Dr. George Saliba is a professor of Arabic and Islamic Science in the department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University in the USA.

Saliba is one of world’s leading sources on the topic of the history of Islamic Science. He is the author of Late Arabic Scientific Commentaries: Their Role and Their Originality (2014) and Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance (2007).

Furthermore, he conducted researches on the transmission of astronomical ideas from the Islamic World to Europe during the 15-16th centuries.

In this lecture in 2016, the Lebanese researcher shed some light on the Islamic Golden Age and the philosophy of science in the minds of Medieval Muslims.

Shari’ah Pro-Science

Historians date the era of the Islamic Golden Age between the 8th century and the 13th century. During this era, the Islamic World was ruled by various caliphates where science, economic development and cultural works flourished.

Muslims of the medieval Islamic World developed and practiced science in every region. This occurred under the Umayyads of Córdoba and the Abbadids of Seville. Also under the Samanids, the Ziyarids, and Buyid Persia. It also took place in Tamerlane’s Transoxiana and the Abbasid Caliphate. Moreover, in Egypt, Central Asia and beyond.

Islamic scientific achievements encompassed a wide range of subject areas, especially astronomy, mathematics, and medicine. Other subjects of scientific inquiry included alchemy and chemistry, botany, geography and cartography, ophthalmology, pharmacology, physics, and zoology.

Many Qur’anic injunctions and prophetic Hadith place high emphasis on education. Islamic Shari’ah emphasizes the importance of acquiring knowledge. Hence, it played a vital role in influencing the Muslims of that era in their search for knowledge and development.