with about 1.

6 billion adherents Islam

is the second largest religion on earth

yet its followers represent less than 1%

of the world's scientists only a handful

of people from Muslim majority countries

have won Nobel prizes in science however

up until the Mongol siege of Bach taught

in 1258 Islamic science was at the most

advanced in the world in comparison with

the past the modern disparity is

staggering thus to understand the

present-day lack of scientific

accomplishments we must explore the past

in this installment of a new series we

will go over the rise and decline of

Islamic attitudes towards science my

name is Shivan and welcome to Caspian

report have you want to support more

original content like this visit

patreon.com slash Caspian report for

more information in pre-islamic times

merchants from Africa Asia and Europe

traded along ancient routes and

exchanged goods for coins materials and

other products the most valuable

commodity was silk it was so precious

that it was often used as an exchange

currency silk was a luxurious item that

universally represented power and wealth

it was so valuable that the world's

largest trading route was named after it

the Romans and Persians had explored the

Silk Road and constructed the required

infrastructure to support and facilitate

the incoming trade however since both

sides had been preoccupied with war and

conflict the full potential of the Silk

Road never materialized in the 8th

century of the Abbasid dynasty overthrew

the Umayyad nobility and inherited the

Roman and Persian empires just like that

the Arabs came in possession of an

empire that stretched from the Iberian

Peninsula to the fringes of China and

India of the absence of old political

barriers enabled commodities and ideas

of former civilizations to spread and

interact with each other as caravans

traveled along the Silk Road

they exchanged Egyptian glass persian

saffron powder Turkoman stallions tamil

steel chinese lacquerware

and porcelains and much more at the

heart of the Silk Road was the Abbasid

Empire meaning if the Romans wanted to

import Gujarati sandalwood or Nubian

slaves they had to travel along the

Abbasid checkpoints to cope with the

surge in commerce the abbasids founded

new centers of trade cities along the

Silk Road flourished such as bulk

Samarkand Tabriz and more if is in this

era of history that the lavishly wealthy

and diverse city of Merve became known

as the mother of earth

meanwhile its competitor array nowadays

located within Tehran was referred to as

the gate of Commerce yet perhaps the

city that stood out most was bartered

elminster

the second halluf of the Abbasid Empire

had built the city at the site where the

Tigris and Euphrates rivers were at

their narrowest crossings it was such a

success that the halluf proclaimed

Baghdad as his capital instead of

Damascus on that account the new capital

grew into a metropolitan center with

parks bath houses bazaars mosques

schools courts forums and even hospitals

public life and the city was surging by

the end of the 10th century but that

would become the largest city on earth

as cities flourished in private

enterprises a hunger for knowledge fine

craftsmanship and exotic foods surged

throughout the Abbasid realm it was one

of the earliest forms of globalization

people wanted to wear new clothes taste

different foods and display exotic items

one of these exotic commodities was

Chinese paper which proved to be

exceedingly useful for the vast Abbasid

Imperial bureaucracy so the roller set

up paper mills in cities such as Basra

Alexandria and puffed out and over time

writing materials became more affordable

and more available subsequently the

availability of paper

encouraged record-keeping banking poetry

and even scholarship as literacy

increased and books became a common item

it was no longer required to conduct

manual labor to ensure a livelihood

scholars could make a wealthy living by

writing new ideas and books as a result

an intellectual revolution ignited and

the market for information surged since

the Abbasids had started out as a

Persian nationalist revolt the dynasty

shared many of the sassanids traditions

including maintaining a vast imperial

library

thus the availability of cheap paper

contributed to the expansion of the

Imperial library of al-rasheed the

highly employed scholars to translate

greek chinese Sanskrit and Persian works

in the field of physics chemistry

mathematics astronomy philosophy

geography and other faculties into

Arabic advances in technology helped to

solve everyday problems for instance the

study of astronomy and trigonometry

helped to determine the direction to

Mecca the time for prayer etc

technological process also improved

engineering techniques and even sparked

an agrarian revolution as scholars

worked tirelessly to translate every

available scientific text the Abbasids

without even realizing it had

successfully globalized knowledge

eventually this massive undertaking

would become known as the translation

movement and it established Arabic as a

scientific language of antiquity as the

movement gained momentum the Abbasid

Empire which was already known as a

military economic and cultural

powerhouse also became an intellectual

haven to death and ambitious scholars

who sought peace and stability for their

research emigrated to the Islamic world

one such family was the Burma kids

dynasty from bulk the household of

Buddhist origins became known for their

patronage of physicians and the study of

medicine

the dynasty was the book to show a

Christian family of surgeons who helped

translate these arrests Rhian and

sassanid studies either way from Italy

and Scandinavia to China and India and

he wanted to pursue science the Abbasid

Empire was the place to be the quest for

scientific achievements accelerated

during the reign of elmab moon the

seventh opposite ruler he converted back

dad's Imperial library into the House of

Wisdom and thus established a formal

institution of learning he also placed

the physician even a shark in charge of

the translation of foreign scripts even

a shark was such an accomplished

translator of Greek knowledge that he is

often referred to as the shape of

translators in any case the House of

Wisdom was the most ambitious

educational undertaking since the

foundation of the Library of Alexandria

it was the Silicon Valley of the

Abbasids and it assured in the Islamic

Golden Age as time passed more

state-funded centers of learning or

mattresses were established in the realm

cities such as Nishapur Bukhara and

kabul became centers of learning with

the right people in charge the

accumulation of knowledge flourished

some of the great minds of this era

include al-khwarizmi who combined the

works of Greek and Indian scholars and

made enormous contributions to the

algebraic method and eben higham who

made his renowned accomplishments to

alchemy and strongly influenced the

course of European chemistry this was

also the era of al tabari who wrote the

historical chronicle of the history of

prophets and kings which serves as a

crucial source for the history of the

Middle East other important figures from

this era include the Banu Musa brothers

who made mechanical devices and worked

on the foundation of geometry woman 2

searched in the sciences take el Fifi el

astrology loopner of Cordoba and Alma

Holly who all exceeded in mathematics in

any case as the abbe

came in contact with Greek philosophy

Indian numeral system Persian rule of

law and other Chinese and Roman studies

the scholars became genuine students of

Socrates Aristotle Plato Ptolemy

Brahmagupta Sushruta and others it

wasn't long before Persian and Arab

scholars adapted foreign ideas and

improved on those concepts one example

was the assimilation of Neoplatonic

philosophy and Aristotelian metaphysics

in the Islamic context by L King Don who

is unanimously hailed as the father of

Arabic philosophy the translation

movement is mostly lost in the modern

educational curriculum but it's an

acknowledgment that the receptiveness of

the Muslim rulers and scholars to

foreign ideas was the primary catalyst

that paved the way for the Islamic

Golden Age as the assimilation of

knowledge ignited a trend towards

Aristotelian ISM and Neoplatonism a new

collective of scholars emerged its

students who were known as the Muta's

alights and their doctrine was mostly

based on ancient Greek philosophy but

adjusted within Islamic context a prime

contention of the mutas ela belief was

that the metaphysical world which

includes objects and properties space

and time cause-and-effect could be used

to understand not just the physical

world but also the nature of God and

creation in other words its members were

united in their conviction that it was

necessary to give a rationally coherent

account of Islamic beliefs what's more

is that the group did not necessarily

use the Quran and the Sunnah as the only

sources of understanding they believed

that human existence was not

predetermined and that humankind made

decisions independently of God's will as

such the mutas alights believed in

absolute free will nowadays it is

difficult to imagine this because the

modern situation differs so greatly from

the past however at the time

rationale with Tazz ilysm was the

universal doctrine of the Muslim

communities in fact the muta Zilla Creed

was so appreciated that the opposite

rulers formally enforced it but it is

easy to get away with the glory of the

past the truth is the Islamic Golden Age

was a time of prosperity and growing

divisions rebellions broke out in Persia

and North Africa it was a time in which

minorities such as Christians Jews and

Shia Muslims would treat it with

tolerance and at times repressed it was

an era in which the global economy

prospered due to the slave trade as well

as the Silk Road at the time human

trafficking was endorsed by every

civilization on earth the Turks were a

group of people that were particularly

in demand in the slave markets

originally from Central Asia the Turkish

people were valued for their

intelligence and bravery in sequence

with their archery and horsemanship

traditions it made them superb soldiers

and diplomats for their valuable skills

the Turks were enslaved transported to

the Middle East and placed in the Royal

Courts and armies of the Abbasid Empire

while the scholars were busy

assimilating knowledge Turkish

mercenaries often referred to as Mamluks

had climbed the ranks of the Abbasid

army by the 9th century some Turkish

Mamluks commanded entire armies while

others were entrusted bodyguards for

local rulers and dynasties it would not

take long for the Turks to realize that

they could just seize power for

themselves in the year 833 Holly fell

mamnoon the seventh Abbasid ruler saw an

opportunity to acquire religious

authority at the expense of the ulama

scholars he formally institutionalized

the Methuselah doctrine and sought to

eradicate other theological schools as

such the halav enforced an inquisition

known as the meghna scholars who were

employed in state-funded schools and

mattresses were forced to profess their

allegiance to meet easily

and submit to the curricula of

Neoplatonic philosophy and Aristotelian

metaphysics those who refused were

punished by lashing imprisonment or

beheading Elma Blum passed away in the

same year as he decreed the Inquisition

but his policy was continued through his

immediate successors most intellectuals

submitted through the official muta sila

Creed however a scholar named eben

humble from bakit refused to recognize

the rationalist doctrine he argued that

the Quran was eternal and that it was

not opened for interpretation or

innovation hence the scholar and his

followers rejected freewill metaphysics

rationalism and subscribed to the

literal interpretation of the Quran eben

humbles theological view could not be

more different than the mentally light

scholars who argued that the

anthropomorphic verses in the Quran

which mentioned the hands eyes and face

of God indicate that the holy book

should not be interpreted literally

building on that the Mumtaz alights

stressed that the Quran was open to

rational interpretation and innovation

in any case for his defiance eben humble

was imprisoned tortured and even

banished from bhakta for over a decade

the Abbasid rulers tried to break the

scholar but in their pursuit The Hollies

had inadvertently made even humble a

folk hero over time the Inquisition

became unpopular with the people and in

some cases riots erupted in the streets

of Baghdad in support of IBN hanbal

under these circumstances in 847

al-mutawakkil ascended to the throne as

the tenth Abbasid ruler at the age of 26

he reigned over the largest empire in

the world yet his authority was in

question and he needed to swiftly

restore his legitimacy thereupon

al-mutawakkil enforced a populous

decision the halluf ended the

inquisition and effectively endorsed the

literal Creed of eben humble in the end

the defiant scholar had outlived three

Hollies

as he was hailed a champion of his

EBIT humble founded his own institution

of theology that bore his name this had

a profound impact on the course of

Islamic civilization for one religious

authority became an exclusive purview of

the ulama scholars and the ha'la'tha

role was reduced to political authority

ii eben humbles defiance reduced the

credibility of the Methuselah as such in

the following decades a backlash against

Muta's ilysm spread across the Abbasid

realm and third the end of the

inquisition facilitated the formation of

more orthodox theological movements many

of which are still active for instance

at the present the Safa is school is

predominant in East Africa and Southeast

Asia while the Maliki school holds an

influence in Africa's Maghreb and Sahil

region meanwhile the Hanafi curricula

prevails in the former Ottoman

territories and Central Asia as for the

school of eben humble in the 18th

century it experienced a reformation in

the Wahhabi Salafi movement and

therefore its influence is limited but

predominant in Saudi Arabia

anyway al-mutawakkil who ended the

Inquisition appointed his oldest son as

his heir however over the years the

highly shifted his favour to his second

son this rivalry extended into the

political sphere as well the eldest son

al mutasa was favored by Turkish slave

soldiers who at the backdrop of the

scientific progress had turned from

slaves to warriors to entrusted advisors

and military commanders meanwhile the

youngest son al mutas was backed by the

traditional Abbasid elites al mutasarrif

erred that his father was going to move

against him so he decided to strike

first

as the eldest son had his father killed

by a Turkish bodyguard and became the

eleventh halluf but within half a year

the new ruler was poisoned and passed

away so the Turkish military leaders

held a council and selected another

Abhisit relative as the 12th caliph

however plots and treachery were all

and within a few years the new Holley

abdicated power to al-mu'tasim

the youngest son who assumed power at

the age of 19 lasted for nearly three

years until he was betrayed beaten and

left in the scorching heat without food

or water where he died three days later

this era in history is known as the

anarchy at Samara and what followed was

a period of intense instability and

violent successions of holly's as the

Abbasid realm disintegrated from within

turkish Mamluk slaves effectively seized

power and reduced the authority of the

ha'la'tha to a ceremonial role as such a

mid ninth century rebellions popped up

in every corner of the realm in North

Africa a severe drought had resulted in

food shortages as a result riots erupted

in major cities in Tunisia and Egypt the

central government in baghdad was

incapable to provide for the basic needs

of the remote settlements and so local

rulers substituted these central

authority in egypt even to loom a

Turkish mom Luke took over the region's

finances and established a military

force that was loyal to himself he

became virtually independent and founded

the Tlingits dynasty that extended from

Egypt to Syria elsewhere in North Africa

the alibied dynasty had effectively

proclaimed independence and ruled over

Tunisia Libya and Sicily at the same

time in the Caucasus the sachets and the

services took over power while the

Anatolian lands were controlled by the

HMDA myths further east in modern-day in

Central and South Asia the Terkel

Persian dynasties of salmonids and

safaris reigned over the land but it

wasn't just the remote frontiers of the

empire that detached rebellions even

erupted in the proximity of the capital

for instance in Basra these ng people

who were East African slaves transported

to the Middle East revolted against

their Arab overlords at least half a

million people lost their lives and it

was one of the bloodiest rebellions in

history in the same era a small group of

radical Shiites

as the karma Tian's and sometimes called

the Bolsheviks of Islam sacked the holy

city of Mecca and looted the sacred

black stone from the Kaaba elsewhere in

the realm the radical anarchist hwacha

movement which had been responsible for

the Islamic Civil War two centuries

earlier rejuvenated their campaign to

overthrow the Hollis unrest rebellions

and revolutions were everywhere within a

short span of time the effect of control

of the halluf was reduced to the

proximity of bathtub however the decay

of the abbasids

did not hinder the intellectual process

since education and art had become a

fabric of Islam many of the powerful

regional dynasties continued their

patronage for scholars as a result

brilliant intellectuals emerged all over

the Islamic world one of the most

comprehensive thinkers was Al Farabi

who made enormous contributions to

physics chemistry mathematics and

psychology he also excelled in

philosophy ethics and music for his wide

range of accomplishments Al Farabi

is known as the second master after

Aristotle another brilliant mind was al

Hightown who wrote extensively about

astronomy mathematics optics and visual

perception he established the modern

scientific method and thereby became the

first legitimate scientist in history

the golden age also saw advances in

medicine thanks to eben Cena whose work

remained in use for the following six

centuries yet many of the great minds of

the Islamic Golden Age were also fierce

critics of the literal interpretation of

the Quran for instance al biruni who

calculated that the earth revolved

around the Sun and rotated on its axis

challenged the literal Creed of eben

humbled by insisting that it was

essential to question everything from

religion to philosophy the irrational

position was shared by al-razi who was a

scholar of da Vinci's magnitude and once

argued that Islam with our reason had no

value then there was Higham one of the

most influential thinkers of the Middle

Ages he was a fierce page

of humanism and expressed secular ideas

in opposition to the design of Sharia

law another leading scholar was even

ruched who advocated for the

emancipation of women and stressed that

matters of belief should be decided only

on the basis of reason and evidence it

was clear that Timothy lights were

fighting back against Orthodox theology

however the political circumstances were

not in their favor despite their best

efforts within a century the great minds

of the Islamic Golden Age would end up

as dissidents in the tenth century a

myth as alight scholar by the name of Al

ashari had a major disagreement with his

teacher he left the group and

capitalized on the popular discontent

against Amita Sela which had been

steadily gaining ground

since eben Campbell's Inquisition in the

following years a Lashari became one of

the most distinguished opponents of the

meetha cheela he used the philosophical

methods he had learned and gathered a

following of distinguished former with

desi lights the group which became known

as the ashari combined the

jurisprudential arguments of eben humble

and the theological traits of the

Methuselah

as such the ashati believed in

rationalism and the open interpretation

of the Quran however the group gave

precedence to a predestination and

argued that reason was subservient to

revelation meaning rational thought and

freewill could be applied as long as it

did not conflict with the sacred texts

this was at odds with the meta Zilla who

believed in absolute rationalism and

free will over the course of the 10th

century with desi lights asha rights and

other theological schools debated and

explored the existence of the universe

hundreds of scientific works were

written as there were many lingering

questions on how to interpret new

ethical inquiries such as the meaning of

Revelation and humankind's

responsibility as the rival schools of

theology debated the sciences they often

found themselves on opposite

and accused one another as irrational

and honest Lamech the attempts to

grapple complex scientific questions is

at the heart of the declining attitudes

towards science in Muslim societies one

of the most remarkable discoveries of

the meetha cheela concerned the smallest

matter the atom in earlier centuries

Greek Persian and Indian scholars had

explored the world of atoms as well but

it was the mid tez alights who had

successfully combined all three sources

and formulated their findings yet what

was one of their greatest achievements

would turn out to be their greatest

point of division as theological schools

explored the atomic world it ignited a

philosophical firestorm and the mid tez

alights argued that atomic substances

possessed properties and have the

capacity to affect other properties this

reasoning supported the freewill

doctrine and emphasized that humankind

created its own actions independently of

God's will the Asha rights on the other

hand supported the concept of atoms as

well but since they insisted that reason

was subservient to Revelation the group

took a different view at the core of the

ashari doctrine was the theory of

occasional ism which denies natural

causality the ashari stressed that as

soon as an atomic accident was created

it immediately cease to exist if there

was no continuity between one moment in

time and another for instance the

shattering of a window and the skin

color of a person was determined by

God's continuous recreation of atoms at

each instance in time the Asha rights

argued that God determined the outcome

of every single atom and that human

existence was a series of events each

willed by God

essentially the group suggested that

cause and effect as well as freewill

were illusions because the existence of

humankind was predestined such

philosophic reasoning may seem strange

now but at the time the Muslim scholars

were the first explorers of the atomic

world the concept of occasional ism

became the fundamental building block

that led the asha rights to deny the

comprehensibility of the natural world

it also provided the group with a basis

for what was their belief in

predestination it is not difficult to

imagine how such a mindset in the span

of centuries could influence the

attitudes towards science at the

backdrop of the theological debates the

realm of the abbasids underwent a period

of disintegration powerful dynasties

rose up in arms throughout the empire

meanwhile the ruling dynasty turned

against itself as the apposite relatives

openly challenged the seat of power as

rough as this sounds it was about to get

far worse for the Abbasids in the mid

10th century Egypt underwent an unusual

heat and drought the crops had failed

and famine spread through the cities

which incited riots an estimated 600,000

people starved to death in Tunisia a

Shia Muslim dynasty known as the

Fatimids took matters into their own

hands and invaded Egypt where they

proclaimed a new holliford as such in

the 10th century the Islamic world was

decentralized along feudal lines which

included dozens of separatist regions

autonomous provinces

influential dynasties and powerful

Turkish Mamluk mercenaries however the

rise of the Fatimid Caliphate

established a third political stronghold

in the Islamic world the first to be in

Cordoba and batad of the Fatimid dynasty

sought to secure its future and sealed

an alliance with Byzantium to that end

trade between the two flourished first

at Alexandria and Constantinople became

economic powerhouses the tides of

fortune were now reversed as the Abbasid

Empire crumbled from within the

Byzantines attacked and gradually

recovered their terror

therese crete and cyprus were taken

first followed by the city of Antioch

and Odessa the revival of Constantinople

dramatically altered the financial

conditions the wealth trade and taxes

that once flooded the Treasury of

bar-top now flew to the Byzantine

capital along with the revival of

Byzantium Western Europe was recovering

from the dark ages as well as wealth and

stability slowly returned to the

European continent people had taken a

renewed interest in the life of Christ

as such journeys to Jerusalem were being

organized and within a century these

Christian pilgrimages would lead to the

Crusades all in all the circumstances

were promising for Western Europe the

Byzantines and the Fatimids

for the Abbasids however the situation

was desperate of the realm of the Holly

had been reduced to the proximity of

pocket in fact in 1945 the abbasids had

even lost their capital to the poets

which was a Shia Muslim dynasty of

Persian origin under this state of

affairs at the turn of the 10th and 11th

centuries al-qadir the 25th a leaf of

the opposite Empire condemned critical

thought and ordered his subjects to

distance themselves from the

philosophers and free thinkers of the

Methuselah as such Alcatel outlawed

amita's ela creed and endorsed the

theology of al-ashari as well as the

jurisprudence of even humble it's not

certain what prompted al-qadir to

condemn critical thought since Islamic

teaching such as HD heart actually

requires Muslims to self-reflect and

raise questions

however present-day historians argue

that it was based on the political

situation the Caliph may have believed

that the ashari predestination would

stabilize the realm and make the common

folk more content with the in Justices

famines and corrupt authorities since

these were supposedly part

of God's plan whereas the Methuselah

freewill incited critical thought which

inspired rebellions and political unrest

to enforce his policy al-qadir passed

the law of apostasy prior to this there

were legal institutions that

circumvented harsh punishment as such

the Abbasid Empire had been relatively

secular however the new decree made it

easier to condemn and punish dissidents

skeptics and minorities on account of

the law of apostasy Muslim rulers

persecuted opposition forces by altering

the curricula of the state regulated

madrassas in this context the Methuselah

teachings gradually disappeared from the

educational system while the asha

resources became the basis of mainstream

sunni islam since the remnant Methuselah

scholars could not formally disclose

their beliefs

most of them sought refuge in opposition

movements such as the Shiites in Persia

there the theology of the Methuselah

would influence the jafari which was and

still is the jurisprudential school of

Shia Islam in any case caliph al Qaeda's

reign lasted for 40 years and despite

his efforts the opposite realm continued

to decline in the lands of horizon-- in

parts of modern-day Iran Afghanistan and

Pakistan a new contender was about to

advance on the Islamic world the Seljuk

Turks were a highly militarized society

and hailed from the rugged lands of

Central Asia if their warriors were

accustomed to fight numerically superior

opponents and their skills of archery

and horsemanship were unmatched Turkish

nations such as the Seljuks and bull

gars were introduced to Islam by Muslim

missionaries who had blended pagan

rituals with Islamic traditions which

brought a sense of mysticism to Islam

but this also made the mindset of the

Seljuk Turks distinctly different from

the Persian Arab and even Turkish

mom Luke populations by the year 1040

the Seljuk roller Torill assembled an

army over to the old dynasties and

conquered the persian domain sensing an

opportunity the Abbasids invited to

grill to recapture bakit from the poets

as such a decade later in 1055 the

Seljuks entered baka since the Seljuks

were new to islam their rulers didn't

really care about the ashari and

Methuselah debates over theology and

jurisprudence so when to grill took upon

himself the title of Sultan and

subjugated the hadith he allowed the

Abbasids to decide over matters of faith

in addition to this by conquering bakit

the Turks have become the new champions

of Islam and so had to answer the call

to war the Challenger being the

Byzantine Empire in just a few decades

the conflict between the Seljuk and

Byzantine empires would lay the

groundwork for the Crusades and at the

backdrop of these events the scientific

community of the Methuselah

would be completely wiped out in the mid

11th century sultan al porcelain

ascended to the throne of the seljuq

empire under his leadership the seljuq

holdings significantly expanded

throughout the area but inevitably

arsalan encountered Romano's of the

Emperor of the Byzantine Empire in the

year 1071 the two powers locked horns

over the faith of the Middle East

Romano's assembled an army and marched

to meet the Turks but in an area called

Man seeketh he was caught by surprise

our Salons forces delivered the

Byzantines and irreversible defeat not

only had the Turks crushed an army that

was at least twice their size but the

Byzantine ruler the most powerful man in

the Christian world was captured alive

arsalan placed his foot on Roman asses

neck and humiliated him then he raised

the Romano's from the ground and treated

him like a guest eventually after eight

days the Seljuk ruler said his kin

part free at this point in history

illustrates how well our slum grasp are

the political dynamics by releasing

Romano's the Emperor was humiliated in

Constantinople his authority waned and

it triggered a series of civil wars

within the Byzantine realm as a result

most of Anatolia came under Turkish

control and in the course of centuries

the population assimilated into the

Turkish identity what's more is that our

salaam authorized his generals or at

abase to carve their own principalities

throughout the empire

despite his military prowess our slums

rain came to an abrupt end when he was

assassinated his death triggered a

succession crisis and the Seljuk houses

focused in words it is in this period

that the Turkish uh tibay principalities

became virtually independent many of

these principalities started exercising

their sovereign T's by attacking one

another as well as by harassing

Christian pilgrims

at the backdrop of the Seljuk crisis

most of the domestic affairs were left

to the local political advisors in the

case of the deceased

arsalan the closest advisor was Nizam

al-maliki

a brilliant figure who wrote the see

Azad nama or the book of the government

which is comparable to the Prince by

Machiavelli the Seljuk advisor backed by

regional dynasties nobility's and houses

established the nizamiah guild which

were educational institutions that were

comparable with european universities

the nizamiah represented the finest

quality of education in the Islamic

world and the most splendid Academy was

the L nizamiah of Bach Todd al-maliki

was later assassinated by a member of

the assassins which was a secretive

group that adhered through the Ismaili

branch of Shia Islam and used stealth

infiltration and political

assassinations to wage an asymmetric war

against the Sunni Muslim rulers for the

assassins that

of Alma Luke marked the first of many

political assassinations however before

the advisor perished he appointed the

distinguished a Sharif scholar

al-ghazali to supervise the Academy in

batad few could imagine that in time

this scholar would change the

fundamental beliefs of Islamic

civilization yet while al khazzani was

preoccupied with giving lectures another

major event was about to disrupt the

Middle Eastern affairs by the year 1095

the Byzantines saw an opportunity in the

Seljuk succession crisis if the new

emperor alexios wanted to strike at the

Turks but his realm was still in

recovery so instead he appealed to the

West European kingdoms for aid at the

time feudalism in West Europe had

created a disproportionate distribution

of wealth power and knights for pope

urban ii a military expedition to the

holy lands presented an opportunity to

strengthen his authority over the feudal

Kings lords and barons of Western Europe

just as the jihad was a way to unify the

Muslim world so too was the crusade a

way to bring the Christians together and

exert internal force on the outside

world as such in 1095 pope urban ii

during a sermon in Clairemont convinced

the courts of france england and the

holy roman empire to take up arms and

embark on an expedition to jerusalem the

pope promised salvation for the

participants and the sermon sparked a

wave of religious fervour inspired

Knights and Lords took upon the cross as

their coat of arms and later would be

known as the Crusaders however before

the nobles could gather their numbers

peasants and commoners in Europe

assembled their own expedition and

marched towards the Holy Land yet

the careless undertaking of the peasants

army left them ill-prepared for the

journey East during their expedition in

what became known as the people's

crusade the peasants army looted

and pillaged jewish-christian and even

Byzantine settlements who were

supposedly allies by the time that

20,000 strong people's crusade reached

Anatolia they were swiftly crushed by

the local Turkish Nobles the speed at

which the peasants army was defeated

surprised even the local seljuq rulers

who mistakenly believed that the

people's crusade was the primary

fighting force of Europe the next year

news spread that more Christian armies

were coming but the Seljuk

principalities were not impressed that

they expected another army of peasants

and in their complacency made no

preparations as the day of the battle

the Turkish Nobles were stunned to see a

60,000 strong well-trained and

well-equipped army the result was the

defeat of the local seljuqs at the

Battle of darillium

which allowed the Crusaders to march on

a post from Anatolia to the Levant the

Muslim rulers in Damascus and your

Aleppo and muscle prepared to meet the

Crusaders ahead but ended up fighting

one another meanwhile Christian forces

conquered city after city but fighting

in a strange land did not always go as

planned in Mara

a city in Syria a lengthy fight came to

an end when the French contingent broke

the siege as the starving French

Crusaders entered the food stricken City

they resorted to cannibalism and fed on

the dead bodies of people and animals

alike soon rumours of invading

cannibalistic barbarian armies spread

across the region at one point the word

French literally meant cannibal in

Arabic which illustrates how the locals

perceived the Crusaders further south in

Egypt Fatimid officials who rivaled the

Seljuks

and were allied with the Byzantines

believed that the Crusaders represented

Byzantine reinforcements as such while

the Crusaders conquered antio fathom it

rulers moved against Jerusalem and

their control over the city it didn't

dawn on the Fatimids until it was too

late that the Christian forces were not

allies and were not interested in an

alliance at the turn of the century in

the year 1099 the Crusaders arrived at

the gates of Jerusalem and began their

assault eventually roughly a month later

the city walls caved and the Crusaders

burst into Jerusalem fuelled by

religious frenzy they went on a rampage

and massacred soldiers and civilians

alike

none of the city's religious communities

fared well most of the Muslims were

killed straightaway while the Jewish

population had taken refuge in a large

synagogue that was set ablaze even much

of the Christian segments of Jerusalem

was punished and sent into exile because

the Catholic Crusaders saw the Orthodox

population as heretics the shock and

horror of the First Crusade and the

fragmented political landscape of the

Islamic world deeply distressed Muslim

communities across the area people were

in need of divine resolution and to that

end a shoddy scholar al-ghazali stepped

up to the forefront of the debate the

ashari school of theology believed that

reason was subservient to Revelation

while the latter Methuselah group adhere

to absolute rationalism decades earlier

the latter had been banned for political

reasons but pockets of Methuselah

sympathizers still existed all over the

Muslim world al-ghazali believed that

violence could not subdue the rival

school it required a battle of intellect

as such in one of his most acclaimed

works the incoherence of philosophers

al-ghazali attacked scholars of rational

thought and argued that rational

philosophy was incompatible with Islamic

teachings more precisely he classified

science into three categories the first

religious studies included jurisprudence

theology Arabic grammar etc the second

category included traditional faculties

of science such as astronomy

medicine mathematics chemistry and

others and the final category concerned

spiritual and cultural studies such as

astrology as a terrorism and palmistry

al-ghazali rejected the spiritual and

cultural studies and deemed the study of

traditional scientific faculties as

useful as long as it was pursued for

religious purposes

the first category however religious

studies was considered the finest

because it brought people closer to God

although some historians say that

al-ghazali defended reason the truth is

he did so only to the extent that it

could be used as an instrument to

undermine his opponents the width of

al-ghazali's contributions is emphasized

by the fact that many academics consider

him as the single most influential

figure in Islam after the Prophet

Muhammad needless to say al-ghazali's

work sealed the attitudes towards

science in Islamic civilizations of the

political elites and the commonfolk

endorsed al-ghazali as the mujadid which

according to tradition is a person who

appears at desperate times to rejuvenate

Islam to that end the scholar fostered

the ashati believes into the mainstream

culture although al-ghazali emphasized

intellect and denounced violence his

supporters however singled out and

condemned great thinkers such as Al

Farabi

al biruni al Rwanda eben Cielo and even

rushed their studies and properties were

confiscated their teachings were deemed

heresy their achievements were twisted

and their books were burned anyone who

expressed sympathy with Timothy ela was

either imprisoned tortured or banished

centuries earlier

the myth has Allah had lit the flame of

enlightenment and paved the way for a

vibrant and innovative community of

scholars some of the greatest minds in

the world came from this movement but in

the 11th century the meetha cheela

faded away in the obscure pages of

history have that said as the books of

eben Russia were destroyed he

famously stated that ideas have wings no

one can stop their flight and so while

the flame of enlightenment had been

extinguished in the Islamic world

European universities established

faculties that focused on the

translation of Arabic texts which would

help to expedite the scientific findings

during the Renaissance

meanwhile as the ashari Dogma shifted

the mindset of Sunni Muslims knowledge

was seen through the prism of Revelation

and many turned away from philosophy and

the natural sciences this change however

was not abrupt it would take centuries

for the doctrines to sink in but its

process was accelerated by the collapse

of the Silk Road and a new threat

that emerged from the Far East by the

end of the 13th century as the world had

changed the rationalist meetha cheela

had faded away and remnants of their

school had assimilated into the Shia

Muslim Creed

meanwhile the ashari establishment came

to dominate the Sunni Muslim theology in

Iberia the Muslim domains had been

retaken by the Christian forces who

subsequently absorbed the classical and

scientific studies of Plato Aristotle

Euclid as well as the commentaries of

eben Xena Al Farabi eben ruched etc from

the former territories of the Cordoba

Caliphate scientific works filtered into

Western Europe finding their way into

libraries and monasteries across

European cities in fact European

translations of Arabic texts was so

proficient that in the 13th century the

curricula of the universities of Oxford

Paris and Naples included Islamic

Sciences from this practice came

revolutionary thinkers such as Thomas

Aquinas Duns Scotus and others meanwhile

in the Middle East the mighty Seljuk

Empire had been reduced to an empty

shell from the ashes of the seljuqs

rose the cuirass Mayan Empire which had

conquered

parts of Khorasan and Persia liquid ism

dynasty of Turkish Persian tradition

skillfully overthrew regional houses and

consolidated their power throughout the

area at the start of the 13th century

shah mohammed ii ascended to the throne

of the cuirass Mian Empire the shocked

considered himself a military mastermind

and sought to expand eastwards he

conquered the current cities of

Samarkand and Tashkent in modern-day use

Pakistan and subjugated the kingdom's in

Fergana Valley by 1217 shock mohammed ii

had conquered all the lands between the

Persian Gulf and the sectarian river in

modern-day Kazakhstan the kawaras and

Shah had heard rumors that further east

in the corner of Central Asia a new

mysterious ruler had unified the Mongol

tribes his pairs referred to him as the

universal ruler but for the outside

world he was better known as Chinggis

Khan Shah Mohammad the second however

perceived this as an opportunity to

expand further east rumors have it that

Chinggis Khaan commanded vast legions of

disciplined horsemen archers and

soldiers but the rumors also stated that

the Mongols lacked siege equipment which

meant that they could not properly

besiege fortified settlements mohammed

ii designed his plans along these

parameters he would provoke Chinggis

Khaan to invade and once attrition

started to take a toll on the Mongol

armies of equalized means would

counter-attack and conquered the Mongol

homelands mohammed ii belief that he had

set a brilliant trap as such he

deliberately provoked a war and waited

for the Mongol hun to strike first

what mohammed ii didn't know was that

Chinggis Khaan had just completed a

devastating military incursion in china

and had acquired the latest technologies

in siege equipment in fact when the

great car crossed the certain River

about a thousand Chinese engineers

accompanied the Mongol armies at a force

of roughly 150,000 if the Mongol armies

were not particularly large however

their tactics strategies and the

ferocity of their warriors was unlike

anything the world had ever seen for one

they used unique composite bows that

could shoot further and harder than the

bows used by the regional powers what's

more is that the Mongol horses were

smaller faster and sturdier and they

were mounted by a people whose entire

culture centered around horsemanship

for instance in types of war Mongol

warriors would slit a minor vein in the

horse's neck and drained some blood in a

cup which they were trained for

nourishment

so the Mongols could eat and sleep in

the saddle and traveled great distances

in remarkably short time often

surprising their enemies also since the

Mongols had more horses than manpower

they would often confuse their opponents

by mounting dummies on their horses to

give the impression of an overwhelming

horde
at the level of ferocity and unique

tactics in combination with superb

horsemen and bowmen skills and advanced

Chinese siege equipment made the Mongol

armies the most devastating force in the

world

as the cuirass Mayan Empire didn't stand

a chance

once Chinggis Khaan destroyed equalise

Mian armies and fortifications he raised

the occupied territories to the ground

the Great Khan lived up to his

reputation as his armies pillaged towns

and villages and committed acts of mass

murder and atrocities across the Middle

East and Central Asia great cities such

as bahara and bulk and their treasures

of Persian literature and scientific

volumes were destroyed beyond recovery

in Nishapur

and

entire cultures perished as mass murder

rose in the hundreds of thousands in

transoxiana the underground canal works

which was the agricultural lifeline of

southern Central Asia collapsed a

fertile land turned to sand which it

still is within a few years at least a

quarter of the population of Persia and

Khorasan had perished if the armies of

Cinque Assad burnt the fields and crops

and stripped the common folk of their

livelihoods as famine set in millions of

refugees migrated West as they brought

with them apocalyptic stories of a

carnivores species of half-human

half-horse creatures that spread like a

plague across the civilized world none

wanted to confront and test the wrath of

the Mongols when Chinggis Khaan passed

away in the following decades his

successors continued the campaign of

extermination it was a period filled

with fear and terror but at the backdrop

of the destruction halav almoost azim of

the Abbasid Empire held up a remarkably

well the Abbasids had regained control

over bucket and the Holly had assembled

a significant standing army in his

misplaced confidence almoost azim

believed that he could manipulate the

ANU mongol ruler haloo gohan to reassert

Abbasid authority so the Holly sent word

to the Han and invited him to attack his

foes however the exact opposite happened

haloo Gahan marched to Baghdad and

demanded the khalif's complete surrender

in his ultimatum

haloo goo hyung wrote the following the

past is over destroy your ramparts fill

in your moats turn your kingdom over to

your son and come to us if you do not

heed our advice get ready when I lead my

troops in wrath against Baghdad

even if you hide in the sky or in the

earth I shall bring you down I shall not

leave one personal life in your realm

and I shall put your city and country to

the torch despite the warning halav

almoost azim defied Eluga as such in

early february 1258 the siege of baghdad

commenced by the end of the month the

great city had practically ceased to

exist Colleyville most aseem had been

captured alive and was imprisoned after

a few days of starvation and the Holly

asked the hunt for some food so haloo

Gahan sent him a platter with gold when

el most Aseem refused to eat gold

hallo gu said if you can't eat it why

did you hold it why didn't you give it

to your men who were ready to die for

you

hal leuco denti-cal mooshka seemed to

the broken gates of bhakta and said what

good are these walls if there are no men

to defend them following this

interaction the Mongols rolled up the

Holly Finn a carpet and trampled him to

death by horses as for the citizens of

pocket Nobles and common folk alike were

decimated and true to his word haloo

Gahan burnt the city to the ground

mosques palaces and hospitals were

ransacked magnificent libraries schools

and institutions were destroyed millions

of documents parchments books and

testimonials were burned and thrown in

the river by some accounts the river

turned black with ink for days centuries

of accumulated knowledge and records

perished in Oblivion of the fall of

bethought marked a turning point in

history but not because of the sheer

destruction the mongols would eventually

be defeated by the turkish mum looks in

Egypt and the remnant Mongol houses

ended up converting to Islam but in the

same era another major change had

transpired in Europe the iberian

kingdoms developed advanced Carrick's

with deep sea navigable capabilities

which allowed them to sail around the

southern tip of Africa to reach Asia as

European merchants established new

maritime trading routes that bypassed

the loud passages of the Middle East it

said
motion geo-economic transitions that led

to the collapse of the Silk Road but the

decline of the intercontinental Silk

Road was not just an economic shift

trade brought in new information as well

as goods and commodities international

commerce kept the Middle East integrated

and aware of the outside world so the

Silk Roads exchange of communication was

as important as its commercial component

in earlier centuries a thriving global

trade network allowed for the Muslim

societies to adapt and utilize new and

foreign ideas which triggered the

Islamic Golden Age thus as the Silk Road

declined it also removed the conditions

that made the Islamic world a

Metropolitan civilization in the post

Mongol Reconstruction era the decline of

the Silk Road dramatically reshaped the

attitudes of Islamic cultures

open-mindedness towards the outside

world shifted to rejection and Muslim

communities focused extensively inwards

as the Islamic world reinvented itself a

shoddy theology became inseparable from

the mindset of the mainstream population

at the same time state madrassas which

in the past helped to spread the ideals

of rational thought focused exclusively

on religious studies such as grammar the

hadith and Sharia law as was recommended

by the scholar al-ghazali the ashari

concept of occasional ism which denies

the comprehensibility of the physical

world was integrated into the

educational system meanwhile legitimate

scientific studies were excluded from

the curricula the dormancy of the

educational system was a gradual process

by the 14th century Muslim scholars

shifted their focus from innovations to

practical inventions a century later

Europe had replaced the Muslim world as

the center for learning and innovation

the performances of Christianity and

Islam in the scientific fields were now

first major European events such as the

Renaissance the age of discovery the

Reformation and even the age of

enlightenment passed unnoticed in the

Muslim world the open-minded Islamic

culture that had once produced libraries

observatories and cities had now

regressed into a closed world that was

resentful and hostile to innovation

it wasn't until Napoleon's invasion of

Egypt in 1798 that Muslim communities

realized that they were no longer at the

forefront of the world soon questions

were asked about where a wrong turn was

made and amidst the European

colonization of the Middle East the

future looked uncertain and people

idolized the past if his in this period

and that Muslim rulers tried to reverse

the situation by borrowing Western

technology and social political ideas

such as secularism and nationalism

others meanwhile believed that glory

could be gained by returning to the

pristine and pious past the latter

mentality proved unable to cope with

modernity and it is best explained by a

deep sense of nostalgia for the classic

islamic era without properly

understanding the historic developments

that occurred at the time the truth is

that the reasons for the decline of

science in Muslim communities are plenty

but in general they can be attributed to

political instability economic decline

environmental change mass migrations and

the lack of critical thinking

due to the triumphs of Revelation over a

reason as well as factors such as the

Crusaders and the Mongols

the combination of these conditions set

Islamic civilization on a trajectory of

self-destruction just as we explored the

past to search for answers scholars of

the Golden Age analysed their world as

well

historian al masud II in the 9th century

was once asked why science had declined

in the Roman Empire whilst the Islamic

world have thrived he answered ancient

Greeks and Romans had allowed the

sciences to flourish then they adopted

Christianity when they did so they

effaced the science of learning

eliminated its traces and destroyed its

paths science was defeated by faith

thank you for staying with us through

these episodes I truly hope that the

moral of the story is not lost in

animosity science after all is a

continuous product of human

civilizations that by one or two but

nearly all civilizations so this is

truly something to be cherished also I

want to thank our contributors for

giving us the means to produce original

content like this if you want to be part

of our crowdfunding network or if you

are searching for additional perks visit

patreon.com slash caspian purport in any

case thank you for your patience and

sajo

[Music]