 |
1000 Years Amnesia: Environment Tradition in Muslim Heritage |
|
By: by Prof. Salim T S Al-Hassani, Thu 10 September, 2009 |
|
Prof. Salim T S Al-Hassani 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 in Islam as seen from its sources and from history of Muslim practice over a 1000 years of planning and management of natural resources. The following article expands on earlier lectures and contributions made by Professor Al-Hassani including his participation in the conference "Islam and the Environment: Muslim 7 Year Action Plan to deal with Climate Change" held in Istanbul 6-7 July 2009.
|
|
Botany, Herbals and Healing In Islamic Science and Medicine |
|
By: FSTC Research Team, Fri 04 September, 2009 |
|
FSTC Research Team The scholars of Islamic culture worked extensively in the combined fields of botany, herbals and healing. Several scholars contributed to the knowledge of plants, their diseases and the methods of growth. They classified plants into those that grow from cuttings, those that grow from seed and those that grow spontaneously. Great Muslim figures such as Al-Dinawari, Ibn Juljul and Ibn al-Baytar made great progress in the field, as this article demonstrates. Muslim botanists knew how to produce new fruits by grafting; they combined the rose bush and the almond tree to generate rare and lovely flowers. The royal botanical gardens contained an endless variety of plants, indigenous and exotic, cultivated for their brilliant foliage, their delightful fragrance, or their culinary and medicinal virtues. In particular, they dealt with plants in a variety of ways, which included their study from a philological perspective, but most importantly for their curative and healing properties.
|
|
Environment and the Muslim Heritage |
|
By: Sir Crispin Tickell, Sat 08 August, 2009 |
|
Sir Crispin Tickell The following short article is based on the notes for a speech presented to the Muslim Heritage Awareness Group held at the Royal Society in London, 14 July 2009. The MHAG is a consulting network to the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC). The theme for this meeting was Environment and Muslim Heritage. The notes were published on Sir Crispin Tickell website.
|
|
Knowledge versus Natural Disasters from Arabic Sources |
|
By: FSTC Limited, Wed 21 May, 2008 |
|
The aim of this paper is to investigate the various aspects of preparedness and response to natural disasters in the Arabic speaking lands during the 15th and 16th centuries, with comparison to earlier writings. Two natural disasters are focused upon: earthquakes and typhoons. Relying on specialised literary sources dedicated to these matters, the author draws also on jurisprudence opinions and decrees to describe the variety with which disasters were perceived and the different means with which they were prevented in Islamic civilisations.
|
|
Ecology in Muslim Heritage: Treatises on Environmental Pollution up to the End of 13th Cen. |
|
By: FSTC Limited, Wed 30 April, 2008 |
|
Several Arabic treatises dating from the 9th through the 13th century deal with environmental pollution. They cover subjects like air and water contamination, solid waste mishandling and environmental assessments of certain localities. The authors of these texts are well known scholars and physicians: al-Kindi, Qusta b. Luqa, al-Razi, Ibn al-Jazzar, al-Tamimi, Abu Sahl al-Masihi, Ibn Sina, Ali b. Ridhwan, Ibn Jumay‘, Ya‘qub al-Isra' ili, Abdullatif al-Baghdadi, Ibn al-Quff and Ibn al-Nafis. The article surveys this important corpus of environmental ecology and summarizes its contents.
|
|
Ecology in Muslim Heritage: A History of the Hima Conservation System |
|
By: FSTC Limited, Tue 15 April, 2008 |
|
A hima is a reserved pasture, where trees and grazing lands are protected from indiscriminate harvest on a temporary or permanent basis. It existed in the Middle East before Islam; but it was treated as a private reserve for powerful chieftains. This institution knew a renaissance in the last decades, when major political, economical and social changes took place in the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula. The paper reviews the changes that have taken place in Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen with regard to the hima.
|
|
Cats in Islamic Culture |
|
By: Cem Nizamoglu, Mon 16 April, 2007 |
|
This article describes the various cultural representations associated to cats in Islamic civilisation and shows examples of the respect, love and understanding with which cats were treated and regarded in Islamic history. This original attitude has developed throughout the history of Islam and crystallised in strong cultural and mystical dimensions, of which we find evident and numerous traces in Islamic art, science, medicine, and zoology.
|
|
Islamic Aesthetics, Gardens and Nature |
|
By: FSTC Limited, Thu 25 January, 2007 |
|
Sensory beauty, whether it be in feats of architecture or calligraphy, has long been a pursuit of Islamic civilisation. Achievements such as the Alhambra pertain to this fact. This article further describes the results of Muslims striving for beauty in their environment.
|
|
The Secret Gardens of Sana'a |
|
By: Tim Mackintosh-Smith, Thu 16 March, 2006 |
|
In this article Tim Mackintosh-Smith investigates the horticultural past of Sana'a. Whereas as once Yemen at large was well known as a land lavishly green, Mackintosh-Smith discovers quite a different story amidst a city coping with the conflicting demands of modernity, and rumours of an increasingly nostalgic history.
|
|
Animal Care |
|
By: FSTC Limited, Wed 15 February, 2006 |
|
By way of faith, Muslims have a strong regard for the care of animals. This is due to the attention that the Prophet (peace be upon him) gave to the wellbeing and good-treatment of other creatures of God. Muslims believe that an ill-treated animal will testify against its abuser before God. This article provides a deeper insight into the Islamic attitude towards animals.
|
