How Islamic inventors changed the world

[Gorilla]

From coffee to cheques and the three-course meal, the Muslim world has given us many innovations that we take for granted in daily life. As a new exhibition opens, Paul Vallely nominates 20 of the most influential- and identifies the men of genius behind them

Published: 11 March 2006

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 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.

3 A form of chess was played in ancient India but the game was developed into the form we know it today in Persia. From there it spread westward to Europe - where it was introduced by the Moors in Spain in the 10th century - and eastward as far as Japan. The word rook comes from the Persian rukh, which means chariot.

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

5 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 a 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.

6 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, crystallisation, distillation, purification, oxidisation, 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.

The Full Article Featuring 20 achievements:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...icle350594.ece

An exhibit I wish I was in the UK for:
http://www.1001inventions.com/index....tSectionID=309

[saraphen]

Interesting post.

[Baba Ahmed]

Gorilla do u have any information about Muslims in Egypt, say during the 7th Century?

[Gorilla]

Originally Posted by Baba Ahmed

Gorilla do u have any information about Muslims in Egypt, say during the 7th Century?

Afraid not, I'm still very much a newbie on Muslim history and studies but I hope to expand. Seventh Century seems too close to when Mohammed became a prophet in I think 610 but I'm sure afterwards there are probably some.If you come across anything would you mind sharing? I'm far too ignorant on their achievements.

[Baba Ahmed]

Well, I asked bcause during my young days I read only books with either the words Islam or Muslim.... for too long. Its when I began studying my history as defined by me as of my people, I discovered a broader view of OurStories. What spurred me to do so, other than my own heart's feeling that something was missing, was a saying read in one of Imam Ghazzali's volumes in his Ihya ud Deen rendered as the Revival of the Sciences of Islam. He was famous for using hadith w/o isnads. So he's reported as having wrote this: "the genealogy of a people is useless knowledge." By this time I'd peeped that much of the early Muslim's personal history was in their names including who their mama or daddy was; tribal identification; sometimes locale and their profession, or skill etc. Not only that in books on Islam all I found, then, was strictly about Muslims in Islamic lands. Other than the invasion of Egypt (Misra) and its great schools established by Muslims, mainly from Persia and that Imam Shafi is reported as saying he'd changed his mathhab was changed to fit a new locale... virtually nothing I found mentioned the wide spread destructions of Egyptian statutes and temples and paintings and tombs (from which valuables were stolen) because they were classified by the invaders as polytheists. So I went beyond what only Muslims were writing. And though I found many enlightening books, another one really rang my bell: The Glory of the Blacks Over the Whites by an Afrikan Iraqi whose last name was al Jahiz. A Muslim I knew majoring in Arabic at Bklyn College pushed me to read it. A mind blower; for al Jahiz lays it out w/o apologies the rampant racisms during I think either the 9th or 10th Century in Iraq and elsewhere. Near the time Ghazzali was writing. Then I read a book, whose title I may spell wrong: Muqqadim by Ibn Khaldun. In it he describes Afrikans below the Sahara as child like, happy like children. I thought, what!
But could not help describe the beautiful cities seen e.g., Timbuctu and others of the Songhai people plus other signs of highly developed civilizations.

To answer your question, I'm sure to have something among my books about them but now I'd present its impact on Afrikans. And not as if we as a people did not exist then! However u might enjoy reading straight up who were the heroes of most of the early Muslim warring campaigns. And u'll see an ancient problem btween us and other peoples' menfolk due to our gaining the favors of their women! Oh yeah another hadith often made me wonder; it goes something like this: the Arab has no preference over the Blacks; the Blacks have no preference over the Arabs. To me? That meant battles btween Arabs & Afrikans in Islam's earliest times. Even in Qur'an... well that's enough. U have your path. Keep bringing it forth.

Ma-as-salaama!

[Gorilla]

Originally Posted by Baba Ahmed

Well, I asked bcause during my young days I read only books with either the words Islam or Muslim.... for too long. Its when I began studying my history as defined by me as of my people, I discovered a broader view of OurStories. What spurred to do so, other than my own heart's feeling that something was missing, was a saying read in one of Imam Ghazzali's volumes in his Ihya ud Deen rendered as the Revival of the Sciences of Islam. He was famous for using hadith w/o isnads. So he's reported as having wrote this: "the genealogy of a people is useless knowledge." By this time I'd peeped that much of the early Muslim's personal history was in their names including who their mama or daddy was; tribal identification; sometimes locale and their profession, or skill etc. Not only that in books on Islam all I found, then, was strictly about Muslims in Islamic lands. Other than the invasion of Egypt (Misra) and its great schools established by Muslims, mainly from Persia and that Imam Shafi is reported as saying he'd changed his mathhab was changed to fit a new locale... virtually nothing I found mentioned the wide spread destructions of Egyptian statutes and temples and paintings and tombs (from which valuables were stolen) because they were classified by the invaders as polytheists. So I went beyond what only Muslims were writing. And though I found many enlightening books, another one really rang my bell: The Glory of the Blacks Over the Whites by an Afrikan Iraqi whose last name was al Jahiz. A mind blower; for he lays out w/o apologies the rampant racisms during I think either the 9th or 10th Century. Near the time Ghazzali was writing.

But to answer your question, I'm sure to have something among my books about them but now I'd present its impact on Afrikans. And not as if we as a people did not exist then! However u might enjoy reading straight up who were the heroes of most of the early Muslim warring campaigns. And u'll see an ancient problem btween us and other peoples' menfolk due to our gaining the favors of their women! Oh yeah another hadith often made me wonder; it goes something like this: the Arab has no preference over the Blacks; the Blacks have no preference over the Arabs. To me? That meant racism in Islam's earliest times. Even in Qur'an... well that's enough. U have your path. Keep bringing it forth.

Ma-as-salaama!

I've got a small glimpse so far of some of the things you're talking about. I'm just interested because of a few things I've come across and I've just always had a few questions I'd like to eventually get answered. I also see a few Muslims in the text of my discrete mathematics class that has me curious about what kind of contributions they've made beyond just the basic things I already know like algebra, the toothbrush, medicine and etc. The book you named sounds pretty interesting and if I get a bit of money and some time I'd definately like to sit down to it.

[Baba Ahmed]

Originally Posted by Gorilla

I've got a small glimpse so far of some of the things you're talking about. I'm just interested because of a few things I've come across and I've just always had a few questions I'd like to eventually get answered. I also see a few Muslims in the text of my discrete mathematics class that has me curious about what kind of contributions they've made beyond just the basic things I already know like algebra, the toothbrush, medicine and etc. The book you named sounds pretty interesting and if I get a bit of money and some time I'd definately like to sit down to it.

If u want to get to the "roots" of algebra, the toothbrush (guess u mean miswak), medicine, etc I strongly encourage u to study some south of the Sahara, E.Afrikan Kush & Northeast Kemet as well as the entire Sudan when it stretched from Afrika's Western borders to East Afrika.

Aside I peeped at the links u provided, and as expected the drawings depicted men, none of who had phenotype of continental Afrikans. I'd guess they were Persian mainly. Chancellor Williams points out that he learned more from what Europeans omitted than admitted. I apply that same principle studying Islamic literature and drawings. Sad to say, I expected something different...when I was a younger man. I don't know if u're Muslim or not and to me it doesn't matter for what Im 'bout to write. An early translation of the meanings of Qur'an was done by a Pakistani Muslim, Muhamman 'Ali. Who was of the Ahmadiyyah movement. When speaking of the material, clay, used to created the first man Adam (which simply means, the first man), he translates the arabic "teen" (phonetics) as black clay in which all colors derived from. And in other places in Qur'an, he used the word black. Much of the Islamic world, I was exposed to, cried "foul!" Many in this land were almost forbade its translation.... except the NOI. They sold'em in their Harlem bookstore. Such drawings printed in the UK newspaper reminds me of an old pictorial "Holy Bible," given to me many years ago. It had both the so called OLd Testament and the New one. Dark as night were drawings in the Old one; gradually and by the time it reaches the times of the New Testament, folk are pale faced with acquline noses. Just as seen in the links above.

Excuse my French, but in the memorial words of Professor Griff: F..K dat!

Peace!!!

[Gorilla]

Originally Posted by Baba Ahmed

If u want to get to the "roots" of algebra, the toothbrush (guess u mean miswak), medicine, etc I strongly encourage u to study some south of the Sahara, E.Afrikan Kush & Northeast Kemet as well as the entire Sudan when it stretched from Afrika's Western borders to East Afrika.

Aside I peeped at the links u provided, and as expected the drawings depicted men, none of who had phenotype of continental Afrikans. I'd guess they were Persian mainly. Chancellor Williams points out that he learned more from what Europeans omitted than admitted. I apply that same principle studying Islamic literature and drawings. Sad to say, I expected something different...when I was a younger man. I don't know if u're Muslim or not and to me it doesn't matter for what Im 'bout to write. An early translation of the meanings of Qur'an was done by a Pakistani Muslim, Muhamman 'Ali. Who was of the Ahmadiyyah movement. When speaking of the material, clay, used to created the first man Adam (which simply means, the first man), he translates the arabic "teen" (phonetics) as black clay in which all colors derived from. And in other places in Qur'an, he used the word black. Much of the Islamic world, I was exposed to, cried "foul!" Many in this land were almost forbade its translation.... except the NOI. They sold'em in their Harlem bookstore. Such drawings printed in the UK newspaper reminds me of an old pictorial "Holy Bible," given to me many years ago. It had both the so called OLd Testament and the New one. Dark as night were drawings in the Old one; gradually and by the time it reaches the times of the New Testament, folk are pale faced with acquline noses. Just as seen in the links above.

Excuse my French, but in the memorial words of Professor Griff: F..K dat!

Peace!!!

Thanks for the information. No I'm not a muslim I'm just interested in a few things that passed through that avenue to society in terms of those basic and functional "contributions". I did notice the pictures didnt dipict the proper faces either but I didnt pay close attention to it.

[MadameX]

Originally Posted by Gorilla

Thanks for the information. No I'm not a muslim I'm just interested in a few things that passed through that avenue to society in terms of those basic and functional "contributions".

I also ditto that. It's good Brotha Ahmed incites us on these contributions b/c often they don't get heard.

[MadameX]

Originally Posted by blackvoter

If I sound a little biased its because I am. I just don't see how the religion ties into inventions.

Actually, I didn't see your question as biased at all Brotha BV. Because, I was just thinking the same thing.