Thistimeline of science and engineering in theMuslim world covers the time period from the eighth century AD to the introduction ofEuropean science to the Muslim world in the nineteenth century. All year dates are given according to theGregorian calendar except where noted.
d 777 CEIbrāhīm al-FazārīIbrahim ibn Habib ibn Sulayman ibnSamura ibn Jundabal-Fazari (Arabic: إبراهيم بن حبيب بن سليمان بن سمرة بن جندب الفزاري) (died 777 CE) was an 8th-century Muslim mathematician and astronomer at theAbbasid court of the CaliphAl-Mansur (r. 754–775). He should not be confused with his sonMuḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Fazārī, also an astronomer. He composed various astronomical writings ("on theastrolabe", "on the armillary spheres", "on the calendar").
d 796Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Habib ibn Sulayman ibnSamra ibn Jundabal-Fazari (Arabic: إبراهيم بن حبيب بن سليمان بن سمرة بن جندب الفزاري) (died 796 or 806) was aMuslimphilosopher,mathematician andastronomer. He is not to be confused with his fatherIbrāhīm al-Fazārī, also an astronomer and mathematician. Some sources refer to him as anArab, other sources state that he was aPersian. Al-Fazārī translated many scientific books intoArabic andPersian. He is credited to have built the firstastrolabe in theIslamic world. Along withYaʿqūb ibn Ṭāriq and his father he helped translate the Indian astronomical text byBrahmagupta (fl. 7th century), theBrāhmasphuṭasiddhānta, into Arabic asAz-Zīj ‛alā Sinī al-‛Arab., or theSindhind. This translation was possibly the vehicle by means of which theHindu numerals were transmitted fromIndia to Islam.
(654–728)Ibn SirinMuhammad Ibn Sirin (Arabic: محمد بن سيرين) (born inBasra) was aMuslim mystic and interpreter of dreams who lived in the 8th century. He was a contemporary ofAnas ibn Malik. Once regarded as the same person asAchmet son of Seirim, this is no longer believed to be true, as shown byMaria Mavroudi.
780 – 850:al-Khwarizmi Developed the "calculus of resolution and juxtaposition" (hisab al-jabr w'al-muqabala), more briefly referred to as al-jabr, oralgebra.
The Conica ofApollonius of Perga, "the great geometer", translated into Arabic in the ninth century
Chemistry
801 – 873:al-Kindi writes on thedistillation of wine as that ofrose water and gives 107 recipes forperfumes, in his book Kitab Kimia al-'otoor wa al-tas`eedat (Book of the Chemistry of Perfumes and Distillations.)[citation needed]
865 – 925:al-Razi wrote on Naft (naphta or petroleum) and its distillates in his book "Kitab sirr al-asrar" (book of the secret of secrets.) When choosing a site to build Baghdad's hospital, he hung pieces of fresh meat in different parts of the city. The location where the meat took the longest torot was the one he chose for building the hospital. Advocated that patients not be told their real condition so thatfear ordespair do not affect thehealing process. Wrote onalkali,caustic soda, soap andglycerine. Gave descriptions of equipment processes and methods in his book Kitab al-Asrar (Book of Secrets).
810 – 887:Abbas ibn Firnas.Planetarium, artificial crystals. According to one account that was written seven centuries after his death, Ibn Firnas was injured during an elevated winged trial flight.
By this century, threesystems of counting are used in the Arab world. Finger-reckoning arithmetic, with numerals written entirely in words, used by the business community; thesexagesimal system, a remnant originating with theBabylonians, with numerals denoted by letters of thearabic alphabet and used by Arab mathematicians in astronomical work; and theIndian numeral system, which was used with various sets of symbols. Its arithmetic at first required the use of a dust board (a sort of handheldblackboard) because "the methods required moving the numbers around in the calculation and rubbing some out as the calculation proceeded."
920:al-Uqlidisi. Modified arithmetic methods for the Indian numeral system to make it possible for pen and paper use. Hitherto, doing calculations with the Indian numerals necessitated the use of a dust board as noted earlier.
940: BornAbu'l-Wafa al-Buzjani. Wrote severaltreatises using the finger-counting system of arithmetic and was also an expert on the Indian numerals system. About the Indian system, he wrote: "[It] did not find application in business circles and among the population of the EasternCaliphate for a long time."[1] Using the Indian numeral system, abu'l Wafa was able to extractroots.
980:al-Baghdadi Studied a slight variant ofThabit ibn Qurra's theorem onamicable numbers.[1] Al-Baghdadi also wrote about and compared the three systems of counting and arithmetic used in the region during this period.
1048 – 1131:Omar Khayyam. Persian mathematician and poet. "Gave a complete classification ofcubic equations with geometric solutions found by means of intersectingconic sections."[1] Extractedroots using the decimal system (the Indian numeral system).
1130–1180:Al-Samawal. An important member of al-Karaji's school of algebra. Gave this definition ofalgebra: "[it is concerned] with operating on unknowns using all the arithmetical tools, in the same way as the arithmetician operates on the known."[1]
1135:Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi. Follows al-Khayyam's application of algebra of geometry, rather than follow the general development that came through al-Karaji's school of algebra. Wrote a treatise oncubic equations which[2][page needed] describes thus: "[the treatise] represents an essential contribution to anotheralgebra which aimed to studycurves by means ofequations, thus inaugurating the beginning ofalgebraic geometry." (quoted in[1] ).
Jaghmini completed theal-Mulakhkhas fi al-Hay’ah ("Epitome of plain theoretical astronomy"), an astronomical textbook which spawned many commentaries and whose educational use lasted until the 18th century.[4]
Miscellaneous
Mechanical engineering:Ismail al-Jazari described 100 mechanical devices, some 80 of which are trick vessels of various kinds, along with instructions on how to construct them.
Medicine; Scientific method:Ibn Al-Nafis (1213–1288)Damascene physician and anatomist. Discovered the lessercirculatory system (the cycle involving theventricles of theheart and thelungs) and described the mechanism ofbreathing and its relation to the blood and how it nourishes on air in the lungs. Followed a "constructivist" path of the smaller circulatory system: "blood is purified in the lungs for the continuance of life and providing the body with the ability to work". During his time, the common view was that blood originates in the liver then travels to the right ventricle, then on to the organs of the body; another contemporary view was that blood is filtered through the diaphragm where it mixes with the air coming from the lungs. Ibn al-Nafis discredited all these views including ones byGalen andAvicenna (ibn Sina). At least an illustration of his manuscript is still extant.William Harvey explained the circulatory system without reference to ibn al-Nafis in 1628. Ibn al-Nafis extolled the study of comparative anatomy in his "Explaining the dissection of [Avicenna's]Al-Qanoon" which includes a preface, and citations of sources. Emphasized the rigours ofverification by measurement, observation and experiment. Subjected conventional wisdom of his time to a critical review and verified it with experiment and observation, discarding errors.[citation needed]
1380–1429:al-Kashi. According to,[1] "contributed to the development ofdecimal fractions not only for approximatingalgebraic numbers, but also forreal numbers such aspi. His contribution to decimal fractions is so major that for many years he was considered as their inventor. Although not the first to do so, al-Kashi gave an algorithm for calculatingnth roots which is a special case of the methods given many centuries later byRuffini andHorner."
Ibn al-Banna andal-Qalasadi usedsymbols for mathematics "and, although we do not know exactly when their use began, we know that symbols were used at least a century before this."[1]
A seventeenth-centurycelestial globe was made byDiya’ ad-din Muhammad inLahore, 1663 (now inPakistan).[5] It is now housed at theNational Museum of Scotland. It is encircled by a meridian ring and a horizon ring.[6] The latitude angle of 32° indicates that the globe was made in the Lahore workshop.[7] This specific 'workshop claims 21 signed globes—the largest number from a single shop’ making this globe a good example of Celestial Globe production at its peak.[8]
Muslim scientists made significant contributions to modern science. These include the development of the electroweak unification theory byAbdus Salam, development of femtochemistry byAhmed Zewail, invention of the graphite anode for lithium-ion battery byRachid Yazami, invention of quantum dots byMoungi Bawendi, and development of fuzzy set theory byLotfi A. Zadeh. Other major contributions include introduction of Kardar–Parisi–Zhang equation byMehran Kardar, the development ofCircuit topology byAlireza Mashaghi, and the first description ofBehçet's disease byHulusi Behçet.
Contributions of Muslim scientists have been recognized by 4 Nobel Prizes.Abdus Salam was the first Muslim to win a Nobel Prize in science.Rachid Yazami was the first Arab engineer to win theDraper Prize, considered the Nobel in engineering.
^Rashed, R (1994).The development of Arabic mathematics: between arithmetic and algebra. London, England.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Qatar Digital Library - an online portal providing access to previously undigitisedBritish Library archive materials relating to Gulf history and Arabic science
