The Lost Empiricism of al-Jahiz

Modern-day Muslims often nostalgically remember their Golden Age, spanning from the eighth to the 13th centuries, when Islamic civilization led the world in science, technology, philosophy, medicine, and various other branches of human flourishing. One thing they may not always note, however, is that this premodern enlightenment was enabled by the cosmopolitanism of the early Islamic civilization, where Muslims not only ruled over many diverse communities—from Christians to Jews, from Zoroastrians to Hindus—but also engaged intellectually with their rich traditions. Among the latter was the Greek philosophical heritage preserved by Nestorian churches, which helped raise Islam’s own philosophers.