Tag: Europe

Shining light upon light

by Yasmin Khan Published on: 2nd August 2020

Two science histories dissect the transfer of knowledge between the Greco–Islamic and European civilizations, and put right the impression that the flow was one way, explains Yasmin Khan in a recently published article (Nature, vol…

Al-Andalus, a Bridge Between Arabic and European Science

by Julio Samso Published on: 9th June 2020

The purpose of this paper is to outline the conditions in which Eastern Islamic science reached al-Andalus and was later transmitted to medieval Europe, mainly through translation. Until the end of the 10th century al-Andalus…

banner

White Supremacism and Islamic Astronomy in History of Astronomy Texts from the Eighteenth Century to the Present Day

by Joe Lockard Published on: 30th October 2019

This paper reviews manifestations of racism in European and American histories of Arab and Persian astronomy from the eighteenth century to the present day.  Its first section discusses the representation of Islamic astronomy from Adam…

banner

The role of Ibn Sina (Avicenna)’s Medical Poem in the transmission of medical knowledge to medieval Europe

by Rabie Abdel-Halim Published on: 14th July 2014

Were you aware that in the Medieval Islamic world, celebrated scientists such as Ibn Sina used to relay their teachings through poetry? Poems structure and rhythm aided the process of transmitting and memorising scientific and…

banner

The European Jerusalem: Sarajevo, where Muslim heritage flourished in Central Europe

by Sairah Yassir-Deane Published on: 15th May 2014

During Ottoman rule, Sarajevo was heralded as the “European Jerusalem”, as its invaluable contributions to civil engineering, industry, trade and architecture attracted people from various ethnic and religious backgrounds. Aesthetic beauty alongside scientific ingenuity made,…

banner

East Meets West in Venice

by Richard Covington Published on: 29th February 2012

For much of the millennium before the rise of Portugal and Spain, Venice flourished as the hub of Europe's trade with the lands to its east and south. The profound mutual influences that resulted have…

banner

Kerala Mathematics and Its Possible Transmission to Europe

by Dennis Francis Almeida Published on: 8th July 2011

The Kerala School of astronomy and mathematics was an Indian school of mathematics and astronomy founded by Madhava of Sangamagrama in Kerala, South India, which included among its members several scientists. The school flourished in…

banner

The European Muslim Heritage and its Role in the Development of Europe

by Salim Al-Hassani Published on: 18th December 2010

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…

banner

The Coffee Route from Yemen to London 10th-17th Centuries

by Salah Zaimeche Published on: 11th October 2010

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…

banner

The Transfer of Science Between India, Europe and China via Muslim Heritage

by Charles Burnett Published on: 15th July 2010

[Proceedings of the conference 1001 Inventions: Muslim Heritage in Our World organised by FSTC, London, 25-26 May 2010]. The Islamic realms served as a crucible for scientific learning from the ancient Greek world in the…

banner

Heritage Research for Cultural Inter-Appreciation in the Balkans

by Sali Shahsivari Published on: 15th July 2010

[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…

banner

Ibn Khaldun and the Rise and Fall of Empires

by Caroline Stone Published on: 24th April 2010

The 14th-century historiographer and historian Abu Zayd ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Khaldun was a brilliant scholar and thinker now viewed as a founder of modern historiography, sociology and economics. Living in one of human kind's most…

Introduction to Islamic Art

by Rabah Saoud Published on: 24th February 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…

banner

Piri Reis: A Genius 16th-Century Ottoman Cartographer and Navigator

by Salah Zaimeche Published on: 13th February 2010

Piri Reis is a well known Ottoman-Turkish admiral, geographer and cartographer from the 16th century. His famous world map compiled in 1513 and discovered in 1929 at Topkapi Palace in Istanbul is the oldest known…

banner

How Islamic Learning Transformed Western Civilization: Review of ‘The House of Wisdom’

by The Editorial Team Published on: 26th July 2009

In February 2009, Jonathan Lyons published 'The House of Wisdom', a riveting history which reveals the vital role the Islamic civilisation played in knowledge creation and how this treasure reached the West. In this fascinating…

banner

Filling the Gap in the History of Pre-Modern Industry: 1000 Years of Missing Islamic Industry

by Salim Al-Hassani Published on: 24th July 2009

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…

banner

The Missing Link in the History of Urology

by Rabie Abdel-Halim Published on: 1st May 2009

With few exceptions, most of the current publications on history of urology still ignore the scientific and technological events of the more than a thousand years between the Greco-Roman times and the modern era. This…

banner

Mont Saint-Michel or Toledo: Greek or Arabic Sources for Medieval European Culture?

by Charles Burnett Published on: 25th February 2009

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…

banner

Certain Aspects of Medical Instruction in Medieval Islam and its Influences on Europe

by Aydin Sayili Published on: 24th October 2008

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…

banner

Arabic and the Art of Printing

by Saudi Aramco World Magazine Published on: 11th September 2008

In this special section reproduced from Aramco World (issue March/April 1981), distinguished authors cover topics related to printing in the Islamic civilisation. It is showed, in particular, that contrary to the notion that the technology…

banner

Tracing the Impact of Latin Translations of Arabic Texts on European Society

by Charles Burnett Published on: 1st July 2008

In this article, Professor Charles Burnett, a world expert in the history of Islamic influences in Europe at The Warburg Institute (London University), retraces the impact the Latin translations of Arabic texts of science and…

banner

Ahmad Ibn Fadhlan in Northern Europe: A Survey of his Account of Russian Vikings in the 10th Century

by FSTC Published on: 3rd April 2008

One of the earliest detailed descriptions of Northern Europe is reported in the account written by the Arab Muslim writer and traveler Ahmad Ibn Fadhlan, who was sent in 921 CE as the secretary to…

videos

Bringing to Life the Islamic History of Europe: A Video Documentary

by Rageh Omaar Published on: 3rd March 2008

The video documentary produced by the BBC in 2005 An Islamic History of Europe, by the famous TV presenter Rageh Omaar (who also covered the American invasion of Iraq), reveals the surprising hidden story of…

banner

Tentative Global Timeline of Contacts between the World of Islam and Western Europe: 7th -20th Cent.

by Omar Mubaidin Published on: 19th February 2008

The following timeline presents a survey of Muslim presence in Europe from the 7th century CE until the 20th century. It lists the various and different contacts that shaped the relations of Muslims with Western…

banner

A Wealth of Scholarship: Recent Publications in Islamic Art, Culture and History

by FSTC Published on: 31st October 2007

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,…

banner

The Influence of Islamic Culinary Art on Europe

by Zohor Idrisi Published on: 16th May 2007

This paper describes the results of a novel research on the Muslim influence on the European culinary art during the Renaissance. Presenting evidence of how this influence entered the aristocratic circles in Europe, it draws…

banner

Literature and Music in Muslim Civilisation

by The Editorial Team Published on: 11th April 2007

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.

banner

A New Book by George Saliba: Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance

by George Saliba Published on: 27th March 2007

This article reviews the new book Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance by George Saliba. The book describes the rise and fall of the Islamic scientific tradition, and the relationship of Islamic…

banner

Scientific Contacts and Influences Between the Islamic World and Europe: The Case of Astronomy

by Paul Kunitzsch Published on: 25th January 2007

For more than a thousand years the Muslim East and the Christian West, notwithstanding the differences in matters of creed, ideology and social traditions and the intervening opposition of defenders of orthodoxy on both sides,…

Banner

Al-Khwarizmi, Abdu’l-Hamid Ibn Turk and the Place of Central Asia in the History of Science

by Aydin Sayili Published on: 12th December 2006

Abu Ja`far Muhammad ibn Mûsâ al-Khwârazmî is a truly outstanding personality and a foremost representative of the supremacy of the Islamic World during the Middle Ages. Medieval Islam was largely responsible for the shaping of…

Banner

The Ottoman Empire and Europe: Cultural Encounters

by Gunsel Renda Published on: 3rd December 2006

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.

banner

Impact on Instrumental Tablature

by Rabah Saoud Published on: 21st April 2004

The Arabs were the first to give Europe a scientific description of musical instruments. Looking back into history we can give a descriptive influence of the Muslim scheme of phonetic notation and instrumental tablature which…

banner

Muslim Musical Instruments Transmitted to Europe

by Rabah Saoud Published on: 2nd April 2004

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

banner

Cordoba, European Jewel of the Middle Ages

by FSTC Published on: 4th April 2003

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…

banner

The Impact of Islamic Learning: The spread of Arabic scientific literature to Europe

by Norman Daniel Published on: 21st July 2002

Paul Tannery said of geometry of the eleventh century in Europe: "This is not a chapter in the history of science; it is a study in ignorance." Its level, he said, was equivalent to that…

banner

The Horseshoe and Transverse Arches

by FSTC Published on: 17th January 2002

The first Muslim adaptation and modification of the design of the arch occurred in the invention of the horseshoe type. Further development came in the 8th century when Muslims used, for the first time, the…

banner

The Arch That Never Sleeps

by Rabah Saoud Published on: 17th January 2002

Perhaps no culture mastered the design and use of the arch more than the Muslims. Inheriting earlier arch forms from the Greeks and the Romans, Muslims developed a variety of new shapes including the horseshoe,…

banner

Al-Hambra Palace and the river of paradise

by Rabah Saoud Published on: 13th January 2002

The palace is an architectural masterpiece in every term. The composition of courts, gardens and water expressed the Muslim views of paradise and its eternality rewarding those who strive to reach it.

banner

Bab Mardum Mosque – An inspiration for Gothic?

by Rabah Saoud Published on: 13th January 2002

Bab Mardum Mosque was built in Toledo Spain between 999 and 1000 according to an inscription found on its façade. It was believed by Lambert (1958) to be the inspiration for the ribs used in…

Al-Zahra – City of Andalus

by Rabah Saoud Published on: 13th January 2002

Al-Zahra became renowned for its high advanced civilisation, style and protocol in addition to the extensively decorated walls, floors and ceilings of its buildings. Venue for the legendary reception of King Ordono IV of Leon,…

banner

Architecture of Muslim Spain and North Africa

by FSTC Published on: 13th January 2002

First in a series of articles on the Architecture of Muslim Spain and North Africa (756-1500AD). A brief historical background on the Muslim architectural achievement concentrating on important historical and architectural monuments.

banner

The Pointed Arch

by Rabah Saoud Published on: 1st January 2002

The first appearance of the pointed arch in the Muslim World was traced to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, but the Palace of Ukhaidir - Iraq remains the first building where the pointed arch was used constructively…