Indeed, translators during this time actively sought out new philosophical, scientific and religious texts, with the latter highlighting an interest in translations of the Greek Church Fathers for the Europeans. The interest was so great that the Qur'an and other Islamic texts were sought for translation (d'Alverny 429-30), as well as some assorted Arabic literature (Irwin 93)
Egypt Like the Mesopotamians, the Egyptians were responsible for making great developments that revolutionized science in their time but have, in some way or another, remained in use to this day. One notable example is the Egyptian hieroglyphs, which provided the basis of the Phoenician alphabet and thus laid the foundations for such languages as Greek, Latin, Arabic and Hebrew (Jensen 256)
Al-Haytham introduced the scientific method, an achievement which has earned him the title of the "first scientist" (Steffens). He was also responsible for the groundbreaking work on psychology of visual perception, which is now regarded as the basis for psychophysics (Khaleefa)
He later was a strong influence of the development of social science and modern economics. The mathematician John Hadley built a Gregorian telescope with correctly shaped mirrors and the first parabolic Newtonian telescope (King 77)
Al-Hakam II, a ruler of Muslim Spain, gathered as many books as possible from Arab countries and provided them in a library which later became a translation center for the texts to be rewritten in Latin (Lindberg 57-8). The reintroduction was also furthered by the relocation of Arab scholars who, having studied the Greek texts in their home countries, moved to Europe and brought the Greek ideas with them (Laughlin 120)
This goodwill gesture turned out to become an unpredictable turn of fortune, as during the Middle Ages, after the fall of the Roman Empire, many of these texts were translated from Arabic back to European languages. Thus, whilst the original copies of Europe were lost, their passing the texts to the Middle East had led to a second-best reward as the retranslated texts allowed the works of such philosophers as Aristotle to once again be known to the Europeans (Lebedel 109)
Al-Haytham authored the Book of Optics which was responsible for reforming the field of optics and proved, using empirical evidence, that light rays entering the eye are responsible for sight. He then demonstrated this with his invention the camera obscura, which showed the physical nature of light rays (Lindberg 154-176)
Al-Haytham authored the Book of Optics which was responsible for reforming the field of optics and proved, using empirical evidence, that light rays entering the eye are responsible for sight. He then demonstrated this with his invention the camera obscura, which showed the physical nature of light rays (Lindberg 154-176)
Interestingly though, the medicine of the Greeks was not practiced by a single profession nor was there any licensing qualification; rather, a wide spectrum of people were considered medics. These groups of people included herb collectors, midwives, drug sellers, gymnastic trainers, physicians and temple healers with the cult of Asclepius, all boasting of being qualified healers in their relevant area (Lloyd 38-39)
The Renaissance saw humanism and Christianity being merged together to close the gap between what they both had to offer, to combine them in unity rather than have them offer separate teachings. Indeed the goal of humanists was to work harmoniously with Christianity as opposed to work against it, no doubt because many humanists actually belonged to the church, such Pope Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini Pius II (Loffler 538-542)
That innovation was the university, with the University of Al Karaouine in Morocco featuring in the 1998 Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest degree-granting university (242). Whilst there is no doubt that the early Islam universities differed from the European universities, and indeed the universities we have now, they still served as a major influence on not only modern universities but also the first to arrive in Europe (Makdisi 175-182)
Another great figure from the Scientific Revolution was Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, who was the first person to view bacteria under a microscope, an instrument which greatly furthered knowledge of germs, bacteria and life itself and a tool that is used in laboratories and educational institutions globally today. Finally, the French physician Pierre Fauchard is considered "the father of modern dentistry" (Maloney & Maloney) following his book Le Chirurgien Dentiste (The Surgeon Dentist) in which he described oral anatomy and function, methods of removing decay along with tooth restoration, symptoms of oral pathology, periodontal disease and how to replace missing teeth
Although characteristically leaving the door open for the possibility of direct divine intervention, they frequently expressed contempt for soft-minded contemporaries who invoked miracles rather than searching for natural explanations…In the fourteenth century the natural philosopher Nicole Oresme, who went on to become a Roman Catholic bishop, admonished that, in discussing various marvels of nature, "there is no reason to take recourse to the heavens, the last refuge of the weak, or demons, or to our glorious God as if He would produce these effects directly, more so than those effects whose causes we believe are well-known to us." (Numbers 267) Unfortunately these developments came to an abrupt end in 1348 when the Black Death struck, killing a third of the people in Europe
5. Byzantine While the foundations of science were undoubtedly laid by the ancient cultures, the Middle Ages proved to be the time where science moved out from under the wing of philosophy and became a discipline of its own (Saliba 32)
5. Byzantine While the foundations of science were undoubtedly laid by the ancient cultures, the Middle Ages proved to be the time where science moved out from under the wing of philosophy and became a discipline of its own (Saliba 32)
Our entire concept of days and periods of time are from the Mesopotamians, such as a week being defined as every seven days, the lunar month and the solar year. Indeed, even the names of the days are named after the celestial bodies that were at the time believed to revolve around the Earth: the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn (Scofield)
One of the most famous figures who pushed knowledge for knowledge's sake was Galileo, who discovered, to the horror of the Church, that the Earth is not the centre of the universe. So important was Galileo that he has been called the "father of modern observational astronomy" (Singer 217)
He then demonstrated this with his invention the camera obscura, which showed the physical nature of light rays (Lindberg 154-176). Al-Haytham introduced the scientific method, an achievement which has earned him the title of the "first scientist" (Steffens)
From Scientific Management to Project Management Project Management emerged as a discipline from various fields of application, ranging from construction to defense activity (Cleland & Garies), with forefathers Henry Gantt and Henri Fayol. Gantt is referred to as the father of planning and control techniques (Stevens xxii)
" (140) As with the Mesopotamians, the Ancient Greeks played their part in the development of astronomy and most specifically the formation of a workable and reliable calendar. The first published work involving the calendar was the poet Hesiod's Works and Days, which spoke of a calendar from which the farmer's character was able to regulate the activities of the seasons using the phases of the Moon and stars (Thurston 21)