Indian influence on Islamic science

The Golden Age of Islam, which saw a flourishing of science, notably mathematics and astronomy, especially during the 9th and 10th centuries, had a notable Indian influence.

Quotes

• By comparison, the Sanskrit and Greek traditions were absorbed in a rather piecemeal fashion. In the one case there was a fragmentary rendering of Hindu literature and scientific works (channeled through Sind, until the Abbasids lost their grip on the province). Indian numerals, arithmetic, mathematics, philosophy and logic, mysticism, ethics, statecraft, military science, medicine, pharmacology, toxicology (works on snakes (sarpavidya) and poison (visavidya)), veterinary science, eroticism, astronomy, astrology and palmistry were transmit­ ted. Chess and chausar games were brought from India. We have a reference by an Arabic author from Andalusia to an Indian book on tunes and melodies. Indian fables and literary works are reflected in the Thousand and One Nights. Al-Biruni, before he came to India, had some Indian works in his library which were translated into Arabic under the early Abbasid caliph Al-Mansur (754-775) and the Barmakid vazirs of Harun ar-Rashid; amongst these were the Brahmasiddhanta or Sindhind and the Pahcatantra. When, in 1020, Al-Biruni began his study of Indian astronomy from the Sanskrit originals he was to find that the early works were still held in the same high esteem.13 To an ap­preciable extent, Sanskrit philosophy had already come to the attention of the Sasanid Persians and its influence in the Islamic world was sometimes mediated by Sasanid schools. ‘It was recognized among the Khusros (Akasira) of Persia that wisdom (hikma) originally came from al-Hind’.14 In Islam however Indian influences submerged under the tide of Greek and Hellenistic learning, falsafa and science, from the ninth century onwards.
  • A Wink, Al-Hind, The Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Volume 1