Unce again why islamic? Those buildings have sassanid architecture. Bagdad was a persian city.
How do you know Algebra was a muslim? Al razi the creator of modern medecin openly critizesed Islam.
/Peace To All
Islam Got It First
The Tiling In Medieval Islamic Architecture Turns Out To Embody A Mathematical Insight That Westerners Thought They Had Discovered Only 30 Years Ago.
By Mary Carmichael
Newsweek International
March 19, 2007 Issue
MSNBC
... In stretches of intricate tiling on several 500-year-old Islamic buildings, Peter Lu and Paul Steinhardt wrote, they'd spotted a large fragment of a mathematical pattern that was unknown to Western science until the 1970s.
Islam gave the world algebra, from the Arabic al-jabr, a term referring to a basic equation. But this pattern is far from basic; it comes from much higher math.
"The ridiculous thing is, this pattern has been staring Westerners in the face all this time," says Keith Critchlow, author of the book "Islamic Patterns." "We simply haven't been able to read it."
Now that we can, though, it is serving as a startling indication of how accomplished medieval-era Muslims may have been.
No one knows what the architects of the complex pattern in the tiles named it a half millennium ago. Today, scientists call it a "quasiperiodic crystal with forbidden symmetry." It's forbidden not for any religious reason, of course, but because at first glance it appears impossible to construct.
Take a pattern of triangular tiles, rotate it one third the way around, and the resulting pattern is identical. The same goes for rectangular tiles (which look the same rotated one fourth the way around) or hexagonal tiles (one sixth the way around). But a grid made purely of pentagons simply can't exist. The five-sided shapes don't fit together without leaving gaps, and there's no way to put them in a pattern that looks the same when turned one fifth the way around.
The breakthrough that took the "forbidden" out of that "forbidden symmetry" was to use two shapes, not one, to build a fivefold-symmetrical grid. In 1973, having given up on pentagons, mathematician Sir Roger Penrose designed a fivefold pattern with shapes he called "kites" and "darts."
He was the first Westerner (and at the time, he thought, the first person) to do so, and his creation turned out to have fascinating mathematical properties. Any given fragment of it, containing a finite number of kites and darts, could be infinitely divided into a never-repeating pattern of smaller kites and darts.
As the number of small shapes in the pattern increased, the ratio of kites to darts approached the "golden ratio," a number practically sacred to mathematicians. Discovered by Pythagoras, the golden ratio is irrational, which means it extends to an infinite number of decimal places. (The actual number is 1.618033989 ... and so on.)
It is linked to the famous Fibonacci sequence and cited in the writings of astronomer Johannes Kepler and, yes, Leonardo da Vinci. It is also found at the atomic level. In the 1980s, Steinhardt, a physicist at Princeton, armed with Penrose's insight, found that some chemicals had their atoms arranged in a "quasicrystalline" shape like that of the fivefold grid.
Medieval Muslims apparently figured out at least some of this math. On the wall of one shrine in Iran, Lu found, two types of large tiles are divided into smaller tiles of the same shapes, in numbers that approximate the golden ratio..
"The human creation was imitating, in abstract fashion, the wondrous creation of God," says Gulru Necipoglu, a professor of Islamic art at Harvard. Some geometric patterns, for instance, evoked the planets and stars. And throughout the medieval era and onwards, says Steinhardt, Muslims "were fascinated by fivefold symmetry and were always trying to incorporate it into their designs. Where the patterns ended up with gaps, they would cleverly place a door or a windowsill there so you couldn't tell." In the buildings examined by Lu, they succeeded.
Although the Penrose-patterned tiles date to the 14th and 15th centuries, the same shapes of tiles "were used all over the medieval Islamic world to generate all sorts of patterns" for hundreds of years before and after that, says Lu. The Topkapi scroll, a Persian artifact from the late 15th or early 16th century, lists many such designs.
There may also be clues to ancient Muslims' mathematical prowess in other tiling on mosques in Iran and Turkey, madrassas in Baghdad and shrines in Afghanistan and India. They would fit nicely into the increasingly common image of the medieval Islamic world as an advanced society.
Scholars now know that Muslims of that era could solve equations with variables to the power of 3 and above, which are harder than the classic quadratic "x2" ones fundamental to algebra.
They also had mechanical "computers" and knew considerably more about medicine and astronomy than Europeans of the time.
What has not yet been found, unfortunately, is any record of how early Muslims designed the fivefold patterns and conceptualized the math lurking in them, since few Muslim scholars wrote down their discoveries for wide dissemination.
"You absolutely do not have to understand the higher math to be able to do it," says David Salesin, a computer scientist at the University of Washington. Lu agrees that there's no need to project a modern understanding of quasicrystals onto an ancient culture—but he also says the pattern design was no accident.
"No matter how it was constructed," he adds, "it's a stunning achievement." Particularly now that the world has eyes to see it.
© 2007 Newsweek, Inc.
Source:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17553752/site/newsweek/
Unce again why islamic? Those buildings have sassanid architecture. Bagdad was a persian city.
How do you know Algebra was a muslim? Al razi the creator of modern medecin openly critizesed Islam.
format_quote Originally Posted by Sinbad
Wasn't Baghdad a city created by the Muslim rule of the Bani Abbaas?
Not realy, they just changed the name and added walls. It was still a city before.format_quote Originally Posted by - Qatada -
Wasn't Baghdad a city created by the Muslim rule of the Bani Abbaas?
format_quote Originally Posted by Sinbad
We're allowed to be proud of our heritage?
Those buildings have sassanid architecture.
And, they embraced Islam.
Baghdad is a Muslim city. I believe ancient Iraq was inhabited by Arabs who were loyal to the Persian Empire.Bagdad was a persian city.
Because it was named after Jaber Ibn Hayan, who was a Muslim.How do you know Algebra was a muslim?
He was also, Muslim...Al razi the creator of modern medecin.
sure you can, but is it yours?format_quote Originally Posted by Zman
Still not islamic architectureformat_quote Originally Posted by Zman
No that was in the arabian dessert, before muhammed there where arab tribes loyal yes, the coastlines where inhabited by persians. It isnt untill recent years arabs started to live by the coast, before that they where nomads living of sheep meat.format_quote Originally Posted by Zman
Its like saying the ancient egyptians where arabs.
format_quote Originally Posted by ZmanNo he was not. He was an atheist. You can not take people from a certain time and place and excpekt them all to belive this and that. Darwin the evolutionist belived in God.format_quote Originally Posted by Zman
If you're talking about Al Raazi' - then he made a public repentance near the end of his life. He's the one well known for his famous tafsir/explanation of Qur'an which is HUGE (i.e. 10,000 explanations of part of surah fatihah - chapter 1 of Qur'an alone.) And Allaah knows best.
I might do that as well, when life is over I dont want to risk going to hell.format_quote Originally Posted by - Qatada -
Another thing about the iraqis being arabs, who is an arab? If you ask a pan arabist, its evereyone from Morrocco to Yemen. If you ask a Tunisian if he is an arab he will get angry, if you ask a syrian if he is an arab he will get angry.
Nobody is realy an arab escept for the nomads of the arabian island.
But then we got language, people speaking arabic being arabs, then persians are more arabs than Tunisians,
Or maybe you'll die before you make the decision. ^ anyway, upto you. There's no compulsion in religion, and i won't be questioned about you, you won't be questioned about me - we'll only be accountable for our ownselves. And no-one will be dealt with unjustly, but the truthful will benefit from their truth and those who disbelieve will have nothing but regret, and there will be no turning back on that day.
Peace.
Congatulations on the discovery.
Nobody can argue that, once upon a time, the Ancient Greek, Persian and Arabian intellectuals were doing great things academically.
Al Jebr did some good work developing Eculid the Greeks concepts of 300BC. without them both, we wouldnt have what we have today.
Its just sad thing that after some successes and achievments in science in early medieval times, muslim scientists have gone in deep coma for the next hundreds of years.
One of the great things that has always intrigued me was a water clock that marked the hours by dropping bronze balls into a bowl, as mechanical knights — one for each hour — emerged from little doors which shut behind them. This along with other presents were unprecedented in Western Europe and may have influenced Carolingian art. That clock was given by the Caliph Harun's Ar-Rashid as a gift to Charlemagne along with other goodies. Once Charlemagne's knights saw it, they stepped back affright thinking it sorcery --
I must have visited all the museums of the world looking for that clock, and couldn't find it anywhere.. just absolutely would love to have a look at it. A shame many Muslims don't even know their own history. But I feel a spirit of change in the Muslim world insha'Allah.. we will rise again!
Once again not islamic.format_quote Originally Posted by PurestAmbrosiaOne of the great things that has always intrigued me was a water clock that marked the hours by dropping bronze balls into a bowl, as mechanical knights — one for each hour — emerged from little doors which shut behind them. This along with other presents were unprecedented in Western Europe and may have influenced Carolingian art. That clock was given by the Caliph Harun's Ar-Rashid as a gift to Charlemagne along with other goodies. Once Charlemagne's knights saw it, they stepped back affright thinking it sorcery --
I must have visited all the museums of the world looking for that clock, and couldn't find it anywhere.. just absolutely would love to have a look at it. A shame many Muslims don't even know their own history. But I feel a spirit of change in the Muslim world insha'Allah.. we will rise again!
Water clocks, along with the sundials, are possibly the oldest time-measuring instruments, with the only exceptions being the gnomon and day-counting tally stick.[1] Given their great antiquity, where and when they first existed are not known and perhaps unknowable. The simplest form of water clocks, the bowl-shaped outflow type, are known to have existed in Babylon and in Egypt around the 16th century B.C. Other regions of the world, including India and China, also have early evidence of water clocks but the earliest dates are less certain. Some authors, however, write about water clocks appearing as early as 4000 BC.[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_clock
Look people, a lot of great things came from great people.
But you can not put them with religion. It has nothing to do with religion. You can not say christian inventions, ancient greek gods inventions, muslim inventions et c.
Sinbad.. you are certainly free to believe what you wish.. my father has his doctorate in History and political science, if there is one thing I know and grew up with (aside from medicine) it is my history.. when I was in undergrad the professor had me teach for 2 weeks and a half on islam, islamic art and architecture, he didn't complain, nor protest, neither did the students-- So you can sing the praises of whomever, clap to whomever, be overjoyed with whomever.. it is Islamic architecture that still draws people to Spain, and at the bottom of everything is a Muslim scientist, much to the dismay of the ignorant... I would suggest to you this book instead of wikpidia http://www.1001inventions.com/index....tSectionID=309
been out of stock for some time in amazon, but am sure, they will restock. If you have beef with the above, I suggest you address the historians, don't bother me with it!
peace!
like others have said.. how is this islamic culture?
just because the person who might have professed the islamic faith was the one who discovered it, that doesn't mean that islam is the reason for it..
if that's the case.. go Jews!! albert einstein was a Jew!! wOoOhOo!
BTW, I come from a country that boasts a great civilization, a region so rich, that the "great west" would dissolve, from its early achievements a place that houses your fallen shah even when your own country, and the U.S. wouldn't have him! but I am proud of nothing more than I am of My Islamic history. Which ever way I slice it, I am proud of my heritage and the people who gave up polytheism and embraced Islam only to contribute more great things!
peace!
Someone gave a good example, is the theory of relativity a judaistic sciense? Is gravity a christian sciense, christian heritage? Is gun Powder a taoistik? No its not.format_quote Originally Posted by PurestAmbrosia
Faith has nothing to do with inventions and sciense.
Did you study islamic art and history for some weeks? It dosent matter, i the 60s they teached that the moon came from the sea, they teached that diffrent races have diffrent values.
Did they lie? No they just spinned it, you can affect the teachings by taking stuff out.
I still say there is no such thing as islamic art, if it was then why did it exist before islam, and most importantly, why isnt that art specified in the quaran?
Indeed many Jews have circulating their list of celebrated scientist in the form of Noble prize winners etc in effort to show how much more advanced they are than the rest of the world.. be that as it may I clearly remember not two weeks ago, an atheist used an Einstein quote to cement his point, that there is no G-D, in fact he (Einstein) was a self-professed atheist... an awful shame still that you'd be listing a Jewish achievement instead of one of your own? for instance you might have mentioned how St. Thomas Aquinas liked to surround himself by Muslim scholars, so he could learn from them... really go read before you write!format_quote Originally Posted by thirdwatch512
When you are Muslim and a scientist, that is your identity. Every Muslim I know who has a doctorate of some sort professes that he is a Muslim not really attributing his science to his home town or birth place rather his religion, the blessings of the religion that have propelled him/her forward... And Indeed in Islam we are urged to pursue knowledge from the cradle to the grave, as far as china if need be as is stated by our beloved prophet Mohammed PBUH!
peace!
I have already replied to him, I have nothing further on the subject to impart, though you and he are free to express as clangorously as you like, your opinion..format_quote Originally Posted by Sinbad
by the way-- I don't know what "teached" means, perhaps therein lies the problem? you are not very well schooled as you should be, and hence it reflects in your opinions!
peace!
All great civilizations have made technological and scientific advances. However, it had more to do with individuals, not a society or a religion. If you want to praise people for their discoveries, praise the individual, not the collective they happened to be a part of.
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