The Muslims were keenly interested in physics and chemistry, and their findings and methods paved the way for modern physicists such as Albert Einstein. Al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham – known as Alhazen – worked with optics and is, according to several historians, the first modern scientist. In his studies, he established, among other things, that light consists of particles – a theory that Einstein received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for proving.
The Qur'an motivated the Muslims to study and explore everything around them to such an extent that they founded modern experimental science as we know it today. Some of the scientific inventions made by Muslim scholars in the Middle Ages, when Europe was in darkness and backwardness, are mentioned below.
With the Christian conquest of Spain, the research of the Muslim scholars was translated into Latin. The works contributed significantly to the so-called scientific revolution in the 16th century, which laid the foundation for modern science in Europe.
While many of the medieval chemists practiced alchemy, Arab al-Kindi rejected the occult arts. Instead, he worked purposefully to separate e.g. metals and plants into components so that their composition and properties could be investigated. Among other things. al-Kindi wanted to learn why wine has an intoxicating effect. He therefore heated wine in special flasks which were connected by pipes. Alcohol evaporates at a lower temperature than water, and with his primitive distillation apparatus, al-Kindi became the first to isolate pure alcohol. The Muslims used the alcohol for medicinal purposes and for the manufacture of make-up and perfumes.
Specialist shops with thoroughly checked medicines were widespread in Baghdad as early as the 8th century. The pharmacies were privately owned, and the knowledge of mixing, storing and preserving the remedies was passed down from father to son. Regularly, the shops were inspected by government officials who checked the weight and the purity of the funds. Apothecaries who cheated on the scales or sold impure medicines were punished corporal and publicly, so that everyone could see that this kind of breach of public trust was unacceptable.
Arab apothecaries wrote extensively about their work, and the writings eventually found their way to European scholars and were translated into Latin. In particular, the writings of the Andalusian ibn al-Wafid were popular among Europeans. Through the translations, the art of apothecary spread throughout Europe.
The history of medicine was rewritten in 1924, when an Egyptian doctor found a 700-year-old manuscript. The book, written by the Syrian scholar ibn al-Nafis in 1242, is the first to tell that the blood is pumped around the human body. Ibn al-Nafis describes how the heart's two chambers work and how the blood is oxygenated in the lungs along the way.
It was not until 1957 that ibn al-Nafis was recognized for his discoveries. Until then, the discovery of blood circulation had been attributed to the British William Harvey, who described the process in 1628.
In his work The Book of Secrets, the chemist al-Razi – also called Rhazes in the West – divides chemical substances into four categories: animal, vegetable, mineral and derivatives of the three. He divided minerals into six groups according to their properties – the modern periodic table is set up according to the same principle. The groupings themselves are far from today's categorization of chemical substances, but the idea of dividing the substances according to observations and experiments – instead of philosophical considerations – was revolutionary and an expression of modern scientific thinking.
Shift codes have been popular throughout history when kings and generals needed to send hidden messages. The principle is based on the sender shifting the letters of the alphabet so that they fill up space with other letters. For example, "a" became "d" if all letters were moved three places.
The code was as good as unbreakable until the Arab mathematician al-Kindi analyzed the Koran in the 8th century and found that the frequency of letters in a text varied. For example, characters corresponding to "a" and "i" occur most frequently in Arabic. That knowledge could be used to calculate what the letters in a code meant, al-Kindi found out. His method has since formed the basis of code breaking.
Among the ancient Greeks, the scholar al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham – known as Alhazen – had read that man could see because the eyes emitted light. Alhazen strongly disagreed and was the first to establish that the eyes did in fact receive light.
He carried out a large number of experiments with light, shade and color, which he zealously documented. According to several historians, this process makes Alhazen the first modern scientist. In his studies, he established, among other things, that light consists of particles – a theory that Einstein received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for proving.
As early as the 13th century, the Muslims made use of mechanical aids. In a book from 1206, the multi-genius al-Jazari describes 50 mechanical devices. Among the inventions is a humanoid robot that serves tea. Another device consisted of a boat with four mechanical musicians, which has been used for entertainment at parties. It has been able to be programmed to play different melodies and show more than 50 facial expressions and movements.
The distribution of the scarce amounts of water in the Middle East required great ingenuity and technical ingenuity. The inventor al-Jazari possessed both parts in abundance. Around the year 1200, he constructed five water pumps, one of which constituted a technical revolution. Using an ingenious system of gears and pistons, the pump sent water up a channel which carried it out to the fields. Al-Jazari's inventions – especially his advanced use of a crankshaft – later became of great use in Europe, where the shaft contributed to the great technical advances of the 15th century.
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