The Muslim Golden Age

Throughout the Muslim Golden Age, which flourished from the 9th – 12th centuries, many brilliant Muslims made spectacular contributions that still greatly impact society today. Islamic achievements and contributions have helped other cultures adopt new ideas and make great advancements in an immense variety of fields. These fields include medicine, architecture, banking, art, literature, astronomy, and several others. These achievements have assisted in making daily life for the Muslims and even us today a great deal easier. Of all of these achievements, those involving the establishment of a banking system, the development of hospitals, and the development of herbal medicines and pharmacies are among the three that I feel are the most important and influential contributions to the world today.

It not only made life easier back then, it is something we still use to this day. A banking system was developed during the rule of the Abbasids of Baghdad. It was created to help end the confusion caused by the many existing currencies that were in use at that time. From this system came the word “check” derived from the Arabic word sakk. The Abbasids had central banks with branch offices and an elaborate system of checks and letters of credit. This created many new possibilities, such as a check written in one part of the empire could be cashed in on the total opposite side or in a distant city. This spectacular achievement even contributed to the expansion of trade and marketing of goods throughout the empire and in foreign countries. Overall, this newly developed banking system had a major impact on life in the Muslim world because it was much less confusing and it was more convenient to cash in checks anywhere you were in the