The “Mohammadan Theory of the Evolution of Man”: What Draper Wrote in 1874
What John William Draper wrote in 1874—and what it tells us about the history of evolutionary thought
When Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, his theory of evolution created a major intellectual upheaval in Europe. It challenged the prevailing belief that species were fixed and unchanging and offered a new explanation for the diversity of life.
Yet the history of evolutionary thought did not begin with Darwin.
Long before Darwin, philosophers and natural thinkers had considered whether nature developed progressively and whether different forms of life could be connected through a gradual hierarchy of existence. One important nineteenth-century witness to this earlier intellectual history was the American historian and scientist John William Draper.
In his 1874 book History of the Conflict between Religion and Science, Draper used the striking expression “Mohammedan theory of the evolution of man.” His statement deserves attention because it points toward intellectual traditions that existed centuries before Darwin.
What Did John William Draper Mean?
Draper discussed Muslim intellectual traditions while examining the relationship between religious dogma and scientific thought.
According to the document, Draper observed that ideas concerning the development of humanity and the progressive transformation of nature had existed in the Muslim world. He referred to these ideas as the “Mohammedan theory of the evolution of man” and stated that such doctrines were taught in Muslim schools.
However, Draper’s statement should not be interpreted to mean that medieval Muslim scholars had already discovered Darwin’s theory of evolution.
That would go beyond the historical evidence presented in the document.
The more important point is that the general conception of development and transformation in nature existed before Darwin.
Evolutionary Ideas Before Darwin
Centuries before Darwin, Muslim philosophers and natural thinkers explored the relationship and progression between different forms of existence.
The document highlights several important thinkers and intellectual traditions, including:
- Al-Jāḥiẓ
- The Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ (Brethren of Purity)
- Ibn Miskawayh
- Ibn Khaldūn
These thinkers approached the subject in different ways, but their writings included ideas about gradation, development and relationships between forms of life.
Some of these traditions described a progression from minerals to plants, plants to animals, and ultimately toward human beings.
Al-Jāḥiẓ, writing in the ninth century, also made observations concerning animals, their struggle for survival and their adaptation to circumstances. The Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ presented nature as a graded order in which forms progressively became more complex. Ibn Miskawayh discussed transformation and progression, while Ibn Khaldūn described nature as a connected hierarchy in which higher forms of existence emerged from lower forms.
These ideas were certainly not identical to modern evolutionary biology. Nevertheless, they demonstrate that the concept of development in nature was not entirely absent before Darwin.
Was This Darwin’s Theory?
No.
This distinction is essential when discussing the history of evolution.
Recognizing that evolutionary or developmental ideas existed before Darwin does not mean that Darwin simply copied an Islamic theory.
Earlier thinkers proposed ideas involving:
- Progression
- Transformation
- Continuity in nature
- Development from simpler to more complex forms
- Adaptation and struggle
But Darwin introduced these broad ideas into a fundamentally different scientific framework.
Darwin’s Major Scientific Contribution
Darwin’s great contribution was the theory of descent with modification through natural selection.
He argued that organisms vary, that some variations can be inherited, and that organisms compete for survival. Variations that provide advantages can become more common over successive generations.
This supplied a mechanism for explaining evolutionary change.
That distinction is crucial.
Earlier philosophers could discuss development, transformation or continuity in nature without providing a scientifically developed mechanism explaining how populations change over generations.
Darwin took the question much further by asking a more specific scientific question:
How does evolution actually occur?
His answer—natural selection acting upon heritable variation—turned a broad conception of development into a powerful scientific theory.
Draper’s 1874 Statement Is Historically Significant
Draper’s observation is particularly interesting because he was not a medieval Muslim scholar writing retrospectively.
He was a nineteenth-century scientist and historian writing shortly after Darwin’s revolutionary work.
His use of the expression “Mohammedan theory of the evolution of man” indicates that, by the nineteenth century, there was recognition in Western intellectual discussion that Muslim scholars had entertained developmental or evolutionary ideas.
However, this does not establish that Darwin derived his theory from Muslim scholars.
What it establishes, according to the document, is something more nuanced and historically important: the intellectual history of evolutionary thought is older and geographically more diverse than a purely Darwin-centred narrative suggests.
Two Historical Mistakes We Should Avoid
There are two extreme interpretations that should be avoided.
1. “Evolution Began With Darwin”
This statement is too broad.
Ideas concerning transformation and development in nature existed for centuries before Darwin. Different thinkers had already considered whether nature could be understood as a hierarchy or continuum and whether forms of existence could develop progressively.
2. “Darwin Simply Took the Muslim Theory”
This claim is equally difficult to defend based on the historical material presented in the document.
Darwin’s theory of natural selection represented a major scientific development supported by extensive observations and arguments.
The more historically balanced position lies between these two extremes:
There were older conceptions of evolution and development, while Darwin provided a specific mechanism and transformed evolutionary thought into a scientific theory with enormous explanatory power.
Scientific Knowledge Is a Human Continuum
The history of evolution also points toward a broader lesson about how human knowledge develops.
Scientific and philosophical ideas rarely belong exclusively to one civilization.
Ideas travel across cultures. They are preserved, debated, criticized, translated and transformed.
The document notes that Greek philosophy influenced Muslim philosophers, Muslim scholars preserved and expanded earlier knowledge, and their works subsequently entered European intellectual life through translation and transmission. European thinkers later developed many of these questions further.
Scientific progress can therefore be understood as a continuum of human inquiry, rather than a series of completely isolated discoveries appearing suddenly within a single civilization.
Acknowledging Earlier Thinkers Does Not Diminish Darwin
Recognizing intellectual predecessors does not diminish Darwin’s achievement.
Instead, it helps define his contribution more accurately.
Darwin’s greatness was not necessarily that he was the first person to imagine that life might have a history of development. His major achievement was providing a coherent natural mechanism for evolutionary change and developing an extraordinarily influential scientific argument around it.
This distinction allows us to appreciate both the historical depth of evolutionary thought and the scientific importance of Darwin’s work.
Conclusion
The phrase “Mohammadan Theory of the Evolution of Man”, used by John William Draper in 1874, should be understood carefully.
It should not be interpreted as proof that medieval Muslim scholars possessed Darwin’s complete theory of evolution.
Instead, it can be read as evidence that ideas concerning development, transformation and progression in nature had a history that extended well beyond Darwin and was present in multiple intellectual traditions.
Muslim thinkers such as Al-Jāḥiẓ, the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ, Ibn Miskawayh and Ibn Khaldūn contributed to a broader history of thinking about nature and the progression of forms of existence.
Darwin subsequently transformed the question by providing natural selection as a mechanism for evolutionary change.
The history of evolution, therefore, is best understood not as a story in which one person suddenly invented an idea from nothing, but as a long intellectual journey in which earlier questions, observations and philosophies were progressively developed into modern scientific theories.
Draper’s provocative nineteenth-century phrase reminds us of precisely that larger history: the conception of evolution existed before Darwin, while Darwin took that conception much further and transformed it into modern evolutionary science.