Old Muslim civilization and inventions are always sang by their people especially in the underdeveloped ones so often that you are pushed to ask about their modern day contributions to science and technology. Their voice might come up weaker in answering such a question as the competition is ferocious and their players in it are scant in number. Still, their old contributions can not be denied by any just reader with a mind who came across their civilizations in history books. Carly Fiorina, the ex-chief executive officer in HP, would tell you the Muslim story better than me. Fioria admitted their contributions in the world meeting of HP that was held directly after 9/11 in a long speech that would probably touch your heart. Let us see some evidence that might back Fiorina’s nice words.
10 The Elephant Clock
Al-Jazari, a Muslim scientists, built the elephant clock eight hundred years ago in order to celebrate the widespread scope of the Islamic civilization. Different artifacts were used from Egypt, Persia, China, Greece and India.
9 Cameras
Al-Kindi was one of the ancient great minds as the mathematician Geronimo Cardano said in the 16th century. Al-Kindi was the first scientist to question the Greek theoretical views of optics. For him, our visual cone is a three-dimensional composite.
8 Musical Instruments
The 8th century Muslims were the first contributors to music. They were the ones who named the musical scale with syllabic words. The lute was one of the first instruments they invented and guess what, it was proposed by Al-Kindy as well.
7 Carpets
After a long tradition of using the rush plant in making floor coverings, the world turned to carpets that were initiated in the Bedouin Arabia. Muslims’ carpets came into vogue afterwards and were very famous for their quality and style. In the 11th century, Ibn Badis made a good work in the dying and coloring of the Tunisian carpets.
6 Schooling
Over a thousand years ago, Baghdad taught the next civilizations how to keep knowledge and move it to next civilizations. They were the center of science and knowledge back then. During the reign of Caliph al-Rashid on, such knowledge centers like the House of Wisdom and the Library of Wisdom were built. In the early days of Islam, the mosques was the major center of learning and hence no disparity was made between religion and science, both were contents to learn.
5 Mathematics
In the 800 of the common era, mathematicians in Iraq and Iran were the first world top-notch scientists that we only discover in the modern era. Al-Khwarizmi, is the first known of of these scientists. His best contributions was the introduction of the field of Algebra. Al-Karaji followed the former’s steps through removing the geometric traces in the field and introducing the concept of monomials.
4 Chemistry
Jabir ibn Hayyan, Al-Kindy, and Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi were the first contributors in the field of Chemistry. Jabir ibn Hayyan, known as Geber by westerners, is widely known as the father and founder of the science of Chemistry. The processes of amalgamation, crystallization and distillation were first performed by him.
3 Calligraphy
In the Iraqi city of Kufa came the first calligraphy type known to the world, called Kufic. Scribes are the person who used to write in such calligraphy, the first ones were those who transcribed Qur’an in Iraq.
2 Agriculture
Muslim farmers pioneered certain strategies that are still in vogue in the present day. From ploughing to harrowing and hoeing; nearly every agricultural process they explained in books.
1 Dams
The first dam in the history of humanity was built in Iran. Kebar, it was called, was built 700 years ago. Next to it, temporally, is the Qusaybah dam in Saudi Arabia.
