The fall of sciences in Islamic world

Sa’di says: There was a wise and knowledgeable young boy. He associated scientific meetings but didn’t say anything. His father protested him: O boy! You should talk about your knowledge. Why are you always quiet? The boy answered: I fear they will ask me a question, and I can’t answer and be ashamed

Gulistan, The benefits of silence chapter, 3rd tale

At the beginning of the 15th century, Europe, Islam, India, China, and Japan were the greatest civilizations worldwide. Although there were differences among them (culture, religion, administration, and … ), one can say that they had almost the same scientific knowledge and technology. After about two centuries, Europe's science and technology level wasn’t comparable to the others. European scientists (like Copernic, Galileo, Kepler, Harvey, and … ) completely changed their contemporaries' views of nature. But the other nations couldn’t reach Europeans. They stuck to their old paradigms and lost the competition in both science and technology. European hegemony in science and technology led them to control other nations, and in the 18th and 19th centuries, they expanded their domination to almost the whole world

Why couldn’t the other civilizations shift paradigms like Europeans? Why couldn’t they update their knowledge? And why they didn’t want to reach the Europeans? I don’t know the situation among the Indians, Chinese, and Japanese, so I try to limit my discussion to the Islam world

When we study history books, we figure out that historians mention too many causes of the fall of the scientific community in the Islam world. For example, most of them pay attention to these reasons

1Invading the Mongols from the east and the crusaders from the west

2The decline of the political power of the Muslim empires (Abbasid in Levant, Iraq and Iran, Fatimids in Egypt and North Africa, and Umayyads in Spain) and political instability

3Civil wars between warlords ruin the bases of civilization

4Economic decline and money issues for the governors and aristocrats who supported the scientists

5Natural disasters like the black death

6The dominance of Asharism and religious fanaticism in the Islamic world, especially in the religious schools, and neglecting the natural sciences and mathematics in their official curriculum

7The colonialism of the western powers in the Islamic territories

They are the most important reasons for falling the scientific activities in Islam, but not all of them. Every historian can add 1 or 2 other reasons to the list or ignore some related to their point of view

From my point of view, I consider the establishment of some cultural barricades against Muslims as the most important cause for the fall of sciences in the Islamic world. Pay attention to Sa’di’s tale again. Sa’di was one of the best poets and writers in the history of Iran. His doctrine has influenced Iranians for nearly 700 years. At first glance, his tale is wise, but when one thinks deeply, it is obvious that his advice would not lead to establishing a scientific tradition. When you teach your people to be quiet even if they know something and are sure how your country's scientific atmosphere can form? For more than 1500 years in Europe and 800 years in the middle east have been told people that they have no right to question their religious and scientific authorities. Europeans could jump that obstacle and make new sciences that differed from Aristotelian philosophy and sciences. But Muslims couldn’t break that barrier and were trapped in the close circle of old fashion philosophy and sciences. Yet, in Muslim societies, authority is important. Young people can’t argue with older ones. On a small scale, grandparents, parents, and older people in the neighborhoods say the last word. On a large scale, teachers, sheiks, masters, gurus, and political leaders have the same role and shape young people’s thoughts. Young people don’t learn how to ask questions and discuss their opinions; we see that the sciences can’t be developed in this atmosphere. To escape this trap, Muslims should change the fundamental bases of their culture and let young generations argue about old thoughts and traditions