The Day the World Took Off: One Day–Brenda Denny

This program discusses the reasons why the industrial revolution happened in Britain rather than a city in China or the Islamic Empire. The invention of the Rocket Steam Engine sparked a complete change in civilization as it was known in the 1800s—machines replacing people to do labor. Rather than people living on their own time, their lives were set by the rhythm of machines. They internalized the rhythm of the clock to such a point that they no longer had to reference their watches. In contrast to this new development in society, the people in China did saw “no need for unnecessary action”—quote on the emperor’s wall in the Forbidden City. While clocks had been know about for centuries, the only use that the emperor saw for them was to remind the guards to change shifts. One fact that I found interesting was that if frog legs were placed into a cup of water they would petrify, but when placed into a cup of tea they did not. tea acted as an “anti-bacterial” agent for their water as well as their digestive system. The practice of drinking tea, popular in both Britain and Japan, allowed them to survive and surpass the usual difficulty of population influx. Near the end of the documentary, they discuss how there cannot be development if people live in harmony with nature. The builder of the railroad between Manchester and Liverpool spent years leveling and altering the land in order to allow a flat path for his steam-engine. Thus, the connection between nature and people was diminished, as is the nature of a transient “time is money” culture.

The Macfarlen Clips

During class on January 31st, 2008, we watched a series of video clips from professor Alan Macfarlane a British historian. In the small video clips which we watched Professor Macfarlane looked to examine the reasons as to why the Islamic empire declined.  Some of the reasons he stated for their failures was that the Islamic world didn’t have enough universities and it usually drew away from the question of why things are what they are. as the clips progressed he also pointed out that another reason may have been the involvement of religion in peoples everyday lives.  although watching the films helped to provide a alternating perspective to what we have watched, i disagree with some of the points professor Macfarlane bought up in his clips. Watching the clips i felt that his focus was a bit bias.  the main reasons he points out for the demise of the Islamic empire i believe is flawed, it is not possible advance peoples knowledge on a given topic if people do not ask and challenge existing theories. during the prosperity of the Muslim empire, the Muslim scholars constantly questioned existing knowledge and there fore as a result they were able to invent new theories and technologies.

Industry and Science: Macfarlane-SoniaS

In the movie we watched in class on Thursday, January 31^st, Alan Macfarlene discussed many points on the science and industry in the Islamic world. In he first point, reasons for statistics in Islamic science, Alan Macfarlene discusses come reasons why Islamic science failed to switch its dominance after its early brilliance. He stated that they didn’t have universities, and religious schools weren’t the same, and he also said that Islam also draws the line of too much asking of questions of why this and why that. The next topic Macfarlane discussed was the topic of why an industrial revolution had not occurred in the Ottoman Empire. There were natural resource shortages, which was among reasons of the lack of development in the empire. There was also no grain, and no vegetables, in Islam, whereas the West had new methods of raising crops in addition to rich soils and great plowing. Another topic was on the nature of Islamic religion and civilization, here Macfarlene discussed the ways in which the Islamic religion saturates all aspects of civilization, and puts limits on scientific and industrial development. Next, commercial sophistication was discussed, it discussed the market systems in the Ottoman Empire and reflected on the factors which made it difficult to take this towards a modern industrial civilization such as the fact that they don’t produce anything there, they simply buy and sell goods. The nature of power in the ottoman empire was discussed, and in this portion Macfarlene reflected on the nature of the political and social power within the Ottoman Empire, in Islam there is no diversity of groups, and there is a strong conservative argument that’s based on the idea that the strength of society depends on its diversity with lots of different groups. Lastly, Macfarlene discussed science, religion, and technology in Islamic civilizations; he went over the differences between religions and technologies and their effects on the development of thought. All in all this film was very informative, as it clearly described key characteristics in Islamic culture.

Macfarlane Clips

The videos of Macfarlane somewhat gave us the information on how Islam developed in its early ages and how scientific developments failed there. He made three reasons of why did they fail which are as under: 1. Destruction of Mongols 2. Lack of learning Center 3. Much devotion to the religion. Obviously, I do not think that every point is right made by Mr. Macfarlane. I think that there were plenty of learning centers and devotion to the religion is in practice by every other religion. I agree that some people might have devoted their lives just doing the prayers in that era, but I think that’s because many people have adopted this new religion at that time and they wanted to experience the beauty of it. Macfarlane also discussed about the things Ottoman empire produced and why industrial revolution did not take place there.

Industry and Science – Macfarlane :: Traian Dragomir

Macfarlane’s videos we watched in class were very interesting. He expressed his perspective about why the Islamic Empire did not become an industrialized power very concise and easy to understand. For example, even though the Islamic Empire was so vast, it’s conservative religion did not allow for new ideas. As stated in the video, Islam goes back to the time of Muhammad and tries to live after its teachings while Christianity, which dominated Europe at that time, looks forward to its prophet’s return to Earth. This allowed Europeans to revolutionize everything, without any restraints (except for the fact that the world is flat =P) during that time. Moreover, the Ottoman Empire’s social life was very unpredictable which led to distrust between the sultan and his subjects.

However, social life was not the only obstacle the Empire faced. Numerous Mongol attacks weakened it. Also, the fact that the Empire controlled mostly arid land did not allow for revolutions in agriculture which, at that time, played and important role in the development of any society. Maybe the society was not interested in producing agricultural goods so they became very good merchants. They would have rather imported and bargained than mass-producing.

Another very good point made by Macfarlane was that for a society to advance technologically some standards of living had to be met. For example, unlike Europe, the taxes in the Islamic Empire were very harsh. Furthermore, everyday life was unpredictable and society didn’t have much of a legal system.

Macfarlane Video Clips

The Video clips made by Allen Macfarlane gave you incite about Islam as a whole and explained about how it developed. Macfarlane gave us his theories as to how the Islamic science failed:

1) The mongos destroyed it.

2) The Islamic science didn’t have a learning center.

and

3) They where taught religion more then anything else.

Macfarlane also compared Islam to the west and explained what the differences are which greatly made everything easier to understand for me. One thing I found very interesting about the clips where that the Islamic people lived there life based on the religion, that they didn’t have a seperation of church and state as we do now.

Industry and Science-Macfarlane {Marcus C.}

    Watching the series of video clips from Macfarlane were very informal. He discussed the many key aspects about the industry of the Islamic culture. From watching the clips, he stated that they have not grown very much economically due to the fact of their religion. He argues that the reason they have not grown economically is that they place their religion into everything. From education, to entertainment. He says that by doing this, they are only limited to a certain level of advancement. Macfarline compares it to other religions and how they keep their religious affairs separated from the state in order to advance.

Macfarlane Video Clips- Rachel K

The Alan Macfarlane video clips aimed to explain why the Islamic empire failed to prosper during the industrial revolution. The reasons he gave during the video were that 1) the Islamic empire had not developed an agricultural system like the European countries 2) The production of Islamic goods were made for quality and not quantity which prevented the mass distribution of items because most people could not afford them 3) The Islamic faith deterred new ideas and did not have a separation from church and state like those in the European countries. Their religion played a main role in everything they did and with such defining limits, new ideas and philosophies from that area were not founded. Basically, the Islamic empire could not keep up with the changing times and held onto their old ways which in the end cut them off from the industrial revolution. 

Professor Macfarlane Interview

I think Professor Macfarlana made some valid points in the documentary as to theories for the stasis in Islamic science. Possible theories that I agreed with included were (1) that the Islamic empire didn’t have an agricultural revolution to produce an agricultural surplus to fund the prospect of revolution, (2)the West fouun an alternative trade route to the East that bypassed the Islamic world and its ability to fund scientific discovery, (3) Islamic empire produced goods at high quality but unable to produce products in mass quantity and therefore unable to spread an industrial culture, and (4)the Islamic empire lacked a unitary, unified political system and once it could no longer expand its empire by military conquest, its rule fell. But I disagree with a few of Professor Macfarlane’s theories. Macfarlane attributes the stasis of Islamic science to the Monguls destroying it and wiping it out. When the Monguls conquered the Islamic empire they wound up adopting the Islamic way of life and instead of threatening its existence, it assimilated into their culture. The founding of an alternative trade route to the East that bypassed the Islamic empire was discovered during the same time as the Mongul conquest of the Islamic world and is sometimes mistaken for the cause of the fall of the Islamic empire when it was really that the alternative trade route took away the Islamic world’s ability to fund scientific discovery. Macfarlene also mentions as a possible theory that the nature of the Islamic religion prevented scientific discovery in the Islamic empire. He believes that the penetration of Islamic religion in all aspects of life prevented scientific discovery because people were afraid of what God might think. He also stated that Islam was a finished revelation and looked backwards to Muhammad’s revelation and any innovation or progress challenging that was dangeorus whereas Christianity was an unfinished revelation allowing for progress and innovation. In the past Christians had looed down upon philsophy and intellectual innovation in Ancient Greece when the ideas of sophists challenged traditional religion, absolute moral values, and public values. It was the Muslims who challenged and questioned everything until it could proven to be a universal truth or theory thus creating the scientific method. I disagree with Macfarlene’s theory that the nature of Islamic religion was the cause of stasis in Islamic science. 

Industry and Science: Macfarlane

The Macfarlane videos provide an interesting perspective on why the Ottoman Empire did not have an industrial revolution. The causes of the Ottoman Empire’s collapse were all tied to its financial infrastructure. Macfarlane argues that the absence of an industrial revolution stems from their lack of an agricultural basis, the Mongol invasion that “crushed their center of knowledge and science,” and a new trade route was found to bypass the Ottoman Empire. While they enjoyed making high quality goods, they did not see the value of mass production. Thus, once their commerce was diminished, their whole system crumbled. They had no production of their own that they could rely on. the weak condition of the working class, the bourgeois, was yet another cause of less productivity. At the height of the Ottoman Empire’s existence, they had nothing left to conquer. For an empire that thrived on conquest, this was highly detrimental. With no commerce and no nearby lands to conquer, they had no means of bringing in goods to support their civilization. Ergo, I believe that Macfarlane aptly provides a logical explanation of why this great empire crumbled from the inside out.