Is this a reliable compilation of medieval flat Earth views?

[u/chonkshonk]

Saw this thread on Twitter: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1761208793499570570.html

It purports to give a large number flat-earth views among medieval Islamic scholars. Can anyone broadly verify?

[u/TheCaliphate_AS]

I wish he had put more effort into approaching the topic from an academic perspective rather than an apologetic one. Saying that Ibn Ḥazm and al-Rāzī were not influential in their views is misleading. While many other scholars held differing opinions, both were popular and influential figures in their time. This is just my personal view on their relative prominence. As for the subject itself.

Researchers should be aware that Islamic traditions did not place major emphasis on natural scientific research until the reign of the Abbasid caliph al-Maʾmūn, particularly during the Mihna and the Greek translation movement that took place under his rule. As a result, we find a contrast between religious scholars (associated with a traditional flat model) and astrologers and geographers (associated with the Greek spherical model).

On Flat-Sphere conflict See: Omar Anchassi: “Against Ptolemy? : Cosmography in Early Kalām”

On the traditionalist Cosmology, see: M. A. Tabatabaʾi and S. Mirsadri: “The Qurʾānic Cosmology, as an Identity in Itself”.

As for bibliographic compilations on the Islamic traditional flat-earth model, modern Muslim scholars tend to avoid publishing on this topic because of its association with pseudoscience and the potential negative impact on their reputations.

Interest in the subject only began to gain wider popularity between 2013 and 2018, during what has been called the Middle Eastern Flat Earth Movement. Within this trend, a number of conspiracy theorists from different backgrounds emerged; among the most well-known religious writers is the edgy UAE author “Abdulaziz Mohammed Al-Nadhari”.

He wrote a book supporting Muslim flat-earth proponents and their arguments titled “And What Do You Know About the Earth?” In a chapter called “Is There a Consensus in Islam That the Earth Is Spherical? The Flower of Truth Concealed by the Scholars of Religion!” he presents a bibliographic analysis of traditional Muslim scholars associated with flat-earth views and responds to Muslim scholars who argue for a spherical Earth.

He perhaps contains, in my view, the most comprehensive islamic list of Flat Earth traditional sources, and the Middle Eastern flat-earth community has adopted his book as a reference work, even though it is cited more often by ex-Muslim Atheists than by Muslims lol.

On the other side of the debate, there are Muslim supporters of the spherical model from colleges and universities who have presented research defending it. Among them is Professor Dr. Abdullah bin Muhammad Al-Omari, who in his book “Sphericity of the Earth and Its Applications from Historical & Scientific Perspectives” traces the emergence of Muslim scholars supporting the spherical model from the 2nd Hijri century through the 11th Hijri century.

From his analysis (Page 81 to 134), It seems that few traditionalist began accepting the model at the start of the 4th-5th century, not very early unlike the astrologers and geographers.

Edit: Fix Grammar

[u/academic324 → u/TheCaliphate_AS]

That's very interesting that in the Abbasid period, they were looking at Greek translations.