Golden Age Of Islam Essay

Oftentimes, the achievements and contributions of the Muslim culture tend to be overlooked in our society today. Contrary to popular belief, the Muslim culture greatly impacted the entire world, and continues to do so today. Much like the Golden Age of Greece in the 500 to 300 BCs, the Golden Age of Islam brought about many advancements of various fields of study including the arts, sciences, mathematics, and technology. While the Golden Age of Greece flourished under renowned names such as Pericles, Socrates, Plato, and Euclid, the Golden Age of Islam thrived under artists, architects, scientists, and engineers including Ibn al-Haytham, Ibn al-Shatir, Abbas ibn Firnas, the Bantu Musa, Taqi al-Din, and al-Jazari. This time period in Muslim history greatly modified the scientific, astronomical, and technological aspects of the world.

A Muslim scientist named Ibn al-Haytham was a major contributor to the early development of various fields of science including experimental physics, psychology, and visual perception. Ibn al-Haytham significantly reformed the field of optics with his book, “The Book of Optics”. Al-Haytham proposed that vision occurred due to the action of light rays entering the eye, and invented the camera obscura in order to demonstrate the physical nature of light rays. With his experiments and advances in optics, al-Haytham was able to disprove Euclid and Ptolemy’s widely regarded theory that light was actually emitted from the eye. al-Haytham is frequently referred to as the “first scientist” because he developed the scientific method, which is still used today. These new discoveries as well as pioneer work in the field of science greatly transformed the world by introducing new concepts of optometry, experimental physics, psychology, and visual perception. As demonstrated above, the impact of these contributions are still very much prevalent in our society