Science: Islam's forgotten geniuses

[nhboy]

"Next year, we will be celebrating the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, and the 150th of the publication of his On The Origin of Species, which revolutionised our understanding of biology.

But what if Darwin was beaten to the punch? Approximately 1,000 years before the British naturalist published his theory of evolution, a scientist working in Baghdad was thinking along similar lines.

In the Book of Animals, abu Uthman al-Jahith (781-869), an intellectual of East African descent, was the first to speculate on the influence of the environment on species. He wrote: "Animals engage in a struggle for existence; for resources, to avoid being eaten and to breed. Environmental factors influence organisms to develop new characteristics to ensure survival, thus transforming into new species. Animals that survive to breed can pass on their successful characteristics to offspring."

Science: Islam's forgotten geniuses - Telegraph

 

[Mateo]

Do not forget that the Arabs were writing from old Roman, Greek and other ancient texts. Their genius was in preserving these works as well improving
on mathematics, astronomy and other sciences. Their medical texts were the marvel of the medieval world, but again they were based on earlier works which were "lost" or kept hidden in monastaries and the Vatican libraries.
The Druids, while condemned by the Romans for their "barbarian" rites. were actually the basis of learned societies that did become the monastic orders. They were also known to collect botanical information.
The Arabs did further the cause of knowledge, but so did others. Heiro of Alexandria had the workings for a steam engine that would have revolutionized the ancient world. Lucian and Pliny the Elder recorded plants and their medicinal properties. The ancients were not as backward as we would like to think.