Muslim scientists and inventors, including Arabs, Persians and Turks, were probably hundreds of years ahead of their counterparts in the European Middle Ages. They drew influence from Aristotelian philosophy and Neo-platonists, as well as Euclid, Archimedes, Ptolemy and others. The Muslims made innumerable discoveries and wrote countless books about medicine, surgery, physics, chemistry, philosophy, astrology, geometry and various other fields.
These are the Muslim scientists and their inventions that truly changed the world:
- Ali Javan: An MIT inventor and physicist from Iran. Mr Javan was ranked 12 on “Top 100 Living Geniuses” by The Daily Telegraph. He contributes to the fields of quantum physics and spectroscopy. Inventions: Co-invented Gas Laser in 1960.
- Aziz Sancar: Another Muslim Nobel laureate from Turkey that won Nobel Prize in 2015 for his work on DNA repair. Only three Muslim scientists have won the Nobel Prize.
- Ibn al-Baitar:Discover: Al-Baitar discovered 200 plants for medicine usage.
- Ibn al-Nafis:Invention: Describe right-sided pulmonary circulation.
- Abu al-Wafa Buzjani:Inventions:
- Introduced secant and cosecant functions.
- Gave values of sine and tangent at 15 degrees.
- Build a quadrant (an astronomical instrument).
- Banu Musa Brothers:Inventions:
- First to give numerical values of area and volume.
- 100 mechanical devices.
- Measured the length of a year.
- Abdus Salam: His work on theoretical and particle physics still influenced many. His contribution to electroweak unification theory honoured him with a Nobel Prize. He was the first Pakistani and first Muslim to receive a Nobel Prize in science.
- Nasir al-Din al-Tusi:Invention: Al-Zij-Iikhan, an astronomical table.
- Al-Battani:Inventions:
- He catalogued 489 stars.
- Refined the value of a solar year, which is still 99% accurate.
- Ahmed Zewail:Invention: Found femtochemistry, a branch of chemistry.
- Omar Khayyam:Inventions:
- Classified and solve cubic equation, for the first time in the world.
- The solar calendar is one of the most accurate.
- AL-KINDI:Discoveries: He was the first to discover sound waves.
- Al-Biruni:Inventions: Calculated radius of Earth.
- Thabit Ibn Qurra:Inventions:
- Extension in the real number system.
- Probably, the first reformer of the Ptolemaic system.
- Ibn al-Haytham:Invention:
- Author of Kitab al-Manazir.
- Invented PinHole Camera.
- Al-Zahrawi:Invention: Al-Tarif, an Encyclopedia on medical and surgery.
- Ibn-Sina (Avicenna):Inventions:
- The Canon of Medicine
- The Book of Healing
- Steam Distillation
- Jabir ibn Hayyan:Title: The Father of Modern Chemistry (not modern chemistry).
- Al-Khwarizmi:Inventions:
- Introduced Algebra.
- Introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals.
- Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi:
- Abu Nasr Al-Farabi (872 – 950): Also known as Alpharabius. Arab scientists and philosophers are considered one of preeminent thinkers of the medieval era.
- Ibn Battuta (1304 – 1369): Also known as Shams ad-Din. Arab traveller and scholar who wrote one of the most famous travel books in history, the Riblah.
- Ibn Rushd (1126 – 1198): Also known as Averroes. Arab philosopher and scholar who produced a series of summaries and commentaries on most of Aristotle’s works and on Plato’s Republic.
- Muhammad ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi (780 – 850): Also known as Algoritmi or Algaurizin. His works introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals and the concepts of algebra into European mathematics.
- Ibn Ishaq Al-Kindi (801 – 873): Also known as Alkindus. Arab philosopher and scientist, who is known as the first of the Muslim peripatetic philosophers.
- Ibn Zuhr (1091 – 1161): Also known as Avenzoar. Arab physician and surgeon, known for his influential book Al-Taisir Fil-Mudawat Wal-Tadbeer (Book of Simplification Concerning Therapeutics and Diet).
- Ibn Khaldun (1332 – 1406): Arab historiographer and historian who developed one of the earliest nonreligious philosophies of history. Often considered as one of the forerunners of modern historiography, sociology and economics.
- Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan: Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan (born 1935, Bhopal, India) is the undisputed hero of Pakistan’s nuclear saga. Called “the father of the Islamic bomb.
- Al – Farghani (860 A.D): He accepted Ptolemy’s theory and value of the precession, but thought that it affected not only the stars but also the planets. He determined the diameter of the earth to be 6,500 miles and found the greatest distances and also the diameters of the planets.
- Abu – Hamid Al – Ghazali (1058 – 1128 A.D): Ghazali’s major contribution lies in religion, philosophy and Sufism. A number of Muslim philosophers had been following and developing several viewpoints of Greek philosophy, including the Neoplatonic philosophy, and this was leading to conflict with several Islamic teachings.
There was a time that Muslim scientists were known because of their famous inventions in the world. Ibn-e-Sina, Al-Jazari, Mohammad Abu Musa Al Kharazmimi and many scientists like that have invented many things that we all use today, but we do not know who is that inventor, there was a time that Mughal King Shah, where made the Taj Mahal from the treasury of his entire nation, and the Muslims went away from science, in the meantime, whereas the rest of the world was studying science and education.
