SCIENCE & ISLAM EP3 5of6 | The Power Of Doubt

In the Final episode of the series Al-Khalili turns detective, hunting for clues that show how the scientific revolution that took place in the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe had its roots in the earlier world of medieval Islam. He travels across Iran, Syria and Egypt to discover the huge astronomical advances made by Islamic scholars through their obsession with accurate measurement and coherent and rigorous mathematics.

He then visits Italy to see how those Islamic ideas permeated into the West and ultimately helped shape the works of the great European astronomer Copernicus, and investigates why science in the Islamic world appeared to go into decline after the 16th and 17th centuries, only for it to re-emerge in the present day.

First shown on BBC4 19/01/2009
Professor Jim Al-Khalili presents Science and Islam

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[Dovik1]

really good and informative documentary, thanks for uploading

[makemelaughwhydontu]

@polka23dot the best thing to do, is to research history from all the diverse sources and then compare, as with religious texts. We have been blagged and manipulated to suit the agenda and have been fed a lot of innacuracies and lies. Very successfully too. We cannot afford to be copy cats and merely jump on the band wagon. Which is why we must ask ask and ask again. Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave. Just when u think u know, u realise u dont. Good luck.

[Thetruthisone]

The Greatest thing that Islam gave the world was not science, it was the the last testament, the final revelation and word of the Almighty that has not changed one bit since it was revealed to the final messenger peace be upon Him, THE QURAN. All praise be to God.

[lesly3343]

@Mydriatic ya watch again through press not by hand.!!!

[polka23dot]

European science was not impeded by Christianity because Christian theologian, St. Augustine (354 430) claimed that science and faith cannot contradict each other. If they appear to contradict it means that either scientific data or the bible was incorrectly interpreted. Islam declined in the 11-th century after Al-Ghazali published The Incoherence of the Philosophers. Al-Ghazali argued that "Allah's hand is not chained", so there is no point in discovering the alleged laws of nature.

[polka23dot]

"The Crusades were in every way a defensive war. They were a direct response to Muslim aggression - an attempt to turn back or defend against Muslim conquests of Christian lands." - historian Thomas Madden

[polka23dot]

Printing was banned by Islamic authorities because they believed the Koran would be dishonoured by appearing out of a machine. As a result, Arabs did not acquire printing presses until the 18th century. Meanwhile, books transformed the very nature of thought in the West while Islam fell 300 years behind. Today, as the Arab Human Development Report argued, the development of a colloquial printed Arabic is a necessity, but religious authority stands in the way.

[leporidus]

The first *printed* copy, meaning produced in greater numbers by movable types in printing presses; unlike the books in the medieval Muslim empire which were hand-copied individually, by scribes.

Watch again from 2:19 on. It must have been a huge effort to make, but wasn't well received because of its numerous errors and shortcomings.