COM10 : Academic Writing PDF

Running head: ACADEMIC WRITING
Academic Writing
Name of the Students
Name of the University
Author Note

1ACADEMIC WRITING
Introduction
The Nobel Prize is the most eminent and coveted global honour bestowed for outstanding
work in economics, chemistry, peace, literature, physics, or physiology and medicine. Since its
first establishment in 1895 to acknowledge those who had an outstanding contribution to benefit
mankind, western European countries have accomplished a disproportionate number of Novel
prizes laureates. In fact, 82 percent of Nobel prizes have been awarded to laureates from western
countries (The Washington Post 2013). However, as we delve into the historical origin of that
great knowledge and the development of advanced modern science, it should be done through an
eye of medieval Islamic scholars. In the Medieval age, Islamic scholars had a significant
influence which in turn became the fundamental material for a scientific revolution in western
civilisation. “In the broadest sense, the West's borrowings from the Middle East form practically
the whole basic fabric of civilisation” (Wickens 1976). The paper asserts that the Modem science
emerged in Europe may not have occurred without adopting the fundamental concepts of the
Greek scientific tradition that had been integrated and modified into the corpus Islamic tradition
during its great period of mass scholarship known as Golden Age. Even though much of the
Islamic contributions are unappreciated and credited, it had a vital role throughout the
progression of the European transformation. Some argue that the influence of Islamic science
and metaphysical works to Western culture was limited and the western scientific enterprise
undertook a significant cleavage from the Islamic influence. The paper further argues against this
by providing the evidence and vestigial traces of Islamic scientific tradition in various discipline
of today’s science such as mathematics and medicine.

2ACADEMIC WRITING
Body
The Islamic golden age is referred to the era in the history of Islam. This era is dated
traditionally from the 8th century to the 14th century. In this mentioned era, the Islam world
evidenced a commendable and flourishing enhancement in science, economic as well as cultural
works. According to the Muslim tradition, this period is considered to have began during the
reign of the Abbasid Caliph, Harun al-Rashid. During his reign, scholars from different cultural
background are invited from different parts of the world in order to translate the classical
knowledge of the world into Arabic language. During this period several new inventions
associated with science and mathematics had taken place due to the glorious union of scholars
from all over the word. According to the Islamic tradition in 1258 AD, this period had ended due
to the death of the Abbasid Caliphate due to the Siege of Bagdad an Mughal invention (Bier
2004).
While the middle age of the Islamic word is considered to be highly glorifying and
productive, in Europe the middle age was characterized by devastating phenomenon like war and
population decline. According to the historians, the middle age lasted in the history of Europe
from the 5th century to the 15th Century. It initiated with the fall of the Western Roman Empire
and merged with the renaissance period (Iqbal 2000). The middle age of Europe can be
segregated into three parts that includes the early, high and late middle age. The early middle age
of Europe is characterized by population decline, invention and movements. During the High
Middle Ages, that began after 1000, the population of Europe got enhanced greatly as
technological as well as agricultural innovations permitted trade to flourish. Along with that,
the Medieval Warm Period climate change allowed crop yields to enhance (Hilgendorf 2003).