|
Islamic inventions and developments are responsible
to many of the products we now take for granted. Muslims, especially in
the old days have proven themselves to be a people of great ingenuity
and innovation. There has been some debate among historians as to
whether Muslims were indeed the earliest inventors of all the concepts
listed below, but whether they were indeed the first, or just
contributed to an on-going development process of these discoveries –
their innovation and discoveries are fascinating. Discussed below are
some of the most interesting and famous discoveries and innovations,
attributed to people of the Islam.
Shampoo:
Washing and bathing are religious requirements for Muslims, which is
perhaps why they perfected the recipe for soap which we still use today.
The ancient Egyptians had soap of a kind, as did the Romans who used it
more as a pomade. But it was the Arabs who combined vegetable oils with
sodium hydroxide and aromatics such as thyme oil. One of the Crusaders’
most striking characteristics, to Arab nostrils, was that they did not
wash. Shampoo was introduced to England by a Muslim who opened Mahomed’s
Indian Vapour Baths on Brighton seafront in 1759 and was appointed
Shampooing Surgeon to Kings George IV and William IV.
|
|
|
|
Refinement:
Distillation, the means of separating liquids through differences in
their boiling points, was invented around the year 800 by Islam’s
foremost scientist, Jabir ibn Hayyan, who transformed alchemy into
chemistry, inventing many of the basic processes and apparatus still in
use today – liquefaction, crystallisation, distillation, purification,
oxidisation, evaporation and filtration. As well as discovering
sulphuric and nitric acid, he invented the alembic still, giving the
world intense rosewater and other perfumes and alcoholic spirits
(although drinking them is haram, or forbidden, in Islam). Ibn Hayyan
emphasised systematic experimentation and was the founder of modern
chemistry.
|
|
|
|
Soup:
Ali ibn Nafi, known by his nickname of Ziryab (Blackbird) came from Iraq
to Cordoba in the 9th century and brought with him the concept of the
three-course meal – soup, followed by fish or meat, then fruit and nuts.
He also introduced crystal glasses (which had been invented after
experiments with rock crystal by Abbas ibn Firnas – see No 4).
Surgery:
Many modern surgical instruments are of exactly the same design as those
devised in the 10th century by a Muslim surgeon called al-Zahrawi. His
scalpels, bone saws, forceps, fine scissors for eye surgery and many of
the 200 instruments he devised are recognisable to a modern surgeon. It
was he who discovered that catgut used for internal stitches dissolves
away naturally (a discovery he made when his monkey ate his lute
strings) and that it can be also used to make medicine capsules. In the
13th century, another Muslim medic named Ibn Nafis described the
circulation of the blood, 300 years before William Harvey discovered it.
Muslims doctors also invented anaesthetics of opium and alcohol mixes
and developed hollow needles to suck cataracts from eyes in a technique
still used today.
|
|
|
|
Earth is in sphere shape?
By the 9th century, many Muslim scholars took it for granted that the
Earth was a sphere. The proof, said astronomer Ibn Hazm, “is that the
Sun is always vertical to a particular spot on Earth”. It was 500 years
before that realization dawned on Galileo. The calculations of Muslim
astronomers were so accurate that in the 9th century they reckoned the
Earth’s circumference to be 40, 253.4km – less than 200km out. The
scholar al-Idrisi took a globe depicting the world to the court of King
Roger of Sicily in 1139.
|
|
|
|
Shaft:
The crank-shaft is a device which translates rotary into linear motion
and is central to much of the machinery in the modern world, not least
the internal combustion engine. One of the most important mechanical
inventions in the history of humankind, it was created by an ingenious
Muslim engineer called al-Jazari to raise water for irrigation. His 1206
Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices shows he also invented
or refined the use of valves and pistons, devised some of the first
mechanical clocks driven by water and weights, and was the father of
robotics. Among his 50 other inventions was the combination lock. |