Natural Sciences in The Era of ‘Decline’: A Study in The History of Jāmi’ al- Azhar

This paper aims to critically read the decline narrative as a paradigm, especially in reading the development of natural sciences in Islamic history. The 16th century to the 19th century AD is often considered a period of decline of Islamic civilization, while at the same time, this period is also considered a time of the European Renaissance and its modern era, including in terms of natural science. This paper argues that efforts to periodize Islamic history are very biased by the West's interest to hegemonize the Islamic world. Using a historical approach, library research as a data source perspective, and qualitative research as an analytical perspective with Jami' al-Azhar as a case study, this study found that first: the decline narrative is closely related to modern Western theory as the end of human history. Second: Egyptian Modernists use the narrative of decline to attack al-Azhar and some of its scholars who are considered conservative, even though they are very supportive of progress. Third: the decline narrative built by modernists against al-Azhar and its scholars for not paying attention to the natural sciences is a distortion; as evidence, I found many manuscripts written by al-Azhar scholars or were studied at Jāmi’ al- Azhar related to natural sciences such as medic, mathematics, astronomy, geometry from the 16th century to the 19th century AD, before modernism came to Egypt.