The Secret Scientists

According to the popular notion of science history, the period between the ninth and thirteenth centuries was what has come to be called the Dark Ages.

Scientific advances ground to a halt and the world languished in an intellectual backwater and then the Renaissance happened. The world woke up and great science got going again, picking up where the ancient Greeks and Romans had left off.

But, as Professor Jim Al-Khalili will show in this series, that simply is not true.

In part three Professor Jim Al-Khalili looks at the work of Abu Rayhan Biruni, whose work on astronomy led to the calculation of the Earth's circumference with an incredible degree of accuracy.

Jim also explores how the Christian Crusades, the invasion of the Mongols and the fall of the Abbasid dynasty may have contributed to the slow-down of great scholarship during the 13th century.

Finally he explores the status of science in the modern Muslim world and investigates recent developments in funding, research and efforts to promote awareness of the scientific glories of the past.

First broadcast on 29 April 2009.