ABSTRACT
The Bright Dark Ages was a time when the circulation of knowledge across the various Asian civilizations – the Arabic, Chinese and Indian – advanced science and technology in each of these civilizations. This chapter examines the astronomical theories that were the most advanced in the Arabic, Chinese and Indian civilizations, despite their differences, assumed that the Earth was stationary, although they saw the heavenly bodies as revolving about different centres of revolution. The various astronomical traditions of the Bright Dark Ages in Arabic, Indian and Chinese civilizations would have seen the heliocentric theory proposed by Copernicus as revolutionary because it set in motion the Earth they assumed to be immobile. Moreover, the termination of the Scientific Revolution begun by Copernicus with the consolidation of a mechanical vision of the cosmos by Newton would also be seen as revolutionary.
