The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 272 No 7282 p53
17 January 2004

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Letters to the Editor

Onlooker

Islam and science

From Dr A. M. Alam, MRPharmS

The “disturbing account of the state of scientific endeavour in Islamic countries” highlighted by Onlooker (PJ, 3/10 January, p34) is all the more tragic when one considers that from the 8th–15th centuries the Islamic world led the rest of the world in scientific development. Islamic scientists excelled in numerous fields such as architecture, astronomy, geography, medicine and mathematics. Many crucial systems such as Arabic numerals, and the Indian concept of the zero, were transmitted to medieval Europe from the Muslim world. One has to only look at the origins of many commonly used words — alcohol, algebra, algorithm, cipher, elixir, chemistry — to realise that they are derived from Arabic.

In the mind of the historian Briffault, “science owes a great deal more to the Arab culture, it owes its existence”. He further comments that “had it not been for such Muslim upsurge, modern European civilisation would never have arisen at all (‘The making of humanity’, London, George Unwin & Allen, 1928).

Historian George Sarton speaks of “the miracle of Arabic science, using the word miracle as a symbol of our inability to explain achievements which were almost incredible ... unparalleled in the history of the world”(‘Introduction to the history of science’, Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins Co, 1927–48).

A. M. Alam
Maidenhead, Berkshire

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