Error in your article titled "Islam and mathematics"

mar 2nd, 2007

shahryar tries to correct a pakistani who makes outrageous claims about mohammedan mathematical prowess. of course, the pakistani ain't going to want to hear something that punctures his blind faith.

mohammedan scientific/mathematical claims are generally bogus. it is true that they were, in the middle ages, less barbaric than the christists, who were utter monkeys. but that's faint praise as the christists were true troglodytes then.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Shahryar
Date: Mar 1, 2007 7:35 PM
Subject: Fwd: Error in your article titled "Islam and mathematics"
To: Rajeev Srinivasan <rajeev.srinivasan@gmail.com>

The original article, in case you are interested - as yet no reply from the author!

 

Islam and mathematics

Mathematics possesses not only truth but supreme beauty — a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of music, yet sublimely pure and capable of perfection such as only the greatest art possesses — Bertrand Russell One is reminded of the warning given by St. Augustine: "The good Christians should be beware of mathematicians. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine men in the bonds of hell." The Roman jurists framed the law: "To learn the art of geometry, an art as damnable as mathematics are forbidden." Twelve hundred years later, Sh. Ahmad Sirhindi called mathematicians idiots and their admirers worse idiots and the meanest creatures because he thought that mathematics and its learning could not be of any use in the salvation of men in the life hereafter. These fulminations against mathematics belong to the medieval age, known for its obscurantism, dogmatism and irrationalism. George Sarton divides his History of Science into ages, each age associated with one towering thinker, lasting for half a century. Thus the period from 450 BC to 400 BC is the Age of Plato, from 400 BC to 350 BC is the Age of Aristotle and so on. From 750 AD to 1100 AD is the period lasting for 350 years is completely dominated by the Muslims. It is an unbroken succession of the Ages of Jabir, Khwarizmi, Razi, Masudi, Wafa, Bruni and Omar Khayyam. It is only after 1100 AD that the first western names appear — Gerard of Cremona and Roger Bacon. But the honours are still shared by another two centuries by the names of Ibn Rushd, Nasiruddin Toosi and Ibn Nafis. After 1350, however, the Muslim world sinks into a long dogmatic slumber with only occasional flashes of scientific brilliance like that at the court of Ulegh Beg at Samarkand at the end of the 15th century. History bears out the fact that scientific brilliance is always accompanied by mathematical efflorescence. In fact mathematical discoveries pave the way for spectacular advances in science. No nation has ever achieved greatness with attaining mastery over mathematics. When the Muslims dominated the world of science, they were supreme in mathematics. Musa al-Khwarizmi (780-850) was one of the scientific minds of Islam, who influenced mathematical thought more than any medieval scholar. He compiled not only the oldest book on arithmetic, but also the astronomical tables. His magnum opus was hisab al-jabr wa'l-muqabala. It was translated in Latin in the 12th century and was used till the 16th century as the principal textbook on algebra in the European universities. By introducing an unknown quantity and then finding it, algebra became the open-sesame for the discovery of the unknown — the be-all and end-all of all sciences. The great poet; and perhaps greater mathematician Omar Khayyam (1048-1122) and Nasiruddin Toosi (1201-1274) showed that every ratio of magnitudes whether commensurable or incommensurable, might be a number, rational or irrational. The magnitude of this achievement becomes particularly clear when we recall that the complete recognition of negative or irrational numbers was attained only slowly and that too after the beginning of Renaissance in Europe. Allama Iqbal credited Toosi for being the first to question the Euclidean postulate on parallelism. Omar Khayyam was the first to prove a number of theorems of Non-Euclidean geometry which were discovered by Lobchersky, Riemann and Gauss independently of one another during the mid-19th century. Omar Khayyam preceded them by seven centuries, whereas Einstein utilised the Non-Euclidean geometry to usher in a new world of science. There was no one to pick up the clue left by Omar Khayyam. He also began to use graphs to combine algebra and geometry to solve the cubic equations. It may be remembered that it was the genius of Descartes who performed the tour de force of combining algebra and geometry, along with founding new philosophy with the dictum: "I think, therefore I am." There was no thinker in the Muslim world to follow Omar Khayyam and uphold rationalism, because Imam Ghazali had already written Tahafat Al Falsafah (Refutation of Philosophy). Of course, Ibn Rushd did write Tahafat-al-tahafa (Refutation of Refutation). Unfortunately the Muslim world rejected him, whereas the Europeans picked him up. The Europeans became Averoists, one and all i.e. followers of Ibn Rushd. Al Biruni hit upon the great mathematical idea of function, which, according to Spengler, is the symbol of the West of which no other culture gives even a hint. The idea of function introduces the concepts of inter-dependence and movement, seeing the world as a conglomeration of inter dependent processes. This concept is the essence of dialectics. It is unfortunate that this revolutionary idea remained untapped by the Muslim world which was hibernating for centuries under the spell of dogmatism and irrationalism. A dynamic idea cannot flourish in a static society. It was by the middle of the 17th century that the tables were definitely and decisively turned against the Muslim-world. Descarte's geometry was published in 1637. Ahmad Sirhindi died in 1624, but he condemned mathematics in the strongest terms. By condemning mathematics, we stepped out of onward march of science and technology. One-ninth of the Quranic verses stress tadabbur, tafakkur and taaqul (deliberation, thinking and reasoning). The Quran stands for the supremacy of reason. Having turned our back on reason, we have fallen an easy victim to obscurantism and dogmatism. Our worldview is medieval. Islam has been transformed from algebra of revolution to arithmetic of stagnation. There can be no blossoming of mathematics and hence science and technology unless and until a weltanshauung based on tafakkur and tadabbur is ushered in the world of Islam. Islam is not a closed system as the orthodox would have us believe. Such a view annuls the universality of Islam. Islam is a faith in which God provides mankind anew, every morning, the riches whereby we can solve the new problems that may arise that day. As the Quran puts it, every day has its own glory. At one end, Islam relates itself to the immeasurable greatness of the Divine and at the other end to the immeasurable diversity of the humankind. Pluralism is its dynamic force. The writer is a former principal of Gordon College, Rawalpindi. Email: khmasud22@yahoo.com

Shahryar wrote:

Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2007 18:48:28 +0000 (GMT)
From: Shahryar
Subject: Error in your article titled "Islam and mathematics"
To: khmasud22@yahoo.com

Excerpt from  http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=43504

 

Musa al-Khwarizmi (780-850) was one of the scientific minds of Islam, who influenced mathematical thought more than any medieval scholar. He compiled not only the oldest book on arithmetic, but also the astronomical tables. His magnum opus was hisab al-jabr wa'l-muqabala. It was translated in Latin in the 12th century and was used till the 16th century as the principal textbook on algebra in the European universities.

By introducing an unknown quantity and then finding it, algebra became the open-sesame for the discovery of the unknown — the be-all and end-all of all sciences.

Caliph al-Mansur, founder of the City of Baghdad, received a gift of various manuscripts from India in 733 CE. Amongst which was Brahmasphutasiddhantha -- a treatise on astronomy written a century before by Bhahmagupta. This was immediately translated into Arabic and became famous as the "Zij al Sind-hind."

 

It revolutionised science in the Arab world through ten little symbols that every one knows today as the decimal numerals! (The Arabic word Sifr meaning empty is an exact translation of the Sanskrit word Sunya.)

 

Al-Khwarizmi was a Persian who moved to Baghdad (after Persia was captured by the Arabs) to work as a scholar in the Bayt al-Hikmah (House of Wisdom) which attracted scholars from all over the world, from many cultures and religions.

 

His book on arithmetic, Kitab al-Jam'a wal-Tafreeq bil Hisab al-Hindi (On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals), was translated into Latin in the twelfth century, as Algoritmi de numero Indorum. (We get the word algorithm from it.)

 

His book on algebra, Al-Maqala fi Hisab-al Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah (The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing), was also translated into Latin in the 12th century, as Liber algebrae et almucabala.
The book extended the work of Indian mathematician Brahmagupta and Greek mathematician Diophantus on algebraic equations.

 

Al-Tabari called him "al-Majusi," suggesting that his ancestors may have been Magi or Zoroastrian priests and he, too, may have been one in his youth.

 

Iran's most prestigious annual national scientific award to young scientists is named after Khwarazmi.

 

Finally this quotation may enlighten you on the negative effects on Islam on mathematics:

 

from History of Mathematics Course of the Open University:

You may feel in the light of the studies of this section (Islamic mathematics) that less than justice has been done here to the achievements of Islamic mathematicians. However, it may be fair to suggest that Islamic mathematics developed less, relatively, compared with Greek mathematics or with subsequent developments in Europe. The surrounding Islamic culture was often not generally favourable to mathematical and scientific advances as witness the religious opposition to a reform of the calendar. The work of mathematicians was very largely dependant on the individual patronage of rulers and nobles. There was perhaps less opportunity for experimental thinking than in Greek times or in the West following the Reformation. While, therefore, it is clearly wrong to say the Arabs made no significant advance in mathematics, it is not entirely unreasonable to suggest that, had they lived in a different political and religious milieu, their contribution might well have been even greater than they were.

 

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Further, Al-Biruni learnt about mathematical functions from Indian mathematicians - I would go further and claim Al-Biruni's main claim to fame lies in interpreting Indian science to Islam.

 

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I have read the Kor'an - in translation, as even modern Arabs cannot understand the archaic form of language used in the Kor'an - so I wonder how I missed the 11% of the verses you claim to stress deliberation, thinking and reasoning - perhaps you will write a follow-up article with lists of these verses so that one may study them with greater attention.

 

As a rational person I find much of the Kor'an risible nonsense.

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