The Tinmal mosque was built by the first Almohad caliph, ʿAbd al-Muʾmin, around 1148 next to the tomb of the mahdī Ibn Tūmart, the founder of the Almohad creed (d. 1130). The official pilgrimages (ziyāra)…
This paper discusses the evolution of the identity of Muslim architecture and the emergence of the first Muslim architectural deviations. In particular, it focuses on the role of the 8th Umayyad Caliph, ‘Umar b. ‘Abd…
The Great Seljuk state was part of the medieval Islamic civilization. Most of its scientific institutions and educational traditions were inherited from previous and contemporary Muslim and Turkish states. In this well documented article, the…
"The hospital shall keep all patients, men and women, until they are completely recovered. All costs are to be borne by the hospital whether the people come from afar or near, whether they are residents…
“Bayt al-Hikma of Baghdad as a Model of an Academy of Sciences” from Dirasat, Human and Social Sciences, Volume 44, No. 3, 2017: This study aims to introduce academy-type institutions of the pre-Islamic era. To…
The Muslim World acquired the art of paper-making in the eighth century in Persia, ultimately Muslims brought papermaking to India and Europe. Public libraries appeared in Baghdad, Cairo, and Cordoba where books were made of…
Baghdad schools are a challenging topic, involving several different facets of history. These include cartography to identify the location of each school, biographical studies to identify their teachers, preachers, jurists and administrators, along with their…
Although some contemporary historians may argue otherwise, in the past, particularly in places such as West Africa, Muslims and non-Muslims lived together in relative harmony and prosperity. The positive impact of the spread of Islam…
Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Ahmad al-Takruri Al-Massufi al-Timbukti, otherwise commonly known as Ahmad Baba for short, was a well-known teacher, professor, philosopher, Arabic grammarian and an author of over forty books and various works.
Amazing snapshots from Khiva (formally known as Khawarizm) in Uzbekistan. The birth place of the famous mathematician Al-Khawarizmi (780 – 850 CE). A prosperous centre of learning during the Golden Age of Muslim Civilisation. (Source…
The creation of hospitals as institutions for the care of sick people was developed during the early Islamic era. Over time, hospitals were found in all Islamic towns. This article describes four of these medieval…
Khalifa University (KU) and the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the KU campus in Abu Dhabi. The MoU aims to promote greater recognition and appreciation…
In the following well documented article Dr Muhammad Abdul Jabbar Beg surveys the origins of Islamic science, with a special focus on its interaction with the previous intellectual traditions of the ancient world as well…
The Ottoman imperial Palace was quite different from Western palaces and courts, for it was not only the residence of the Ottoman Sultans and their royal household, but also served to various other functions as…
The medical sciences and related fields have enjoyed great peaks in achievement through Muslim scholarship, which raised both standards of practice and the status of the physician. This article delves into the vast history of…
This article is about the foundation of the Medical History Museum founded recently in Istanbul as part of the Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Medical School. The aim of this museum, founded by Professor Nil Sari in…
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 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…
Observation wells received much historical interest relating to observatories. In this article Prof. Aydin Sayili describes the history of "observation wells" both in Islamic and European worlds.
This is a review of a book bringing to light a collection of about 1300 Islamic scientific manuscripts on astronomy and various scientific topics in three languages (Turkish, Arabic and Persian). These manuscripts are held…
To throw light on famous figures of the Turkish modern medical school, this article introduces a set of nine posters on the contribution of eight late Ottoman and early Turkish physicians (whose careers spanned from…
This article discusses the emergence and origins of institutional Ottoman medical practice and learning, and provides an insight into the trade of expertise between the Ottoman provinces and further a field. It focuses on the…
Learning institutions in various forms have existed for centuries in the Muslim World, the earliest of which are, al-Qarawiyyin, al-Azhar and al-Qayrawan. This short article traces the emergence and spread of madrasas as a popular…
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…
The hospital was one of the most developed institutions of medieval Islam and one of the high-water marks of the Muslim civilisation. The hospitals of medieval Islam were hospitals in the modern sense of the…
Medical doctors in the time of the Ottomans had various routes into professional life depending on their specialty. Some were trained on the model of master and apprentice, others studied courses at madrasas and at…
Though we may think of Timbuktu as the pre-eminent site of pre-colonial West African scholarship, we must remember that there were other places spanning across the Western and Central Sudan that were renowned for their…
Modern hospials finds its origin in Islamic civilisation replacing institutions known for magic and religion with a science based tradition which took knowledge from various places including the Greeks, Egytptains, Indians and others.
Tycho Brahe "was a brilliant astronomer and scientist of his time, and has had a big significance on the development of astronomy, science in general, and our view of the world" has been influenced by…
The observatory as an organised and state sponsored activity began with in the Islamic world. Much progress was made in this area, particularly in eastern parts of the Islamic world.
For well over twelve hundred years Al-Qarawiyyin has been one of the leading spiritual and educational centres of the Muslim World, a typical institution, of many, underlining how learning constituted the heart of the religion…
The Imperial Tanzimat Rescript (Tanzimat Fermani) announced on 3 November 1839 provided state protection for basic rights and freedoms. Following this, programs of educational reform made the reorganization of secondary education a priority and the…
The madrasas of the early Ottoman period can be considered as institutions which continued the established educational tradition of the Seljuk Turks but also augmented by the contributions of the Ottomans.
The Ottomans conserved the fundamental features of Islamic civilisation in their scientific institutions as they also did in social and cultural areas. Three of the six Ottoman state scientific institutions dealt with here are in…
Sankore's achievement in higher education is important to Islamic Civilisation even though it is less known in comparison to Al-Azhar, Al-Qayrawan, Al-Qarawiyyin and Qurtuba Universities.
The modern astronomical observatory as a research institute (as opposed to a private observation post as was the case in ancient times) is a creation of the Islamic scientific tradition. Since the early 9th century,…
...leading by example, the Prophet made the first institution of Islam, the first mosque he built in Madinah, into an institution of learning.
Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo in Egypt is a fundamental Islamic monument with many dimensions. Constructed by the Caliph Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah for the newly established capital city in 970, it was the first mosque established…
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