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History of Sciences and Libraries in the Islamic World: a Mutual Relationship

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History of Sciences and Libraries in the Islamic World: a Mutual Relationship History of Sciences and Libraries in the Islamic World: A Mutual Relationship Agus Rifai1 and Imam Subchi1 1Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, Jakarta Keywords: History of science; Islamic libraries; Islam and science;Islamic civilization Abstract: This paper exposed the relationship between science and librarianship in the Islamic wolrd. By using historical method or historiography, the study is aimed at exploring of the relationship between sciences and libraries in the Islamic world. The study found that historically, the development of sciences in the golden age of Islam was followed by the growth of libraries. Islamic libraries have significant roles in the scholarly tradition and sciences development. Libraries have played its roles in knowledge production, transmission, and preservation. Islamic libraries were not only a place to store knowledge but also a center for knowledge studies. It was a basis of muslim ummah’ scholarly tradition. 1 INTRODUCTION offered a service of the collection of books or manuscripts as found in prior ancient libraries, but also as a public library and lending library, a leaning In historical perspective, we have witnessed how center and knowledge dissemination, a public space muslim ummah achieved the glory days, especially in for meetings and discussions, and equipped with a the field of scientific achievement reached in the later dormitory for scholars or students. The concept of the part of the seventh century and the beginning of the library catalog was also introduced in medieval eight century under the Umayyad rule, and its golden Islamic libraries, where books were arranged into age occurred under the Abbasid rule, and in Muslim specific fields and categories. Spain. For at least five centuries, Islamic civilization was the most prominent in the world. (Hitti, 1974) This paper has attempted to explore the history of therefore called that centuries as the golden prime of science and libraries in the Islamic world. In Islam because the muslim achievement on sciences. particular, the description will answer the questions The achievement of muslim scholars on sciences was on the establishment of Islamic libraries and its role acknowledged by many scholars such as (Kneller, in the development of sciences in the Islamic world 1978), (Hill,1993), (Sarton, 1927), and (Nasr, 1968). In addition to its social stability and political 2 LITERATURE REVIEW factors and the level of prosperity of muslim’s life, the development of science that occurred during the classical or medieval period of Islam was influenced In historical perspective, the discussion of Islamic by the roles of learning institutions including libraries was a topic of Islamic civilization history. libraries. during the Islamic Golden Age there was a Libraries in the Islamic world was viewed as parts of number of important learning institutions previously the achievements of muslim ummah. Studies of the of unknown in the ancient world have their origins in the Islamic libraries generally became part of the medieval Islamic world, with the most notable discussions of Islamic history studies, especially on examples being mosque, khalaqa, madrasa, and Islamic civilization. Historians who concerned on libraries. According to (Micheau, 1996), Islamic history of Islamic civilization discussed topic on libraries in the classical period have regarded to the Islamic libraries in relation to the learning institutions modern library characteristics. The libraries not only and or the development of sciences in the Islamic world. The achievement of sciences in that era of the 252 Rifai, A. and Subchi, I. History of Sciences and Libraries in the Islamic World: A Mutual Relationship. DOI: 10.5220/0009926902520258 In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Recent Innovations (ICRI 2018), pages 252-258 ISBN: 978-989-758-458-9 Copyright c 2020 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved History of Sciences and Libraries in the Islamic World: A Mutual Relationship ‘golden’ age of Islam reached by muslim ummah was 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION immediately followed by the growth of libraries. Many scholars such as Mackensen dan (Pinto, 4.1 The Rise of Islamic Libraries 1929), (Shalaby, 1954), (Thompson, 1957), (Elayyan,1990), (Micheau,1996), and (Sardar,1990) History of libraries in the world began from the acknowledged the role of Islamic libraries in the written tradition. The birth of Islam in 610 A.D. has development of muslim civilization. Islamic libraries introduced a new tradition among Arab society, were centre of studies, discussions, and storage of namely a written tradition. This written tradition has sciences as the foundation of human civilization. brought the great changes in the Arab civilization by For example, (Elayyan, 1990) found that there which the Arabs were previously known to have a was a significant growth of Islamic libraries during very strong oral tradition. the the Medieval period. In the ages, types of library Actually, history of Islamic librarianship was such as public and private libraries, academic stemmed from the tradition of writing which was then libraries, mosque libraries were regarded to be crucial followed by the establishment of libraries in the institutions in shaping Islamic civilization. Islamic Islamic world. The Qur’an was a work written in the libraries were places for knowledge production, beginning of muslim tradition. As mentioned in the dissemination, and preservation. Scholars and first verse of Qur’an, reading and then writing are the muslim ummah gathered to read, discuss, and do two most important tradition influencing the Islamic study in the libraries. (Shalaby,1954), on the other civilization. The Qur’an mentioned “Read, in the hand, mentioned that Islamic libraries were important name of the Lord . Read, for thy Lord is the most learning institutions in the Islamic world. Islamic generous. Who taught by the pen. Taught man what libraries were ‘open’ institutions to all kinds of he did not know”. The word ‘pen’ in the verse sciences to be studied and discussed. indicated the important of writing to transmit In 1962, (Hamadeh,1962) presented a paper for knowledge. his master in Chicago University entitled “Islamic Libraries during the Middle Ages”. According to the The teachings of reading and writing as paper, Islamic libraries have particular characters and mentioned in the first verse of Qur’an revealed to functions such as religious, scholarly, social, Prophet Muhammad PBUH have introduced a new educational, and propagative characters. In addition, tradition among muslim ummah that was called as (Hamadeh,1962) stated that Islamic libraries have literacy tradition. This tradition implied to the need of contributed to the development of sciences, not only teaching institution as well as of writing literature. At th in the muslim world but also over Europe. Muslim the beginning period of Islam or at 8 century, ummah need libraries for knowledge transmission Arabic-Islamic literature was written on parchment and transformation. and papyrus, and the Qur’an was the literature written at the first time. The tradition of literacy continued to writing hadith, letters, acts, agreements, and so on. 3 METHODOLOGY According to (Elayyan,1990), the invention of paper brought from China to Baghdad at about 800 Historical method was used to explore the history A.D has influenced the way of Arabic-Islamic books of sciences and libraries in the Islamic world. By this were produced. The production and dissemination of method, the description of sciences and libraries knowledge were faster and easier accordingly, and development in the past time especially in the knowledge books were distributed largely in the classical period of Islamic history was narrated and muslim countries. As a result, in addition, book-shops written with critical inquiry. The research begun with and bookmarkets were scattered in Islamic cities. the data collection, data examination or criticism, and Book-shops in Islamic cities have played as a center data presentation. In data collection, literature on of Arabic-Islamic books production and distribution Islamic history and other relevant literature were as well as discussion among muslim scholars. There quested and located. In addition, the literature, then, were one hundred book shops in Baghdad in the 11th were read and examined based on the objective of century. study. At the end, the data that were relevant to the research objectives were presented. (Elayyan, 1990) added that the introduction of a new tradition of literacy has brought great influence of the rise of sciences in the Arabic-Islamic world. 253 ICRI 2018 - International Conference Recent Innovation The contact and transmission of different cultures The growth and development of Islamic libraries from the Persian literature to Arabic have contributed have widely spread in the Abbasid caliphates. In this to the absorption of the Greek and Persian literature periods, according to al-Baghdadi [1996], the rise of and the invention of new fields of knowledge. through learning institutions has become important part of the the translations, discussions, and instructions, muslim development of the Muslem scholarly traditions. In scholars and scientists developed seculars sciences addition, further al-Baghdadi, Islamic libraries were such as astronomy, medicine, geometry, arithmetic, the most significant institution in the development of astrology, botany, zoology, and
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