Alcohol, soda and sugar, what do they have in common, they are bad for you, but also they all derived from Arabic, the words...
This article is extracted from CHAPTER ONE of 1001 Inventions: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civilization. This book shows, the knowledge of the scholars of Muslim civilization was far from lost. Thousands of precious documents…
This a transcript of a lecture delivered on November 13, 2018 at the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies, Brighton Young University, Provo, UT 84602, United States.
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…
This documentary takes a thematic approach to carry audiences on an intimate journey to nine countries and across several centuries to experience some of the greatest art and architecture of the Muslim world.
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,…
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…
It is usually assumed that Galen is one of the fathers of anatomy and that between the Corpus Galenicum and the Renaissance there was no major advance in anatomical knowledge. However, it is also consensually…
Translation is one of the most powerful drivers in the development of science and medicine. From the earliest periods of recorded history until today, translation has played a crucial role in propagating scientific knowledge.
A 15th-century vellum manuscript of the writing of the revered Persian physician Ibn Sīna, or Avicenna, has been found being used to bind a later book, revealing for the first time that his seminal Canon…
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…
This article is the summary of a presentation given by Dr. Al-Suwaiyel at Oxford University. The presentation provides an insight into the works of Muslim Scholars on Cryptology in early Islamic periods.
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…
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…
The genesis of this article lies in a recent visit to the Romanesque cathedral of Lund. While in the cathedral, I walked over to the medieval astronomical clock to await the moving figures and music…
On Wednesday 22nd April, a public lecture exploring “The Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadeem and the Transmission of Knowledge in the Islamic World” was presented by Professor Devin Stewart at the Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation.
Upcoming Lecture by Prof. Mohamed El-Gomati, Chairman of FSTC, at The York Society of Engineers, York
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…
Andreas Vesalius' (1514–64) first publication was a Paraphrasis of the ninth book of the Liber ad Almansorem, written by the Muslim physician and scholar Al-Razi (Rhazes, 854–925). The role of Rhazes in Vesalius' oeuvre has…
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…
It is well known nowadays that modern Scientific Revolution benefited indirectly from the theories, results and inventions transmitted from the Arabic/Islamic scientific tradition during the Renaissance. The new element introduced by Dr Rim Turkmani who…
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…
For over 700 years the international language of science was Arabic. In this compelling, inspiring book, Jim Al-Khalili celebrates the forgotten pioneers who helped shape our understanding of the world. All scientists have stood on…
[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…
The Islamic tradition of agriculture, whether in the form of the outstanding progress in agriculture production or as a large corpus of farming manuals written in Arabic, is nowadays a subject of interest for historians…
The book Arabic into Latin in the Middle Ages: The Translators and their Intellectual and Social Context by Charles Burnett is a collection of previously published articles on the transmission of Arabic learning to Europe.…
Dr Salim Ayduz, researcher at FSTC, presented on Tuesday 9 February 2010 a conference on the Muslim contributions to modern civilisation in the "Islam Awareness Week 2010" organised by Lancaster University's Islamic Society. We present…
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…
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…
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…
Aydin Sayilli (1913-1993) was an eminent historian of science whose pioneering work during a 50-year career uncovered many hidden treasures in the history of mathematics, astronomy and medicine, especially in the Islamic tradition. In this…
This is a review of the book published in 2007 by Michael Hamilton Morgan, Lost History. The essay attempts to uncover the Golden Age of the Muslim civilisation and recognises its contributions to the rise…
The transmission of medical knowledge can be traced to some of the earliest writings in human history. Yet a particularly fruitful period for advancement in medical science emerged with the rise of Islam. For the…
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 following article presents a thorough intellectual biography of the late Aydin Sayili, the well known historian of Islamic science. The second part of the article is a comprehensive list of his works. This bibliography…
In the following bibliography of the Islamic and Chinese scientific relationships in classical times, a list of the main recent works is produced. The researches cover various scientific domains, from mathematics and astronomy to technology,…
In this article, Anthony Garnaut, an expert of the Muslim Chinese culture, focuses on the Islamic heritage in China and its relevance to understanding both the evolution of Chinese history and culture, and to appreciating…
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…
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…
The seat of the World Bank in Paris hosted on May 22-23, 2008 an important meeting: the fourth edition of The World Conference on Intellectual Capital for Communities. The conference was attended by eminent scholars…
Prof. Salim Al Hassani, a Muslim Scholar and the chief editor of "1001 Inventions: Muslim Heritage in Our World" , will deliver his presentation on "The Muslims' Great Contributions during the Golden Age of the…
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…
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…
The evolution of world politics since the last decade of 20th century and several substantial events witnessed during this period have modified communities' outlooks towards each other. They sometimes modified our whole perception of global…
In a clear and concise language, Mark Graham endeavours to show in his book How Islam Created the Modern World the decisive influence of the civilisation of Islam in setting the stage for the modern…
This is a review of What Islam Did For Us: Understanding Islam's Contribution to Western Civilization, a book by Tim Wallace-Murphy that emphasizes Islam's immense contributions to the Western civilization in many groundbreaking domains such…
The following article by Professors Menso Folkerts and Richard Lorch, from Munich University in Germany, describes the influences of Arabic sciences in the works of Jordanus de Nemore, a scholar who flourished in Western Europe…
This article was a talk given at the 7th Maghrebi Colloque of the History of Arabic Mathematics held from 30 May to 1 June 2002 in Marrakech, Morocco. It presents a new manuscript of the…
This article describes the appreciation of Arabic science and technology in the Middle Ages through the example of Adelard of Bath, an English scholar of the early 12th century, one of the first scholars that…
Arabic pharmacology, a branch of scientific literature dealing with the preparation and application of compound drugs as formulated in the Arabic language, is an interdisciplinary subject and an intercultural discipline. This article describes its Greek,…
This article by Professor John Healey, describes the key role in the development of Muslim science which was played by the Syriac-speaking Christians in the early Islamic era. John Healey is Professor of Semitic Studies…
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…
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,…
The impact of Islam permeated so many spheres of knowledge and produced phenomenal achievements that one is amazed. This article highlights some of these areas and achievements.
The definition and nature of science has long been an intriguing philosophical dilemma. In this essay Prof. Acikgenc discusses the substance of science, and related issues such as the scientific community, within an Islamic context.
This article will provide a short introduction to the history of scientific activities in the Ottoman world until the eighteenth century. Scientific researches show that there are many translation activities in different fields in the…
The article covers the avenues which led to the transfer of the Islamic knowledge, from Al Andalus, Sicily and Byzantium to the Wars (crusades on the Islamic World), as well as commercial relations and also…
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…
Ibn Jubair is widely recognised as one of the greatest travellers and geographers of Muslim history. From excerpts his work, The Travels of Ibn Jubair, as presented in this short article we are able to…
An Islamic History of Europe, produced and broadcasted by BBC 4 in 2005 is a documentary about the Islamic influence on Europe and the effect of the Islamic civilization, learning and sciences on the Western…
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.
The Bosniac Muslims played a crucial role integrated in the Austro-Hungarian empire and Muslims and Islam continues to have great recognition in Austria.
Most certainly the first English scientist ever was Adelard of Bath. He championed Islamic learning and was the most `Arabist' of all scientists. He and Daniel of Morley were instrumental in the transfer of scientific…
Turks have played an active part in the pursuit of science and learning in the Islamic World throughout its history. This activity is outlind here from the very formative stages of the islamic civilization down…
Salerno came to prominence as the first faculty-University of the Christian West because of its importance as a center where Islamic science, particularly medicine, became known to Europe… this because of his translations... The principal…
The Muslim influence on musical theory is strongly denied by Western scholars. Even those who accept the Muslims playing some role, reject their deep involvement with the theory,although the Muslims used notation in musical theory…
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…
An insight into the influence of Muslims on the musical revival of Europe which can be detected as early as the period of the Carolingian Empire.
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
Amongst the English writing authors who can enlighten the reader further on the Islamic impact are Eugene Myers, Metletzki, Turner and Menocal. Here's a list of selected books for further reading on the Impact of…
Scholars from all Christian lands rushed to translate Muslim science, and thus start the scientific awakening of Europe. Many of course were Spaniards: John of Seville, Hugh of Santalla, and those working under the patronage…
Local builders employed by the Crusaders revealed the solutions to the problems of construction orally or by demonstration. Talbot Rice points out that in the area dominated by the Seljuk Turks during the Crusades there…
The role of Sicily in the transfer of Muslim science to the West has been well studied by Michelle Amari, but unfortunately the work, although extremely old has remained inaccessible because it is only available…
To go through the Islamic impact on modern science and civilisation in detail demands so vast a book that nobody has written yet. Just some overall observations and points are raised here by the author.
The centuries termed as the 'Dark Ages' are the missing centuries in history. It is not as one would think that there is nothing about such centuries; as that is far from the truth.
There is a major fallacy in the concept of the 'Dark Ages'. That period coincides exactly with the Muslim apogee. In the midst of Europe's darkness, almost immediately after the fall of the Roman Empire,…
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…
Arabic accounts report that Muslims introduced firearms into Islamic Spain, from where they passed to Italy, going from there to France, and finally Germany. Muslims also developed and refined gun powder and aquired rocket making…
It was in Muslim Toledo, Spain, where flocked in the 12th century, in particular, scholars from all Christian lands to translate Muslim science, and start the scientific awakening of Europe.
Whilst the period of Antiquity, the time of Greco-Roman civilisation, and the Renaissance receive high praise, the period in between (late fifth to the late fifteenth) is highly obscured. Read about those 1000 years of…