Natural Causes of Earthquake from the Perspective of Precursors of Islamic Era (Late 2nd Century AH to 11th Century AH) and the Quality of Their Attention to Its Hazards

Natural Causes of Earthquake from the Perspective of Precursors of Islamic Era (Late 2nd Century AH to 11th Century AH) and the Quality of Their Attention to Its Hazards Khalilolah Bayat1,*, Fakhredin Ahmadi Danesh Ashtiyani2, Abdorasool Emadi3 1 Ph.D. Candidate, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran (*Corresponding Author. Email: khalilbayat18@gmail.com) 2 Associate Professor, Civil Engineering Department, K. N. Toosi University, Tehran, Iran. 3 Associate Professor, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran Abstract It is broadly asserted that Muslims adopted the "Hot-Wet Air & Dry-Hot Air" [Arabic 'adkhaneh': plural of 'dokhān', lit., 'smoke' in Arabic and the 'wet-hot air' 'abkhareh': plural of 'bokhār'], theory based on Aristotle's view to explain earthquakes. Although his view carries some glimmers of truth, highlighting this theory underestimates the efforts made by Islamic scholars to explain earthquakes. This study seeks to find an answer to this question: what innovative theories did the early scientists of the Islamic era employ to explain the natural causes of earthquakes? The historical research methodology is applied to explore the views held by Islamic scientists of the late second century AH to the eleventh century AH. It further analyzes those perspectives through the relevant academic literature. The findings indicate that while developing, discussing, explaining, and acknowledging the theory of "Hot-Wet Air & Dry-Hot Air" and finding out that the aforementioned theory failed to answer their primary questions on earthquakes, Muslims introduced six other theories in addition to Aristotle's.