Ancient Islamic science 'knew no rival'

The scientific tradition of Islamic civilisation between the 8th and 16th centuries "knew no rival", the conference was told yetterday.

Prof David King, of the Institute for History of Science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, said it had begun in Baghdad, "the most civilised city in the world for several centuries".

He said that in 825, using mathematics, scholars had measured the circumference of the Earth there "and came up with the right answer."

He said medieval Europe had been dependent on Islamic instrumentation while nothing had descended to the Renaissance by 1550 which had not already been conceived by Muslims centuries before.

Dr Elaine Wright, curator of the Islamic Collections at the Chester Beatty Library, told the conference that, of more than 4,000 manuscripts in the collection, 260 were whole or fragmentary copies of the Qur'an. They ranged in date from the late 8th to the late 19th century.

Many secular texts in the collection also related to Islam, in particular the story in verse of the prophet Yusuf (Joseph). There were also guides to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina and commenatries on the Qur'an.

Many of the manuscripts were decorated only with geometric and vegetal motifs in gold and coloured pigments.

However, some, used and made by Muslims, included figures, which many orthodox Muslims would consider blasphemous.

The conference, which is sponsored by The Irish Times, the British Council and Brooks Hotel in Dublin, continues today, when themes will concentrate on contemporary Islam.