Experimental Methods by Muslims

Observation and experiment are the two sources of scientific
knowledge.Aristotlewas the father of the Greek sciences, and has made
a lasting contribution to physics, astronomy, biology, meteorology and
other sciences. The Greek method of acquiring scientific knowledge was
mainly speculative, hence science as such could make little headway
during the time of the Greeks.
The Arabs who were more realistic and practical in their
approachadopted the experimental methodto harness scientific
knowledge. Observation and experiment formed the vehicle of their
scientific pursuits, hence they gave a new outlook to science of which
the world had been totally unaware. Their achievements in the field of
experimental science added agolden chapterto the annals of scientific
knowledge and opened a new vista for the growth of modern sciences.
Al-Ghazaliwas the follower of Aristotle in logic, but among
Muslims,Ishraqi and Ibn-iTaimiyyawere first to undertake the
systematic refutation of Greek logic.Abu Bakr Razicriticized
Aristotle's first figure and followed the inductive spirit which was
reformulated by John Stuart Mill.Ibn-i-Hazmin his well known work
Scope of Logic lays stress on sense perception as a source of
knowledge andIbn-i-Taimiyyain his Refutation of Logic proves beyond
doubt that induction is the only sure form of argument, which
ultimately gave birth to the method of observation and experiment.
It isabsolutely wrongto assume that experimental method wasformulated
in Europe. Roger Bacon, who, in the west is known as the originator of
experimental method in Europe, had himself received his training from
the pupils of Spanish Moors, and hadlearnt everything from
Muslimsources.
The influence ofIbn Haithamon Roger Bacon is clearly visible in his
works.Europe was very slowto recognize the Islamic origin of her much
advertised scientific (experimental) method. Writing in the Making of
Humanity, Briffault admits,
"It was under their successors at the Oxford School that Roger Bacon
learned Arabic and Arabic science. Neither Roger Bacon nor his later
namesake has any title to be credited with having introduced the
experimental method. Roger Bacon was no more than one of the apostles
of Muslim science and method to Christian Europe; and he never wearied
of declaring that the knowledge of Arabic and Arabic science was for
his contemporaries the only way to true knowledge. Discussions as to
who was the originator of the experimental method......are part of the
colossal misrepresentation of the origins of European civilization.
Theexperimental method of Arabswas by Bacon's time widespread and
eagerly cultivated throughout Europe. Science is the most momentous
contribution of Arab civilization to the modern world, but its fruits
were slow in ripening. Not until long after Moorish culture had sunk
back into darkness did the giant to which it had given birth, rise in
his might. It was not science only which brought Europe back to life.
Other and manifoldinfluences from the civilization of
Islamcommunicated its first glow to European life.
For although there is not a single aspect of European growth in which
the decisive influence of Islamic culture is not traceable, nowhere is
it so clear and momentous as in the genesis of that power which
constitutes the permanent distinctive force of the modern world, and
the supreme source of its victory-natural science and the scientific
spirit, The debt of our science to that of the Arabs does not consist
in startling discoveries or revolutionary theories; science owes a
great deal more to Arab culture, it owes its existence.
The ancient world was, as we saw, pre-scientific. The astronomy and
mathematics of Greeks were a foreign importation never thoroughly
acclimatized in Greek culture. The Greeks systematized, generalized
and theorized, but the patient ways of investigations, the
accumulation of positive knowledge, the minute methods of science,
detailed and prolonged observation and experimental enquiry were
altogether alien to the Greek temperament.
Only inHellenistic Alexandriawas any approach to scientific work
conducted in the ancient classical world. That spirit and those
methods were introduced into the European world by the Arabs."
In his outstanding workThe Reconstruction of Religious Thought in
Islam,Dr. M. Iqbal, the poet of Islam writes, "The first important
point to note about the spirit of Muslim culture then is that for
purposes of knowledge, it fixes its gaze on the concrete, the finite.
It is further clear that thebirth of the method of observationand
experiment in Islam was due not to a compromise with Greek thought but
to prolonged intellectual warfare with it. In fact the influence of
Greeks who, as Briffault says, were interested chiefly in theory, not
in fact, tended rather to obscure the Muslim's vision of the Quran,
and for at least two centuries kept the practical Arab temperament
from asserting itself and coming to its own."
Thus the experimental method introduced by the Arabs was responsible
for the rapid advancement of science during the mediaeval times.