ISLAM

Muslim inventions that shaped the modern world

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,” Chairman of the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation, and editor of the book Professor Salim al-Hassani said at the 1001 Inventions exhibition at London’s Science Museum. Hassani said the exhibition was aimed at highlighting 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.

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 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 up in 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 (Djemaa el Kairaouine) 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 they 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, 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

According to an article by Ismail Abaza The hospital that Ibn Tulun built between 872 and 874 AD, known as a muristan, could be counted as modern even now. One would leave their own clothes when entering it and put on hospital garments. All food and medicines were free, and Ibn Tulun inspected the hospital every Friday. This hospital was built specifically for the general population, and in fact his soldiers and guards were forbidden from its grounds.

Women in Islam :

Does Islam oppress women?

In answering this question, we must differentiate between the teachings of Islam and the practice of some Muslims. Although some Muslim cultures oppress women, it often reflects local customs that are inconsistent, if not contrary to Islamic teachings. Islam expects its adherents to uphold the rights of women, to protect their social status and prevent their degradation in every way. Islam further holds that women are equal to men in their origin, their humanity, their honor and their accountability before God.

Today, western societies have actually demoted women to sex objects. The United States of America is one of the leading advocates of the so-called ‘women’s liberation’ movement. Ironically, it also has one of the highest rates of sexual assault and rape in the world. According to an FBI report, in the year 1990, an average of 1756 rapes were commited in the US every single day.

The idea that Islam treats women as second class citizens worth half a man is nothing but a myth. Islam elevated the status of women over 1,400 years ago by declaring them the sisters of men, giving them the right to education to the highest level, the right to choose a husband, the right to end an unhappy marriage, the right to inheritance, in general, the rights of a full citizen of the state. Not only material and physical rights, but those of kindness and consideration are equally specified and significant in Islamic law.

Men and women are two equally important component parts of humanity, and the rights and responsibilities of both sexes are equitable and balanced in their totality. Roles of men and women are complementary and collaborative. Although their obligations might differ in certain areas of life in accordance with their basic physical and psychological differences, each is equally accountable for their particular responsibilities. Ignoring these differences is surely unrealistic, but there is no reason to assume from them that one sex is either superior or inferior to the other in any way.

Under Islamic law, when a Muslim woman gets married she does not surrender her maiden name, but keeps her distinct identity.

In a Muslim marriage, the groom gives a dowry to the bride herself, and not to her father. This becomes her own personal property to keep, invest or spend, and is not subject to the dictates of any of her male relatives. The Qur’an places on men the responsibility of protecting and maintaining all of their female relatives. It means, as well, that a man must provide for his wife and family even if she has money of her own. She is not obligated to spend any of her money towards the maintenance of her family. This relieves a woman of the need to earn a living, but she can work if she chooses to do so or if her circumstances warrant it.

The family, like any other organization, needs order and leadership. The Qur’an states that the husband has a “degree” of authority over his wife, which means guardianship. It is important to note, however, that guardianship is in no way a license to be a tyrant within the household. Rather, it is a burden of responsibility for the husband to care completely for his wife and children.

Islam paves the way

Disciplined individual, happy family life and stable society:

The comprehensive teachings of Islam guides every aspect of human life, paving the way for a disciplined individual and family life. This in turn contributes to the creation of a disciplined society as we see in many parts of the world.

Islam is based on five fundamental principals all of which inculcate discipline in their own way in the day to day life of a Muslim. For example to begin with, a Muslim firmly believes in the oneness of Almighty God- Laailaha- and remains steadfast in that belief even during the most testing times. From this firm belief emanates a unique mental discipline which shapes both individual and social life.

Prayers

Then comes the daily five times compulsory prayer. These prayers include early morning, noon, evening, dusk and night prayers. Observing these prayers at specific times and that too in the midst of day to day struggle to earn a living for him and the family, is once again no easy task. Yet millions of Muslims all over the world, from the snow clad mountainous regions of Central Asia, hot deserts in the Middle East to Far East and the West do offer these prayers five times a day.

In the same spirit comes the annual fasting and compulsory charity known as zakat.

Fasting from dawn to dusk even without a sip of water is something only a highly motivated person could perform. Fasting changes the entire lifestyle as it involves long nightly prayers with Mosques overflowing with worshipers become common sights. Here too, only those spiritually and mentally disciplined could endure the hardships involved and fast which brings about a unique mental and spiritual transformation and discipline paving the way for a disciplined society.

Materialistic world

In this materialistic world wealth is something every human being dreams of and parting with wealth is very painful. But here too in keeping with the Islamic teaching, Muslims give two and half percent of their wealth to poor relatives and neighbours. This unique financial discipline often leads to peace and harmony within families resulting in a healthy and trouble free society.

Islam’s fifth principal of performing Hajj, compulsory at least once in lifetime on every physically and financially able Muslim, too imposes a unique discipline. Since the early days of Islam, 14 centuries ago Muslims of all corners of the world travelled, enduring untold hardships and perils in the absence of even basic modern facilities to fulfill this obligation. They performed the rituals in an extremely disciplined manner and return home disciplined and transformed.

Islam imposes strict discipline with specific Dos and Don’ts, covering every aspect of life and that too from the time a child is born to the death of a person. It clearly stipulates how a child should be brought up providing proper education and makes him or her an asset to the society. Islam clearly emphasizes the need to get boys and girls married in time to prevent them from violating moral codes and ensure a healthy family and a healthy society.

There is a moral code even in married life, governing a husband and wife. Even in the case of divorce, something permitted with great bitterness, Islam taught us how it should be done in a manner preserving family harmony and dignity. Here too there is discipline with rights and privileges besides restrictions and boundaries beyond which a married man or woman cannot step out.

To ensure moral discipline Islam attaches great importance to honesty and integrity in all dealings including trading and the need to protect the interest of buyers and sellers.

Islam taught financial discipline long before the present day interest based open economy, which in fact loots the people heartlessly appeared. Islam strictly forbid interest based economy protecting the poor from being exploited by the wealthy as it happens all over the world now. In fact long before socialism and communism appeared in the last century to protect workers’ interest, Islam emphasized the need to pay a labourer his due wage even before his sweat dries.

Dress code

Islam imposes a dress code for men and women and thus created modesty and discipline. Over the years Muslims of all walks of life learned to fashion their designs within the framework of this dress code. In the same way Islam has forbidden brewing, consuming and selling of liquor which has been the source of many evils destroyed, and still destroying many societies.

Thus in Muslim societies liquor parties, night clubs, dinner dances, free mixing of men and women which in turn pave the way for many family and social problems were rather unknown as we see in many Muslim countries. In this way Islam plays a crucial role in creating a disciplined society.

>This disciplined life may sound very rigid and tough to many who believe in a carefree lifestyle. But it is not so. Because in an Islamic society this discipline at home and in the society mould the younger generation which gets absorbed into this disciplined life style.

Thus Islam plays a very crucial role in creating a disciplined society.