Muslim Heritage in Our World

The concept that the sciences are exclusively the products of Western minds remains unquestioned by most individuals. It is hardly necessary to repeat the oft-mentioned names: Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, Bacon, Newton, Da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, etc. The unavoidable conclusion is that major contributions to the development of the modern sciences by other cultures are minimal. Most texts give little or no mention of the advancements made by ancient Indian, Chinese or, particularly, Muslim scholars.

Whereas Western civilization has undoubtedly made an invaluable contribution to the development of the sciences, the following examples will show, that it was, in fact, Muslim scientists who had centuries earlier made many basic inventions and scientific discoveries, which have long been credited to Western scholars.

In the field of physics, Isaac Newton is regarded as the ‘founder of optics’ and in the 17th century, his study of lenses, light and prisms laid down the foundation of the modern science of optics.

Al-Haytham

Centuries prior to Newton, during the 11th century, the Muslim scientist al-Haytham had already determined virtually everything that Newton advanced regarding this subject. Al-Haytham was probably 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. Hence, there is little doubt that Newton was influenced by al-Haytham.

Isaac Newton, during the 17th century, is also said to have discovered that white light consists of various rays of coloured light. What should be taught is that this discovery was made in its entirety by al-Haytham in the 11th century and advanced further by Kamal ad-Din in the 14th century.

Al-Biruni

The concept of the nite 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 or if a piece of wood is burnt to ashes, the total mass remains unchanged. However, the basic principles of this discovery had already been elaborated centuries before by the Muslim scholar, al-Biruni (d. 1050). Lavoisier, in fact, was a disciple of Muslim chemists and physicists and referred to their books frequently.

Ibn-Firnas

The first mention of manned flight was by the English scholar Roger Bacon, who drew a flying apparatus. Leonardo da Vinci also conceived airborne transport and drew several prototypes. However, Ibn Firnas of Muslim Spain invented, constructed and tested the flying machine in the 9th century. 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.

Glass mirrors were said to have been first produced in 1291 in Venice. However, glass mirrors were used in Muslim Spain from as early as the 11th century. The Venetians learnt the art of fine glass production from Syrian artisans during the 9th and 10th centuries.

Glass lens

Roger Bacon (d. 1292) first mentioned glass lenses for improving vision. However, Ibn Firnas of Muslim 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 Ibn Firnas and al-Haytham.

Clocks

Until the 14th century, the only type of clocks available were water clocks. In 1335, a large mechanical clock was erected in Milan, Italy. This was possibly the first weight-driven clock. In the Islamic world, 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 Muslim books on mechanics. These clocks were weight-driven. Designs and illustrations of epicyclic 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 Muslim Spain, according to Will Durant, invented a watch-like device which kept accurate time.

Muslims also constructed a variety of highly accurate astronomical clocks for use in their observatories. Moveable type and the printing press was invented in the West by Johannes Gutenberg of Germany during the 15th century.

In 1454, Gutenberg developed the most sophisticated printing press of the Middle Ages. However, the movable brass type was in use in Muslim Spain 100 years prior to this.

Compass

The compass is said to have been invented by the Chinese who may have been the first to use it for navigational purposes sometime between 1000 and 1100 C.E. The earliest reference to its use in navigation was by the Englishman, Alexander Neckam (d. 1217). Muslim geographers and navigators knew about magnetic needles, possibly from the Chinese, and had already begun to use them in navigation well before Neckham.

A number of Muslim geographers also 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.

Geography

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 was produced during this period by Europe’s scholars. Muslim geographers, however, had already produced untold volumes of books on the geography of Africa, Asia, India, and China during the 8th through to 15th centuries.

These writings included the world’s first geographical encyclopedias, almanacs and roadmaps. Ibn Battutah’s 14th-century masterpieces provide a detailed view of the geography of the ancient world. Works by Muslim geographers between the 10th and 18th centuries far exceeded the output by Europeans regarding the geography of these regions.

Ethnicity

The first man to classify ethnicity was the German Johann F. Blumenbach, who divided mankind into white, yellow, brown, black and red peoples. However, Muslim scholars between the 9th and the 14th centuries had already invented the science of ethnography.

Trigonometry

In the field of mathematics, Greeks are said to have developed trigonometry. However, trigonometry remained largely a theoretical science amongst 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.

The use of decimal fractions in mathematics was supposedly first developed by a Dutchman, Simon Stevin, in 1589. He helped advance the mathematical sciences by replacing cumbersome fractions, for instance, 1/2, with decimal fractions, for example, 0.5. The reality is that Muslim mathematicians were the first to utilize decimals instead of fractions on a large scale.

al-Kashi

Al-Kashi’s 15th-century book, Key to Arithmetic, was the stimulus for the systematic application of decimals to whole numbers and fractions thereof. It is highly probable that Stevin imported the idea to Europe from al-Kashi’s work.

Similarly, the first man to utilize algebraic symbols is said to have been the French mathematician, Francois Vieta. In 1591, he wrote an algebra book describing equations with letters such as the now familiar x and ys. This discovery had an impact similar to the progression from Roman numerals to Arabic numbers.

Algebra

However, Muslim mathematicians were the real inventors of algebra. They introduced the concept of using letters for unknown variables in equations as early as the 9th century. Through this system, they solved a variety of complex equations, including quadratic and cubic equations. The concept that numbers could be less than zero, i.e. negative numbers, was unknown until 1545 when Geronimo Cardano introduced the idea. However, Muslim mathematicians had already introduced negative numbers for use in a variety of arithmetic functions at least 400 years prior to Cardano.

In 1614, John Napier is said to have invented logarithms and logarithmic tables. However, history shows that Muslim mathematicians invented logarithmic tables several centuries prior to Napier.

Such tables were common in the Islamic world as early as the 13th century. 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. However, Mathematicians of the Islamic Empire accomplished precisely this as early as the 9th century. 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.

It is also usually taught that Isaac Newton, during the 17th century, developed the binomial theorem, which is a crucial component for the study of algebra.

In fact, hundreds of Muslim mathematicians utilized and perfected the binomial theorem many centuries before. They initiated its use for the systematic solution of algebraic problems during the 10th century.

MEDICINE AND SURGERY

If we could journey back to 10th century southern Spain we would come across a cutting-edge surgeon called Abul Qasim al-Zahrawi, known in the West as Abulcasis. This physician along with ibn-Sina and al-Razi greatly inspired Europe. Most of their works were translated into Latin and served as standard medical and surgical references in Europe for many hundreds of years.

As far back as the 10th century, when surgery in Europe was dishonourably considered the practice of “quacks” and “barbers”, trained Muslim surgeons were performing a huge array of surgical procedures.

Their success was mainly due to the use of fine sutures, the soporific sponge (the precursor of modern anaesthesia; this was a sponge soaked with aromatics and narcotics and held to the patient’s nostrils), and the use of purified alcohol to wounds as an antiseptic agent. Remarkably, the first European use of antiseptics in surgery was some eight centuries later by the British surgeon Joseph Lister in 1865.

The use of specialised surgical instruments was another revolutionary concept introduced by al-Zahrawi during the 10th Century that transformed this eld of medicine and laid the foundations of modern surgery throughout the world. His famous treatise called al-Tasrif (On Surgery) contained a staggering collection of over 200 different surgical instruments. Amazingly, the basic design of many of these instruments has not changed today and would be difficult to distinguish if laid beside their modern counterparts.