Setting
the Record Straight
"Setting
the Record Straight" is Appendix B of the
book, "The Miracle of Islamic Science."
In this appendix, Dr. K. Ajram relates a list
of hundreds of scientific and intellectual discoveries
and achievements that were made by Muslims,
but neither Muslims nor Arabs were acknowledged
for them. We posted "Appendix B,"
as a whole, for our reader's convenience.
Appendix
B
The concept that the sciences are exclusively
the products of Western minds remains unquestioned
by most individuals. A review of any of the standard
texts or encyclopedias regarding the history of
science would support this view. As these books
are perused, it becomes evident that the only
contributors given significant mention are Europeans
and/or Americans. It is hardly necessary to repeat
the oft-mentioned names: Galileo, Copernicus,
Kepler, Bacon, Newton, Da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin,
etc. The unavoidable conclusion is that major
contributions to the development of the modern
sciences by other cultures is minimal. Most texts
give little or no mention of the advancements
made by ancient Indian, Chinese or, particularly,
Muslim scholars.
Western civilization has made invaluable contributions
to the development of the sciences. However, so
have numerous other cultures. Unfortunately, Westerners
have long been credited with discoveries made
many centuries before by Islamic scholars. Thus,
many of the basic sciences were invented by non-Europeans.
For instance, George Sarton states that modern
Western medicine did not originate from Europe
and that it actually arose from the (Islamic)
orient.
The
data in this section concerning dates, names and
topics of Western advances has been derived from
three main sources: World Book Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia
Britannica and Isaac Asimov's 700 page book, Chronology
of Science and Discovery. Supportive data for
the accomplishments of Islamic scholars is derived
from the miscellaneous references listed in the
bibliography of this book.
What
is Taught: The first mention of
man in flight was by Roger Bacon, who drew a flying
apparatus. Leonardo da Vinci also conceived of
airborne transport and drew several prototypes.
What
Should be Taught: Ibn Firnas of
Islamic Spain invented, constructed and tested
a flying machine in the 800's A.D. Roger Bacon
learned of flying machines from Arabic references
to Ibn Firnas' machine. The latter's invention
antedates Bacon by 500 years and Da Vinci by some
700 years.
What
is Taught: Glass mirrors were first
produced in 1291 in Venice.
What Should be Taught: Glass mirrors
were in use in Islamic Spain as early as the 11th
century. The Venetians learned of the art of fine
glass production from Syrian artisans during the
9th and 10th centuries.
What
is Taught: Until the 14th century,
the only type of clock available was the water
clock. In 1335, a large mechanical clock was erected
in Milan, Italy. This was possibly the first weight-driven
clock.
What Should be Taught: A variety
of mechanical clocks were produced by Spanish
Muslim engineers, both large and small, and this
knowledge was transmitted to Europe through Latin
translations of Islamic books on mechanics. These
clocks were weight-driven. Designs and illustrations
of epi-cyclic and segmental gears were provided.
One such clock included a mercury escapement.
The latter type was directly copied by Europeans
during the 15th century. In addition, during the
9th century, Ibn Firnas of Islamic Spain, according
to Will Durant, invented a watch-like device which
kept accurate time. The Muslims also constructed
a variety of highly accurate astronomical clocks
for use in their observatories.
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.
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: Movable type and the printing
press was invented in the West by Johannes Gutenberg
of Germany during the 15th century.
What Should be Taught: In 1454,
Gutenberg developed the most sophisticated printing
press of the Middle Ages. However, movable brass
type was in use in Islamic Spain 100 years prior,
and that is where the West's first printing devices
were made.
What
is Taught: Isaac Newton's 17th century
study of lenses, light and prisms forms the foundation
of the modern science of optics.
What Should be Taught: In the 1lth
century al-Haytham determined virtually everything
that Newton advanced regarding optics centuries
prior and is regarded by numerous authorities
as the "founder of optics. " There is
little doubt that Newton was influenced by him.
Al-Haytham was the most quoted physicist of the
Middle Ages. His works were utilized and quoted
by a greater number of European scholars during
the 16th and 17th centuries than those of Newton
and Galileo combined.
What
is Taught: Isaac Newton, during the
17th century, discovered that white light consists
of various rays of colored light.
What Should be Taught:
This discovery was made in its entirety by al-Haytham
(11th century) and Kamal ad-Din (14th century).
Newton did make original discoveries, but this
was not one of them.
What
is Taught: The concept of the
finite nature of matter was first introduced by
Antione Lavoisier during the 18th century. He
discovered that, although matter may change its
form or shape, its mass always remains the same.
Thus, for instance, if water is heated to steam,
if salt is dissolved in water or if a piece of
wood is burned to ashes, the total mass remains
unchanged.
What
Should be Taught: The principles of
this discovery were elaborated centuries before
by Islamic Persia's great scholar, al-Biruni (d.
1050). Lavoisier was a disciple of the Muslim
chemists and physicists and referred to their
books frequently.
What
is Taught: The Greeks were the developers
of trigonometry.
What Should be Taught: Trigonometry
remained largely a theoretical science among the
Greeks. It was developed to a level of modern
perfection by Muslim scholars, although the weight
of the credit must be given to al-Battani. The
words describing the basic functions of this science,
sine, cosine and tangent, are all derived from
Arabic terms. Thus, original contributions by
the Greeks in trigonometry were minimal.
What
is Taught: The use of decimal fractions
in mathematics was first developed by a Dutchman,
Simon Stevin, in 1589. He helped advance the mathematical
sciences by replacing the cumbersome fractions,
for instance, 1/2, with decimal fractions, for
example, 0.5.
What Should be Taught: Muslim
mathematicians were the first to utilize decimals
instead of fractions on a large scale. Al-Kashi's
book, Key to Arithmetic, was written at the beginning
of the 15th century and was the stimulus for the
systematic application of decimals to whole numbers
and fractions thereof. It is highly probably that
Stevin imported the idea to Europe from al-Kashi's
work.
What
is Taught: The first man to utilize
algebraic symbols was the French mathematician,
Francois Vieta. In 1591, he wrote an algebra book
describing equations with letters such as the
now familiar x and y's. Asimov says that this
discovery had an impact similar to the progression
from Roman numerals to Arabic numbers.
What
Should be Taught: Muslim mathematicians,
the inventors of algebra, introduced the concept
of using letters for unknown variables in equations
as early as the 9th century A.D. Through this
system, they solved a variety of complex equations,
including quadratic and cubic equations. They
used symbols to develop and perfect the binomial
theorem.
What
is Taught: The difficult cubic
equations (x to the third power) remained unsolved
until the 16th century when Niccolo Tartaglia,
an Italian mathematician, solved them.
What
Should be Taught: Cubic equations as well
as numerous equations of even higher degrees were
solved with ease by Muslim mathematicians as early
as the 10th century.
What
is Taught: The concept that numbers
could be less than zero, that is negative numbers,
was unknown until 1545 when Geronimo Cardano introduced
the idea.
What
Should be Taught: Muslim mathematicians introduced
negative numbers for use in a variety of arithmetic
functions at least 400 years prior to Cardano.
What
is Taught: In 1614, John Napier invented
logarithms and logarithmic tables.
What Should be Taught: Muslim
mathematicians invented logarithms and produced
logarithmic tables several centuries prior. Such
tables were common in the Islamic world as early
as the 13th century.
What
is Taught: During the 17th century
Rene Descartes made the discovery that algebra
could be used to solve geometrical problems. By
this, he greatly advanced the science of geometry.
What
Should be Taught: Mathematicians of
the Islamic Empire accomplished precisely this
as early as the 9th century A.D. Thabit bin Qurrah
was the first to do so, and he was followed by
Abu'l Wafa, whose 10th century book utilized algebra
to advance geometry into an exact and simplified
science.
What
is Taught: Isaac Newton, during the
17th century, developed the binomial theorem,
which is a crucial component for the study of
algebra.
What Should be Taught: Hundreds
of Muslim mathematicians utilized and perfected
the binomial theorem. They initiated its use for
the systematic solution of algebraic problems
during the 10th century (or prior).
What
is Taught: No improvement had been
made in the astronomy of the ancients during the
Middle Ages regarding the motion of planets until
the 13th century. Then Alphonso the Wise of Castile
(Middle Spain) invented the Aphonsine Tables,
which were more accurate than Ptolemy's.
What Should be Taught: Muslim astronomers
made numerous improvements upon Ptolemy's findings
as early as the 9th century. They were the first
astronomers to dispute his archaic ideas. In their
critic of the Greeks, they synthesized proof that
the sun is the center of the solar system and
that the orbits of the earth and other planets
might be elliptical. They produced hundreds of
highly accurate astronomical tables and star charts.
Many of their calculations are so precise that
they are regarded as contemporary. The Alphonsine
Tables are little more than copies of works on
astronomy transmitted to Europe via Islamic Spain,
i.e. the Toledo Tables.
What
is Taught: The English scholar Roger
Bacon (d. 1292) first mentioned glass lenses for
improving vision. At nearly the same time, eyeglasses
could be found in use both in China and Europe.
What Should be Taught: Ibn Firnas
of Islamic Spain invented eyeglasses during the
9th century, and they were manufactured and sold
throughout Spain for over two centuries. Any mention
of eyeglasses by Roger Bacon was simply a regurgitation
of the work of al-Haytham (d. 1039), whose research
Bacon frequently referred to.
What
is Taught: Gunpowder was developed
in the Western world as a result of Roger Bacon's
work in 1242. The first usage of gunpowder in
weapons was when the Chinese fired it from bamboo
shoots in attempt to frighten Mongol conquerors.
They produced it by adding sulfur and charcoal
to saltpeter.
What Should be Taught: The Chinese
developed saltpeter for use in fireworks and knew
of no tactical military use for gunpowder, nor
did they invent its formula. Research by Reinuad
and Fave have clearly shown that gunpowder was
formulated initially by Muslim chemists. Further,
these historians claim that the Muslims developed
the first fire-arms. Notably, Muslim armies used
grenades and other weapons in their defense of
Algericus against the Franks during the 14th century.
Jean Mathes indicates that the Muslim rulers had
stock-piles of grenades, rifles, crude cannons,
incendiary devices, sulfur bombs and pistols decades
before such devices were used in Europe. The first
mention of a cannon was in an Arabic text around
1300 A.D. Roger Bacon learned of the formula for
gunpowder from Latin translations of Arabic books.
He brought forth nothing original in this regard.
What
is Taught: The compass was invented
by the Chinese who may have been the first to
use it for navigational purposes sometime between
1000 and 1100 A.D. The earliest reference to its
use in navigation was by the Englishman, Alexander
Neckam (1157-1217).
What Should be Taught: Muslim geographers
and navigators learned of the magnetic needle,
possibly from the Chinese, and were the first
to use magnetic needles in navigation. They invented
the compass and passed the knowledge of its use
in navigation to the West. European navigators
relied on Muslim pilots and their instruments
when exploring unknown territories. Gustav Le
Bon claims that the magnetic needle and compass
were entirely invented by the Muslims and that
the Chinese had little to do with it. Neckam,
as well as the Chinese, probably learned of it
from Muslim traders. It is noteworthy that the
Chinese improved their navigational expertise
after they began interacting with the Muslims
during the 8th century.
What
is Taught: The first man to classify
the races was the German Johann F. Blumenbach,
who divided mankind into white, yellow, brown,
black and red peoples.
What Should be Taught: Muslim scholars
of the 9th through 14th centuries invented the
science of ethnography. A number of Muslim geographers
classified the races, writing detailed explanations
of their unique cultural habits and physical appearances.
They wrote thousands of pages on this subject.
Blumenbach's works were insignificant in comparison.
What
is Taught: The science of geography
was revived during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries
when the ancient works of Ptolemy were discovered.
The Crusades and the Portuguese/Spanish expeditions
also contributed to this reawakening. The first
scientifically-based treatise on geography were
produced during this period by Europe's scholars.
What Should be Taught: Muslim geographers
produced untold volumes of books on the geography
of Africa, Asia, India, China and the Indies during
the 8th through 15th centuries. These writings
included the world's first geographical encyclopedias,
almanacs and road maps. Ibn Battutah's 14th century
masterpieces provide a detailed view of the geography
of the ancient world. The Muslim geographers of
the 10th through 15th centuries far exceeded the
output by Europeans regarding the geography of
these regions well into the 18th century. The
Crusades led to the destruction of educational
institutions, their scholars and books. They brought
nothing substantive regarding geography to the
Western world.
What
is Taught: Robert Boyle, in the 17th
century, originated the science of chemistry.
What
Should be Taught: A variety of Muslim
chemists, including ar-Razi, al-Jabr, al-Biruni
and al-Kindi, performed scientific experiments
in chemistry some 700 years prior to Boyle. Durant
writes that the Muslims introduced the experimental
method to this science. Humboldt regards the Muslims
as the founders of chemistry.
What
is Taught: Leonardo da Vinci (16th
century) fathered the science of geology when
he noted that fossils found on mountains indicated
a watery origin of the earth.
What Should be Taught:
Al-Biruni (1lth century) made precisely this observation
and added much to it, including a huge book on
geology, hundreds of years before Da Vinci was
born. Ibn Sina noted this as well (see pages 100-101).
it is probable that Da Vinci first learned of
this concept from Latin translations of Islamic
books. He added nothing original to their findings.
What
is Taught: The first mention of the
geological formation of valleys was in 1756, when
Nicolas Desmarest proposed that they were formed
over a long periods of time by streams.
What Should be Taught: Ibn Sina
and al-Biruni made precisely this discovery during
the 11th century fully 700 years prior to Desmarest.
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.
What
is Taught: The Italian Giovanni Morgagni
is regarded as the father of pathology because
he was the first to correctly describe the nature
of disease.
What Should be Taught:
Islam's surgeons were the first pathologists.
They fully realized the nature of disease and
described a variety of diseases to modern detail.
Ibn Zuhr correctly described the nature of pleurisy,
tuberculosis and pericarditis. Az-Zahrawi accurately
documented the pathology of hydrocephalus (water
on the brain) and other congenital diseases. Ibn
al-Quff and Ibn an-Nafs gave perfect descriptions
of the diseases of circulation. Other Muslim surgeons
gave the first accurate descriptions of certain
malignancies, including cancer of the stomach,
bowel and esophagus. These surgeons were the originators
of pathology, not Giovanni Morgagni.
What
is Taught: Paul Ehrlich (19th century)
is the originator of drug chemotherapy, that is
the use of specific drugs to kill microbes.
What Should be Taught: Muslim physicians
used a variety of specific substances to destroy
microbes. They applied sulfur topically specifically
to kill the scabies mite. Ar-Razi (10th century)
used mercurial compounds as topical antiseptics.
What
is Taught: Purified alcohol, made through
distillation, was first produced by Arnau de Villanova,
a Spanish alchemist, in 1300 A.D.
What Should be Taught: Numerous
Muslim chemists produced medicinal-grade alcohol
through distillation as early as the 10th century
and manufactured on a large scale the first distillation
devices for use in chemistry. They used alcohol
as a solvent and antiseptic.
What
is Taught: The first surgery performed
under inhalation anesthesia was conducted by C.W.
Long, an American, in 1845.
What Should be Taught: Six hundred
years prior to Long, Islamic Spain's Az-Zahrawi
and Ibn Zuhr, among other Muslim surgeons, performed
hundreds of surgeries under inhalation anesthesia
with the use of narcotic-soaked sponges which
were placed over the face.
What
is Taught: During the 16th century
Paracelsus invented the use of opium extracts
for anesthesia.
What Should be Taught: Muslim physicians
introduced the anesthetic value of opium derivatives
during the Middle Ages. Opium was originally used
as an anesthetic agent by the Greeks. Paracelus
was a student of Ibn Sina's works from which it
is almost assured that he derived this idea.
What
is Taught: Modern anesthesia was invented
in the 19th century by Humphrey Davy and Horace
Wells.
What Should be Taught: Modern anesthesia
was discovered, mastered and perfected by Muslim
anesthetists 900 years before the advent of Davy
and Wells. They utilized oral as well as inhalant
anesthetics.
What
is Taught: The concept of quarantine
was first developed in 1403. In Venice, a law
was passed preventing strangers from entering
the city until a certain waiting period had passed.
If, by then, no sign of illness could be found,
they were allowed in.
What
Should be Taught: The concept of quarantine
was first introduced in the 7th century A.D. by
the prophet Muhammad, who wisely warned against
entering or leaving a region suffering from plague.
As early as the 10th century, Muslim physicians
innovated the use of isolation wards for individuals
suffering with communicable diseases.
What
is Taught: The scientific use of antiseptics
in surgery was discovered by the British surgeon
Joseph Lister in 1865.
What Should be Taught: As early
as the 10th century, Muslim physicians and surgeons
were applying purified alcohol to wounds as an
antiseptic agent. Surgeons in Islamic Spain utilized
special methods for maintaining antisepsis prior
to and during surgery. They also originated specific
protocols for maintaining hygiene during the post-operative
period. Their success rate was so high that dignitaries
throughout Europe came to Cordova, Spain, to be
treated at what was comparably the "Mayo
Clinic" of the Middle Ages.
What
is Taught: In 1545, the scientific
use of surgery was advanced by the French surgeon
Ambroise Pare. Prior to him, surgeons attempted
to stop bleeding through the gruesome procedure
of searing the wound with boiling oil. Pare stopped
the use of boiling oils and began ligating arteries.
He is considered the "father of rational
surgery." Pare was also one of the first
Europeans to condemn such grotesque "surgical"
procedures as trepanning (see reference #6, pg.
110).
What Should be Taught: Islamic Spain's
illustrious surgeon, az-Zahrawi (d. 1013), began
ligating arteries with fine sutures over 500 years
prior to Pare. He perfected the use of Catgut,
that is suture made from animal intestines. Additionally,
he instituted the use of cotton plus wax to plug
bleeding wounds.
The
full details of his works were made available
to Europeans through Latin translations. Despite
this, barbers and herdsmen continued be the primary
individuals practicing the "art" of
surgery for nearly six centuries after az-Zahrawi's
death. Pare himself was a barber, albeit more
skilled and conscientious than the average ones.
Included in az-Zahrawi's legacy are dozens of
books.
His
most famous work is a 30 volume treatise on medicine
and surgery. His books contain sections on preventive
medicine, nutrition, cosmetics, drug therapy,
surgical technique, anesthesia, pre and post-operative
care as well as drawings of some 200 surgical
devices, many of which he invented. The refined
and scholarly az-Zahrawi must be regarded as the
father and founder of rational surgery, not the
uneducated Pare.
What
is Taught: William Harvey, during the
early 17th century, discovered that blood circulates.
He was the first to correctly describe the function
of the heart, arteries and veins. Rome's Galen
had presented erroneous ideas regarding the circulatory
system, and Harvey was the first to determine
that blood is pumped throughout the body via the
action of the heart and the venous valves. Therefore,
he is regarded as the founder of human physiology.
What Should be Taught:
In the 10th century, Islam's ar-Razi wrote an
in-depth treatise on the venous system, accurately
describing the function of the veins and their
valves. Ibn an-Nafs and Ibn al-Quff (13th century)
provided full documentation that the blood circulates
and correctly described the physiology of the
heart and the function of its valves 300 years
before Harvey. William Harvey was a graduate of
Italy's famous Padua University at a time when
the majority of its curriculum was based upon
Ibn Sina's and ar-Razi's textbooks.
What
is Taught: The first pharmacopeia (book
of medicines) was published by a German scholar
in 1542. According to World Book Encyclopedia,
the science of pharmacology was begun in the 1900's
as an off-shoot of chemistry due to the analysis
of crude plant materials. Chemists, after isolating
the active ingredients from plants, realized their
medicinal value.
What Should be Taught:
According to the eminent scholar of Arab history,
Phillip Hitti, the Muslims, not the Greeks or
Europeans, wrote the first "modern"
pharmacopeia. The science of pharmacology was
originated by Muslim physicians during the 9th
century. They developed it into a highly refined
and exact science. Muslim chemists, pharmacists
and physicians produced thousands of drugs and/or
crude herbal extracts one thousand years prior
to the supposed birth of pharmacology. During
the 14th century Ibn Baytar wrote a monumental
pharmacopeia listing some 1400 different drugs.
Hundreds of other pharmacopeias were published
during the Islamic Era. It is likely that the
German work is an offshoot of that by Ibn Baytar,
which was widely circulated in Europe.
What
is Taught: The discovery of the scientific
use of drugs in the treatment of specific diseases
was made by Paracelsus, the Swiss-born physician,
during the 16th century. He is also credited with
being the first to use practical experience as
a determining factor in the treatment of patients
rather than relying exclusively on the works of
the ancients.
What Should be Taught: Ar-Razi,
Ibn Sina, al-Kindi, Ibn Rushd, az-Zahrawi, Ibn
Zuhr, Ibn Baytar, Ibn al-Jazzar, Ibn Juljul, Ibn
al-Quff, Ibn an-Nafs, al-Biruni, Ibn Sahl and
hundreds of other Muslim physicians mastered the
science of drug therapy for the treatment of specific
symptoms and diseases. In fact, this concept was
entirely their invention. The word "drug"
is derived from Arabic. Their use of practical
experience and careful observation was extensive.
Muslim physicians were the first to criticize
ancient medical theories and practices. Ar-Razi
devoted an entire book as a critique of Galen's
anatomy. The works of Paracelsus are insignificant
compared to the vast volumes of medical writings
and original findings accomplished by the medical
giants of Islam.
What
is Taught: The first sound approach
to the treatment of disease was made by a German,
Johann Weger, in the 1500's.
What Should be Taught: Harvard's
George Sarton says that modern medicine is entirely
an Islamic development and that the Muslim physicians
of the 9th through 12th centuries were precise,
scientific, rational and sound in their approach.
Johann Weger was among thousands of Europeans
physicians during the 15th through 17th centuries
who were taught the medicine of ar-Razi and Ibn
Sina. He contributed nothing original.
What
is Taught: Medical treatment for the
insane was modernized by Philippe Pinel when in
1793 he operated France's first insane asylum.
What
Should be Taught: As early as the 1lth
century, Islamic hospitals maintained special
wards for the insane. They treated them kindly
and presumed their disease was real at a time
when the insane were routinely burned alive in
Europe as witches and sorcerers. A curative approach
was taken for mental illness and, for the first
time in history, the mentally ill were treated
with supportive care, drugs and psychotherapy.
Every major Islamic city maintained an insane
asylum where patients were treated at no charge.
In fact, the Islamic system for the treatment
of the insane excels in comparison to the current
model, as it was more humane and was highly effective
as well.
What
is Taught: Kerosene was first produced
by the an Englishman, Abraham Gesner, in 1853.
He distilled it from asphalt.
What Should be Taught:
Muslim chemists produced kerosene as a distillate
from petroleum products over 1,000 years prior
to Gesner (see Encyclopaedia Britannica under
the heading, Petroleum).
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