As a lifelong academic and university denizen, I am chagrined that only this year I learned that Al Qarawiyyin, founded in 859 CE in Fes, is the world’s oldest continuously running university. Just as surprising (to me), it was founded by a woman, Fatima al-Fihri. This center of learning is one marker of the early phases of an Islamic Renaissance that flourished for half a millennium, even as Europe was stumbling in its Dark Ages. Sitting in my Riadh, admiring the intricate fractal geometric patterns and symmetry of a breakfast nook, I recalled a recent trip to Istanbul where I was amazed by the Blue Mosque, a structure built on centuries of architectural innovation. I wondered: What happened? How did art, culture, science, mathematics, and medicine flourish in that place and at that time? What led to its demise? Do renaissances have a natural history of rise, flower, and fall?
The Rise
This remarkable and relatively unknown history is recounted in S. Frederick Starr’s book, Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane1. Several factors converged to create, sustain, and promote this flourish of human ingenuity.
First, an intellectual and cultural convergence that is needed was made possible by economic trade across different regions. Along with the exchange of goods and services came an exchange of ideas. Central Asia, at the crossroads of trade between civilizations became a crucible for Indian, Chinese, Persian, Byzantine, Greek, and Roman thought.
Second, a climate of intellectual openness and political patronage meant that Islamic scholars worked alongside Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians to engage deeply with logic, epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, mathematics, and science. Such an environment of curiosity and openness was supported caliphs, sultans, and viziers, most notably the Abbasids, but also to varying degrees the Umayyads and Seljuks, and later the Timurids and Mamluks.
Third, formal institutions of learning were created and fostered. Open trade contributed to economic prosperity, growth, and urbanization. Cosmopolitan cities like Baghdad, Bukhara, Nishapur, and Samarkand in Central Asia grew into hubs of knowledge and extended an intellectual network to Cairo, Fes, and Cordoba. Institutions attracted scholars who gathered knowledge from around the world and thrived in the intellectual ferment. Massive translation projects of Greek, Persian, and Sanskrit texts into Arabic and the acquisition of paper-making methods from China meant that knowledge was dispersed widely, fueling creativity and innovation.
The Flower
Despite internecine rivalries, succession conflicts, and peripheral border wars, a long period of general political stability gave rise to an extraordinary group of thinkers and innovators. A sample of people who shone in this golden age include:
- Al-Khwarizmi (c. 780–850, Persia). Originator of algebra, his Latin name (Algoritmi) gave us the word “algorithm.” His books introduced and revolutionized mathematics in Central Asia and then Europe by introducing Indian numerical concepts, including the number zero.
- Al-Kindi (c. 801–873, Iraq). The “Philosopher of the Arabs” introduced Greek philosophy to the Arab world and argued for the compatibility of philosophy and Islam. He also promoted Indian arithmetic and numeral systems.
- Al-Razi (Rhazes) (865–925, Persia). A physician and chemist, whose Comprehensive Book on Medicine pioneered treatments for smallpox and measles, he founded the first teaching hospital and built on ideas from Hippocrates and Galen.
- Al-Farabi (c. 872–950, Central Asia). Arabic philosopher considered second only to Aristotle, he developed a political philosophy influenced by Plato and Aristotle, emphasizing logic and ethics.
- Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) (c. 965–1040, Iraq/Egypt). A pioneer of the scientific method, his Book of Optics influenced later European science.
- Al-Biruni (973–1050, Khwarezm, Central Asia). A polymath who studied astronomy, geography, history, and comparative religion, he estimated the Earth’s radius to within 1% of modern values.
- Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (980–1037, Bukhara). A polymath who shaped Islamic and European thought on metaphysics, medicine, and science, he wrote The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine, and was the most influential medical authority for centuries. He introduced ideas of quarantine and clinical trials.
- Omar Khayyam (1048–1131, Persia). A brilliant mathematician and astronomer, he was best known for The Rubáiyát, a collection of philosophical quatrains.
- Ibn Rushd (Averroes) (1126–1198, Andalusia). Author of extensive commentaries on Aristotle, he emphasized reason as a path to truth. His work greatly influenced later European Scholastics.
- al-Tusi (1201–1274, Persia) A mathematician and astronomer, he anticipated heliocentric models, and preserved math and science through Mongol invasions.
In architecture, advances were expressed in complex geometric patterns, symmetry, and modular design. Innovation in designing domes, arches, and muqarnas (stalactite-like vaulting) for aesthetic and structural reasons were refined, some of which were expressed as early as the ninth century in the Great Mosque of Samarra. Cities like Baghdad were laid out with symbolic and circular functional geometric precision and cities commonly incorporated gardens of Persian design.
In the visual arts, calligraphy combining text and decoration extended from manuscripts to architecture. In addition to the Qur’an, scientific, literary, and philosophical works were lavishly illustrated. Highly intricate designs, repeating floral and abstract patterns symbolizing infinity and divine unity were used in tilework, textiles, wood, and stone panels. Glazed pottery, as an artform, thrived. Miniature painting became prominent in Persian art, depicting rich, detailed narrative scenes.
The Fall
This Golden Age of Islam did not collapse suddenly. It eroded slowly as the conditions of its rise unraveled.
The trade infrastructure and networks so critical to the birth of this Golden Age were disrupted by Mongol attacks in the thirteenth century. Notably, Baghdad was sacked in 1258 and the destruction of the “House of Wisdom” was a symbolic and pivotal event in the decline of the Abbasid rule and their patronage of scholarship. The decline was accelerated by shifts in trade routes from overland passageways like the Silk Road to maritime channels. As trade waned, so did the introduction of new ideas as sources for ongoing innovation.
Increasing internal political fragmentation and power struggles created instability, leading to dwindling revenue and investments in science, philosophy, and the arts. At the same time, inward-gazing orthodoxies and antirationalist movements were ascendant. Philosophical and scientific inquiry were regarded with suspicion by religious conservatives, who felt that the truth was to be found in God, and not in observation of the world. Science, in this view, was a source of corruption. These shifts in political and ideological climates lead to the destruction of universities and libraries and other repositories of learning.
Creativity Essential Reads
Squinting through the haze of history, it seems that barriers to trade, impediments to the movement of people and ideas, demolition of institutions of learning, dwindling patronage of science and the arts, political fragmentation, and the rise of antirationalist sentiments were signals of a dark age to come. Countering these trends might have let the light of learning continue to burn.