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The process of translations had begun in Damascus. Arabic was the scholarly language of the Islamic Empire, and ancient wisdoms were being translated from Greek to Syriac and then to Arabic. Baghdad was established as the center of the Empire by the rise of the Abbasids.
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A new capital for the Islamic Empire in Spain was established in Cordoba. They built the Great Mosque of Cordoba and it was developed into a center for learning.
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Upon the expansion of the Islamic Empire by the Abbasid dynasty, great wealth was available. Some of it was used to create the Bayt al-Hikma, or the House of Wisdom. Located in the central location of the Empire, in Baghdad, it was first a place where translations took place and later became a hub for philosophers and even scientific and medical development. A special effort was made to recruit
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The concept in mathematics of zero as the point between positive and negative numbers is noted to have been discovered in this period. Our current system of numerals was developed by Arabs and brought to Europe in the early twelfth century. The concept of Algebra was introduced by al-Khwarizmi.
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Arabic now became the language of scholarship. Manuscripts were translated from other languages and sent out around the Islamic Empire for scholars to use. One place this scholarship especially blossomed was in Cairo under the dynasty of Isma'ili Fatimid.
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Along with the development of algebra, Trigonometry was introduced by Abu'l-Wafa al-Busajami. This concept was used in architecture to ensure that buildings would remain standing.
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Another important discovery of this booming time period was the discovery of the use of anesthetics and the structure of the eye. These things were exposed by Ibn al-Haytham, or Alhazen, as he was known in Latin. He became the Father of Optics and invented rudimentary versions of the camera and binoculars.
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New technologies; such as observatories, maps of the night skies, and astrolabes were being developed in Spain at this time. Without them, it would have been impossible for as much European exploration. Also, al-Biruni was able to calculate the distance from the earth to many stars and planets. He was also able to calculate the circumference of the earth.
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At this time the great mosque and university, al-Azhar, was founded approximately 250 years before the great universities of northern Europe.
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The man that would become Pope Sylvester II studied in Cordoba. Their library contained approximately 400,000 works at the time. Pope Sylvester took much of the Aristotelean logic and math that he had learned in Cordoba with him into the Christian scholarly world.
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Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scholars (who all knew Arabic) worked with Christians (who all knew Latin) to make translations and copies of the ancient texts available to the monasteries and universities throughout Europe. This was the first time the Qur'an had been translated into a European language.
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Ibn al-Nafis discovered during this period the pulmonary circulation of the blood. Through dissection, he discovered that blood flows from the right side of the heart to the left and there are an intricate system of arteries that carry blood around the human body. These new discoveries refuted the work of the Greek physician, Galen.