Islam Creator of the Modern Age
3. Muslim Contribution to Science
~ 125 ~
Emperor, Frederick II, who was a patron of science.
In the year 1220, Leonardo was invited to appear
before the Emperor at Pisa, and there he
propounded a series of problems, three of which
Leonardo presented in his books. The first two
belonged to a favourite Arabic type.
Wilfrid Blunt writes:
And supposing the tide of Islam had not been
stemmed? Nothing so delayed the advance of
science in the West as the clumsiness of the
Roman numerals. Had the Arabic numerals,
which had reached Baghdad from India
towards the end of the eighth century, been
soon afterwards introduced into and adopted
by Western Europe as a whole, much of that
scientific progress which we associate with
the Renaissance in Italy might have been
achieved several centuries earlier.
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AN EXPLANATION
For those who are interested in how the concept of
zero originated in India, the Children’s Book Trust,
New Delhi has published a 22 page booklet in
