Islamic Sciences

The set of pictures below tells about the advances of Islamic sciences before the modern era. Islamic scientists were respected then and many of their findings became the foundations or important components of the sciences that we know today. There is much written about how advanced Islamic science during medieval times. Taken from "THE WORLD OF ISLAM"- Faith, People, Culture" By Bernard Lewis. Copyright Thames and Hudson, 1992

Islamic Astronomy (dated 14th century): These 2 diagrams from Ibn ash-Shatir's Nihayat al-sul illustrate the first successful representation of the motions of Planet Mercury exclusively in terms of uniform circular rotations.

Spherical Astrolab (dated 1480): These were rare and the only one known to exist. The large ecliptic circle bears the names of the signs of the zodiac. The rete, or star map, is attached to the globe with pointers for nineteen fixed stars.

 

Astrolab (dated 9th century): This was for measuring the altitude of heavenly bodies above the horizon, and so determining (among other things) the time of day or night. Readings are taken by means of rotatable alidade, a diametrical rule with sights.

 

Celestial Sphere (dated 1285): This equipment is from Iran. It incorporates information derived from Abd ar-Rahman as-Sufi's Book of Fixed Stars.

 

Observatory: At Samarqand, a great observatory was built. This trough supported a large arc erected in the meridian plane. Celestial bodies crossing this plane cast light through an opening at the arc's centre onto a graduated cylindrical base, from which their altitudes could be read off.

Geography (dated 1154): Arab geographers understood the basic outlines of Asia, Europe and North Africa by the 12th Century, and their knowledge was summed up in the great atlas of al-Idrisi. It places the south at the top, the diagram has been inverted to make it recognisable.

 

Biology (dated 17th century): Arabic medicine was in advance in Europe throughout the middle ages, and from the first medical school of Salerno down to Vesalius, Western doctors learned from their muslim counterparts.

 

Optics (dated 1083):  Ibn al-Haytham's Optics, written in Eqypt in the first half of the 11th Century, represented a theory of vision that went beyond Galen, Euclid and Ptolemy. This diagram of the two eyes seen from above, shows the principal tunics and humours and the optic nerves connecting the eyeballs to the brain

 
 

Mathematics Decimal Fractions (dated 10th century):  Decimal Fractions first appeared in Arabic in the work of the Damascene arithmetician Abu'l-Hasan al-Uqlidisi. This page from the unique manuscipt of al-Uqlidisi's Kitab al-Fusul shows the decimal point as a stroke above the number in the units place in lin 10.

 

Mathematics - Parallel: The problem of parallel lines, posed by Euclid's parallels postulate, received much attention from Islamic mathematicians throughout the history of medieval Arabic science. Nasir ad-Din at-Tusi's was probably the most mature treatment of the problem in Arabic, making sure use of Euclid's definition of parallel lines as non-secant lines and drawing on the results of his predecessors.

 

9 Muslim world-shaking discovery

Modern life is not separated from the findings of Muslim scientists. Project 1001 again reminded the history of 1000 years of Muslim heritage forgotten.

"There's a hole in the human sciences, from the Renaissance to jump directly to Greece," said Chairman of the Foundation of Science, Technology and Civilization Professor Salim Al-Hassani is the leader of Discovery 1001.

At present invention 1001 is an exhibition at London's Science Museum. Hassani hope the exhibition will reaffirm the contribution of non-western civilization, such as the Muslim empire that once covered a time Spain and Portugal, southern Italy, and spread an area of ​​mainland China.This remarkable discovery Muslim:

1. Surgical Operation

Around the year 1000, a physician Al Zahrawi publish 1,500 pages an illustrated encyclopedia of surgery that is used in Europe as a medical reference for over 500 years. Among the many inventors, Zahrawi the use solution into yarn cat gut sutures, before addressing a second operation to remove the stitches in the wound. He also is reported to perform caesarean section and create a pair of surgical clips.

 

 

2. Coffee

Currently, citizens of the world is but a typical meal drink, coffee was first made in Yemen at about the 9th century. At first the coffee helps the mystics to stay awake late into the evening worship. Then taken to Cairo by a group that later pelajat coffee favored by the entire kingdom. In the 13th century coffee cross into Turkey, but only in the 16th century when the beans begin to boil in Europe, coffee was brought to Italy by Venetian traders.

3. Flying Machine

Abbas ibn Firnas was the first person who tries to make the construction of an aircraft and flew it. In the 9th century he designed a device and in particular wing shape like a bird costume. In a famous experiment in Cordoba Spain, Firnas flying high for some time before then fell to the ground and broke his spinal cord. Design made in unexpectedly became the inspiration for the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci hundreds of years later.

4. University

In the year 859 a young daughter named Fatima al-Firhi establish a first-level university in Fez, Morocco. His sister Miriam founded the beautiful mosque together into a mosque and university of al-Qarawiyyin. Still in operation for 1,200 years later, Hassani said he hoped that people would remember that learning is the main core of Islamic tradition and the story of al-Firhi muslis brothers will inspire women everywhere in the world.

5. Algebra

The word algebra comes from the title of the book of famous Persian mathematician of the 9th century 'Kitab al-Jabr Wal-Mugabala', which translated into a book 'The Book of Reasoning and Balancing'. Building a system of Greek and Hindu roots, algebra is a unifying system for rational numbers, irrational numbers and wave magnitude. Another mathematician Al-Khwarizmi also the first to introduce the concept of numbers into numbers which can be a strength.

6. Optics

"Many important advances in the study of optics comes from muslm world," said Hassani. Among the year 1000 Ibn al-Haitham prove that humans see objects from the reflection of light that comes out and into the eye, ignoring the theory of Euclid and Ptolemy that the light generated from within the eye itself. Another great Muslim physicist also discovered the phenomenon in which a camera measurement is described how the eye image can be seen with the connection between the optical and the brain.

7. Music

Musician Muslims have a significant impact in Europe. Among the many instruments that come to Europe via the Middle East is a lute and Rahab, the ancestor of the violin. Scale of modern musical notation is also said to derive from the Arabic alphabet.

 

8. Toothbrush

According to Hassani, the Prophet Muhammad SAW popularize the use of toothbrush first time in the year 600. By using miswak tree branch, he gigingan clean and freshen breath. The substance of the content in the miswak is also used in modern toothpastes.

 
 

9. Crank

Many modern automatic system basis pertaman times came from the Muslim world, including the player that connects the system. By converting a circular motion with a straight motion, lift heavy objects memungkinankan player is relatively easy. The technology invented by Al-Jazari in the 12th century, later used in bicycle use until now.