Professor Mohamed El-Gomati, recently appointed Chairman of the Foundation for Science Technology and Civilisation (FSTC), has been made an OBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in the New Year's Honors List for 2012. Professor El-Gomati, a scientist and lecturer on science in the Islamic civilisation, has been a trustee and Vice-Chairman of FSTC for many years. He is an advisor to a number of UK Universities and charities and speaks on the contribution of Muslims in Science, Technology and Civilisation. We present hereafter a short note on this deserved distinction.
Poetry was a fundamental tool of creation in the classical Arab culture before and after Islam. In poetry, Arabs expressed all aspects of their lives and mirrored their emotions, ideas and ethics. The scholars of Islamic civilization documented the classical heritage of Arabic poetry and showed that this heritage included several aspects of the Islamic scientific tradition in medicine, mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, navigation and various natural sciences. The heritage of science in Arabic poetry was celebrated by FSTC and 1001 Inventions in Abu Dhabi (UAE) on December 22nd 2011 in a special event under the general theme of Poetry and Science in Islamic Civilization. On this well attended unique occasion, the poems of medieval Islamic physicians and scientists were presented.
The creation of hospitals as institutions for the care of sick people was developed during the early Islamic era. Over time, hospitals were found in all Islamic towns. This article describes four of these medieval hospitals in Syria, two in Aleppo and two in Damascus. The author, who visited these institutions, describes their history and functions and illustrates the article with photographs that he took himself.
The physician, scientist and philosopher, ‘Ali b. Sahl Rabban al-Tabari was the son of Sahl Sahl Rabban al-Tabari. ‘Ali was born into an educated and intellectual Christian family. He wrote many books on philosophy, medicine and religious matters. In particular, his Firdaws al-hikma is the first ever written medical encyclopaedia which incorporates all the branches of the medical sciences. This article demonstrates the significance of ‘Ali b. Sahl al-Tabari's contribution to Muslim heritage in terms of philosophical, religious and medical works. An extensive bibliography supports the arguments of the article and provides a solid basis for further reading.
Written nearly a thousand years ago, Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq's tenth-century cookbook is the most comprehensive work of its kind. Its recent edition and English translation offers a unique glimpse into the culinary culture of the Medieval Islam. This traditional cookbook with more than 600 recipes from the luxurious cuisine of classical Islam is also a rare guide to the contemporary culinary culture. Its numerous anecdotes and poems unfold the role of food in the politics of Islam's golden era. Informative and entertaining to scholars and general readers, the book has recently been edited and translated into English by Nawal Nasrallah. We present in the following review this important book, with references and links to related literature on the Islamic cuisine.
Kitab fi Al Jadari wa Al Hasaba authored by the Muslim physician Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (d. ca. 925)) is one of the books that remained popular and in great demand for over a millennium, and also repeatedly translated into many languages. This Treatise on Smallpox and Measles was the first comprehensive text on this disease. In the following short note, Dr. Nasim Hasan Naqvi presents this text, its main contents and its historical context.
This article aims to give an overview of the formation and development of mathematical studies and the work of famous mathematician in the Ottoman State over a 600 year period, from the period preceding the conquest of Constantinople to the early 20th century. Dozens of mathematicians and hundreds of mathematical works flourished and they constitute rich material for ongoing investigation.
Some medical historians of the last century mistakenly recorded that Caesarean section was strictly forbidden amongst Muslims. This opinion has been repeatedly quoted without examining its authenticity or validity. Research into available ancient Arabic sources can lead to evidence contrary to such a view. The Islamic scholars of the Middle ages were, in fact, the first to not only write about this operation but to illustrate it in pictures and describe it in poetry. Considering the antiquity of their time, it is unfair to compare them with scholars of a later date; but their achievements must be valued.
On December 7, 2011, Dr Ahmad Almansour presented a lecture at the Faculty of Policy and Management, Keio University, Japan on "1000 years of Inventions and Innovations: Discover the Muslim Heritage in our World." We present hereafter a short note about the lecture and its main contents.
In recognition of the crucial role of Science and Technology (S&T) towards social and economic development, the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) announced the 10th Edition (1433H- 2012G) of his Prizes for Science and Technology. Those awards are intended to promote scientific and technological research projects for the benefit of its member countries. The IDB Prizes for S&T aim at encouraging institutions of excellence and promoting competition among S&T institutions. The Prizes also reflect the commitment of the IDB to implementing forward-looking policies and integrating advanced S&T applications in the development agenda of the Islamic World.
Professor Salim T S Al-Hassani, Chairman of the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC) and 1001 Inventions, was one of the keynote speakers at the Uniday (Students Day) conference on 22nd of October 2011 at Stadthalle in Bielefeld, Germany.
The works of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi have always attracted the interest of Ottoman scholars as early as the 14th century. Some of his works were translated into Turkish and various annotations or commentaries were written upon them. They were also introduced in the school curriculum as textbooks, which testify to the wide scope of his impact on Ottoman scholarship. Another aspect of his remarkable influence is represented by the presence of very numerous manuscript copies of al-Tusi's works in many libraries of Turkey, especially Istanbul, and in many countries previously governed by the Ottomans. This article examines al-Tusi's work on scientific fields practiced under the Ottomans such as mathematics, astronomy, scientific instrumentation, and mineralogy and demonstrates how important he was to the scholarship of the Ottoman world.
The Wall Street Journal, one of the world's most respected newspapers, has suggested recently that the ongoing economic crisis could be resolved in part by the charitable institution of waqf created by the Muslim civilisation and used effectively by the Ottomans. In its broader sense, a waqf in Islamic history is an endowment consisting in donating a building, a sum of money or plot of land for charitable purposes. The donated assets are held by a charitable trust. The institution of waqf played a great role in nurturing solidarity and charity in Muslim countries and continues to represent one of the most original and active aspects of the social and economic structures of the modern Islamic world.
At the beginning of 2009, we lost our colleague and friend Professor Gunhan Danisman, a member of the Muslim Heritage Awareness Network in Turkey (MHANT) and an eminent scholar who passed away in Istanbul where he had lived for many years. In the following, we present an obituary as a tribute to his memory.
Ali Al-Qushji was one of the most noteworthy and important scientists in the Islamic world. He wrote valuable works especially on astronomy and mathematics. He was a student and co-worker of the famous statesman and scientist Ulugh Beg. After Ulugh Beg's death, Ali Al-Qushji left Samarqand to Tabriz where he worked for Akkoyunlu Ruler Uzun Hasan. Afterwards, he worked for the Ottoman Sultan Muhammad II in Istanbul during the last two years of his life. This article presents a short survey of Al-Qushji's contributions to mathematics and astronomy.
The famous scientist Ibn al-Haytham (‘Alhazen') has rightly been credited with many advances in optics and vision science, but recent spurious claims that he is the ‘founder of psychophysics' rest upon unsupported assertions, a conflation of psychophysics with the wider discipline of psychology, and semantic arguments over what it is to ‘found' a school of thought.
In the Islamic world, starting from Al-Kindī (d. 874), Al-Fārābī (d. 950), Ibn Sīnā (d. 1034), and Safī al-Dīn al-Urmawī (d. 1294) used the abjad notation to write music. Of these writers, the most systematic one is Al-Urmawī. Whilst other music writers showed musical index with the abjad letter notation, al-Urmawī created music with and without lyrics with the abjad notes. Qutb al-Dīn Al-Shirāzī, from the subsequent generation after Al-Urmawī, introduced innovations in the abjad notation. In our study, we will analyse the essence of these innovations and show that the inspiration of Al-Shirāzī in his musical works was based on the sound rules in reading the Qurān (tajwīd).
It is often supposed in Islamic studies that Al-Ghazali demolished the basis for science in the Muslim world by his so-called orthodox attack against rational thinking which nurtured a negative climate that resulted in the eventual rejection of scientific research in the Islamic world after the 12th century. In this article, Arun Bala questions such views on both historical and epistemological grounds. Historically, historians showed that science advanced in the Muslim world even after Al-Ghazali, especially in directions that broke free from the heritage of Greek science. Moreover, epistemologically, the author argues that Al-Ghazali's impact was positive in the Muslim world and beyond. In the former, he provided epistemological and theological grounds for breaking free from the narrow rationalism of ancient science. In the West, his impact provoked the Scholastic philosophy, in order to respond to his theses, to develop new epistemological grounds which paved the way for modern science.
After briefly describing his work background, Trevor Hilder tells the story of the young man who set out to seek his fortune. He then offers an interpretation of the meaning of the story as an analogy of the rise of Western Civilisation and the waves of infrastructure which have been developed over the last five hundred years. He invites the reader to consider what the story can teach us as we try to create a truly global civilisation.
This primary-source study of four medical works of the 13th century Muslim scholar Ibn al-Nafis confirmed that his Kitab al-Mûjaz fi al-Tibb was authored as an independent book. It was meant as a handbook for medical students and practitioners not as an epitome of Kitab al-Qanun of Ibn Sina as thought by recent historians. Ibn al-Nafis' huge medical encyclopedia Al-Shamil represents a wave of intense scientific activity that spread among the scholars of Cairo and Damascus in the 13th century. Like his predecessors in the Islamic Era, Ibn al-Nafis critically appraised the views of scholars before him in the light of his own experimentation and direct observations. Accordingly, we find in his books the first description of the coronary vessels and the true concept of the blood supply of the heart as well as the correct description of the pulmonary circulation and the beginnings of the proper understanding of the systemic circulation. Those discoveries, spreading from East to West, were translated into Latin by Andreas Alpagus and appeared in the works of European scholars from Servetus to Harvey. Furthermore, this study documented several other contributions of Ibn al-Nafis to the progress of human functional anatomy and to advances in medical and surgical practice.
Dr Nizar Souayah, MD; and Dr Jeffrey I. Greenstein, MD
Al-Razi (Rhazes) (born in 864 CE) wrote over 200 scientific treatises, many of which had a major impact on European medicine. His best known manuscript is Liber Continens, a medical encyclopedia in which he described his contributions to neurology, focusing on his description of cranial and spinal cord nerves and his clinical case reports, which illustrate his use of neuroanatomy to localize lesions. In this article, Dr Nizar Souayah and Dr Jeffrey I. Greenstein focus on Al-Razi's description of the cranial and spinal nerves and his relevant clinical case reports, which illustrate his understanding of neuroanatomy and the application of his knowledge to clinical practice.
The complex of disciplines composed of mathematics, architecture and art in Islamic civilisation has been an important field of recent research. The scholars showed the interaction between mathematical reflexion and procedures and their implementation in designing concrete and symbolic forms in buildings, decoration and design. Furthermore, recent scholarship pointed out the amazing progress that this marriage brought about in prefiguring outstanding mathematical results that scientists proved only in late 20th century. In the following survey, Professor Salim Al-Hassani explores the various facets of this exciting subject that is still full of discoveries to come. By drawing attention to the ongoing debates in scholarly circles among physicicts, mathematicians and historians of science, art and architecture, he shows how the connection between theoretical and applied mathematics was fruitful and creative in the Islamic tradition.
On 25th and 26th May 2010 the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC) organised the high profile academic conference 1001 Inventions: Muslim Heritage in Our World at the London Science Museum. The conference brought together many national and international dignitaries and academic scholars to share, celebrate, and propel their studies in the vital arena of Muslim Heritage. The conference, which hosted 20 speakers and more than 130 delegates over the two days, focused on the following topics: Enriching the educational curriculum in various countries, cultural inter-appreciation around the world, women of science in Muslim heritage, the environment, and transmission and translation of knowledge. We publish in this special section the proceedings of the conference.
In this short note, Dr Nayef Al-Rodhan outlines his theory of history about sustainable history and the dignity of man. He explains how sustainable history is propelled by good governance, which balances the tension between the attributes of human nature – emotionality, amorality and egoisms – and human dignity needs, such as reason, security, human rights, accountability, transparency, justice, opportunity, innovation and inclusiveness. The author proposes minimum criteria for good governance that are sensitive to local cultures and histories but meet certain common global values to ensure maximum and sustainable moral and political cooperation.
In the following short report, we present a summary of the lecture presented by Professor Peter Adamson in the Muslim Heritage Awareness Group (MHAG) meeting organized by FSTC in London on 30 March 2011. In his lecture, Professor Adamson spoke about the research project he is currently running in the Philosophy Department at King's College in London: "Natural Philosophy in the Islamic World." The project aims to explore the broad notion of "natural philosophy" in Islamic philosophy, especially in the crucial period of the 9th-10th centuries CE, when Ancient philosophy was appropriated and naturalized in the linguistic and intellectual Arabic and Islamic context.
This is a very short note summarizing the lecture presented by Dr Saira Malik in the Muslim Heritage Awareness Group (MHAG) meeting organized by FSTC at the Royal Society in London on March 30, 2011. Dr Malik focused on the influence of Ibn al-Haytham's Book of Optics on the work of Kamal al-Din al-Farisi in his Kitab Tanqih al-Manazir, which is in form and content an original recension of Ibn al-Haytham's work.
Mr Zakri Abdul Hamid reflects in this article the thoughts that occurred to him after visiting the exhibition "1001 Inventions" in New York Hall of Science. He concludes it by formulating a wish that the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry in Malaysia may consider to bring the exhibition "1001 Inventions" to Malaysia to coincide with the "Year of Science" in 2012 that the ministry will organise.
Ranging across poetry, court documents, agronomy manuals, and early garden representations and richly illustrated with pictures and site plans, Islamic Gardens and Landscapes by Dr Fairchild Ruggles is a book of impressive scope sure to interest scholars and enthusiasts alike.
During the classical Muslim civilisation, big scientific advances in medicine were made. Muslim doctors began by collecting all the medical observations and theories of their predecessors, especially Hippocrates and Galen, and built an original and influential tradition of medical knowledge. This article presents selected episodes from this tradition, thus proving its richness and wide scope. Beginning by briefly setting the historical context, the author then then to Al-Zahrawi, the "Father of Surgery", Ibn Zuhr, the Doctor of Seville, Ibn Rushd, Doctor and Philosopher, Ibn Maymun, a doctor in exile, and finally the discoverer of the "secrets of the heart", Ibn al-Nafis al-Dimashqi.
The exhibition 1001 Inventions opened in early December 2010 in New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) and has already attracted several thousand visitors on its US debut. The exhibition's US premiere was highly anticipated after it enjoyed blockbuster runs in both London and Istanbul. The 1001 Inventions exhibition, which highlights the scientific legacy of Muslim civilization in our modern age, made its United States debut at the NYSCI at a special event attended by local media, academics and philanthropists, including Mohammed Jameel, patron of Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives (ALJCI).
The CE4CE website is now live at www.ce4ce.org. It is designed to provide an easily accessible and welcoming public face for the company, and it makes available all teaching resources and educational materials, and provides access to the company's services. The site is kept fresh with news and events, and we hope to make it stronger as we receive more feedback from users.
Khalifa University (KU) and the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the KU campus in Abu Dhabi. The MoU aims to promote greater recognition and appreciation of science and invention in Muslim civilisation and its influence in today's fast-paced world. As part of the MoU, the first joint project to be introduced in Abu Dhabi will be an expansion of the Khalifa University Discovery Center by introducing the Muslim Heritage Science and Engineering exhibition, partly based on the 1001 Inventions global initiative developed by FSTC.
One of the most popular books ever written is the book the Arabs know as Kalila wa-Dimna, a bestseller for almost two thousand years, and a book still read with pleasure all over the world. It has been translated at least 200 times into 50 different languages. In this article, Paul Lunde biefly presents Kalila wa-Dimna origins and characterizes its content.
In a keynote lecture pronounced by Professor Salim T S Al-Hassani in September 2003 at the European Parliament in Brussels, he used slides and 3-D animations to outline the impressive heritage which Europe received from the Muslim World which helped trigger the Renaissance. He stressed in particular the need to remember contributions in the development of science and technology in the perspective of building an environment of understanding and mutual appreciation. We publish this text as a vibrant and timely plea for integrating the Muslim dimension into the history of Europe and in particular in the schools' curricula.
In this short bio-bibliography of Kamal al-Din al-Farisi, Dr Saira Malik presents succinctly the life and work of one of the most original scientists of the Islamic tradition. The author of Tanqih al-Manazir was indeed a prominent physicist, mathematician, and scientist of the early 14th century, and an original reader and commentator of Ibn al-Haytham's optics.
Many of the prominent stars known today are of Arabic origin as they bear names given to them during the golden age of Islamic astronomy. A major contribution in this field is that of al-Sufi (10th century). Presenting shortly the historical context of the old nomenclature of Arabic star names, the article contains also a list of 165 stars known by Arabic names.
Abd al-Rahman ibn Khaldun, the well known historian and thinker from Muslim 14th-century North Africa, is considered a forerunner of original theories in social sciences and philosophy of history, as well as the author of original views in economics, prefiguring modern contributions. In the following detailed and documented article, Muhammad Hozien outlines the bio-bibliography of Ibn Khaldun and presents insights into his theories, especially by comparing his analysis with that of Thucydides, and by characterizing Ibn Khaldun's view on science and philosophy.
For over 700 years the international language of science was Arabic. In this compelling, inspiring book, Jim Al-Khalili celebrates the forgotten pioneers who helped shape our understanding of the world. All scientists have stood on the shoulders of giants. But most historical accounts today suggest that the achievements of the ancient Greeks were not matched until the European Renaissance in the 16th century, a one thousand year period dismissed as the Dark Ages.
WIPO: The World Intellectual Property Organization
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published in September 2010 on its website an interesting article (read online here) about the international touring exhibition "1001 Inventions: Discover the Muslim Heritage in our World" which opened in August in Istanbul. The exhibition is described as "a colorful, fascinating and insightful exhibition… This unique overview of the dynamism of Muslim civilization, its ingenuity and diverse scientific and technological achievements, is set to visit 30 major cities across five continents in the next four years". We reproduce this article for the benefit of our readers.
The Associated Press writer Christopher Torchia published on 25 August 2010 an elogious paper "1001 Inventions: Science in Muslim lands" about the opening of "1001 Inventions" exhibition in Istanbul earlier this month. The article was reproduced by several newspapers around the world; it recalls the aim of the exhibition and how it is intended to highlight the overshadowed period of history, a "Golden Age" in which advances in science, medicine, technology and architecture laid groundwork for Western progress from the Renaissance until modern times.
Attitudes and expectations towards medical knowledge and medical practice standards influence and determine the position of health practitioners and the development of medicine. While describing the basic characteristics of the Ottoman Turkish medicine and medical practice through their scientific approach and standards, the following article by Professor Nil Sari aims at putting forth the priorities of the Ottoman Turkish medicine, by means of primary sources such as archive documents and medical manuscripts.
In the following well documented article Dr Muhammad Abdul Jabbar Beg surveys the origins of Islamic science, with a special focus on its interaction with the previous intellectual traditions of the ancient world as well as a survey of the beginnings of scientific activity in Arabic. In this first part, he depicts in details the impact of Islamic principle in shaping the contours of the early scientific activity in the Muslim civilisation. Afterwards, in the second part, the author surveys some key contributions of the scientists of Islam in the fields of astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, and medicine.
The 14th-century historiographer and historian Abu Zayd ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Khaldun was a brilliant scholar and thinker now viewed as a founder of modern historiography, sociology and economics. Living in one of human kind's most turbulent centuries, he observed at first hand, or participated in, such decisive events as the birth of new states, the disintegration of the Muslim Andalus and the advance of the Christian reconquest, the Hundred Years' War, the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, the decline of Byzantium and the epidemic of the Black Death. Considered by modern critics as the thinker that conceived and created a philosophy of history that was undoubtedly one of the greatests works ever created by a man of intelligence, so groundbreaking were his ideas, and so far ahead of his time, that his writings are taken as a lens through which to view not only his own time but the relations between Europe and the Muslim world in our own time as well.
Abu al-Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Abbas Al-Zahrawi (936-1013 CE), also known in the West as Albucasis, was an Andalusian physician. He is considered as the greatest surgeon in the Islamic medical tradition. His comprehensive medical texts, combining Middle Eastern and Greco-Roman classical teachings, shaped European surgical procedures up until the Renaissance. His greatest contribution to history is Kitab al-Tasrif, a thirty-volume collection of medical practice, of which large portions were translated into Latin and in other European languages.
Piri Reis is a well known Ottoman-Turkish admiral, geographer and cartographer from the 16th century. His famous world map compiled in 1513 and discovered in 1929 at Topkapi Palace in Istanbul is the oldest known Turkish map showing the New World, and one of the oldest maps of America still in existence. The half of the map which survives shows the western coasts of Europe and North Africa and the coast of Brazil with reasonable accuracy in addition to various Atlantic islands including the Azores and Canary Islands. This article presents the achievements of Piri Reis in cartography through the analysis of the surviving partial versions of his two world maps and his book of navigation, the Kitab-i Bahriye.
Dams are required in most hydraulic systems, for irrigation, regulating flow of rivers and in modern times for the production of energy. In the classical Islamic world, dam construction received a special attention as an integral part of large civil engineering works. Since the Umayyad Caliphate, dams were built in different Islamic regions. This article is a survey presenting the tradition of dam construction by Muslims, characterized by a rich variety of structures and forms.
The history of the astrolabe begins more than two thousand years ago, but it is in the Islamic classical world that the astrolabe was highly developed and its uses widely multiplied. Introduced to Europe from Islamic Spain in the early 12th century, it was one of the major astronomical instruments until the modern times. In this concise and beautifully illustrated article, Emily Winterburn casts a short story of the Islamic art of making astrolabes – developing the different varieties, the description of their structure and parts and their uses in social, religious and scientific functions.
In the following essay, Dr. Gunalan Nadarajan, Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies in the College of Arts and Architecture at Penn State University, draws on the work of al-Jazari, the famous 13th century Islamic scholar, engineer and scientist, to develop an alternative history of robotics. The work of Al-Jazari is considered as a significant contribution to the history of robotics and automation insofar as it enables a critical re-evaluation of classical notions and the conventional history of automation and therefore of robotics. In his analysis, the author details the notion of "Islamic automation", where the notions of control that have informed the conventional history of automation and robotics are substituted by subordination and submission to the rhythms of the machines.
Among the original machines described in the corpus of Islamic technology, the six-cylinder "monobloc" piston pump designed by Taqi al-Din Ibn Ma'ruf in the late 16th century holds a special place. Working as a suction pump, this complex machine included components that are often associated with modern technology, such as a camshaft, a cylinder block, pistons, and non-return valves. In this article, Joseph Vera, an expert in re-engineering ancient inventions, describes how he created a SolidWorks CAD model of this remarkable pump, that he completed with a motion simulation. The conclusion he drew after creating the model and the simulation is that the engineers of the Islamic tradition, represented by Taqi al-Din, had a very solid grasp of kinematics, dynamics and fluid mechanics. He notes also that Taqi al-Din's "monobloc" pump is a remarkable example of a machine using renewable energy, a topic that is currently of utmost importance.
At a conference of the International Astronomical Union in 1935, ‘Lunar Formations' and their names were decided upon. Of the 672 formations, 609 were named after distinguished persons, 13 formations were given the names of major Muslim astronomers.
What
is Taught
It is commonly known that Louis Braille (1809-1852) invented a system of writing for the blind in which he used a pattern of "6 dots". However 600 years before Braille, a Syrian Muslim, Al-Amidi, was an expert in reading such a system.
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