Muslim invention.

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SpookyWriter

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I've been following a series of programs on PBS about Muslims, their faith, devotions, and their dissidents who speak about about various topics of interest. Tonight they had a profile of a woman "America at a Crossroads." who was an outspoken critic of how women were treated in mainly Muslim countries.

She remarked, at some point, how Muslims had invented many (things) that contributed to the success of Muslim countries. I wondered what these things were because, frankly, I can't recall a single Islamic inventor who is noted in history as contributing to the benefit of mankind. I was stumped to think of a single person.

Can someone help me here? Why can't I think of any person or device that made a significant difference toward the advancement of medicine, manufacturing, telecommunications, etc.

Well?
 

SpookyWriter

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P.S. Don't cheat and google a search. Be honest. Who comes to the top of your head.
 

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Look up Algebra. Look up the pointed arch, the one used in Gothic cathedrals; a side effect of the Crusades; the Astrolabe -- these are the ones from the top of my head; there are lots of others.

Oh, there are medical instruments too, that entered the West via Rome, but were from Islamic doctors.

ETA: There's a first hand report from a Muslim traveler to Europe in the late Middle ages that I use in teaching; he's appalled by the squalor and barbaric customs. I'll see if I can find it online.
 

WarrenP

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I don't know of any inventions (meaning like products, devices, etc) off hand, but to be fair, have not done any researching into this...

I wanted to see the film Islam versus the Islamists, which was commissioned to be part of this series, paid for, filmed, produced, and has now been cut from the viewing list.
 
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Joe270

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Okay, I got the zero bit, but didn't make the algebra connection. Math was never my strong suit.

Astronomy, too, by the way. Muslim astronomers named most of the stars. I guess there were inventions which led them to be leaders in the field.
 

WarrenP

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I think that the concept of zero was in Babylonia first, around 300BC, then the Mayans later on had their version, then the Indians had theirs. I belive those three were the ones that "came up" with zero (or at least the concept) on their own. From India it went to China, then to the Arabia and Europe.
 

Joe270

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I'm no math scholar, but I heard zero was a muslim concept. I've been wrong before. (I have been wrong since I got married.) You might be right, Warren.

Does the astronomy hold up?
 

aruna

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Zero.

Seriously, they invented zero in mathematics, as I understand it.

I don't know if that person was Muslim, but definitely the zero was discovered (hardly invented?) in India. Indians (but I'm not sure if Muslim or Hindu) also contributed a great deal in other areas of mathematics and in particular, astronomy.

That is off the top of my head. Now I'm going to check it out! I'll be back!
 
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McDuff

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Off the top of my head, without reading the rest of the thread, I'm pretty sure that they invented a bunch of key concepts in mathematics, astronomy and ethics, although without doing some more research I couldn't give you specific names or dates. There was a lot of cross-cultural dissemination of ideas between the Middle-East, North Africa and Europe during the last thousand years, so it's hard to pin down in my head what came from where, but I'm pretty sure that without the influence of Islamic culture our intellectual climate would be far less rich than it is now.
 

SpookyWriter

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So the most notable discover was zero? I'm thinking t.v. stuff or artifical heart. Medicine or sciences since zero was invented. I know Marconi, Bell, and a few others. But Muslim inventors escapes me. Is this because many of the inventions I am used to (like computers) are western and not something I could easily peg as Muslim?
 

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Algebra is actually an Islamic name, after the inventor.

And there are high tech patents that are Islamic created and owned.
 

SpookyWriter

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Off the top of my head, without reading the rest of the thread, I'm pretty sure that they invented a bunch of key concepts in mathematics, astronomy and ethics, although without doing some more research I couldn't give you specific names or dates. There was a lot of cross-cultural dissemination of ideas between the Middle-East, North Africa and Europe during the last thousand years, so it's hard to pin down in my head what came from where, but I'm pretty sure that without the influence of Islamic culture our intellectual climate would be far less rich than it is now.
Who, what, when and where? Can you tell me who invented the telephone?
 

blacbird

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Okay, I got the zero bit, but didn't make the algebra connection. Math was never my strong suit.

The very word "algebra" derives from the Arabic.

Six hundred years ago, the Islamic world was far ahead of Europe in most academic fields. It is shameful (and many Muslims recognize this) that the emergence of Wahabi fundamentalism and its anti-intellectual emphasis served to truncate this flowering of knowledge and inquiry.

caw
 

WarrenP

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I'm no math scholar, but I heard zero was a muslim concept. I've been wrong before. (I have been wrong since I got married.) You might be right, Warren.

Does the astronomy hold up?

Zero is tough, as the concept of "nothing" is different from the concept of "no math value" to the concept of the numerical zero. The closest to what we call zero, as in the numerical value of zero was in India, but the Babylonains and the Mayans both had the concepts of nothing waaaay earlier....

I'm not sure about the astronomy concept.

The hard part here is we are talking ideas, which are much harder to pin down when compared to devices.

Take the Algebra discussion. The math that is used in Algebra was around well before the word Algebra even existed. The word Algebra is most definately Islamic in origin, but the concepts and equations we associate with Algebra were being used and debated hundreds of years before the word came into being.
 

SpookyWriter

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The very word "algebra" derives from the Arabic.

Six hundred years ago, the Islamic world was far ahead of Europe in most academic fields. It is shameful (and many Muslims recognize this) that the emergence of Wahabi fundamentalism and its anti-intellectual emphasis served to truncate this flowering of knowledge and inquiry.

caw
Not bad. But can you name any specific person besides the abundance of generalities attributed to the sciences or arts? Who (a name) comes to mind when you think of Muslim inventions?
 

Joe270

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Ok, Blacbird, if you're so quick:

Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?

No fair googling it. No help from the peanut gallery.
 

aruna

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OK, the zero came not from Muslims but from Hindus - as I thought. Wikipedia has much to say about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_in_ancient_India
Those are all Sanksrit terms and names.
Spooky, it's not relevant to "name individual inventors" when speaking of these cultures. In India, for instance, it is simply not customary to attributre greatness in any discipline to a single person, as anonymity is considered a virtue.

And remember that there may have bene a parallel development between East and West, so that even if you have only heard of the Western developments, it means nothing more than that - you have not heard of the Esatern parallels. Doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Anyway, I did my research and found out the following:
Abul Hasan is distinguished as the inventor of the Telescope, which he described to be a “Tube, to the extremities of which were attached diopters".

The Pendulum was invented by Ibn Yunus, a genius in science who lived in the reign of Aziz Billah and Hakim bi-Amr-illah, the Fatimid monarchs of Egypt. The invention of the Pendulum led to the measurement of time by its oscillations. His outstanding work Sijul Akbar al-Hakimi, named after his celebrated patron Hakim bi-Amr-illah, was acknowledged to be the masterpiece on the subject replacing the work of Ptolemy. It was translated into Persian by Omar Khayyam in 1079.

The first watch was made by Kutbi, a renowned watch-maker of his time. During the Abbasid reign the use of a watch became quite common and the famous Harun-ar-Rashid once despatched a watch as a gift to his celebrated contemporary, the French Emperor Charlemagne.
 

BottomlessCup

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Not bad. But can you name any specific person besides the abundance of generalities attributed to the sciences or arts? Who (a name) comes to mind when you think of Muslim inventions?

Is that really relavent, Spook? We know our own culture and history much better than any others.

The fact that nobody here knows the name of the guy who invented something doesn't mean it's not a valuable contribution to society.

Plus, "Muslim inventions" is kind of a weird idea. Do we refer to Edison's work as "Christian inventions?"
 
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