Thread on Muslim Pioneers and Ancient Islamic Contributions to the Scientific World.

First of all no thread is going to do any justice to the vast Muslim intellectual contributions to the modern scientific society. The Muslims were in forefront of the scientific revolution, whereas Europe was still stuck in dark ages.

The demarcation of Muslim intellectual superiority in the pre-modern world can be described by a simple paradigm. Muslim Capital of Cordova boasted half a million volumes whereas, the most famous European library had a mere 36.

[The Contribution of Muslims, Pg 115-116]

Jābir ibn Hayyān, 776 C.E was deemed as the “father of chemistry”. He wrote a hundred books on chemistry and described the processes of sublimation, crystallization, evaporation etc. He was the first scientist to develop Aqua Regia which is used to dissolve gold.

Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, 780 C.E was known as the “Father of Algebra and Algorithms”. His works on algebra are outstanding and the very term is derived from “Al Jabr wa al Muqabala”. He did enormous work in the field of geography and astronomy, and developed the calculus of two errors.

ʼIsḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindī was an Arab Muslim philosopher,polymath, mathematician and a physician. In math he wrote 4 volumes on the number system, in physics he made contribution to optics and in medicine his chief contribution was to systematically determine medicinal doses.

ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Quraib as-Aṣmaʿī was the first Muslim authority in zoology. He also extensively contributed to botany and animal husbandry ,the last book on human anatomy demonstrates his considerable knowledge and expertise on the subject.

ʿAmr ibn Baḥr al-Kinānī al-Baṣrī, commonly known as al-Jāḥiẓ was a theologian, zoologist and literalist. He was the first scientist to note changes in birds through migration, and also the first one to use method of obtaining ammonia from animal offal by distillation.

Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari, was a Persian Muslim scholar, physician and psychologist, who produced one of the first encyclopedia of medicine entitled Firdous al-Hikmah. Spread over 7 parts,it’s the first ever medical encyclopedia to incorporate all branches of medical science.

Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Battānī was an Arab astronomer, and mathematician. Al- Battani is perhaps the greatest and best known astronomer of the medieval Islamic world. He is known as the “Ptolemy of the Arabs”, and was the first one to replace Greek chords with sines in mathematics.

Ibn Kathīr al-Farghānī, also known as Alfraganus in the West, was a astronomer in the Abbasid court in Baghdad, and one of the most famous astronomers. The lunar crater Alfraganus is named after him. He also determined the diameter of earth as 6500 miles, a milestone of his time.

Ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī, was a Persian polymath, physician, alchemist, philosopher, and important figure in the history of medicine. He also wrote on logic, astronomy and grammar. He was a polymath who is credited with 200 scientific contributions, 21 of which deal with alchemy.

Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al Fārābī; known in the West as Alpharabius; was a renowned early Islamic philosopher and jurist who wrote in the fields of political philosophy, metaphysics, ethics and logic. He was also a scientist, cosmologist, and a mathematician with 117 works.

Ibn ʿAlī al-Masʿūdī, was an Arab historian, geographer and traveler. His celebrated magnum opus combines universal history with scientific geography, social commentary, and is published in English in a multi-volume series as The Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems.

Ibn al-Zahrāwī al-Ansari, was an Arab-Andalusian physician, surgeon and chemist. Considered to be the greatest surgeon of the Middle Ages, he has been described as the “father of surgery”. He is known for his original breakthroughs and his 30 volumes medical encyclopedia.

Abū al-Wafā Būzhjānī was a Persian mathematician and astronomer who worked in Baghdad. He made important innovations in spherical trigonometry, and his work on arithmetics for businessmen contains the first instance of using negative numbers in a medieval Islamic text.

Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham, again a great Muslim polymath is often referred to as “the father of modern optics”. he made significant contributions to the principles of optics and visual perception in particular. His most influential work is titled Kitāb al-Manāẓir.

Ibn Sina and often known in the West as “Avicenna” was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age, and “the father of early modern medicine”. He’s also the first scholar to develop the concept of “quarantine”.

Abu Rayhan al-Biruni was an Iranian scholar and polymath during the Islamic Golden Age. He has been variously called as the "founder of Indology", "Father of Comparative Religion",”Father of modern geodesy", and the first anthropologist.

Omar Khayyam was a mathematician, he is most notable for his work on the classification and solution of cubic equations, where he provided geometric solutions by the intersection of conics. He also contributed to the development of the infamous Jalali calendar.

Abd al-Malik ibn Zuhr or Avenzoar, was an Arab physician, surgeon, and poet. He performed the first experimental tracheotomy on a goat. He also improved surgical and medical knowledge by keying out several diseases and their treatments and is regarded as the first parasitologist.

Ibn Rushd/Averroes was a Muslim polymath who wrote about many subjects, was known as the Father of rationalism. His work in medicine is amazingly vast and his book Al-Kulliyat fi al-Tibb, translated into Latin and known as the Colliget, became a textbook in Europe for centuries.

Nasir al-Din Tusi was a Persian polymath, architect, philosopher, physician, scientist, and theologian. One of the greatest scientists of medieval Islam,he is often considered the creator of trigonometry as a mathematical discipline. Tusi has about 150 works in various fields.

Ibn al-Nafis was an Arab Syrian Muslim scientist,his major crowning and original contribution of great significance was discovery of the blood circulatory system,which was only discovered by the William Harvey later. He’s often described as "the father of circulatory physiology".

From what have been discussed above, it is quite obvious that the spirit of enquiry and the scientific method were led due to the Islamic teachings which stimulated and resulted in evolution of modern science.
[Rennaisance of Sciences, Pg 9]
https://books.google.com/books?id=KfoQmi4o4zcC&pg=PA9

The Islamic ruled state’s sponsorship also heavily influenced the development of the scientific aspect of the Islamic civilization. For example, House of Wisdom was a library established in Abbasid-era Baghdad, Iraq by Caliph al-Mansur which produced a pioneer of scholars and..

was heavily funded. Infact, The money spent on the Translation Movement for some translations is estimated to be equivalent to about twice the annual research budget of the United Kingdom's Medical Research Council. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01k2bv8

Dr. Robert Briffault, a western academic argues that science flourished in Europe as a result of inquiry and curiosity and thus was only ignited to the Europeans by the Muslims.

(The Making of Humanity, Pg-191)