Technology in the Islamic World

THE ISLAMIC WORLD HIST 1301 | History Technology in the Islamic World In the Islamic world, communication over great distances was feasible despite the lack of centralised governmental power because Arabic, the language of the Quran, was used for most intellectual and administrative reasons in addition to religious ones. Most traders sent letters across great distances as part of their merchandise, and scholars were widely dispersed but rarely isolated. As a result, scientists could compare their discoveries, students could learn from mentors and counsellors in distant places, and ulama members could seek advice from people they would never meet. Innovations in science and technology that aided in trade and travel were highly valued in the Islamic world due to their prominence. For example, creating maps was highly appreciated. Geographers produced maps by compiling data about the known world from other people's writings or from their own observations. For instance, the Ottoman admiral and geographer Piri Reis finished mapping the whole world in 1513. He did this by using data from multiple Arab sources, Portuguese explorers in India, and observations made by Christopher Columbus. Regretfully, only around one-third of his map has endured. Among the explorers who provided a plethora of geographical data to Islamic cartographers was Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan who lived in the fourteenth century and is said to have covered almost 73,000 miles in his lifetime. He first travelled to Mecca to do the Hajj, the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, but instead of returning home, he chose to continue his exploration of North and East Arabia. Eventually, he travelled to China, then returned to East Africa and crossed the Sahara to arrive in Mali as a Moroccan king's ambassador. Ibn Battuta penned his journey diaries at the end of his life, which are now regarded as a priceless primary source by historians and were crucial for mapmakers in his day. Pilgrims frequently utilised the hajj tales penned by other travellers as a guide to the places they travelled through. Islamic inventors created tools for trade and transportation in addition to techniques for calculating the qibla, or the direction Muslims must face towards Mecca during prayer, based on location and compass directions. By the ninth century, mathematical computations were being employed instead of the outdated directions ("Mecca is east"). By the fourteenth century, mathematics had improved to the point that Damascus' official timekeeper, Shams al-Din al-Khalili, could calculate the qibla for a variety of sites using sophisticated trigonometry with an accuracy that is seldom surpassed by modern satellite technology. Astronomical measures advanced as a result of these and other attempts to pinpoint a person's location on Earth, as well as the requirement to determine the optimal times for prayer each day based on the sun's path across the sky. During this time, military technology also made significant advancements, particularly in the employment of gunpowder. Gunpowder was first created in China and spread to the Islamic world in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; it is possible that the Mongols brought it there first. By the fifteenth century, the Ottoman Empire's Janissary corps was engaging in combat with weapons like the arquebus, an early long gun. Furthermore, the renowned usage of artillery during the 1453 siege of Constantinople was carried out by the Ottomans. There were other Islamic states that employed and advanced gunpowder weapons besides the Ottoman Empire. The Mughals in India and the Safavids in Iran were renowned for their capacity to provide their troops with weaponry such as the powerful matchlock rifle. The Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires rose to prominence due to the use of gunpowder technology, according to the 1974 theory of historians Marshall G. S. Hodgson and William H. McNeill, who also coined the phrase "gunpowder empires" to refer to these states. Though the term has persisted, the hypothesis is now mainly contested. All of these empires believed that the state was essentially a military power, and that the central government's coordination of political, economic, and cultural resources was necessary to fortify the army and preserve both internal and foreign stability. These three empires also developed and employed new military technology, such as guns and artillery, far faster than their rivals did, thanks to their conception of the state and their capacity to pool resources to finance scientific advancements. They possessed one of the greatest and most stable economies in the world for more than 200 years, and the literature, architecture, and visual arts they supported are today regarded as some of the greatest ever created. Contemporaries in Europe, Africa, and Asia were in awe of, envious of, respectful of, and afraid of the so-called gunpowder empires collectively.