Islamic Views on the Shape of the Earth: Difference between revisions

The fact that the earth is not flat has been known for thousands of years. The Ancient [[Greece|Greeks]] Pythagoras (570 - 495 BC), Aristotle (384 - 322 BC) and Hipparchus (190 - 120 BC) all knew this. The [[India|Indian]] astronomer and mathematician, Aryabhata (476 - 550 AD) knew this. And so did the early Christian scholars 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 Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274 AD). In fact, contrary to what we are often told, the sphericity of the earth was common knowledge among early medieval [[Europe|Europeans]]<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 the Holy Roman Empire from as early as 395 AD used an orb to represent the spherical Earth.<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Globus_cruciger&oldid=312872920 Globus cruciger] - Wikipedia, accessed September 9, 2009</ref>

If the [[Qur'an]] is a letter-by-letter dictation from [[Allah]], it should also concur with this fact that was known throughout the world ''before'' its [[revelation]], and it should contradict the flat earth model widely believed in by the 7^th century Bedouins of Arabia.