1001 Inventions: Discover the Muslim Heritage of Our World’, on at the Museum

of Science and Industry in Manchester, charts one thousand years of Muslim

contributions to medicine, science, education, architecture and astronomy.

‘1001 Inventions’ presents evidence that the period, AD600 to AD1600 was a
golden age for innovation, albeit in the Muslim world.

According to Professor Mark Halstead, a lecturer in moral education at Plymouth

University, “Islam needs to take its place alongside other historic groups, such
as the ancient Romans and Greeks.

When Europe was living in the dark ages, Islamic civilization was blossoming,
and the advances during this period are more relevant to the modern world
than those of the Ancient Egyptians and Aztecs.”

1. The story goes that an Arab named Khalid was tending his goats in the Kaffa
region of southern Ethiopia, when he noticed his animals became livelier after
eating a certain berry. He boiled the berries to make the first coffee. Certainly
the first record of the drink is of beans exported from Ethiopia to Yemen where
Sufis drank it to stay awake all night to pray on special occasions. By the late
15th century it had arrived in Mecca and Turkey from where it made its way to
Venice in 1645. It was brought to England in 1650 by a Turk named Pasqua
Rosee who opened the first coffee house in Lombard Street in the City of
London. The Arabic qahwa became the Turkish kahve then the Italian caffé and
then English coffee.

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

3. 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. Baghdad
international airport and a crater on the Moon are named after him.

4. Washing and bathing are religious requirements for Muslims, which is

perhaps why they perfected the recipe for soap which we still use today. The
ancient Egyptians had soap of a kind, as did the Romans who used it more as
pomade. But it was the Arabs who combined vegetable oils with sodium
hydroxide and aromatics such as thyme oil. One of the Crusaders' most striking
characteristics, to Arab nostrils, was that they did not wash. Shampoo was
introduced to England by a Muslim who opened Mahomed's Indian Vapour Baths
on Brighton seafront in 1759 and was appointed Shampooing Surgeon to Kings
George IV and William IV.

5. 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, who transformed alchemy into chemistry, inventing many of
the basic processes and apparatus still in use 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 rosewater and other perfumes and alcoholic spirits (although
drinking them is haram, or forbidden, in Islam). Ibn Hayyan emphasised
systematic experimentation and was the founder of modern chemistry.

6. 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.

7. The pointed arch so characteristic of Europe's Gothic cathedrals was an

invention borrowed from Islamic architecture. It was much stronger than the
rounded arch used by the Romans and Normans, thus allowing the building of
bigger, higher, more complex and grander buildings. Other borrowings from
Muslim genius included ribbed vaulting, rose windows and dome-building
techniques. Europe's castles were also adapted to copy the Islamic world's -
with arrow slits, battlements, a barbican and parapets. Square towers and
keeps gave way to more easily defended round ones. Henry V's castle architect
was a Muslim.

8. 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 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 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.

9. The windmill was invented in 634 for a Persian caliph and was used to grind
corn and draw up water for irrigation. In the vast deserts of Arabia, when the
seasonal streams ran dry, the only source of power was the wind which blew
steadily from one direction for months. Mills had six or 12 sails covered in fabric
or palm leaves. It was 500 years before the first windmill was seen in Europe.

10. The technique of inoculation (injection, vaccination) was not invented by

Jenner and Pasteur but was devised in the Muslim world and brought to Europe
from Turkey by the wife of the English ambassador to Istanbul in 1724. Children
in Turkey were vaccinated with cowpox to fight the deadly smallpox at least 50
years before the West discovered it.

11. The fountain pen was invented for the Sultan of Egypt in 953 after he
demanded a pen which would not stain his hands or clothes. It held ink in a
reservoir and, as with modern pens, fed ink to the nib by a combination of
gravity and capillary action.

12. The system of numbering in use all round 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 mathematicians al-Khwarizmi and al-Kindi around 825.
Algebra was named after al-Khwarizmi' s book, Al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah, much of
whose contents are still in use. The work of Muslim maths 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.

13. Ali ibn Nafi, known by his nickname of Ziryab (Blackbird) came from Iraq to
Cordoba in the 9th century and brought with him the concept of the three-
course meal - soup, followed by fish or meat, then fruit and nuts. He also
introduced crystal glasses (which had been invented after experiments with
rock crystal by Abbas ibn Firnas.

14. Carpets were regarded as part of Paradise by medieval Muslims, thanks to

their advanced weaving techniques, new tinctures from Islamic chemistry and
highly developed sense of pattern and arabesque which were the basis of
Islam's non-representational art. In contrast, Europe's floors were distinctly
earthly, not to say earthy, until Arabian and Persian carpets were introduced. In
England, as Erasmus recorded, floors were "covered in rushes, occasionally
renewed, but so imperfectly that the bottom layer is left undisturbed,
sometimes for 20 years, harboring expectoration, vomiting, the leakage of dogs
and men, ale droppings, scraps of fish, and other abominations not fit to be
mentioned". Carpets, unsurprisingly, caught on quickly.

15. The modern cheque comes from the Arabic saqq, a written vow to pay for
goods when they were delivered, to avoid money having to be transported
across dangerous terrain. In the 9th century, a Muslim businessman could cash
a cheque in China drawn on his bank in Baghdad.

16. 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". Al-Biruni, the 14th Century physicist was
able to calculate the circumference of the Earth and its tilt 600 years before
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.

17. Though the Chinese invented saltpeter gunpowder, and used it in their
fireworks, it was the Arabs who worked out that it could be purified using
potassium nitrate for military use. Muslim incendiary devices terrified the
Crusaders. By the 15th century they had invented both a rocket, which they
called a "self-moving and combusting egg", and a torpedo - a self-propelled
pear-shaped bomb with a spear at the front which impaled itself in enemy ships
and then blew up.

18. Medieval Europe had kitchen and herb gardens, but it was the Arabs who developed the idea of
the garden as a place of beauty and meditation. The first royal pleasure gardens in Europe were
opened in 11th-century Muslim Spain. Flowers which originated in Muslim gardens include the
carnation and the tulip.

19. The musical notes we play on our recorder or piano are actually the Arabic alphabet read out
aloud. The basic scale do, re, mi, fa, sol, la and ti comes from Arabic alphabet: Dal-Ra-Mim-Fa-Sad-
Lam-Sin.

20. Chess was originally a Persian game with pieces including Shah as King.

21. Sherbet, a juice of crushed fruit, herbs, or flowers was the world’s first soft
drink and was enjoyed by Western figures such as the 19th Century English
poet Lord Byron.
22. Syrian Muslim and blind professor, Zain-Din al Amidi in the 14th Century
improvised a method by which he identified his books and made notes - 600
years before braille was invented.

23. Apricots, oranges and artichokes were first introduced to Europe by the
Muslims.

24. Cheese was first made in the Middle East. The earliest type was a form of
sour milk. One legend claims that cheese was ‘discovered’ by an Arab nomad
who filled a saddlebag with milk to sustain him on a journey across the desert
by horse. After several hours he stopped to drink, only to find that the milk had
separated into pale watery liquid and solid white lumps.

Abu Rayhan al-Biruni was a great scientist, physicist, astronomer, sociologist,

linguist, historian and mathematician whose true worth may never be known.
He is considered the father of unified field theory by Nobel Laureate - late
Professor Abdus Salam. He lived nearly a thousand years ago and was a
contemporary of Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Sultan Mahmoud of Ghazni.
When he was on his deathbed, Biruni was visited by a jurisprudent neighbor of
his. Abu Rayhan was still conscious, and on seeing the jurisprudent, he asked
him a question on inheritance law or some other related issue. The jurisprudent
was quite amazed that a dying man should show interest in such matters. Abu
Rayhan said, "I should like to ask you: which is better, to die with knowledge or
to die without it?" The man said, "Of course, it is better to know and then die."
Abu Rayhan said, "That is why I asked my first question." Shortly after the
jurisprudent had reached his home, the cries of lamentation told him that Abu
Rayhan had died. (Murtaza Motahari: Spiritual Discourses)
That was then, nearly a millennium ago, when Muslims were the torchbearers of
knowledge in a very dark world. They created an Islamic civilization, driven by
inquiry and invention, which was the envy of the rest of the world for many
centuries.
In the words of Carli Fiorina, the former highly talented and visionary, CEO of
Hewlett Packard, "Its architects designed buildings that defied gravity. Its
mathematicians created the algebra and algorithms that would enable the
building of computers, and the creation of encryption. Its doctors examined the
human body, and found new cures for disease. Its astronomers looked into the
heavens, named the stars, and paved the way for space travel and exploration.
Its writers created thousands of stories; stories of courage, romance and magic.
When other nations were afraid of ideas, this civilization thrived on them, and
kept them alive. When censors threatened to wipe out knowledge from past
civilizations, this civilization kept the knowledge alive, and passed it on to
others. While modern Western civilization shares many of these traits, the
civilization I'm talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600,
which included the Ottoman Empire and the courts of Baghdad, Damascus and
Cairo, and enlightened rulers like Suleiman the Magnificent. Although we are
often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilization, its gifts are very
much a part of our heritage. The technology industry would not exist without
the contributions of Arab mathematicians."
Truly, there is hardly a field that is not indebted to these pioneering children of
Islam. Here below is a short list, by no means a comprehensive one, of Muslim
scientists from the 8th to the 14th century CE: 1

701 (died) C.E. * Khalid Ibn Yazeed *Alchemy

721-803 * Jabir Ibn Haiyan (Geber) *Alchemy (Great Muslim
Alchemist)
740 * Al-Asma'i * Zoology, Botany, *Animal Husbandry
780 * Al-Khwarizmi (Algorizm) *Mathematics (Algebra, Calculus),
Astronomy
776-868 * Amr ibn Bahr al-Jajiz *Zoology
787 * Al Balkhi, Ja'far Ibn Muhammas (Albumasar) *Astronomy
796 (died) * Al-Fazari,Ibrahim Ibn Habib *Astronomy
800 * Ibn Ishaq Al-Kindi - (Alkindus) * Medicine, Philosophy, Physics,
Optics
815 * Al-Dinawari, Abu-Hanifa Ahmed Ibn Dawood * Mathematics, Linguistics

816 * Al Balkhi * Geography (World Map)

836 * Thabit Ibn Qurrah (Thebit) * Astronomy, Mechanics, Geometry,
Anatomy
838-870 * Ali Ibn Rabban Al-Tabari * Medicine, Mathematics
852 * Al Battani Abu Abdillah * Mathematics, Astronomy, Engineering
857 * Ibn Masawaih You'hanna * Medicine
858-929 * Abu Abdullah Al-Battani (Albategnius) * Astronomy,
Mathematics
860 * Al-Farghani, Abu al-Abbas (Al-Fraganus) * Astronomy, Civil
Engineering
864-930 * Al-Razi (Rhazes) * Medicine,
Ophthalmology, Chemistry
873 (died) * Al-Kindi * Physics, Optics, Metallurgy,
Oceanography, Philosophy
888 (died) * Abbas ibn Firnas * Mechanics, Planetarium, Artificial Crystals
900 (died) * Abu Hamed Al-ustrulabi * Astronomy
903-986 * Al-Sufi (Azophi) * Astronomy
908 * Thabit Ibn Qurrah * Medicine, Engineering
912 (died) * Al-Tamimi Muhammad Ibn Amyal (Attmimi) * Alchemy
923 (died) * Al-Nirizi, AlFadl Ibn Ahmed (Altibrizi) * Mathematics,
Astronomy
930 * Ibn Miskawayh, Ahmed Abu-Ali * Medicine,
Alchemy
932 * Ahmed Al-Tabari * Medicine
934 * al Istakhr II * Geography (World
Map)
936-1013 * Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahravi (Albucasis) * Surgery,
Medicine
940-997 * Abu Wafa Muhammad Al-Buzjani * Mathematics,
Astronomy, Geometry
943 * Ibn Hawqal * Geography (World Map)
950 * Al Majrett'ti Abu-al Qasim * Astronomy, Alchemy,
Mathematics
958 (died) * Abul Hasan Ali al-Mas'udi * Geography, History
960 (died) * Ibn Wahshiyh, Abu Baker * Alchemy, Botany
965-1040 * Ibn Al-Haitham (Alhazen) * Physics, Optics,
Mathematics
973-1048 * Abu Rayhan Al-Biruni * Astronomy, Mathematics, History,
Linguistics
976 * Ibn Abil Ashath * Medicine
980-1037 * Ibn Sina (Avicenna) * Medicine, Philosophy, Mathematics,
Astronomy
983 * Ikhwan A-Safa (Assafa) * (Group of Muslim Scientists)
1001 * Ibn Wardi * Geography (World Map)
1008 (died) * Ibn Yunus * Astronomy, Mathematics.
1019 * Al-Hasib Alkarji * Mathematics
1029-1087 * Al-Zarqali (Arzachel) * Astronomy (Invented Astrolabe)
1044 * Omar Al-Khayyam * Mathematics, Astronomy, Poetry
1060 (died) * Ali Ibn Ridwan Abu'Hassan Ali * Medicine
1077 * Ibn Abi-Sadia Abul Qasim * Medicine
1090-1161 * Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) * Surgery, Medicine
1095 * Ibn Bajah, Mohammed Ibn Yahya (Avenpace) * Astronomy,
Medicine
1097 * Ibn Al-Baitar Diauddin (Bitar) * Botany, Medicine,
Pharmacology
1099 * Al-Idrisi (Dreses) * Geography, Zoology, World Map
(First Globe)
1110-1185 * Ibn Tufayl, Abubacer Al-Qaysi * Philosophy, Medicine
1120 (died) * Al-Tuhra-ee, Al-Husain Ibn Ali * Alchemy, Poem
1128 * Ibn Rushd (Averroe's) * Philosophy, Medicine,
Astronomy
1135 * Ibn Maymun, Musa (Maimonides) * Medicine, Philosophy
1140 * Al-Badee Al-Ustralabi * Astronomy, Mathematics
1155 (died) * Abdel-al Rahman Al Khazin * Astronomy
1162 * Al Baghdadi, Abdel-Lateef Muwaffaq * Medicine, Geography
1165 * Ibn A-Rumiyyah Abul'Abbas (Annabati) * Botany
1173 * Rasheed Al-Deen Al-Suri * Botany
1180 * Al-Samawal * Algebra
1184 * Al-Tifashi, Shihabud-Deen (Attifashi) * Metallurgy, Stones
1201-1274 * Nasir Al-Din Al-Tusi * Astronomy, Non-Euclidean
Geometry
1203 * Ibn Abi-Usaibi'ah, Muwaffaq Al-Din * Medicine
1204 (died) * Al-Bitruji (Alpetragius) * Astronomy
1213-1288 * Ibn Al-Nafis Damishqui * Anatomy
1236 * Kutb Aldeen Al-Shirazi * Astronomy,
Geography
1248 (died) * Ibn Al-Baitar * Pharmacy, Botany
1258 * Ibn Al-Banna (Al Murrakishi), Azdi * Medicine, Mathematics
1262 (died) * Al-Hassan Al-Murarakishi * Mathematics,
Astronomy, Geography
1270 * Abu al-Fath Abd al-Rahman al-Khazini * Physics, Astronomy
1273-1331 * Al-Fida (Abdulfeda) * Astronomy, Geography
1306 * Ibn Al-Shater Al Dimashqi * Astronomy,
Mathematics
1320 (died) * Al Farisi Kamalud-deen Abul-Hassan * Astronomy,
Physics
1341 (died) * Al-Jildaki, Muhammad Ibn Aidamer * Alchemy
1351 * Ibn Al-Majdi, Abu Abbas Ibn Tanbugha * Mathematics,
Astronomy
1359 * Ibn Al-Magdi, Shihab-Udden Ibn Tanbugha * Mathematic,
Astronomy
1375 (died) * Ibn Shatir * Astronomy
1393-1449 * Ulugh Beg * Astronomy.
1424 * Ghiyath al-Din al Kashani * Numerical Analysis,
Computation

With such a train of Muslim scholars, it is not difficult to understand why George
Sarton said, "The main task of mankind was accomplished by Muslims. The
greatest philosopher, Al-Farabi was a Muslim; the greatest mathematicians Abul
Kamil and Ibrahim Ibn Sinan were Muslims; the greatest geographer and
encyclopaedist Al-Masudi was a Muslim; the greatest historian, Al-Tabari was
still a Muslim."
History before Islam was a jumble of conjectures, myths and rumors. It was left
to the Muslim historians who introduced for the first time the method of matn
and sanad tracing the authenticity and integrity of the transmitted reports back
to eyewitness accounts. According to the historian Buckla "this practice was not
adopted in Europe before 1597 AD." Another method: that of historical research
and criticism - originated with the celebrated historian Ibn Khaldun. The author
of Kashfuz Zunun gives a list of 1300 history books written in Arabic during the
first few centuries of Islam. That is no small contribution!

Now look at today's Muslim world. When was the last time you heard of a
Muslim winning the Nobel Prize in science or medicine? How about
scientific publications? Unfortunately, you won't find too many Muslim
names in scientific and engineering journals either. Why such a paucity?
What excuses do we have?

A recently published UN report on Arab development noted that the Arab world
comprising of 22 countries translated about 330 books annually. That is a pitiful
number, only a fifth of the number of the books that (tiny) Greece (alone)
translates in a year! (Spain translates an average of 100,000 books annually.)
Why such an allergy or aversion from those whose forefathers did not mind
translating older works successfully to regain the heritage of antiquity,
analyzing, collating, correcting and supplementing substantially the material
that was beneficial to mankind?
Why is the literacy rate low among Muslims when the first revealed message in
the Qur'an is 'Iqra (meaning: Read)? Are they oblivious of the celebrated hadith
of their Prophet : "The search of knowledge is an obligation laid on every
Muslim"?
How about the following Prophetic hadith?
"A learned person is superior to a worshipper as the full moon is superior to all
the stars. The scholars are heirs of the prophets and the prophets do not leave
any inheritance in the shape of dirhams and dinars, but they do leave
knowledge as their legacy. As such a person who acquires knowledge acquires
his full share." [Abu Dawud and Tirmizi]
Muslims today seek wealth more than they know how to even spend it. Such a
mentality is silly, if not risky.

What is not taught in School

What is Taught: The first mention of man in flight was by Roger Bacon, who
drew a flying apparatus. Leonardo da Vinci also conceived of airborne transport
and drew several prototypes.
What should be Taught: Ibn Firnas of Islamic Spain invented, constructed and
tested a flying machine in the 800's A.D. Roger Bacon learned of flying
machines from Arabic references to Ibn Firnas' machine. The latter's invention
antedates Bacon by 500 years and Da Vinci by some 700 years.

What is Taught: Glass mirrors were first produced in 1291 in Venice.

What should be Taught: Glass mirrors were in use in Islamic Spain as early as
the 11th century. The Venetians learned of the art of fine glass production from
Syrian artisans during the 9th and 10th centuries.

What is Taught: Until the 14th century, the only type of clock available was the
water clock. In 1335, a large mechanical clock was erected in Milan, Italy. This
was possibly the first weight-driven clock.
 What should be Taught: A variety of mechanical clocks were produced by
Spanish Muslim engineers, both large and small, and this knowledge was
transmitted to Europe through Latin translations of Islamic books on mechanics.
These clocks were weight-driven. Designs and illustrations of epi-cyclic and
segmental gears were provided. One such clock included a mercury
escapement. The latter type was directly copied by Europeans during the 15th
century. In addition, during the 9th century, Ibn Firnas of Islamic Spain,
according to Will Durant, invented a watch-like device which kept accurate
time. The Muslims also constructed a variety of highly accurate astronomical
clocks for use in their observatories.

What is Taught: In the 17th century, the pendulum was developed by Galileo
during his teenage years. He noticed a chandelier swaying as it was being
blown by the wind. As a result, he went home and invented the pendulum.
What should be Taught: The pendulum was discovered by Ibn Yunus al-Masri
during the 10th century, who was the first to study and document its oscillatory
motion. Its value for use in clocks was introduced by Muslim physicists during
the 15th century.

What is Taught: Movable type and the printing press was invented in the West
by Johannes Gutenberg of Germany during the 15th century.
What should be Taught: In 1454, Gutenberg developed the most sophisticated
printing press of the Middle Ages. However, movable brass type was in use in
Islamic Spain 100 years prior, and that is where the West's first printing devices
were made.

What is Taught: Isaac Newton's 17th century study of lenses, light and prisms
forms the foundation of the modern science of optics.
What should be Taught: In the 1lth century al-Haytham determined virtually
everything that Newton advanced regarding optics centuries prior and is
regarded by numerous authorities as the "founder of optics.”
There is little doubt that Newton was influenced by him. Al-Haytham was the
most quoted physicist of the Middle Ages. His works were utilized and quoted by
a greater number of European scholars during the 16th and 17th centuries than
those of Newton and Galileo combined.

What is Taught: Isaac Newton, during the 17th century, discovered that white
light consists of various rays of colored light.
What should be Taught: This discovery was made in its entirety by al-Haytham
(11th century) and Kamal ad-Din (14th century). Newton did make original
discoveries, but this was not one of them.
 What is Taught: The concept of the finite nature of matter was first introduced
by Antione Lavoisier during the 18th century. He discovered that, although
matter may change its form or shape, its mass always remains the same. Thus,
for instance, if water is heated to steam, if salt is dissolved in water or if a piece
of wood is burned to ashes, the total mass remains unchanged.
What should be Taught: The principles of this discovery were elaborated
centuries before by Islamic Persia's great scholar, al-Biruni (d. 1050). Lavoisier
was a disciple of the Muslim chemists and physicists and referred to their books
frequently.

What is Taught: The Greeks were the developers of trigonometry.

What should be Taught: Trigonometry remained largely a theoretical science
among the Greeks. It was developed to a level of modern perfection by Muslim
scholars, although the weight of the credit must be given to al-Battani. The
words describing the basic functions of this science, sine, cosine and tangent,
are all derived from Arabic terms. Thus, original contributions by the Greeks in
trigonometry were minimal.

What is Taught: The use of decimal fractions in mathematics was first

developed by a Dutchman, Simon Stevin, in 1589. He helped advance the
mathematical sciences by replacing the cumbersome fractions, for instance,
1/2, with decimal fractions, for example, 0.5.
What should be Taught: Muslim mathematicians were the first to utilize
decimals instead of fractions on a large scale. Al-Kashi's book, Key to
Arithmetic, was written at the beginning of the 15th century and was the
stimulus for the systematic application of decimals to whole numbers and
fractions thereof. It is highly probably that Stevin imported the idea to Europe
from al-Kashi's work.

What is Taught: The first man to utilize algebraic symbols was the French
mathematician, Francois Vieta. In 1591, he wrote an algebra book describing
equations with letters such as the now familiar x and y's. Asimov says that this
discovery had an impact similar to the progression from Roman numerals to
Arabic numbers.
What should be Taught: Muslim mathematicians, the inventors of algebra,
introduced the concept of using letters for unknown variables in equations as
early as the 9th century A.D. Through this system, they solved a variety of
complex equations, including quadratic and cubic equations. They used symbols
to develop and perfect the binomial theorem.
 What is Taught: The difficult cubic equations (x to the third power) remained
unsolved until the 16th century when Niccolo Tartaglia, an Italian
mathematician, solved them.
What should be Taught: Cubic equations as well as numerous equations of
even higher degrees were solved with ease by Muslim mathematicians as early
as the 10th century.

What is Taught: The concept that numbers could be less than zero, that is
negative numbers, was unknown until 1545 when Geronimo Cardano introduced
the idea.
What should he Taught: Muslim mathematicians introduced negative numbers
for use in a variety of arithmetic functions at least 400 years prior to Cardano.

What is Taught: In 1614, John Napier invented logarithms and logarithmic

tables.
What should be Taught: Muslim mathematicians invented logarithms and
produced logarithmic tables several centuries prior. Such tables were common
in the Islamic world as early as the 13th century.

What is Taught: During the 17th century Rene Descartes made the discovery
that algebra could be used to solve geometrical problems. By this, he greatly
advanced the science of geometry.
What should be Taught: Mathematicians of the Islamic Empire accomplished
precisely this as early as the 9th century A.D. Thabit bin Qurrah was the first to
do so, and he was followed by Abu'l Wafa, whose 10th century book utilized
algebra to advance geometry into an exact and simplified science.

What is Taught: Isaac Newton, during the 17th century, developed the
binomial theorem, which is a crucial component for the study of algebra.
What should be Taught: Hundreds of Muslim mathematicians utilized and
perfected the binomial theorem. They initiated its use for the systematic
solution of algebraic problems during the 10th century (or prior).

What is Taught: No improvement had been made in the astronomy of the

ancients during the Middle Ages regarding the motion of planets until the 13th
century. Then Alphonso the Wise of Castile (Middle Spain) invented the
Aphonsine Tables, which were more accurate than Ptolemy's.
What should be Taught: Muslim astronomers made numerous improvements
upon Ptolemy's findings as early as the 9th century. They were the first
astronomers to dispute his archaic ideas. In their critic of the Greeks, they
synthesized proof that the sun is the center of the solar system and that the
orbits of the earth and other planets might be elliptical. They produced
hundreds of highly accurate astronomical tables and star charts. Many of their
calculations are so precise that they are regarded as contemporary. The
AlphonsineTables are little more than copies of works on astronomy transmitted
to Europe via Islamic Spain, i.e. the Toledo Tables.

What is Taught: The English scholar Roger Bacon (d. 1292) first mentioned
glass lenses for improving vision. At nearly the same time, eyeglasses could be
found in use both in China and Europe.
What should be Taught: Ibn Firnas of Islamic Spain invented eyeglasses during
the 9th century, and they were manufactured and sold throughout Spain for
over two centuries. Any mention of eyeglasses by Roger Bacon was simply a
regurgitation of the work of al-Haytham (d. 1039), whose research Bacon
frequently referred to.

What is Taught: Gunpowder was developed in the Western world as a result of

Roger Bacon's work in 1242. The first usage of gunpowder in weapons was
when the Chinese fired it from bamboo shoots in attempt to frighten Mongol
conquerors. They produced it by adding sulfur and charcoal to saltpeter.
What should be Taught: The Chinese developed saltpeter for use in fireworks
and knew of no tactical military use for gunpowder, nor did they invent its
formula. Research by Reinuad and Fave have clearly shown that gunpowder
was formulated initially by Muslim chemists. Further, these historians claim that
the Muslims developed the first fire-arms. Notably, Muslim armies used
grenades and other weapons in their defence of Algericus against the Franks
during the 14th century. Jean Mathes indicates that the Muslim rulers had stock-
piles of grenades, rifles, crude cannons, incendiary devices, sulfur bombs and
pistols decades before such devices were used in Europe. The first mention of a
cannon was in an Arabic text around 1300 A.D. Roger Bacon learned of the
formula for gunpowder from Latin translations of Arabic books. He brought forth
nothing original in this regard.

What is Taught: The compass was invented by the Chinese who may have
been the first to use it for navigational purposes sometime between 1000 and
1100 A.D. The earliest reference to its use in navigation was by the Englishman,
Alexander Neckam (1157-1217).
What should be Taught: Muslim geographers and navigators learned of the
magnetic needle, possibly from the Chinese, and were the first to use magnetic
needles in navigation. They invented the compass and passed the knowledge of
its use in navigation to the West. European navigators relied on Muslim pilots
and their instruments when exploring unknown territories. Gustav Le Bon claims
that the magnetic needle and compass were entirely invented by the Muslims
and that the Chinese had little to do with it. Neckam, as well as the Chinese,
probably learned of it from Muslim traders. It is noteworthy that the Chinese
improved their navigational expertise after they began interacting with the
Muslims during the 8th century.

What is Taught: The first man to classify the races was the German Johann F.
Blumenbach, who divided mankind into white, yellow, brown, black and red
peoples.
What should be Taught: Muslim scholars of the 9th through 14th centuries
invented the science of ethnography. A number of Muslim geographers
classified the races, writing detailed explanations of their unique cultural habits
and physical appearances. They wrote thousands of pages on this subject.
Blumenbach's works were insignificant in comparison.

What is Taught: The science of geography was revived during the 15th, 16th
and 17th centuries when the ancient works of Ptolemy were discovered. The
Crusades and the Portuguese/Spanish expeditions also contributed to this
reawakening. The first scientifically- based treatise on geography were
produced during this period by Europe's scholars.
What should be Taught: Muslim geographers produced untold volumes of
books on the geography of Africa, Asia, India, China and the Indies during the
8th through 15th centuries. These writings included the world's first
geographical encyclopedias, almanacs and road maps. Ibn Battutah's 14 th
century masterpieces provide a detailed view of the geography of the ancient
world. The Muslim geographers of the 10th through 15th centuries far exceeded
the output by Europeans regarding the geography of these regions well into the
18th century. The Crusades led to the destruction of educational institutions,
their scholars and books. They brought nothing substantive regarding
geography to the Western world.

What is Taught: Robert Boyle, in the 17th century, originated the science of
chemistry.
What should be Taught: A variety of Muslim chemists, including ar-Razi, al-
Jabr, al-Biruni and al-Kindi, performed scientific experiments in chemistry some
700 years prior to Boyle. Durant writes that the Muslims introduced the
experimental method to this science. Humboldt regards the Muslims as the
founders of chemistry.

What is Taught: Leonardo da Vinci (16th century) fathered the science of

geology when he noted that fossils found on mountains indicated a watery
origin of the earth.
What should be Taught: Al-Biruni (1lth century) made precisely this
observation and added much to it, including a huge book on geology, hundreds
of years before Da Vinci was born. Ibn Sina noted this as well (see pages 100-
101). it is probable that Da Vinci first learned of this concept from Latin
translations of Islamic books. He added nothing original to their findings.

What is Taught: The first mention of the geological formation of valleys was in
1756, when Nicolas Desmarest proposed that they were formed over a long
periods of time by streams.
What should be Taught: Ibn Sina and al-Biruni made precisely this discovery
during the 11th century (see pages 102 and 103), fully 700 years prior to
Desmarest.

What is Taught: Galileo (17th century) was the world's first great
experimenter.
What should be Taught: Al-Biruni (d. 1050) was the world's first great
experimenter. He wrote over 200 books, many of which discuss his precise
experiments. His literary output in the sciences amounts to some 13,000 pages,
far exceeding that written by Galileo or, for that matter, Galileo and Newton
combined.

What is Taught: The Italian Giovanni Morgagni is regarded as the father of

pathology because he was the first to correctly describe the nature of disease.
What should be Taught: Islam's surgeons were the first pathologists. They fully
realized the nature of disease and described a variety of diseases to modern
detail. Ibn Zuhr correctly described the nature of pleurisy, tuberculosis and
pericarditis. Az-Zahrawi accurately documented the pathology of hydrocephalus
(water on the brain) and other congenital diseases. Ibn al-Quff and Ibn an-Nafs
gave perfect descriptions of the diseases of circulation. Other Muslim surgeons
gave the first accurate descriptions of certain malignancies, including cancer of
the stomach, bowel and esophagus. These surgeons were the originators of
pathology, not Giovanni Morgagni.

What is Taught: Paul Ehrlich (19th century) is the originator of drug

chemotherapy, that is the use of specific drugs to kill microbes.
What should be Taught: Muslim physicians used a variety of specific
substances to destroy microbes. They applied sulfur topically specifically to kill
the scabies mite. Ar-Razi (10th century) used mercurial compounds as topical
antiseptics.
 What is Taught: Purified alcohol, made through distillation, was first produced
by Arnau de Villanova, a Spanish alchemist, in 1300 A.D.
What should be Taught: Numerous Muslim chemists produced medicinal-grade
alcohol through distillation as early as the 10th century and manufactured on a
large scale the first distillation devices for use in chemistry. They used alcohol
as a solvent and antiseptic.

What is Taught: The first surgery performed under inhalation anesthesia was
conducted by C.W. Long, an American, in 1845.
What should be Taught: Six hundred years prior to Long, Islamic Spain's Az-
Zahrawi and Ibn Zuhr, among other Muslim surgeons, performed hundreds of
surgeries under inhalation anesthesia with the use of narcotic-soaked sponges
which were placed over the face.

What is Taught: During the 16th century Paracelsus invented the use of opium
extracts for anesthesia.
What should be Taught: Muslim physicians introduced the anesthetic value of
opium derivatives during the Middle Ages. Opium was originally used as an
anesthetic agent by the Greeks. Paracelus was a student of Ibn Sina's works
from which it is almost assured that he derived this idea.
What is Taught: Modern anesthesia was invented in the 19th century by
Humphrey Davy and Horace Wells.
What should be Taught: Modern anesthesia was discovered, mastered and
perfected by Muslim anesthetists 900 years before the advent of Davy and
Wells. They utilized oral as well as inhalant anesthetics.

What is Taught: The concept of quarantine was first developed in 1403. In

Venice, a law was passed preventing strangers from entering the city until a
certain waiting period had passed. If, by then, no sign of illness could be found,
they were allowed in.
What should be Taught: The concept of quarantine was first introduced in the
7th century A.D. by the prophet Muhammad, who wisely warned against
entering or leaving a region suffering from plague. As early as the 10th century,
Muslim physicians innovated the use of isolation wards for individuals suffering
with communicable diseases.

What is Taught: The scientific use of antiseptics in surgery was discovered by

the British surgeon Joseph Lister in 1865.
What Should be Taught: As early as the 10th century, Muslim physicians and
surgeons were applying purified alcohol to wounds as an antiseptic agent.
Surgeons in Islamic Spain utilized special methods for maintaining antisepsis
prior to and during surgery. They also originated specific protocols for
maintaining hygiene during the post-operative period. Their success rate was so
high that dignitaries throughout Europe came to Cordova, Spain, to be treated
at what was comparably the "Mayo Clinic" of the Middle Ages.

What is Taught: In 1545, the scientific use of surgery was advanced by the
French surgeon Ambroise Pare. Prior to him, surgeons attempted to stop
bleeding through the gruesome procedure of searing the wound with boiling oil.
Pare stopped the use of boiling oils and began ligating arteries. He is considered
the "father of rational surgery." Pare was also one of the first Europeans to
condemn such grotesque "surgical" procedures as trepanning (see reference
#6, pg. 110).
What should be Taught: Islamic Spain's illustrious surgeon, az-Zahrawi (d.
1013), began ligating arteries with fine sutures over 500 years prior to Pare. He
perfected the use of Catgut that is suture made from animal intestines.
Additionally, he instituted the use of cotton plus wax to plug bleeding wounds.
The full details of his works were made available to Europeans through Latin
translations.
Despite this, barbers and herdsmen continued be the primary individuals
practicing the "art" of surgery for nearly six centuries after az-Zahrawi's death.
Pare himself was a barber, albeit more skilled and conscientious than the
average ones.
Included in az-Zahrawi's legacy are dozens of books. His most famous work is
a 30 volume treatise on medicine and surgery. His books contain sections on
preventive medicine, nutrition, cosmetics, drug therapy, surgical technique,
anesthesia, pre and post-operative care as well as drawings of some 200
surgical devices, many of which he invented. The refined and scholarly az-
Zahrawi must be regarded as the father and founder of rational surgery, not the
uneducated Pare.

What is Taught: William Harvey, during the early 17th century, discovered that
blood circulates. He was the first to correctly describe the function of the heart,
arteries and veins. Rome's Galen had presented erroneous ideas regarding the
circulatory system, and Harvey was the first to determine that blood is pumped
throughout the body via the action of the heart and the venous valves.
Therefore, he is regarded as the founder of human physiology.
What should be Taught: In the 10th century, Islam's ar-Razi wrote an in-depth
treatise on the venous system, accurately describing the function of the veins
and their valves. Ibn an-Nafs and Ibn al-Quff (13th century) provided full
documentation that the blood circulates and correctly described the physiology
of the heart and the function of its valves 300 years before Harvey. William
Harvey was a graduate of Italy's famous Padua University at a time when the
majority of its curriculum was based upon Ibn Sina's and ar-Razi's textbooks.

What is Taught: The first pharmacopeia (book of medicines) was published by

a German scholar in 1542. According to World Book Encyclopedia, the science
of pharmacology was begun in the 1900's as an off-shoot of chemistry due to
the analysis of crude plant materials. Chemists, after isolating the active
ingredients from plants, realized their medicinal value.
What should be Taught: According to the eminent scholar of Arab history,
Phillip Hitti, the Muslims, not the Greeks or Europeans, wrote the first "modern"
pharmacopeia. The science of pharmacology was originated by Muslim
physicians during the 9th century. They developed it into a highly refined and
exact science. Muslim chemists, pharmacists and physicians produced
thousands of drugs and/or crude herbal extracts one thousand years prior to the
supposed birth of pharmacology. During the 14th century Ibn Baytar wrote a
monumental pharmacopeia listing some 1400 different drugs. Hundreds of
other pharmacopeias were published during the Islamic Era. It is likely that the
German work is an offshoot of that by Ibn Baytar, which was widely circulated in
Europe.

What is Taught: The discovery of the scientific use of drugs in the treatment of
specific diseases was made by Paracelsus, the Swiss-born physician, during the
16th century. He is also credited with being the first to use practical experience
as a determining factor in the treatment of patients rather than relying
exclusively on the works of the ancients.
What should be Taught: Ar-Razi, Ibn Sina, al-Kindi, Ibn Rushd, az -Zahrawi, Ibn
Zuhr, Ibn Baytar, Ibn al-Jazzar, Ibn Juljul, Ibn al-Quff, Ibn an-Nafs, al-Biruni, Ibn
Sahl and hundreds of other Muslim physicians mastered the science of drug
therapy for the treatment of specific symptoms and diseases. In fact, this
concept was entirely their invention. The word "drug" is derived from Arabic.
Their use of practical experience and careful observation was extensive.
Muslim physicians were the first to criticize ancient medical theories and
practices. Ar-Razi devoted an entire book as a critique of Galen's anatomy. The
works of Paracelsus are insignificant compared to the vast volumes of medical
writings and original findings accomplished by the medical giants of Islam.

What is Taught: The first sound approach to the treatment of disease was
made by a German, Johann Weger, in the 1500's.
What should be Taught: Harvard's George Sarton says that modern medicine is
entirely an Islamic development and that Setting the Record Straight the Muslim
physicians of the 9th through 12th centuries were precise, scientific, rational
and sound in their approach. Johann Weger was among thousands of Europeans
physicians during the 15th through 17th centuries who were taught the
medicine of ar-Razi and Ibn Sina. He contributed nothing original.

What is Taught: Medical treatment for the insane was modernized by Philippe
Pinel when in 1793 he operated France's first insane asylum.
What should be Taught: As early as the 1lth century, Islamic hospitals
maintained special wards for the insane. They treated them kindly and
presumed their disease was real at a time when the insane were routinely
burned alive in Europe as witches and sorcerers. A curative approach was taken
for mental illness and, for the first time in history, the mentally ill were treated
with supportive care, drugs and psychotherapy. Every major Islamic city
maintained an insane asylum where patients were treated at no charge. In fact,
the Islamic system for the treatment of the insane excels in comparison to the
current model, as it was more humane and was highly effective as well.

What is Taught: Kerosene was first produced by an Englishman, Abraham

Gesner, in 1853. He distilled it from asphalt.
What should be Taught: Muslim chemists produced kerosene as a distillate
from petroleum products over 1,000 years prior to Gesner (see Encyclopedia
Britannica under the heading, Petroleum).