Muslim Inventions : How they changed the world (Earth, translation, blood)

[Cordoba]

Greetings and Peace to All:

In Manchester, UK, a new exhibition has just been inaugurated a few days ago at the Museum of Science and Industry, titled "1001 Muslim Inventions".

The Independent has today an article on the exhibition, which includes the following extracts, that may be of interest:

How Islamic inventors changed the world
As a new exhibition opens, Paul Vallely nominates 20 of the most influential and identifies the men of genius behind them

2 The ancient Greeks thought our eyes emitted rays, like a laser, which enabled us to see.

The first person to realise that light enters the eye, rather than leaving it, was the 10th-century Muslim mathematician, astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haitham.

He invented the first pin-hole camera after noticing the way light came through a hole in window shutters. The smaller the hole, the better the picture, he worked out, and set up the first Camera Obscura (from the Arab word qamara for 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.


4- A thousand years before the Wright brothers a Muslim poet, astronomer, musician and engineer named Abbas ibn Firnas made several attempts to construct a flying machine.

In 852 he jumped from the minaret of the Grand Mosque in Cordoba using a loose cloak stiffened with wooden struts. He hoped to glide like a bird. He didn't. But the cloak slowed 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 ten 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.

7- 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, it was created by an ingenious Muslim engineer called al-Jazari to raise water for irrigation. His 1206 Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices shows he also invented or refined the use of valves and pistons, devised some of the first mechanical clocks driven by water and weights, and was the father of robotics. Among his 50 other inventions was the combination lock.

10- Many modern surgical instruments are of exactly the same design as those devised in the 10th century by a Muslim surgeon called al-Zahrawi. His scalpels, bone saws, forceps, fine scissors for eye surgery and many of the 200 instruments he devised are recognisable 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 medic named Ibn Nafis described the circulation of the blood, 300 years before William Harvey discovered it. Muslims doctors also invented anaesthetics of opium and alcohol mixes and developed hollow needles to suck cataracts from eyes in a technique still used today.

18- By the 9th century, many Muslim scholars took it for granted that the Earth was a sphere. The proof, said astronomer Ibn Hazm, "is that the Sun is always vertical to a particular spot on Earth". It was 500 years before that realisation dawned on Galileo. The calculations of Muslim astronomers were so accurate that in the 9th century they reckoned the Earth's circumference to be 40,253.4km - less than 200km out. The scholar al-Idrisi took a globe depicting the world to the court of King Roger of Sicily in 1139.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article350594.ece

This thread will present a number of the many other contributions done by Muslim scientists thoughout history.

All the best.

[Judgement Day]

Here are a couple more of Muslim Scholars which their name has been mostly forgotten by todays world:

Al-Khawarizmi? The terms Algebra and Algorithm are familiar to all of us but how many have heard of their founder Mohammed Al-Khawarizmi.

Ibn Al-Haitham? He was arguably the greatest Muslim physicist and one of the greatest students of optics of all time. He was also an astronomer, a mathematician, a physician, and he wrote commentaries on Aristotle and Galen. He wrote about 70 manuscripts and he had propounded the famous Snell's law about 600 years before Snell.

Al-Ghazali? Known in Europe as Algazel, is one of the most illustrious Muslim scholars, who wrote many works, and became renowned for his learning.

Al-Kindi? Al-Kindi General Hospital, one of the biggest medical centres in present day Baghdad was named after his tremendous contributions in medical and pharmaceutical. Al-Kindi was best known as a philosopher, but he was also a physician, pharmacist, ophthalmologist, physicist, mathematician, geographer, astronomer, and chemist.

Ibn Al Jazzar?Ibn al-Jazziir was a prolific author in the field of medicine; his writings earned him great fame and made him very influential in medieval western Europe. His Kitab al-adwiya al-mufrada (Treatise on Simple Drugs)was translated into Greek, Latin and Hebrew and was frequently copied. But its Latin translation by Constantine the African, under the title Liber de gradibus, was of special importance, since it was in this version that the text became one of the most popular pharmacopeia in the Latin West.

Ibn Al-Naphis?Ibn Al-Naphis (Ala al-Din Abu al-A’la Ali ibn Abi Hazm al-Quraishi) of Damascus, an Arab physician of the thirteenth century (1210-1288 CE), explained the basic principles of the modern theory of the lesser or PULMONARY circulation nearly three hundred and fifty years before Sir William Harvey of Kent, England, who is wrongly credited with this discovery.

For list of other renowned Muslim scholars, here is a link to a website:

http://www.ummah.net/history/scholars/index.html

[God is love]

I was looking through and saw this post, very interesting. I have an interest in inventers, how they invented. I'm amazed when I discover what the human mind is capable of. I'm interested in reading more, to see other contributions made.

Each invention has it's usefulness and improves. It improves the understanding of how things are or improves the functioning of things, making them more useful and more efficient to use and ultimately improves conditions in life.

I think the surgical equipment was a crucial invention to saving lives because there needed to be equipment that would help to do surgery and not do further damge in the process. There needed to be equipement for delicate surgey. I am apprceciative of this contribution, especially what was designed to remove cataracts.

[Cordoba]

Originally Posted by God is love

I am apprceciative of this contribution, especially what was designed to remove cataracts.

This is a quote from an article titled "Eye Specialists in Islam", which may be of interest:

AMMAR IBN ALI AL-MOSULI

Ammar, from Mosul in Iraq, fluorished around 1010 C.E. He wrote a book entitled “Kitab-ul Muntakhab fi Ilaj-ul ‘Ayn” (Book of Choices in the Treatment of Eye Diseases) and practiced mainly in Egypt. His book deals with anatomy, pathology and describes six case histories for cataract operation and a case of optic neuritis!

Hirschberg writes that Ammar was “The most clever eye surgeon of the whole Arabian Literature”. Ammar discussed some 48-eye diseases in a short work of about 1500 words (the shortest work of its kind). This manuscript (No. 894) can be found in the Escorial Library in Madrid (Spain). Although shorter than the book of Isa Ibn Ali it contains many more original remarks and observations.

Until the 20th century Ammar’s work was only available in Arabic and a Hebrew translation made by Nathan the Jew in the 13th century. This work was translated into German by professor J Hirschberg in 1905. Ammar was the inventor of the cataract operation by suction, using a fine hollow needle inserted through the limbus (where the cornea joins the conjunctiva). This was the best-performed operation of its time.

This type of cataract operation among others is still carried out today. The operation of “couching” i.e. violent displacement of the lens dates back to Babylonian times, but this had its obvious complications and risks.

http://www.muslimheritage.com/topics...?ArticleID=222

[frg001]

It's all very interesting. But from where I stand, these things came about despite the fact that they were muslim.

[Popeyesays]

Originally Posted by frg001

It's all very interesting. But from where I stand, these things came about despite the fact that they were muslim.

There is no doubt that during the "Dark Ages" it was quite bright and illuminated in the Islamic culture. If you want to understand the depths of Islamic contributions to science and technology = try doing a long division problemm of some complexity in Roman numerals = It was Islamic culture that invented the numeral system we use today as well as algebra which is an anglification of al - jabbar.

Regards,
Scott

[frg001]

Originally Posted by Popeyesays

There is no doubt that during the "Dark Ages" it was quite bright and illuminated in the Islamic culture. If you want to understand the depths of Islamic contributions to science and technology = try doing a long division problemm of some complexity in Roman numerals = It was Islamic culture that invented the numeral system we use today as well as algebra which is an anglification of al - jabbar.

Regards,
Scott

Arabic numerals predate Islam. As far as I've heard it was the Hindu's about 1700 years ago.
But you missed my point. I would say that these things came about, not because but despite of religion.

[Popeyesays]

Originally Posted by frg001

Arabic numerals predate Islam. As far as I've heard it was the Hindu's about 1700 years ago.
But you missed my point. I would say that these things came about, not because but despite of religion.

And that's what makes you a Evangelical atheist. Which in fact, is pretty much a fish with feet, unable to locomote efficiently in any medium.

The opposite of a faith filled person is a passive cynic, not a "born again" critic of faith. An atheist must take on faith his basic premise just as a religious person must.

Regards,
Scott

[frg001]