TEMELJI UMJETNE INTELIGENCIJE: DOPRINOSI IZ ZLATNOG DOBA ISLAMA
THE FOUNDATIONS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE ISLAMIC GOLDEN AGE

Summary/Abstract: The contemporary discourse on the development of artificial intelligence (AI) is most frequently associated with the Western scientific and technological revolutions of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. However, a deeper historical analysis demonstrates that numerous conceptual and methodological foundations of AI can be traced back to the intellectual legacy of the Islamic Golden Age (8th–13th centuries). This paper explores the contributions of classical Islamic scholars in the fields of mathematics, mechanics, logic, philosophy, optics, and art, highlighting their role in shaping the epistemological framework of contemporary artificial intelligence.A central position is occupied by the work of Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, whose name stands at the root of the term algorithm. His mathematical writings, based on formalized problem-solving procedures, established methodological foundations that remain at the core of computational logic and contemporary AI systems.The philosophical contributions of al-Fārābī, Ibn Sīnā, and Ibn Rushd further developed proto-theories of cognition, intellect, perception, and consciousness. Their reflections on the rational soul, abstraction, and mental representation offer early models of intelligence that are relevant to contemporary debates on cognitive architectures and artificial general intelligence (AGI).The paper also examines the significant contributions of al-Kindī in cryptography and Ibn al-Haytham in optics, who laid the foundations for modern techniques of data encoding, image processing, and computer vision. Their scientific method, based on empirical observation and mathematical formalism, resonates strongly with the principles of modern AI.Attention is likewise devoted to al-Jazarī, whose mechanical automata represent an early material manifestation of algorithmic thinking and systems design. His inventions demonstrate the capacity to model complex processes through sequential and repeatable mechanisms, which is the basis of the modern algorithmic approach. Finally, Islamic geometric art, with its complex mathematical structures and symmetry, is recognized as a precursor of generative art and machine creativity. The paper concludes that Islamic civilization exerted a profound and lasting influence on the development of ideas that shape artificial intelligence today, and emphasizes the importance of an inclusive historiography in contemporary AI discourse.

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