Greetings Trumble,
I know that Mohammed's political achievements alone identify him as a genius, and that while illiterate he certainly would have spoken to people from a wide variety of backgrounds. I know that that same knowledge would have resided in all centres of learning between Rome and India, and a great many people who generally resided or travelled elsewhere would have been exposed to it via others particularly when it may well have been 'common knowledge'.
It is only an assumption that the knowledge of the earth being spherical was so widespread at that time, when "the
Early Middle Ages (ca. 3rd to 7th centuries) saw
occasional arguments in favor of a flat Earth". Furthermore:
Around 150 AD, Claudius Ptolemy, a Greek geographer, mathematician, and astronomer, compiled an encyclopedia of the ancient world from the archives of a legendary library in Alexandria, Egypt. His eight-volume Geography included extensive maps of the known world, all based on a curved globe.
Unfortunately, learning and intellect went out of fashion in Europe between 400 and 1200 AD. The storehouses of Greek knowledge were lost to Western society with the advent of the gloomy period known as the Dark Ages. Sea monsters and Vikings ruled the seas, and ships that ventured too far from shore were sure to fall off the edge of a flat Earth. Maps made in that time were based on religious beliefs or superstitions, not on observations, calculations, or scientific inquiry. Rectangular maps of the Earth represented the "four corners of the Earth." Circular maps usually placed the birthplace of Christianity, the holy city of Jerusalem, at the center of the world.
http://www.gma.org/space1/nav_map.html
So although some people may have known the earth was spherical, it cannot be said for certain that
all centres of learning would have had this same belief. We also know about the Prophet's (pbuh) homeland:
In that benighted era, darkness lay heavier and thicker in one land than in any other. The neighboring countries of Persia, Byzantium, and Egypt possessed a glimmer of civilization and a faint light of learning, but the Arabian peninsula, isolated and cut off by vast oceans of sand, was culturally and intellectually one of the world’s most backward areas. The Hijaz, birthplace of the Prophet, had not passed through even the limited development of neighboring regions, and had not experienced any social evolution or attained any intellectual development of note. Although their highly developed language could express the finest shades of meaning, a study of their literature’s remnants reveals the limited extent of their knowledge. All of this shows their low cultural and civilization standards, their deeply superstitious nature, their barbarous and ferocious customs, and their uncouth and degraded moral standards and conceptions.
http://www.islamanswers.net/crossroads/prophet.htm
The idea that Mohammed's Mecca was somehow isolated in some bubble from the rest of the world simply isn't credible. If anything, it's rather insulting to its inhabitants. It was a trading town, on the route from Southern Arabia and even India to the Byzantine (and previously Roman) empires, not to mention assorted other places.
Makkah was a religious center more than anything, and the caravans would go to Syria in the summer and Yemen in the winter. It is also important to note that Muhammad (pbuh) lived as a shepherd for much of his life, and prior to Prophethood he would spend much of his time away from society contemplating. It is therefore quite apparent that the more we examine the life and location of Muhammad (pbuh), the more baseless the allegations about him become.
In fact, these claims are not new; the Qur'an itself makes mention of them:
Those who disbelieve say: "This (the Qur'ân) is nothing but a lie that he (Muhammad ) has invented, and others have helped him at it, so that they have produced an unjust wrong (thing) and a lie."
And they say: "Tales of the ancients, which he has written down, and they are dictated to him morning and afternoon."
Say: "It (this Qur'ân) has been sent down by Him (Allâh) (the Real Lord of the heavens and earth) Who knows the secret of the heavens and the earth. Truly, He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful."
[25:4-6]
The commentary of these verses mentions:
Because this idea is so foolish and is so patently false, everyone knows that it is not true. It is known through Mutawatir reports and is a common fact that Muhammad the Messenger of Allah never learned to read or write, either at the beginning or the end of his life. He grew up among them for approximately forty years, from the time he was born until the time when his mission began. They knew all about him, and about his honest and sound character and how he would never lie or do anything immoral or bad. They even used to call him Al-Amin (the Trustworthy One) from a young age, until his mission began, because they saw how truthful and honest he was. When Allah honored him with that which He honored him, they declared their enmity towards him and came up with all these accusations which any reasonable person would know he was innocent of. They were not sure what to accuse him of. Sometimes they said that he was a sorcerer, at other times they would say he was a poet, or crazy, or a liar.
Many inerrancies arise if one goes down the path that such information was taught to Muhammad (pbuh) by others. For instance, why would this information be mentioned in the context of drawing attention to Allaah's creation? Wouldn't he subscribe to the Greek philosophy or widespread beliefs at that time whilst delivering the information in a more scientific, in-depth fashion? The Qur'an would be more of a scientific journal if such was the case.
Looking at it in context, this is just one aspect out of many which attest to the truth of the Qur'an. The Qur'an includes many other scientific references that do not go against our scientific understanding today. If we consider the time period of superstition and ignorance as well as the person to whom the Qur'an was revealed, how is this possible?
Trumble said:
Oddly enough, the heyday of the 'flat-earthers' was actually many centuries later in Europe. In the muslim world Imam Al-Suyuti (15th century) believed the world to be flat (which, as I happily agree the Qur'an says it is round, seems rather odd), contrasting with earlier muslim opinion.
The wikipedia article goes on to mention:
Medieval Muslim World
At some time in the
9th century, with scholars like
Al-Battani, the
Muslim World was leading in
astronomical knowledge, and the sphericity of the Earth was consequently a well known fact. Around 830 CE, Caliph
al-Ma'mun commissioned a group of astronomers to measure the distance from Tadmur (
Palmyra) to
al-Raqqah, in modern Syria. They found the cities to be separated by one degree of latitude and the distance between them to be 66 2/3 miles and thus calculated the Earth's circumference to be 24,000 miles.
[38]
Ibn Taymiya (died 1328 CE), said:
"Celestial bodies are round - as it is the statement of astronomers and mathematicians - it is [likewise] the statement of the scholars of the Muslims; as Abul-Hasan ibn al-Manaadi, Abu Muhammad Ibn Hazm, Abul-Faraj Ibn Al-Jawzi and others have quoted: that the Muslim scholars are in agreement (that all celestial bodies are round). Indeed Allah has said: And He (i.e., Allah) it is Who created the night and the day, the sun and the moon. They float, each in a Falak. Ibn Abbas says: A Falaka like that of a spinning wheel. The word 'Falak' (in the Arabic language) means "that which is round." [39]
Many Muslim scholars declared a mutual agreement (
Ijma) that celestial bodies are round. Some of them are:
Ibn Hazm (d. 1069),
Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1200), and
Ibn Taymiya (d. 1328). The later belief of Muslim scholars, like
Suyuti (d. 1505) that the earth is flat represents a deviation from this earlier opinion .
[40]
The Muslim scholars who held to the round earth theory used it in an impeccably Islamic manner, to calculate the distance and direction from any given point on the earth and
Mecca. This determined the
Qibla, or Muslim direction of prayer. Muslim mathematicians developed
spherical trigonometry which was used in these calculations.
[41] Ibn Khaldun, in his famous
Muqaddimah, clearly says the world is spherical.
There is also a verse in the Quran [79:30] which some modern English translations give as "He made the earth egg-shaped"
[42] which suggests that the Earth was not believed to be flat. Most translations ("And after that He spread the earth") suggest that this verse can be interpreted to support the flat Earth theory.
lavikor,
Really? The moon just splits in half then?
Miracles are different to scientific facts, since miracles, by definition, go against ordinary laws of nature.
Peace.
and Greetings,
