Q. & A. 711 to 1707 with solved Papers css 1971 to date

Political and Cultural History of Islam
Moorish society found their way from Granada into Province. The French and English nobles imbibed the Arab admiration of the horse. Hunting and falconry became their fashionable pastimes It was a scene of grandeur and gallantry, the pastimes beinii tilts and tournaments. And this reminds us of the Normans Nci’iandy, we know, is in France. The battle of Hastings is consideicd one of the decisive battles of the world. Theeffects of the Norman invasion on the English mind and fancy, which had been hitherto provincial and uncouth,-were to infuse the lightness, grace and self-confidence of romance into the literature of the period. The genesis of modern English literature points to the north of France and the Trouveres, who were themselves influenced by the polished Moors of Spain.
Just take the case of one of the great romances of the East, the Arabian Nights, and notice its influence. Many romantic writers of Europe have acknowledged their debt to even an imperfect translation of the tales. Balzac never turned to them in vain, when his prodigious imagination needed a spur. Thackery has told us in a charming passage how the ”Nights” fascinated and inspired him. In the life of Charles Dickens we are told that the dormant imagination of the future novelist was roused to action by a perusal of the ”Thousand and One Nights.” Hawthorne’s letters are filled with allusions to the stories whose influence can be traced as clearly in many of the shorter stories. Stevenson, who knew the Burton version, tells us in his Memoirs and Portraits, that the ”Arabian Nights” was one of the books that helped to form his mind and style. Scientific Progress
The Saracen Empire was dotted all over with colleges and in the heyday of Muslim power. Spain alone boasted of 70 libraries. Colleges were also established in Mongolia, Tartary, Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt, North Africa, Morocco and Fez. Great was the patronage that learning received at this time. To give an adequate statement of the results of this imposing scientific movement would far transcend the limits of these pages. The ancient sciences were gradually extended and new ones brought into existence.
At various centres of the Empire observatories were established under Mamun, and by exchanging observations Islam succeeded in revising the astronomical tables of Ptolemy, and in ascertaining, with greater precision, the obliquity of the ecliptic and the orbits of the sun, the moon and the planets. In a most ingenious
Muslims Contribution in the European Renaissance
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manner al-Beruni, who is considered the most profound and original savant and mathematician that Islam produced in the realm of natural science, determined the magnitude of the earth’s circumference. He brought out in 1030 A.D. an account of the whole science of astronomy called al-Qanun al-Mas’udi fi al-Hayat w-al- Najum. He has discussed scientifically the then controversial theory of earth’s rotation on its axis and made accurate determination of latitudes and longitudes.
Two of the oldest Muslim astronomers al-Farghan and alBattani were the preceptors of Europe and under the name of Alfraganus and Albategnius enjoyed high and wide spread renown. Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Jabir al~ Battani, Undoubtedly the greatest astronomer of his time, made his observations and studies in al-Raqqah from 877 to 918. His contributions were original. According to Prof.. Hitti, ”He made several emendations to Ptolemy and rectified the calculations for the orbits of the moon and certain planets. He proved the possibility of annual eclipses of the sun and determined with greater accuracy the obliquity of the ecliptic, the length of the tropical year and the seasons and the true and mean orbit of the sun”.
AI-Battani wrote a large treatise and compiled astronomical tables. His greatest claim to fame is undoubtedly that, if he did not discover, he at least popularized the first notions of trigonometrical ratios as we use them today Ptolemy used chords, for the calculation of which he had only one main theorem, a very clumsy one. AlBattani substituted the sine for the chord. He used tangent and cotangent and he was acquainted with two or three fundamental relations in trigonometry. Joseph Hell has rightly remarked that ”In the domain of trigonometry the theory of sine, cosine and tangent is an heirloom of the Arabs. The brilliant epochs of Peurbach of Regiomontanus, of Copernicus, cannot be recalled without reminding us of the fundamental and preparatory labours of the Arab Mathematician”.
Writing about the great advance made by the Muslims in the domain of mathematics, Joseph Hell comments thus : ”Taking over the elements of mathematics from Euclid, the decimal system from the Indians in the ninth century. the> soon made substantial progress. The adoption of the sign ”Zero” (Arabic Sifr) was a step of the highest importance, leading up to the so-called arithmetic of positions. With the help of the Arab system of numbers, elemental}

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