Scientists of the Golden Age of Islam (Part 1 – Overview)

Scientists of the Golden Age of Islam (Part 1 – Overview)

Dr. Abdul Haque

               History is like a flowing river. There are ups and downs for every civilization. Currently, the Western civilization is dominating especially in the field of science and technology. The Islamic Golden Age of Science and Technology was just as brilliant and dominant. Students and scholars from all over the world converged on Islamic Universities for centuries, even in days of wars between Muslims and other faiths, e.g., crusades. Books written by Muslim scholars and scientists were standard textbooks in Europe for many centuries.

Unfortunately, The Islamic Golden Age of Science and Technology has been thrown into obscurity deliberetly by Western media which has propagated false information highlighting Western scientists as inventors or discoverers in almost every field where credit actually belongs to Muslim Scientists. It is s sad that even sources of information in Muslim countries have almost completely ignored  The Islamic Golden Age of Science and Technology under the influence of Western media.

Here are some examples of how wrong information has been circulated and everyone believes it to be true:

1. Microbes were first described by Akshamsaddin not Leeuwenhoek.
2. Blood circulation was first described by Ibn al-Nafis not Harvey.
3. First person to fly was Abbas ibn Firnas not Wright brothers.

I am starting a new series of blogs to highlight the work and achievements of Muslim Scientists so that my readers understand that these are just ebs and flows of history. We should not feel overawed or dismayed and the Renaissance of The Islamic Golden Age of Science and Technology is possible. We should work hard to achieve this goal.

In this Part 1, I am presenting an overview. In subsequent parts, I shall present in some detail the achievements of eminent scientists in these lists. These lists are randm and not in order of eminence.

Arab scientists

1. Abbas ibn Firnas (809/810 – 887 A.D.)

He was the first man to attempt a flight. 

2. Abu Kamil ((850 – 930 D.)

He is considered the first mathematician to systematically use and accept irrational numbers as solutions and coefficients to equations. His mathematical techniques were later adopted by Fibonacci, thus allowing Abu Kamil an important part in introducing algebra to Europe.

3. Abu Nasr al-Farabi (870- 951 D.)

He is known in the Latin West as Alpharabius. He has been designated as “Father of Islamic Neoplatonism” and the “Founder of Islamic Political Philosophy”.

4. Al-Battānī (858 – 929 D.)

Also known as Albategnius, he was an astronomer, astrologer and mathematician. He is considered to be the greatest and most famous of the astronomers of the medieval Islamic world. 

5. Al-Zahrawi (936–1013 D.)

Also known as Albucasis, he was an Arab Andalusian physician, surgeon and chemist. He is considered to be the greatest surgeon of the Middle Ages. He has been referred to as the “father of modern surgery”. 

6. Al-Zarkali (1029–1100 D.)

He was an Arab maker of astronomical instruments and an astrologer. The crater Arzachel on the Moon is named after him. 

7. Ḥunayn ibn Isḥaq (808–873 A.D.)

He was the most productive translator of Greek medical and scientific treatises in his day. He studied Greek and became known as the “Sheikh of the translators”. He mastered four languages: Arabic, Syriac, Greek and Persian.

8. Ibn al-Bayṭar (1197–1248 D.)

He was a physician, botanist, pharmacist and scientist. His main contribution was to systematically record the additions made by Islamic physicians in the Middle Ages, which added between 300 and 400 types of medicine to the one thousand previously known since antiquity.

9. Ibn al-Haytham (965 –1040 A.D.)

Also known as Alhazen is referred to as “the father of modern optics”. His most influential work is titled Kitāb al-Manāẓir written during 1011–1021. His works were frequently cited during the scientific revolution by Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Christiaan Huygens, and Galileo Galilei.

10. Ibn Bassal (11th-century)

He is best known for his book on agronomy, the Dīwān al-filāha (An Anthology of Husbandry).

11. Ibn Khaldun (1332 –1406 A.D.)

He was a sociologist, philosopher, and historian widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest social scientists of the Middle Ages. He is considered as the father of historiography, sociology, economics, and demography studies. 

12. Al Kindi (801–873 A.D.)

He was a philosopher, mathematician, physician and music theorist. He is hailed as the “father of Arab philosophy”.

13. Ibn al-Nafīs (1213-1288 A.D.)

He is known for being the first to describe the pulmonary circulation of the blood. The work of Ibn al-Nafis regarding the right sided (pulmonary) circulation pre-dates the later work (1628) of William Harvey’s De motu cordis.

14. Ibn Rushd (1126 –1198 D.)

Also known as Averroes, he wrote on many subjects and authored more than 100 books and treatises. His philosophical works include numerous commentaries on Aristotle, for which he was known in the Western world as The Commentator and Father of Rationalism.

15. Ibn Zuhr (1094–1162 D.)

Also known as Avenzoar, he was a physician, surgeon, and poet. He was the most well-regarded physician of his era. His books were translated into Latin and Hebrew He. also improved surgical and medical knowledge by keying out several diseases and their treatments.

16. Jabir ibn Hayyan (? – 816 A.D.)

His works contain the oldest known systematic classification of chemical substances, and the oldest known instructions for deriving an inorganic compound (sal ammoniac or ammonium chloride) from organic substances (such as plants, blood, and hair) by chemical means. His works also contain one of the earliest known versions of the sulfur-mercury theory of metals, a mineralogical theory that would remain dominant until the 18th century.

17. Jabir ibn Aflaḥ (1100–1150 A.D.)

He was an astronomer and mathematician. His work Iṣlāḥ al-Majisṭi (Correction of the Almagest) influenced Islamic, Jewish, and Christian astronomers.

18. Ibn Qurrah (826–901 D.)

In astronomy, he is considered one of the first reformers of the Ptolemaic system, and in mechanics he was a founder of statics. He also wrote extensively on medicine and produced philosophical treatises.

19. Ibn Bazzah (1085-1138 A.D.)

He was the author of the Kitāb an-Nabāt (“The Book of Plants”), a popular work on botany, which defined the sex of plants. His work on projectile motion is also well known.

20. Ibn Yunus (950-? A.D.)

Ibn Yunus’ most famous work was a handbook of astronomical tables which contained very accurate observations, many of which may have been obtained with very large astronomical instruments. He is also considered to be the inventor of clock pendulum.

21. Al-Farghani (800 – 870 A.D.)

He was involved in the calculation of the diameter of the Earth by the measurement of the meridian arc length, together with a team of scientists under the patronage of the ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Ma’mūn in Baghdad.

22. Al-Idrisi (1100-165 A.D.)

He created the Tabula Rogeriana, one of the most advanced medieval world maps.

23. Al-Jazari (1136–1206 A.D.)

He is best known for writing The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices in 1206, where he described 50 mechanical devices, along with instructions on how to construct them. He is credited with the invention of the elephant clock. He has been described as the “father of robotics” and modern day engineering. 

24. Ibn al-Shatir (1304-1375 A.D.)

His most important astronomical treatise was a book “The Final Quest Concerning the Rectification of Principles”). In it he drastically reformed the Ptolemaic models of the Sun, Moon and planets. 

25. Al-Bakri (1040-1094 A.D.)

He is credited with writing the Encyclopedia of Geography. 

26. Al-Qalasadi (1412–1486 A.D.)

He is acknowledged as Inventor of Algebraic Symbols.

 

Persian scientists

1. Al-Razi (865–925 D.)

Also known as Rhazes, is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of medicine. He wrote over 200 manuscripts, and is particularly remembered for numerous advances in medicine through his observations and discoveries. He also wrote on logic, astronomy and grammar.

2. Al-Biruni (973 – after 1050 D.)

Al-Biruni was well versed in physics, mathematics, astronomy, and natural sciences, and also distinguished himself as a historian, chronologist, and linguist. He studied almost all the sciences of his day. He has been called variously the “founder of Indology”, “Father of Comparative Religion”,”Father of modern geodesy”, and the first anthropologist.

3. Omar Khayyam (1048 –1131 A.D.)

Omar Khayyam is known for his contributions to mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, and poetry. As a mathematician, he is most notable for his work on the classification and solution of cubic equations, where he provided geometric solutions by the intersection of conics. He also contributed to the understanding of the parallel axiom.  As an astronomer, he calculated the duration of the solar year with remarkable precision and accuracy, and designed the Jalali calendar, a solar calendar with a very precise 33-year intercalation cycle  that provided the basis for the Persian calendar that is still in use after nearly a millennium. There is a tradition of attributing poetry to Omar Khayyam, written in the form of quatrains (rubaiyat).

4. Al-Khwarizmi (780 – 850 A.D.)

Al-Khwarizmi presented the first systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations. One of his principal achievements in algebra was his demonstration of how to solve quadratic equations by completing the square, for which he provided geometric justifications.   Because he was the first to treat algebra as an independent discipline and introduced the methods of “reduction” and “balancing”  he has been described as the father or founder of algebra. The term algebra itself comes from the title of his book (Al-jabr meaning “completion” or “rejoining”).

5. Ibn Sina (980 –1037 A.D.)

Ibn Sina commonly known in the West as Avicenna is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, philosophers, and writers of the Islamic Golden Age, and the father of early modern medicine. Of the 450 works he is believed to have written, around 240 have survived, including 150 on philosophy and 40 on medicine. His books ‘The Book of Healing’ and ‘The Canon of Medicine’ were taught in European Universities till 1650 A.D.

6. Abul Wafa (940 – 998 A.D.)

He made important innovations in spherical trigonometry, and his work on arithmetic for businessmen contains the first instance of using negative numbers in a medieval Islamic text. He is also credited with compiling the tables of sines and tangents at 15′ intervals. He also introduced the secant and cosecant functions, as well studied the interrelations between the six trigonometric lines associated with an arc.

7. Banu Musa ( 9^th century)

The three brothers Abū Jaʿfar, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir (before 803 – February 873); Abū al‐Qāsim, Aḥmad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir (d. 9th century) and Al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir (d. 9th century), were Persian scholars who lived and worked in Baghdad. They are collectively known as the Banū Mūsā. The most important of all their works was a treatise on geometrywhich was used extensively by medieval mathematicians.  They also wrote a book that describes 100 inventions. Some of their innovations, such as those that involved fluid pressure variations and valves, remained unsurpassed until the modern period. One of those inventions includes an automatic flute player that may have been the first programmable machine or computer. 

8. Nasiruddin Tusi (1201 –1274 A.D.)

Tusi is widely regarded as one of the greatest scientists of medieval Islam, since he is often considered the creator of trigonometry as a mathematical discipline in its own right. He also proposed that humans are related to animals and that some animals have a limited level of awareness while humans have a superior level of awareness amongst animals.

 

Turk scientists

1. Akshamsaddin (1389-1459 A.D.)

Akshamsaddin mentioned the microbes in his work Maddat ul-Hayat (The Material of Life) about two centuries prior to Antonie van Leeuwenhoek’s discovery. He wrote ‘It is incorrect to assume that diseases appear one by one in humans. Disease infects by spreading from one person to another. This infection occurs through seeds that are so small they cannot be seen but are alive.’ 

2. Ali Qushji (1403 –1474 A.D.)

He is best known for the development of astronomical physics independent from natural philosophy, and for providing empirical evidence for the Earth’s rotation. He was also the author of several scientific works and textbooks on astronomy.

3. Piri Reis (1465 –1553 A.D.)

He is primarily known today for his maps and charts collected in his Kitab-ı Bahriye (Book of Navigation), a book that contains detailed information on early navigational techniques as well as relatively accurate charts for their time, describing the important ports and cities of the Mediterranean Sea. His world map is the oldest known Turkish atlas showing the New World, and one of the oldest maps of America still existing anywhere.

4. Hezarfan Ahmed Çelebi (1609 –1640 A.D.)

He attempted successful flights with the help of wind. There are some unsubstantiated reports that he was able to cross Bosphorus. One of 4 airports in Istanbul is named the “Hezarfen Airfield”.

5. Ibrahim Müteferrika (1674 –1745 A.D.)

Ibrahim Müteferrika was a Hungarian-born Ottoman diplomat, publisher, economist, historian, Islamic theologian, sociologist, and the first Muslim to run a printing press with movable Arabic type.

6. Taqi ad-Din (1526–1585 A.D.)

He built an observatory in the Ottoman capital, Istanbul on the request of Ottoman Sultan Murad III. He constructed instruments such as an armillary sphere and mechanical clocks that he used to observe the Great Comet of 1577. He also described a steam turbine with the practical application of rotating a spit in 1551. He was the author of more than ninety books on a wide variety of subjects, including astronomy, clocks, engineering, mathematics, mechanics, optics and natural philosophy.

7. Ulugh Beg (1394-1449 A.D.)

Ulugh Beg was grandson of Timur. Beside being a Sultan, he was also an astronomer and mathematician. He was notable for his work in astronomy-related mathematics, such as trigonometry and spherical geometry, as well as his general interests in the arts and intellectual activities. He built the great Ulugh Beg Observatory in Samarkand between 1424 and 1429. It was considered by scholars to have been one of the finest observatories in the Islamic world at the time and the largest in Central Asia. Ulugh Beg was subsequently recognized as the most important observational astronomer from the 15th century by many scholars.

8. Abul Fida (1273 –1331D.)

His works contain the first known explanation of the circumnavigator’s paradox. He wrote that a person who completed a westward circumnavigation of the world would count one fewer day than a stationary observer, since he was traveling in the same direction as the apparent motion of the sun in the sky. A person traveling eastward would count one more day than a stationary observer.