Medieval Medicine and the Sciences of the Middle Ages

The Early Middle Ages were a dark period for Western Europe. While Europe was slowly recovering from invasions and wars, the most significant scientific progress was taking place primarily in the Indian and Arab-Muslim civilizations. Initially inspired by Greek thinkers, medieval science gradually began to break away from Aristotelian philosophy, paving the way for the modern scientific method.

Indian Scholars

In the 7th century, Brahmagupta (598–670) headed the astronomical observatory in the holy city of Ujjain, a major center of mathematical research. He is best known for formalizing the concept of zero, defining it as the result of subtracting a number by itself, thereby giving it a proper place in mathematical calculations.

He developed algebra by solving linear equations (a·x + b = 0) and worked on quadratic equations (a·x² + b·x + c = 0). His revolutionary ideas included affirming that the Earth is round — a notion that seemed absurd to his contemporaries — and that objects are attracted toward its center. This was a concept foreshadowing the notion of gravity, long before Newton.

Later, Indian mathematicians further developed the concept of infinity and solved more complex equations, laying the foundations of modern algebra.
Their work directly influenced Arab-Muslim scholars.

The Golden Age of Arab-Muslim Sciences

The rapid expansion of the Muslim empire brought the Arabs into contact with various civilizations: Greek and Byzantine to the West, Persian in the center, and Indian to the East. Military conquests, religious exchanges, and thriving trade routes enabled a massive circulation of knowledge.

By the 9th century, Baghdad had become the intellectual capital of the Muslim world. The Abbasid caliphs founded the famous House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikma), a true center of translation and research where scholars of all cultures and faiths worked together. There, numerous Greek and Persian texts were translated into Arabic, then commented on, improved, and widely disseminated.
The House of Wisdom became a key institution and a symbol of the golden age of Arab science.

Arab-Muslim scholars brilliantly advanced mathematics (algebra, trigonometry, number theory, sequences and series, ...), astronomy, medicine, optics, chemistry, and engineering. Agricultural yields improved thanks to advances in hydraulics. They described celestial movements, experimented with new chemical compounds, and revolutionized optics by introducing experimentation and mathematical modeling. Their expertise also extended to pharmacology, distillation, and botany, with knowledge spreading across all fields.
The introduction of experimental methods and logical reasoning laid the groundwork for the future European scientific revolution.

Muslim hospitals emerged very early on. They treated not only physical illnesses but also mental health conditions, with a more humane and scientific approach than what was practiced in Europe at the same time.

Optics was profoundly transformed by scholars like Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), who demonstrated that light enters the eye — and not the other way around, as Ptolemy believed. His experiments directly influenced European scientists such as Kepler and Newton centuries later.

Some Great Names

Al-Khwarizmi (9th c.): Founder of algebra, his name gave rise to the word "algorithm".
Banu Musa (9th c.): Engineers and astronomers who challenged Aristotle and unified the laws of celestial and terrestrial physics.
Avicenna (Ibn Sina) (10th–11th c.): Persian philosopher and physician, author of the Canon of Medicine, a major reference in Europe and the Middle East until the 17th century.
Averroes (Ibn Rushd) (12th c.): Andalusian philosopher, emphasized observation and experimentation in medicine.
Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) (10th–11th c.): Father of modern optics and pioneer of the experimental method.

Back to the West: Rediscovery of Knowledge

From the 12th century onward, Western Europe began rediscovering ancient Greek and Arab knowledge through translations, particularly in Spain (Toledo) and Sicily. Universities began to emerge (Bologna, Paris, Oxford), becoming hubs for the dissemination of knowledge.

Scholars such as Roger Bacon (13th century), an English Franciscan friar, advocated for the use of experimentation and mathematics in scientific research. He is sometimes considered a forerunner of the modern scientific method.

This intellectual transition paved the way for the Renaissance, where the heritage of Indian, Arab, and Greek civilizations merged to give birth to modern European science.