Contributions of our thinkers to world science
The 9th–12th and 14th–16th centuries are regarded as two periods of upsurge of Central Asian learning: the first is linked to the House of Wisdom in Abbasid Baghdad and the scholarly milieux of Khwarezm, Bukhara and Samarkand, the second to the Timurid period; scholars sometimes call them the “Eastern Renaissance”, a conventional term. Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (c. 780–c. 850) set out systematic methods of solving problems in his work on algebra; the term “algebra” comes from “al-jabr” in the title of his book and the word “algorithm” is linked to his name. Ahmad al-Farghani (9th century) wrote on astronomy and built the nilometer at Cairo for measuring the level of the Nile (861). Abu Nasr al-Farabi (c. 872–950) is known in philosophy and logic as the “Second Teacher”. Abu Rayhan al-Biruni (973–c. 1050) wrote on astronomy, geodesy, geography and history and calculated the radius of the Earth. Abu Ali ibn Sina (980–1037) wrote “The Canon of Medicine”, which was used as a medical textbook in European universities for centuries. In the religious sciences, Imam al-Bukhari (810–870) and Imam al-Tirmidhi (824–892) compiled hadith collections, Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (870–944) was prominent in kalam, Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani (1123–1197) in jurisprudence (“al-Hidaya”) and Mahmud al-Zamakhshari (1075–1144) in Qur’anic commentary and linguistics. In the Timurid period Mirza Ulugbek (1394–1449) had an observatory built in Samarkand and compiled a star table, and Alisher Navoi (1441–1501) raised Turkic literature. Most of them mastered both secular and religious sciences.
Timeline: arrange ten scholars (al-Khwarizmi, al-Bukhari, al-Tirmidhi, al-Farabi, al-Maturidi, al-Biruni, Ibn Sina, al-Zamakhshari, al-Marghinani, Ulugbek) by birth year and write one field for each.