Six centuries before Leonardo da Vinci, an intrepid young man from Ronda had already devised an outlandish flying bird to defy the force of gravity. Andalusian sources certify that the audacious inventor from Malaga climbed the minaret of the Mosque of Cordoba equipped with a rudimentary hang glider and described the first human flight in history. It was anunprecedented, but eventful feat. The texts state that the young creator managed to hold on for a few minutes in the air although he ended up with some serious fractures.

Ibn Firnas was no less than 640 years ahead of the great Leonardo da Vinci in the fantastic human human adventure of aeronautics. It was not the only discipline he cultivated. He studied chemistry, physics, astronomy and also philosophy, which he tackled brilliantly, according to his biographers. He designed a water clock called clepsydra, perfected the technique of rock crystal cutting and composed an armillary sphere to represent the movement of the stars.

All in all, Ibn Firnas was by far not the most relevant of the constellation of scientists who projected the civilization of Al Andalus throughout the Mediterranean. But he is the most outstanding. “He was above all an exhibitionist,” he says. Julio Samsó, one of the most prominent specialists in Andalusian history.

The science of Al Andalus was based on four basic disciplines: mathematics, astronomy, medicine and agronomy. This, at least, is the opinion of the Catalan Arabist. The fall of the Caliphate of Cordoba at the beginning of the 11th century and its fragmentation into Taifa kingdoms led to a competitive virtuous circle that stimulated the development of the sciences. The emirs protected astronomers and astrologers at a time when there was widespread conviction that it was possible to predict the future through the stars.

In Toledo, a major figure arose in the 11th century who renewed astronomy. He was Az Zarqali, better known as AzarquielHe contributed outstanding innovations to the study of the movement of the sun and the precision of the equinoxes. We know his work thanks to the translation intoLatin of the Treatise of the Orange Blossom, elaborated by astronomers of the court of Alfonso X the Wise. He made numerous scientific instruments, such as the astrolabe, and was able to rigorously determine different cosmic phenomena. “Azarquiel introduced advances in Ptolemaic theory that were to be followed religiously between the tenth and eleventh centuries, not only in Al Andalus but also in the Maghreb,” he says. Samsó says.

In medicine, the following stand out significantly Abulcasis. He is considered the father of modern surgery. His fundamental work, Al TasrifThe book, which covers practical medicine, is a huge work articulated in thirty volumes. Your influence on European science was unquestionable to the point that it became an obligatory reference reference point for no less than five centuries. He was born in Medina Azahara, in the years of splendor of the Cordovan Caliphate, and bequeathed to science countless technological advances, such as the forceps and others fundamental for cesarean section and cataract operations. “He is one of the most important figures of the medieval surgery“stresses the Catalan Arabist.

Also Averroes wrote a great treatise on medicine theoretical in nature. Your Kulliyat o Book of the generalities of medicine exerted an enormous influence on Europe in the Middle Ages. In this basic compendium, he developed notions of anatomy, physiology, pathology, and therapeutics, while exhibiting exceptional knowledge of the Galen’s contributions.

But it is his philosophical reflections that catapulted Ibn Rushd to the pinnacle of universal thinkers. He was one of the greatest exponents of Greek rationalism, particularly Aristotelian rationalism, and enlightened the European Middle Ages, which until then had been dominated by religious syncretism. Many specialists consider it precursor of intellectual modernity and the forerunner of the continental Renaissance.

In the agronomy fieldthe advances are extraordinary. In Al Andalus, agricultural techniques experienced a sidereal leap, to the point of implementing advances that are still visible today in part of the peninsular territory, especially in the Levante area. “Since the end of the 10th century, there has been a clear interest in improving cultivation techniques,” he says. Samsó. Many scientists in the Andalusian period tried to apply Hippocratic-Galenic theories about the human body to agriculture.

Botanical gardens were established and a “spectacular development” of irrigation techniques was irrigation techniques. Studies on the type of fertilizer suitable for certain soils are also implemented “very seriously” and a whole theory about four supposed classes of soil, according to its warmth, humidity, coldness or dryness, is set up.

By the 10th century, Al Andalus had broken away from the Caliphates of the East and exhibited a clear autonomy of its own. evident autonomy in all fields of science, administration, diplomacy and politics. “Contact is already lost with all the scientific development of Eastern Islam, and original concepts germinate in the peninsula, mainly in the field of astronomy” argues Julio Samsó.

The list of scholars in the Andalusian period is remarkable. Apart from the scientists mentioned above, it is only fair to name the mathematicians Maslama and Ibn Al Bagunis,the physician Ibn Walidthe geographer Abdallah Al Bakri;the historian Ibn Khaldun or the philosopher Ibn Gabirol..

Scientific thought enjoyed a prodigious creative momentum throughout Islam, especially thanks to the Indo-Persian impulse, according to the Catalan expert. This is also where the Andalusian hatching can be related.. The influence of Greek thought, which reached the Iberian Peninsula thanks to multiple translations, contributed decisively to the “spectacular scientific impulse” of Al Andalus.