This is all very impressive. It does beg the question why are Arab countries no longer seen as the cradle of technical innovation?
Gervas --- In [email protected], "Arun Vasireddy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > This is my first post. Hope you like it! > > How Arab inventors changed the world > > From coffee to cheques and the three-course meal, the Muslim world > has given us many innovations that we take for granted in daily > life. As a new exhibition opens, Paul Vallely nominates 20 of the > most influential- and identifies the men of genius behind them > Published: 11 March 2006 > > 1 The story goes that an Arab named Khalid was tending his goats in > the Kaffa region of southern Ethiopia, when he noticed his animals > became livelier after eating a certain berry. He boiled the berries > to make the first coffee. Certainly the first record of the drink is > of beans exported from Ethiopia to Yemen where Sufis drank it to > stay awake all night to pray on special occasions. By the late 15th > century it had arrived in Mecca and Turkey from where it made its > way to Venice in 1645. It was brought to England in 1650 by a Turk > named Pasqua Rosee who opened the first coffee house in Lombard > Street in the City of London. The Arabic qahwa became the Turkish > kahve then the Italian caffé and then English coffee. > > 2 The ancient Greeks thought our eyes emitted rays, like a laser, > which enabled us to see. The first person to realise that light > enters the eye, rather than leaving it, was the 10th-century Muslim > mathematician, astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haitham. He invented > the first pin-hole camera after noticing the way light came through > a hole in window shutters. The smaller the hole, the better the > picture, he worked out, and set up the first Camera Obscura (from > the Arab word qamara for a dark or private room). He is also > credited with being the first man to shift physics from a > philosophical activity to an experimental one. > > 3 A form of chess was played in ancient India but the game was > developed into the form we know it today in Persia. From there it > spread westward to Europe - where it was introduced by the Moors in > Spain in the 10th century - and eastward as far as Japan. The word > rook comes from the Persian rukh, which means chariot. > > 4 A thousand years before the Wright brothers a Muslim poet, > astronomer, musician and engineer named Abbas ibn Firnas made > several attempts to construct a flying machine. In 852 he jumped > from the minaret of the Grand Mosque in Cordoba using a loose cloak > stiffened with wooden struts. He hoped to glide like a bird. He > didn't. But the cloak slowed his fall, creating what is thought to > be the first parachute, and leaving him with only minor injuries. In > 875, aged 70, having perfected a machine of silk and eagles' > feathers he tried again, jumping from a mountain. He flew to a > significant height and stayed aloft for ten minutes but crashed on > landing - concluding, correctly, that it was because he had not > given his device a tail so it would stall on landing. Baghdad > international airport and a crater on the Moon are named after him. > > 5 Washing and bathing are religious requirements for Muslims, which > is perhaps why they perfected the recipe for soap which we still use > today. The ancient Egyptians had soap of a kind, as did the Romans > who used it more as a pomade. But it was the Arabs who combined > vegetable oils with sodium hydroxide and aromatics such as thyme > oil. One of the Crusaders' most striking characteristics, to Arab > nostrils, was that they did not wash. Shampoo was introduced to > England by a Muslim who opened Mahomed's Indian Vapour Baths on > Brighton seafront in 1759 and was appointed Shampooing Surgeon to > Kings George IV and William IV. > > 6 Distillation, the means of separating liquids through differences > in their boiling points, was invented around the year 800 by Islam's > foremost scientist, Jabir ibn Hayyan, who transformed alchemy into > chemistry, inventing many of the basic processes and apparatus still > in use today - liquefaction, crystallisation, distillation, > purification, oxidisation, evaporation and filtration. As well as > discovering sulphuric and nitric acid, he invented the alembic > still, giving the world intense rosewater and other perfumes and > alcoholic spirits (although drinking them is haram, or forbidden, in > Islam). Ibn Hayyan emphasised systematic experimentation and was the > founder of modern chemistry. > > 7 The crank-shaft is a device which translates rotary into linear > motion and is central to much of the machinery in the modern world, > not least the internal combustion engine. One of the most important > mechanical inventions in the history of humankind, it was created by > an ingenious Muslim engineer called al-Jazari to raise water for > irrigation. His 1206 Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical > Devices shows he also invented or refined the use of valves and > pistons, devised some of the first mechanical clocks driven by water > and weights, and was the father of robotics. Among his 50 other > inventions was the combination lock. > > 8 Quilting is a method of sewing or tying two layers of cloth with a > layer of insulating material in between. It is not clear whether it > was invented in the Muslim world or whether it was imported there > from India or China. But it certainly came to the West via the > Crusaders. They saw it used by Saracen warriors, who wore straw- > filled quilted canvas shirts instead of armour. As well as a form of > protection, it proved an effective guard against the chafing of the > Crusaders' metal armour and was an effective form of insulation - so > much so that it became a cottage industry back home in colder > climates such as Britain and Holland. > > 9 The pointed arch so characteristic of Europe's Gothic cathedrals > was an invention borrowed from Islamic architecture. It was much > stronger than the rounded arch used by the Romans and Normans, thus > allowing the building of bigger, higher, more complex and grander > buildings. Other borrowings from Muslim genius included ribbed > vaulting, rose windows and dome-building techniques. Europe's > castles were also adapted to copy the Islamic world's - with arrow > slits, battlements, a barbican and parapets. Square towers and keeps > gave way to more easily defended round ones. Henry V's castle > architect was a Muslim. > > 10 Many modern surgical instruments are of exactly the same design > as those devised in the 10th century by a Muslim surgeon called al- > Zahrawi. His scalpels, bone saws, forceps, fine scissors for eye > surgery and many of the 200 instruments he devised are recognisable > to a modern surgeon. It was he who discovered that catgut used for > internal stitches dissolves away naturally (a discovery he made when > his monkey ate his lute strings) and that it can be also used to > make medicine capsules. In the 13th century, another Muslim medic > named Ibn Nafis described the circulation of the blood, 300 years > before William Harvey discovered it. Muslims doctors also invented > anaesthetics of opium and alcohol mixes and developed hollow needles > to suck cataracts from eyes in a technique still used today. > > 11 The windmill was invented in 634 for a Persian caliph and was > used to grind corn and draw up water for irrigation. In the vast > deserts of Arabia, when the seasonal streams ran dry, the only > source of power was the wind which blew steadily from one direction > for months. Mills had six or 12 sails covered in fabric or palm > leaves. It was 500 years before the first windmill was seen in > Europe. > > 12 The technique of inoculation was not invented by Jenner and > Pasteur but was devised in the Muslim world and brought to Europe > from Turkey by the wife of the English ambassador to Istanbul in > 1724. Children in Turkey were vaccinated with cowpox to fight the > deadly smallpox at least 50 years before the West discovered it. > > 13 The fountain pen was invented for the Sultan of Egypt in 953 > after he demanded a pen which would not stain his hands or clothes. > It held ink in a reservoir and, as with modern pens, fed ink to the > nib by a combination of gravity and capillary action. > > 14 The system of numbering in use all round the world is probably > Indian in origin but the style of the numerals is Arabic and first > appears in print in the work of the Muslim mathematicians al- > Khwarizmi and al-Kindi around 825. Algebra was named after al- > Khwarizmi's book, Al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah, much of whose contents > are still in use. The work of Muslim maths scholars was imported > into Europe 300 years later by the Italian mathematician Fibonacci. > Algorithms and much of the theory of trigonometry came from the > Muslim world. And Al-Kindi's discovery of frequency analysis > rendered all the codes of the ancient world soluble and created the > basis of modern cryptology. > > 15 Ali ibn Nafi, known by his nickname of Ziryab (Blackbird) came > from Iraq to Cordoba in the 9th century and brought with him the > concept of the three-course meal - soup, followed by fish or meat, > then fruit and nuts. He also introduced crystal glasses (which had > been invented after experiments with rock crystal by Abbas ibn > Firnas - see No 4). > > 16 Carpets were regarded as part of Paradise by medieval Muslims, > thanks to their advanced weaving techniques, new tinctures from > Islamic chemistry and highly developed sense of pattern and > arabesque which were the basis of Islam's non-representational art. > In contrast, Europe's floors were distinctly earthly, not to say > earthy, until Arabian and Persian carpets were introduced. In > England, as Erasmus recorded, floors were "covered in rushes, > occasionally renewed, but so imperfectly that the bottom layer is > left undisturbed, sometimes for 20 years, harbouring expectoration, > vomiting, the leakage of dogs and men, ale droppings, scraps of > fish, and other abominations not fit to be mentioned". Carpets, > unsurprisingly, caught on quickly. > > 17 The modern cheque comes from the Arabic saqq, a written vow to > pay for goods when they were delivered, to avoid money having to be > transported across dangerous terrain. In the 9th century, a Muslim > businessman could cash a cheque in China drawn on his bank in > Baghdad. > > 18 By the 9th century, many Muslim scholars took it for granted that > the Earth was a sphere. The proof, said astronomer Ibn Hazm, "is > that the Sun is always vertical to a particular spot on Earth". It > was 500 years before that realisation dawned on Galileo. The > calculations of Muslim astronomers were so accurate that in the 9th > century they reckoned the Earth's circumference to be 40,253.4km - > less than 200km out. The scholar al-Idrisi took a globe depicting > the world to the court of King Roger of Sicily in 1139. > > 19 Though the Chinese invented saltpetre gunpowder, and used it in > their fireworks, it was the Arabs who worked out that it could be > purified using potassium nitrate for military use. Muslim incendiary > devices terrified the Crusaders. By the 15th century they had > invented both a rocket, which they called a "self-moving and > combusting egg", and a torpedo - a self-propelled pear-shaped bomb > with a spear at the front which impaled itself in enemy ships and > then blew up. > > 20 Medieval Europe had kitchen and herb gardens, but it was the > Arabs who developed the idea of the garden as a place of beauty and > meditation. The first royal pleasure gardens in Europe were opened > in 11th-century Muslim Spain. Flowers which originated in Muslim > gardens include the carnation and the tulip. > > "1001 Inventions: Discover the Muslim Heritage in Our World" is a > new exhibition which began a nationwide tour this week. It is > currently at the Science Museum in Manchester. For more information, > go to www.1001inventions.com. > > 1 The story goes that an Arab named Khalid was tending his goats in > the Kaffa region of southern Ethiopia, when he noticed his animals > became livelier after eating a certain berry. He boiled the berries > to make the first coffee. Certainly the first record of the drink is > of beans exported from Ethiopia to Yemen where Sufis drank it to > stay awake all night to pray on special occasions. By the late 15th > century it had arrived in Mecca and Turkey from where it made its > way to Venice in 1645. It was brought to England in 1650 by a Turk > named Pasqua Rosee who opened the first coffee house in Lombard > Street in the City of London. The Arabic qahwa became the Turkish > kahve then the Italian caffé and then English coffee. > > 2 The ancient Greeks thought our eyes emitted rays, like a laser, > which enabled us to see. The first person to realise that light > enters the eye, rather than leaving it, was the 10th-century Muslim > mathematician, astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haitham. He invented > the first pin-hole camera after noticing the way light came through > a hole in window shutters. The smaller the hole, the better the > picture, he worked out, and set up the first Camera Obscura (from > the Arab word qamara for a dark or private room). He is also > credited with being the first man to shift physics from a > philosophical activity to an experimental one. > > 3 A form of chess was played in ancient India but the game was > developed into the form we know it today in Persia. From there it > spread westward to Europe - where it was introduced by the Moors in > Spain in the 10th century - and eastward as far as Japan. The word > rook comes from the Persian rukh, which means chariot. > > 4 A thousand years before the Wright brothers a Muslim poet, > astronomer, musician and engineer named Abbas ibn Firnas made > several attempts to construct a flying machine. In 852 he jumped > from the minaret of the Grand Mosque in Cordoba using a loose cloak > stiffened with wooden struts. He hoped to glide like a bird. He > didn't. But the cloak slowed his fall, creating what is thought to > be the first parachute, and leaving him with only minor injuries. In > 875, aged 70, having perfected a machine of silk and eagles' > feathers he tried again, jumping from a mountain. He flew to a > significant height and stayed aloft for ten minutes but crashed on > landing - concluding, correctly, that it was because he had not > given his device a tail so it would stall on landing. Baghdad > international airport and a crater on the Moon are named after him. > > 5 Washing and bathing are religious requirements for Muslims, which > is perhaps why they perfected the recipe for soap which we still use > today. The ancient Egyptians had soap of a kind, as did the Romans > who used it more as a pomade. But it was the Arabs who combined > vegetable oils with sodium hydroxide and aromatics such as thyme > oil. One of the Crusaders' most striking characteristics, to Arab > nostrils, was that they did not wash. Shampoo was introduced to > England by a Muslim who opened Mahomed's Indian Vapour Baths on > Brighton seafront in 1759 and was appointed Shampooing Surgeon to > Kings George IV and William IV. > > 6 Distillation, the means of separating liquids through differences > in their boiling points, was invented around the year 800 by Islam's > foremost scientist, Jabir ibn Hayyan, who transformed alchemy into > chemistry, inventing many of the basic processes and apparatus still > in use today - liquefaction, crystallisation, distillation, > purification, oxidisation, evaporation and filtration. As well as > discovering sulphuric and nitric acid, he invented the alembic > still, giving the world intense rosewater and other perfumes and > alcoholic spirits (although drinking them is haram, or forbidden, in > Islam). Ibn Hayyan emphasised systematic experimentation and was the > founder of modern chemistry. > > 7 The crank-shaft is a device which translates rotary into linear > motion and is central to much of the machinery in the modern world, > not least the internal combustion engine. One of the most important > mechanical inventions in the history of humankind, it was created by > an ingenious Muslim engineer called al-Jazari to raise water for > irrigation. His 1206 Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical > Devices shows he also invented or refined the use of valves and > pistons, devised some of the first mechanical clocks driven by water > and weights, and was the father of robotics. Among his 50 other > inventions was the combination lock. > > 8 Quilting is a method of sewing or tying two layers of cloth with a > layer of insulating material in between. It is not clear whether it > was invented in the Muslim world or whether it was imported there > from India or China. But it certainly came to the West via the > Crusaders. They saw it used by Saracen warriors, who wore straw- > filled quilted canvas shirts instead of armour. As well as a form of > protection, it proved an effective guard against the chafing of the > Crusaders' metal armour and was an effective form of insulation - so > much so that it became a cottage industry back home in colder > climates such as Britain and Holland. > > 9 The pointed arch so characteristic of Europe's Gothic cathedrals > was an invention borrowed from Islamic architecture. It was much > stronger than the rounded arch used by the Romans and Normans, thus > allowing the building of bigger, higher, more complex and grander > buildings. Other borrowings from Muslim genius included ribbed > vaulting, rose windows and dome-building techniques. Europe's > castles were also adapted to copy the Islamic world's - with arrow > slits, battlements, a barbican and parapets. Square towers and keeps > gave way to more easily defended round ones. Henry V's castle > architect was a Muslim. > > 10 Many modern surgical instruments are of exactly the same design > as those devised in the 10th century by a Muslim surgeon called al- > Zahrawi. His scalpels, bone saws, forceps, fine scissors for eye > surgery and many of the 200 instruments he devised are recognisable > to a modern surgeon. It was he who discovered that catgut used for > internal stitches dissolves away naturally (a discovery he made when > his monkey ate his lute strings) and that it can be also used to > make medicine capsules. In the 13th century, another Muslim medic > named Ibn Nafis described the circulation of the blood, 300 years > before William Harvey discovered it. Muslims doctors also invented > anaesthetics of opium and alcohol mixes and developed hollow needles > to suck cataracts from eyes in a technique still used today. > > 11 The windmill was invented in 634 for a Persian caliph and was > used to grind corn and draw up water for irrigation. In the vast > deserts of Arabia, when the seasonal streams ran dry, the only > source of power was the wind which blew steadily from one direction > for months. Mills had six or 12 sails covered in fabric or palm > leaves. It was 500 years before the first windmill was seen in > Europe. > > 12 The technique of inoculation was not invented by Jenner and > Pasteur but was devised in the Muslim world and brought to Europe > from Turkey by the wife of the English ambassador to Istanbul in > 1724. Children in Turkey were vaccinated with cowpox to fight the > deadly smallpox at least 50 years before the West discovered it. > > 13 The fountain pen was invented for the Sultan of Egypt in 953 > after he demanded a pen which would not stain his hands or clothes. > It held ink in a reservoir and, as with modern pens, fed ink to the > nib by a combination of gravity and capillary action. > > 14 The system of numbering in use all round the world is probably > Indian in origin but the style of the numerals is Arabic and first > appears in print in the work of the Muslim mathematicians al- > Khwarizmi and al-Kindi around 825. Algebra was named after al- > Khwarizmi's book, Al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah, much of whose contents > are still in use. The work of Muslim maths scholars was imported > into Europe 300 years later by the Italian mathematician Fibonacci. > Algorithms and much of the theory of trigonometry came from the > Muslim world. And Al-Kindi's discovery of frequency analysis > rendered all the codes of the ancient world soluble and created the > basis of modern cryptology. > > 15 Ali ibn Nafi, known by his nickname of Ziryab (Blackbird) came > from Iraq to Cordoba in the 9th century and brought with him the > concept of the three-course meal - soup, followed by fish or meat, > then fruit and nuts. He also introduced crystal glasses (which had > been invented after experiments with rock crystal by Abbas ibn > Firnas - see No 4). > > 16 Carpets were regarded as part of Paradise by medieval Muslims, > thanks to their advanced weaving techniques, new tinctures from > Islamic chemistry and highly developed sense of pattern and > arabesque which were the basis of Islam's non-representational art. > In contrast, Europe's floors were distinctly earthly, not to say > earthy, until Arabian and Persian carpets were introduced. In > England, as Erasmus recorded, floors were "covered in rushes, > occasionally renewed, but so imperfectly that the bottom layer is > left undisturbed, sometimes for 20 years, harbouring expectoration, > vomiting, the leakage of dogs and men, ale droppings, scraps of > fish, and other abominations not fit to be mentioned". Carpets, > unsurprisingly, caught on quickly. > > 17 The modern cheque comes from the Arabic saqq, a written vow to > pay for goods when they were delivered, to avoid money having to be > transported across dangerous terrain. In the 9th century, a Muslim > businessman could cash a cheque in China drawn on his bank in > Baghdad. > > 18 By the 9th century, many Muslim scholars took it for granted that > the Earth was a sphere. The proof, said astronomer Ibn Hazm, "is > that the Sun is always vertical to a particular spot on Earth". It > was 500 years before that realisation dawned on Galileo. The > calculations of Muslim astronomers were so accurate that in the 9th > century they reckoned the Earth's circumference to be 40,253.4km - > less than 200km out. The scholar al-Idrisi took a globe depicting > the world to the court of King Roger of Sicily in 1139. > > 19 Though the Chinese invented saltpetre gunpowder, and used it in > their fireworks, it was the Arabs who worked out that it could be > purified using potassium nitrate for military use. Muslim incendiary > devices terrified the Crusaders. By the 15th century they had > invented both a rocket, which they called a "self-moving and > combusting egg", and a torpedo - a self-propelled pear-shaped bomb > with a spear at the front which impaled itself in enemy ships and > then blew up. > > 20 Medieval Europe had kitchen and herb gardens, but it was the > Arabs who developed the idea of the garden as a place of beauty and > meditation. The first royal pleasure gardens in Europe were opened > in 11th-century Muslim Spain. Flowers which originated in Muslim > gardens include the carnation and the tulip. > > "1001 Inventions: Discover the Muslim Heritage in Our World" is a > new exhibition which began a nationwide tour this week. It is > currently at the Science Museum in Manchester. For more information, > go to www.1001inventions.com. > Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tech4all/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
