Arab scientific methods
Libraries, laboratories, and machines are nothing but means of study and research, and their value lies in knowing how to benefit from them. One may be able to be informed about the sciences of others, but he may still be unable to think and invent anything, and thus remain a student unable to rise to the level of a professor. It will become clear from the discoveries we mention in the following chapters how much the Arabs discovered with the means of study they had. Now I will limit myself to mentioning the general principles that guided their research:
The Arabs, having been students of the books of the Greeks, soon realized that experience and observation were better than the best books, and it seems that this truth was trivialized by medieval European scholars a thousand years before they learned it.
Figure 1-1 : Door of a mosque and school in Damascus (from a photograph taken by the author) .
It is generally attributed to Bacon that he was the first to establish experiment and observation, which are the cornerstones of modern scientific methods, in the position of a master; but it must be admitted today that all this is the work of the Arabs alone, and this opinion has been expressed by all the scholars who have studied the writings of the Arabs, especially Hanbold. After this famous scholar stated that what is based on experiment and observation is the highest degree in the sciences, he said: “The Arabs have risen in their sciences to this degree which the ancients were almost ignorant of . ”
Monsieur Sedillot said: “The most important characteristic of the Baghdad School in the beginning was its correct scientific spirit that prevailed in its works. It was extracting the unknown from the known, and scrutinizing incidents with a scrutiny that led to deducing causes from effects, and not accepting what is not…”
It is proven without experience – principles that were stated by Arab professors. The Arabs, in the ninth century AD, were in possession of this effective method that was used by modern scientists a long time later to arrive at the most wonderful discoveries.
Figure 1-2 : An old dervish corner, spring, and school in Cairo (photo by Kost)
The Arab approach was based on experimentation and observation, while medieval Europe proceeded on studying books and confining itself to repeating the teacher’s opinion. The difference between the two approaches is fundamental, and the scientific value of the Arabs cannot be appreciated without realizing this difference.
The Arabs tested and experimented with things, and they were the first to realize the importance of this method in the world, and they continued to work on it alone for a long time. De Lanber said in his book “History of Astronomy” : “You can count two or three observers among the Greeks, and you can count a large number of observers among the Arabs.” As for chemistry, you will not find a Greek experimenter, although the Arab experimenters are numbered in the hundreds.
The Arabs’ reliance on experience gave their writings a precision and creativity that was not expected from a man accustomed to studying events in books. The Arabs did not stray far from creativity except in philosophy, which was impossible to base on experience.
The Arabs’ experimental approach led to their arrival at important discoveries, and you will see from our discussions of the Arabs’ scientific works that they accomplished in three or four centuries of discoveries what It is more than what the Greeks achieved in a much longer period of time. The scientific heritage of Greece had passed to the Byzantines, who had ceased to benefit from it for a long time. When it passed to the Arabs, they transformed it into something other than what it was, and their heirs received it as a different creation.
The Arabs were not limited to advancing the sciences with what they discovered. The Arabs also spread them through the universities they established and the books they wrote. They had a profound impact on Europe in this respect. You will see in the chapter in which we study this influence that the Arabs alone were the teachers of the Christian nations for several centuries, that we did not become acquainted with the sciences of the ancient Greeks and Romans except thanks to the Arabs, and that education in our universities has not dispensed with what was translated into our languages from the works of the Arabs except in the present times.
