the world. As things continously change in their home country. Many will move back.

Anyway, its a natural cycle.

"And had there not been Allah's repelling mankind- some of them by others- the earth would have been corrupted; but Allah is Possessor of bounty to all the worlds" Quran 2:251

[Game theory]

Its a natural cycle of history. Things continously change.

On a shorter scale of time however, in Europe and the US, doors were made open for scientists from all over the world. As things continously change in their home country. Many will move back.

Anyway, its a natural cycle.

"And had there not been Allah's repelling mankind- some of them by others- the earth would have been corrupted; but Allah is Possessor of bounty to all the worlds" Quran 2:251

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timelin...s#10th_century

[Game theory]

Its a natural cycle of history. Things continously change.

On a shorter scale of time however, in Europe and the US, doors were made open for scientists from all over the world. As things continously change in their home country. Many will move back.

Anyway, its a natural cycle.

"And had there not been Allah's repelling mankind- some of them by others- the earth would have been corrupted; but Allah is Possessor of bounty to all the worlds" Quran 2:251

I'll admit, the question is phrased badly. All it reflects is the current political obsession with Islam and attempts to portray all things Islamic in a poor light.

The better question, which some posters have been working towards, is why, at certain periods and in differing places, societies are more 'advanced' (and I can't think of a more loaded term at the moment) than others?

For most of the history of 'Islam' and 'The West' (and these are inadequate terms) it has been 'Islam' which has been more 'advanced'. The same also applies to 'India' and 'China' and yet current political obsessives never ask why India and China collapsed - if, indeed, any of 'Islam', India or China ever did actually collapse.

What we are talking about, or should be talking about if we don't want to go up an orientalist blind alley, is 'The Great Divergence' and why that occured.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Divergence

I offer that link as a basic intro to the concept as opposed to an endorsement of the article as I know, for example, that Jack Goody is a critic of the entire concept and yet isn't mentioned at all.

[Game theory]

This is an incredibly difficult question to answer. We can't give physical causal links, but then perhaps we don't need to.

How did a bunch of (formerly) jahilliya arabs become the most civilized nation on earth? How did they bring, peace and justice to the centre of the known world? How did they spread civilisation and prosperity wherever they went? How did they feed the poor and protect the weak?
How was it places like cordoba had modern levels of literacy (80% plus I believe in the 12th century) when European kings and queens were illiterate? How was it that Muslim Spain had such advanced food production, and hygiene standards that it had a higher population than the ENTIRETY of Christian Europe put together?

And how did we fail to uphold their legacy? We know how they did that. Deep down, this isn't a question, we know the answer. They truly believed in the Quran and they truly believed in the Hadith. They had taqwa. Now do we? Do all of us? Why is it that more people in our ummah do not pray namaz than do? More do not pay zakat than do? We are like the bits of foam on the sea. Numerous, numberless but powerless.
Inshallah we will rise again, we already are slowly. Day by day we're becoming stronger, I can feel it, you can feel it to. Islamic science is just one aspect of who we were. It will naturally follow and develop in a strong confident ummah.

Not sure about this but one of the traditional reasons given for the scientific decline was when the orthodox Ash'ari school of Thought challenged the more rational Mu'tazili school of Thought, with al-Ghazali's The Incoherence of the Philosophers being the most notable example. Recent scholarship has questioned this traditional view, however, with a number of scholars pointing out that the Ash'ari school supported science but were only opposed to speculative philosophy and that some of the greatest Muslim scientists such as Alhazen, Biruni, Ibn al-Nafis and Ibn Khaldun were themselves followers of the Ash'ari school.

Ohhh the Shia vs Sunni divide didnt help either

[AbuFatimah]

This is an incredibly difficult question to answer. We can't give physical causal links, but then perhaps we don't need to.

How did a bunch of (formerly) jahilliya arabs become the most civilized nation on earth? How did they bring, peace and justice to the centre of the known world? How did they spread civilisation and prosperity wherever they went? How did they feed the poor and protect the weak?
How was it places like cordoba had modern levels of literacy (80% plus I believe in the 12th century) when European kings and queens were illiterate? How was it that Muslim Spain had such advanced food production, and hygiene standards that it had a higher population than the ENTIRETY of Christian Europe put together?

And how did we fail to uphold their legacy? We know how they did that. Deep down, this isn't a question, we know the answer. They truly believed in the Quran and they truly believed in the Hadith. They had taqwa. Now do we? Do all of us? Why is it that more people in our ummah do not pray namaz than do? More do not pay zakat than do? We are like the bits of foam on the sea. Numerous, numberless but powerless.
Inshallah we will rise again, we already are slowly. Day by day we're becoming stronger, I can feel it, you can feel it to. Islamic science is just one aspect of who we were. It will naturally follow and develop in a strong confident ummah.

this post is spot on mashsallah. may allah rectify us