An illustration from the manuscript of the literary masterpiece of Ibn Muqaffa, Kalila wa Dimna, probably done in Herat for the Timurid prince Baysunghur in 1430
Take what the Europeans came to call the "Arab numerals" which replaced the cumbersome Roman numerals. The Arabs call them Hindsa (Indian numerals) giving credit where it is due...
History and legend both
describe the first 400 years of Abbasid rule, roughly from 750 to 1150,
as the Golden Age of Islam. Great military victories, booming
international trade and agriculture leading to all round prosperity and
luxurious living of the era gave rise to fables like
Thousand and One
Nights and prompted historian Khatib to claim that "Baghdad has become
a city with no peer throughout the world". But the real distinction of
the city which earned universal admiration was unrivalled intellectual
activity in all fields: science, mathematics, technology, veterinary
sciences, agronomy and literature including biography, history, and
linguistics.
The royal patronage and
munificence shown by the caliphs attracted academics and scientists of
diverse nationalities, who pursued their studies in an environment free from
religious prejudice and orthodoxy. It is interesting to recall that
the Royal Physician Bakhtishu, a Christian, when invited by Caliph Mansoor to
embrace Islam, retorted that he preferred the company of his fathers, be
they in heaven or hell. Thereafter Mansoor never broached the subject with
him and the Bakhtishu family provided leading physicians and medical teachers
for seven generations.
The general perception
about the scientific achievements of this period is that the Arabs undertook
translation of Greek texts that had not been accessible to academics after
the Byzantine emperor Justinian had closed down the 900 year old
Academy of Plato in 529 and unleashed persecution against the pagan (i.e.
the non-Christian) scientists. This knowledge later travelled to Europe via
Arabs, and Europe came to claim
it to be its own heritage.
While history shows that
translation of Greek works was taken up in the 9th century, the Arabs had embarked upon the translation of Sanskrit texts from
India much before that. According to Tabqatul Umam a delegation from India came to
Baghdad in 771, some 250 years after the death of Aryabhatta. This
delegation consisted of an astronomer called Kanaka, who carried with him a
small library including a book titled Surya Siddhanta and works of
Aryabhata and Brahamgupta.
According to the Arab historian
al-Qifti, the caliph was amazed by the brilliance of these Indian texts. On
his order, these works were translated into Arabic by Al-Fazari, who
subsequently emerged as the first Arab astronomer of great repute. Over a period
of time, this Arabic version gained fame under the title of Sindhind and
became popular as a text of mathematics and astronomy all over the Muslim
world including Spain from where it travelled to Europe and was translated
into Latin in 1126. This work revolutionized
the study of mathematics and sciences and replaced the cumbersome Roman
numerals. It is interesting to note that while Europe has christened the new
system as Arab numerals, the Arabs call them Hindsa (Indian numerals)
giving credit where it is due.
The other important area
influenced by Indian ethos and morality was adab, that is the
embodiment of sensible counsel in the form of fables. The
literary masterpiece of Ibn Muqaffa, Kalila wa Dimna, is based on
the stories of Panchtantra and Mahabharata and is considered a classic of early
Arabic prose. But it is not just that. We also find mention of
translations of Varahmihir, Brihat Jatak, Krishna Avtar and Vishnu Puran in
Kitabul Hind by Al Biruni, the brilliant historian who came with Mahmud of
Ghazni's armies and stayed behind to live with Brahmins, learn Sanskrit and
write his extraordinary work on India.
The long list of Sanskrit
manuscripts that were translated into Arabic and catalogued in detail by
Arab historian Ibn Nadeem in his classic Fehrist (Bibliographical index) is
an of acknowledgement of the contribution that Indian sciences made in
building the Golden Age of Islam.