How Europe stole Islamic science

 

The Stolen Legacy: How Europe Built Its Renaissance on Arabic Science

The narrative of the European Renaissance is often told as a tale of genius suddenly awakening in the West after centuries of darkness. Yet this telling conveniently ignores the foundation upon which that "awakening" was built: the intellectual achievements of the Islamic Golden Age. From mathematics and astronomy to medicine and philosophy, Europe’s so-called “discoveries” were, in fact, the treasures of Arab and Muslim scholars—appropriated, rebranded, and then credited to Western names.

This truth is no longer hidden. European libraries preserve countless Arabic manuscripts, many of them covered with handwritten Latin and English notes in the margins. These annotations are evidence of a systematic transfer of knowledge. Arabic, for centuries, was the language of science in Europe. Universities from Spain to Italy taught Ibn Sina (Avicenna), al-Razi (Rhazes), Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), and countless others in their original language. The Renaissance was not a rebirth from within—it was a borrowing from abroad.

But borrowing was not the only channel. There was also theft: discoveries carefully documented by Muslim scientists were stripped of their origins and republished under European names. The history of science, as told today, often erases this debt.

The Circulation of Blood: Ibn al-Nafis vs. William Harvey

William Harvey (1578–1657) is celebrated in Europe as the man who “discovered” blood circulation. Yet centuries earlier, Ibn al-Nafis (1213–1288) had already described pulmonary circulation with clarity in his commentary Sharh Tashrih al-Qanun. He explained how blood passes from the right ventricle of the heart to the lungs, becomes oxygenated, and returns to the left ventricle—a description identical to modern physiology. Harvey, in reality, did not discover; he inherited.

Newton and the Arabic Origins of the Laws of Motion

Perhaps the most striking example is Isaac Newton (1642–1727). His Principia Mathematica is revered as a cornerstone of modern physics, especially his formulation of the three laws of motion. Yet centuries earlier, Muslim thinkers had already articulated these principles in Arabic works—works Newton almost certainly had access to, given the widespread circulation of such manuscripts in Europe.

Newton’s First Law of Motion states:

“An object remains at rest, or in uniform motion in a straight line, unless acted upon by an external force.”

But Avicenna (Ibn Sina, 980–1037) had already written in Al-Isharat wa al-Tanbihat:

“You know that if a body is left alone with its natural state, and no external influence acts upon it, it will necessarily remain in its specific place and form, as compelled by its natural state.”

Newton’s Second Law of Motion declares:

“The acceleration of an object is proportional to the force acting upon it.”

Centuries earlier, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1149–1209), in Al-Mabahith al-Mashriqiyya, explained:

“If two bodies differ in their acceptance of motion, that difference is not due to the moving force itself, but to the differing states of the applied force. The force in the larger body is greater than that in the smaller, for what is in the smaller exists in the larger with an addition.”

Newton’s Third Law of Motion proclaims:

“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

Again, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi prefigured this law when he wrote:

“The ring being pulled by two equal forces until it stands in the middle undoubtedly involves each force acting upon it while being counteracted by the other.”

A Stolen Renaissance

The evidence is overwhelming. Europe did not arrive at scientific truth through independent experimentation alone. Rather, it absorbed, translated, and often misattributed the discoveries of Arab and Muslim scientists. This is not to diminish the later contributions of European scholars, but to restore balance to the historical record.

The Renaissance was not the birth of science—it was its inheritance. And much of that inheritance was taken from the Islamic Golden Age without acknowledgment. If today we are to speak of progress honestly, we must begin by recognizing the stolen legacy that underpins so much of Western science.