Muslim Scientists

 

The contribution of Islam and Muslim scholars to Scienc

Source: Scienceislam.com

Seeking knowledge is obligatory in Islam for every Muslim, man and woman. The main sources of Islam, the Quran and the Sunnah (Prophet Muhammad’s traditions), encourage Muslims to seek knowledge and be scholars, since this is the best way for people to know Allah (God), to appreciate His wondrous creations and be thankful for them.

Muslims have always been eager to seek knowledge, both religious and secular, and within a few years of Muhammad’s mission, a great civilization sprang up and flourished.

The outcome is shown in the spread of Islamic universities; Al-Zaytunah in Tunis, and Al-Azhar in Cairo go back more than 1,000 years and are the oldest existing universities in the world. Indeed, they were the models for the first European universities, such as Bologna, Heidelberg, and the Sorbonne. Even the familiar academic cap and gown originated at Al-Azhar University.

Muslims made great advances in many different fields, such as geography, physics, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, pharmacology, architecture, linguistics and astronomy. Algebra and the Arabic numerals were introduced to the world by Muslim scholars. The astrolabe, the quadrant, and other navigational devices and maps were developed by Muslim scholars and played an important role in world progress, most notably in Europe’s age of exploration.

Muslim scholars studied the ancient civilizations from Greece and Rome to China and India. The works of Aristotle, Ptolemy, Euclid and others were translated into Arabic. Muslim scholars and scientists then added their own creative ideas, discoveries and inventions, and finally transmitted this new knowledge to Europe, leading directly to the Renaissance. Many scientific and medical treatises, having been translated into Latin, were standard text and reference books as late as the 17th and 18th centuries.

Astronomy

Muslims have always had a special interest in astronomy. The moon and the sun are of vital importance in the daily life of every Muslim. By the moon, Muslims determine the beginning and the end of the months in their lunar calendar. By the sun the Muslims calculate the times for prayer and fasting. It is also by means of astronomy that Muslims can determine the precise direction of the Qiblah, to face the Ka’bah in Makkah, during prayer

The most precise solar calendar, superior to the Julian, is the Jilali, devised under the supervision of Umar Khayyam.

The Quran contains many references to astronomy:

“And it is He who created the night and the day and the sun and the moon; all [heavenly bodies] in an orbit are swimming.” [Noble Quran 21:33]

These references, and the injunctions to learn, inspired the early Muslim scholars to study the heavens. They integrated the earlier works of the Indians, Persians and Greeks into a new synthesis.

Ptolemy’s Almagest (the title as we know it today is actually Arabic) was translated, studied and criticized. Many new stars were discovered, as we see in their Arabic names – Algol, Deneb, Betelgeuse, Rigel, Aldebaran. Astronomical tables were compiled, among them the Toledan tables, which were used by Copernicus, Tycho Brahe and Kepler.

Also compiled were almanacs – another Arabic term. Other terms from Arabic are zenith, nadir, Aledo, azimuth.

Muslim astronomers were the first to establish observatories, like the one built at Mugharah by Hulagu, the son of Genghis Khan, in Persia, and they invented instruments such as the quadrant and astrolabe, which led to advances not only in astronomy but in oceanic navigation, contributing to the European age of exploration.

 Geography

Muslim scholars paid great attention to geography. In fact, the Muslims’ great concern for geography originated with their religion.

The Quran encourages people to travel throughout the earth to see God’s signs and patterns everywhere. Islam also requires each Muslim to have at least enough knowledge of geography to know the direction of the Qiblah (the position of the Ka’bah in Makkah) in order to pray five times a day.

Muslims were also used to taking long journeys to conduct trade as well as to make the Hajj and spread their religion. The far-flung Islamic empire enabled scholar-explorers to compile large amounts of geographical and climatic information from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Among the most famous names in the field of geography, even in the West, are Ibn Khaldun and Ibn Batuta, renowned for their written accounts of their extensive explorations.

In 1166, Al-Idrisi, the well-known Muslim scholar who served the Sicilian court, produced very accurate maps, including a world map with all the continents and their mountains, rivers and famous cities. Al-Muqdishi was the first geographer to produce accurate maps in color.

Spain was ruled by Muslims under the banner of Islam for over 700 years. By the 15th century of the Gregorian calendar the ruler-ship of Islam had been seated in Spain and Muslims had established centers of learning which commanded respect all over the known world at that time. There were no “Dark Ages” such the rest of Europe experienced for the Muslims in Spain and those who lived there with them. In January of 1492 Muslim Spain capitulated to Catholic Rome under King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. By July of the same year, Muslims were instrumental in helping navigate Christopher Columbus to the Caribbean South of Florida.

It was, moreover, with the help of Muslim navigators and their inventions that Magellan was able to traverse the Cape of Good Hope, and Da Gamma and Columbus had Muslim navigators on board their ships.

Mathematics

Muslim mathematicians excelled in geometry, as can be seen in their graphic arts, and it was the great Al-Biruni (who excelled also in the fields of natural history, even geology and mineralogy) who established trigonometry as a distinct branch of mathematics. Other Muslim mathematicians made significant progress in number theory.

It is interesting to note that Islam so strongly urges mankind to study and explore the universe. For example, the Noble Quran states:

“We (Allah) will show you (mankind) Our signs/patterns in the horizons/universe and in yourselves until you are convinced that the revelation is the truth.”
[Noble Quran 41:53]

This invitation to explore and search made Muslims interested in astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, and the other sciences, and they had a very clear and firm understanding of the correspondences among geometry, mathematics, and astronomy.

The Muslims invented the symbol for zero (The word “cipher” comes from Arabic sifr), and they organized the numbers into the decimal system – base 10. Additionally, they invented the symbol to express an unknown quantity, i.e. variables like x.

The first great Muslim mathematician, Al-Khawarizmi, invented the subject of algebra (al-Jabr), which was further developed by others, most notably Umar Khayyam. Al-Khawarizmi’s work, in Latin translation, brought the Arabic numerals along with the mathematics to Europe, through Spain. The word “algorithm” is derived from his name.

Contributions of Muslim Scholars: In The Field of Physics

Abual-Rihan Al-Beruni:

Al Biruni is a renowned physicist, who determined the specific density of 18 types of precious stones. He established the rule which stated that the specific density of a body suits the volume of the water which makes it move. He also interpreted the exit of water from geysers and artesian wells in light of the theory of communicating vessels. One of the most important of al-Biruni’s many texts is Shadows which he is thought to have written around 1021. The contents of the work include the Arabic nomenclature of shade and shadows, strange phenomena involving shadows, gnomonic, the history of the tangent and secant functions, applications of the shadow functions to the astrolabe and to other instruments, shadow observations for the solution of various astronomical problems, and the shadow-determined times of Muslim prayers. Shadows are an extremely important source for our knowledge of the history of mathematics, astronomy, and physics. It also contains important ideas such as the idea that acceleration is connected with non-uniform motion, using three rectangular coordinates to define a point in 3-space, and ideas that some see as expecting the summary of polar coordinates. Topics in physics that were studied byal-Biruni comprised hydrostatics and made very accurate measurements of specific weights. He defined the ratios between the densities of gold, mercury, lead, silver, bronze, copper, brass, iron, and tin. Al-Biruni displayed the results as combinations of integers and numbers of the form 1/n, n = 2, 3, 4... 10.

Abu al-Fath Abd al-Rahman

Mansour al-Khāzini:

Abuul Fath Al-Khazni was an incomparable physicist, particularly in relation with dynamics and hydrostatics to the extent that the succeeding researchers have been startled. His theories have been still calculated in the field on kinetics at schools and universities up till now. Among these theories are the Theory of Obliquity and Inclination and the Theory of Impulse. These two theories played an important role in kinetics. A lot of historians in the field of science regard Al-Khazani the physicist of all physicists. He dedicated most of his time to study hydrostatics; he developed a device to determine the specific gravity of liquids. He further studied the issue of resistance the body faced when it got into water. Al-Khazani operated the same apparatus used by his great master Al-Beruni to determine the specific gravity of some solid and liquid materials. The measurements of Al-Khazani were so accurate that they startled his contemporaries and successors.

Al-Khazini pointed out that air had weight and power to boost things like air, adding that the weight of the object in the air weighs less than its actual weight and its condensed weight depends on the density of air. It is worth of note that these studies concreted the way for the inventions of the barometer (pressure measurement), air vacuums and pumps among others.

DISCOVERING THE LAWS OF MOTION:

When considering the laws of motion among the research in physics, Muslim scientists were the first to discover these law as follows:

LAWS OF MOTION:

The importance of the laws of motion lies in the fact that they are viewed as the backbone of the contemporary civilization. For example, the sciences of mobile machinery nowadays starting from the car, train, plane, space rockets, and transatlantic rockets, among others rely on these laws. They have aided man to invade the outer space and to land on the surface of the moon. Moreover, they are deemed the basis for all physical sciences which depend on motion. Optics is the motion of light, sound is the motion of light waves, and electricity if the motion of electrons…etc. It is well known in the east and the west that these laws had been revealed by the English scientist Isaac Newton since he published his book Principia. This fact acknowledged in the whole world and in all scientific references, including the Muslim school of course, remained till the beginning of the twentieth century when a group of contemporary physicists, most prominent Professors of Mathematics examined these laws. They checked the accessible body of Islamic manuscripts in this field and came up with the fact that Muslim scientists were the first to discover these laws. All what Newton did was to collect what had been written on these laws and formulated them in a mathematical form. Setting bias and mere theoretical speech aside, the efforts of Muslim scientists are crystal clear. They are recognized in their manuscripts which had been written seven centuries before the birth of Newton.

THE FIRST LAW OF MOTION:

The first law of motion in physics says that if the total powers that distress an object are zero, this object will stay unmoving. Likewise, a mobile object leftovers with its constant speed state unless it finds any power that shakes it, such as the friction powers. This was stated in Newton’s mathematical statement when he said “In the absence of force, a body either is at rest or moves in a straight line with constant speed”. When it arises to Muslim scientists and their role in this field, Avicenna in his book “Insinuations and Notices” (Isharat wa Tanbihat) identified the same law in his own words “You know if the object is left unaffected by external influence, it remains as it is”. It is clear that the previous statement of Avicenna regarding the first law of motion excelled that of Isaac Newton who appeared six centuries later. In this statement Avicenna asserts that the object remains at rest or at move with constant speed in a straight line unless external power influences it. That is to say that Avicenna was the first to discover the first law of motion.

SECOND LAW OF MOTION:

The second law of motion associates the total powers distressing an object and the increase of its speed, which is known as speed and this speed is in proportion with the volume of the power and has its same direction. According to Newton’s mathematical formulation, he stated that “A body experiencing a force F experiences an acceleration a related to F by F = ma, where m is the mass of the body. Alternatively, force is proportional to the time derivative of momentum”. When it comes to Muslims, Hebattullah bin Malaka Al-Baghdadi (480-560 A.H./ 1087-1164AD) indicated in his book “The Considered in Wisdom” (Al-Moatabar fil Hikma). The solidest power transfers fast and takes a short time. The stronger power leads to the faster the power and the shorter the time. If the power does not decrease, the speed does not decrease, either”. In chapter fourteen entitled the Vacuum, he pointed out that “The faster the speed, the stronger the power. The stronger the power that pushes the object, the faster the speed of the object at move, and the shorter the time spent for covering the distance”. This is exactly what Newton mathematically formulated and named the second law of motion.

THIRD LAW OF MOTION:

The third law of motion means that if two objects interact, the force the first object practices on the second object is called the power of the action, which is equal to the force the second object practices on the first object, but it holds the opposite direction. This power is called the force of the reaction”. Newton mathematically formulated this law as follows: “Every action has a reaction which is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction”.

Earlier than Newton, Abul Barakat Hebattullah bin Malaka stated in his book, The Considered in Wisdom (Al-Moatabar fil Hekma) that “In the wrestling arena, everyone has a force practiced against the other. If one of them retreated, this does not mean that his power disappears, but this retreated power still exists, because without it the second one would not need it to influence the first one”. The same meaning has been reiterated in the writings of Imam Fakhr El-Din Al-Razi in his book The Eastern Disciplines in Theology and Natural Sciences (Al-Mabaheth Al-Mashrikayyah fi Illm Al-Illaheyyat wa Al-Tabi’yyat).

He pointed out that “the circle pulled by two equal forces until it stops in the middle, it is taken for granted that each forces has practiced an action that obstructs the other”. The same concept has been asserted by Ibn Al-Hayytham in his book, The Scenes. He pointed out that "The moving object is encountered by an obstruction, and if this forces remains, this moving object retreats in the opposite direction in the same speed practiced by the first object and according to the power of obstruction”. It is vivid clear that all what has been mentioned by Muslim scientists in these texts is the origin of the third law of motion, which was formulated by Newton after he had taken its content!

At the beginning, Muslims relied on the publications of their predecessors, such as the book entitled Nature by Aristoteles in which he dealt with kinetics and the books of Archimedes which contained information on the floating bodies in water and the specific gravity of some materials. Besides, Muslims depended on the publications of Actaspus, which en

tailed scientific results the uplifting pump and water clocks, and Heron of Alexandria who tackled the pulley, the wheel and the law of work. Muslim scientists spared no efforts to develop the physics- related theories and thoughts of their predecessors; they managed to introduce experimentation, which is seen as the main pillar of physics.