One must answer these two questions, the second heavier than the first... yes, "Had it ever advanced at all?" For the second question, we can place a bold, solid, weighty "YES" at the beginning of the answer, but without the rest, it would hang in the air!
Yes, hard as it is to believe, there was a time when people in turbans, beards, and robes were advanced in knowledge, science, technology, morality, and every value considered a sign of development. Islamic states had observatories, workshops, universities, academics, researchers, R&D specialists, laboratories, and space scientists. The people of these states lived prosperous lives with amenities such as hospitals, aqueducts, schools, and caravanserais. While the European Middle Ages was an era of superstitions, every kind of filth, epidemics, church dictatorship, feudal tyranny, primitiveness, prejudice, endless enmity and wars, where people lived in ramshackle huts, wore undressed hides, had lice-infested hair and beards, and an average lifespan of 30–35 years — the Islamic Middle Ages, by contrast, was an era of those who continuously advanced knowledge and science, made new discoveries and inventions, carefully evaluated the works of the ancient Greeks and philosophers, used the useful parts for scientific progress, lived in large, clean homes with sunlight, baths, and proper sanitation, wore cotton and linen clothes, lived comfortably with non-Muslims under their rule, and fully understood Islam and their world without complexes. For unbiased scientists who research the subject in depth, the following truth is undeniable: Western civilization took the foundations of its scientific and technological advancements from Islamic civilization.
Leaving aside regression in every field, Muslims, who did not even tolerate stagnation, following the principle "Those who procrastinate perish," adopted the motto "Civilization means rebuilding lands and ensuring the welfare of the people." From the earliest times, they established cities and settlements, striving to develop the lands under their rule so that people could live in safety and prosperity. After the Umayyad army under Tariq ibn Ziyad conquered Andalusia, civilization centers emerged at both ends of the Mediterranean, fed from the same source, illuminating humanity like lighthouses amid the darkness of the Middle Ages. Muslim scholars learned the languages of ancient Greek, Roman, Indian, Persian, and Chinese civilizations to study their works, without discrimination between Christian, pagan, or atheist. Following scrupulously the ahadith "Wisdom is the lost property of the believer; wherever he finds it, he takes it" and "Seek knowledge even as far as China," they bequeathed this legacy to the whole world with great care. They wrote books in hundreds of main and ancillary fields, primarily astronomy, mathematics, geometry, literature, physics, biology, medicine, and geography, filling libraries. Specifically, Baghdad (where the House of Wisdom was located), Cairo, Córdoba, Granada — and in general, all lands under Muslim rule — flourished in every respect. If we were to compare Western Europe of that time with Islamic lands, saying the difference is as great as between today's developed world and the savages living in the Amazon forests would likely not be an exaggeration.
However, words without concrete examples remain in the air; therefore, it is essential to go into specifics and give names:
Nur al-Din al-Bitruji was a professor of astronomy at the University of Andalusia. His writings and findings illuminated the path for those who came centuries later, such as Galileo and Copernicus.
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) wrote that the cause of some diseases was "worms" in the human body — i.e., what we know as microbes.
Abu Bakr al-Razi (Rhazes) is a physician whose name transcends ages. He performed the first eye surgery, established that measles and smallpox were different diseases, and was the first to use painkillers.
Al-Battani of Harran is the founder of trigonometry and perhaps the father of astronomy as we know it. He established an observatory in the 900s, observed the movements of the moon, earth, and sun, and performed various calculations.
Abu Rayhan al-Biruni is one of the greatest scholars of all time. There is hardly any field he did not study or produce works in. If modern science exists, Biruni must be one of its cornerstones. Indeed, without the adjective "Islamic" in his biography, it would probably not be an exaggeration to call him the world's greatest scholar. He discovered gravity and the rotation of the earth centuries before others and recorded them in his books.
Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber) is the father of modern chemistry. His works were taught for years in Europe. Like Biruni, he was a polymath. He went so "far" as to mention the immense power within the atom!
Abu al-Wafa' al-Buzjani is the mathematician who discovered tangent, cotangent, secant, and cosecant in trigonometry.
Al-Farabi (Alpharabius) was the first to define sound in physics.
Ghiyath al-Din Jamshid was the first to use the decimal fraction system.
Ibn al-Jazzar treated leprosy patients.
Abbas ibn Firnas built the first flying vehicle and succeeded in flying.
Ibn Khaldun is one of the founders of history and sociology.
Abbas Vesim discovered the tuberculosis microbe one and a half centuries before Europe.
Ibn al-Nafis is the physician who discovered pulmonary circulation.
Piri Reis and his map need no further explanation.
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi is the scholar who discovered the number zero (0) and founded the science of algebra. The word "algorithm" comes from his name.
Al-Damiri compiled a multi-volume encyclopedia of zoology.
Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) is the founder of optics. He was the guide for those who sought to make eyeglasses, microscopes, and telescopes.
The answer to the second question is actually easier than the first. The first question is much more complex, relative, and vexing: The early centuries of Islamic civilization were the address of advancement, development, and enlightenment in every field. But when this advancement and wealth brought with it excess and transgression, first the eastern Mediterranean took a heavy blow (seemingly at the hands of Genghis's armies), leaving most of its legacy to the waters of the Tigris, and was thrown off its center. The same happened two centuries later in Andalusia. After that, almost the only power left was the Ottoman Empire. However, after the first Hijri millennium (i.e., after the 1600s), the Islamic world first stagnated, then underwent a rapid decline. Europe, having broken free from the yoke of a corrupted Christianity and the church that lived off religious peddling, began to study Islamic works and take them as a foundation, witnessing an irresistible pace of development. By the 1800s, having gained an unstoppable momentum (the contribution of its underhanded activities, such as fully exploiting Africa, cannot be denied), Europe widened the gap and established the Western civilization we now look at with envy. Agents and puppets that began to roam freely in Islamic lands first removed the sciences from the madrasas, claiming "a religious scholar has no need for knowledge of the physical sciences," ensuring the training of ignorant clergy, and then raised the clamor that "Islam is an obstacle to progress." To formulate the matter simply and give credit where it is due: Muslims progressed as long as they adhered strictly to their religion and obeyed its commands faithfully, while Christians progressed when they turned their backs on their religion and managed to free themselves from that burden.
