The World Environment Day, celebrated annually since 1972, has grown to become one of the main vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and encourages political attention and action.
Through the World Environment Day, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is able to personalise environmental issues and enable everyone to realise not only their responsibility, but also their power to become agents for change in support of sustainable and equitable development. It is a day for people from all walks of life to come together to ensure a cleaner, greener and brighter outlook for themselves and future generations.
But how did people deal with matters relating to the environment a thousand years ago? Scholars in early Muslim civilisation were fascinated by the world around them and dedicated time and effort to appreciate it and understand how it works.
Let’s discover six fields scholars explored then through several manuscripts:
1. Earth Sciences
Kitab Al-Shifa by Ibn Sina (11th Cent.)
Muslim civilisation was outstanding in its outlook on the universe, humanity and life. Scientists thought about the origin of minerals, rocks, mountains, earthquakes, water and more. A great example is 11th century Kitab Al-Shifa (the Book of Healing) which is an encyclopaedic work in natural science and philosophy written by Ibn Sina (981 – 1037 C.E.). Named Avicenna in the West, he is better known for his medial work The Canon of Medicine.
In Kitab Al-Shifa, Ibn Sina presented fundamental principles of geology in terms of the earth’s processes, major events and long geologic time. These principles were later known during the Renaissance in Europe as the law of superposition of strata, the concept of catastrophism, and the doctrine of uniformitarianism*.
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2. Gemmology and Mineralogy
Al-Jamhir fi Ma’rifatil Al-Jawahir by Al-Biruni (11th Cent.)
Minerals and gems was a field explored by many scholars who wrote monographs on the subject mostly around the 10th and 11th centuries. They used almost all the physical properties now known to us to identify and differentiate minerals. The most influential was Al-Biruni (440AH/1048CE) whose monograph “Treatises on how to recognise gems” (Al-Jamhir fi Ma’rifatil Al-Jawahir) is most probably the best contribution on mineralogy from Muslim civilisation.
Other scholars include Yahya Bin Masawaih (died 857), Al-Kindi (873), and Al-Hamdani (947).
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3. Botany and Herbals
Kitāb al-Jāmiʿ li-Mufradāt al-Adwiya wa-l-Aghdhiya by Ibn al-Baytar (13th Cent.)
As the Muslim lands grew, interest in botany grew. Merchants, scholars, and travellers came across exotic plants, trees, seeds, and spices previously unknown to them. They collected a huge number of samples of raw ingredients, along with knowledge and information about their use, from as far afield as the steppes of Asia and the Pyrenees.
In the 13th century, Ibn al-Baytar of Málaga wrote Dictionary of Simple Remedies and Food (Kitāb al-Jāmiʿ li-Mufradāt al-Adwiya wa-l-Aghdhiya), in which he studied 3,000 different plants and their medical properties. It reflects an appreciation of nature and the abundance it can give.
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4. Agriculture
The Kitab al-Filahah al-Andalusiyah by Ibn al-Awwâm (12th Cent.)
The core of the Islamic agricultural traditions lie in what is referred to in Arabic as “zira’at al-‘ardh” (land cultivation) in the larger sense. In the words of Ibn Al-`Awwam:
“land cultivation means fixing the land, planting trees, growing cereals and grains and taking care of the same, in addition to a good knowledge of the fertile, semi fertile and useless land. Further, the knowledge of each kind of trees and plants to be planted in a given earth, and the choice of the best kind and proper time, water, insecticides and fertilizer for each kind of plants and trees are essential. How to store the production is also included.”
Ibn al-Awwam al-Ishbili’s (d. 1185) most famous book is Kitab al-Filahah al-Andalusiyah (The Book of Andalusian Agriculture). It consists of 35 chapters dealing with agronomy, cattle and poultry raising, and beekeeping. It deals with 585 plants; explains the cultivation of more than 50 fruit trees; and includes many valuable observations on soils, manures, plant grafting, and plant diseases.
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5. Agriculture and technology
Kitab fi ma’rifat al-hiyal al-handasiya by Al-Jazari (12th Cent.)
A lot of thought has gone through the minds of engineers, scientists and scholars during Muslim civilisation about making sustainable use of the natural resources they were surrounded with. Engineers looked at ways to use clean energy whether wind of water.
This is evident in the outstanding work of 12th century engineer Al-Jazari who devoted a chapter of his book Kitab fi ma’rifat al-hiyal al-handasiya to water raising machines. He also described in the book sophisticated machines powered by water and gravity.
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6. Animals
Kitab al-Hayawan by al-Jahiz (9th Cent.)
9th century scholar and prolific writer Al-Jahiz exhibits an “exciting and very inclusive” approach to humanity in his Kitab Al-Haywan (The Book of Animals), says Miller, a former Fulbright scholar who joined the U of T faculty in 2013 after doing her undergraduate degree at Harvard University and her doctorate at New York University.
“The Kitab Al-Hayawan was the object of many studies, and had great influence upon later Muslim scientists, and via them upon European thinkers (especially upon Lamarck and Darwin). And it became the source for later books on zoology. Al-Jahiz’s many sentences are quoted by Ikhwan al-Safa and Ibn Miskawayh, and many passages are quoted by Zakariyya’ al-Qazwini (1203-1282) in his ‘Aja’ib al-Makhluqat, and by Mustawfi al-Qazwini (1281- ?) in his Nuzkat al-Qulub; and al-Damiri in his Hayat al-Hayawan‘ , and still continues to inspire the scientists today. For instance, Professor. Dr. R. Kruk whose inaugural lecture on “A Map of a cat” was also inspired by Islamic manuscripts and scientific references including Kitab Al-Hayawan. These books also had the role of a cultural drive for the progress of research in modern science in zoology, biology, evolutionary theories, medicine, veterinary, anatomy, etc.” H. Mehemet Bayrakdar (Source)
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More on the Subject
- Islamic Gardens https://muslimheritage.com/?s=gardens
- Regarding green life and sustainability related to Muslim heritage:
https://muslimheritage.com/?s=Sustainability
