It's for this reason that I want to investigate the actual substance of the Islamic Golden Age. Too often, there's a tendency to credit the Arabs with some important discoveries, when in fact it wasn't so.
Most prominent example is the Arabic numerals that were actually invented in India.
And a lot of the scientific achievements that came out of the Arab world came from non Muslims, who were often significant percentages of the populations in Muslim kingdoms.
Jagged 85 was real and worth exposing. But debunking one guy's inflated "firsts" doesn't make the Golden Age "so-called." Al-Khwarizmi's algebra and Ibn al-Haytham's optics come from actual historians like Sabra and Rashed, not Wikipedia. And some of your examples are exaggerations of real work, not inventions. Avicenna's impetus theory is legit, even if "weight times velocity" isn't. Also, opening with "poverty, violence, and oppression" before any evidence kind of undercuts a post about checking your sources.
Algebra was orginially develop by Greek and others; Indian scholars developed it systematically and added the zero among other additions. Optics came from Greek sources, and also earlier cultures. Persian scholars used them and may have extended them, but again it's an exaggerated claim.
As to the opening, ask the people they conquered. I'm sure the Greeks, Armenians, or Coptics would have opinions.
Fun fact: in Debt: A 5000 Year History, David Graeber speculates that Adam Smith’s description of the pin factory (1776), one of the most famous illustrations of the division of labor, actually derived from Ibn Khaldun’s (1332–1406) book Muqaddimah.
Smith and Khaldun appear to have arrived at these examples independently as no Arabic books describing pin factories have ever been discovered at the University of Glasgow.
You crazy for this one Cremieux
Do we have no idea who jagged_85 is?
It's for this reason that I want to investigate the actual substance of the Islamic Golden Age. Too often, there's a tendency to credit the Arabs with some important discoveries, when in fact it wasn't so.
Most prominent example is the Arabic numerals that were actually invented in India.
And a lot of the scientific achievements that came out of the Arab world came from non Muslims, who were often significant percentages of the populations in Muslim kingdoms.
Jagged 85 was real and worth exposing. But debunking one guy's inflated "firsts" doesn't make the Golden Age "so-called." Al-Khwarizmi's algebra and Ibn al-Haytham's optics come from actual historians like Sabra and Rashed, not Wikipedia. And some of your examples are exaggerations of real work, not inventions. Avicenna's impetus theory is legit, even if "weight times velocity" isn't. Also, opening with "poverty, violence, and oppression" before any evidence kind of undercuts a post about checking your sources.
Algebra was orginially develop by Greek and others; Indian scholars developed it systematically and added the zero among other additions. Optics came from Greek sources, and also earlier cultures. Persian scholars used them and may have extended them, but again it's an exaggerated claim.
As to the opening, ask the people they conquered. I'm sure the Greeks, Armenians, or Coptics would have opinions.
Fun fact: in Debt: A 5000 Year History, David Graeber speculates that Adam Smith’s description of the pin factory (1776), one of the most famous illustrations of the division of labor, actually derived from Ibn Khaldun’s (1332–1406) book Muqaddimah.
Smith and Khaldun appear to have arrived at these examples independently as no Arabic books describing pin factories have ever been discovered at the University of Glasgow.
Great article. I've seen similar things in the sciences, which is why, when I taught, using Wikipedia or the references there was an F.