Facts about the Islamic Golden Age (1)

The Islamic Golden Age was an unprecedented era of literary, medical, philosophical, and scientific development within the Muslim world. It is generally dated between 750 and 1260,[1] though some scholars consider it to have peaked between 750 and 950.[2] Knowledge of this era has become widespread in the West, communicated mainly through the public education system and popular culture, and to a lesser extent through Muslim apologists online.

In contrast, the European Middle Ages (dating from 400 to 1400), have historically been known as the Dark Ages. Although professional scholarship abandoned that term long ago, recognizing it is both condescending and inaccurate, mainstream Western popular culture typically continues to depict the European Middle Ages as a time of scientific ignorance, primitive technology, medical incompetence, and laughable superstition. The Muslim world during the same period is popularly depicted as scientifically advanced, technologically sophisticated, and medically skilled.

Jim Al-Khalili, profesor of physics at the University of Surrey, is an enthusiastic promoter of this view of history, writing “Just because Europe was stuck in the Dark Ages, we shouldn’t assume that the rest of the world had stagnated”. He adds “There was this great flourishing of scholarship and discovery in the Islamic world of the middle ages”. [3]

This depiction has become so well recognized in the West that works of pop culture typically take it for granted. For example, in the 1991 movie “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves”, set in Europe during 1194, Robin Hood is accompanied by a North African Muslim called Azeem, who repeatedly demonstrates the superiority of Muslim knowledge over European ignorance. In one scene, Azeem casually uses a telescope from the Muslim world, while Robin shows he has no idea what it is or how to use it. Azeem comments contemptuously, “How did your uneducated kind ever take Jerusalem?”.

Later Azeem apparently successfully performs a caesarean section operation (though the exact nature of the operation is somewhat unclear), in order to save a mother and her baby, and also manufactures gunpowder to create an explosive device. Azeem is also used repeatedly to depict European culture and tradition as inferior to that of the Muslim world. He complains that Robin quote “stinks of garlic” end quote, and comments quote “The hospitality of this country is as warm as the weather” end quote. Azeem also claims that people in England will assume he is Robin’s slave, and consequently walks several paces behind him in order to conform to what he believes is the appropriate social convention.

The constant message of the movie is that Europeans during the Middle Ages were completely inferior to Muslims in almost every way conceivable. In reality the movie is full of historical inaccuracies.

Firstly, would people in England have assumed Azeem was a slave? Azeem’s presence in twelfth century England would have been highly unusual, though not completely impossible. Although some North Africans had come over to Britain many centuries earlier as auxiliary troops in the Roman army, by the eleventh century there was no regular migration of people between Africa and the British Isles. Skeletal remains of a few Sub-Saharan individuals have been found in Britian dating to the third century, suggesting that they were descendants of the initial wave of Roman colonizers. The remains of another Sub-Saharan individual have been dated to around the tenth century, and are typically interpreted by historians as belonging to a slave brought to Britain by Vikings. The almost complete absence of any African presence in the British Isles from the fourth to the eleventh century, demonstrates that it would be highly unusual for any African to be seen in England during the twelfth century.

As the North African Moors (Azeem’s people), attempted to expand their conquest of Spain into more of Western Europe, interaction between Moors and Europeans increased. A passing reference in a thirteenth century collection of royal administrative records contains the only certain reference to an African in England at this time.

The Patent Rolls of king Henry III, administrative records of his reign, contain a commandment to “all persons to arrest an Ethiopian”. The Ethiopian is identified as a man called Bartholemew, who was the servant or probably slave, of a Frenchman, Roger de Lyntin, who brought him to England. The record says Bartholemew has run away from his master, and calls on the public to arrest him on sight. [4]

At this time the word Saracen was used as a synonym for a Muslim, rather than an ethnic descriptor. Thus an Arab, Persian, or North African Muslim, could all be referred to as a Saracen. However, the record also specifies that this man, named Bartholomew, was an Ethiopian. The Muslim invaders of Europe at this time were almost exclusively North African Moors, so it is far more likely that the man was a Moor (very likely captured in war), and that the writer was simply using the word Ethopian as a way of saying he was black.

The fact that there was a need to tell people that the North African Bartholomew was a runaway servant or slave, and to arrest him so he could be returned to his master, indicates that there was no expectation that an African man in England, whether unaccompanied by a white man or in the company of a white man, would necessarily be a slave. Seeing an African man anywhere in England at this time would have been incredibly unusual, but there was clearly no assumption that people would automatically assume such a man was a slave who had escaped a white master. Consequently, in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Azeem is wrong to conclude that English people would necessarily view him as Robin’s slave. In fact there is no record of Africans being held as slaves in Britain until the sixteenth century.

Secondly, would Azeem have been carrying and using a telescope? The simple answer to this is no. Although Muslim and Jewish scholars in the Islamic Golden Age advanced the science of optics considerably, telescopes were not invented until hundreds of years later. Glass lenses were used to correct vision defects in Italy as early as the thirteenth century, but the first confirmed historical record of a telescope dates to 1608. Azeem would have had no conception of the telescope, and certainly lacked any knowledge or experience of the science and technology to make one.

Thirdly, could Azeem have carried out a successful Caesarean section operation? It must be noted that the movie is delicately unclear on the precise nature of the operation Azeem carries out. However it is most likely that he is referring to a Caesarean section, since the mentions that he is taking action in response to a breech birth (in which the baby is upside down), and requires a needle and thread. Even today a Caesarean section is still standard procedure in response to a breech birth, and would obviously require a needle and thread to close the main incision.

Caesarean sections are recorded in very early literature. In fact an academic paper entitled “Obstetrics in Islamic Medicine: A Historical Perspective”, written by obstetrician Hossam Fadel and published in 2001, notes that visual representations of Caeasarean sections are found in Persian writings during the Islamic Golden Age. [5]

However, although Fadel notes that “It also seems that early Muslim physicians were familiar with the operation”, he also says “it was performed only when the mother had died or was determined to have no chance of survival”. [6]

Emilie Savage-Smith, Professor of the History of Islamic Science at Oxford, warns that even though ilustrations in some Islamic manuscripts give the apperance of Caesarean section being performed by medieval Muslim surgeons, in fact “Caesarian sections on a living woman for the delivery of a foetus were not performed, for such an effort would have resulted in the certain death of the woman”. She adds that “There is no mention in the surgical literature of such a procedure being attempted, even as a post-mortem effort to save the foetus after the mother died”. [7]

Hossam Fadel notes “There is no agreement among historians on when and where the first cesarean section was performed on a live woman for the purpose of delivering a live child”, and further says there is no direct mention of Caesarean section in either the Qu’ran or Hadith. The Caesarean section was not a product of Muslim science or religion. [8]

Fadel also notes that “Cesarean operations were made mandatory by the Church Councils of Cologne (1280)” demonstrating that Western Europeans were already well aware of this procedure themselves. However, although the operation is represented in the fourteenth century French manuscript the Historie Ancienne, on a mother who appears to be alive during the process, it is certain that any Caaesarean at this time would have resulted in the mother’s death. [9]

The earliest historical evidence for a possibly successful Caesarean section on a living mother, is in the textual record of an operation carried out in Switzerland in 1500. Even then historians are doubtful that the mother survived. The idea that Azeem could have successfully carried out a Caesarean section on a living mother in twelfth century England, and that both mother and child could have survived, is well outside the realms of reality. Azeem would have had neither the knowledge nor the skills to perform such an operation.

Fourthly, could Azeem have manufactured explosives using gunpowder? By the twelfth century gunpowder certainly existed. It was invented by the Chinese in the ninth century, though they originally created it as a health tonic. It took them nearly a century to realise its military potential, and they did not use it for explosives until the eleventh century. However the first evidence for its use in the West does not appear until the thirteenth century. Azeem would not have had the knowledge or technology to make explosives with a chemical compound which was not brought to Europe for at least another one hundred years.

There are numerous other historical inaccuracies in the movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, but these are its most obvious distortions of Muslim history.

Nevertheless, the incredible scientific progress of the Islamic Golden Age should not be understated. In fact the contributions of the Muslim scholars were recognized by Europeans themselves. The sixteenth century fresco called “The School of Athens” in the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican, painted by the outstanding Renaissance artist Raphael, depicts at least 21 important historical philosophers, from a surprisingly wide range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

Not only does Raphael depict the classical Greek philosophers, such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, he also depicts the Roman philosopher Boethius, the Persian mystic Zoroaster (also known as Zarathustra), and the Muslim philosopher Ibn Rushd (also known as Averroes). Ibn Rushd was arguably the most famous scholar in the Islamic Golden Age, and his commentaries were studied and discussed widely in Europe once they became available from the thirteenth century onwards.

The historical impact of the Islamic Golden Age was arguably as significant as the later European Renaissance. It is still the greatest period of scientific achievement in the Muslim world to this day, and indeed one of the greatest periods of scientific achievement in human history. However, common depictions of this era often suffer from exaggeration in various ways. Here’s a typical example from Alison Abbott, a Senior European Correspondent for the scientific journal Nature. She writes “Western science historians know very well that the Arab world was the guardian of the ancient Greeks’ scientific knowledge during the Middle Ages, before the European Renaissance rediscovered and extended it”. [10]

This is the standard narrative found in mainstream media; European ignorance during centuries of Dark Ages, while the light of scientific knowledge was preserved in the Muslim world, not returning to Europe until the Renaissance era. It’s a common narrative, but it is not true.

Abott has a PhD in pharmacology and specializes in neuroscience, so she can be forgiven for misrepresenting the facts in a field in which she is unqualified. In contrast, professional historian of science presents a very different perspective. The next articles in this series will provide specific details about the facts.

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[1] Arshad Khan, Islam, Muslims, and America: Understanding the Basis of Their Conflict (New York: Algora Pub., 2003).

[2] Tahir Abbas, Islamic Radicalism and Multicultural Politics the British Experience (London; New York: Routledge, 2011).

[3] “Just because Europe was stuck in the Dark Ages,” argues Jim Al-Khalili the professor of physics at the University of Surrey and author of Pathfinders: The Golden Age of Arabic Science, “we shouldn’t assume that the rest of the world had stagnated. There was this great flourishing of scholarship and discovery in the Islamic world of the middle ages”, Tom Fielden, “BBC — Today: Tom Feilden: The ‘golden Age’ of Arabic Science,” 13 November 2010, https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/today/tomfeilden/2010/11/the_golden_age_of_arabic_scien.html.

[4] “Mandate to all persons to arrest an Ethiopian of the name of Bartholomew, sometime a Saracen, slave [Latin: “servus”] of Roger de Lyntin, whom the said Roger brought with him to England; the said Ethiopian having run away from his said lord, who has sent an esquire of his to look for him: and they are to deliver him to the said esquire to the use of the said Roger.”, Calendar of Patent Rolls of Henry III, volume 5, in Great Britain Public Record Office, Calendar of the Patent Rolls, Preserved in the Public Record Office: 1258–1266 (H.M. Stationery Office, 1910), 28.

[5] “Rustum, the Persian hero (the son of King Sol), was also reported to have been delivered this way. A painting depicting his birth is found in Firduwsi’s 11th century epic “Shah-Nameh” (The Book of Kings) (Figure 6). Another miniature shown here is a genuine scientific portrayal of tbe operation taken from the textbook of Abu-Rayha-n Muhammad al-Biruni, “aJ, Athar al-Baqiyah an al-’qunin al-Khaliyah,” available at Edinburgh University library (Figure 7).”, Hossam Fadel, “Obstetrics in Islamic Medicine: An Historical Perspective,” Journal of the Islamic Medical Association of North America 28 (2001), 117.

[6] “It also seems that the early Muslim physicians were familiar with the operation of cesarean section, but it was performed only when the mother had died (or was determined to have no chance of survival) and there was a chance to rescue a live-term fetus.”, Hossam Fadel, “Obstetrics in Islamic Medicine: An Historical Perspective,” Journal of the Islamic Medical Association of North America 28 (2001), 114.

[7] “One might be mislead by a number of illustrations in Islamic manuscripts depicting births by Caesarian section to think that such operations were performed by medieval Islamic surgeons. Certainly Caesarian sections on a living woman for the delivery of a foetus were not performed, for such an effort would have resulted in the certain death of the woman. There is no mention in the surgical literature of such a procedure being attempted, even as a post-mortem effort to save the foetus after the mother died.”, Emilie Savage-Smith, “Attitudes Toward Dissection in Medieval Islam,” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 50.1 (1995): 79.

[8] “There is no agreement among historians on when and where the first cesarean section was performed on a live woman for the purpose of delivering a live child.”, Hossam Fadel, “Obstetrics in Islamic Medicine: An Historical Perspective,” Journal of the Islamic Medical Association of North America 28 (2001), 118; “In Islam, there is no direct mention of this type of delivery either in the Qu’an or the Hadith as much as I can gather.”, Hossam Fadel, “Obstetrics in Islamic Medicine: An Historical Perspective,” Journal of the Islamic Medical Association of North America 28 (2001), 118.

[9] “Cesarean operations were made mandatory by the Church Councils of Cologne (1280).”, Hossam Fadel, “Obstetrics in Islamic Medicine: An Historical Perspective,” Journal of the Islamic Medical Association of North America 28 (2001), 118.

[10] “Western science historians know very well that the Arab world was the guardian of the ancient Greeks’ scientific knowledge during the Middle Ages, before the European Renaissance rediscovered and extended it.”, Alison Abbott, “Rebuilding the Past,” News, Nature, 15 December 2004, https://www.nature.com/articles/432794a.