The 17th-century Ottoman polymath Katip Celebi discusses how Kurdish figures immigrating to the Ottoman Empire brought the "rational sciences" back to life after their "temporary decline" as a result of fanaticism:
In every age, men of sound natural judgement and straight mind have not failed to read and study them. In every age, the works of scholars who have devoted themselves to both philosophy and sacred law have been widely known and esteemed and sought after. The great divines and scholars, the Imam Ghazali, the Imam Fakhr al-Din Rāzī, the learned 'Adud al-Din and his followers, the Qadi Baydāwī, the learned Shīrāzī, and Qutb al-Din Rāzi and Sa'd al-Din Taftazānī, and the Sayyid the Sharif Jurjānī and their learned follower Jalal Dawwāni, and their disciples, reached the heights of study and investigation and did not confine themselves to one branch of knowledge only.
But many unintelligent people, seeing that the trans-mission of these sciences had once been banned, remained as inert as rocks, frozen in blind imitation of the ancients. Without deliberation or consideration of the truth of the matter, they rejected and repudiated the new sciences. They passed for learned men, while all the time they were ignoramuses, fond of disparaging what they called 'the philosophical sciences', and know-ing nothing of earth or sky. The admonition 'Have they not contemplated the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth?" (Kor. 7:184) made no impression on them: they thought 'contemplating' the world and the firmament meant staring at them like a cow.
From the beginning of the Ottoman Empire till the time of the late Sultan Suleyman, whose abode is Paradise, scholars who combined the study of the sacred sciences with that of philosophy were held in high renown.
The Conqueror, Sultan Mehmed, had built the Eight Colleges, Colleges, and had written in his waqfiya 'Let work be carried on in accordance with the qanun', and had appointed lessons in the 'Notes on the Tajrid' and the 'Commentary on the Mawaqif', Those who came after put a stop to these lessons, as being 'philosophy', and thought it reasonable to give lessons on the Hidaya and Akmal. But as restriction to these was not reason-able, neither philosophy nor Hidāya and Akmal was left. Thereupon the market for learning in Rum (Turkey) slumped, and the men of learning were nigh to dis-appearing. Then the novices of scholars who were working 'in accordance with the qanun' in some out-lying places, here and there in the land of the Kurds, came to Rūm and began to give themselves tremendous airs. Seeing them, some capable men in our time became students of philosophy. As a student, I, the humble writer of these lines, in the course of dis-cussion and study, was encouraged by some men of talent, as Plato was encouraged by Socrates, to acquire knowledge of the truths of things.
Both before and after Katip Celebi, similar remarks were made. It is not restricted to the Ottoman period or to Katip Celebi. Ibn Khaldun identified two areas of the Muslim world during the Mamluk period where, to the best of his knowledge, the intellectual disciplines were still thriving:
Muslim scientists assiduously studied the (Greek sciences). They became skilled in the various branches. The (progress they made in the) study of those sciences could not have been better. They contradicted the First Teacher (Aristotle) on many points. They considered him the decisive authority as to whether an opinion should be rejected or accepted, because he possessed the greatest fame. They wrote systematic works on the subject. They surpassed their predecessors in the intellectual sciences.
Abu Nasr al-Farabi and Abu 'Ali Ibn Sina (Avicenna) in the East, and Judge Abul-Walid b. Rushd (Averroes) and the wazir Abu Bakr b. as-Sa'igh (Avempace) in Spain, were among the greatest Muslim (philosophers), and there were others who reached the limit in the intellectual sciences. The men mentioned enjoy especial fame and prestige.
Many (scientists) restricted themselves to cultivating the mathematical disciplines and the related sciences of astrology, sorcery, and talismans. The most famous practitioners of these sciences were Jabir b. Hayyan in the East, and the Spaniard, Maslamah b. Ahmad al-Majriti, and his pupils.
The intellectual sciences and their representatives succeeded to some degree in penetrating Islam. They seduced many people who were eager to study those sciences and accept the opinions expressed in them. In this respect, the sin falls' upon the person who commits it. "If God had wanted it, they would not have done it."
Later on, civilizational activity stopped in the Maghrib and in Spain. The sciences decreased with the decrease of civilization. As a consequence, scientific activity disappeared there, save for a few remnants that may be found among scattered individuals and that are controlled by orthodox religious scholars.
We hear that the intellectual sciences are still amply represented among the inhabitants of the East, in particular in the non-Arab 'Iraq and, farther east, in Transoxania. The people there are said to be very successful in the intellectual and traditional sciences, because their civilization is abundant and their sedentary culture firmly established.
In Egypt, I have become acquainted with numerous works by a great scholar of Herat in Khurasan, by name Sa'd-ad-din at-Taftazani. Some of his works are on speculative theology, the principles of jurisprudence, and syntax and style (bayan). They show that he is well grounded in these sciences. They (also) contain things proving that he has studied and knows the philosophical sciences and is well versed in all the intellectual disciplines. "God aids whomever He wishes to aid."
We further hear now that the philosophical sciences are greatly cultivated in the land of Rome and along the adjacent northern shore of the country of the European Christians. They are said to be studied there again and to be taught in numerous classes. Existing systematic expositions of them are said to be comprehensive, the people who know them numerous, and the students of them very many. God knows better what exists there. "He creates whatever He wishes, and His is the choice."
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