Physics
The
Holy Quran had awakened a spirit of enquiry among the
Arabs which was instrumental in their splendid achievements
in the field of science, and according to a western
critic led them to realise that "science could
not be advanced by mere speculation; its only sure progress
lay in the practical interrogation of nature. The essential
characteristics of their method are experiment and observation.
The
Muslims developed physics to a high degree and produced
such eminent physicists as Kindi, al-Beruni, and Ar-Razi.
Abu
Yusuf Ibn Ishaq, known as al-Kindi was born at Kufa
in themiddle of the 9th century and flourished in Baghdad.
He is the most dominating and one of the greatest Muslim
scholars of physics.
He
applied mathematics not only to physics, but also to
medicine. He was therefore regarded by Cardon, a philosopher
of the Renaissance, "as one of the 12 subtlest
minds." He thought that gold and silver could only
be obtained from mines and not through any other process.
He endeavoured to ascertain the laws that govern the
fall of bodies.
Razi
investigated on the determination of specific gravity
of means of hydrostatic balance, called by him Mizan-al-Tabii.
Most of his works on physics, mathematics, astronomy
and optics have perished. In physics his writings deal
with matter, space, time and motion. In his opinion
matter in the primitive state before the creation of
the world was composed of scattered atoms, which possessed
extent. Mixed in various proportions with the articles
of void, these atoms produced these elements which are
five ih number namely earth, air, water, fire and celestial
element. Fire is created by striking iron on the stone.
al-Biruni
Abu
Rehan Beruni, was a versatile genius, who adorned the
durbar of Mahmud of Ghazni. His outstanding achievement
in the realm of physics was the accurate determination
of the weight of 18 stones. He also discovered that
light travels faster than sound. He has also contributed
immensely to geological knowledge by providing the correct
explanation of the formation'of natural spring and artesian
wells,
He
suggested that the Indus valley was formerly an ancient
basin filled with alluvial soil. His Kitab al Jawahir
deals with different types of gems and their specific
gravity. A voluminous unedited lapidary by Betuni is
kept in manuscript form in the Escorial Library. It
deals.with a large number of stones and metals from
the natural, commercial and medical point of view.
What
is Taught: In the 17th century, the pendulum
was developed by Galileo during his teenage years. He
noticed a chandelier swaying as it was being blown by
the wind. As a result, he went home and invented the pendulum.
Pendulum
What
Should be Taught: The pendulum was discovered
by Ibn Yunus al-Masri during the 10th century, who was
the first to study and document its oscillatory motion.
Its value for use in clocks was introduced by Muslim physicists
during the 15th century.
What
is Taught: Galileo (17th century) was the world's
first great experimenter.
What
Should be Taught: Al-Biruni (d. 1050) was the
world's first great experimenter. He wrote over 200 books,
many of which discuss his precise experiments.
His
literary output in the sciences amounts to some 13,000
pages, far exceeding that written by Galileo or, for that
matter, Galileo and Newton combined.
al-Haytham
Using
math in physics and astronomy, Ibn Al-Haytham wrote treaties
on the light of the Moon, in which he argues that the
moon shines like a self luminous object, though its light
is borrowed from the Sun.
He
wrote on the Halo and Rainbow, on Spherical Burning Mirrors,
on Paraboloidal Burning Mirrors, and on the Shape of an
eclipse, which examines the camera obscura phenomena.
Camera
Obscura
Karmal al-Din al-Farisi
Istanbul, Fourteenth Century
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