This paper is an overview of pro-environmental practices, behavior, and considerations as influenced by Islam. For a simpler presentation and discussion, pro-environmental practices in this paper are divided into technical and non-technical/social. Technical practices include…
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,…
To many the idea that American blues music has its origins with Muslims and even the Islamic call to prayer is inconceivable. It is also largely unknown that up to thirty percent of enslaved Americans,…
1001 Inventions Celebrates Ibn Al-Haytham at Manchester’s Iconic Central Library
When a sixteenth-century medical writer referred to Phoenicians, alongside Arabs, as exceptionally important medical sources, he was probably referring to the Muslim and Jewish doctors of Qayrawan, who were writing in Arabic in the tenth…
I used the discipline of astronomy as a template to record the transmitted ideas and hoped that other people, who work on other disciplines, would do the same, all in an effort to paint a…
Genetic and paleontological findings have concluded that Africa is the birthplace of the entire human race. Africa is often thought of as a continent rich in natural beauty and culture. However, little is known or…
Muslim Contributions to the Medical Sciences A Tribute to Dr Rabie E. Abdel-Halim
Dating back to March 2015, news regarding the discovery of a ring found on a Viking woman in an ancient burial ground with the inscription 'For/To Allah' erupted in mainstream media. The mystery surrounding how…
This year has been chosen as "International Year of Light (IYL2015)" by UNESCO, what a perfect time to remember these words: “If the first light of the new year doesn’t shine upon my mentor, then…
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…
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…
The history of coffee goes at least as far back as the 9th century. From Eastern Africa, coffee spread to Egypt and Yemen. The earliest credible evidence for either coffee drinking or knowledge of the…
[Proceedings of the conference 1001 Inventions: Muslim Heritage in Our World organised by FSTC, London, 25-26 May 2010]. In this vibrant plea for cultural inter-appreciation in the Balkan, Sali Shahsivari outlines the role that may…
At the beginning of 2010, the Islamic world at large and the Islamic Studies community in particular, lost Dr Salah al-Din al Munajjed, a brilliant and eminent scholar who passed away on 18 January 2010…
One area where the genius of the Muslim civilisation has been recognised worldwide is that of art. The artists of the Islamic world adapted their creativity to evoke their inner beliefs in a series of…
Turkish cuisine is largely the heritage of Ottoman cuisine, which can be described as a fusion and refinement of Central Asian, Middle Eastern and Balkan cuisines. Turkish cuisine also influenced these cuisines and other neighbouring…
In a recent book, Sylvain Gouguenheim has caused a furore in claiming that European culture owes nothing to Arabic culture. The following article by Professor Charles Burnett, an eminent scholar in the intellectual context of…
The subject of food and diet was very essential in the Islamic Cuisine. Both of them were very important in the most of the medical manuscripts in the Ottoman world. Balanced diet was also important…
In Arabic culture, as in other civilisations, the cultural dimension of the history of astronomy appears in part in the meanings and origins of star and constellation names. This nomenclature was shaped by cultural symbols…
This is a general review of some 23 recent publications (books, films, and articles) on various aspects of Islamic culture, history and civilisation. The survey concentrates on titles related to three categories: art and architecture,…
An outline of the main types of Arabic literature and their influence on European literature and a description of the main Arabic instruments and their subsequent development in Europe.
This short article provides brief accounts of Ibn Fadlan's observation on Scandinavia and a people he calls the Rus. His reports have become a great source for successive historians on a range of topics from…
The Islamic civilisation allowed the development of autonomous norms of beauty that were inspired by the faith of Islam. The Islamic artistic tradition viewed the beauty of the universe, emphasized in the Quran, and the…
The minaret is the architectural shape which best indicates the presence of mosque. Over the centuries the mosque assumed a number of roles including a social centre, place for prayer, teaching institute, court of justice,…
Besides the madrasas, hospitals and social assistance institutions established in Anatolia during the Anatolian Seljuk period and that of their successors the Municipalities, scholarly-scientific and cultural activities were encouraged and received the patronage of the…
This article mainly covers the cultural encounters between Europe and the Ottomans who had become immediate neighbours on the Balkans and the Mediterranean after the Ottoman state expanded into Central Europe.
With the expansion of Islam over a vast area of land, Muslim artists started to develop the traits they had borrowed from other civilisations, and created their own styles, motifs and fashion which conformed to…
Amir Khusraw (d. 1325) was essentially an eminent musician and is regarded as a great savant in the history of world music and a genius of unequalled stature in the history of music in the…
The seventh and last art mentioned in the fourth book of the Canon of Medicine by Ibn Sina is assigned to the theme of "zina", that is beauty and physical appearance. It consists of four…
The Bosniac Muslims played a crucial role integrated in the Austro-Hungarian empire and Muslims and Islam continues to have great recognition in Austria.
This paper seeks to remind readers of the contribution of Islam to the civilisation of the peoples of North Africa by looking at its influence on the urbanisation of the region. The aim is to…
The Muslim carpet has long been a luxury commodity sought by textile museums, rich collectors and wealthy merchants all over the world. The fame of the flying carpet of 'Al'a Al-Din (Aladdin) added some emotional…
Many musical instruments came into European civilisation from Islamic Civilsation. Much of this is hardly known and rarely acknowledged. This article starts to set the record straight
Muslims ruled in Spain and Portugal over a period of 800 years. When the Christians finally forced out the Muslims and instituted the inquisition they encountered some of the great achievements of Islamic science and…
Abul-Hasan Alí Ibn Nafí, nicknamed Ziryab, was Chief Entertainer of the Court of Cordoba in 822AD. He revolutionised medieval music, lifestyle, fashion, hairstyles, furniture and even tableware. He transformed the way people ate, socialised, and…
Cordoba used to be the jewel of Europe dazzling visitors from the North. With over 70 public libraries during the time of Caliph Hakam II, and 900 public baths, Scholars and booksellers flocked there and…
Figs may not have had the economic importance of olives, yet they afford an excellent example of the intensification of agriculture in Islamic Spain. This was manifest in the dazzling variety of the fruit available…
As in all civilisations, great use was made of pottery, for cooking, lighting, washing, etc. In the bazaar in Cairo, grocers, druggists and ironmongers provided the glasses, the faience vessels and the paper to hold…
Al-Muqaddasi (or Al-Maqdisi), originally from Al-Quds (Jerusalem), hence his name, is by far one of the most instructive of all early Islamic writers on the society of Islam.
By far the most multi-ethnic culture and civilisation that had ever existed, the Muslim Scientific community included Jews and Chrisitians.
Muslim art differs from the art of other cultures in the form and material as well as in the subject and meaning. Read Dr. Saoud's facinating insight into the world of Muslim Art.
...leading by example, the Prophet made the first institution of Islam, the first mosque he built in Madinah, into an institution of learning.
Discover the golden
age of Muslim civilisation.
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