Muslim inventions that shaped the modern world
By Olivia Sterns for CNN

London, England (CNN) -- Think of the origins of that staple of modern life, the cup of coffee, and Italy often springs to mind.
But in fact, Yemen is where the ubiquitous brew has its true origins.

Along with the first university, and even the toothbrush, it is among surprising Muslim inventions that have shaped the world we live in today.
The origins of these fundamental ideas and objects -- the basis of everything from the bicycle to musical scales -- are the focus of "1001 Inventions," a book celebrating "the forgotten" history of 1,000 years of Muslim heritage.

"There's a hole in our knowledge, we leap frog from the Renaissance to the Greeks," professor Salim al-Hassani, Chairman of the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation, and editor of the book told CNN.

"1001 Inventions" is now an exhibition at London's Science Museum. Hassani hopes the exhibition will highlight the contributions of non-Western cultures -- like the Muslim empire that once covered Spain and Portugal, Southern Italy and stretched as far as parts of China -- to present day civilization.


In 9th century Spain, Muslim inventor Abbas ibn Firnas designed a flying machine -- hundreds of years before da Vinci drew plans of his own.

Here Hassani shares his top 10 outstanding Muslim inventions:

1. Surgery

Around the year 1,000, the celebrated doctor Al Zahrawi published a 1,500 page illustrated encyclopedia of surgery that was used in Europe as a medical reference for the next 500 years. Among his many inventions, Zahrawi discovered the use of dissolving cat gut to stitch wounds -- beforehand a second surgery had to be performed to remove sutures. He also reportedly performed the first caesarean operation and created the first pair of forceps.

2. Coffee
Now the Western world's drink du jour, coffee was first brewed in Yemen around the 9th century. In its earliest days, coffee helped Sufis stay up during late nights of devotion. Later brought to Cairo by a group of students, the coffee buzz soon caught on around the empire. By the 13th century it reached Turkey, but not until the 16th century did the beans start boiling in Europe, brought to Italy by a Venetian trader.

3. Flying machine

"Abbas ibn Firnas was the first person to make a real attempt to construct a flying machine and fly," said Hassani. In the 9th century he designed a winged apparatus, roughly resembling a bird costume. In his most famous trial near Cordoba in Spain, Firnas flew upward for a few moments, before falling to the ground and partially breaking his back. His designs would undoubtedly have been an inspiration for famed Italian artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci's hundreds of years later, said Hassani.

4. University

In 859 a young princess named Fatima al-Firhi founded the first degree-granting university in Fez, Morocco. Her sister Miriam founded an adjacent mosque and together the complex became the al-Qarawiyyin Mosque and University. Still operating almost 1,200 years later, Hassani says he hopes the center will remind people that learning is at the core of the Islamic tradition and that the story of the al-Firhi sisters will inspire young Muslim women around the world today.

5. Algebra

The word algebra comes from the title of a Persian mathematician's famous 9th century treatise "Kitab al-Jabr Wa l-Mugabala" which translates roughly as "The Book of Reasoning and Balancing." Built on the roots of Greek and Hindu systems, the new algebraic order was a unifying system for rational numbers, irrational numbers and geometrical magnitudes. The same mathematician, Al-Khwarizmi, was also the first to introduce the concept of raising a number to a power.

6. Optics

"Many of the most important advances in the study of optics come from the Muslim world," says Hassani. Around the year 1000 Ibn al-Haitham proved that humans see objects by light reflecting off of them and entering the eye, dismissing Euclid and Ptolemy's theories that light was emitted from the eye itself. This great Muslim physicist also discovered the camera obscura phenomenon, which explains how the eye sees images upright due to the connection between the optic nerve and the brain.

7. Music
Muslim musicians have had a profound impact on Europe, dating back to Charlemagne tried to compete with the music of Baghdad and Cordoba, according to Hassani. Among many instruments that arrived in Europe through the Middle East are the lute and the rahab, an ancestor of the violin. Modern musical scales are also said to derive from the Arabic alphabet.

8. Toothbrush

According to Hassani, the Prophet Mohammed popularized the use of the first toothbrush in around 600. Using a twig from the Meswak tree, he cleaned his teeth and freshened his breath. Substances similar to Meswak are used in modern toothpaste.

9. The crank

Many of the basics of modern automatics were first put to use in the Muslim world, including the revolutionary crank-connecting rod system. By converting rotary motion to linear motion, the crank enables the lifting of heavy objects with relative ease. This technology, discovered by Al-Jazari in the 12th century, exploded across the globe, leading to everything from the bicycle to the internal combustion engine.

10. Hospitals

"Hospitals as we know them today, with wards and teaching centers, come from 9th century Egypt," explained Hassani. The first such medical center was the Ahmad ibn Tulun Hospital, founded in 872 in Cairo. Tulun hospital provided free care for anyone who needed it -- a policy based on the Muslim tradition of caring for all who are sick. From Cairo, such hospitals spread around the Muslim world.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/01/29/muslim.inventions/index.html

First of all, when CNN criticizes islam or an islamic country, it is dubbed as "Western media", "biased islamophobic media", "Jewish controlled media"......etc. Now that it is praising islam (albeit with falsehoods) you post it here like some piece of good news to be shared......smh



8. Muhammed (PBUH) did not invent the toothbrush neither was he the earliest to use a chewing stick.

4. Universities? Seriously? The first "proper" university would be the University at Bologna. If we want to stretch it, your muslim universities would have to give way to Plato

7. Music? Ironic how some schools of islam find music to be haraam. Arans ha their instruments just as Europeans had their own musical instruments. But seriously, the way muslims like to compare themselves with Europe is alarming. Asians and Africans had their own music too!! Tbaba, it is shameful that you an African, couldnt see the ethnocentrism in this....






Tbaba, you are smarter than this.

Anyhoo, my comment will be a waste because it is the truth and we know that some pained by the truth will run to Maclatunji to hide the truth

Up till today, Arabic words/culture are still in the university system.

Alumni comes from the word Alim (which means a knowledgeable one).

Even the design of the graduation thobe is from the muslims....

The roots are still there.

We are talking of the things that laid the foundation for the modern world not the finished products.

No need to get worked up over this. Every civilisation has made some contribution to the modern world.

tbaba1234:

Mr Logic boy, your ignorance is disgraceful sometimes.

Up till today, Arabic words/culture are still in the university system.

Alumni comes from the word Alim (which means a knowledgeable one).

Even the graduation thobe is from the muslims....

We are talking of the things that laid the foundation for the modern world not the finished products.

No need to get worked up over this. Every civilisation has made some contribution to the modern world.

Wow...is this some kind of reuttal? Even by your own comment, University was not an islamic invention....you just gathered some popular islamic myths

tbaba1234:

Up till today, Arabic words/culture are still in the university system.

Alumni comes from the word Alim (which means a knowledgeable one).

Even the design of the graduation thobe is from the muslims....

The roots are still there.

We are talking of the things that laid the foundation for the modern world not the finished products.

No need to get worked up over this. Every civilisation has made some contribution to the modern world.

Note how you didt even attend to the two other points i raised.

Logicbwoy:


Note how you didt even attend to the two other points i raised.

No need, there were all shallow. The influence of Arabic culture at the rise of Islam is still very evident in these things.

A summary it is but if the impact of Muslims had been elaborated by the writer, people will be amazed at how Muslims and Islam truly influenced science.

chastity belt and apple products ( yes the founder of apple was an iranian muslim )

No be ur fault na, if not for ASUU wetin I 4 dey find 4 nairaland!

Inventions got nothing to do with religion.

Alli is well

I thought they said Education is a Sin.How come were they the first to invent or start or introduce a University

funny people.......! Fabrication of d highest order

And Xtians invented everything else

what does invention has to do with religion?

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front page material. https://www.nairaland.com/1511749/etiquette-perfect-relationship

u forgot to add boko haram, Al'queada n Al'Shabab

Music?.

Nerosoft19: u forgot to add boko haram, Al'queada n Al'Shabab

in One word, TERRORISM.

Its either this was published by a muslim or CNN is trying to romance muslims.

This article is all lie

Hmm...CNN will lose credibility it they keep publishing this kind of reports. Most of the facts in this article can be challenged. Back in 1500 BC in India, Sushruta compiled "Sushruta Samhita" that described seven branches of surgery: Excision, Scarification, Puncturing, Exploration, Extraction, Evacuation, and Suturing. Several universities, including Nalanda, existed in India way before 859 AD. India is the birthplace of many mathematic concepts, including zero (invented by Aryabhatta in the 5th BC), decimal system, square and cube roots. Toothbrush popularized by Prophet Mohammed? How silly is that - chew sticks has been common in most ancient civilizations, - and the bristle toothbrush was invented in China in the 15th century.

Interesting....

Foxy_Flow: To avoid being banned, please ensure that your post is not offensive to any religion.


Even if this seems like a general topic, do take caution from the above as it changes nothing.

Uhm.. Great inventions, but the toothbrush own, who did you say invented it?

Africans had been chewing stick since 0000 BC.

na You dey ban pple??