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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