>David Eppstein: Margaret Baron

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{{short description|Aspect of the Golden Age of Islam}}
The [[Golden Age of Islam]], which saw a flourishing of [[science]],
notably [[Islamic mathematics|mathematics]] and [[Islamic astronomy|astronomy]], especially during the 9th and 10th centuries, had a notable Indian influence.

==History==
For the best part of a millennium, from the [[Seleucid Empire|Seleucid era]] and through to the [[Sasanian Empire|Sassanid period]], there had been an exchange of scholarship between the [[Hellenistic Greece|Greek]], [[Persia]]n and [[Classical India|Indian]] cultural spheres.{{citation needed|date=July 2018}} The origin of the [[0 (number)|number zero]] and the [[place-value system]] notably falls into this period; its early use originates in Indian mathematics of the 5th century (''[[Lokavibhaga]]''), influencing [[Sassanid era]] Persian scholars during the 6th century.<ref>D. Reidel, ''The Arithmetic of Al-Uqlîdisî'', Dordrecht, 1978: "It seems plausible that it [decimal notation] drifted gradually, probably before the 7th century, through two channels, one starting from Sindh, undergoing Persian filtration and spreading in what is now known as the Middle East, and the other starting from the coasts of the Indian Ocean and extending to the southern coasts of the Mediterranean."</ref>

The sudden [[Islamic conquest of Persia]] in the 640s drove a wedge between the Mediterranean and Indian traditions, but scholarly transfer soon resumed, with translations of both Greek and Sanskrit works into Arabic during the 8th century. This triggered the flourishing of [[Abbasid-era]] scholarship centered in [[Baghdad]] in the 9th century, and the eventual resumption of transmission to the west via [[Al-Andalus|Muslim Spain]] and [[Emirate of Sicily|Sicily]] by the 10th century.{{citation needed|date=July 2018}}

There was continuing contact between Indian and Perso-Arabic scholarship during the 9th to 11th centuries while the [[Muslim conquest of India]] was [[Rajput resistance to Muslim conquests|temporarily halted]].
[[Al Biruni]] in the early 11th century traveled widely in India and became an important source of knowledge about India in the [[Islamic world]] during that time.<ref>[[Max Müller]], ''Lectures on the science of language
delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in April, May, and June, 1861'', 1868, [https://archive.org/stream/lecturesonscienc1868ml#page/150/mode/1up p. 150].
</ref>

With the establishment of the [[Delhi Sultanate]] in the 13th century, northern India fell under Perso-Arabic dominance and the native Sanskrit tradition [[Sanskrit literature#Later Sanskrit literature|fell into decline]], while at about the same time the "Golden Age of Islam" of the Arab caliphates gave way to [[Ilkhanate|Turko-Mongol dominance]], leading to the flourishing of a secondary "Golden Age" of [[Turko-Persian tradition|Turko-Persian literary tradition]] during the 13th to 16th centuries, exemplified on either side of [[Timurid dynasty|Timurid Persia]] by the [[Ottoman Empire]] in the west and the [[Mughal Empire]] in the east.

==Astronomy==
The mathematical astronomy text ''[[Brahmasphutasiddhanta|Brahmasiddhanta]]'' of [[Brahmagupta]] (598-668) was received in the court of [[Al-Mansur]] (753–774). It was translated by [[Muhammad al-Fazari|Alfazari]] into Arabic as ''Az-Zīj ‛alā Sinī al-‛Arab'',<ref>E. S. Kennedy, ''A Survey of Islamic Astronomical Tables,'' (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, 46, 2), Philadelphia, 1956, pp. 2, 7, 12 (zijes no. 2, 28, 71).</ref> popularly called ''Sindhind''. This translation was the means by which the [[Hindu numerals]] were transmitted from the Sanskrit to the Arabic tradition.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=D. E. |authorlink1=D. E. Smith |authorlink2=Louis Charles Karpinski |first2=L. C. |last2=Karpinski |title=The Hindu-Arabic Numerals |publisher=Dover |year= 2013 |orig-year=first published in Boston, 1911 |isbn=978-0486155111}}</ref> According to [[Al-Biruni]],

{{quote|text=As Sindh was under the actual rule of the Khalif Mansur (AD 753–774), there came embassies from that part of India to Bagdad and among them scholars, who brought with them two books. <br/>With the help of these [[Pandit]]s Alfazari, perhaps also [[Yaqūb ibn Tāriq]], translated them. Both works have been largely used, and have exercised a great influence. It was on this occasion that the Arabs first became acquainted with a scientific system of astronomy. They learned from Brahmagupta earlier than Ptolemy.|author=[[Alberuni]] (Ed. & trans. Edward Sachau)|source=''Alberuni's India [The Indika of Alberuni]'' (1910)<ref name=Sachau>{{cite book |title=Alberuni's India [The Indika of Alberuni] |author=Alberuni, Abu Al-Rahain Muhammad Ibn Ahmad |editor=Sachau, Edward C. (and trans.) |publisher=Scholar's Choice [Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co.] |date=2015 |edition=facsimile reprint |orig-year=1910 |page=xxxiii |isbn=978-1-297-45719-7 |url=http://www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/images/alberuni.pdf}}</ref>}}

Alberuni's translator and editor Edward Sachau wrote: "It is [[Brahmagupta]] who taught Arabs mathematics before they got acquainted with Greek science."<ref name=Sachau/>
[[Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Fazārī|Al-Fazari]] also translated the ''Khandakhadyaka (Arakand) of'' Brahmagupta.<ref name=Sachau/>

Through the resulting Arabic translations of ''[[Zij al-Sindhind|Sindhind]]'' and ''Arakand'', the use of Indian numerals became established in the Islamic world.<ref>{{cite book |title=India: The Ancient Past: A History of the Indian Sub-Continent from C. 7000 BC to AD 1200 |first=Burjor |last=Avari |authorlink=Burjor Avari |publisher=Routledge |year=2007 |isbn=978-1134251629 |pages=168–170}}
</ref>

==Mathematics==
The etymology of the word "sine" comes from the [[Latin]] mistranslation of the word ''jiba'', which is an Arabic transliteration of the Sanskrit word for half the chord, ''jya-ardha''.<ref>Victor J. Katz (2008), ''A History of Mathematics'', Boston: Addison-Wesley, 3rd. ed., p. 253, sidebar 8.1. {{cite web |url=http://deti-bilingual.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/3rd-Edition-Victor-J.-Katz-A-History-of-Mathematics-Pearson-2008.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2015-04-09 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150414065531/http://deti-bilingual.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/3rd-Edition-Victor-J.-Katz-A-History-of-Mathematics-Pearson-2008.pdf |archive-date=2015-04-14 }}</ref>

The sin and cos functions of trigonometry, were important mathematical concepts, imported from the [[Gupta period]] of [[Indian astronomy]] namely the [[Jyā, koti-jyā and utkrama-jyā|''jyā'' and ''koṭi-jyā '']] functions via translation of texts like the ''[[Aryabhatiya]]'' and ''[[Surya Siddhanta]]'', from Sanskrit to Arabic, and then from Arabic to Latin, and later to other European languages.<ref name="Boyer, Carl B. 1991 p. 210">[[Uta Merzbach|Uta C. Merzbach]], Carl B. Boyer (2011), A History of Mathematics, Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 3rd ed., p. 189.</ref>{{quote|text= Al-Khowarizmi (ca. 840) contributed a work on algebra and an account of the Hindu—Arabic numerals including the use of zero as a place-holder...the history of early Hindu mathematics has always presented considerable
problems for the West...it is still not possible to form a clear picture of either method or motivation in Hindu mathematics...this, together with the absence of any formalised proof structure, militated against continuous mathematical development...much of the Hindu approach to mathematics was certainly conveyed to western Europe through Arabs. The Algebraic method formerly considered to have been invented by [[Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī|Al Khowarizimi]] can now be seen to stem from Hindu sources. The place-value system involving the use of nine numerals and a zero as place-holder is undoubtedly of Hindu origin and its transmission to the West had a profound influence on the whole course of mathematics. <ref>The Origins of the Infinitesimal Calculus By [[Margaret Baron|Margaret E. Baron]], pg 61–65 </ref>}}
{{quote|text=As in the rest of mathematical science so in Trigonometry, were the Arabs pupils of the Hindus and still more of the Greeks, but not without important devices of their own.<ref>Advanced Book Search
A Brief History of Mathematics By Karl Fink, Wooster Beman, David Smith Page Cosimo Classics 285</ref>}}

{{quote|text=For over five hundred years Arabic writers and others continued to apply to works on arithmetic the name Indian.<ref>The Hindu-Arabic Numerals By David Eugene Smith Page 92</ref>}}

{{quote|text=Another important early treatise that publicized decimal numbers was the Iranian mathematician and astronomer [[Kushyar ibn Labban]]'s leading arithmetic book ''[[The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing|Kitab fi usul hisab al-hind]]'' (''principals of Hindu reckoning'').<ref>Encyclopaedia of the history of science, technology, and medicine in non western countries By Helaine Selin Page 69, Published by Kluwer Academic Publishers</ref>}}

[[Abu'l-Hasan al-Uqlidisi]] a scholar in the Abbassid caliphate wrote ''al-Fusul fi al-Hisab al-Hindi'' ("chapters in Indian calculation") to address the difficulty in procedures for calculation from the [[Euclid's Elements]] and endorsed the use of Indian calculation. He highlighted its ease of use, speed, fewer requirements of memory and the focused scope on the subject.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tonietti |first1=Tito M. |title=And Yet It Is Heard: Musical, Multilingual and Multicultural History of the Mathematical Sciences - |date=2014 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9783034806725 |url=https://archive.org/details/springer_10.1007-978-3-0348-0672-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/springer_10.1007-978-3-0348-0672-5/page/n242 231] |quote=hisab al gubar. |language=en}}</ref>

==Medical texts==
Manka, an Indian physician at the court of [[Harun al-Rashid]] is said to have translated the ''[[Sushruta]]'' (the classical (Gupta-era) Sanskrit text on medicine) into Persian.<ref>[[Max Müller]], ''Lectures on the science of language delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in April, May, and June, 1861'', 1868, [https://archive.org/stream/lecturesonscienc1868ml#page/150/mode/1up p. 150]. The work was again translated several times over the following centuries, Müller cites an Arabic translation dated 1381.
</ref>

{{quote|A large number of Sanskrit medical, pharmacological and toxicological texts were translated into Arabic under the patronage of Khalid, the vizier of Al-Mansur. Khalid was the son of a chief priest of a Buddhist monastery at Balkh. Some of his family was killed when the Arabs captured [[Balkh]]; others including Khalid survived by converting to Islam. They were to be known as the [[Barmakid]]s of Baghdad who were fascinated by the new ideas from India. Indian medical knowledge was given a further boost under the Caliph Harun al Rashid (788–809) who ordered the translation of [[Susruta Samhita]] into Arabic.<ref>India, the ancient past: a history of the Indian sub-continent from c. 7000 BC to AD 1200 By [[Burjor Avari]] page 219</ref>}}

{{quote|We know of Yahya ibn [[Khalid ibn Barmak|Khalid al Barmaki]] (805) as a patron of physicians and, specifically, of the translation of Hindu medical works into both Arabic and Persian. In all likelihood however, his activity took place in the orbit of the caliphate court in Iraq, where at the behest of Harun al Rashid (786–809), such books were translated into Arabic. Thus Khurasan and Transoxania were effectively bypassed in this transfer of learning from India to Islam, even though, undeniably the Barmakis cultural outlook owed something to their land of origin, northern Afghanistan, and Yahya al Barmaki's interest in medicine may have derived from no longer identifiable family tradition.<ref>History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Volume 4, Part 2 By C. E. Bosworth, M.S.Asimov, page 300</ref>}}

{{quote|The ''[[Charaka Samhita|Caraka Saṃhitā]]'' was translated into Persian and subsequently into Arabic by Abd-Allah ibn Ali in the ninth century.<ref>A History of Medicine: Byzantine and Islamic medicine By Plinio Prioreschi Volume iv Page 121 , {{ISBN|1-888456-02-7}}</ref>}}

{{Cquote|Probably the first Islamic hospital (''[[Bimaristan]] or Maristan'') was established in Baghdad [[Yahya ibn Khalid ibn Barmak]], tutor and subsequently vizier of [[Harun al-Rashid]] when the latter became [[Khalif]] in 786. Yahya ibn Khalid ibn Barmak's hospital, usually referred to as the Barmakid Hospital must have been established before 803, the year in which the Barmakid family fell from power. The hospital is mentioned in two places in the ''[[Ibn al-Nadim|Fihrist]]'' which was written in 997. Ibn Dahn, Al Hindi, who administered the Bimaristan of the Barmak. He translated from the Indian language into Arabic. Yahya ibn Khalid ordered Mankah (Kankah), the Indian, to translate it (an Indian book of medicine) at the hospital to render it in the form of a compilation.<ref>A History of Medicine: Byzantine and Islamic medicine By Plinio Prioreschi, Page 367</ref>}}

Al-Razi's ''[[Al-Hawi]]'' (''liber continens'') of c. 900 is said to contain "much Indian knowledge" from texts such as the [[Susruta Samhita]].<ref>India, the ancient past: a history of the Indian sub-continent from c. 7000 BC to AD 1200 By [[Burjor Avari]] page 220</ref>

==Geography==
The Indian geographical knowledge that was transmitted and influenced the Arabs included the view of [[Aryabhata]] that the apparent daily rotation of the heavens was caused by the rotation of the earth on its own axis, the idea that the proportion of land and sea on the surface of the earth was half and half and the land mass as being dome shaped and covered on all sides by water.

The Arabs utilized the Indian cartographic system in which the northern hemisphere was considered to be the inhabited part of the earth and divided into nine parts. Its four geographical limits were djamakut in the east, rum in the west, Ceylon as the cupola (dome) and Sidpur.

Indians believed that the prime meridian passes through ujjain and calculated their longitudes from Ceylon. The Arabs adopted this idea of Ceylon's being the cupola of the earth but later mistakenly believed ujjain to be the cupola.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kirmani |first1=M. Zaki |last2=Singh |first2=Nagendra Kr |title=Encyclopaedia of Islamic Science and Scientists: A-H |date=2005 |publisher=Global Vision Publishing House |isbn=9788182200586 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lKa9khFcKmQC&q=Indian%20influence%20Islamic%20science&pg=PA278 |language=en}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Indian science and technology]]
*[[Indian mathematics]]
*[[Hindu astronomy]]
*[[Bakhshali manuscript]]
*[[Methods of computing square roots#Bakhshali approximation|Bakhshali approximation]]
*[[Barmakids]]
*[[Indo-Persian culture]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=04erYp4PQ7UC&pg=PA91&dq=The+Hindu-Arabic+Numerals++development+++arabs&hl=en&ei=_b3_TJiCGIflrAeQxPijCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false The Development of The numerals Among The Arabs]: chapter from the book – The Hindu-Arabic Numerals By David Eugene Smith

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hindu And Buddhist Contribution To Science In Medieval Islam}}
[[Category:History of Islamic science]]
[[Category:History of science and technology in India]]
[[Category:Science in the Middle Ages]]

Indian influence on Islamic science - Revision history

>David Eppstein: Margaret Baron