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                Alumni of Aligarh Muslim University (India)
         Muslims Scientist during Muslims Rule over World 

 

Abu Ali Al-Husayn Ibn Abd Allah Ibn Sina (Avicenna)	Top
Full name ABU `ALI AL-HUSAYN IBN 'ABD ALLAH IBN SINA (b.980, Bukhara, Iran--d. 1037, Hamadan), Iranian physician, the most famous and influential of the philosopher-scientists of Islam. He was particularly noted for his contributions in the fields of philosophy and medicine. He composed the Kitab ash-shifa` ("Book of Healing"), a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopaedia, and the Canon of Medicine, which is among the most famous books in the history of medicine. Kitab ash-shifa` is probably the largest work of its kind ever written by one man. It treats of logic, the natural sciences, including psychology, the quadrivium (geometry, astronomy, arithmetic, and music), and metaphysics, but there is no real exposition of ethics or of politics. The Canon of Medicine (al-Qanun fi at-tibb) is the most famous single book in the history of medicine in both East and West. It is a systematic encyclopaedia based on his own work and other Arabic and non-Arabic works. Occupied during the day with his duties at court as both physician and administrator, Avicenna spent almost every night with his students composing these and other works and carrying out general philosophical and scientific discussions related to them. These sessions were often combined with musical performances and gaiety and lasted until late hours of the night. Even in hiding and in prison he continued to write. The great physical strength of Avicenna enabled him to carry out a program that would have been unimaginable for a person of a feebler constitution. His major  philosophical opus and the most "personal" testament of his thought, Kitab al-isharat wa at-tanbihat ("Book of Directives and Remarks"). In this work he described the mystic's spiritual journey from the beginnings of faith to the final stage of direct and uninterrupted vision of God.  Besides fulfilling the role of the master of the Muslim Aristotelians, Avicenna also sought in later life to found an "Oriental philosophy" (al-hikmat al-mashriqiyah). Most of his works directly concerning this have been lost, but enough remains in some of his other works to give an indication of the direction he was following.  In the Western world, Avicenna's influence was felt, though no distinct school of "Latin Avicennism" can be discerned as can with Averroës, the great Spanish-Arabic philosopher. Avicenna's "Book of Healing" was translated partially into Latin in the 12th century, and the complete Canon appeared in the same century. These translations and others spread the thought of Avicenna far and wide in the West. His thought, blended with that of St. Augustine, the Christian philosopher and theologian, was a basic ingredient in the thought of many of the medieval  Scholastics, especially in the Franciscan schools. In medicine the Canon became the medical authority for several centuries, and Avicenna enjoyed an undisputed place of honour equalled only by the early Greek physicians Hippocrates and Galen. In the East his dominating influence in medicine, philosophy, and theology has lasted over the ages and is still alive within the circles of Islamic thought.
Jabir ibn Hayyan, Abu Musa (Geber)	Top
Jabir is known as the "father of Arab chemistry." More than 2,000 works are attributed to Jabir.  In the 14th century a Spanish alchemist placed the name Geber (the Latinized form of Jabir) on his own manuscripts, possibly to attribute them to Jabir and thus gain greater authority. His reputation appears to rest mainly on the appeal of his metaphysical philosophy of nature and perhaps his unique style, emphasis, and development of the theory of matter. Jabir revised the ancient Greek belief that everything is composed of fire, earth, water, and air. He believed that these four elements combined to form mercury and sulfur and that all metals are formed from these two substances when combined in various proportions. Jabir was aware that when mercury and sulfur are combined, the red compound cinnabar (mercuric sulfide) is produced; but he felt that, if the ideal proportion could be found, gold would be the product. This theory was widely adopted; altered and spread, it had a great influence on early chemistry and eventually led to the belief in phlogiston.
Muhammad Ibn Abdullah (Ibn Battutah)	Top
Full name Abu Abd Allah Muhammad Ibn Abd Allah Al-lawati At-Tani Ibn Battutah, (b. Feb. 24, 1304, Tangier, Morocco--d. 1368/69, Mor.), the greatest medieval Arab traveller and the author of one of the most famous travel books, the Rihlah (Travels), which describes his extensive travels covering some 75,000 miles (more than 120,000 km) in trips to almost all the Muslim countries and to regions as far as China and Sumatra.  Ibn Battutah was from a family that produced a number of Muslim judges (qadis). He received the traditional juristic and literary education in his native town of Tangier. In 1325, at the age of 21, he started his travels by undertaking the pilgrimage to Mecca. At first his purpose was to fulfill this religious duty and to broaden his education by studying under famous scholars in the Near East (Egypt, Syria, and Hejaz).  In Egypt, where he arrived by the land route via Tunis and Tripoli, an irresistible passion for travel was born in his soul, and he decided to visit as many parts of the world as possible, setting as a rule "never to travel any road a second time." He made a living of it, benefitting at the beginning from his scholarly status and later from his increasing fame as a traveller. He enjoyed the generosity and benevolence of numerous sultans, rulers, governors, and high dignitaries in the countries he visited, thus securing an income that enabled him to continue his wanderings. From Cairo, Ibn Battutah set out via Upper Egypt to the Red Sea but then returned and visited Syria, there joining a caravan for Mecca. Having finished the pilgrimage in 1326, he crossed the Arabian Desert to Iraq, southern Iran, Azerbaijan, and Baghdad. There he met the last of the Mongol khans of Iran, Abu Sa'id (1316-36), and some lesser rulers. Ibn Battutah spent the years between 1327 and 1330 in Mecca and Medina. Embarking on a boat in Jidda, he sailed with a retinue of followers down both shores of the Red Sea to Yemen, crossed it by land, and set sail again from Aden. This time he navigated along the eastern African coast, visiting the trading city-states as far as Kilwa (modern Tanzania). His return journey took him to southern Arabia, Oman, Hormuz, southern Persia, and across the Persian Gulf back to Mecca in 1332. Hearing of the sultan of Delhi, Muhammad ibn Tughluq (1325-51), and his fabulous generosity to Muslim scholars, he decided to try his luck at his court. Forced by lack of communications to choose a more indirect route, Ibn Battutah turned northward, again passed Egypt and Syria, and boarded ship for Asia Minor in Latakia. His journey continued across the Black Sea to the Crimea, then to the northern Caucasus and to Saray on the lower Volga, capital of the khan of the Golden Horde, Muhammad Uzbeg (1312-41).  After his return from Constantinople through the Russian steppes, he continued his journey in the general direction of India. From Saray he travelled with a caravan to Central Asia, visiting the ancient towns of Bukhara, Samarkand, and Balkh, all of these still showing the scars left by the Mongol invasion. He took rather complicated routes through Khorasan and Afghanistan, and, after crossing the Hindu Kush (mountains), he arrived at the frontiers of India on the Indus River on Sept. 12, 1333, by his own dating.  At this time he was already a man of some importance and fame, with a large train of attendants and followers. India and its ruler, Muhammad ibn Tughluq, lived up to Ibn Battutah's expectations of wealth and generosity, and the traveller was received with honours and gifts and later appointed grand qadi of Delhi, a sinecure that he held for several years. Later he was appointed as the Sultan's envoy to the Chinese emperor in 1342. He left Delhi and moved to south India. On the Malabar Coast he became involved in local wars and was finally shipwrecked near Calicut, losing all his property and the presents for the Chinese emperor. From there he went  to the Maldive Islands, where he spent nearly two years; as a qadi, he was soon active in politics, married into the ruling family. From there he left for Ceylon, where he visited the ruler as well as the famous Adam's Peak. After a new shipwreck on the Coromandel Coast, of eastern India, he took part in a war led by his brother-in-law and went again to the Maldives and then to Bengal and Assam. At this time he decided to resume his mission to China and sailed for Sumatra. There he was given a new ship by the Muslim sultan and started for China. He landed at the great Chinese port Zaytun (identified as Ch'üan-chou near Amoy) and then travelled on inland waterways as far as Peking and back.  At last he decided to return home Fès, the capital of the Marinid sultan, Abu 'Inan, in November 1349. But there still remained two Muslim countries not yet known to him. Shortly after his return he went to the kingdom of Granada, the last remnant of Moorish Spain, and two years later (in 1352) he set out on a journey to the western Sudan. His last journey (across the Sahara to West Africa) was taken unwillingly at the command of the Sultan. Crossing the Sahara, he spent a year in the Empire of Mali, then at the height of its power under Mansa Sulayman; his account represents one of the most important sources of that period for the history of that part of Africa. Toward the end of 1353 Ibn Battutah returned to Morocco and, at the Sultan's request, dictated his reminiscences to a writer, Ibn Juzayy (died 1355), who embellished the simple prose of Ibn Battutah with an ornate style and fragments of poetry. After that he passes from sight, and it is known only that he died in 1368 or 1369, holding the office of qadi in a town in Morocco, and thathe was buried at his native town of Tangier.
Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar)	Top
Full name ABU MARWAN 'ABD AL-MALIK IBN ABI AL-'ALA` ZUHR, also called AVENZOAR or ABUMERON (b. c. 1090, Seville--d. 1162, Seville), one of medieval Islam's foremost thinkers and the greatest medical clinician of the western caliphate. An intensely practical man, he disliked medical speculation; for that reason, he opposed some of the teachings of the Persian master physician Avicenna. In his at-Taysirfi al-mudawat wa at-tadbir ("Practical Manual of Treatments and Diet"), later translated into Hebrew and Latin, he described serious pericarditis (inflammation of the membranous sac surrounding the heart) and mediastinal abscesses (affecting the organs and tissues in the thoracic cavity above the diaphragm, excluding the lungs) and outlined surgical procedures for tracheotomy, excision of cataracts, and removal of kidney stones. He also discussed excessive contraction and dilation of the pupil (miosis and mydriasis) and advocated use of the narcotic plant Mandragora for treatment of ocular disease. A teacher of the prominent Muslim physician Averroës, Ibn Zuhr had great influence on medical practice in Christian Europe.
Ibn Rushd (Averroes)	Top
Full name Abu Al-Walid Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Rushd (Averroes), also called IBN RUSHD,  influential Islamic religious philosopher who integrated Islamic traditions and Greek thought. At the request of the caliph Ibn at-Tufayl he produced a series of summaries and commentaries on most of Aristotle's works (1162-95) and on Plato's  Republic, which exerted considerable influence for centuries. He wrote the Decisive Treatise on the Agreement Between Religious Law and Philosophy (Fasl), Examination of the Methods of Proof Concerning the Doctrines of Religion (Manahij), and The Incoherence of the Incoherence (Tahafut) at-tahafut, all in defense of the philosophical study of religion against the theologians (1179-80). In Medicine, his well-known book Kitab al-Kulyat fi al-Tibb was written before 1162 C.E. Its Latin translation was known as 'Colliget.' In it, Ibn Rushd has expounded on various aspects of medicine, including the diagnoses, cures and prevention of diseases. This book focuses on specific areas in comparison of Ibn Sina's of al-Qanun, but contains several original observations of Ibn Rushd. In Astronomy, he wrote a treatise on the motion of the sphere, Kitab fi-Harakat al-Falak. According to Draper, Ibn Rushd is credited with the discovery of sunspots. He also summarized Almagest and divided it into two parts: description of the spheres, and movement of the spheres. This summary of the Almagest was translated from Arabic into Hebrew by Jacob Anatoli in 1231. His book on jurisprudence 'Bidayat al-Mujtahid wa-Nihayat-al-Muqtasid' has been held by Ibn Jafar Zahabi as possibly the best book on the Maliki School of Fiqh. Ibn Rushd's writings were translated into various languages, including Latin, English, German and Hebrew. Most of his commentaries on philosophy are preserved in the Hebrew translations, or in Latin translations from the Hebrew, and a few in the original Arabic. His commentary on zoology is entirely lost. Ibn Rushd also wrote commentaries on Plato's Republic, Galen's treatise on fevers, al-Farabi's logic, and many others. Eighty-seven of his books are still extant.
Ibn Ishaq Al-Kindi (Alkindus)	Top
Full name Yaqub ibn Ishaq as-Sabah Al-Kindi (born in. 870), the first outstanding Islamic philosopher, known as "the philosopher of the Arabs."  Al-Kindi concerned himself not only in   philosophy but also with such miscellaneous subjects as astrology, medicine, arithmetic, logogriphs, the manufacture of swords, and cooking. He is known to have written more than 270 works, a considerable number of which are extant, some in Latin translations.  Al-Kindi wrote more than two hundred forty books. Among them are sixteen books in Astronomy, twenty-two each in Medicine and Philosophy, twelve in Physics, thirty-two in Geometry, eleven in Arithmetic, nine in Logic, four on the number system, seven in Music and five in Psychology. In addition, he wrote monographs on astronomical instruments, tides, rocks and precious stones. Gerard of Cremona translated many of his books into Latin. These books include Ikhtiyarat al-Ayyam, al-Mosiqa, Risalah dar Tanjim, Ilahyat-e-Aristu, Mad-o-Jazr and Adviyah Murakkaba. Al-Kindi's influence on the development of physics, mathematics, medicine, philosophy and music lasted for several centuries.
Abu Al-Fida (Abulfeda)	Top
Full name Abu Al-Fida Ismail Ibn Ali Al-Malik Al-Muayyad Imad Ad-Din, also called Abulfeda, Ayyubid dynasty historian and geographer who became a local sultan under the Mamluk empire. Abu al-Fida was a patron of scholars and a scholar himself. His two major works were a history, Mukhtasar ta`rikh al-bashar ("Brief History of Man"), spanning pre-Islamic and Islamic periods to 1329; and a geography, Taqwim al-buldan (1321; "Locating the Lands"). Popular in their day in the Middle East, they were much used by 18th- and 19th-century European Orientalists before other sources became available.
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