A summarised transcript* of the lecture given for the Ijtimak Ilmuwan Islam Antarabangsa (International Conference of Muslim Scholars). Organised by the Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (IKIM) and Sarawak Islamic Council – MIS on 25-26…
This short article is a highlight of an online lecture recently given on 19 February 2023 by Professor Salim Al-Hassani, organised by FARDA (Future Awareness through Rational and Actions), Uppsala University, Sweden).
Historical records on the clocks of Makkah (Mecca) are scarce. This paper brings together various scattered information from descriptions found in primary sources and from sketches found in old pilgrimage certificates, guides, and prayer books…
Medieval people from Muslim Civilisation, like many others, ate according to seasonal influences. Typical winter meals used vegetables such as sea kale, beets, cauliflower, turnips, parsnips, carrots, celery, peas, broad beans, lentils, chickpeas, olives, hard…
Little known book, Kitab al-Asrar, by the Andalusian engineer Ibn Khalaf al-Muradi. In this treatise, Al-Muradi describes how to construct a wide variety of ingenious mechanical devices. Using written instructions and diagrams, al-Muradi’s work describes…
Coffee is a global industry and the second-largest commodity-based product; only oil beats it. More than 1,200 years ago, as the story goes, a herd of goats and their watchful master, a shepherd, discovered this…
The Home chapter includes some of the thousand-year-old inventions that still shape daily life. In addition to the three-course meal and using appropriate utensils for eating, other new ideas from Muslim civilization included new fashions,…
This article is extracted from CHAPTER ONE of 1001 Inventions: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civilization. This book shows, the knowledge of the scholars of Muslim civilization was far from lost. Thousands of precious documents…
The water clock that Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid (d. 809 CE), gifted to Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Emperor (d. 814 CE) is investigated. Origins and transfer of the clock technology is reviewed. The water clock…
The Peacock Clock is the sixth machine described by al-Jazari in his famous 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…
The idea behind hospitals in the Muslim world a thousand years ago was to provide a range of facilities from treatments to convalescence, asylum, and retirement homes. They looked after all kinds of people, rich…
In early 12th-century Muslim Spain, a gifted philosopher, mathematician, poet, and medical doctor was born. Ibn Tufayl, or Abu Bakr ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Tufayl al-Qaysi, to give his full name,…
Since the Quran said every able-bodied person should make a pilgrimage, or hajj, to Mecca at least once in their lifetime, thousands travelled from the farthest reaches of the Islamic empire to Mecca, beginning in…
Traditional Arab-Islamic* herbal medicine plays an increasingly influential role in modern Western medicine. This extensive work addresses the need for a comprehensive, English-language work on the subject, introducing an important academic treatment of Arab herbal…
From a simple cold to a serious illness, humans have always lived with the risk of catching diseases from one another. Pandemics affecting millions are fortunately rare, but the bubonic plague of the 14th century…
Taken from the Bletchley Park's Digital Light: Code Makers brochure, a summary of Prof Salim Al-Hassani's speech about Muslim Civilisation's contribution in optics and cryptology.
While there are numerous works on the role of Muslim women in jurisprudence (fiqh) and literature, there are also studies on Muslim women in education and in medicine - although on a much smaller scale…
Some people, unaware of what was accomplished during Muslim civilisation, believe that astronomy died with the Greeks, and was brought to life again by Nicolas Copernicus, the 15th-century Polish astronomer who is famous for introducing…
This article is a paper submitted to and presented at WISE 2018: World Muslim Women's Summit & Exhibition, organised by TASAM, Istanbul, Turkey, from 28th Feb - 4th March 2018.
The world has lost a rare scholar and wonderful person. Cesare Rossi was a distinguished professor of engineering and also historian of engineering. He was a friend and an Associate of the Foundation for Science,…
New Annotated Reference (Text Only) Edition of 1001 Inventions: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civilisation
This keynote lecture reviews the rise and development of automatic machines within Muslim civilisation. It looks at how inventors from the Muslim civilisation progressively transformed achievements of previous cultures (e.g. ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Persia,…
Editorial note: This article needs to be read in conjunction with the book release review of the Arabic edition, see: https://muslimheritage.com/node/2068
We have just received the sad news of the passing of Professor Rabie El-Said Abdel-Halim. He passed away in his sleep this morning 15th April 2015 Wednesday. May he rest in peace, and may his…
The Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC) announces their new achievement in the history of Islamic clocks. For the first time, the work of Ibn al-Haytham on the water clock (Maqala fi ‘amal al-binkam)…
Professor Al-Hassani addressed in a keynote lecture the 16th Eurasian Economic Summit organised in Istanbul on 10-11 April 2013. His speech in a session on the "Importance of Culture in Ecological Dialogue" was entitled "A…
The important lecture presented by Professor Salim Al-Hassani at the 15th Euro-Asian Economic Forum held in Istanbul and Izmir, Turkey in April 2012 addressed an assembly of eminent political representatives of fifty countries. His focus…
Professor Salim Al-Hassani published in the issue 369 (Spring 2012, p. 10) of Runnymede Bulletin (Spring 2012 Runnymede Bulletin - Sport) a short article on “Sports in Muslim Heritage”. He argues, notably, that while Europe…
On 28 April 2012 Professor Dr Ahmad Yusuf al-Hassan Gabarin passed away. He was one of the most important historians of Islamic science and technology. Specialist of the various aspects of Islamic technology, the late…
Professor Salim T S Al-Hassani, Chairman of the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC) and 1001 Inventions, was one of the keynote speakers at the Uniday (Students Day) conference on 22nd of October 2011…
On Monday 9 March 2011, Professor Salim Al-Hassani, Chairman of the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC), was the guest of Newcastle University where he delivered a lecture on ‘'Muslim Heritage and the Cultural…
In a keynote lecture pronounced by Professor Salim T S Al-Hassani in September 2003 at the European Parliament in Brussels, he used slides and 3-D animations to outline the impressive heritage which Europe received from…
On 2nd June 2010, Professor Salim Al-Hassani lectured in Bristol, UK, on 1001 inventions: Cultural Routes of Science for Cultural Inter-Appreciation. This lecture was organised by the British Science Association (Bristol and Bath branch) and…
The following essay aims to alert communities as to the particular significance of the Muslim civilisation and its historical role in contributing to the birth of modern civilisation. The author, Professor Salim Al-Hassani, a specialist…
The English aristocrat and writer Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) is today remembered particularly for her letters from Turkey, an early example of a secular work by a Western woman about the Muslim Orient. When…
The history of the Islamic west offers glorious pages of contribution to world history in various fields. This article presents a survey on some salient aspects of the role played by Morocco in the civilisation…
In a seminar organised by the Oxford Centre of Islamic Studies in 11 January 2005, aimed at brain-storming the topic of Islam and the Environment, Professor Al-Hassani presented a short overview on the environment issue…
The complex of disciplines composed of mathematics, architecture and art in Islamic civilisation has been an important field of recent research. The scholars showed the interaction between mathematical reflexion and procedures and their implementation in…
Meeting of the Muslim Heritage Awareness Group (MHAG) in London
Most educational systems, particularly those of Western countries, teach that industry was born in Europe and that the Industrial Revolution was the mother that delivered industrial mass production. Salim Al-Hassani, Chairman of FSTC and eminent…
The main objective of this study is to investigate into the six-cylinder water raising pump described around 1550 by the Ottoman Muslim scientist Muhammad Ibn Ma'ruf, known as Taqi al-Din, in his treatise Al-Turuq al-Saniya…
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.
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…
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…
The seat of the World Bank in Paris hosted on May 22-23, 2008 an important meeting: the fourth edition of The World Conference on Intellectual Capital for Communities. The conference was attended by eminent scholars…
The seat of the World Bank in Paris hosted on May 22-23, 2008 an important meeting: the fourth edition of The World Conference on Intellectual Capital for Communities. The conference was attended by eminent scholars…
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…
The first machine described by al-Jazari in his famous 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) is a…
Amongst the mechanical devices described by the Banu Musa Brothers in their book of mechanics Kitab al-hiyal, seven models present a variety of sophisticated fountains. This article analyses the geometric and physical principles lying behind…
Al-Jazari (1136-1206) was an important Arab Muslim scholar. He was an inventor and mechanical engineer who gained fame and glory with his famous book of mechanics Al-Jami `bayn al-`ilm wa 'l-`amal al-nafi `fi sina `at…
Prof. Salim T S Al-Hassani In this pioneering survey of some of the machines of Al-Jazari and Taqi Al-Din, Professor Salim Al-Hassani uses in-depth analysis with the tools of modern technology to make them live…
Abu Muhammad ‘Ali Ibn Ahmad Ibn Sa’id Ibn HAZM, (November 994 to August 1064) grew up in the period of final collapse of Umayyad rule in Spain, as the nation disintegrated into often conflicting local…
The following short survey presents a rapid overview on the life, work and achievements of Al-Jazari, the most famous mechanical engineer of his time, some 1000 years ago. Al-Jazari brought Islamic technology to a culminant…
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