Islamic World DBQ

During the Islamic Golden Age, science, economic development, and cultural works flourished in the Islamic world. As they spread to civilizations, such as Greece, Rome, and India, Muslims assimilated, advanced, and applied those cultures’ scholarships. They read books and built their knowledge to the point where they could make their own discoveries. They built a strong trading empire by using scientific instruments and the night sky to guide them, and they had access to plenty of resources and goods. These advancements affected numerous fields in their own society and, eventually, in European society. From 700-1350 AD, Muslims were great conquerors who desired more knowledge and the advancement of their society, so they were able to make contributions

Muslims discovered Arabic numerals and cultivated those numbers into the place-value system, simple math, and algebra (Doc 4). These developments made it much easier to do calculations for architecture. For example, Muslims created buildings, such as the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, with large structural features, like the dome and the pillars, complemented with smaller, more intricate designs, like the colorful mosaic art (Doc 7). Europeans drew inspiration from these buildings when creating their own palaces and churches, using similar attributes, including the golden dome, to indicate importance, and the art, to aesthetically please. Even today, we see buildings with similar structures and features. Without the awareness of math, some of the most essential scientific advancements would not have been made. Medical reference books found in Muslim libraries advanced European medicine by providing doctors with vital medical information (Doc 3). This increase in knowledge taught European doctors new processes for healing and introduced them to new, useful tools and medicine. Therefore, the people lived longer and the population boomed. This inspired more medical discoveries and changes in the way patients are treated, and still today, the medical world is

Europe, between 1300-1700, made strides that linked the ideas of the past to those of the present. European intellectual life greatly transformed as people became more culturally aware - all areas of study flourished. The arts, humanities, literature, mathematics, and sciences made incredible developments, and these developments were rooted in Islamic knowledge. Beautiful paintings were crafted, awe-inspiring architecture was built, and life-changing books were written. These works were inspired by Muslim creations their community and for Allah. New theories and inventions were experimented with. These discoveries were made possible by earlier findings made by Muslims. For example, new planets were uncovered because of what began with the Muslim astrolabe and evolved into the first telescope. Without Islamic contributions, the Renaissance would not have occurred, or had effects, on such a grand scale, because the Europeans wouldn’t have had such a strong foundation to further