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Muslim civilization
M.M
''If there is much misunderstanding in the West about the nature of Islam, there is also much ignorance about the debt our own culture and civilisation owe to the Islamic World. It is a failure, which stems, I think from the straight jacket of history, which we have inherited. The medieval Islamic world, from Central Asia to the shores of the Atlantic, was a world where scholars and men of learning flourished.But because we have tended to see Islam as the enemy of the West, as an alien culture, society and system of belief, we have tended to ignore or erase its great relevance to our own history.''
(Prince Charles in a speech ''Islam and the West'', Oxford,27th October 1993 )
Muslim civilisation stretched from Spain to China. In the Middle Ages, while Europeans were busy warring, plundering, and burning heretics at the stake, Muslim scholars were inventing the most advanced devices of the day. They refined the scientific method, developed effective cardiac drugs, and built celestial observatories—yet over time their contributions were largely forgotten. They replaced the old speculative method of the Greeks with an experimental method, which in later periods formed the basis of all scientific investigations. Here are some outstanding ones:
1. The Watch
The first watch was made by Kutbi, a renowned watch-maker of his time. During the Abbasid period, which lasted between 750-1258 the use of a watch became quite common.
At that time a watch was considered a novel thing in Europe and was regarded as an object of wonder.
2. Astronomy and Navigation
The many references to astronomy in the Qur'an and hadith, and the injunctions to learn, inspired the early Muslim scholars to study the heavens. Muslims were inspired to investigate and study the Earth, the features of the land, methods of mapping and so on. Many new stars were discovered, as we see in their Arabic names - Algol, Deneb, Betelgeuse, Rigel, Aldebaran.
Muslim astronomers were the first to establish observatories, like the one built at Mugharah by Hulagu, the son of Genghis Khan, in Persia, and they invented instruments such as the quadrant and astrolabe, which led to advances not only in astronomy but in oceanic navigation, contributing to the European age of exploration.
3. Pioneering plastic surgery
Did you know that way back in the 10th century Muslim doctor Al-Zahrawi pioneered plastic surgery. In fact it was his practice of using ink to mark the incisions that has now become a standard procedure. Most of the instruments Al-Zahrawi invented are still used today. In his al-Tasrif book, he talked about surgery for nose polyp removal and dealt with obstetrics and the surgery of eyes, ears, and teeth and gave detailed description of their surgical instruments.
4. Coffee
Now the Western world's drink du jour, coffee was first brewed in Yemen around the 9th century. In its earliest days, coffee helped Sufis stay up during late nights of devotion. Later brought to Cairo by a group of students, the coffee buzz soon caught on around the empire. By the 13th century it reached Turkey, but not until the 16th century did the beans start boiling in Europe, brought to Italy by a Venetian trader.
5. Flying machine
''Abbas ibn Firnas was the first person to make a real attempt to construct a flying machine and fly,'' said Hassani. In the 9th century he designed a winged apparatus, roughly resembling a bird costume. In his most famous trial near Cordoba in Spain, Firnas flew upward for a few moments, before falling to the ground and partially breaking his back. His designs would undoubtedly have been an inspiration for famed Italian artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci's hundreds of years later, said Hassani.
6. Perfumes from the East
People have enjoyed perfume for centuries. The hard work of two talented chemists, Jabir ibn Hayyan (born 722) and al-Kindi (born 801) helped lay the foundations and established the perfume industry. Jabir developed many techniques, including
distillation, evaporation and filtration, which enabled the collection of the odour of plants into a vapour that could be collected in the form of water or oil.
Musk and floral perfumes were brought to Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries from Arabia, through trade with the Islamic world and with the returning Crusaders.
7. Sight savers
Did you know the first operation to remove cataracts was carried out as early as the 10th century in Iraq. Muslims also established the first apothecary shops and dispensaries, founded the first medieval school of pharmacy, and wrote great treatises on pharmacology.
8. University
In 859 a young princess named Fatima al-Firhi founded the first degree-granting university in Fez, Morocco. Her sister Miriam founded an adjacent mosque and together the complex became the al-Qarawiyyin Mosque and University. Still operating almost 1,200 years later, Hassani says he hopes the center will remind people that learning is at the core of the Islamic tradition and that the story of the al-Firhi sisters will inspire young Muslim women around the world today.
9. Algebra
The word algebra comes from the title of a Persian mathematician's famous 9th century treatise ''Kitab al-Jabr Wa l-Mugabala'' which translates roughly as ''The Book of Reasoning and Balancing.'' Built on the roots of Greek and Hindu systems, the new algebraic order was a unifying system for rational numbers, irrational numbers and geometrical magnitudes. The same mathematician, Al-Khwarizmi, was also the first to introduce the concept of raising a number to a power.
10. Optics
''Many of the most important advances in the study of optics come from the Muslim world,'' says Hassani. Around the year 1000 Ibn al-Haitham proved that humans see objects by light reflecting off of them and entering the eye, dismissing Euclid and Ptolemy's theories that light was emitted from the eye itself. This great Muslim physicist also discovered the camera obscura phenomenon, which explains how the eye sees images upright due to the connection between the optic nerve and the brain.
11. Music
Muslim musicians have had a profound impact on Europe, dating back to Charlemagne tried to compete with the music of Baghdad and Cordoba, according to Hassani. Among many instruments that arrived in Europe through the Middle East are the lute and the rahab, an ancestor of the violin. Modern musical scales are also said to derive from the Arabic alphabet.
12. Toothbrush
According to Hassani, the Prophet Muḥammad popularized the use of the first toothbrush in around 600. Using a twig from the Meswak tree, he cleaned his teeth and freshened his breath. Substances similar to Meswak are used in modern toothpaste.
13. Hospitals
''Hospitals as we know them today, with wards and teaching centers, come from 9th century Egypt,'' explained Hassani. The first such medical center was the Ahmad ibn Tulun Hospital, founded in 872 in Cairo. Tulun hospital provided free care for anyone who needed it — a policy based on the Muslim tradition of caring for all who are sick. From Cairo, such hospitals spread around the Muslim world.
14. The first windmill
Did you know that the first windmill was constructed as early as 7th century? One thing the vast deserts of Arabia had was wind, when the seasonal streams ran dry, and these desert winds had a constant wind direction. For about one hundred and twenty days the wind blew regularly from the same place.
15. From bucket to bike
Did you know that Muslim engineer Al-Jazari came up with an ingenious device for lifting huge buckets of water without lifting a finger? It was grandly called the crank-connecting rod system. This was his most important contribution to engineering, and had a huge impact on the development of technology. This simple device started a revolution in engineering that has found it highest form of expression in the bicycle.
THESE WERE ALL DUE TO ALLAH, THE ALMIGHTY'S BLESSINGS AND ONE REASON WHY WE ARE PROUD OF BEING MUSLIM.
Islamic Life » Muslims: Fathers of Invention
M.M
''If there is much misunderstanding in the West about the nature of Islam, there is also much ignorance about the debt our own culture and civilisation owe to the Islamic World. It is a failure, which stems, I think from the straight jacket of history, which we have inherited. The medieval Islamic world, from Central Asia to the shores of the Atlantic, was a world where scholars and men of learning flourished.But because we have tended to see Islam as the enemy of the West, as an alien culture, society and system of belief, we have tended to ignore or erase its great relevance to our own history.''
(Prince Charles in a speech ''Islam and the West'', Oxford,27th October 1993 )
Muslim civilisation stretched from Spain to China. In the Middle Ages, while Europeans were busy warring, plundering, and burning heretics at the stake, Muslim scholars were inventing the most advanced devices of the day. They refined the scientific method, developed effective cardiac drugs, and built celestial observatories—yet over time their contributions were largely forgotten. They replaced the old speculative method of the Greeks with an experimental method, which in later periods formed the basis of all scientific investigations. Here are some outstanding ones:
1. The Watch
The first watch was made by Kutbi, a renowned watch-maker of his time. During the Abbasid period, which lasted between 750-1258 the use of a watch became quite common.
At that time a watch was considered a novel thing in Europe and was regarded as an object of wonder.
2. Astronomy and Navigation
The many references to astronomy in the Qur'an and hadith, and the injunctions to learn, inspired the early Muslim scholars to study the heavens. Muslims were inspired to investigate and study the Earth, the features of the land, methods of mapping and so on. Many new stars were discovered, as we see in their Arabic names - Algol, Deneb, Betelgeuse, Rigel, Aldebaran.
Muslim astronomers were the first to establish observatories, like the one built at Mugharah by Hulagu, the son of Genghis Khan, in Persia, and they invented instruments such as the quadrant and astrolabe, which led to advances not only in astronomy but in oceanic navigation, contributing to the European age of exploration.
3. Pioneering plastic surgery
Did you know that way back in the 10th century Muslim doctor Al-Zahrawi pioneered plastic surgery. In fact it was his practice of using ink to mark the incisions that has now become a standard procedure. Most of the instruments Al-Zahrawi invented are still used today. In his al-Tasrif book, he talked about surgery for nose polyp removal and dealt with obstetrics and the surgery of eyes, ears, and teeth and gave detailed description of their surgical instruments.
4. Coffee
Now the Western world's drink du jour, coffee was first brewed in Yemen around the 9th century. In its earliest days, coffee helped Sufis stay up during late nights of devotion. Later brought to Cairo by a group of students, the coffee buzz soon caught on around the empire. By the 13th century it reached Turkey, but not until the 16th century did the beans start boiling in Europe, brought to Italy by a Venetian trader.
5. Flying machine
''Abbas ibn Firnas was the first person to make a real attempt to construct a flying machine and fly,'' said Hassani. In the 9th century he designed a winged apparatus, roughly resembling a bird costume. In his most famous trial near Cordoba in Spain, Firnas flew upward for a few moments, before falling to the ground and partially breaking his back. His designs would undoubtedly have been an inspiration for famed Italian artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci's hundreds of years later, said Hassani.
6. Perfumes from the East
People have enjoyed perfume for centuries. The hard work of two talented chemists, Jabir ibn Hayyan (born 722) and al-Kindi (born 801) helped lay the foundations and established the perfume industry. Jabir developed many techniques, including
distillation, evaporation and filtration, which enabled the collection of the odour of plants into a vapour that could be collected in the form of water or oil.
Musk and floral perfumes were brought to Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries from Arabia, through trade with the Islamic world and with the returning Crusaders.
7. Sight savers
Did you know the first operation to remove cataracts was carried out as early as the 10th century in Iraq. Muslims also established the first apothecary shops and dispensaries, founded the first medieval school of pharmacy, and wrote great treatises on pharmacology.
8. University
In 859 a young princess named Fatima al-Firhi founded the first degree-granting university in Fez, Morocco. Her sister Miriam founded an adjacent mosque and together the complex became the al-Qarawiyyin Mosque and University. Still operating almost 1,200 years later, Hassani says he hopes the center will remind people that learning is at the core of the Islamic tradition and that the story of the al-Firhi sisters will inspire young Muslim women around the world today.
9. Algebra
The word algebra comes from the title of a Persian mathematician's famous 9th century treatise ''Kitab al-Jabr Wa l-Mugabala'' which translates roughly as ''The Book of Reasoning and Balancing.'' Built on the roots of Greek and Hindu systems, the new algebraic order was a unifying system for rational numbers, irrational numbers and geometrical magnitudes. The same mathematician, Al-Khwarizmi, was also the first to introduce the concept of raising a number to a power.
10. Optics
''Many of the most important advances in the study of optics come from the Muslim world,'' says Hassani. Around the year 1000 Ibn al-Haitham proved that humans see objects by light reflecting off of them and entering the eye, dismissing Euclid and Ptolemy's theories that light was emitted from the eye itself. This great Muslim physicist also discovered the camera obscura phenomenon, which explains how the eye sees images upright due to the connection between the optic nerve and the brain.
11. Music
Muslim musicians have had a profound impact on Europe, dating back to Charlemagne tried to compete with the music of Baghdad and Cordoba, according to Hassani. Among many instruments that arrived in Europe through the Middle East are the lute and the rahab, an ancestor of the violin. Modern musical scales are also said to derive from the Arabic alphabet.
12. Toothbrush
According to Hassani, the Prophet Muḥammad popularized the use of the first toothbrush in around 600. Using a twig from the Meswak tree, he cleaned his teeth and freshened his breath. Substances similar to Meswak are used in modern toothpaste.
13. Hospitals
''Hospitals as we know them today, with wards and teaching centers, come from 9th century Egypt,'' explained Hassani. The first such medical center was the Ahmad ibn Tulun Hospital, founded in 872 in Cairo. Tulun hospital provided free care for anyone who needed it — a policy based on the Muslim tradition of caring for all who are sick. From Cairo, such hospitals spread around the Muslim world.
14. The first windmill
Did you know that the first windmill was constructed as early as 7th century? One thing the vast deserts of Arabia had was wind, when the seasonal streams ran dry, and these desert winds had a constant wind direction. For about one hundred and twenty days the wind blew regularly from the same place.
Did you know that Muslim engineer Al-Jazari came up with an ingenious device for lifting huge buckets of water without lifting a finger? It was grandly called the crank-connecting rod system. This was his most important contribution to engineering, and had a huge impact on the development of technology. This simple device started a revolution in engineering that has found it highest form of expression in the bicycle.
THESE WERE ALL DUE TO ALLAH, THE ALMIGHTY'S BLESSINGS AND ONE REASON WHY WE ARE PROUD OF BEING MUSLIM.
Islamic Life » Muslims: Fathers of Invention
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