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| World Home » Science & Technology » | Fri. Aug 29, 2008 |
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Greek Astronomy to Copernicus era? mil, Dec 21, 2004. Saroul Greek Astronomy has a long history of philosophy. After Ptolemy and especially after the fall of Roman Empire, the world was divided into two major opinions, movements and religions i.e. Christianity and Islam. The main reason was that the people of both religions did not allow any modification in the Greek picture of Astronomy. The post-Christian type people were seriously concerned in protecting their divine interests more than opposing their acts of observing the celestial bodies. They had no objection for the people for linking their divine thinking with Astronomy but they were against Astrology or any other such science that could possibly drag their followers away from God. That period obstructed the progress of science because the attention of the people was divided more towards the religious culture within the influence of their church, rather than scientific progress in Astronomy. This period is remembered as a period of Dark Ages because the people reverted to the old belief of the flat Earth and the sky. They considered that the Earth was an inverted covering bowl. In short, the tendency of old illiteracy prevailed again, and the advancing knowledge rolled back making the people more traditional and blind believers of he old set of religious philosophy. On the other side, the followers of Mohammed Sahib, who had founded Islam in the 7th Century A.D. had emerged as an influential force. They were against the Astronomical predictions. They simply wanted clear directions of the Holy Mecca for prayers, particularly from various parts of their dominions since according to them the prayers should always be offered facing the direct direction of the Mecca. To achieve the objective, they needed observers and Astronomers who could guide them in locating an easy method of right directions of the Mecca for prayers. Many observatories were built for the purpose, and the people, who had some knowledge about the movement of the stars, were encouraged to join them to promote their religious cause. As a result of this new trend, even the practical astronomers of Islam came forward and deployed their skill to specialize the Ptolemaic system of the planetary motions. A wide publicity was given to their translated versions of 'Almagest' into Arabic and that gained a fairly good popularity all around. At the end of the middle age, certain European rulers changed their strategy by attracting Muslims and Jewish scholars within their kingdoms, and allured them by introducing the Arabic numerals, division of the circle, and Algebra. Some of them were given the assignments of translating the Almagest and other books of Astronomy from Arabic and vice versa. King Alfonso X of Castile employed several scholars for a period of 10 years to construct tables (the Alphonsine Tables, c, 1270) for predicting different positions of the planetary bodies. Although each planet was provided with many epicycles to represent them individually, yet the system had many discrepancies, however, it could not survive for more than a millennium. Ultimately it collapsed. This new trend erupted in the early period of 16th Century A.D. and with this, Europe got an awakening from the long ignorance. In addition, Columbus changed the wave against ignorance. There was an ancient belief that the monsters reigned beyond the edge of the world and they would kill anyone who attempted to reach their territory. Columbus had sailed far off the west to discover the New World and during his voyages he did not come cross so-called monstrous. Moreover, the companions of Magellan had also returned safely. The discovery of Columbus shed the fear of the people of their old belief of monsters and other misguiding notions. In this period of discoveries, more inventions came to light. For instance in the mid 15th Century A.D. Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press by the movable type and this technology helped Copernicus and other scholars to live fast and vast approach to their works. Copernicus rightly felt that the new technology would open doors of opportunities for knowing more detailed work of the scholars speedily and widely in the larger interest of the global knowledge.
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