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Alumni of Aligarh Muslim University (India)
Muslims Scientist during Muslims Rule over World
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It must be remembered
that no science, either of chemistry or any other science, was discovered all
of a sudden. The Arabs had established one thousand years ago their
laboratories in which they used to make experiments and publish their
discoveries without which lavoisier (accredited by some as being the founder
of chemistry) would not have been able to produce anything in this
field. - French Orientalist Dr. Gustav Lebon |
| Al-Idrisi (Dreses) | Geography (World Map, First Globe). |
| Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Zakariya Ar-Razi | Greatest physician of the Islamic world |
| Abd Al-Rahman Al-Sufi (Azophi) | Astronomy |
| Abu Ishaq Ibrahim Ibn Yyahya Al-Zarqali (Arzachel) | Astronomy (Invented Astrolabe). |
| Ali Ibn Rabban Al-Tabari | Medicine, Mathematics, Caligraphy, Literature. |
| Ibn Al-Baitar | Pharmacy, Botany |
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Al- Idrisi, ash-Sharif , was a Arab geographer, who wrote one of the greatest works of medieval geography, Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq ("The Pleasure Excursion of One Who Is Eager to Traverse the Regions of the World"). Al-Idrisi's have done three major geographic works: (1) a silver planisphere on which was depicted a map of the world, (2) a world map consisting of 70 sections formed by dividing the Earth north of the Equator into 7 climatic zones of equal width, each of which was subdivided into 10 equal parts by lines of longitude, and (3) a geographic text intended as a key to the planisphere. This was his great work of descriptive geography, known as Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq fi ikhtiraq al-afaq and also as Kita Rujar, or Al-Kitab ar-Rujari ("The Book of Roger"). The silver planisphere has been lost, but the maps and book have survived. A German scholar, Konrad Miller, published the maps in his Mappe Arabicae (1926-31), and later an emended world map, based upon Miller's work, was published by the Iraq Academy (Baghdad, 1951). The first loose sections of a critical edition of Idrisi's Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq, undertaken by a committee of Italian scholars in cooperation with a group of international experts, had begun to appear in the early 1970s. Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq represents a serious attempt to combine descriptive and astronomical geography. Nevertheless, al-Idrisi's book is a major geographic monument. It is particularly valuable for its data on such regions as the Mediterranean basin and the Balkans. A number of other geographic works are attributed to al-Idrisi, including one (now lost) written for William I, Roger's son and successor who reigned from 1154 to 1166, as well as several critical revisions and abridgments. The Medici press in Rome published an abridgment of Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq in 1592; a Latin translation was published under the title Geographia Nubiensis. The only complete translation of the work in any language is P.A. Jaubert's two-volume Géographie d'Édrisi (1836-40). | |
Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Zakariya Ar-Razi was born at Ray near modern Tehran in 251 A.H. (864 C.E.). The well-known writer George Sarton says in his Introduction to the History of Science that "Rhazes was the greatest physician of Islam and the Medieval Ages." And the Encyclopedia of Islam remarks that "Rhazes remained up to the 17th century the undisputable authority of medicine." The Bulletin of the World Health Organization (WHO), May 1970, pays tribute to him by stating: "His writings on smallpox and measles show originality and accuracy, and his essay on infectious diseases was the first scientific treatise on the subject." He was interested in the study of alchemy and chemistry, philosophy, logic, mathematics and physics. It was the field of medicine that he spent most of his life, practicing it, studying and writing about it. Due to his fame in medicine he was appointed head of the physicians of the Ray Hospital, and later put in charge of the Baghdad main Hospital during the reign of the Adhud-Daulah. Ar-Razi was a pioneer in many areas of medicine and treatment and the health sciences in general. In particular, he was a pioneer in the fields of pediatrics, obstetrics and ophthalmology. Some of his works in medicine, e.g., Kitab al-Mansoori, Al-Hawi, Kitab al-Mulooki and Kitab al-Judari wa al-Hasabah earned everlasting fame. A special feature of his medical system was that he greatly favored cures through correct and regulated food. This was combined with his emphasis on the influence of psychological factors on health. He also tried proposed remedies first on animals in order to evaluate in their effects and side effects. Ar-Razi was the first person to introduce the use of alcohol (Arabic Al-Kuhl) for medical purposes. He was also an expert surgeon and was the first to use opium for anaesthesia. Ar-Razi was the first to give an account of the operation for the extraction of a cataract and also the first scientist to discuss the pupillary reaction or the widening and narrowing of the pupil of the eye. He explained that the reaction was due to the presence of small muscles which act according to the intensity of light. The current understanding on this subject confirms his work. The greatest medical work of Ar-Razi (Rhazes), and perhaps the most extensive ever written by a medical man, is al-Hawi, i.e., the "Comprehensive Book," which includes indeed Greek, Syrian, and early Arabic medical knowledge in their entirety. Throughout his life Ar-Razi must have collected extracts from all the books available to him on medicine. In his last years, he combined these with his medical experience into an enormous twenty volume medical encyclopedia. Al-Hawi was the largest medical encyclopedia composed by then. It was translated into Latin under the auspices of Charles I of Anjou by the Sicilian Jewish physician, Faraj ibn Salim (Farragut) in 1279 and was repeatedly printed from 1488 onwards. Al-Hawi was known as 'Continens' in its Latin translation. "By 1542 there had appeared five editions of this vast and costly work, besides many more of various parts of it. Its influence on European medicine was thus very considerable." (The Legacy of Islam, pp. 323-5). Another scholar points out that Ar-Razi's "al-Hawi was one of the nine volumes constituting the whole library of the Paris Faculty of Medicine in 1395." (Durant; Haider, Bammate, 29). Kitab al-Mansoori, which was translated into Latin (known by the title 'Liber Almansoris') in the 1480s in Milan, comprised ten volumes and dealt exhaustively with Greco-Arab medicine. Some of its volumes have been published separately into German and French. The ninth volume of the translation made by Gerard of Cremona the "Nonus Al-Mansuri," was a popular text in Europe until the sixteenth century (Durant, p247). Ar-Razi in Al-Mansoori devoted a whole chapter on anatomy. In it he has presented a detailed description of the various organs of the human body, and sensory and motor parts. He has also given elaborate descriptions of the intervertebral foramina and the spinal chord, and correctly asserted that an injury either to the brain or spinal chord would lead to paralysis of the parts of the organs whose nerve supply was damaged or destroyed. His al-Judari wa al-Hasabah was the first treatise on smallpox and chickenpox, and is largely based on Razi's original contribution. It was first translated into Latin in 1565 and later into several European languages and went into forty editions between 1498 and 1866. It was translated into English by William A. Greenhill, London, 1848. Through his treatise Razi became the first to draw clear comparisons between smallpox and chickenpox. Ar-Razi gave many valuable pieces of advice to practicing physicians: "A physician should not forget to ask his patient all sorts of questions pertaining to the possible causes of his illness, both internal and external....If a physician can treat a patient through nutrition rather than medicine he has done the best thing. A physician should always try to convince his patient of improvement and hope in the effectiveness of treatment, for the psychological state of the patient has a great effect on his physical condition. He used to advise his patients thus: "Whoever seeks treatment with too many physicians might suffer the risk of the faults of each one of them. A patient should restrict consultation to one trustworthy physician." Ar-Razi also compounded medicines and took keen interest in experimental and theoretical sciences. It is conjectured that he developed his chemistry independently of Jabir Ibn Hayyan (Geber). He has discussed several chemical reactions and also given full descriptions of and designs for about twenty instruments used in chemical investigations. His description of chemical knowledge is in plain and plausible language. One of his books Kitab-al-Asrar deals with the preparation of chemical materials and their utilization. Another one was translated into Latin under the name Liber Experimentorum. He went beyond his predecessors in dividing substances into plants, animals and minerals, thus in a way opening the way for inorganic and organic chemistry. By and large, this classification still holds. As a chemist, he was the first to produce sulfuric acid together with some other acids, and he also prepared alcohol by fermenting sweet products. His contribution as a philosopher is also well known. The basic elements in his philosophical system are the creator, spirit, matter, space and time. He discusses their characteristics in detail and his concepts of space and time as constituting a continuum is outstanding. Ar-Razi was a prolific author, who has left monumental treatises on numerous subjects. He has more than two hundred outstanding scientific contributions to his credit, out of which about half deal with medicine and twenty-one on Alchemy. He also wrote on physics, mathematics, astronomy and optics, but these writings could not be preserved. A number of his other books, including Jami-fi-al-Tib, Maqalah fi al-Hasat fi Kuli wa al-Mathana, Kitab al-Qalb, Kitab-al-Mafasil, Kitab-al-'Ilaj al-Ghoraba, Bar al-Sa'ah, and al-Taqseem wa al-Takhsir, have been published in various European languages. About 40 of his manuscripts are still extant in the museums and libraries of Iran, Paris, Britain, and Rampur (India). His contribution has greatly influenced the development of science, in general, and medicine in particular. Like other great scholars of Islamic history, Razi's erudition was all-embracing and his scientific work remarkable. The foregoing description represents only a part of the great legacy left by Ar-Razi. He died in 930 C.E. Razi's portrait adorns the great hall of the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Paris. | |
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Abd al-Rahman Al-Sufi, known in the
West as Azophi, was one of the two most outstanding practical astronomers of
the Middle Ages. Al-Sufi was the first astronomer to describe the
'nebulosity' of the nebula in Andromeda in his book of constellations (atlas
of heavens). He named the southern group of stars al-Baqar al-Abyad or the
'White Bull' after receiving reports from Arab navigators in the Malay
Archipelago. We now know this group of stars as Nubecula Major (the greater
Magellanic Cloud).
His book 'Kitab al-Kawatib al-Thabit al-Musawwar' was a masterpiece on stellar astronomy. It is available in the original Arabic and in French translation by Schjellerup. Kitab al-Kawatib is considered important even now for the study of proper motions and long period variables. In it he included theta Eridani among the 13 brightest stars then known. Ulugh Beg, the grandson of Timur (Tamerlane), in 1437 found it to be of the first magnitude in his list of fixed stars. Edmond Halley in his voyage to St. Helena at the beginning of the Eighteenth century saw it as a star of the third magnitude. Al-Sufi stated that the color of the Sirms (alpha canes majoris) does not change, which is confirmed by later observations. Ironically, Seneca reported to have observed it red in Rome, Ptolemy in Alexandria reddish, and Schmidt (1841) in Athens had observed it white after finding yellow for a few days. It is presumed that these contradicting observations must have been due to local variations of weather. Al-Sufi observed the color of Algol, beta Persei, (Arabic Al-Ghoul), to be ruddy. Beer and Madler in their famous work Der Mond (1837) mention a surface feature of the moon after As-Sufi (Azophi). It is a mountainous ring twenty-six miles in diameter in the ninth section of the lunar map. Al-Sufi's influence in astronomy was substantial. | |
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Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Yahya al-Zarqali,
known in the West as Arzachel, was a Spanish Arab. He was the foremost
astronomer of his time.
Al-Zarqali carried out a series of astronomical observations at Toledo (Arabic Al Tulaytalah) and compiled them in what is known as his famous Toledan Tables. The Toledo Tables were translated into Latin in the Twelfth century. Al-Zarqali was the first to prove conclusively the motion of the Aphelion relative to the stars. He measured its rate of motion as 12.04 seconds per year, which is remarkably close to the modern calculation of 11.8 seconds. Al-Zarqali invented a flat astrolabe which is known as Safihah. Its details were published in Latin, Hebrew and several European languages. Copernicus in his famous book 'De Revolutionibus Orbium Clestium' expresses his indebtedness to al-Battani (albategnius) and Al-Zarqali (Arzachel) and quotes their work several times. Beer and Madler in their famous work Der Mond (1837) mention a surface feature of the moon after Al-Zarqali (Arzachel). | |
Al-Tabari was the teacher of the distinguished physician Zakariya al-Razi (Rhazes). Ali Ibn Rabban Al-Tabari was born in 838 C.E. He was also known as Abu al-Hasan. Al-Tabari is most famous for his world-renowned medical treatise 'Firdous al-Hikmat.' Besides the medical science, he was also an accomplished Philosopher, Mathematician and Astronomer. He died in 870 C.E. He was well learned in Astronomy, Philosophy, Mathematics and Literature. Al-Tabari’s world-renowned seven-volume treatise Firdous al-Hikmat is the first Medical encyclopedia that incorporates several branches of medical science. This work was translated and published for the first time in the twentieth century. Prior to this publication, only five of his original manuscripts were found in libraries of the West. Dr. M.Z. Siddiqui has recently edited all volumes of Firdous al-Hikmat. In the Preface, Dr. Siddiqui has provided very useful information regarding this encyclopedia and Al-Tabari. Where necessary, he has added explanatory notes to facilitate understanding of this work. Firdous al-Hikmat was published later also in the Western Europe. The seven volumes contain the following: Volume One: Kulliyat-e-Tibb. This volume discusses contemporary knowledge of medical science. Volume Two: Elucidation of the organs of the human body, rules for keeping good health, and comprehensive account of certain muscular diseases. Volume Three: Discussion and prescription of diet for good health and prevention of diseases. Volume Four: Discussion of all diseases from head to toe. This volume is most valuable of the seven volumes. It is the largest volume and is nearly half the size of the encyclopedia. Volume four is divided into twelve sections:
Volume Five: Flavor, taste and color. Volume Six: Drugs and Poison. Volume Seven: Miscellaneous topics on health care. It includes a discussion of climate and astronomy, and a brief review of Indian medicine. He wrote two more works, Deen-e-Doulat and Hifz al-Shehhat. The Oxford University library has the latter manuscript. | |
| Ibn Baitar was the famous Andalusian botanist, who wrote a famous book called Collection of Simple Drugs and Food. It is an alphabetically arranged compendium of medicinal plants of all sorts, most of which were native to Spain and North Africa, which he spent a lifetime gathering. Where possible, he gives the Berber, Arabic, and sometimes Romance names of the plant, so that for linguists his work is of special interest. In each article, he gives information about the preparation of the drug and its administration, purpose and dosage. | |