10 ICONS OF THE Islamic Golden Age

From the 8th century CE, while Europe descended into the Dark Ages, the Islamic world excelled at philosophy, science and mathematics. Known as the Islamic Golden Age, this era coincided with the rise of the Abbasid Caliphate, which ruled most of the Muslim world from Baghdad, in what is now Iraq, from 750 to 1258. Centrally located between Europe and Asia, Baghdad became a hub for trade and the exchanging of brilliant ideas. The city’s scholars translated Ancient Greek and Roman writers into Arabic, as well as texts from Persia, India and China. However, rather than simply preserving or imitating these great works, Islamic thinkers expanded on them, making incredible advances and spreading this knowledge throughout the Muslim world–all the way from modern-day Pakistan to Moorish Spain.

The Islamic Golden Age gave us many concepts that we take for granted today. For example, most mathematical and scientific words beginning with ‘al’ indicate an Islamic origin, so algebra, the star Algol and chemical compounds like alkali and–perhaps surprisingly, considering it is generally considered forbidden for Muslims–alcohol. Even the way we count is thanks to Muslim mathematicians. The Romans had no value or symbol for 0; this was invented in India and spread west by Islamic mathematicians. The English word ‘zero’ also comes from the Arabic