Prophet Muhammad’s teachings brought more than one-fifth of the human race under its following.

 Islam urges its followers to study and learn. Far from discouraging a life of well-being in this world the Quran  praises those who say:

 “Our lord! Give unto us in this world that which is best and in the Hereafter that which is best….”

 It teaches mankind “…and neglect not thy portion of the world, and be thou kind even as God hath been kind to thee”.

 It is this quest for learning that fired the minds of the early Muslims and gave the impetus for their serious study of all branches of learning.  

At one time the civilization of the Muslims transmitted to Europe many technological inventions of a revolutionary nature. Progress and change is the immutable law of existence.

This is a brief sketch of a general character on selective subjects relating to the role the Muslims have played in the development of the sciences and arts.

  All dates mentioned relate to the Christian calendar, AD and the letter C denotes “about”, while the letter D indicates “died”.

MEDICINE

 Al-Razi (Rhazes C 865-925) was one of the greatest physicians of all time. His most celebrated works are on smallpox, measles, stones in the bladder and kidneys.

 The  most extensive work ever written by a medical man is his “al-Hawi”, the comprehensive book which had considerable influence on European medicine.

  Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Sina also known as Avi-cenna (980-`1037) was one of the greatest scholars of the Islamic world. Ibn Sina’s “Canon of Medicine” is a systematized masterpiece on general medicine, special pathology and pharmacopoeia.

 The writings of Ibn an-Nafi (C.1250) show that Muslim doctors knew of the circulation  of blood.

  Abulcasis (C.1013) was Court physician in Cordoba. His name is associated with the great “Medical Vade Medcum” in 30 sections, last of which deals with surgery.

  Islam produced eminent physicians and surgeons. Their influence on European medicine was not only overwhelming but also laid the foundation of surgery in Europe.

 MATHEMATICS

 Al-Khwarizmi (D.835), whose name corrupted into Algorithm, wrote a book on algebra that deals with equations of the second degree and algebraic multiplication and division.

The Arabs used the zero to keep the figures in the series of  powers of 10, that is units of tens, hundreds and so on.

 Al-Battani (Albategnius) (C.877) popularised the first notions of trignometrical ratios as we use them today. He used tangent and cotangent and he was acquainted with two of three fundamental relations in trignometry. 

  The Arabs’ ‘jaib’ translated into the Latin ‘sinus’ resulted in the modern sine. He thus brought mathematics far beyond the point reached by the Greeks and opened the era of modern science.

  Abu ‘l-Wafa (C.937) contributed to trignometry, the formula for addition of the angles, long before Copernicus. The celebrated Omar Khayyam was as skilful a mathematician as he was a poet. His ‘Algebra’ is a book of the highest rank.

  Nasir al-Din (D. 1274) is credited with a work on spherical trignometry.

 CHEMISTRY

  Jabir (C. 776) is world-famed as the father of Arabic alchemy. His influence can be traced throughout the whole historic course of European alchemy and chemistry.

  On the practical side, Jabir described improved methods for evaporation, filtration, sublimation, melting, distillation and crystallisation.

  Several technical terms have passed from Jabir’s Arabic writing through Latin into the European languages. Among these are realgar, tutia, alkali, antimony, alembic for the upper, and aluder for the lower part of a distillation vessel.

 A new chemical substance unknown to the Greeks which appears in Jabir’s work is salammoniac.

 Rhazes (C. 865-925) excels Jabir in his exact classification of substances, and is his    clear description of chemical processes and apparatus. Rhazes classifies alchemical

substance as vegetable, animal or mineral, a conception which comes from him into modern usage. Distinguished scientific works are attributed to Khalid ibn Yazid (D. 704) and to a great jurist, Jafar al-Sadiq.

 PHYSICS

  Al-Kindi (C. 873) produced 265 works of which at least 15 are on meteorology, several on specific weights, on tides, optics and notably on the reflection of light.

  Al-Biruni’(973-1048) greatest achievement is the nearly exact determination of the specific  weight of precious stones and metals.

 Optics was developed to its highest degree by Abu Ali al-Hassan ibn al-Haytham ‘Alhazen’ (C. 965). In his experiments he came very close to the theoretical discovery of magnifying lenses which were made in Italy three centuries later. Bacon, Leonardo da Vinci and Johann Kepler were influenced by Alhazen’s ‘Poticae Thesaurus’.

  He observed the semi-lunar shape of the image of the sun during eclipses on a wall opposite a fine hole made in the window shutters, the first record of the ‘camera obscura’.

  The Persian Kamal ad-Din (D.1320) improved on Alhazen’s experiments with the ‘camera obscura’. He also observed the path of rays in the interior of a glass sphere in order to examine the refraction of sunlight in raindrops.    

ARCHITECTUREbeen ascribed to Muslim buildings in Syria and elsewhere. The Ogee arch  almost certainly, and the Tudor arch possibly, have a similar origin.

The invention of the pointed arch has

  The use of cusps and of cusped or multifoil arches comes from the same source. Plate-tracery may be derived from the pierced geometrical lattices in stone and stucco of the early mosques.

  The used of engaged shafts at the angle of piers, so important in the history of Gothic vaulting, is a Saracen  innovation of the eighth or ninth century.

  The carved inscriptions used decoratively in Ibn-Tulun’s mosque at Cairo in the ninth century were the forerunners of late Gothic work. 

 Inscriptions in Kufic characters penetrated far into France during the Muslim occupation of her southern provinces and rare examples of ornaments even in England are believed to show Arabic influence.

 The decorations of surfaces in low relief, by means of ‘arabeque’  or diaper patterns and the use of geometrical patterns in decoration is a contribution from the Muslim peoples.

 COMMERCE

  About the middle of the tenth century Muslim ships had already reached the Chinese town of Khanfu, now Canton, which had become a considerable Islamic colony and served as an emporium of the trade with China. Even today this  city remains the Expo centre to China-made goods.

 The early Muslims probably knew of Korea and Japan. Muslim navigators also knew a town which the Arabic  authors call Kaisa, famed especially for its tin mines, somewhere on the western coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

  The Indian Ocean and the African coast were fields of great enterprise. Textiles originally imported from Islamic countries still bear Arabic or Persian names: Muslin, damask, baldachin, gauze, cotton, satin and so on.

  Fruits like orange, lemon and apricot, vegetables such as spinach and artichokes, and saffron and aniline denote their original importation from Muslim countries.

 Thousands of Muslim coins, discovered in excavations in Scadinavia, Finland, the Soviet Union, Kazan and other places show conclusively the commercial activity of Muslim caravan leaders during the Middle Ages.

 Some European commercial terminology is the results of Muslim influence. Examples of these are traffic, tariff, risk, tare, calibre, cheque and magazine.

 GEOGRAPHY

 Pilgrimage as well as commerce in the vast Muslim empire needed communication. Baladhuri (D.892) and Ibn al-Janzi report: “Almost daily the posts departed for some destination or other – ranging from Turkistan to Egypt. The Directors of Posts during the period  of Caliph ‘Umar prepared route-guides that detailed historic-economic descriptions of each place”.

 Abu Hanifah (D. 767) the jurist also made monumental contributions to geography.

 Even the earliest world maps prepared by Muslims represent the earth in circular shape. Ibn Hauqal’s (C.975) cartography details the Mediterranean and the Near-Eastern countries.

 The Map of al-Idrusi, prepared for King Roger of Sicily (1101-51), astonishes us by its great precision and exactitude, it marks even the sources of the Nile.

 Ibn Majid (C. 1498) who served as pilot to Vasco da Gama as far as India, speaks of the compass as already a familiar thing.

  The  words arsenal, admiral, cable, monsoon and douane, which are of Arabic origin, are proof of Muslims’ influence on modern Western culture.

 Travellers who contributed to geographical literature were Ibn Battuta, who reached the interior of Africa in 1353 in his last travels, Ibn Fatima and the Spaniard Ibn Jabir.

 LITERATURE

  Arabic philosophical and scientific works brought with them an interest in Arabic literature, more especially in the apologues, fables, and tales. Close analogies have been pointed out between Arabic romances and the story of Isolde Blanchemain, the German Rolandslied, and other northern tales.  

 The author of one version of the Grail-saga mentions an Arabic book as his source.

  The first book printed in England, The Dictes and sayings of the Philosophers, was a translation from a French version of a Latin recast of an Arabic work of this type.

  The success of the Arabian Nights paved the way for such Western books as Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver’s Travels.

 The Spanish villancico is similar to the Arabic zajal.

  The poems of William of Poitiers are written in a style sometimes identical with those of Ibn Quzman, a Spaniard. Latest research proves that a new type of poetry that came into existence in southern France in the 11^th century was to a certain extent due to the influence of Muslim-Spain.

 ASTRONOMY

  Al-Fazari (C.770) was the first Muslim to construct an astrobale. He wrote on use of the armillary sphere (a skeleton sphere made of hoops to show the motions of the heavenly bodies and prepared tables.

  An observatory was established at Baghdad. Al-Farghani (C.860) (Alfraganus) is one of the astronomers of this time who was known to the medieval West.

 His works were translated into Latin. In the 11^th and 12^th  centuries Arab astronomy was in a flourishing condition in Spain.

 Al-Bitruji (C. 1100) had original ideas on the movements of the planets. The Alphosine Tables (planetary tables) compiled in the 13^th century by Alphonso X the Wise are a development of Arab astronomy. The longitudes are referred to the meridian of Toledo in Muslim-Spain.

 MUSIC

  Seven treatises on the theory of music were composed by Al-Kindi (C. 873). At the same time there lived the encyclopaedists known as the Ikhwan al-Safa (C. 1000)  whose treatise on music was widely read.

  Greater merit as a writer on the theory of music was reserved for Ibn Bajja (Avempace D. 1138). His treatise on music enjoyed the same reputation in the West as that of Al-Farabi (C. 950) in the East.

 Averroes (D. 1198) wrote on the theory of sound. That the Arabs were responsible for the names and even the actual types of a number of musical instruments in Western Europe is generally acknowledged.

  The origin of the words lute, rebec, guitar, and naker, from the Arabic al-‘Ud, rabab, qitara and naqqara is well established.