The Forgotten History of Muslim Scientists [Slide Show]
Without the flourishing of science in Muslim lands in the past, the modern world might not have algorithms or algebra
![The Forgotten History of Muslim Scientists [Slide Show]](https://www.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/2A8FDE9D-098B-4F06-95933DF5B4EAD660.jpg?w=590&h=393)
The Forgotten History of Muslim Scientists [Slide Show]
- Fatima al-Fihri: It wasn't just Muslim men. The oldest continuously operating university in the world—Al-Qarawiyyin founded in Fès, Morocco, in 859—was founded by a merchant's daughter: Fatima al-Fihri. The university, on the grounds of a grand mosque built by al-Fihri, subsequently produced a slew of leading Muslim thinkers. © 1001 Inventions, 2005
- Al-Khwarizmi: Considered by some the inventor of algebra, Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi was a Persian mathematician working at the House of Wisdom in Baghdad in the ninth century. In fact, the very name of this form of math is derived from the Arabic al-jabr, meaning "restoring," which is how al-Khwarizmi referred to the operation of removing roots and squares from a quadratic equation by adding the same quantity to each side of the equation. And algorithms, like those devised to deliver search results on the modern Internet, derive from the Latin version of his name: Al-goritmi. You can also thank him for the modern numeral system, which is based on Hindu-Arabic numbers derived from Indian mathematics. He also contributed to astronomy, trigonometry and even geography. Courtesy of John L. Esposito
- Al-Jazari: An Iraqi genius—Abu al-Iz Ibn Ismail ibn al-Razaz al-Jazari, or al-Jazari—laid out construction plans in A.D. 1206 for some 50 mechanical devices, such as the "Elephant Clock" recreated here in this computer-rendered image. He was the first engineer to introduce the crankshaft, camshaft, locks with four bolts, and even segmental gears for communicating motion between pieces, much of which he employed in ingenious water-raising machines. He also used water to drive automata like moving peacocks, a serving girl who poured drinks and even a band in a boat in northern Mesopotamia. 1001 Inventions Ltd, 2010
- Al-Jahiz: An early proponent of evolutionary biology, Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Fuqaimi al-Basri, wrote of food chains and environmental determinism in his seven-volume Book of Animals in the ninth century. This illustration from the book depicts an Arabian ostrich, which is now extinct. The grandson of an African slave, the Baghdad-based scientist nicknamed al-Jahiz also shared a fascination with the social organization of ants, like modern-day heirs such as E. O. Wilson. Courtesy of The Yorck Project
- Abbas ibn-Firnas: Born in the Al-Andalus region of medieval Muslim Spain in A.D. 810, ibn Firnas may have been the first inventor to attempt flight using a glider, as pictured here. The flight may be apocryphal, however, as its primary historical reference is from a court poem—although it appears in a wide variety of Arabic histories. 1001 Inventions Ltd., 2010
- Alhazen: An Arab or Persian physicist born in A.D. 965 in what is now the port city of Basra in modern-day Iraq, Alhazen pioneered experimental physics and founded the modern scientific understanding of optics—the study of the behavior and properties of light. When he failed to regulate the floods of the River Nile in Egypt, he was placed under house arrest by his employer, the caliph, which allowed him to devote his life to scientific pursuits, such as his magisterial seven-volume Book of Optics that directly influenced Western scientists such as Johannes Kepler and Roger Bacon centuries later. The book also contained his description of the camera obscura—a device for projecting images—as shown in this illustration. © Ali Amro / MuslimHeritageImages.com
