The famous scientist Ibn al-Haytham (‘Alhazen') has rightly been credited with many advances in optics and vision science, but recent spurious claims that he is the ‘founder of psychophysics' rest upon unsupported assertions, a conflation…
The life story and lessons of a one of a kind person in history, Ibn Khaldun!
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…
A long standing topic of discussion among orientalists has been the question whether science in medieval Islamic society was a marginal activity, restricted to small elite circles and not rooted in society, or whether it…
Al-Biruni was so far ahead of his time that his most brilliant discoveries seemed incomprehensible to most of the scholars of his days...
Drawing on Harold Bloom’s model of poetic influence and supersession in his famous book, “The Anxiety of Influence,” and considering several historical cases of cross-cultural reception of the natural sciences from the Middle Ages that…
1001 Cures: Contributions in Medicine and Healthcare from Muslim Civilisation tells the fascinating story of how generations of physicians from different countries and creeds created a medical tradition admired by friend and foe...
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.
West African Muslim scholars produced a number of Arabic works relating to medicine, philosophy, economic studies, political thought, geography, architecture, town planning and public administration...
Most of the oldest Muslim treatises on Siwak remain in a manuscript form. However, similar works on this issue have also appeared in later periods...
Nothing contrasts more the discrepancies in learning as the place of books. When Muslim libraries abounded with books, some containing even tens of thousands, and where students, scholars and any curious mind found a place,…
Rayy was a city in the old Persian region of Media, during the Islamic times in the province of Djibal...
In this paper, I would like to discuss the missing millennium of Medieval Arabic sources in the study of Egyptology. Much of the arguments that I present here are detailed in my book. These include:…
The Sheikh al-Ra'is Sharaf al-Mulk Abu ‘Ali al-Husayn b. ‘Abd Allah b. al-Hasan b. ‘Ali Ibn Sina, in Latin he is know as Avicenna and his most famous works are those on philosophy and medicine.…
Besides [Ibn Tufayl's] contributions in medicine, he is best known for his treatise Ilayyu Ibn Yaqzan (‘The Alive’ son of ‘the Awake’)...
Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Hasan al-Tusi (born in 18 February 1201 in Tus, Khorasan – died on 26 June 1274 in Baghdad), better known as Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, was a Muslim Persian scholar and prolific…
In this long and well written article, Dr Ibrahim Kalin, based on his thorough study of the history of philosophy, analyzes the categories of reason and rationality within the Islamic intellectual context as it was…
Besides philosophy and mathematics, Ibn Bajjah was well-versed in botany, astronomy, logic, grammar, literature and music.
The physician, scientist and philosopher, ‘Ali b. Sahl Rabban al-Tabari was the son of Sahl Sahl Rabban al-Tabari. ‘Ali was born into an educated and intellectual Christian family. He wrote many books on philosophy, medicine…
It is often supposed in Islamic studies that Al-Ghazali demolished the basis for science in the Muslim world by his so-called orthodox attack against rational thinking which nurtured a negative climate that resulted in the…
In the following short report, we present a summary of the lecture presented by Professor Peter Adamson in the Muslim Heritage Awareness Group (MHAG) meeting organized by FSTC in London on 30 March 2011. In…
[Ibn Sina] flourished as a great physician and philosopher, but was also a distinguished scientist, mathematician, logician, and poet at the same time...
In the following section, we focus on Ibn Khaldun's contribution to economic thought. We publish contributions by recognized scholars who endeavoured recently to give Ibn Khaldun long overdue credit by placing him properly within the…
Abd al-Rahman ibn Khaldun, the well known historian and thinker from Muslim 14th-century North Africa, is considered a forerunner of original theories in social sciences and philosophy of history, as well as the author of…
In this article on Ibn Khaldun's thought in microeconomics, Cecep Maskanul Hakim analyses several central concepts and theories, from the dynamics of labor to the complex question of demand-supply and prices. Another aspect of the…
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…
Al-Ghazali (1058-1111) was one of the most influential Muslim thinkers. A jurist, logician, theologian, and philosopher, he was honoured in the history of Islam with title of Hujjatul-Islam (the Proof of Islam)." Among his numerous…
Throughout the ages thinkers have raised the question of what the human being ought to learn in order to be in tune with his own epoch, to live intelligently in society, and to be a…
Abu `Ali Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Ya'qub Miskawayh (932-1030) is a brilliant intellectual and philosopher of 10th-century Buwayhid Baghdad. His effect on Islamic philosophy is mainly concerned with ethical issues. His book Tadhib al-akhlaq (Ethical…
Text of the Lecture of Professor Jim Al-Khalili in the Conference Muslim Heritage in our World: Social Cohesion marking the 1001 Inventions Exhibition at the House of Parliament, 15th of October 2008, Church House, London,…
Ya'qub b. Ishaq al-Kindi was an early Arab scholar of the 9th century, one of the first great scientists that set the stage for the brilliant Islamic tradition of learning. His works in philosophy, cosmology,…
An important legacy of Islam in China is represented by Muslim Kung Fu, developed throughout history by Muslim Masters, who merged in their endeavour and training between physical and spiritual perfection. The following short survey…
The medical Islamic tradition is one of the richest and the most lasting components of the general history of medicine. Some of its main aspects are dealt with in a series of five articles by…
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 ethics or philosophy of science has in more recent times become an increasingly important subject. This article discusses and compares modern day scientific ethics with the ethics or morality underpinning Islamic Science.
The works of three prominent scholars are highlighted: Al- Farabi who was keenly interested in the relation between logic and language, Al-Qifti's vast scholarship, ranging from lexicography to medicine and finally al-Adim's historical works are…
The origins of science lie in the study we call philosophy which itself is traced back through traditions of wisdom. Here a look at al Farabi's description of wisdom and the history of philosophy.
A courageous scholar of Islamic law Izz al-Din wrote several important books. He played an key role in giving firm advice to divided Muslim rulers during a time when the Islamic world was under attack…
Ibn Taimiyah was a man to whom learning about Islam was in no way a mere academic exercise. It brought a thorough understanding of God's faith and a determined attempt to make it supreme in…
An Andalusian scholar who studied as an independent scholar rejecting blind following of a particular school of jurisprudence. He was taught by several women and argued the some women had been prophets.
One of the foremost scholars of Islam Imam Jaafar as-Sadiq was a teacher of both Abu Haneefah and Malik, the founders of two of the four schools of Islamic Law.
Muslim philosophers were men of science who explored and set the very foundations of knowledge. They had great influence and importance in the history of fundamental ideas.
Ibn Rushd is perhaps the best known Muslim scholar of Cordoba who was instrumental in influencing European theology and epistemology. Here is a facinating glimpse into his role in establishing the role of reasoning in…
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…