(This is a reply to a question asked in the comments section of a previous article about Creationism. Question asked was about examples of scientific research in Islamic countries in the past.)

I am neither a religious scholar nor an expert on Islamic history.

But I do know the word "algebra" comes from Arabic and comes to us via a book written in Islamic Persia over a thousands years ago that describes algebra (as we know it).

Similarly the word "algorithm" is based on the name of another Islamic (Persian?) scholar who wrote a book about using Indian numerals (0123456789).

In fact, almost all of our mathematics (which is not technically a science, I assume) is based on research done in the Muslim world a thousand years ago, which is why we still read and write numbers right-to-left.

Don't believe me? Try these experiments:

Read the following word (spaces between letters are for effect), letter by letter. Hold a hand over the letters you are not yet reading:

C O M P U T E R

Notice how you read it from left-to-right, just like English (and the Latin alphabet) is supposed to be read?

Stay with me, I am coming to a point. Read the next word, from left-to-right:

M A T H E M A T I C S

It works again. Not try both words from right-to-left.

It doesn't work. Apparently English is read from left-to-right. We knew that.

Now try numbers. Using the same method, read the following number from left-to-right:

3 1 4 1 5 9 2 6 5 4

Yes. There is no decimal point in the number. They came later.

Can't tell what the value of the number is? Is it millions? Tens of millions? Hundreds of millions? Billions?

Something doesn't work here.

Try reading the number again, this time start on the right. You know what each digit means because of its position relative to the right side of the number.

3 1 4 1 5 9 2 6 5 4

Now you know if its 3 billions and something or not.

Reading the number from right-to-left works, from left-to-right does not.

Now use these two numbers:

3 1 4 1 5

9 2 6 5 4

And add them up. You can write them down (since you are copying them either right-to-left and left-to-right will work) and write the result under them, under a line, like this:


  3 1 4 1 5

  9 2 6 5 4

-----------

1 2 4 0 6 9

Did you find yourself writing the result from right-to-left?

Do you notice how our number system, which we got from Arabic-speaking Muslims, follows the direction of Arabic (and Hebrew) writing rather than Latin (and Greek) writing?

Now, Roman numerals are written and read from left-to-right, like Latin (and English) text:

M M V I I I

Although, since in contrast to words and Arab numerals the positions are not important, you can also read it right-to-left (or from the inside out, if you make sure to start at a good position).

In modern Hebrew, Arab numerals are used, as in English. But they are easier to read, because you don't have to skip incoming ndigits and read the number backwards to find out what they mean:

"There are 10000 fish in the sea."

"Yesh 00001 dagim baYam." (I reversed the number to simulate right-to-left writing.)

Note that unless you can immediately grasp how many zeroes there are in the number in the English text, you have to skip to the end of the number and read it right-to-left to know which number it is.


Muslims have (back then) made major advances in astronomy and architecture as well, but astronomy is really complicated and I really don't know anything about architecture. They were very advanced in the field of medicine, came up with the theory of bacteria causing diseases, found treatments, basically invented what we now know as dental surgery, and the use of anesthesia. Their books, translated into Latin formed the base of medical science in Europe for centuries.

Of course, many of the "Muslim" researchers were Jews. But the environment in which they worked allowed to scientific advancements unseen in the western (or Christian world) until, well, the age of humanism.