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Science & Technology in the Muslim world

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Science & technology in the Muslim world

The Muslim world comprises about 25% of the world's population although its total proportion of science and technical manpower represents only 3.7% and its R&D manpower is only 1.1%.

Islamic states have given the green light to the establishment of a science and technology innovation organisation or STIO to maximise utilisation of the scientific talent and technological potential of the Muslim world by pooling the resources of the private and public sectors for research and development.

Creation of the STIO was announced at the 27th meeting of the Committee for Scientific and Technological Cooperation of the 57 member states of the Organization of Islamic Conference held in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia last month.


Islamic states have also approved Iran's proposals for the establishment of a joint science and technology park, a 'cyber university' and a world-class nanotechnology network to boost science and technology and strengthen research capacity, science education and innovation-based industries.


"If Islamic countries based-universities and research centres get together and increase the culture of collaboration, team work and support creativity of our young scientists, and especially establish regional research centres, the Muslim world will be able to achieve its scientific goals and establish knowledge-based society."

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20100403082552829
 
ISLAMABAD, Jan 11: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday urged the Muslim Ummah to join hands in initiating projects in the fields of science and technology to meet the challenges of 21st century.

During the address the prime minister said: “We live in an age of scientific innovations and technological advancement. In the knowledge based societies of the 21st century only those nations could aspire to lead which excel in science and technology.”

He recalled the contributions of the Muslim scholars who were the pioneers in the field of science and medicine for 600 years, and regretted that the glorious period of creative scientific activity ceased as the Islamic Ummah lost the intellectual leadership.

He said despite enormous human and material resources, the Muslim world still counted amongst the backward due to lack of scientific and technological advancement.

“We must build our human capital and invest in science and technology to catch up with rest of the world,” he said.

Science and technology projects: PM asks Muslim world to join hands | Provinces | DAWN.COM
 
Islam as the driving force behind the Muslim scientific revolution :

Golden Age. The period 900-1800 A.D. represents the approximate apogee of Muslim science, which flourished in Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, and Cordoba, among other cities. Significant progress was made in such areas as medicine, agronomy, botany, mathematics, chemistry, and optics. As Muslims vied with Chinese for intellectual and scientific leadership, Christian Europe lagged far behind both.3

This golden age was definitely Muslim in that it took place in predominantly Muslim societies, but was it Islamic, that is, connected to the religion of Islam? States were officially Islamic, and intellectual life took place within a self-consciously Islamic environment. Ahmad al-Hassan and Donald R. Hill, two historians of technology, see Islam as "the driving force behind the Muslim scientific revolution when the Muslim state reached its peak."4 But non-Muslims took a role in this effort, thanks to a tolerant and cosmopolitan intellectual atmosphere .
 
If anything, many Muslims may be too eager to find convergences between religion and science. In the last few years, thousands of Islamic Web sites have popped up claiming that the Quran proves scientific discoveries like the Big Bang, black holes, and quantum mechanics. This new movement is "the entrance gate to the Quran" for many young, educated Muslims, says Bruno Guiderdoni, an astrophysicist and director of the Observatory of Lyon, in France, who converted to Islam nearly 25 years ago. "They are fascinated by science," he says.

Not surprisingly, the Quran frequently spills over into the professional lives of Muslim scientists. Professors who teach in the Middle East may find themselves dealing with questions that almost never come up in a science class at a major American university. Dajani, the molecular biologist in Jordan, is often asked about specific Quranic verses when she teaches a course on evolution, and she points to other verses which she interprets as supporting natural selection. She also emphasizes that the Quran is a guide for how to live, not a book of science, so certain passages—like the story of Adam and Eve—must be read metaphorically. "Religion plays a big role in our lives," says Dajani, who wears a hijab. "So talking about scripture in the classroom is very normal. We're not a secular state. We talk about religion all the time."

She says the biggest challenge for Arab professors is to get their students to think critically. "I challenge my students to rethink their opinions, to challenge their preconceived opinions, to be in their uncomfortable zone. To me, that's the objective of education."

By now a new generation of scholars has concluded that the Muslim world did more than simply save and transmit Greek knowledge to the Europeans who later launched the Scientific Revolution. "Whole fields needed to be invented from scratch, such as algebra and the science of optics," says Guessoum. "Medicine and astronomy were also greatly pushed forward."

By David W. Tschanz
Freelance Writer - Saudi Arabia
Thursday, 14 February 2002 17:03

Arabic pharmacy (Saydanah)* as a profession and school of thought separate from medicine was recognized by the beginning of the ninth century CE (third century AH). Baghdad, the center of learning at the time, saw a rapid expansion of the number of privately owned pharmacy shops, a trend that quickly spread to the suburbs and other Muslim cities.

- The Traditional Style Pharmacy and the "Modern" Pharmacy:

The traditional style of pharmacy was modeled after the pharmacies of the Arab World (still popular in Egypt). The style of the modern pharmacy has not changed much from back then. However, the traditional pharmacies were responsible for mixing their own pharmaceuticals. Nowadays, the mixing is done in factories and more chemicals are used rather than natural herbs and ingredients.
The pharmacists who managed these new shops were skilled in the apothecary's art and quite knowledgeable in the compounding, storing, and preserving of drugs. State-sponsored hospitals also had their own dispensaries attached to manufacturing laboratories where syrups, electuaries, ointments, and other pharmaceutical preparations were prepared on a relatively large scale. A government appointed official, al-Muhtasib, and his aides periodically inspected the pharmacists and their shops. These state inspectors were responsible for assuring the accuracy of the weights and measures as well as the purity of the materials used to make the drugs. This served as a means of assuring quality and safeguarding the public.

This early rise and development of professional pharmacy in Islam -over four centuries before such development took place in Europe- was the result of three major occurrences: the great increase in the demand for drugs and their availability on the market; professional maturity; and the intellectual curiosity.

The ninth century marked the beginning of the Golden Age of Islamic learning, and just as Muslim scholars made significant gains in the physical sciences, so too did they learn, master and expand the arts of medicine and the science of pharmacy.

The prolific intellectual ferment that fired the Baghdad schools, support at the highest levels of government, and a craving for intellectual pursuits paved the way for a still greater harvest in the succeeding four centuries. Manuals on materia medica and references for instructing the pharmacist concerning the work and management of his shop began circulating in increasing numbers.

One of the contributors to Arabic pharmacy in the third/ninth century was the Nestorian physician, Yuhanna bin Masawayh (known in the West as Mesue, c.777-857). A second-generation pharmacist, Ibn Masawayh penned an early treatise on therapeutic plants, listing about thirty aromatics - including their physical properties, methods of detecting adulteration, and their pharmacological effects. On ambergris, for example, he explains that there are many types, the best among them the blue or gray (gray-amber) and that fatty as-salahiti is used with the choicest of aromated mixtures (ghaliyyahs, perfumes, or medical cosmetics). Ibn Masawayh also recommended saffron for liver and stomach ailments. He noted that sandalwood, whether yellow (the best), white, or red is brought from India where it is used in the manufacture of perfumes.

In his medical work, Ibn Masawayh recommended the use of well-known medicinal plants to build up a natural resistance to diseases. He urged physicians to prescribe one remedy for each disease, using empirical and analogous reasoning. He finally stated that the physician who could cure by using only diet - without drugs - was to be considered the most successful and skilled.

Another of Ibn Masawayh's books, Al-Mushajjar al-Kabir, is, to some extent, a tabulated medical encyclopedia on diseases and their treatment via drugs and diet. Other works are comprised of small treatises - such as one on barley water, explaining how to prepare it and its therapeutic uses.

A countryman and younger colleague of Ibn Masawayh was Abu Hasan 'Ali b. Sahl Rabban at- Tabari born in 808. At about thirty years of age, he was summoned to Samarra by Caliph al-Mu'tasim (833-842), where he served as a government officer and a physician. At-Tabari wrote several medical books, the most famous of which is his Paradise of Wisdom, completed in 850. In addition to discussions on diseases and their remedies, the book contains discussions on the nature of man, cosmology, embryology, temperaments, psychotherapy, hygiene, diet, medical anecdotes, and abstracts and quotations from Indian source material. The work also includes several chapters on materia medica, cereals, diets, utilities and therapeutic uses of animal and bird organs, as well as drugs and methods of their preparation.

At-Tabari urged that the therapeutic value of each drug be reconciled with the particular disease, urging physicians not to fall prey to the routine remedy. He identified the best source for several components, stating that the finest black myrobalan comes from Kabul; clover dodder from Crete; aloes from Socotra; and aromatic spices from India. He was also precise in describing his therapeutics, e.g.:

… a very useful remedy for swelling of the stomach; the juices of the liverwort (water hemp) and the absinthium after being boiled on fire and strained to be taken for several days. Also powdered seeds of celery (marsh parsley) mixed with giant fennel made into troches and taken with a suitable liquid release the wind in the stomach, joints and back (arthritis).

For storage purposes he recommended glass or ceramic vessels for liquid (wet) drugs; special small jars for eye liquid salves; and lead containers for fatty substances. For the treatment of ulcerated wounds, he prescribed an ointment made of juniper-gum, fat, butter, and pitch. In addition, he warned that one mithqal (about 4 grams) of opium or henbane causes sleep and also death.

The first medical formulary to be written in Arabic was by al-Aqrabadhin tly Sabur bin Sahl (d. 869). In it, he gave medical recipes stating the methods and techniques of compounding these remedies; their pharmacological actions; the dosages given of each; and the means of administration. The formulas are organized in accordance to the types of preparations into which they fit, - whether tablets, powders, ointments, electuaries or syrups. Each class of pharmaceutical preparation is presented along with a variety of recipes made in a specific form; they vary, however, in the ingredients used, their recommended applications, and therapeutic effects.

Sabur's formulary-type compendium is unique in its organization and purposely written as a guidebook for pharmacists, whether for use in their own private drugstores or in hospital pharmacies. As such, it is the first true medical formulary.

A few books related to pharmacy were written by the famous scholar, Ya'qub bin Ishaq al-Kindi (d. 874). His contributions to philosophy, mathematics and astrology, however, were greater than those on medicine and therapy. Nevertheless, it is to his credit that he was an outspoken critic of alchemists and attacked their procedures and claims as deceptive under the circumstances.

Hunayn's book of the Ten Treatises on the Eye was completed in 245/860. After finishing the first nine treatises, the author felt the need for a closing treatise to be devoted to compounded drugs for eye medication.

In addition, as one example of the uses and therapeutic values of using compounded drugs, Hunayn gave the example of theriac, the universal antidote against poisoning. Hunayn, whose translations were literally worth their weight in gold, translated into Arabic the major part of Dioscorides' Materia Medica, undertaken by his associate Istifan bin Basil (in the mid ninth century). As a result, several books of materia medica were written in Arabic.
 
Islam as the driving force behind the Muslim scientific revolution :

Golden Age. The period 900-1800 A.D. represents the approximate apogee of Muslim science, which flourished in Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, and Cordoba, among other cities. Significant progress was made in such areas as medicine, agronomy, botany, mathematics, chemistry, and optics. As Muslims vied with Chinese for intellectual and scientific leadership, Christian Europe lagged far behind both.3

This golden age was definitely Muslim in that it took place in predominantly Muslim societies, but was it Islamic, that is, connected to the religion of Islam? States were officially Islamic, and intellectual life took place within a self-consciously Islamic environment. Ahmad al-Hassan and Donald R. Hill, two historians of technology, see Islam as "the driving force behind the Muslim scientific revolution when the Muslim state reached its peak."4 But non-Muslims took a role in this effort, thanks to a tolerant and cosmopolitan intellectual atmosphere .

there is no mention of Iranian scientists?? wtf
 
Arab contributions to mathematics and the introduction of the Zero
Regional, Science, 4/22/1998

Arab contributions to human civilization are noteworthy. In arithmetic the style of writing digits from right to left is an evidence of its Arab origin. For instance, the numeral for five hundred in English should be written as 005, not as 500 according to English's left-to-right reading style.

Another invention that revolutionized mathematics was the introduction of the number zero by Muhammad Bin Ahmad in 967 AD. Zero was introduced in the West as late as the beginning of the thirteenth century. Modern society takes the invention of the zero for granted, yet the Zero is a non-trivial concept, that allowed major mathematical breakthroughs.

Arab civilizations also made a great contribution to fractions and to the principle of errors, which is employed to solve Algebra problems arithmetically.

Concerning Algebra, al-Khawarzmi is credited with the first treatise. He solved Algebra equations of the first and second degree (known as quadratic equations, and are are prevelant in science and engineering) and also introduced the geometrical method of solving these equations.

He also recognized that quadratic equations have two roots. His method was continued by Thabet Bin Qura, the translator of Ptolemy's works who developed Algebra and first realized application in geometry. By the 11th century the Arabs had founded, developed and perfected geometrical algebra and could solve equations of the third and fourth degree.

Another outstanding Arab mathematician is Abul Wafa who created and successfully developed a branch of geometry which consists of problems leading to equations in Algebra of a higher degree than the second. He made a number of valuable contributions to polyhedral theory.

Al-Karaki, of the 11th century is considered to be one of the greatest Arab mathematicians. He composed one arithmetic book and another on Algebra. In the two books, he developed an approximate method of finding square roots, a theory of indices, a theory of mathematical induction and a theory of intermediate quadratic equations.

Arabs have excelled in geometry, starting with the transition of Euclid and conic section of Apolonios and they preserved the genuine works of these two Greek masters for the modern world, by the 9th century AD. and then started making new discoveries in this domain.

In his book translated by Roger Bacon, Ibn al-Haitham wrote a book on geometrical optics, dealing with problems that would be difficult to solve even now.

It is also at the hand of the Arabs that the geometry of conic sections was developed to a great extent.

However, Arab achievements in this field were crowned by the discovery made by Abu Jafar Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Ibn al-Hassan, known as Nassereddine al-Tusi. Al-Tusi separated trigonometry from astronomy. This contribution recognizes and explains weakness in Euclid's theory of parallels, and thereby may thus be credited as founder of non-Euclidian geometry.

These are the ancestors:

Pioneers of science

Abd al-Malik Ibn Quraib al-Asmai (740-828)
Zoology, botany, animal husbandry

Muhammad Bin Musa al-Khwarizmi (Algorizm)
(770-840)
Mathematics, astronomy, geography, (algorithm, algebra, calculus)

Abu 'Uthman 'Amr ibn Bakr al-Basri al-Jahiz
(776-868)
Zoology, Arabic grammar, rhetoric, lexicography

Yaqub Ibn Ishaq al-Kindi (Alkindus) (800-873)
Philosophy, physics, optics, medicine, mathematics, metallurgy

Jabir Ibn Haiyan (Geber)
(Died 803)

Thabit Ibn Qurrah (Thebit)
(836-901)
Astronomy, mechanics, geometry, anatomy

Ali Ibn Rabban al-Tabari
(838-870)
Medicine, mathematics, calligraphy, literature

Abu Abdullah al-Battani (Albategnius) (858-929)
Astronomy, mathematics, trigonometry

Abul-Abbas Ahmad al-Farghani (al-Fraganus)
(C. 860)
Astronomy, civil engineering

Muhammad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi (Rhazes)
(864-930)
Medicine, ophthalmology, smallpox, chemistry, astronomy

Abu al-Nasr al-Farabi (al-Pharabius)
(870-950)
Sociology, logic, philosophy, political science, music

'Abbas Ibn Firnas
(Died 888)
Mechanics of flight, planetarium, artificial crystals, Also, reputedly, the first man to fly.

Abd-al Rahman al-Sufi (Azophi) (903-986)
Astronomy

Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Albucasis)
(936-1013)
Surgery, medicine (father of modern surgery)

Abul Wafa Muhammad al-Buzjani
(940-997)
Mathematics, astronomy, geometry, trigonometry

Abul Hasan Ali al-Masu'di
(Died 957)
Geography, history

Abu Ali Hasan Ibn al-Haitham (Alhazen)
(965-1040)
Physics, optics, mathematics

Abu al-Hasan al-Mawardi (Alboacen) (972-1058)
Political science, sociology, jurisprudence, ethics

Abu Raihan al-Biruni
(973-1048)
Astronomy, mathematics. Determined the earth's circumference

Abu Ali al-Hussain Ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
(981-1037)
Medicine, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy

Abu Ishaq Ibrahim Ibn Yahya al-Zarqali (Arzachel)
(1028-1087)
Astronomy (invented astrolabe)

Omar al-Khayyam
(1044-1123)
Mathematics, poetry

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (Algazel)
(1058-1111)
Sociology, theology, philosophy

Abu Marwan Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar, Abumeron)
(1091-1161)
Surgery, medicine

Abu Abdallah Muhammad al-Idrisi (1099-1166)
Geography (world map, first globe)

Abul Waleed Muhammad Ibn Rushd (Averroes)
(1128-1198)
Philosophy, law, medicine, astronomy, theology

Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
(1201-1274)
Astronomy, non-Euclidean geometry

Nur al-Din Ibn Ishaq al-Bitruji (Alpetragius)
(Died 1204)
Astronomy

Jalal al-Din Rumi
(1207)
Sociology

Ibn al-Nafis Damishqi
(1213-1288)
Anatomy

Abu Muhammad Abdallah Ibn al-Baitar
(Died 1248)
Pharmacy, botany

Mohammed Targai Ulugh Beg
(1393-1449)
Astronomy

Abd al-Rahman Ibn Muhammad Ibn Khaldun
(1332-1395)
Sociology, philosophy of history, political science


But there is a very famous Arabic poem that says:

The real man is not the one who says my father was...
The real man is the one who says here I am.
 
Science and Civilization in Islam.

To the Muslim, history is a series of accidents that in no way affect the nontemporal principles of Islam. He is more interested in knowing and "realizing" these principles than in cultivating originality and change as intrinsic virtues. The symbol of Islamic civilization is not a flowing river, but the cube of the Kaaba, the stability of which symbolizes the permanent and immutable character of Islam.

we have the level of pure knowledge and understanding. It is that of the contemplative, the gnostic ('arif), the level that has been recognized throughout Islamic history as the highest and most comprehensive. The gnostic is Muslim in that his whole being is surrendered to God; he has no separate individual existence of his own. He is like the birds and the flowers in his yielding to the Creator; like them, like all the other elements of the cosmos, he reflects the Divine Intellect to his own degree. He reflects it actively, however, they passively; his participation is a conscious one. Thus "knowledge" and "science" are defined as basically different frorn mere curiosity and even from analytical speculation. The gnostic is from this point of view "one with Nature"; he understands it "from the inside," he has become in fact the channel of grace for the universe. His islam and the islam of Nature are now counterparts
The gnostic's relation to Nature is "intellective," which is neither abstract, nor analytical, nor merely sentimental.

Viewed as a text, Nature is a fabric of symbols, which must be read according to their meaning. The Quran is the counterpart of that text in human words; its verses are called ayat ("signs"), just as are the phenomena of Nature. Both Nature and the Quran speak forth the presence and the worsl~ of God: We shall show them Our portents on the horizon and within themselves until it will be manifest unto them that it is the Truth (41 53).

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/nasr.asp
 
International Islamic power bloc


Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has called on the world's Muslim nations to form an international Islamic power bloc.


Referring to the popular uprisings in the Arab world and the recent anti-capitalism movement across the world in his message to Hajj Pilgrims in 2011, Ayatollah Khamenei called on the Muslim world to "make the most of this opportunity for the formation of an international Islamic power-bloc."

Ayatollah Khamenei said such global developments "can change the destiny of the Islamic Ummah (nation)" and herald "a bright future accompanied with dignity and progress."

"Today, the West, the United States and Zionism are weaker than ever before," the Leader pointed out.

The message was addressed to more than 2.5 million pilgrims from around the globe who converged in the vast plains of Mount Arafat in Saudi Arabia to perform a ritual of the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

The leader described the present era as a "new chapter" in the history of the Islamic world in which "a young generation has emerged from the heart of these nations."

Islam has become the guiding principle of popular movements despite the efforts of secular rulers to curtail the influence of religion in the Muslim countries, Ayatollah Khamenei added.

Ayatollah Khamenei pointed to the victory of Islamic Ennahda Party in Tunisia's recent elections and noted, "Without doubt, free elections in any Islamic country will result in nothing but what happened in Tunisia."

In late October, Ennahda, Tunisia's largest Islamic party, won the country's first elections since the ouster of Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidin Ben Ali in January.

"During the last decades, arrogant powers, led by the United States, had reduced regional states to a state of subjugation through their political and security ploys … But now, they are the primary target of disgust and hatred of the region's nations," the Leader said.

"To be certain, the governments and powers emerging from these revolutions will never submit to the disgraceful inequalities of the past; the political geography of the region will be determined by these nations," he reiterated.

Ayatollah Khamenei said the entire Islamic Ummah (nation) and especially the revolutionary nations stand in need of "continuity of their stance and avoidance of slackness in their resolve" and "vigilance against the plots of arrogant international powers."

The Leader warned that the global hegemonic powers "will reenter the arena with all their political, financial and security power to reestablish their influence in these countries."

He advised the revolutionary nations to maintain "national unity and official recognition of sectarian, tribal and ethic differences" as "a precondition for future success."
 
there is no mention of Iranian scientists?? wtf
That's because they wrote there books in arabic as Islamic language for all muslims, now the western historian call it the arabic civilization not because it's pure Arabic effort it's just because written in Arabic, otherwise The contribution of Iranian and the Caucasian Afghan and the other Muslims have the biggest share.
 
True science and technology period in the Islamic empire came with the rise of Ummayad and Abbasid Dynasty, i think...
 
there is no mention of Iranian scientists?? wtf

I don't think back in those days people gave a damn about ethnic backgrounds; everyone was simply "Muslim". And most Persians wrote in Arabic because it became the lingua franca of the region and the language of science at the time
 
I don't think back in those days people gave a damn about ethnic backgrounds; everyone was simply "Muslim". And most Persians wrote in Arabic because it became the lingua franca of the region and the language of science at the time

Exactly... i don't think anything further than this can be used clarify....
 
Science & technology in the Muslim world

The Muslim world comprises about 25% of the world's population although its total proportion of science and technical manpower represents only 3.7% and its R&D manpower is only 1.1%.

OK. Forget the "golden age". That is soooooooooooo over. Muslim science has been overwhelmed by western science. Why? It's not the human beings. Muslim scientists who work in the "west" win Nobel prizes, make technical discoveries every bit as important as non-Muslims, found prosperous tech companies. So, there must be something in the culture of Muslim societies, today, that is inhospitable to advanced scientific work. Muslim societies need to identify what those impediments are and change them, if they are ever to compete with non-Muslim societies. And, by "non-Muslim" societies I also mean non-western, non-Christian societies such as China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.
 
A very good documentary for you guys that is of course if you have time:

 
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OK. Forget the "golden age". That is soooooooooooo over. Muslim science has been overwhelmed by western science. Why? It's not the human beings. Muslim scientists who work in the "west" win Nobel prizes, make technical discoveries every bit as important as non-Muslims, found prosperous tech companies. So, there must be something in the culture of Muslim societies, today, that is inhospitable to advanced scientific work. Muslim societies need to identify what those impediments are and change them, if they are ever to compete with non-Muslim societies. And, by "non-Muslim" societies I also mean non-western, non-Christian societies such as China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.

True that. The 'Islamic societies' of 'golden age' were very,very liberal societies by the standards of that time. Muslims were writing books on different positions to enjoy sex (within marriage) at that time when even the word "sex" was a taboo in European societies. Europeans criticized Islam as it gave too many "liberties" to the women and slaves. Today , however , the situation is exactly opposite. Muslim societies have gone ultra-conservative , narrow-minded while the West is liberal , progressing and secular. Muslim societies needs to "open-up" a bit and give space to science in their societies. Muslims lost their "superiority" in science and technology in 14th-16th century and lost their overall dominance in 18th century... Now the time has come to start working ...again!

Muslims , specially young Muslims , are more interested in science than probably Westerners.. Muslims are 'hungry' for scientific demand and if given right education and environment , science can flourish in Muslim world once again...
 
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