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Factors that led to the decline in Islamic science - Coggle Diagram
Factors that led to the decline in Islamic science
External Factors
Invasions
The Mongols’ destruction of Baghdad
The Christian Reconquista of Al-Andalus
The general shrinking of the Muslim Ottoman, Mughal, and Saffavid empires
Devastations of Bukhara and Nishapur
The destruction of libraries and countless manuscripts and objects of knowledge and learning
The crusade invasions
The Tartar army of Tamerlane demolished Isfahan and Baghdad
Economic Factors
The loss of commercial dominance of the East
The opening of the treasure troves of America and India for the West.
Internal factors
The rise of the orthodox theology which ignored foreign sciences
The lack of institutionalization of the culture of science
The absence of communities and centers of
science limited people's awareness and opportunities for fruitful exchanges
The absence of real universities or institutions of higher education with an open and liberal curriculum that allowed for discussions
Some scientists were not part of enduring institutions which caused many of them to be jobless
Ibn Rushed's, Ibn Khaldun's,Ibn Haitham's, and Ibn Nafis's works were forgotten by the scientists
Religious institutions that were endowed to teach Islamic subjects and graduate Islamic (religious) scholars had very little inclusion of natural sciences
There was a social chasm between the elite and the lay culture so the masses were unaware of these non religious fields and were therefore unsupportive of them
Al-madrasa
Al-madrasa's subjects did not prepare students for creative work in science
Al Ghazali for example was a madrasa graduate and his intellectual can be seen as the background to his rejection to rational science and philosophy.
The European madrasa
the European medievals created self-governing institutions of higher learning with methodologically powerful and metaphysically rich cosmology that directly challenged and contradicted many aspects of the traditional Christian view
The Islamic madrasas on the other hand excluded natural theology, logic and philosophy and focused on religious teachings.
Endowed to teach Islamic subjects rather than natural sciences
Deen: the madrasas couldn't possible play any positive role in the promotion and development of Islamic science.
The rise of the orthodox theology
this issue is controversial because it tends to polarize authors, often betraying their philosophical (liberal vs.
conservative) standpoints.
The reasons
There was a reluctance to allow ordinary muslims to have an open access to knowledge
the study of logic, ancient science and philosophy were seen as disrespectful to religious laws
the knowledge was seen as useless and ungodly if it was not directly related to religious matters
For example, Deen points out that Al-.Kawarizme algebra, one of the greatest contributions by any Muslim scientist, was hardly used by anyone and was seen as useless