Accordingly, the source of all knowledge was considered as being one.
Accordingly, the source of all knowledge was considered as being one. They utilized the experimental as well as the intellectual and intuitive approaches for understanding various levels and stages of existence. During that period we find numerous examples of scholars who combined authority in religious sciences with an encyclopedic knowledge of the natural sciences. Men like Ibn Sina,`Umar Khayyam, Khwajah Nasir al-Din Tusi and Qutb al-Din Shirazi are some names among many.
As long as this vision and perspective ruled Muslim scholarship and science, the Muslims were at the vanguard of human civilization in those days and their cities were centres of specialized learning. (2) George Sarton admits that during the period between A.D. 750 and 1100, the Muslims were undisputed leaders of the intellectual world and between A.D. 1100 and 1350, the centres of learning in the Muslim world retained their global importance and attraction.
After 1350, the European world began to advance and the Islamic world not only became stagnant but also failed to absorb the progress made outside it. The theological schools excluded all natural sciences from their curriculum except astronomy and mathematics. This restriction imposed on the religious schools led to grave repercussions on the Islamic world. Here we point out a few of these effects: 1.
Whereas the Europeans were striving to unravel the hidden laws of nature and to discover ways of exploiting its treasures and resources, the Muslims set aside these activities, and left to others what they deserved most to handle. Today, they have reached the point where they have to depend on America and Europe to satisfy their elementary needs. They remain largely unable to use their resources, which they continue to leave to foreigners to exploit. 2.
Those Muslims who pursued the experimental sciences were mostly estranged from the religious sciences. Accordingly, they lacked the Islamic world outlook, which was replaced by the atheistic vision that dominates the Western scientific tradition. 3.