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Bringing
life to Muslim Heritage
Discover 1000 years of missing history and explore the fascinating Muslim
contribution to present day Science, Technology, Arts and Civilisation.
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Remembering the Language of History and Science: When the World Spoke Arabic
Two shows are expected to be broadcast on BBC Four in January 2009: An Islamic History of Europe by Rageh Omaar and Science and Islam by Jim Al-Khalili. As a gift for the Hijri 1430 and Gregorian 2009 New Years, and to celebrate this event, we take this opportunity to alert our readers to the wealth of research published on www.MuslimHeritage.com on the Islamic science, technology, history and culture.
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It's Time to Herald the Arabic Science That Prefigured Darwin and Newton
In this era of intolerance and cultural tension, Professor Al-Khalili launched a hearty plea in The Guardian in January 2008 to appreciate the fertile scholarship that flowered with Islam. The tradition of Islamic science contributed greatly to the burgeoning of modern science in Western Europe by providing it with scientific texts, concepts, discoveries and inventions that paved the way for the great discoveries made during the fertile period from the 16th to the 19th centuries, from Copernicus to Darwin. It is always instructive to remind that science is universal and that before the brilliant Western science, the science attained high pics in the world of Islam.
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Muslim Heritage and Education
This is the text of a presentation made to The Education and Culture Committee of the EU Parliament in Brussels on the 5th November 2008. The presentation is in two parts. The first is an introduction to the 1000 years of amnesia, the so called "Dark Ages", and its impact on education and culture. The second is a review of the progress made in the ground breaking education project, entitled Cultural Understanding in Science (CUSP) jointly carried by the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC), Qualification and Curriculum Agency (QCA) and the Association of Science Education (ASE). Finally a list of concluding remarks and strategic recommendations are given.
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Representing Islam and Muslims in the Media: An Academic Debate
In 5-6 September 2008 the Universities of Manchester and Surrey organised in Manchester an international conference "Representing Islam: Comparative Perspectives". The meeting attracted over 100 eminent national and international speakers and a large audience. The conference was primarily concerned with the representations of Islam and Muslims in our modern world and the relationship of this representation/mis-representation with current social and political issues. The following article presents a short report about some of the most important debates discussed in the conference.
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Capitalist Traditions in Early Arab-Islamic Civilization
In the following article, Professor S. M. Ghazanfar, a specialist in the history of economic thought in the Islamic civilisation, explores the evidence concerning the roots of historical "capitalism" as it evolved in the early Islamic world. After delineating the geographical extent of capitalistic, commercial/business ventures in the early Islamic world, he discusses the major centres of Islamic commerce, then focuses on the nature and content of the economic activities undertaken by the early Muslim entrepreneurs, and describes the development of financial institutions. Finally, the article concludes with the argument that, notwithstanding the relatively recent origin of the nomenclature, the capitalistic system indeed was the prevailing mode of economic activities in the early Islamic civilization.
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The Invention of Spectacles between the East and the West
The following article by the expert scholar Lutfallah Gari surveys the historical sources to uncover the ancient history of the invention of spectacles. To the question "where and when were they invented?", and after a close investigation in the some original sources and a survey of secondary literature, the author shows the evidence in favor of the determining role played by Arabs and Muslims in the early history of this tremendous tool.
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Vidinli Huseyin Tawfik: A Modern Turkish Specialist of Linear Algebra
This article is a biography essay on the life and works of Vidinli Tawfiq Pasha, a 19th-century Ottoman scholar, statesman and general of 19th-century Istanbul, and a noteworthy mathematician who published in 1882 an important book in Linear algebra, a new branch of mathematics at that time. After a short biographical sketch, we present a complete compilation of his writings in Linear Algebra and in other fields.
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The Book of Curiosities or A Medieval Islamic View of the Cosmos
The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford has purchased the medieval Arabic manuscript Kitāb Gharāib al-funūn wa-mulah al-uyūn popularised under the title the Book of Curiosities, an exceptionally rich text on cosmography. The treatise is one of the most important recent finds in the history of Islamic cartography in particular, and for the history of pre-modern cartography in general. The manuscript, a highly illustrated treatise on astronomy and geography compiled by an unknown author between 1020 and 1050, contains an important and hitherto unknown series of colourful maps, giving unique insight into Islamic concepts of the world. Portions of the text are preserved in later copies, but the copy owned by the Bodleian library is the only nearly complete coy and the one to have been extensively studied and released in an electronic edition which represents a model for online publishing of Arabic original manuscripts. This high-quality digital reproduction includes interactive displays, through mouse-over techniques, as well as access to a modern Arabic edition and an annotated English translation.
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The Advent of Scientific Chemistry
Until recently, the mainstream history of scientific ideas has failed to acknowledge numerous Islamic scientists and their great efforts and achievements throughout the centuries. This short article seeks to contribute in redressing this injustice by highlighting Muslim contributions and attitudes towards the progress of chemistry.
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Certain Aspects of Medical Instruction in Medieval Islam and its Influences on Europe
In this article, Professor Aydin Syili analyses the medical teaching in the different phases of Islamic civilisation, especially in the madrasa system. The network of schools covered the Islamic world from the 11th century, while the European university was developed over a century later and at a time when already Latin translations of Arabic philosophical and scientific works were available. Thus he establishees a parallelism between the features of the madrasa and the university in pre-modern Europe and stresses how the medical authorities of Islam such as al-Râzî and Ibn Sînâ were accorded a place of honour in European medical schools.
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From Alchemy to Chemistry
Until recently, the mainstream history of scientific ideas has failed to acknowledge numerous Islamic scientists and their great efforts and achievements throughout the centuries. This short article seeks to contribute in redressing this injustice by highlighting Muslim contributions and attitudes towards the progress of chemistry.
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Sine, Cosine and the Measurement of the Earth
Mathematics has long been an area of expertise amongst Muslim mathematicians. This article considers the contributions of Al-Tusi and Al-Battani and others in trigonometry, focusing upon the progress their discoveries represented in comparison with the ancient tradition as displayed in Ptolemy's Almagest.
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Deciphering Egyptian Hieroglyphs in Muslim Heritage
The article surveys some results of Dr. Okasha El Daly's exciting discoveries about the precedence of Muslim scholars of the golden age of Islamic culture in deciphering the hieroglyphs of Ancient Egypt. This ground breaking achievement was attributed until recently exclusively to Europeans scholars, and especially to Champollion.
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Ottoman Contributions to Science and Technology: Examples from Geography and Astronomy
The Ottoman contribution to science and technology during their six hundred year rule is beyond measure. This article is a brief outline of just some of the Ottoman scientific activities and related institutions that brought about the revival of culture, science, and learning in civilization throughout the Islamic world and beyond. To instantiate the Ottoman scientific contributions, the author focuses on two significant examples from astronomy and geography in the 16th century: the foundation of Istanbul Observatory and Taqi Al-Din's achievements therein, map making and mapmakers such as the famous sailors Piri Reis, Saydi Ali Reis and Macar Ali Reis.
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Taqi al-Din ibn Ma‘ruf and the Science of Optics: The Nature of Light and the Mechanism of Vision
In this article, some aspects of Kitab Nūr hadaqat al-ibsār wa-nūr haqīqat al-anzār (Book of the Light of the Pupil of Vision and the Light of the Truth of the Sights) of the renowned Ottoman astronomer Taqī al-Dīn ibn Ma‘rūf, who lived in Istanbul in the 16th century, is discussed in detail in order to show the high level and quality of the scientific research carried out during the reign of the Ottoman Empire.
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The Astronomical Clock of Taqi Al-Din: Virtual Reconstruction
In his book The Brightest Stars for the Construction of Mechanical Clocks (Al-Kawakib al-durriyya fi wadh' al-bankamat al-dawriyya), Taqi al-Din Ibn Ma'ruf analyses the four main types of time keeping devices known in the 16th century: watches, domestic clocks, astronomical clocks and tower clocks. Such machines represent the earliest mechanical computers. In the following, we present for the first time a virtual reconstruction of the astronomical clock type through geometrical drawing and 3D animation.
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The Instruments of Istanbul Observatory
In this article, Professor Sevim Tekeli, an outstanding scholar in the history of Ottoman science, describes the instruments built by Taqî al-Dîn Ibn Ma'ruf and his team at the Istanbul observatory (was in activity between 1577 and 1580), and points out in particular the close resemblances between them and those used in Western Europe by Tycho Brahe, at the same time, in his observatory at Uraniborg Castle.
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Muslim Printing Before Gutenberg
This article by an eminent scholar, Dr Geoffrey Roper, presents an outline of a tremendous issue: the existence of printing in early Islam, several centuries before the invention of printing by Gutenberg in the 15th century. Based on his work on original sources, he states that some of the early printed Arabic documents display quite sophisticated designs involving calligraphic headpieces, transverse lettering, geometric panels, roundels, and the use of colour. The author documents briefly this important discovery and concludes that "Muslims were practising the craft of printing for some five centuries before Gutenberg".
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Al-Jazari's Third Water-Raising Device: Analysis of its Mathematical and Mechanical Principles
Five pumps or water-raising machines are described by al-Jazari in his monumental treatise of mechanics Al-Jami' bayn al-‘ilm wa 'l-‘amal al-nafi' fi sina'at al-hiyal (A Compendium on the Theory and Useful Practice of the Mechanical Arts). The following long article is a detailed study of the third of these water-raising devices. The study presents a detailed analysis of the mathematical and mechanical principles of this sophisticated machine and explains its functioning. Further, the various components of the pump are reconstructed via computer assisted design. A profusion of 3D graphics and 3D animations show the device in different angles and helps in viewing it in operational mode.
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