The Islamic Golden Age occurred between the 8th-13th centuries AD under Abbasid rule. During this period, major cities like Baghdad, Cairo, and Cordoba became centers of culture and learning. Muslim scholars made significant contributions to art, architecture, science, and mathematics by preserving ancient Greek and Egyptian knowledge and building upon it with new discoveries and innovations, especially in astronomy, optics, medicine, and algebra. However, by the 13th century, external attacks by Crusaders and Mongols disrupted trade and urban life, while internal pressures discouraged further scientific progress, bringing an end to the Golden Age.

1. The Islamic World
Achievements
and
Impact

2. The Spread of Islam
• By the time of
Muhammad’s
death in 632,
he had united
most of Arabia
under Islam
• Over the next
century,
Muslim forces
conquered
North Africa,
Persia, Spain
and what is
now Pakistan

3. Golden Age
Under Abbasid
Rule, a Golden
Age occurred
from the 8th to the
13th centuries
Why?

4. Foundations of the Golden Age
– Encouragement of
scholarship
– Tolerance and exchange
of ideas
– Arabic: universal
language
– Secret of making paper
– Great wealth from trade routes
– religious obligation to donate money

5. Centers of Culture
A number of cities grew during this period
throughout the Islamic World that became
centers of culture.

6. Cairo
• Government positions received
by merit
• Known for a flowering of the
decorative arts
• Al-Azhar University, the oldest
university in the world

7. Cordoba
• Libraries, colleges, and public baths,
streetlights, paved roads, hospitals,
flowers everywhere, running water
• Literature, poetry, scholarship flourished
• Unusual amount of tolerance and
harmony among Muslims, Christians and
Jews

8. Timbuktu
• West African city that was a wealthy trading
hub and became an intellectual center for
Islam
•Long-lasting contribution is
scholarship (three
universities, 25,000 students)
•Also known for vast libraries
and stunning mosques

9. Baghdad
• world’s center of
education and culture
for 500 years
• Created the Bayt
al-Hikmah (House of Wisdom), an
educational center where
thousands of Greek and Egyptian
manuscripts were translated and
preserved by Muslim, Christian and
Jewish scholars

10. Achievements
during the
Golden Age

11. Art
• Muslim philosophy about art: no
depiction of human beings (can give
rise to idolotry)
• So Muslim art developed away from
depiction of humanity and focused on
geometric design and calligraphy

12. Calligraphy
• Most important form of art because the
Qu’ran is written in Arabic
• Beautiful writing decorates mosques,
palace walls, metalwork,
pottery, stone, glass,
wood, textiles

14. Design
• Complex geometric
patterns give impression
of unending series of repetitions
(illustrates infinite nature
of God)
• Some common patterns:
– Stars
– Tesselations –designs repeated, filled in,
interlocking
– Arabesque –motif of leaves, vines, flowers or
lines

16. Rugs and Carpets
• Made of wool and
have bright colors
and floral or
geometric
designs
• Rugs were
needed for prayer

17. Tiles
• clay painted with glaze
• decorated with calligraphy
and designs
• Adorned inside and outside of
mosques, palaces and homes

18. Architecture
• Islam assimilated styles of the regions it
conquered
• Some common features:
–Minarets – tall spires on mosques from
which the muezzin calls the faithful to
prayer
– Domes
– Inner courtyards
– Pointed arches

19. Dome of the
Rock

20. Mosques
Suleyman Mosque, Istanbul,
Turkey, 1557
Great Mosque, Xian,
China, 742

21. Great Mosque at Cordoba

22. Alhambra Palace

23. Other palaces/fortresses
Topkapi Palace,
Istanbul, built for
Suleyman the
Magnificent
during the 15th
century
The Citadel, Cairo, built by
Saladin in 1176

24. Caravanserai

25. Tombs
Mausoleum in
Bukhara,
Uzbekistan, 943
Taj Mahal in Agra, India,
built in 1648 for Mumtaz
Mahal, the favorite wife
of Shah Jahan

26. Science
and
Mathematics

27. Chemistry
• Introduced experimental investigation
into alchemy
• invented numerous important
processes still used, such as the
syntheses of hydrochloric and nitric
acids, distillation, and crystallization
Jabir Ibn Haiyan,
Father of Chemistry

28. Geography
Muslims traveled widely in the Middle Ages,
on hajj to Mecca and on vast caravans for
trade across Africa, and Arabian Peninsula
and Asia
Map by Al Idrisi The same map upside down
Al Idrisi
made the
most
accurate
maps of
the world in
pre-modern
times

29. Tools for Exploration
• Portulan Charts: highly accurate mariners’
maps of the coasts, islands and seas
• Stronger, sturdier vessels: the Arab dhow
• New triangular sail: the lateen made ships
more maneuverable
• Complex star charts: zij
• Navigational instruments: compass
(from China), quadrant
and astrolabe (longitude
and latitude)

30. Why Astronomy?
• As the Islamic World expanded to over
6,000 miles wide, astronomers were
needed to determine the hours of prayer,
the beginning of the month
(Muslims use a
lunar calendar) and
the direction of
Mecca

32. Important tools for Astronomy:
• Observatories - in major cities such as
Baghdad, Hamadan, Toledo, Maragha,
Samarkand, and Istanbul, to watch the
night sky and study the stars
• Astrolabes –used to determine one's
latitude (or place on the earth) by
looking at the
position of the stars and sun

33. Astronomical Achievements
• determined solar year
•determined the tilt of the earth’s axis, length of the
seasons and orbit of the sun
•discovered the Andromeda galaxy
(first record of a star system outside
our own galaxy)
•Calculated earth’s radius &
circumference
•Understood that speed of light was
immense compared to speed of
sound
•Described Milky Way as collection of
stars
Al-Biruni

34. Optics – Study of Light and Vision
• first accurate theory of
refraction of light
• studied the human eye and
describe how we see
(recognized that sight is visual
images entering the eye, made
perceptible by adequate light)
Al-Haytham

35. Medicine Hospitals:
• Funded through religious
endowments
• Separate wards for different kinds of
diseases (quarantines) and injuries
(even psychiatric wards)
• Emphasized hygiene
Medical Schools:
• incorporated medical practices from Greece,
China, and India, as well as developing new
techniques and theories.

36. Medical Achievements
• developed treatments for smallpox and
measles.
• made significant observations about hay
fever, kidney stones, and scabies
• first used opium as an
anesthetic
• discovered the contagious
nature of
diseases

37. • Conducted surgery for the
eye, ear, and throat
• Performed amputations
and cauterizations
• Invention of surgical
instruments, including
those for the inner ear and
the throat.
• accurately diagnosed the plague, diphtheria,
leprosy, rabies, diabetes, gout, epilepsy,
and hemophilia long before the rest of the
world.

38. Mathematics
• Arabic math was a mixing of many cultures –
borrowed from India, Greeks, Babylonians
and Egyptians. Muslims improved upon their
ideas
• One of greatest advances: Arabic numerals
– Based on place values and decimal
system of tens, with a zero to hold a place
–Much easier to use for calculation than
Roman numerals and made simple
fractions and decimal fractions possible

39. Al-Khwarizmi
• Converted Babylonian and Hindu
numerals into a workable system that
almost anyone could use. He gave the
name to his math as
"al-jabr" (algebra)
• Demonstrated operations
with fractions for the first time.

40. End of the Golden Age
Internal Pressures
– Fear that learning undermined religious
belief of educated Muslims. Schools
began to limit their teaching to theology
and scientific progress slowed.

41. End of the Golden Age
External Pressures
• Attacks from west by Crusaders and from east
by Mongols caused trade
routes to become
unsafe and urban life
to break down as
communities isolated
themselves for safety
• 2 requirements for
scholarship disappeared:
communication and financial support

42. End of the Golden Age
• Destruction of books and libraries
–When Mongols sacked Baghdad,
several hundred thousand Muslims
were massacred, libraries and
schools were burned, and books
dumped in the river
– Christians burned over a million
volumes of Muslim works on science,
arts, philosophy and culture in Spain