Database: Scientific Method
Right: Spheroconical Vessel (Chemistry Vessel) / 12th century, Iraq or Iran
The Abbasid period was characterized by important achievements that profoundly shaped the pursuit of scientific knowledge. One of the most compelling is the emergence of what we think of today as the scientific method: a culture of checking the results and the data of other intellectuals, whether those were one’s contemporaries or famous figures from Antiquity, such as Ptolemy. Tools such as this mortar or this alembic were crucial in this activity.
The scholars of the time were competing for the caliphs' patronage and funds. They therefore needed new ways to acquire knowledge and justify their discoveries. This stimulated their thirst for translated works of science from historical or foreign authors. Checking the astronomical calculations or mathematical proofs of these famous scientists, and if possible improving upon them or even proving them wrong, was a great way to make oneself known. Scholars working in the House of Wisdom therefore feverishly tested and commented on the results of their predecessors and rivals. They replicated experiments and tried to improve their methods and ways of calculation. When their results differed from their peers, they tried to explain why and pushed their investigation further. The attempts to calculate the Earth's circumference through the reproduction of an ancient Greek experiment by a team of mathematicians including the great al-Khwarizmi (780-850), and the improvements made on this team’s methods and results by al-Biruni (973-1050), are the best examples of the implementation of this system of scientific method and peer reviewed experiments.