EXPLANATION:

It has been seen that the scholars working in the Islamic Empire spanning over three continents

started in the beginning with the translation movement, as well as creating the necessary language

tools in Arabic for the translations of the works of the Greeks, Persians, INDIANS and all ancient

knowledge. But having acquired the knowledge they set about not only assimilating, testing and

analysing, but also adding important and original contributions to that knowledge.

Beginning from the end of the tenth century this knowledge began to filter back to Europe through

the translations of Arabic versions of the Greek knowledge and the original Greek treatises

(Burnett, 2001). But also transferred to Europe were the seminal contributions of scholars of the

Islamic WORLD. Modern science as we know it today works with theories and models that must be

tested empirically, starting in the fields of mathematics, astronomy and medicine. The Muslims

developed the procedures for testing knowledge both empirically and logically. However an

important characteristic of Islamic science was its experimental character. Islamic scientists were

interested especially in the applied sciences, in the construction of apparatus, in testing theories by

undertaking observations, and analysis of results through mathematics (Bammate, 1959). These

ideas and procedures were all available in Western Europe through the seminal works of Islamic

scholars before the times of Galileo, Descartes and Newton to whom they have been LARGELY

attributed.While there is currently research being carried out on the use of single works or the ideas and

writings of individual authors, it is too early to draw all possible conclusions. In order to form a

comprehensive picture of both the translation processes, and the transmission of scientific

knowledge from ancient Greek libraries to the Islamic world, culminating in the eighth and ninth

centuries (Sabra, 1996; Sabra, 1987) and the subsequent translation and transmission of Islamic

scholarly works to Europe during the twelfth to fourteenth centuries further scholarly work is

needed. Fortunately various collections of Arabic manuscripts are still preserved in European

libraries. Further detailed investigations would help throw light on the critical ROLE of Islamic

scholarly works in the development of Renaissance Europe (Saliba, 1999). What is important to

note is that the Islamic conception of God (Bausani, 1974) made possible a major advance in

scientific thinking during the period of the eighth to the fifteenth centuries in Islamic lands, while

Europe lay largely dormant during the Dark Ages. Developments would only appear to have

occurred in Europe where there was direct contact with Islamic knowledge in Spain and France,

until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Thus the initial development of Modern Science did not

occur in Italy with the spectacular work of Galileo, but in the Islamic world several centuries

earlier, where it slowly and gradually advanced in ways that have been largely ignored but

scholars in Western Europe.