WE ARE PROUD OF OUR ISLAMIC HERITAGE

                                    we are proud of our islamic heritage

In the reign of the FATEMIDE CALIPHS the annalyst ‘Ayni says that the public library at Cairo contained over two million works, of which over six thousand treated exclusively of mathematics and astronomy. The scientific spirit of Islam was at its zenith.

At Cairo in the reigns of  Imam Aziz billah & Imam (S.A.) and  Hakim bi - amrillah (S.A.)) there flourished one of the master spirits of the age IBN YUNUS  the inventor of pendulum and the measurement of time by its oscillation. His great work named after his patron and Imam-”ZIJ - UL - AKABAR - AL HAKIMI” soon displaced the work of Claudius Ptolemy. IBN - YUNUS  died in 1009 a.c.

The sons of Musa ibn Shakir who flourished under Mamun and his two immediate successors, calculated the size of the earth from the measurement of a degree on the shores  of the red sea, this at a time when Christian Europe was asserting the flatness of the globe.    

ABUL HASAN invented a telescope  (died 873  a.c.)

AL - BATANI  introducer of sine & cosine in mathematics 

BUYIDE  AMEER - AZUD UD DOWLA ( Malik Fariskhusru) built several hospitals and refuges for the orphans in Baghdad. He built magnificent mausoleums over the kabre mubarak  of Moulana Ali (S.A.) & Imam Husain (S.A.)

HASAN IBN HAITHAM became renowned  for his work in optical science. His book ‘Balance Of Wisdom’ 

The first observatory in Europe was built by the Arabs. The GIRALLD over tower of Seville was erected under the supervision of the great mathematician  Jabir ibn Afiah in 1190 a.c.

ABU MUSA JABIR (the Geber of Christian writers) is regarded as the father of modern chemistry. He was a native of Tarus. Ibn Khallikan says - Jabir complied a work of two thousand pages in which he inserted the problems of his master Imam Jafar as Sadik (S.A.) which formed 500 treaties. 

The oldest surviving Arabic encyclopedia  of medicine the  FIRDAUS  AL HIKMA in some respects remains unsurpassed. Ali bin Rabban Al Tabari wrote this work in the year 850 a.c. and was contemporary of Hunayn bin Ishaq.

Ali bin Khalaf (eleventh century)  invented the ‘universal plate’ the astrolabe.

AL BATANI established the formula   cos a  = cos b  

ABUL WAFA (died 998 a.c.) introduced the theorems of the tangents , he also introduced the secant and cosecant.

ABU NASR (died 1036 a.c.) discovered the theorem of sines.

GHIYATH AL DIN JAMSHID AL - KHASI (died 1429 a.c.) carried out the extension of the decimal system to fractions.

Famous Arab geographers who flourished in the tenth century. Muslim bin Humair - Jaihani - Masudi - Ibn Haukal - al - Beiruni  (who travelled to India)  Yakut - Nasiri Khusru the author of SAFARNAMEH.

Famous Arab Historians  were Hamdani - Masudi  (author of  such works as Mirat uz Zaman - the mirror of the times & Muruz uz Zahab) Ibn ul - Athir (authored universal history al - Kamil)

Famous Arab Astronomers whose observations concerning the equinoxes, the eclipses, the apparitions of the comets and other celestial phenomena that added greatly to human knowledge were to name but a few  Bin ali - yahya bin Abi Mansur - Mohammad bin Musa .

AL KINDI  wrote two hundred works on various subjects - arithmetic, geometry, philosophy, optics etc:

ABU MAASHAR (corruped by the middle ages europeans into Albumazar) made celestial phenomena his special study . Tables of Abu Maashar has remained always chief source of astronomical knowledge. 

ALBATANI (the Albategnius of medieval Europe) was another distinguished  astronomer. His Tables translated into Latin furnished the ground work of astronomy in  Europe for many centuries. The Banu Amajur were noted for their calculation of the lunar movement.

ALKOHI  under the patronage of the Buyides studied the movements of the planets. His discoveries concerning the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox  were extremely important.

HASSAN BIN HAISEM (Haithem) commonly called in Europe Alhazen is famous for his discovery of  atmospheric refraction.He was born in Spain but resided in Egypt and flourished in the eleventh century.

IBN SINA (Avicenna) was undoubtedly one of the greatest thinkers and physicians the world has produced. ABU NASAR FARABI (Alfarabius) was called by the Arabs the second Aristotle.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:  ‘SHORT HISTORY OF THE SARACENS’ Ameer Ali

                                                ‘LEGACY OF ISLAM’  C. E. Bosworth