Ibn Kaldun

Episode 21 – Did Intellectual Inquiry Collapse Following the Collapse of Baghdad?

Islamic Golden Age (2017)

By Eamon Gearon

Film Review

Most of the information about the state of intellectual pursuit in the collapsed Abassid caliphate comes from Islamic historian, philosopher and father of sociology Ibn Kaldun (1332-1406 AD) – author of The Rise and Fall of Empire – and explorer/historian Ibn Battuta (1304-1368 AD – see The Islamic Marco Polo).

Ibn Battuta, who began his travels in 1325, visited and reported on all the major cities of the former Abassid caliphate. He began his journey in North Africa – visiting Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli (which were all independent kingdoms following the collapse of the Almohad empire). From there he progressed to the Ilkhanate, now under Mongol rule, consisting of the modern countries of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Georgia and Azerbaijan. He then journeyed to the Levant, Mesopotamia and the Arabian peninsular.

In 1330, the Black Death killed the Mongol ruler of the Ilkhanate and his sons, and the Mongols, Turks and Persians in the region established a host of petty states. When Ibn Batutu returned west in 1347, he was astonished at the Ilkhanate’s collapse because he believed the Mongols invincible.

According to Gearon, the high mortality rate from the plague played a much bigger role than the fall of Baghdad in the decline of intellectual inquiry.

The 13th century also saw the spread of gunpowder to the Middle East and Europe (via the Mongols and the writings of the Islamic chemist Mamluk and proto-engineer Hasan al Ranmah).

The Ottoman empire, founded in Turkey in 1299 AD, would be the first power outside China to adopt the use of gunpowder in a conquering spree.

Intellectual progress continued in regions the Mongols failed to conquer.

Examples of important post-1258 Islamic scholars include

• Ibn al-Nafis (1213-1288 AD) – born in Syria and worked in medical science in Cairo. He was the first investigator  to describe pulmonary circulation.
• Ibn bin Tuta – published Travels of Ibn bin Tuta in 1256 AD.
• Ibn al Shattir (1304-1375 AD) – astronomer and mathematician born in Syria, published The Final Question Concerning th3 Rectification of Principles correcting Ptolemy’s calculations of the distance from the Earth to the sun and moon.
• Mansur ibn Ileas – born 1350 AD in Shiraz Persia. Anatomist and physician. Author of Manur’s Anatomy, used widely in medieval European medical schools.
• Uleg Beg – Persian sultan and grandson of Tamerlane. Built observatories in the 1420s and identified 994 stars in The Sultan’s Star Chest.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/5756987/5757035