Epigraph:

هُوَ الَّذِي جَعَلَ الشَّمْسَ ضِيَاءً وَالْقَمَرَ نُورًا وَقَدَّرَهُ مَنَازِلَ لِتَعْلَمُوا عَدَدَ السِّنِينَ وَالْحِسَابَ ۚ مَا خَلَقَ اللَّهُ ذَٰلِكَ إِلَّا بِالْحَقِّ ۚ يُفَصِّلُ الْآيَاتِ لِقَوْمٍ يَعْلَمُونَ 

إِنَّ فِي اخْتِلَافِ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ وَمَا خَلَقَ اللَّهُ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ لَآيَاتٍ لِّقَوْمٍ يَتَّقُونَ 

Allah it is Who made the sun radiate a brilliant light and the moon reflect a luster, and ordained for it stages, that you might know the number of years, reckoning of time and mathematics. Allah has not created this but in truth. He details the Signs for a people who have knowledge. Indeed, in the alternation of night and day, and in all that Allah has created in the heavens and the earth there are Signs for a God-fearing people. (Al Quran 10:5-6)

وَجَعَلْنَا اللَّيْلَ وَالنَّهَارَ آيَتَيْنِ ۖ فَمَحَوْنَا آيَةَ اللَّيْلِ وَجَعَلْنَا آيَةَ النَّهَارِ مُبْصِرَةً لِّتَبْتَغُوا فَضْلًا مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ وَلِتَعْلَمُوا عَدَدَ السِّنِينَ وَالْحِسَابَ ۚ وَكُلَّ شَيْءٍ فَصَّلْنَاهُ تَفْصِيلًا 

And We have made the night and the day two Signs, and the Sign of night We have made dark, and the Sign of day We have made sight giving, that you may seek bounty from your Lord, and that you may know the computation of years, reckoning of time and mathematics. And everything We have explained with a detailed explanation. (Al Quran 17:12)

Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD

The key Arabic word in the above verses is الْحِسَابَ, which means calculating, reckoning of time or mathematics. The above verses put this word in the context of day and night and solar and lunar calendars. No wonder, the field of mathematics developed in the context of astronomical developments in the Golden age of Islam, from 8th to 12th centuries.

There is another very short verse using a word based on the same root word:

الشَّمْسُ وَالْقَمَرُ بِحُسْبَانٍ

This is the fifth verse of Surah Rehman, chapter 55 of the Quran. Apparently, the verse has only three or four words. But, it is pregnant with meanings. For the Muslim civilization it was a magical wand to create the whole field of astronomy and mathematics. My translation of this verse is:

The sun and the moon move by precise calculation.

Let me now present different translations from the well known Muslim English translations:

[At His behest] the sun and the moon run their appointed courses. — Muhammad Asad

The sun and the moon are made punctual. — William Pickthal

The sun and the moon follow courses (exactly) computed. — Yusuf Ali

The sun and the moon run by a mathematical design. (Such are the changeless Laws given in this Book) — Shabbir Ahmed

The sun and the moon function (perfectly), as per their schedules. — Dr. Munir Munshey

The sun and the moon follow their calculated courses. — Abdel Haleem

The sun and the moon move according to a fixed reckoning. — Wahiduddin Khan

The sun and the moon move according to a fixed reckoning. — Sir Muhammad Zafrulla

Now a few non-Muslim translations:

The sun and the moon pursue their ordered course. — N.J. Dawood

The sun and the moon run their courses according to a certain rule. — George Sale

The sun and moon [move along] like clockwork. — T.B. Irving

The Sun and the Moon have each their times. John Medows Rodwell

The sun and the moon to a reckoning. — A.J. Arberry

The Quran was revealed during a 23 year period from 609 to 632 AD. The Muslims tried to understand these and other verses pregnant with study of nature, astronomy and mathematics and the divine text inspired many, over the decades and centuries. As the Muslim influence spread from Arabia to Iraq, Syria and Spain a new culture of learning developed. Let us fast forward two centuries:

The House of Wisdom was an academy established in Baghdad under Abbasid caliph Al-Ma’mun in the early 9th century. Astronomical research was greatly supported by al-Mamun through the House of Wisdom.

The first major Muslim work of astronomy was Zij al-Sindhind, produced by the mathematician Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi in 830. It contained tables for the movements of the Sun, the Moon, and the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The work introduced Ptolemaic concepts and of Indian astronomers into Islamic science, and marked a turning point in Islamic astronomy, which had previously concentrated on translating works, but which now began to develop new ideas.^[9]

It is a work consisting of approximately 37 chapters on calendrical and astronomical calculations and 116 tables with calendrical, astronomical and astrological data, as well as a table of sine values. This is the first of many Arabic Zijes based on the Indian astronomical methods known as the sindhind.^[67] 

The work contains tables for the movements of the sun, the moon and the five planets known at the time. This work marked the turning point in Islamic astronomy. Hitherto, Muslim astronomers had adopted a primarily research approach to the field, translating works of others and learning already discovered knowledge.

The original Arabic version is lost, but a version by the Spanish astronomer Maslama al-Majriti (c. 1000) has survived in a Latin translation, presumably by Adelard of Bath (26 January 1126).^[69] The four surviving manuscripts of the Latin translation are kept at the Bibliothèque publique (Chartres), the Bibliothèque Mazarine (Paris), the Biblioteca Nacional (Madrid) and the Bodleian Library (Oxford).

Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi did not just write about astronomy. He was a  Persian polymath who produced vastly influential Arabic-language works in mathematics and geography as well. Hailing from Khwarazm, he was appointed as the astronomer and head of the House of Wisdom in the city of Baghdad around 820 CE.

His popularizing treatise on algebra, compiled between 813–33 as Al-Jabr (The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing),^[6]: 171 presented the first systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations. It is from his book that we have the word algebra.

Medieval Islamic astronomy comprises the astronomical developments made in the Islamic world, particularly during the Islamic Golden Age (9th–13th centuries), and mostly written in the Arabic language. These developments mostly took place in the Middle East, Central Asia, Al-Andalus, and North Africa, and later in the Far East and India. It closely parallels the genesis of other Islamic sciences in its assimilation of foreign material and the amalgamation of the disparate elements of that material to create a science with Islamic characteristics. These included Greek, Sassanid, and Indian works in particular, which were translated and built upon.

Islamic astronomy played a significant role in the revival of ancient astronomy following the loss of knowledge during the early medieval period, notably with the production of Latin translations of Arabic works during the 12th century. Islamic astronomy also had an influence on Chinese astronomy.

A significant number of stars in the sky, such as Aldebaran, Altair and Deneb, and astronomical terms such as alidade, azimuth, and nadir, are still referred to by their Arabic names. A large corpus of literature from Islamic astronomy remains today, numbering approximately 10,000 manuscripts scattered throughout the world, many of which have not been read or catalogued. Even so, a reasonably accurate picture of Islamic activity in the field of astronomy can be reconstructed.

According to the Library of Congress:

Between the 8th and 15th centuries Islamic astronomers produced a wealth of sophisticated astronomical work. Largely through the Ptolemaic framework, they improved and refined the Ptolemaic system, compiled better tables and devised instruments that improved their ability to make observations. The extensive contributions of Islamic astronomy also exposed some weaknesses in the Ptolemaic and Aristotelian systems.

al-Farghani (died after 861), known in the west as Alfraganus, wrote Elements of Astronomy on the Celestial Motions around 833. This textbook provided a largely non-mathematical presentation of Ptolomy’s Almagest, updated with revised values from previous Islamic astronomers. The work circulated widely throughout the Islamic world and was translated into Latin during the 12th century.  It became the primary resource that European scholars used to study Ptolemaic astronomy.

The conclusion is inescapable that the holy Quran triggered scientific inquisitiveness among the Muslims, they learnt from the Greeks and others and improved on astronomy, mathematics and other sciences and transmitted those to Europe from the 12th-15th centuries.

Additional reading

Allah created the universe or the multiverse through mathematics  بِالْحَقِّ

The Quran: Allah has bound the sun and the moon into service, each running its course for an appointed term

The Quranic Verses about Math and Is It Discovered or Invented?