The Muslim Influence on Sir Isaac Newton
By the seventeenth century Europe had forgotten its debt to Islam, for although Newton, in saying that he had seen farther than his predecessors ‘by standing on the shoulders of Giants’, gives credit to earlier European and ancient Greek thinkers, he makes no mention of the medieval Arabic scholars from whom Europe had first learned about science.
- John Freely[12]
Sir Isaac Newton. One of the greatest physicists ever said, “If I have seen further, it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants”. We know about Isaac Newton very well, but we do not recognize the ‘Giants’. We are aware of the famous picture of Isaac Newton, where he is seen experimenting with light. But we are not aware that the same experiment was done by ibn al-Haytham somewhat seven centuries before him.[1]
Muslim scientists such as Thabit ibn Qurra, ibn al-Haytham wrote about calculus.[2] We know of ibn al-Haytham writing about gravity.[3] Abu Bakr al-Razi, centuries before Newton, made distinction between absolute and relative space; absolute space, which is three dimensional and infinite, exists quite independently of the bodies contained in it.[4] And ibn Sina tried to relate velocity with mass, which is a precursor to the concept of momentum.[5] This is also connected to Newton.
Let’s look at Newton’s laws of motion. ibn Sina, ibn al-Haytham with others are seen to be writing about Newton’s law of inertia, the first law of motion.[6] Abul Barakat al-Baghdadi writes that force is proportional to acceleration, which we get to know from the second law.[7] While ibn Bajja wrote that, for every force there is a reaction force. Which is a forerunner to Newton’s third law of motion.[8]
How do so many things that Newton worked on are described before by Muslim scientists?
The ‘Giants’ they say, are Copernicus, Kepler, Descartes, Tycho Brahe and Galileo. But actually, it just might be that Sir Isaac Newton was influenced by Muslim scientists.
In his writings, there are clear marks of influence of ibn Tufail’s philosophical romance Hayy ibn Yaqzan (Alive Son of Awaken).[9] It is known that both Latin and English translations of the book by Edward Pococke and Simon Ockley were available at Isaac Newton’s time. ibn Tufail’s influence is seen on other philosopher, scientists and fiction authors too.[9]
Ibn al-Haytham’s name is frequent. Talented man he was. Father of ‘History of Science’, George Sarton indirectly writes that Newton was influenced by ibn al-Ibn al-Haytham.[13] And yes, Isaac Newton did keep a copy of ibn al-Haytham’s magnum opus, Kitab al-Manazir (Book of Optics) in his personal library.[10]
Many laugh at Jabir ibn Hayyan for his alchemy, considering it irrational. Jabir ibn Hayyan didn’t try to create gold out of silly stuff without a system; rather his process was scientific and experimental. Anyways, these people get shocked when they find out that Sir Isaac Newton also practiced alchemy. And, he didn’t only practice alchemy, he read Jabir’s book and was influenced by it, says professor Newman.[11] A book named Summa perfectionis was based on the Arabic work Kitab al-Mulk from the Jabirian corpus. It was translated into English by Richard Russell and appeared in three other versions. One of which was Willam Starkey’s Secrets Reveal’d’, the one which Newton owned.[14]
So, probably Newton’s ideas didn’t fall from an apple tree after all.
References:
1. J. al-Khalili, “Science and Islam” on BBC Four, (Oxford Scientific Films), 2009.
2. Michael Hamilton Morgan, Lost History : The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Scientists, Thinkers and Artists (Washington D.C.: National Geographic, june 2008) p: 104
3. Ibid
4. Shlomo Pines, Studies in Arabic versions of Greek texts and in mediaeval science (Magnes Press, 1986) p. 368.
5. S. H. Nasr and M.A. Razavi, The Islamic Intellectual Tradition in Persia (Routledge, 1996)
6. Seyyed Hossain Nasr, Science and Civilization in Islam (ABC International Group, Inc. 2001) p: 128; Fernando Espinoza (2005). “An Analysis of the Historical Development of Ideas About Motion and its Implications for Teaching”. Physics Education. 40 (2): 139–146.
7. Shlomo Pines op. cit. p. 203.
8. Abel B. Franco, “Avempace, Projectile Motion, and Impetus Theory”. Journal of the History of Ideas. 64 (4): 543.
9. Samar Attar. The Vital Roots of European Enlightenment: Ibn Tufayl’s Influence on Modern Western Thought. (Lexington Books, 2010)
10. Salim T. S. al-Hassani (edt), 1001 Inventions: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civiliazation (National Geographic, 3rd Edition 2012) p. 35
11. G. A. Russell, The ‘Arabick’ Interest of the Natural Philosophers in Seventeenth-Century England. (Brill Publishers, 1994) p. 278–96.
12. John Freely. Light from the East: How the Science of Medieval Islam Helped to Shape the Western World (I. B. Tauris, 2011) p. x.
13. George Sarton, Introduction to History of Science, vol 3 (Baltimore: 1947)
14. G. A. Russel op. cit.
