Science and Islam. 1. The language of science.

Physicist Jim Al-Khalili explores the relationship between science and Islam. He visits a number of countries in the Arabic World with links to the Medieval Arabic world, although not Baghdad due to political instability (instead he shows some family home movies of life there in the 1960s) and speaks to various contemporary scholars. The first great Arabic scholar he discusses is Al-Khwarizi (Muḥammad ibn Mūsá Khuwārizmī), the great mathematician, who translated the Indian decimal numerical system into Arabic. Al-Khalili explains how the study of God's creation became a belief that knowledge is power which suited the ruling Caliphate. The ruling elites were faced with several problems in governing geographically disperse peoples. Through their patronage of scholars amongst other things led to Arabic, the 'language of god', becoming widely adopted. A calligraphy expert demonstrates the accuracy and elegance of Arabic text which has remained unchanged since Medieval times. The adoption of a common language and the desire for knowledge led to the Translation Movement in the Twelfth Century. Books were collected and translated from many different languages into Arabic - translators were paid handsomely and a bounty was given to especially rare and valuable works. As well as mathematics, medicine was valued and translated from the Greek, then annotated and improved by Arabic scholars. Innovations adopted in the Arabic World were hospitals and pharmacies. Vik Sharma, ophthalmologist, describes their comparative level of skill in removing cataracts. Travelling then to Saqqara in Egypt, Al-Khalili meets Dr Okasha El Daly, who shows him how the curiosity of Arabic scholars led to the translation of Egyptian hieroglyphs via Coptic and Arabic centuries before the discovery of the Rosetta Stone. Scholarship was an important feature of Arabic life; seminars and salons existed to debate and share knowledge in Baghdad. Finally, the achievements of the great mathematician, Al-Khwarizi, who gave his name to algebra and algorithm is assessed. The scholars consulted in the programme and not already noted were: Dr Amira Bennison, Professor George Saliba, Professor Simon Schaffer, Dr Peter Pormann and Professor Ian Stewart.