Jak islámští vynálezci nezměnili svět: Difference between revisions

{{Quote||By the 9th century, many Muslim scholars took it for granted that the Earth was a sphere. The proof, said astronomer Ibn Hazm, “is that the Sun is always vertical to a particular spot on Earth”. It was 500 years before that realisation dawned on Galileo. The calculations of Muslim astronomers were so accurate that in the 9th century they reckoned the Earth’s circumference to be 40,253.4km –less than 200 km out. The scholar al-Idrisi took a globe depicting the world to the court of King Roger of Sicily in 1139.<ref name="Paul Vallely"></ref>}}

[[File:Byzantine Coin.jpg|thumb|right|A pre-Islamic Byzantine coin struck 607–609 AD. It features the depiction of a crowned emperor Focas holding a globus cruciger (an orb representing the spherical Earth) more than 400 years before the realisation dawned on Ibn Hazm and 532 years before al-Idrisi took a globe to the court of King Roger.]]

The fact that the Earth is spherical was common knowledge among medieval Europeans as proven by the dominant textbooks of the Early Middle Ages, the orb (globus cruciger; Latin for "cross-bearing orb") a Christian symbol representing Christ's (the cross) dominion over the world (the orb) used in the regalia of many kingdoms and of the Holy Roman Empire from as early as 395 and throughout the Middle Ages,<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Globus_cruciger&oldid=312872920 Globus cruciger], Wikipedia, accessed September 9, 2009</ref> and the writings of early Christian scholars including Anicius Boëthius (480–524 AD), Bishop Isidore of Seville (560–636 AD), Bishop Rabanus Maurus (780–856 AD), the monk Bede (672–735 AD), Bishop Vergilius of Salzburg (700–784 AD) and the most important and widely taught theologian of the Middle Ages; Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274 AD). The belief that medieval Christians believed in a [[Flat Earth and the Quran|flat earth]] is false,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Myth_of_the_Flat_Earth&oldid=556807448|title=Myth of the Flat Earth|publisher=Wikipedia|author=|date=accessed June 12, 2013|archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FMyth_of_the_Flat_Earth&date=2013-06-12|deadurl=no}}</ref> and was listed by the ''Historical Association of Britain'' in 1945 as the second of twenty in a pamphlet on common errors in history.<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Flat_Earth&oldid=317745046 Flat Earth: Middle Ages], Wikipedia</ref> This should not really come as much of a surprise when you consider that the Ancient Greeks Pythagoras (570–495 BC), Aristotle (384–322 BC) and Hipparchus (190–120 BC) also concluded that the earth is spherical half a millennium earlier.  

Eratosthenes (275–194 BC) in 240 BC measured the circumference of the earth to a figure very close to what we know of at present. He measured the distance between Alexandria and Aswan by pacers and also measured the curvature of the earth between these two points on the surface of the sphere (earth) and came to the figure of the circumference of the earth. Eratosthenes' method was later to be employed by Hermannus Contractus (1013–1054 AD) a medieval Christian scholar. The Greek philosopher and mathematician Aristarchus (320–230 BC) even knew the Earth revolves around the Sun and not the other way around (i.e. [[Geocentrism and the Quran|geocentrism]]).<ref>Immanuel Velikovsky, [{{Reference archive|1=http://www.varchive.org/ce/orbit/arisam.htm|2=2011-02-10}} Aristarchus], The Immanuel Velikovsky Archive</ref>

In the East, the works of the classical Indian astronomer and mathematician Aryabhata (476–550 AD) also deal with the sphericity of the Earth and the motion of the planets. The final two parts of his Sanskrit magnum opus the ''Aryabhatiya'', which were named the "Kalakriya" (reckoning of time) and the "Gola" (ball), state that the earth is spherical and that its circumference is 4,967 yojanas, which in modern units is 39,968 km (24,835 mi), which is close to the current equatorial value of 40,075 km (24,901 mi).<ref>J J O'Connor and E F Robertson, [{{Reference archive|1=http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Aryabhata_I.html|2=2011-02-10}} Aryabhata the Elder], The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, November 2000</ref> He also stated that the apparent rotation of the celestial objects was due to the actual rotation of the earth, calculating the length of the sidereal day to be 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.1 seconds.<ref>William J. Gongol, [{{Reference archive|1=http://www.gongol.com/research/math/aryabhatiya|2=2011-02-10}} The Aryabhatiya: Foundations of Indian Mathematics], University of Northern Iowa, December 14, 2003</ref>  

In conclusion; everything that has been attributed to Muslim Arabs by Paul Vallely, had already  been discovered by not only the pre-Islamic East, but also by the preChristian Greeks. The Islamic faith stifles scientific progress and nothing demonstrates this as well as the modern-day belief that the Earth is flat. As recently as 1993 the supreme religious authority of Saudi Arabia ''Sheik Abdul-Aziz Ibn Baaz'' declared "The earth is flat. Whoever claims it is round is an atheist deserving of punishment."<ref>Youssef M. Ibrahim, "[{{Reference archive|1=http://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/12/world/muslim-edicts-take-on-new-force.html|2=2011-02-10}} Muslim Edicts Take on New Force]", New York Times, February 12, 1995</ref> and in October 2007 on Al-Fayhaa TV in Iraq, a Muslim scientist also declared that the Earth is flat as evidenced by Qur'anic verses and that the Sun is much smaller than the Earth and revolves around it.<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPrEaFmtZww Iraqi Researcher Defies Scientific Axioms: The Earth Is Flat and Much Larger than the Sun (Which Is Also Flat)], MEMRI TV, Video No. 1684, Al-Fayhaa TV (Iraq), October 31, 2007</ref>