Muslims' Contributions to Civilization
Dr. Sultan Ahmad, USA
We, as Muslims, are not aware of the contributions of the Muslims to
civilization. This is not only unfortunate, but also a shame for us.
We should, of course will feel proud when we will know the
contributions of the Muslim scientists.
Surgery
Many modern surgical instruments are of exactly the same design as
those devised in the 10th century by a Muslim surgeon called
al-Zahrawi (936 – 1013 AD). He was an Andalusian who is considered
Islam's greatest surgeon and one of the fathers of modern surgery.
His scalpels, bone saws, forceps, fine scissors for eye surgery and
many of the 200 instruments he devised are recognizable to a modern
surgeon. It was he who discovered that catgut used for internal
stitches dissolves away naturally (a discovery he made when his monkey
ate his lute strings) and that it can be also used to make medicine
capsules. In the 13th century, another Muslim named Ibn Nafis
described the circulation of the blood, 300 years before William
Harvey discovered it. Muslim doctors also invented anesthetics of
opium and alcohol mixtures and developed hollow needless to suck
cataracts from eyes in a technique still used today.
Source: www.independent.co.uk; How Islamic inventors changed the
world, Saturday, 11 March, 2006; www.pre-renaissance.com
Parachute and Flying Machine
A thousand years before the Wright brothers a Muslim poet, astronomer,
musician and engineer named Abbas Ibn Firnas (810 – 887 AD)made
several attempts to construct a flying machine. A berber born in
Izn-Rand Onda, Al-Andalus (Ronda, Spain) and lived in the Emirate of
Cordova. He was an inventor, engineer, aviator, physician, Arabic poet
and Andalusian musician.
In 852 AD, he jumped from the minaret of the Grand Mosque in Cordova
using a loose cloak stiffened with wooden struts. He hoped to glide
like a bird. He could not. But the cloak should his fall, creating
what is thought to be the first Parachute, and leaving him with only
minor injuries. In 875, aged 70, having perfected a machine of silk
and eagles' feathers he tried again, jumping from a mountain. He flew
to a significant height and stayed aloft for tem minutes but crashed
on landing – concluding correctly that it was because he had not given
his device a tail so it would stall on landing. Baghdad international
airport and a crater on the Moon are named after him.
Source: op. cit.
Optics
The ancient Greeks thought our eyes emitted rays, like a las3er, which
enabled us to see. The first person to realize that light enters the
eyes, rather than leaving it, was the 10th century mathematician,
astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haitham (Alhazen, 965 – 1041 AD) born
in Circa 965, in Basra, Iraq and lived mainly in Cairo, Egypt. He is
regarded as the "father of modern optics).
He invent)ed the first pin-hole camera after noticing the way light
came through a hole in windows of shutters. The smaller the hole, the
better the picture, he worked out, and set up the first Camera Obscura
(from the Arab word qamara of a dark or private room). He is also
credited with being the first man to shift Physics from a
philosophical activity to an experimental one. John Draper expresses
his amazement that Ibn Al-Haythem wroye about these subjects in the
11th century and for several centuries Ibn Al-Haythams's work on
optics was the main source of study in Europe.
Source: en.wikipedia.org.
Civil Engineering
Al-Jazari invented a variety of machines for raising water in 1206, as
well as water mills and water wheels with cams on their axie used to
operate automata in the late 12th century. Cordova had the first
facilities and waste containers for litter collection. The first
kerosene lamp was invented by Muhammad ibn Zakaria Razi (865 – 925 AD)
in the 9th century. He was born in Ragha, Persia. Shifted his interest
from music to alchemy and when his experimentation caused him an
eye-disease, he shifted his interest to medicine.
Muslim engineers invented a variety of surveying instruments for
accurate leveling, including a wooden board with a plumb line and two
hooks, an equilateral triangle with a plumb line and two hooks and a
<<reed level>>. They also invented a rotating alidade used for
accurate alignment, and a surveying astrolabe used for alignment,
measuring angles, triangulation, finding the width of a river, and the
distance between two points separated by an impassable obstruction.
The streets of Baghdad were the first to be paved with tar from the
8th century AD. The first ventilators were invented in Islamic Egypt
and were widely used in many houses throughout Cairo during the middle
ages.
Source: www.independent.co.uk; www.pre-renaissance.com.
Chemistry
Distillation, the means of separating liquids through differences in
their boiling points, was invented around the year 800 by Islam's
foremost scientist, Jabir ibn Hayyan (721 – 815 AD), who transformed
alchemy into chemistry, inventing many of the basic processes and
apparatus still used today – liquefaction, crystallization,
distillation, purification, oxidization, evaporation and filtration.
As well as discovering sulphuric and nitric acid, he invented the
alembic still, giving the world intense rose water and other perfumes
and alcoholic spirits (although drinking them is haram, or forbidden,
in Islam. Ibn Hayyamn emphasized systematic experimentation and was
the founder of modern chemistry.
Source: op.cit.
Mechanics
The crank-shaft is a device which translates rotary into linear motion
and is central to much of the machinery in the modern world, not least
the internal combustion engine. One of the most important mechanical
inventions in the history of humankind was created by an ingenious
Muslim engineer called al-Jazari (1136 – 1206) to raise water for
irrigation. He was born in Al-Jaziraothe, northern Mesopotamia. In his
book, book of knowledge of ingenious Mechanical devices, he described
fifty mechanical devices along with instructions on how to construct
them.
Source: www.independent.co.uk; www.wikipedia.org
Numbering System
The system of numbering is use all around the world is probably Indian
in origin but the style of the numerals is Arabic and first appears in
print in the work of the Muslim Mathematician al-Khwarizmi and
al-Kindi (801 – 873 AD) around 825. He was born in Kufa. He was a
philosopher,, mathematician, physicist, astronomer, physician,
geographer and even an expert in Music. It is surprising that he made
original contributions to all of these fields.
Algebra was named after al- Khwarizmi's book, Al-Jabar wa-al-Muabilah,
much of whose contents are still in use. The work of Muslim math
scholars was imported into Europe 300 years later by the Italian
mathematician Fibonacci. Algorithms and much of the theory of
trigonometry came from the Muslim world. And Al-Kindi's discovery of
frequency analysis rendered all the codes of the ancient world soluble
and created the basis of modern cryptology.
Source: www.independent.co.uk
Mathematics
Among the achievements of Muslim mathematicians include the
development of Algebra and algorithms by Muhammad ibn Musa
Al-Khwarizmi, 9780 – 950 AD) the invention of spherical trigonometry,
the addition of the decimal point notation to the Arabic numerals, the
invention of the trigonometric functions besides sine, al-Kindi's
introduction of cryptanalysis and frequency analysis., al-Karaji's
introduction of algebraic calculus and proof by mathematical
induction, the development of analytic geometry and the earliest
general formula for infinitesimal and integral calculus by Ibn
al-Haytham, the beginning of algebraic geometry by Omar Khayyam, the
first reputations of Euclidean geometry and the parallel postulate by
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, the first first attempt at a non-Euclidean
geometry by Sadar al-Din, the development of symbolic algebra by Abu
al-Hasan ibn al-Qalasadi, and numerous other advances in algebra,
arithmetic, Calculus, cryptography, geometry, number theory and
trigonometry.
Source: Book: al-Tabsira fi'lm al-hisab
Medicine
Abu al-Qasim (Abulcasis) help lay the foundation for modern surgery,
with his Kitab al-Tasrif, in which he invented numerous surgical
instruments, including the first instruments unique to women, as well
as the surgical uses of catgut and forceps, the ligature, surgical
needle, scalpel, curette, retractor, surgical spoon, sound, surgical
hook, rod, and specula, and bone saw. Ibn Haytham (Alhacen) made
important advances in eye surgery, as he correctly explained the
process of sight and visual perception for the first time in his book
of optics. Ibn Sina (Avicena) (980 – 1037 AD) was born in Afsana, near
Bukhara. For a thousand years he retained his original renown as one
of the greatest thinkers and medical scholars in history.
He helped lay the foundations of modern medicine, with the Canon of
medicine which was responsible for the discovery of contagious
disease, introduction of quarantine to limit their spread,
introduction of experimental medicine, evidence-based medicines,
clinical trials, randomized controlled trials, efficacy tests, and
clinical pharmacology, the first descriptions on bacterial and viral
organisms, distinction of mediastinitis from pleurisy, contagious
nature of tuberculosis, distribution of disease by water and soil,
skin troubles, sexually transmitted diseases, perversions, nervous
ailments, use of ice to treat fevers, and separation of medicine from
pharmacology. Ibn al-Nafis laid the foundations of circulatory
physiology, as he was the first to describe the pulmonary and coronary
circulation.
Source: Books: The Canon of Medicine; The book of Healing.
Time Keeping Devices
In the 10th century, al-Sufi (908 – 986 AD)described over1,000
different uses of an astrolabe, including timekeeping, particularly
for the times of Salah (prayers) and Ramadhan. Geared mechanical
astrolabe featured a calendar computer and gear-wheels, and was
invented by Abu Bakr of Ispahan in 1235.Al-Jazari invented monumental
water powers astronomical clocks which displayed moving models of the
sun, moon, and stars. His largest astronomical clock displayed the
zodiac and the solar and lunar orbits. Another innovative feature of
the clock was a pointer which travelled across the top of a gateway
and caused automatic doors to open every hour. The first geared clock
was invented by the 11th century Arab engineer Ibn Khalf al-Muradi in
Islamic Iberia. It was a water clock that employed both segmental and
epicyclic gearing. Other monumental water clocks constructed by Muslim
engineers also employed complex gear trains and arrays of automata.
Source: Book of Fixed Stars
Architecture
The great mosque of Xi'an china was completed circa 744, and the Great
Mosque of samara in Iraq was completed in 847. The Great Mosque of
samara combined the hypostyle architecture of rows and columns
supporting a flat base above which a huge spiraling minaret was
constructed. The Spanish Muslims began construction of the Grand
Mosque at cordoba in 785 marking the beginning of Islamic architecture
in Spain and Northern Africa. The mosque is noted for its striking
interior arches. Moorish architecture reached its peak with the
construction of the Alhambra, the magnificent palace/fortress of
Granada, with its open and breezy interior spaces adorned in red,
blue, and gold. The walls are decorated with stylized foliage motifs.
Arabic inscriptions and arabesque design work. With walls covered in
glazed tiles.
Many buildings and portions of buildings worldwide have been inspired
by the Alhambra: there is a Moorish revival house in Stillwater, MN
which was created and named after the Alhambara; also, the main
portion of the Irvine Spectrum center in Irvine. CA is a postmodern
version of the court of the Lions.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Institutions
A number of important educational and scientific institutions
previously unknown in the ancient world have their origins in the
early Islamic world, with the most notable examples being: the public
and psychiatric hospitals, the public library and lending library, the
academic degree granting university, and the astronomical observatory
as a research institute. The Guinness book of World Records recognizes
the University of Al Karaouine in Fez, Morocco as the oldest
degree-granting in the world with its founding in 859 CE byFatima
al-Fihri. Al-Azhar University, founded in Cairo, Egypt in the 975 CE.,
offered a variety of academic degrees, including postgraduate degrees,
and is often considered the first full-pledged university. The origin
of the doctorate also dates back to the ijazat attadris via wa
'l-ifttd (license to teach and issue legal opinions) in the medieval
Madrashas which taught Islamic law.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Compiled by the author
http://www.bangladesh-web.com/view.php?hidRecord=372525
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