| Khwarzimi algebra
analytical geometry |
Muhammad Bin Musa Alkhwarazmi is considered to be
one of the founders of algebra. The word ‘algorithm’ is a corruption of his name
or the name of the province in Afghanistan, where he was born. He used the
‘cipher’ (zero), that was devised in India some centuries earlier. The very word
‘zero’ is a derivative of the Arabic ‘sefr’ or its close cousin, the
‘cipher’. His treatise on ‘Algebra and Equations’
(Kitab-ul-Hisab-wal-jabr-wal-Muqabala) was taught for centuries in European Universities.
In his book, which is available in an English translation, (Pakistan Hejira Council,
Islamabad), using analytical geometry, he proved various Islamic laws of inheritance.
Muslims, were hence, the pioneers in analytical geometry. |
| flying machines before
Bacon and Leonardo |
Half a
millennium before Roger Bacon and Leonardo da Vinci, Ibn-e-Farnas of Spain had constructed
and tested a flying appartus ca. 800 A.D. |
| Ventian glass-making |
Ventians
learnt the art if glass-making from Syrian artisans during the 9th and 10th
century. |
| time-keeping |
Muslim
horologists had constructed precise time-keeping devices, that were fully auotmatic and
weight-driven. Designs and illustrations of epi-cyclic and segmented gears were provided.
Ibn-e-Farnas of Spain was a skilled inventer in this regard. |
| Galileo's pendulum? |
Did Galileo
invent the pendulum as he was standing under a swinging chendelier in a church? No, in
fact it was Ibn Yunus Al-Misri who had invented the device in the 10th century
and Muslims later on, used it in their clocks. |
| paper |
Paper was a
Chinese invention. Muslims mediated this Chinese skill to Europe. With the advent of
paper-making in Islam, dawned a new revolution worldwide. Muslim had learnt this art from
Chinese prisoners of war in 751 A.D.. From Samarkand, the craftsmanship spread to Baghdad,
Damascus, Tiberias, Tripoli and Fez. There were floating paper mills in Jativa near
Valencia, Spain. The first factory of this sort was established in Europe in Fabriano
(Italy) in 1261 A.D.. After its instatement, Europe had to wait for another century before
Nuremberg (Germany) could boast of another paper manufacturing center. Moreover, Muslims
were the first time, used cotton to make paper, whereas China had been using silk
throughout. This enabled Europe to use cotton and advance themselves by leaps and bounds,
because silk was very rarely found outside China and India. |
| Newton and Haitham |
Without
undermining Newton’s unparalleled contributions to human knowledge, many of his ideas
were not the first of their kind and they had their precedents in the Muslim world.
Ibn-alHaitham showed how the eye works (although one of his own eyes was bulged out by the
Egyptian ruler, Al-Hakim). He showed that sight is possible because of light rays being
reflected from the object, rather than rays emanating from the eye, as Greek science would
have believed. Haitham also worked on the Fermat’s principle of least distance of
propagation of light. Moreover, he had anticipated inertia, about 600 years before Netwon.
It is unjust to rule out his name in the history of civilisation. Haitham also
investigated the theory of diffraction and explained how rainbows ere formed, although
Newton, first explained the coloration of rainbows. It is an open question, if Newton
studied haitham.s monumental "Kitab-al-Manazir". As early as the 11th
century, Haitham, had proposed to Al-Hakim the construction of a dam on the River Nile.
Today, the magnificent Aswan, stands not quite far from the site he had proposed. |
| conservation of mass |
The law of
conservation of mass in chemical reactions, is generally attributed to the French Antonie
Lavoisier, but he appears to be a disciple of Abu-Rehan Al-Biruni (d. 1050) who had
elaborated the same principle at least five centuries earlier. |
| Al Battani Trigonometry |
Al-Battani
excelled in trigonometry. The words ‘sine’, ‘cosine’ and
‘tangent’, which enjoys millions of instances each year in scientific
literature, are derivatives of Arabic words, coined by Muslims scientists. For example,
‘sine’ is a corruption of the word ‘jeib’. Muslims, for the first time
introduced the concept of inverse trigonometric functions. |
| decimal notation Kashani |
It was not
Simon Steven from Denmark in 1589, who used a decimal notation for the first time.
Instead, Al-Kashi in his book, "Key to Arithmetic", had used decimal and
fractions. He calculated the value of 2 pi corrected to 16 decimal places using
the approximation of a circle by a 805306368 polygon. Moreover, he described an algorithm
to calculate the fifth root of a polynomial. |
| algebraic variable symbols |
Contrary to popular belief, it
was not the French mathematician Francos Vieta, who proposed the usage of algebraic
variable symbols, like ‘x’ and ‘y’ , but they were
routinely used by Muslims mathematicians. Any primitive Muslim text would easily
corroborate this proposition. |
| higher order equations |
Muslims
mathematicians could solve cubic and even higher order equations quite routinely. In
European texts, however, it is argued that the first cubic equation was solved by an
Italian mathematician, Niccolo Tartagila in the 16th century, This defies the
facts of the history of science. |
| logarithm |
Muslims had
been use logarithmic tables, centuries before John Napier, the English mathematician, who
is generally accredited with the invention of the logarithm. |
| Binomial theorem |
The Binomial
theorem was not discovered by Netwon. It was a matter of trivial practice for Muslims to
use it for the solutions of their problems, even before the 10th century. |
| warfare |
Muslims
became the pioneers of pyrotechnic warfare. They used chemical weapons which were
flagrating mixtures of petroleum, gunpowder, resin, calx and sulphur. They took over the
Byzantinium technology of catapults and trebuchets. The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him)
used a crossbow of the same family of weapons during the siege of the Fort of Khyber. The
most famous example of the use of cannons was the cannonadic capture of Constantinpole in
1453 by Sultan Usman. A ball from a gun weighed 400 kilograms and cut a Venetian ship into
two, when blasted from a range of 2.4 kilometers. Each pair of such guns were pulled by 70
oxen and a thousand men. Roger bacon learned the formula of gunpowder from Latin
translations of Arabic texts. |
| technology from Iberia to
Europe |
The
scientific inventions of the Muslims interpenetrated Europe through the Iberian Peninsula
and the Balkan outposts of the Muslim Empire. Leather and tanning industries boomed along
the Moroccan shores; the art of glass-making reached Venice from Syria and in Spain
agriculture, irrigation, horticulture and hydraulic engineering progressed exorbitantly.
Even the Reconquisitra did not the impede the development of these technologies in the
ensuing centuries. Illustrating the same transfer of technology from east to west, are the
numerous words of Arabic origin that have passed into the vocabulary of English. To cite
but a few examples: in textiles - sash, sarsanet, muslin, damask, taffeta, tabby; in naval
matters - admiral, arsenal; in chemical technology - alcohol, alkali, alembic; in the
paper industry - ream; in foodstuff - syrup, sherbet, alfalfa, sugar; in dyestuffs -
saffron, kermes; in leather-working - Cordovan and Morocco. Spanish is interestingly rich
in words of Arabic origin, especially in connection with irrigation and farming. We have
for example, tahona for a mill, acena for water-wheel and acequia for an irrigation canal.
|
| compass |
Although the
compass was invented by Chinese, Muslim geographers and navigators routinely used it.
European navigators sought the help of Muslim captains and admirals (another corruption of
the Arabic word ‘Ameer-ul-Bahar’) to explore unknown territories. It is also
noteworthy that Chinese improved their navigational expertise after contact with Muslim
travelers during the 8th century. |
| chemistry |
The science
of chemistry was started for the first time by Muslims – the word ‘alchemy’
is a recognition of this fact. Jabir-bin-Hayyan is recognised as the father of chemistry.
He preceded Boyle by about 700 years. Muslims chemists invented nitric, hydrochloric and
sulphuric acids, salt of nitre, salt of peter, calcium carbonate and numerous other salts.
They invented laboratory analytical techniques like distillation, sublimation,
calcination, crystallisation, to mention a few. Many modern laboratory glassware apparatus
owe their designs to Muslim geniuses. |
| the spirit of
experimentation |
It is
erroneous to say that Galileo was the worlds’ first great experimenter. Hundreds of
Muslims scientists, were legendary experimenters. Al-Biruni alone produced over 200 books,
amounting to 13,000 pages, far exceeding that written by Galileo, or for that matter,
Galileo and Newton combined. Some Machiavellists give the impression that modern science
is a direct descendant of Greco-Roman tradition. According to them, Islamic Science was
only an unintelligent continuation of Scythian theory. These expedients also allege that
Muslims followed Greek tradition blindly. This is not true. Though Greeks generalized,
hypothesized and theorized yet they were not experimentalists, even by the faintest
definition of the word. They feared that observation would deprive them of their
scientific accolades and challenge the finality of their so-called laws. For example,
Aristotle believed that women had fewer teeth than man but he never hit upon the idea of
opening his wife's mouth and counting her teeth. It was believed that on the 6th of
January each year, all the water in the seas turned sweet. This conjecture was never
tested. In fact, experiment was altogether Greek to Greek temperament. Muslims, for the
first time, introduced the experimental spirit into the scientific enterprise. Religion
had taught them patience. They exercised the same patient ways of meticulous and prolonged
observation in their experiments and calculations. Note Al-Beruni's insistence on
experiment, when he says: The trouble with most people is their extravagance in respect
of Aristotle's opinions. They believe that there is no possibility of mistake in his
views, though they know, that he was only theorising to the best of his capacity. |
| critique of Greek medicine |
Muslims,
were not simply blind followers of the medicinal traditions of the Greek Galen and
Hippocrates. Ar-Rhazi wrote a whole critique on Galen’s anatomy. This originality of
Muslim medicine lead Harvard University’s George Sarton and an authority on the
history of science to state that modern medicine is entirely and Islamic development. |
| insane asylums |
Every major
mediaeval Muslim city had an insane asylum where appropriate care and medication was meted
out. This opposes the prejudiced propaganda that the first asylum was built in 1793 by
Philippe Pinel, in 1793. |
| Al-Rhazi and Zahrawi surgery |
Abu Bakar
Muhammad ibn-e-Zakariyya Al-Rhazi (865-925) wrote over 200 books, including
"Kitab-al-Mansoori" and "Kitab-al-Hawi" (The Comprehensive Book). He
was in charge of the Hospital at Rayy, where he was born. He found a treatment for kidney
stones. He proposed the proving of drugs on animals before human experimentation. Zahrawi
could also perform Caesarian sections. As he was asked to propose a site for the building
of a hospital by the Muslim Caliph, he hung slices of meat at different places in the city
and chose the place where the meat was infected at the slowest. Thus he had a thorough
understanding of the concept of hygiene and sterilisation. He was the head of the famous
Muqtadari Hosiptal at Baghdad, which had about 4 international standard hospitals. In
fact, these hospitals had set the standards themselves. |
| Ibn-e-Sina |
Ibn-e-Sina
(980-1037) alone wrote 246 books including the "Qanun-fit-Tub" (Canon of
Medicine). Canon and its author remained the supreme medical leaders of the world from the
twelfth to the seventeenth centuries. Even the oldest English poet, Chaucer has mentioned
his name, amongst the names of three other Arab physicians in his verse. The names of
Rhazi and Ibn-e-Sina became household throughout Europe. Is it judicious to forget them
now, when we remember the names of luminaries of comparable and lesser influence? |
| hospitals in the Muslim
world |
One of the
world’s oldest and scientific hospitals was built in 707 A.D. by Caliph Walid
Ibn-e-Abdul-Malik in Damascus. Moreover, Muslims had instituted the world’s oldest
apothecary shops and the earliest schools of pharmacy. |
| Al-Biruni |
Al-Biruni
used spherical trigonometry to calculate the bearing of Makkah, and for that matter. Any
city from any other, on the earth. Al-Biruni, like the ancient Aristarchus, proposed a
very accurate diameter of the earth and also suggested the height of the atmosphere to be
about 35 km, which is astonishingly close to modern findings. Al-Biruni devised the
extraction of metals from their ores and found the specific gravity of several minerals. |
| Al-Biruni |
Being a geologist too, Al-Beruni
conjectured that the Indus Basin must once be a part of the Himalayan ridges – a
theory thence proved by modern science. |
| Umar Khayyam |
Umer Khayyam criticised
Euclid’s theorems, worked on binomial co-efficients and evolved a methodology for the
solution of third order equations. |
| Buzjani |
Abul-Wafa Buzjani (940-997) of
Baghdad was a coveted trigonometer and astronomer. He devised the construction of a
parabola in a unique way, showed the validity of the sine theorem relative to spherical
triangles, he was well-versed in using the fundamental laws and identities of
trigonometry, introduced the secant and cosecant for the first time. Much of the advances
and relations in trigonometry can be traced back to him. |
| Al-Batani |
Abu Abdullah Al-Batani (862-929)
was one of the greatest astronomers of his time. He for the first time accurately
determined the duration of the terrestrial year to be exactly 365 days, 5 hours, 46
minutes and 24 seconds. He determine the eccentricity of the earth’s orbit, the mean
and true orbit of the earth and opposing Ptolemaic view, believed in the possibility of
annular eclipses. His work could be hailed as the stepping stone of the works of Johannes
Kepler, Tyco Brahe and Copernicus, who followed him by several centuries. Batani’s
astronomical tables were published in the 12th century under the name "De
Sceinta Stellarum De Numeris Stelelrum et Motibus". |
| heliocentric model |
Did Copernicus for the first time
argue that the sun is the center of the solar system? Muslims routinely discussed and
believed in the heliocentric model of the planets – another example of a glaring
misunderstanding thrown onto us, by Western literature. |
| astrolabe |
Al-Zarqali, the Iberain engineer,
invented the astrolabe. |
| Andromeda galaxy |
Al-Sufi, first marked the
Andromeda Galaxy and charted the heavens at the observatory under the Sultan
Sharaf-ud-Dawla. |
| lunar craters |
Many names in astronomy like
‘zenith’, ‘nadir’ date back to Arabs as well as names of craters on
the lunar surface. |
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