Science & Technology in the Muslim world

[The SC]

There is no "proof".. only assertions and useless conspiracy theories. It is well established where zero (as a placeholder) came from...

Early history: Angled wedges

Zero was invented independently by the Babylonians, Mayans and Indians (although some researchers say the Indian number system was influenced by the Babylonians). The Babylonians got their number system from the Sumerians, the first people in the world to develop a counting system. Developed 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, the Sumerian system was positional — the value of a symbol depended on its position relative to other symbols. Robert Kaplan, author of "The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero," suggests that an ancestor to the placeholder zero may have been a pair of angled wedges used to represent an empty number column. However, Charles Seife, author of "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea," disagrees that the wedges represented a placeholder.

The Sumerians’ system passed through the Akkadian Empire to the Babylonians around 300 B.C. There, scholars agree, a symbol appeared that was clearly a placeholder — a way to tell 10 from 100 or to signify that in the number 2,025, there is no number in the hundreds column. Initially, the Babylonians left an empty space in their cuneiform number system, but when that became confusing, they added a symbol — double angled wedges — to represent the empty column. However, they never developed the idea of zero as a number.

Who Invented Zero?


Egypt

Ancient Egyptian numerals were base 10. They used hieroglyphs for the digits and were not positional. By 1740 BCE, the Egyptians had a symbol for zero in accounting texts. The symbol nfr, meaning beautiful, was also used to indicate the base level in drawings of tombs and pyramids and distances were measured relative to the base line as being above or below this line.[12]
0 (number) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This contradicts the popular view that India has invented the Zero as a number, since the Egyptians has a symbol for it as well as a place like between the finite and the infinite which is its true position for any scientific mind.

See Also:

The word zero came via French zéro from Venetian zero, which (together with cypher) came via Italian zefiro from Arabic صفر, ṣafira = "it was empty", ṣifr = "zero", "nothing". The first known English use was in 1598.[4][5][6][7]

In AD 976 the Persian encyclopedist Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Khwarizmi, in his "Keys of the Sciences", remarked that if, in a calculation, no number appears in the place of tens, then a little circle should be used "to keep the rows". This circle was called صفر (ṣifr, "empty") in Arabic language. That was the earliest mention of the name ṣifr that eventually became zero.[8]
0 (number) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Thirdfront]

Early history: Angled wedges

Zero was invented independently by the Babylonians, Mayans and Indians (although some researchers say the Indian number system was influenced by the Babylonians). The Babylonians got their number system from the Sumerians, the first people in the world to develop a counting system. Developed 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, the Sumerian system was positional — the value of a symbol depended on its position relative to other symbols. Robert Kaplan, author of "The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero," suggests that an ancestor to the placeholder zero may have been a pair of angled wedges used to represent an empty number column. However, Charles Seife, author of "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea," disagrees that the wedges represented a placeholder.

The Sumerians’ system passed through the Akkadian Empire to the Babylonians around 300 B.C. There, scholars agree, a symbol appeared that was clearly a placeholder — a way to tell 10 from 100 or to signify that in the number 2,025, there is no number in the hundreds column. Initially, the Babylonians left an empty space in their cuneiform number system, but when that became confusing, they added a symbol — double angled wedges — to represent the empty column. However, they never developed the idea of zero as a number.

Who Invented Zero?


Egypt

Ancient Egyptian numerals were base 10. They used hieroglyphs for the digits and were not positional. By 1740 BCE, the Egyptians had a symbol for zero in accounting texts. The symbol nfr, meaning beautiful, was also used to indicate the base level in drawings of tombs and pyramids and distances were measured relative to the base line as being above or below this line.[12]
0 (number) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This contradicts the popular view that India has inented the Zero as a number, since the Egyptians has a symbol for it as well as a place like between the finite and the infinite which is its true position for any scientific mind.

See Also:

The word zero came via French zéro from Venetian zero, which (together with cypher) came via Italian zefiro from Arabic صفر, ṣafira = "it was empty", ṣifr = "zero", "nothing". The first known English use was in 1598.[4][5][6][7]

In AD 976 the Persian encyclopedist Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Khwarizmi, in his "Keys of the Sciences", remarked that if, in a calculation, no number appears in the place of tens, then a little circle should be used "to keep the rows". This circle was called صفر (ṣifr, "empty") in Arabic language. That was the earliest mention of the name ṣifr that eventually became zero.[8]
0 (number) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Now started quoting wiki??? Anyways, zero as place holder was known long back. Not as a number. That is what Indians invented. Just to give example, both space and time were known long before Einstein. But he combined together which nobody thought of earlier. There lies the genius. If you had scrolled down your own source, you would have found this:

India

The concept of zero as a number and not merely a symbol or an empty space for separation is attributed to India, where, by the 9th century AD, practical calculations were carried out using zero, which was treated like any other number, even in case of division.[14][15] The Indian scholar Pingala (circa 5th–2nd century BC) used binary numbers in the form of short and long syllables (the latter equal in length to two short syllables), making it similar to Morse code.[16][17] He and his contemporary Indian scholars used theSanskrit word śūnya to refer to zero or void.

In 498 AD, Indian mathematician and astronomer Aryabhata stated that "sthānāt sthānaṁ daśaguņaṁ syāt"[18] i.e. "from place to place each is ten times the preceding,"[18][19] which is the origin of the modern decimal-based place value notation.[20][21]

The oldest known text to use a decimal place-value system, including a zero, is the Jain text from India entitled the Lokavibhâga, dated 458 AD, where shunya ("void" or "empty") was employed for this purpose.[22] The first known use of special glyphs for the decimal digits that includes the indubitable appearance of a symbol for the digit zero, a small circle, appears on a stone inscription found at the Chaturbhuja Temple at Gwalior in India, dated 876 AD.[23][24] There are many documents on copper plates, with the same small o in them, dated back as far as the sixth century AD, but their authenticity may be doubted.[13]

 

[The SC]

Now started quoting wiki??? Anyways, zero as place holder was known long back. Not as a number. That is what Indians invented. Just to give example, both space and time were known long before Einstein. But he combined together which nobody thought of earlier. There lies the genius. If you had scrolled down your own source, you would have found this:

India

The concept of zero as a number and not merely a symbol or an empty space for separation is attributed to India, where, by the 9th century AD, practical calculations were carried out using zero, which was treated like any other number, even in case of division.[14][15] The Indian scholar Pingala (circa 5th–2nd century BC) used binary numbers in the form of short and long syllables (the latter equal in length to two short syllables), making it similar to Morse code.[16][17] He and his contemporary Indian scholars used theSanskrit word śūnya to refer to zero or void.

In 498 AD, Indian mathematician and astronomer Aryabhata stated that "sthānāt sthānaṁ daśaguņaṁ syāt"[18] i.e. "from place to place each is ten times the preceding,"[18][19] which is the origin of the modern decimal-based place value notation.[20][21]

The oldest known text to use a decimal place-value system, including a zero, is the Jain text from India entitled the Lokavibhâga, dated 458 AD, where shunya ("void" or "empty") was employed for this purpose.[22] The first known use of special glyphs for the decimal digits that includes the indubitable appearance of a symbol for the digit zero, a small circle, appears on a stone inscription found at the Chaturbhuja Temple at Gwalior in India, dated 876 AD.[23][24] There are many documents on copper plates, with the same small o in them, dated back as far as the sixth century AD, but their authenticity may be doubted.[13]

The oldest known text to use a decimal place-value system, including a zero, is the Jain text from India entitled the Lokavibhâga, dated 458 AD, where shunya ("void" or "empty") was employed for this purpose.[22] The first known use of special glyphs for the decimal digits that includes the indubitable appearance of a symbol for the digit zero, a small circle, appears on a stone inscription found at the Chaturbhuja Temple at Gwalior in India, dated 876 AD.[23][24] There are many documents on copper plates, with the same small o in them, dated back as far as the sixth century AD, but their authenticity may be doubted.[13]

As posted before:

Egypt

Ancient Egyptian numerals were base 10. They used hieroglyphs for the digits and were not positional. By 1740 BCE, the Egyptians had a symbol for zero in accounting texts. The symbol nfr, meaning beautiful, was also used to indicate the base level in drawings of tombs and pyramids and distances were measured relative to the base line as being above or below this line.[12]

0 (number) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This contradicts the popular view that India has invented the Zero as a number, since the Egyptians has a symbol for it as well as a place like between the finite and the infinite which is its true position for any scientific mind.

 

[Thirdfront]

As posted before:
Egypt

Ancient Egyptian numerals were base 10. They used hieroglyphs for the digits and were not positional. By 1740 BCE, the Egyptians had a symbol for zero in accounting texts. The symbol nfr, meaning beautiful, was also used to indicate the base level in drawings of tombs and pyramids and distances were measured relative to the base line as being above or below this line.[12]

0 (number) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This contradicts the popular view that India has invented the Zero as a number, since the Egyptians has a symbol for it as well as a place like between the finite and the infinite which is its true position for any scientific mind.

LOL... let me try to dumb it down to lowest level
1. Authenticity of the first documented use of zero MAY be doubted. Not the FACT that India invented decimal system.
2. Base 10 and Decimal system are different. In decimal system, there are only 10 symbols 0 to 9. Value of the number is based on "place value" of the symbol. This concept is invented in India and called "Hindu Number System". This is the same thing used worldwide today. Even roman numerals were base 10.

From Wiki:
The system of ancient Egyptian numerals was used in Ancient Egypt in around 3000 BC[1] until the early first millennium AD. It was a system of numeration based on the scale of ten, often rounded off to the higher power, written in hieroglyphs, but they had no concept of a place-valued system such as the decimal system is.[2] The hieratic form of numerals stressed an exact finite series notation, ciphered one to one onto the Egyptian alphabet. The Ancient Egyptian system used bases of ten.

If you want to know why islamic world is lagging in science, here is the shining example, denial of truth and basking in false glory.

 

[The SC]

LOL... let me try to dumb it down to lowest level
1. Authenticity of the first documented use of zero MAY be doubted. Not the FACT that India invented decimal system.
2. Base 10 and Decimal system are different. In decimal system, there are only 10 symbols 0 to 9. Value of the number is based on "place value" of the symbol. This concept is invented in India and called "Hindu Number System". This is the same thing used worldwide today. Even roman numerals were base 10.

From Wiki:
The system of ancient Egyptian numerals was used in Ancient Egypt in around 3000 BC[1] until the early first millennium AD. It was a system of numeration based on the scale of ten, often rounded off to the higher power, written in hieroglyphs, but they had no concept of a place-valued system such as the decimal system is.[2] The hieratic form of numerals stressed an exact finite series notation, ciphered one to one onto the Egyptian alphabet. The Ancient Egyptian system used bases of ten.

If you want to know why islamic world is lagging in science, here is the shining example, denial of truth and basking in false glory.

Ancient Abacus: The First Computer
Origin of the Abacus

The first abacus was probably made by drawing placeholder lines in the sand and using pebbles to represent the numbers. Latter, people started to make small wooden boards with raised borders filled with sand, so it could be a portable device. These counting boards evolved over time into the abacus.
The oldest counting board to survive to our days is the Salamis tablet, which was used by the Babylonians around 300 B.C. It was discovered in 1846 on the island of Salamis (hence its name), but was originally thought to be some sort of gaming board.
Different Versions of Abaci
In addition to the Sumerian abacus, which used a sexagesimal number system, the Babylonians probably had a primitive abacus to do additions and subtractions. Many other ancient civilizations developed some kind of abacus to count, including the Persians, Egyptians, Romans, Greeks and Indians. Scholars believe that some ancient American civilizations, like the Mayas and the Incas, also developed counting tools similar to the abacus. The Russians had an abacus that served to count money.
With the Chinese abacus, known as suanpan, it became possible to do simple calculations and even more complicated mathematical operations, including multiplication, division, and square or cube roots. There are documents from around 200 B.C. referring to the suanpan. The Japanese imported the suanpan around the year 1600 and further refined it. The Japanese version, called soroban, is still used to teach mathematics and to stimulate mental calculation in Japanese primary school children.
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When you are asked for the answer to an addition sum for example, how do you go about working it out? Well, I imagine that your method would depend on the sum itself. Perhaps you'd be able to calculate it mentally, "in your head". Maybe it would help to jot something down. Possibly, you'd reach for a calculator.

Nowadays the calculator is very familiar to many of us. Calculators have become more and more advanced, and can do a multitude of different things. What did people do to save time working out more difficult problems before the calculator existed?

The tools that different civilisations used were dependent on the way that they counted. This sounds very strange - don't we all count in the same way? The answer to that is, in fact, no. Every number system has a base. This just means the way the numbers are grouped. The most common base is 10, but we still use base 60 when we tell the time:

• 60 seconds = 1 minute
• 60 minutes = 1 hour

Adding with the Abacus : nrich.maths.org

 

[The SC]

@Thirdfront

If you want to know why islamic world is lagging in science, here is the shining example, denial of truth and basking in false glory.

Can you match Iran today in science, even with no sanctions imposed on India?
What do you personnaly know about the Islamic world apart from what you hear in propaganda? anything concrete to back your claim?
Ater taking a look at your sciences and all the help you got and are still getting from the rest of the world, I really think that you are lagging very far in science. You are the only people I came across that have science in their mouths instead of their brains.
And please do not try to appropriate the Indus vally civilization achievments for India.
There was a continuous civilzation from the Nile vally to the Indus river with the fertile crescent (Mesopotamia) in between, and whatever was developped in one side was shared or developped on the other side, their proximity says it all.

 

[Thirdfront]

Ancient Abacus: The First Computer
Origin of the Abacus

The first abacus was probably made by drawing placeholder lines in the sand and using pebbles to represent the numbers. Latter, people started to make small wooden boards with raised borders filled with sand, so it could be a portable device. These counting boards evolved over time into the abacus.
The oldest counting board to survive to our days is the Salamis tablet, which was used by the Babylonians around 300 B.C. It was discovered in 1846 on the island of Salamis (hence its name), but was originally thought to be some sort of gaming board.
Different Versions of Abaci
In addition to the Sumerian abacus, which used a sexagesimal number system, the Babylonians probably had a primitive abacus to do additions and subtractions. Many other ancient civilizations developed some kind of abacus to count, including the Persians, Egyptians, Romans, Greeks and Indians. Scholars believe that some ancient American civilizations, like the Mayas and the Incas, also developed counting tools similar to the abacus. The Russians had an abacus that served to count money.
With the Chinese abacus, known as suanpan, it became possible to do simple calculations and even more complicated mathematical operations, including multiplication, division, and square or cube roots. There are documents from around 200 B.C. referring to the suanpan. The Japanese imported the suanpan around the year 1600 and further refined it. The Japanese version, called soroban, is still used to teach mathematics and to stimulate mental calculation in Japanese primary school children.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When you are asked for the answer to an addition sum for example, how do you go about working it out? Well, I imagine that your method would depend on the sum itself. Perhaps you'd be able to calculate it mentally, "in your head". Maybe it would help to jot something down. Possibly, you'd reach for a calculator.

Nowadays the calculator is very familiar to many of us. Calculators have become more and more advanced, and can do a multitude of different things. What did people do to save time working out more difficult problems before the calculator existed?

The tools that different civilisations used were dependent on the way that they counted. This sounds very strange - don't we all count in the same way? The answer to that is, in fact, no. Every number system has a base. This just means the way the numbers are grouped. The most common base is 10, but we still use base 60 when we tell the time:

• 60 seconds = 1 minute
• 60 minutes = 1 hour

Adding with the Abacus : nrich.maths.org

You missed one small detail, none of them were muslims....

@Thirdfront

Can you match Iran today in science, even with no sanctions imposed on India?
What do you personnaly know about the Islamic world apart from what you hear in propaganda? anything concrete to back your claim?
Ater taking a look at your sciences and all the help you got and are still getting from the rest of the world, I really think that you are lagging very far in science. You are the only people I came across that have science in their mouths instead of their brains.
And please do not try to appropriate the Indus vally civilization achievments for India.
There was a continuous civilzation from the Nile vally to the Indus river with the fertile crescent (Mesopotamia) in between, and whatever was developped in one side was shared or developped on the other side, their proximity says it all.

What? Iran is ahead in "science"?? pssttt... which fanboy website you were reading???

 

[oFFbEAT]

If you want to know why islamic world is lagging in science, here is the shining example, denial of truth and basking in false glory.

Exactly mate, in ancient times, knowledge was mainly imparted from India to the world, foreign students came to study in our universities, others learnt things while trading with us.........
The Arabs adopted the Indian number system while doing trade with us, the Europeans got it from them and hence at first, they named it 'Arabic number system' but later on when they came to know about the reality, they named it 'Hindu-Arabic number system'........
Arabs had no contribution to the number system we use today, it's purely Indian invention......

 

[daring dude]

y Indians always want to take false fame... whether in any of the field...,,accepted they have few talented people in their bunch.. but that doesn't they do have the full authority to claim every thing... on every thread, they are jumping in as it is their family matter, and their religious or mythological believe to enters into each and every matter and then will make it their own... or claiming or arguing it to be their own cultivation....

well what ever their claim is. but the thing is not India, it was only created after separation of Sub continent..or British empire...
and what ever is now in science, is because of Muslim scientist worldwide in 15th century or before... its not like they are Indian or any other country... as same Muslims till British control, studied in same madrassas and invented many of the things that we never knew before... those were the real madrasas that were completely ruined by brits and hindus..., coz they knew that if those madrassas will run like this,, then brits or west will never be in power....and took all our book and knowledgeable assets etc... so dont wana argue on what is fact... no one can change the course of history and hence the fact...

 

[The SC]

An example of false premise and bias against Islamic science:

Measuring Scientific Progress in the Muslim World—Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy Does the Math

I have learned a lot from reading Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy’s article in Physics Today, “Science and the Islamic World—the Quest for Rapprochement.” You can read it here “Muslims bristle at any hint that Islam and science may be at odds,” Hoodbhoy writes, “or that some underlying conflict between Islam and science may account for the slowness of progress.” Well, Hoodbhoy asks his fellow Muslims, how are we doing as scientists? In order to demonstrate that his concern is based on facts, Professor Hoodbhoy does a lot of counting. A whole lot of counting in order to find out the truth. “I will quantitatively assess the current state of science in Muslim countries,” he writes.

Figure 1 shows the output of the seven most scientifically productive Muslim countries for physics papers, over the period from 1 January 1997 to 28 February 2007, together with the total number of publications in all scientific fields.

Physics papers Physics citations All science papers All science citations
Malaysia 690 1,685 11,287 40,925
Pakistan 846 2,952 7,934 26,958
Saudi Arabia 836 2,220 14,538 49,654
Morroco 1,518 5,332 9,979 35,011
Iran 2,408 9,385 25,400 76,467
Egypt 3,064 11,211 26,276 90,056
Turkey 5,036 21,798 88,438 299,808
Brazil 18,571 104,245 128,687 642,745
India 26,241 136,993 202,727 794,946
China 75,318 298,227 431,859 1,637,287
USA 201,062 2,332,789 2,732,816 35,678,385
Figure 1. The Seven Most Scientifically Productive Islamic Countries as of Early 2007, compared against a selection of other non-Islamic societies


Malaysia tops the list, but, as Hoodbhoy points out, it also has the largest non-Muslim population (40% are Chinese and other non-Muslims. Malaysia also out produces its near neighbor Indonesia in every scientific field). Moreover, Hoodbhoy informs the reader, “Forty-six Muslim countries contributed 1.17% of the world’s scientific literature, whereas 1.66% came from India alone and 1.48% from Spain.

Twenty Arab countries contributed 0.55% compared with 0.89% by Israel alone.” That is grim, Hoodbhoy writes, but “the situation may be even grimmer than the publication numbers suggest. Pressure to publish anything promotes copying; very little is original. For instance, the number of papers published by Iranian scientists tripled in five years, from 1,040 papers in 1998 to 3,277 in 2003. However, Hoodbhoy writes, “Many scientific papers that were claimed as original had actually been published twice and sometimes thrice with identical or near identical contents by the same authors. Others were plagiarized papers that could have been easily detected by any reasonable careful referee.”

Another measurement of a country’s contribution to science is demonstrated by the number patents issued. “The 57 Islamic countries produce negligibly few patents,” Hoodbhoy writes. “According to official statistics, Pakistan has produced only eight patents in the past 43 years.” There are 1800 universities in the 57 Muslim countries of the world; none of them were ranked in the top 500 in a study undertaken by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. “This state of affairs,” Hoodbhoy writes, “led the director general of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) to issue an appeal for at least 20 OIC universities to be sufficiently elevated in quality to make the top 500 list. No action plan was specified, nor was the term ‘quality’ defined.”Obviously, Professor Hoodbhoy has tried to support his opinions with data. What is your reaction? What are your thoughts?

What this mister Hoodbhoy omitted to mention is the role of the western colonizations of Muslim countries and the role his Judeo-christian religion played, and still playing against Muslim progress.

Islam has civilized his countries and brought them science and more, so how can he pretend that Islam conflicts with science?
This guy is a propagandist and a failed PhD, who uses data in the wrong context, the real context is post colonization.

Malaysia
Since independence, Malaysia has had one of the best economic records in Asia
Malaysia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So for any credibility to his claims about Malaysian progress being based on the 40% of its non-muslim population, some religious affiliations specific data should he provide.

 

[Pakistan Insider]

Muslims, especially during their golden era, have made major contributions to all spheres of science. At times, Muslim scientists were pioneers in certain fields of study. Below is a list of some renowned Muslim scientists and a brief summary of each of their amazing contributions.

IBN SINA (Avicenna)

Ibn Sina was one of the greatest Muslim scientists that ever lived. He was so proficient in his skill that he had good command over Qur’anic study and various sciences by the age of 10. Ibn Sina is the most famous physician, philosopher, encyclopedist, mathematician and astronomer of his time.

Medicine is indebted to Ibn Sina for his book called al-Qanun fil-Tibb, which is popularly known in the west as “Canon”. This book, TheQanun fil-Tibb, is a huge encyclopedia of medicine that has over one million words. The book was written after surveying ancient and Muslim medical knowledge available at the time. This book had a systematic and formal approach and also an intrinsic value, which is why it was superior to other similar works and remained supreme for six centuries.

Al Qanun is not just a compilation but also rich with the author’s original contributions. Some findings contained in the book include:

• Recognizing that phthisis and tuberculosis were contagious
• Discovering the distribution of diseases by water and soil
• Discovering the relation between psychology and health

The book described pharmacological methods and also 760 drugs and was regarded as the most authentic materia medica of that era.

Ibn Sina was the first person to ever describe meningitis and made rich contributions to anatomy, gynecology and child health. He also wrote a philosophical encyclopedia called Kitab al-Shifa and embodied vast knowledge from philosophy to science.

In addition, Ibn Sina made contributions in the fields of mathematics, physics, music and astronomy.

• He explained the “casting out of nines” and how it could apply to the verification of squares and cubes
• He devised something similar to the vernier that would increase the precision of instrumental readings
• He studied different forms and concepts of force, vacuum and infinity
• He derived the conclusion that the speed of light must be finite
• He advocated that there was a relationship between time and motion
• He also investigated specific gravity and used an air thermometer

ABUL WAFA MUHAMMAD AL-BUZJANI

Abul Wafa contributed mainly in the field of mathematics, especially in the fields of geometry and trigonometry. His achievements and contributions to the field of geometry include:

• • Solving geometrical problems by opening a compass
• Making a square equal to other squares
• Making a regular polyhedral
• Building a regular hectagon by taking half the side of the equilateral triangle inscribed in the same circle for its side
• Making a parabola by points
• Providing a geometrical solution to the equations:
  • o x4 =a
  • o x4 + ax3 = b

Abul Wafa also made some major contributions to trigonometry. Some of these are:

• He was the first person to prove the generality of the sine theorem relative to spherical triangles
• He developed a fresh method of constructing sine tables
• He introduced the secant and cosecant for the first time
• He created relations for sine (a + b) and the formulae:
  • o 2sin2 – a/2 -= 1-cos a
  • o sin a = 2 sin – a/2 cos – a/2.

It is but a fact that a major part of modern day trigonometry can be traced back to Abul Wafa.

ABU HAMID AL-GHAZALI

Imam Al-Ghazali contributed mainly to the fields of religion, philosophy and sufism.

In the time of Al-Ghazali, Muslim philosophers had developed several viewpoints regarding Greek philosophy; this led to a conflict with several Islamic teachings.

At the same time, sufism took to an extreme and was diverging towards avoidance of obligatory prayers and duties of Islam.

It was Ghazali who endeavored to rectify these trends in philosophy and sufism.

Tackling philosophy, Ghazali maintained that approaches of mathematics and exact sciences were fundamentally correct, but he used techniques found in Aristotelian logic and Neoplatonic procedures to counter Neoplatonic philosophy and reveal its flaws.

Unlike other Muslim philosophers, Ghazali showed that “reason” could not comprehend the absolute and the infinite as he argued that “reason” was only limited to the observation of the relative.

Also unlike other Muslim philosophers, Ghazali did not believe that the universe was finite in space but infinite in time and he contended that an infinite time was related to an infinite space.

Al Ghazali was responsible for cleansing the Sufi approach of Islam from all its excesses and reinstating the orthodox stream of Islam. Ghazali, with his deep and everlasting influence, is considered to be one of the greatest theologians of Islam.

ABU RAIHAN AL-BIRUNI (Alberonius)

Al-Biruni was a scholar and scientist with expertise in physics, metaphysics, mathematics, geography and history. His famous book Qanun-i Masoodi talks about several theorems of astronomy, trigonometry, solar, lunar, planetary motions and related topics.

His other famous book called al-Athar al-Baqia, provides an account of the ancient history of nations along with related geographical facts. This book of his discusses the earth’s rotation, providing correct values of latitudes and longitudes for a number of places.

Among his scientific contributions is the fact that he determined accurately the densities of 18 different stones. He also wrote another book called the Kitab-al-Saidana that combined the Arabic knowledge of medicine of that time with that of Indian medicine.

Al-Biruni, it is documented, began (before anyone else) discussing whether the earth rotates around its axis or not. Experiments carried out by Al-Biruni taken together with some other Muslim scientists formed the early basis of modern science. His other achievements include:

• Discovering that as compared to sound, the speed of light is immense.
• Explaining how natural springs and artesian wells work using the hydrostatic principle of communicating vessels.

Al-Biruni is considered one of the greatest scientists of Islam and also counted among the greatest scientists of all times.

ABU ABDULLAH AL-BATANI

Al-Battani is regarded by some as one of the greatest Muslim Astronomers of Islam. The discoveries that he made in his days, both in astronomy and trigonometry, helped greatly in the development of these sciences.

One of his famous discoveries is that he accurately determined the solar year as being 365 days, 5 hours, 46 minutes and 24 seconds. He also determined that the longitude of the sun’s apogee had increased since Ptolemy by 16o, 47′, implying discoveries of the motion of the solar apsides and of a slow variation in the equation of time.

Battani also accurately determined the obliquity of the ecliptic, the length of the seasons and the true and mean orbit of the sun. In addition to this, he corrected several orbits of the moon and the planets and formulated a unique theory to determine conditions for visibility of the new moon.

As a contribution to mathematics he is credited to have replaced Greek chords by sines as he understood them to be superior. He also developed the concept of cotangent, including furnishing their table in degrees.

ABU AL-NASR AL-FARABI (Alpharabius)

Al-Farabi has contributed to various fields such as science, philosophy, logic, sociology, medicine, mathematics and music. He is most remembered for his achievements as an excellent Encyclopedist.

In philosophy, he attempted to synthesize Platonism and Aristotelism with theology and documented rich commentaries on Aristotle’s physics, meteorology, logic, etc.

Al-Farabi was the author of many books and was regarded as the second teacher after Aristotle.

An important contribution to philosophy by Al-Farabi was that he made the study of logic more easy by dividing it into two categories: Takhayyul(idea) and Thubut (proof).

It was Al-Farabi’s work at synthesizing philosophy and Sufism that paved the way for Ibn Sina’s work.

AL-FARGHANI (Alfraganus)

Photo Wiki

Al-Farghani was a distinguished astronomer. He was the author of “Elements of Astronomy” (Kitab fi al-Harakat al-Samawiya wa Jawami Ilm al-Nujum). This was a book discussing celestial motion as well as a thorough science of the stars. This book, after being translated into Latin, commanded great influence upon European astronomy. Al-Farghani was the one who calculated the diameter of the earth to be 6,500 miles.

The book “The Elements of Astronomy” is regarded as Al-Farghani’s best and most influential work. It was so influential in that there are quite a few references to it in books written by medieval scholars.

It is certain that he was one of the greatest exponents responsible for spreading knowledge regarding Ptolemaic astronomy till the time of Sacrobosco’s Sphere. This however did not diminish the value of his book “Elements of Astronomy” which continued to be used; Sacrobosco’s Sphere clearly being indebted to it.

It was from “Elements of Astronomy” that Dante stemmed the astronomical knowledge available in the ‘Vita nuova’ and in the ‘Convivio’.

 

[scythian500]

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Iranian Nano-Technology Products

 

[Tiger Genie]

you know, this only proves muslims could have been as inventive and productive as any other; yet today we find so many muslim majority countries in economic and political strife; in muslim minority countries they are in significant social and criminal strife.

I desist from generalizing this much normally but if you are going to take pride in your past with such generalizations, cannot help pointing out the responsibilities you cannot shirk in your current state.

 

[Kiran Qasim]

Pakistan have to work hard specially for in this field

 

[Faizan Qadeer]

Am i the only one who think excess use of social media destroy our youth ?