Signs from Allah: History, Science and Faith in Islam 188. Why Did the Scientific Revolution Not Take Place in the Islamic World? - 6
By Professor Nazeer Ahmed
Concord, CA
Although art, architecture, literature and poetry flourished and artisanship and craftsmanship were valued, the post-Mongol period was characterized by a marked decrease in the pursuit of the basic sciences. The era produced architects like Mimar Sinan and Ahmed Lahori, poets like Rumi, Hafiz and Amir Khusroe, astronomers like Ibn al Shatir but no scientific figures of the stature of Ibn Sina. So, when Europe embarked on a scientific and technological revolution (1600-1800), the Islamic world was found napping and finally succumbed to the European military onslaught.
Most noticeable was the delay in the introduction of the printing press which was introduced into Europe in 1439 and spread throughout Europe by the end of the fifteenth century . In Italy alone, there were no less than 77 printing presses in the year 1500. The printing press made possible the spread of knowledge. It was one of the main engines for the Renaissance which produced the likes of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. It was only in 1728 that the printing press was introduced into the Ottoman Empire. It was introduced into Mughal India much later, at the beginning of the nineteenth century. In both cases, what held back the introduction of this technology was the opposition of the ulema who held that the Word of God would be defiled by contact with wooden presses. Indeed, the ulema increasingly became hostile to the basic sciences, which they did not understand. A case in point is the destruction of the Istanbul observatory in 1577 at the behest of the religious establishment, who suspected that the Ottoman defeat in the Battle of Lepanto (1571) was somehow related to the ungodly pursuits of the astronomers.
Equally disastrous was a neglect of naval technology. After the Battle of Lepanto (1571), there was a steady and inexorable decay in the naval prowess of the Muslim empires. By the year 1700, the Ottoman Empire spent as much on its navy as it did on the royal kitchens. The result was that the Muslims who had controlled the trade between Asia and the Mediterranean worlds surrendered it to Europe. Control of the seas also meant that the balance of global power shifted inexorably in favor of the West. Europe went on to discover America and circumnavigate the horn of Africa bypassing the trade routes through the Middle East. Europe thrived while Muslim lands sank into poverty.
Concurrent with the loss of the technological edge and political power, there was a regression in intellectual activity as well. While new universities sprang up all over Europe, embracing the pursuit of science and philosophy with vigor, the Muslim world was content to recycle what it had learned five hundred years earlier. There was no innovation in education. The Madrasas and Zawiyas of the Muslims encouraged learning by rote while the European universities encouraged critical thinking and scientific education.
So, when Europe entered the early modern period based on scientific discoveries and technological innovation and produced Kepler, Galileo, Boyle, Bacon, Newton and Pascal, the Islamic world just could not compete. For almost three hundred years Europe enjoyed a near monopoly in scientific discourse and scientific advancements. It was only in the latter part of the nineteenth century that scientific knowledge was diffused throughout Asia, starting with Japan and later spreading through China and India.
The raging controversies … Extremism, Salafism, Shia, Sunni, Sectarianism
While religious schisms were not unknown in Europe and the Protestant-Catholic rivalries often erupted into armed conflict, the pursuit of scientific endeavor managed to transcend these divisions. Science had become a secular enterprise open to all shades of religious opinion. The printing press made possible the widest dissemination of knowledge. More than a million books were printed in Europe in the seventeenth century. There were respected scientists among the Protestants as there were among the Catholics and they built an edifice of science as a cooperative enterprise.
By contrast, the post-Timurid period (1400-1700) in the Islamic world was characterized by sharpened conflicts between Shias and Sunnis, Sufis and Salafis. The Safavids in Persia were Shia and they were engaged in continual conflicts with the Sunni Ottomans. Iran acted as a wedge between the Ottomans and the Moguls of India, preventing any effective military coordination between the two Sunni powers. For example, the Ottoman Sultan Suleyman II asked the Mogul emperor Aurangzeb for assistance against the Grand Christian Alliance during the wars of 1683-1699. Aurangzeb could not and did not send a relief column to the Ottomans because he was occupied in a prolonged conflict with the Shia kingdoms of the Deccan in southern Indian. A second example is the appeal of Tippu Sultan of Mysore to Amir Zaman Shah of Afghanistan in 1798 for military help against the British. Zaman Shah was disposed to help but was prevented from doing so because of a British inspired Shia uprising in Herat in Western Afghanistan.
A new schism arose in the Islamic world in the mid-seventeenth century which had a profound impact on the development of science and civilization in Islam. The post-Mongol-Tartar era was dominated by Sufic Islam. It was inherently syncretic, open to absorbing the cultures of the lands into which it made inroads. Thus the Hindus of India and the Buddhists of Indonesia found it easier to walk into the fold of Sufi Islam. This syncretic Islam produced great rulers like Akbar (d 1605) of Mogul India. However, the very success of Sufi Islam generated a counter reaction, starting with India. Aurangzeb (d 1707) ascended the throne of Mogul India after Shah Jehan and embarked on dismantling the inclusive syncretic culture built by his great-grand father Akbar. Akbar had included the Hindus as people of the book, marrying Hindu princesses and abolishing discriminatory taxes against them. Aurangzeb reinstated the jizya and replaced the Sufi South Asian culture, which he viewed as deviationist, with a juridical Islam codified in Futuhat e Alamgiri. The Hindus and the Sikhs rebelled, starting the long process of political disintegration. The political decay was reflected in the arts, architecture, artisanship, science and culture.
A harsher, uncompromising version of Islam was introduced by Abdel Wahab of Arabia (d 1792). Proclaiming that all practices which were not in strict conformity with the practices of the earliest Muslims were bida’ (innovation), Abdel Wahab waged a relentless struggle against the Bedouins of Arabia, forcing them into conformance with his views. The stern creed of Abdel Wahab was adopted as the official dogma by Saudi Arabia. With the discovery of oil in the Middle East (1908), and the enormous wealth that accrued with it, the reach of Wahhabi ideas extended to the entire globe. The word “Wahhabism” carried a connotation of extreme rigidity in religious matters. This rigidity extended to science and culture as well. For instance, until recently, the major universities in Arabia were opposed to photography and videos. Only recently has the Saudi religious establishment made an about-face, and now the students in Saudi universities openly carry mobile phones with video features.
The raging controversies over sectarian differences drained the intellectual resources of the global Islamic community. Bogged down over questions of what was permissible and what was not, science and philosophy were marooned. The controversies persist to this day.
(The author is Director, World Organization for Resource Development and Education, Washington, DC; Director, American Institute of Islamic History and Culture, CA; Member, State Knowledge Commission, Bangalore; and Chairman, Delixus Group)
