Innovations of Islam

[Uthman]

"Prophet Mohammed did business with Jews," says Omar Kalair. "There's nothing wrong with doing business with other entities. In Islam, people have the freedom to practise their own religion. You're not supposed to force people to conform to your own mindset."

Historically, Muslims were known as traders, he says, travelling the world, dealing with people of all races and faiths, open to progressive ideas. From India and China, they brought back the number system and writing on paper – concepts they developed and passed on to Europe.

The trading of money from one city to another originated through the Arabic "saqq," or cheque.

"In the 9th century, a Muslim businessman could cash a cheque in China drawn on his bank in Baghdad," states an article, "How Islamic Inventors Changed the World," in The Independent, a British newspaper.

Also included in a long list of Muslim advances are:

• Arabic "qamara," invented by a 10th century Muslim mathematician, astronomer and physicist, became the "camera."

• Distillation, invented in 800 by Muslim scientist Jabir ibn Hayyan, the founder of modern chemistry.

• Crankshaft, which The Independent cites as "one of the most important mechanical inventions in the history of humankind," invented by engineer al-Jazari, author of the Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices (1206).

• Parachute and "flying machine," created in 852-875 by Muslim astronomer and engineer Abbas Ibn Firnas, who at the age of 70 jumped from a mountain and flew aloft for 10 minutes before crashing.

• Soap. "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." As well as: Modern surgical instruments (in the 10th century), the windmill (in 634), technique of inoculation, the fountain pen, algebra, carpets, and the concept of the three-course meal.

Kalair says the root cause of the eventual decline of Muslim societies was "disunity, factions within, regions set against each other, instead of collaborating with each other, as in the United States of America."

http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/200874

[Keltoi]

Actually,

The camera was invented in increments. Greek and Chinese philosophers described the basic principles of optics in the 4th and 5th centuries. Isaac Newton discovered that white light is composed of different colors. Johann Heinrich Schulze discovered that silver nitrate darkened upon exposure to light. On and on we go. The camera was not "invented" in the 10th century.

You are basically correct with distillation, but you overstate it when you propose that he "invented" it. Distillation existed in the 1st century A.D. by the Greeks because of the demand for spirits. Jabir Ibn Hayyan invented new chemical apparatus and processes. Most importantly the alembic.

You are correct about the crankshaft and the parachute ride, although the Chinese are credited with the first attempts at creating a flying machine, especially the hot air balloon.

As for soap, that is sort of hard to pen down,since soap in one form or another has been crafted since prehistoric times. They have found soap in the ruins of ancient Babylon made from animal fat and ashes.

[Uthman]

Hi Keltoi,

I am in no position to dispute with you and it seems to me that you're probably right.

If the article is promoting untruths or half-truths then I think it should be deleted. Mods?

Regards

[Trumble]

There isn't a need to delete it is there? After all, if everything that couldn't be confirmed 100% true was deleted there wouldn't be many posts left! :D

This sort of stuff is always fun to talk about, and I think in a lot of cases there's no certainty one way or the other. To take the camera as an example, I was watching a documentary on the Turin Shroud on Sunday where one bloke was convinced that the image was photographic. He demonstrated how it could be done using a darkened room, a dead body (or dummy, hopefully!) a simple couple of lenses and silver nitrate, all of which were known and available.. that would have been done well before Newton and perhaps was this 'qamara' in action?

It's also that case that many things that are invented get re-invented by people completely independently, so if you think about it the intellectual achievement is just as great.


P.S OT, I know, but that was a fascinating documentary. It put up a pretty good case to show why the carbon dating was probably wrong and that the cloth might well have been first century CE after all. Could that really be the image of Jesus?!

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[Muezzin]

Way to miss a point, dudes.

"Prophet Mohammed did business with Jews," says Omar Kalair. "There's nothing wrong with doing business with other entities. In Islam, people have the freedom to practise their own religion. You're not supposed to force people to conform to your own mindset."

Historically, Muslims were known as traders, he says, travelling the world, dealing with people of all races and faiths, open to progressive ideas.

:)

[Keltoi]

Hi Keltoi,

I am in no position to dispute with you and it seems to me that you're probably right.

If the article is promoting untruths or half-truths then I think it should be deleted. Mods?

Regards

Well, history is hard to pin down many times. As Trumble mentioned, some things are actually developed independently of others. It wasn't my intention to downplay the role of these inventions or the Arabs or Persians who contributed to the overall understanding of these issues, but only to point out a few things that add more context.