President Obama told NASA administrator Bolden that one of his three top priorities was to help the Muslim world feel good about their contribution to science, mathematics and engineering. [list corrected]
SF Examiner
Oh, the NASA administrator must have nothing to do. But... what contribution?
Bernard Lewis wrote a book about Islam -
What Went Wrong?: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East
In it he recounts how the Muslims were sure that their society was superior to all others. But they started losing. Dropping back in music and government didn't bother them. Dropping far behind in science was no big deal. But when they started losing battles that was different. It caught their attention.
Back to science. Islamic scientists were at the forefront 1,000 years ago. But then they stopped. I guess MGen. Bolden should lead the investigation into why they stopped their science inquiries.
NRO - based on Lewis:
In the 16th century, astronomer Taqī al-Dīn built one of the world’s great observatories in Istanbul. It rivaled that of the pioneering Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe — while it lasted.
“Taqī al-Dīn’s observatory was razed to the ground by a squad of Janissaries, by order of the sultan, on the recommendation of the Chief Mufti,” Bernard Lewis writes in his book What Went Wrong? “This observatory had many predecessors in the lands of Islam; it had no successors until the age of modernization.”
NASA administrator Charles Bolden caused a furor when he revealed that President Obama had directed him “to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with predominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science . . . and math and engineering.”
This shouldn’t be hard to do, so long as Bolden is well versed in accomplishments rising out of the Middle East many centuries ago. It gave us what we know as Arabic numerals (although they originated in India). It gave us algebra and the rudiments of trigonometry. It gave us medical pioneers in the tenth and eleventh centuries. (A significant proportion of these scientists and physicians were Christians and Jews, according to Lewis — a fact Bolden had best keep to himself.)
It’s wonderful to feel good about the work of Ibn Sīnā of Bukhara, who compiled an indispensable medical encyclopedia before his death in 1037, but it implicitly raises the question of what Muslim science has done for us over the last millennium or so.
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