How Muslim Inventors changed the World

[Muhammad Rafi]

Regards

Muhammad Rafi


How Muslim Inventors changed the World


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 21 of the most influential- and identifies the men of genius behind them


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 o¬n 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 o¬ne.


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 o¬nly 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 o¬n landing - concluding, correctly, that it was because he had not given his device a tail so it would stall o¬n landing. Baghdad international airport and a crater o¬n 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. o¬ne 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 o¬n 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.


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. o¬ne 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.


8. Quilting is a method of sewing or tying two layers of cloth with a layer of insulating material in between. It is not clear whether it was invented in the Muslim world or whether it was imported there from India or China . But it certainly came to the West via the Crusaders. They saw it used by Saracen warriors, who wore straw-filled quilted canvas shirts instead of armour. As well as a form of protection, it proved an effective guard against the chafing of the Crusaders' metal armour and was an effective form of insulation - so much so that it became a cottage industry back home in colder climates such as Britain and Holland .


9. 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 o¬nes. Henry V's castle architect was a Muslim.


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.


11. 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 o¬nly source of power was the wind which blew steadily from o¬ne 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 .


13. The technique of inoculation 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.


14. 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.


15. 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.


16. 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 - see No 4).


17. 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-representationa l 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, harbouring expectoration, vomiting, the leakage of dogs and men, ale droppings, scraps of fish, and other abominations not fit to be mentioned". Carpets, unsurprisingly, caught o¬n quickly.


18. 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 o¬n his bank in Baghdad .


19. 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 o¬n Earth". It was 500 years before that realisation dawned o¬n 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.


20. Though the Chinese invented saltpetre 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.


21. 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.

[Dr. Shabbir]

[Dr. Shabbir]

Please keep gracing your forum.

[MONA MIR]

It is a golden,knowledge-able and valuable site, please go through it,viz,'muslimheritage.com';there is a world for you.

[shahalam]

Coffee beans: A cup of coffee temporarily refreshes our mood. So what?

Chess: A good time pass, mainly for those who win the game.

Rose water and perfumes: A means of dreamy feelings.

Valve and Piston: Used in machines and cars. Machine makes life easier. Car makes journey comfortable and faster than the camel ride.

Windmill: Grinds corn, wheat to produce variety of meals.

Carpets: A sensual regal feeling.

Gun Powder: Better than sword, etc. etc.


Inventions therefore are not life’s knowledge. These are mere dexterousness for improved worldly life. This dexterity is also granted to the animals. Notice how birds create their nests and watch the migrating birds. They know when, where and how to migrate in a most disciplined optimal way. Thus both man and animal have common understanding of life’s dexterity and skills.


On the other hand, earth is given to us as trust to establish righteousness. The more the earth is permeated with justice, mercy, compassion, the nearer the earth is to the divine writ. The more corruption permeates the earth, the further away the earth from virtues. Notice that there can be no human inventions in knowledge, justice, mercy and compassion.


Next time if there is a question about Muslim inventions, in my opinion, there is no need to look into in the past.

[Sidqi]

Dear Shahlam,


I have great respect for any talent. As usual you are a master craftsman of words and I am not. But here you went wrong.


The planet earth is a giant matter ball in the forms of thousands of metals, ores, gases, chemicals and liquids. Why God created this ball with so many components.


They need to be explored for our ever growing survival needs. Our living (Rizq) is hidden in this exploration. For example, we can live without paper, yes, but paper industry has foods for millions of people on planet earth. Similarly car industry is not vital, but it has survival for many. So if we forget inventions and look for justice, peace or ibadah, nothing will happen.


Empty stomach of six billion people on earth need food, which will come from exploration and activity. Evolution is natural, even the shapes of trees, mountains and oceans do not remain same. Todays continents were yesterday's separate chunks.


Your message reflect soofiism, which is a killer of society, it brings poverty, laziness, empty mind, drugs and useless poetry. Prophet( SA) was every thing but a soofi. Hence soofism is against Sunnah. Today's poor and uninnovative muslim is a living proof.

___________________


45:13 And He has made subservient to you, from Himself, all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth. Therein, behold, are Signs for people and nations who reflect.


21:30 Are the unbelievers not aware (after this proclamation) that the heavens and the earth used to be one solid mass that We exploded into parting? And that out of water We made every living thing? Will they not, then, acknowledge the Truth?


51:47 And it is We Who have built the Universe, and behold, WE ARE STEADILY EXPANDING ( Now confirmed that universe is expanding. The String theory)


13:17 --- The real existence on earth is of the one who benefits mankind.


Sidqi.

[Hafeez Khan]

Throughout history, humans have always been prone to accidents. Some, such as the exotic car crashes seen on this page, can be very expensive. But that's trivial compared to the truly expensive accidents. An accident is defined as "an undesirable or unfortunate happening that occurs unintentionally and usually results in harm, injury, damage, or loss". Our aim is to list the top 11 most expensive accidents in the history of the world as measured in dollars. This includes property damage and expenses incurred related to the accident such as cleanup and industry losses. Many of these accidents involve casualties which obviously cannot be measured in dollar terms. Each life lost is priceless and is not factored into the equation. Deliberate actions such as war or terrorism and natural disasters do not qualify as accidents and therefore are not included in this list.


# 11. Titanic - $150 Million The sinking of the Titanic is possibly the most famous accident in the world. But it barely makes our list of top 11 most expensive. On April 15, 1912, the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage and was considered to be the most luxurious ocean liner ever built. Over 1,500 people lost their lives when the ship ran into an iceberg and sunk in frigid waters. The ship cost $7 million to build ($150 million in today's dollars).


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# 10. Tanker Truck vs Bridge - $358 Million On August 26, 2004, a car collided with a tanker truck containing 32,000 liters of fuel on the Wiehltal Bridge in Germany . The tanker crashed through the guardrail and fell 90 feet off the A4 Autobahn resulting in a huge explosion and fire which destroyed the load-bearing ability of the bridge. Temporary repairs cost $40 million and the cost to replace the bridge is estimated at $318 Million.


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# 9. MetroLink Crash - $500 Million On September 12, 2008, in what was one of the worst train crashes in California history, 25 people were killed when a Metrolink commuter train crashed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train in Los Angeles . It is thought that the Metrolink train may have run through a red signal while the conductor was busy text messaging. Wrongful death lawsuits are expected to cause $500 million in losses for Metrolink


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# 8. B-2 Bomber Crash - $1.4 Billion Here we have our first billion dollar accident (and we're only #7 on the list). This B-2 stealth bomber crashed shortly after taking off from an air base in Guam on February 23, 2008. Investigators blamed distorted data in the flight control computers caused by moisture in the system. This resulted in the aircraft making a sudden nose-up move which made the B-2 stall and crash. This was 1 of only 21 ever built and was the most expensive aviation accident in history. Both pilots were able to eject to safety.


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# 7. Exxon Valdez - $2.5 Billion The Exxon Valdez oil spill was not a large one in relation to the world's biggest oil spills, but it was a costly one due to the remote location of Prince William Sound (accessible only by helicopter and boat). On March 24, 1989, 10.8 million gallons of oil was spilled when the ship's master, Joseph Hazelwood, left the controls and the ship crashed into a Reef. The cleanup cost Exxon $2.5 billion.


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# 6. Piper Alpha Oil Rig - $3.4 Billion The world's worst off-shore oil disaster. At one time, it was the world's single largest oil producer, spewing out 317,000 barrels of oil per day. On July 6, 1988, as part of routine maintenance, technicians removed and checked safety valves which were essential in preventing dangerous build-up of liquid gas. There were 100 identical safety valves which were checked. Unfortunately, the technicians made a mistake and forgot to replace one of them. At 10 PM that same night, a technician pressed a start button for the liquid gas pumps and the world's most expensive oil rig accident was set in motion. Within 2 hours, the 300 foot platform was engulfed in flames. It eventually collapsed, killing 167 workers and resulting in $3.4 Billion in damages.


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# 5. Challenger Explosion - $5.5 Billion The Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed 73 seconds after takeoff due on January 28, 1986 due to a faulty O-ring. It failed to seal one of the joints, allowing pressurized gas to reach the outside. This in turn caused the external tank to dump its payload of liquid hydrogen causing a massive explosion. The cost of replacing the Space Shuttle was $2 billion in 1986 ($4.5 billion in today's dollars). The cost of investigation, problem correction, and replacement of lost equipment cost $450 million from 1986-1987 ($1 Billion in today's dollars).


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# 4. Prestige Oil Spill - $12 Billion On November 13, 2002, the Prestige oil tanker was carrying 77,000 tons of heavy fuel oil when one of its twelve tanks burst during a storm off Galicia , Spain . Fearing that the ship would sink, the captain called for help from Spanish rescue workers, expecting them to take the ship into harbour. However, pressure from local authorities forced the captain to steer the ship away from the coast. The captain tried to get help from the French and Portuguese authorities, but they too ordered the ship away from their shores. The storm eventually took its toll on the ship resulting in the tanker splitting in half and releasing 20 million gallons oil into the sea. According to a report by the Pontevedra Economist Board, the total cleanup cost $12 billion.


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# 3. Space Shuttle Columbia - $13 Billion The Space Shuttle Columbia was the first space worthy shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet. It was destroyed during re-entry over Texas on February 1, 2003 after a hole was punctured in one of the wings during launch 16 days earlier. The original cost of the shuttle was $2 Billion in 1978. That comes out to $6.3 Billion in today's dollars. $500 million was spent on the investigation, making it the costliest aircraft accident investigation in history. The search and recovery of debris cost $300 million.

In the end, the total cost of the accident (not including replacement of the shuttle) came out to $13 Billion according to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.


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# 2. Chernobyl - $200 Billion On April 26, 1986, the world witnessed the costliest accident in history. The Chernobyl disaster has been called the biggest socio-economic catastrophe in peacetime history. 50% of the area of Ukraine is in some way contaminated. Over 200,000 people had to be evacuated and resettled while 1.7 million people were directly affected by the disaster. The death toll attributed to Chernobyl , including people who died from cancer years later, is estimated at 125,000. The total costs including cleanup, resettlement, and compensation to victims has been estimated to be roughly $200 Billion. The cost of a new steel shelter for the Chernobyl nuclear plant will cost $2 billion alone. The accident was officially attributed to power plant operators who violated plant procedures and were ignorant of the safety requirements needed.


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# 1. Zardari – Accidentally Selected President Of Pakistan

(Loss:All Pakistan wealth)

On 5 March 2008, Mr Zardari was cleared of five corruption charges only because the courts "abolished the cases against all public office holders",including corruption and illegal use of property under NRO, the National Reconciliation Ordinance. He had another trial on the remaining charges on 14 April 2008, when he was cleared under the same NRO. On 19 April 2008, Zardari announced in a press conference in London that he and his sister, Faryal Talpur, would participate in the by-elections taking place on 3 June and that, if necessary, he would contest to become the country's next Prime Minister. Mr Zardari subsequently became President of Pakistan. By all accounts, he ranks as the biggest and the most expensive accident in history.


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Success doesn't always go to the stronger or wiser man.

But sooner or later the one who wins is the one who thinks he can...

[Muhammad Rafi]

Inventions are inventions and their value can never be doubted. Laziness destroys human intellect and initiative. All inventions are discoveries and are good. It all depends uppon how you put them to use. A matgh box is OK if it is used to ignite the kitchen stove; but the moment you burn a house with it, it's arson.

There is nothing wrong in making ,ife comfortable and easier. Modern inventions give us more time to devote our energies to other positive things that have mentioned in your penultimate paragraph.

Coffee is perhaps the most widely used beverage in the world.I take it regularly and bless the person who discovered this wonderful and natural gift of nature.

Perfumes enhance the environment by their fragrance. They also get rid of the bad odours that are repulsive. There are thousands of other inventions (or discoveries) that are being unravelled every day for our benefit. If Muslims have contributed in this imp. evolutionary process, there is nothing wrong in feeling happoy and eleted about this contribution. It encourages Muslims to work for more achievemnets. If it can be done in the past, it can be done again..

Birds and animals have a set pattern of life in whichthere are no discoveries on inventions. Their instinct guides them. The migration of birds and other instinctive behaviours are all predictive and the concept of mercy, compassion etc is not their forte.

Regards

Muhammad Rafi

Karachi