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The greatest scientific advances from the Muslim world

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here is no such thing as Islamic science - for science is the most universal of human activities. But the means to facilitating scientific advances have always been dictated by culture, political will and economic wealth.

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Arabian Nights

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The Thousand and One Nights | Asian literature

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The Thousand and One Nights: The Thousand and One Nights, collection of largely Middle Eastern and Indian stories of uncertain date and authorship whose tales of Aladdin, Ali Baba, and Sindbad the Sailor have almost become part of Western folklore. As in much medieval European literature, the stories-fairy tales, romances,

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Use this site for the 1 paragraph you can access then return to the other Arabian Nights link.

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What Was The Arabian Nights?

The Arabian Nights is a story straight out of a romance novel. It's an epic collection of Arabic folk tales written during the Islamic Golden Age. Scorned by an unfaithful wife, Shahryar is the king of a great empire, but is brokenhearted. Shahryar chose to marry a new woman every day only to kill her the next morning. Needless to say, this did not make him a very popular ruler. More and more innocent women die until one day Scheherazade, The daughter of the king's top advisor, offers to marry the king. The king and advisor both protest, but Scheherazade insists, all knowing that the night could be her last. That night, she requests the presence of her sister and tells a story that manages to be the beginning of dozens of stories meant to keep her alive.

The Actual Never-Ending Story

The Arabian Nights is not an easy work to summarize. After all, another name for it is the One Thousand and One Nights! Scheherazade weaves a deep narrative, linking together stories into a rich tapestry of old legends and new tales. As you might expect from such an ancient text, there are a variety of routes over the years to the same result of Shahryar falling in love with Scheherazade and removing the threat of daily death from her life. Others have him seeing their children and realizing that he can't kill their mother. In any event, the two live happily ever after.

Shockingly, The Arabian Nights does not feature many of the stories that many of us associate with it. Neither Aladdin nor Sinbad make appearances. On the other hand, owing again to its multi-ethnic routes like historical heroes from the Islamic period, the Persian Empire, and even thinly-veiled references to the Hindu tales from India, instead, the structure of the tales relies heavily on frame stories, where different tales fit into a greater narrative. In fact, The Arabian Nights is almost like one of those Russian dolls that have smaller dolls inside them, with stories having other layers of stories within.

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the arabian nights stories: summary & overview - video & lesson transcript | study.com

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The Arabian Nights Stories: Summary & Overview - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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This lesson summarizes 'The Arabian Nights' and discusses its impact on culture around the world. It also gives an interesting look into the...

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The earliest architectural monument of Islam that retains most of its original form is the Dome of the Rock (Qubbat al-Sakhrah) in Jerusalem, constructed in 691-92 on the site of the Jewish Second Temple. Muslims believe it to be the spot from which Muhammad ascended to heaven. It has mosaics depicting scrolling vines and flowers, jewels, and crowns in greens, blues, and gold. Similar in some aspects is the later Great Mosque of Damascus (built c.705-14) which was built by Al Walid over what was originally a Roman temple. The interior walls have stone mosaics that depict crowns, fantastic plants, realistic trees, and even empty towns. This is thought to represent Paradise for the faithful Muslim. Both the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the great Mosque of Damascus used the Syrian cut-stone technique of building and popularized the use of the dome (see mosque ).

The 8th-century desert palace Khirbat al-Mafjar (in present-day Jordan) reveals a wealth of carved and molded stucco decoration, sculptured stone reliefs, and figural fresco paintings. In 750 the Abbasid dynasty moved the capital east to Baghdad, and from 836 to 892 the Abbasid rulers resided at Samarra. The Great Mosque of Samarra is an important example of the Iraqi hypostyle , noted for its massive size and spectacular minaret. In Iran few Islamic buildings erected before the 10th cent. are still standing. Sassanid building techniques, such as the squinch, were combined with the mosque form (see Persian art and architecture ). Sassanid influence is also strong in many Umayyad dynasty residential palaces, built mostly in Syria. The most famous is the 8th-century palace of Mshatta; much of its delicately carved stone facade is now in Berlin.

In the middle of the 8th cent. the last of the Umayyads escaped to Spain and refounded his dynasty there. The great Mosque of Córdoba was begun in 785 and is famous for its rows of double-tiered arches. The mosque was extended three times. The culture of Islamic Spain reached its apogee in Moorish art and architecture . Faïence and lacy pierced-stone screens are the hallmarks of its decoration. The same style prevails in N Africa and is seen at its best in Fès, Morocco, where much elaborately carved wood is used. The Mudé jarstyle of Spain, employed throughout the 18th cent. and influential until much later, is based on this architecture.

Late in the 9th cent. the governor of Egypt, Ibn Tulun, initiated the high period of Egypto-Islamic art with the building of his famous mosque in Cairo. In the 10th cent. the Fatimids introduced into Egypt the decorative stalactite ceiling from Iran and placed emphasis on decorative flat moldings. The most important Fatimid buildings are the Cairo mosques of al-Azhar and al-Aqmar. The cruciform Mosque of Hasanin Cairo, built by a Mamluk sultan in 1536, still reflects Persian influence.

In India a distinct style, preserved mainly in architecture, developed after the Delhi Sultanate was established (1192). This art made extensive use of stone and reflected Indian adaptation to Islam rule, until Mughal art replaced it in the 17th cent. (see Mughal art and architecture ). The square Char Minar of Hyderabad (1591) with large arches, arcades, and minarets is typical.

In Turkey the mosque form was also derived from Persia, as was most Turkish art. The great Byzantine church of Hagia Sophia , adapted for use as a mosque, greatly influenced Turkish architects. The most famous among these is Sinan , chief architect in the Ottoman court from 1539 until his death in 1588. He constructed or designed most of Sulayman I's buildings, the most noted of which is his mosque (c.1557) in İstanbul, where he is buried. It has four minarets and stained-glass windows flanking the mihrab. The mosque (1614) of Sultan Ahmed I is similarly distinguished by its dome lit by numerous windows, and wall surfaces covered with green and blue tiles. Fine ornate buildings were erected in Turkey until the middle of the 17th cent.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: Asian and Middle Eastern Art

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Islamic art and architecture: Architecture

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The earliest architectural monument of Islam that retains most of its original form is the Dome of the Rock (Qubbat al-Sakhrah) in Jerusalem, constructed in 691-92 on the site of the Jewish Second Temple. Muslims believe it to be the spot from which

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Explore the fact-checked online encyclopedia from Encyclopaedia Britannica with hundreds of thousands of objective articles, biographies, videos, and images from experts.

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al-Khwārizmī, (born c. 780 -died c. 850), Muslim mathematician and astronomer whose major works introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals and the concepts of algebra into European mathematics. Latinized versions of his name and of his most famous book title live on in the terms algorithm and algebra.

Al-Khwārizmī lived in Baghdad, where he worked at the "House of Wisdom" (Dār al-Ḥikma) under the caliphate of al-Maʾmūn. The House of Wisdom acquired and translated scientific and philosophic treatises, particularly Greek, as well as publishing original research. Al-Khwārizmī's work on elementary algebra, Al-Kitāb al-mukhtaṣar fī ḥisāb al-jabr waʾl-muqābala (" The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing"), was translated into Latin in the 12th century, from which the title and term algebra derives. Algebra is a compilation of rules, together with demonstrations, for finding solutions of linear and quadratic equations based on intuitive geometric arguments, rather than the abstract notation now associated with the subject. Its systematic, demonstrative approach distinguishes it from earlier treatments of the subject. It also contains sections on calculating areas and volumes of geometric figures and on the use of algebra to solve inheritance problems according to proportions prescribed by Islamic law. Elements within the work can be traced from Babylonian mathematics of the early 2nd millennium bce through Hellenistic, Hebrew, and Hindu treatises.

In the 12th century a second work by al-Khwārizmī introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals ( see numerals and numeral systems) and their arithmetic to the West. It is preserved only in a Latin translation, Algoritmi de numero Indorum ("Al-Khwārizmī Concerning the Hindu Art of Reckoning"). From the name of the author, rendered in Latin as Algoritmi, originated the term algorithm.

A third major book was his Kitāb ṣūrat al-arḍ ("The Image of the Earth"; translated as Geography), which presented the coordinates of localities in the known world based, ultimately, on those in the Geography of Ptolemy (flourished 127-145 ce) but with improved values for the length of the Mediterranean Sea and the location of cities in Asia and Africa. He also assisted in the construction of a world map for al-Maʾmūn and participated in a project to determine the circumference of the Earth, which had long been known to be spherical, by measuring the length of a degree of a meridian through the plain of Sinjār in Iraq.

Finally, al-Khwārizmī also compiled a set of astronomical tables ( Zīj), based on a variety of Hindu and Greek sources. This work included a table of sines, evidently for a circle of radius 150 units. Like his treatises on algebra and Hindu-Arabic numerals, this astronomical work (or an Andalusian revision thereof) was translated into Latin.

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Al-Khwarizmi, Muslim mathematician and astronomer whose major works introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals and the concepts of algebra into European mathematics. Latinized versions of his name and of his most famous book title live on in the terms algorithm and algebra.

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Islamic Architecture

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BBC - Religions - Islam: Islamic architecture

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In Islam, decoration is reserved for the inside of buildings. Most often the only exterior parts to be decorated will be the entrance and the dome.

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The development of sophisticated calligraphy as an art form is not unique to Islamic culture. Other examples include Chinese and Japanese calligraphy and illuminated bibles from north-west Europe including the famous Book of Kells. In the Islamic world, however, calligraphy has been used to a much greater extent and in astonishingly varied and imaginative ways, which have taken the written word far beyond pen and paper into all art forms and materials. For these reasons, calligraphy may be counted as a uniquely original feature of Islamic art. The genius of Islamic calligraphy lies not only in the endless creativity and versatility, but also in the balance struck by calligraphers between transmitting a text and expressing its meaning through a formal aesthetic code.

The Arabic language, and subsequently the art of calligraphy, is held in great esteem by Muslims because Arabic was the language in which the Qu'ran was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century. The Arabic text of the Qu'ran is sacred to Muslims, and its high status gave rise to an associated respect for books in general. However, it is important to remember that while the Qu'ran's holy status provides an explanation for calligraphy's importance, by no means all Arabic calligraphy is religious in content. In general, calligraphic inscriptions on works of art comprise one or more of the following types of text:

Qu'ranic quotations

other religious texts

poems

praise for rulers

aphorisms

These types of text can be seen across all art forms.

Since Muhammad's time, Arabic has become a great world language, used over a huge area as a language of religion, government, commerce, literature and science. In time, the letters of the Arabic script, with the addition of a few new letter forms, were also used to write in Persian, Turkish and other languages, as well as Arabic.

How the scripts developed

Although many dialects of Arabic were spoken in pre-Islamic times, and some are known to have been written down, most literature was transmitted orally. The Qu'ran, too, was preserved by oral transmission until after the Prophet's death when it was recorded in written form. This required that the Arabic script be standardised. We know that the standard form of script was in use by the end of the 7th century. It was employed, for example, on the first surviving monument of Islamic architecture, the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, built in AD 691. The new writing also appeared on the coins minted for Muhammad's successors, the caliphs. Both the Dome of the Rock and early Islamic coinage use Qu'ranic quotations to declare Islam as the new monotheistic faith.

The first formal calligraphic style is called the Kufic style after the city of Kufah in Iraq. It was used in many early Qur'an manuscripts and for inscriptions, including those at the Dome of the Rock. Confusingly, the same name is also commonly used for a second major group of script styles, which came to prominence in the 10th century. These new, more angular styles came to include many fanciful variants such as foliated Kufic (decorated with curling leaf shapes) and floriated Kufic (decorated with flower forms). This second group of Kufic styles was used in contexts as varied as Qu'ran manuscripts, coinage, architectural inscriptions and the decoration of ceramics.

While this second type of Kufic was being developed in the Middle East, probably in Baghdad, a new style was developed far to the west, in Muslim-ruled Spain or Morocco. The Arabic name for this western region is al-Maghrib, and so the new style was called Maghribi. Some calligraphers in the region still use this Maghribi style today. In the Eastern Islamic world, however, the Kufic styles had more or less died out by the 13th century, replaced by the range of more rounded styles in use now.

It may be that the new, more fluid styles developed in the East because paper had replaced parchment and papyrus as the main medium for important manuscripts and documents. The surface of the paper could be sized (coated with starch) and rubbed with a stone until extremely smooth and glossy. The pen moved over this surface with great ease. (Parchment continued to be used until a much later date in the Maghrib).

Another factor was the type of pen used, which was made from a reed. The nib was made by cutting the end of the reed with a knife. Different effects could be achieved by cutting the nib in different ways. The later, rounded scripts were written with a nib cut at an oblique angle, which allowed the calligrapher to create both thick and thin lines, adding elegance and variety to the script. The width of the pen was also important: wider nibs were needed for larger script so that the width of the line stayed in proportion to the overall size of the writing.

A system of proportion based on the width of the nib also determined the shapes of the individual letters, and the relative sizes of the letters in a line of writing. The letter Alif, for example, consists essentially of a single vertical stroke. In one style, it is only three times as high as it is wide, while in another it is seven times as high. The letter Alif is therefore far more prominent in the second style and contributes to its overall appearance. Variations were allowed to take account of the different contexts a letter might occur in, and there was also flexibility in the length of the ligatures, or joins between the letters. This was important because the Arabic script is always cursive, or joined-up, and never has separate letters, as in printed English.

Another basic ingredient in the formation of a style was the nature of the base line. In many scripts, the imaginary line on which the letters were written was strictly horizontal. In others, each new group of letters began above the base line and then sloped downwards to the left to meet it. Arabic script, unlike English, reads right to left. These 'hanging' scripts were originally devised as a security feature in official documents, because the 'hanging' groups could be placed very close together to prevent unauthorised additions. Later, though, this feature was used in other contexts because it was considered elegant.

Materials and techniques

Designs with calligraphy were created out of many different materials. Yet calligraphy often imitates the technical effects of pen on paper, even when it appears on other media. It is possible to see, for example, the graceful range from thick to thin line and the square shape of superscript dots written with a square-cut pen nib. Artists often made their designs by copying from prepared templates written out (on to paper) by a calligrapher.

Ink on parchment

Before the invention of paper, vellum or parchment was the highest quality writing material available. It is made from prepared animal hide. A reed pen, with the tip cut at an angle and filled with ink, would have been used. Writing on vellum can be erased or altered.

Ink on paper

The calligraphy would have been created using a reed pen and ink directly onto starched and polished paper, which provided an excellent smooth surface for writing.

Ceramics

The calligraphy tile pictured below was deeply carved with the inscriptions (and plant designs) and covered with coloured glazes, before the final firing. This technique was used in Central Asia only for a brief period, from around 1350 to the early 1600s.

Wood

The letters were carved and then painted. In the image below the paint has now mostly worn off though you can still see some traces remaining.

Stained glass

This window pictured below is made from small pieces of glass of different colours, which have been arranged in patterns within a plaster framework.

Textiles

The weaver of the silk from Muslim Spain has accurately reproduced the flowing lines of a written inscription in Arabic, a task requiring enormous care in the design. The phrase 'Glory to our lord the sultan' has been repeated within the widest band in the design, creating the illusion of a long frieze of calligraphy.

Enamelled glass

The lamp was made by blowing hot glass into shape and then leaving it to cool. The enamel colours and gilding were then painted on - the enamel was a solution of colours and ground glass that melted and fused on to the lamp when it was reheated in a kiln. The blown glass would have been decorated with enamel and gilt, possibly using fine brushes.

Metalwork

Metalworkers chiselled out tiny areas of the brass surface and filled them with pieces of silver and gold. They added details by chasing the surfaces of the softer inlaid metals with a hammer and tools and adding a black filler to create contrast. The casket pictured below has a strip of calligraphy around the sides and on the lid.

Decorating calligraphy

As well as being written with great elegance, there were many ways in which calligraphy could be enhanced by adding decoration. The words themselves could be written in gold, or in colours other than black. Letters and words could also be outlined or could lie against a background pattern. In addition, calligraphers combined different sizes, colours and styles of text for different phrases or sections of text (but always sticking to the rules of proportionality within each section). These Qu'ran folios show how calligraphers could make functional details of formatting and punctuation into beautifully designed elements.

Notice that the decorated frames and background patterns do not interfere with the clarity of the script, or distract from the content of the text. This is very important because the Qu'ran is considered to be the word of God.

The Calligraphers

Calligraphers were among the most highly regarded artists in Islamic societies, and this remains the case in many places today. Their status was based on the excellence of their work, but also on the eminence of their teachers. As a result, a literary tradition developed in which the history of calligraphy was conceived as a chain of transmission between masters and pupils, covering very long periods.

Training could take many years, with the pupil learning to copy exactly models provided by the teacher. Only when the pupil had mastered the principles in this way could he or she - both men and women trained as calligraphers - become a master and begin to create new work. Learning calligraphy was therefore similar to apprenticeships in other trades.

Many people who studied calligraphy were content to stop their training when they knew enough to earn their living as copyists. Printing was introduced to the Islamic world gradually between the 18th and 20th centuries but the majority of books continued to be produced by hand for most of the Islamic period. Not all copyists were calligraphers, and many books were copied in untidy personal styles that did not obey a set of rules. A book copied in a good, clear hand was therefore at a premium.

Others studied calligraphy to enter specific professions, such as that of chancery scribe. These men copied out official documents for the ruler, using distinctive styles of script. Some examples can be extremely impressive, and it was generally the case that the excellence and complexity of the writing reflected the status of the document.

The calligraphers who progressed furthest produced the most elegant manuscripts. Their work was expensive and they generally worked on commissions from the richest members of society, especially sultans, shahs and other rulers. The best were often employed within a department of the ruler's palace devoted to book production and associated tasks. Once the text was complete, the book was finished by other artists and craftsmen employed there, who produced the painted decoration and a rich binding.

The best calligraphers were also commissioned to create compositions that could be executed in other media. This was a different task from that of copying out a continuous text in a manuscript. The calligrapher had to bear in mind the space available and design the lettering to fill that space in a well-balanced way and according to the rules for the style of script. The calligrapher would work out the design on paper for transfer to the new medium.

These designs and other single sheets produced by great calligraphers were often preserved so that they could be copied by later generations. In later times, they were gathered into albums to be appreciated by connoisseurs. As a result, calligraphers began to produce single sheets specifically for inclusion in albums. Even later, it became the custom to hang calligraphy on the walls of houses, in the manner of paintings. Calligraphers had found yet another way to make money, and, together with fees from teaching and commissions for inscriptions, this allowed some outstanding calligraphers to remain independent. This, too, is how calligraphers often work today.

This article was written as part of the Teachers' resource: Exploring calligraphy through the Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art.

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calligraphy; islamic art; islamic script; jameel gallery; teachers' resource; learning resource

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A description of the origins, development, materials and techniques and uses of calligraphy in Islamic art

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Arts of the Islamic World: the Early Period

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Read and learn for free about the following article: Arts of the Islamic World: the Early Period

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Algebra - Islamic contributions: Islamic contributions to mathematics began around ad 825, when the Baghdad mathematician Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī wrote his famous treatise al-Kitāb al-mukhtaṣar fī ḥisāb al-jabr wa'l-muqābala (translated into Latin in the 12th century as Algebra et Almucabal, from which the modern term algebra is derived).

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PBS - Islam: Empire of Faith - Culture - Literature

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Literature pitched at a more popular level was correspondingly broad, ranging from the legends of pre-Islamic poets to the stories epitomized by the Thousand and One Nights. In addition to works in Arabic, Muslims also fostered a thousand-year tradition of classical Persian poetry, ranging from short quatrains to long epics.

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PBS - Islam: Empire of Faith - Culture - Art

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It was in the year 610 that the Prophet Muhammad received the first revelation of what was to become the Koran, the holy book of Islam.

According to Islamic tradition, Muhammad was confronted by the Angel Gabriel while in a cave on Mount Hira near his home in Mecca. The angel commanded him to recite what became the earliest revealed words of the Koran.

Muhammad went on to receive the divine messages, verse by verse, until his death in 632.

"A secular interpretation of any sacred text says, of course, that it's a human production," explains Tim Winter, also known under his Muslim name Abdel Hakim Murad, who lectures in Islamic studies at Cambridge University in England.

If the Prophet was alive today he would be using the most modern technology. He was the most modern of men in his time.
Imam Ajmal Masroor

"But a traditional believing interpretation says that this is the word of God. It's not a work of co-authorship between God and the Prophet. God wrote it all," he adds.

Oral tradition

To begin with, the Koran was passed on orally by the Prophet's followers, who learnt it by heart.

And the oral tradition has remained central to how Muslims approach their sacred text, whose name means "the recitation" in Arabic, its original language.

Even today, millions of Muslim children learn it by heart, as I did when I was a child.

Many do so without being able to speak or understand Arabic. And images of very young children swaying in rows at madrassas, learning the text without understanding the meaning, have given rote-learning a bad reputation.

Yet, says Mr Winter, if it is done without harsh discipline, most Muslim adults will be grateful that the sacred text has been drummed into them.

Recitation contests

These days, a competitive edge has been introduced to motivate youngsters.

Recitation competitions are held all over the world.

Thirteen-year-old Talha Gulli has high hopes for this year's contest held by the Islam Channel in the UK for children up to 16.

He started learning at the age of five because he was bored, he says.

So if he had to define where reading the Koran comes among the things he enjoys, where would he put it?

"Top," he says, without hesitation.

Ornate text

After Muhammad's death, his followers felt the need to produce a standardised written version of the Koran.

The process of gathering all the revelations, from both written and oral sources, took some time and it was not until around 650, during the reign of the third caliph Uthman, that scholars completed the work.

One of the oldest surviving fragments of the Koran, dating back to the late 7th or early 8th Centuries, is at the British Library in London.

Although the script slants to the right and looks unfamiliar to modern Arabic speakers, the text itself is almost exactly what you would find in a modern printed edition.

The British Library also holds younger copies of the Koran, among them a richly ornate one written entirely in gold, which was commissioned by Sultan Baybars in Cairo in the early 14th Century.

Human form

Any representation of the human form has traditionally been discouraged in Islamic art, helping Arabic calligraphy to thrive in its place.

Soraya Syed is one of the few full-time female Arabic calligraphers in Europe.

Even though writing the sacred words is so closely bound up with the Islamic faith, she says she experiences her art as liberating and profoundly universal.

As she showed me how to write a version of the Bismillah - the declaration "In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful" - she revealed something astonishing.

"When you study calligraphy and read how the old manuscripts describe the letters and the proportions, they use the human anatomy to describe the letters," she says.

"So in order for you to understand the letters and how to write them, you need to understand the human form."

So it appears that there is both an absence and a presence of the human form in Islamic art.

Koran in cyberspace

And today, both recitations and sumptuous facsimiles of the Koran are available to download at the click of a button.

Heart and Soul

Every week, Heart and Soul explores the role of faith, spirituality, and religious practice in the lives of people around the world.

It is first broadcast every Wednesday at 1232GMT.

Listen again to Heart and Soul Download as a podcast Razia Iqbal's full report can be heard on the Heart and Soul programme on BBC World Service radio, at 1132 and 1532 GMT on Wednesday, 18 August, or you can listen online here.More from BBC World Service
"If the Prophet was alive today, he would be using the most modern technology," says Ajmal Masroor, an imam and self-confessed techno-geek. "He was the most modern of men in his time."

Mr Ajmal feels there is nothing irreverent about downloading verses of the Koran, and their translations, onto his laptop or mobile whenever he needs them.

"If people are scared of the modern world, it contradicts the Koranic message of it being relevant for all times," he says.

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The BBC's Razia Iqbal examines the way Muslims have interacted with the Islamic holy book, the Koran, all through history - from its revelation some 1,400 years ago, to its availability today on the internet.

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5 Amazing Mechanical Devices from Muslim Civilisation | 1001 Inventions

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1001 Inventions is an award-winning international science and cultural heritage organisation that raises awareness of the creative golden age of Muslim civilisation that stretched from Spain to China. From the 7th century onwards, men and women of different faiths and cultures built on knowledge from ancient civilisations making breakthroughs that have left their mark on our world.

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Islamic Timeline

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The Islamic Golden Age (622 - 1258) represents a time in history when the political power of Islam allowed a flourishing of intellectual development. The Islamic empires were based on trade, as opposed to Christian society's focus on agrarian landlords.

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Islamic Science: Medicine

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This story appears in the November/December 2016 issue of National Geographic History magazine.

Sancho I, ruler of the kingdom of Léon in the north of modern-day Spain, was overthrown by rebel nobles in A.D. 958. Their motive, even by the turbulent politics of the day, was an unusual one: The king was unable to fulfill his regal duties with dignity, the rebels said, because he was too fat.

The relatives of Sancho acted quickly to restore his power. In an example of the lively interchange of ideas and loyalties in multicultural, medieval Spain, his grandmother, Queen Toda Aznar of the Christian kingdom of Navarra, sought help from another Spanish kingdom deep in Spain's south: the Muslim Caliphate of Córdoba. Queen Toda approached Córdoba's great ruler, the caliph 'Abd al-Rahman III, with two bold requests: help with a cure for her grandson's morbid obesity and military support to regain the throne.

The caliph put the first matter in the hands of Hisdai ibn Shaprut, his Jewish physician, who put the Leonese king on a strict diet. Once Sancho slimmed down enough to be able to ride properly, he reclaimed his lost crown with the help of Muslim troops.

Physicians from Islamic countries during the late Middle Ages enjoyed great respect. Their reputation was well deserved, for the study and practice of medicine was then led by Muslim societies across their immense territory, which extended from modern-day southern Spain to Iran.

In the Beginning

Before the message of the Prophet Muhammad spread beyond the Arabian Peninsula, local medical attitudes were based on the words of the founder of Islam: "Make use of medical treatment, for Allah has not made a disease without appointing a remedy for it, with the exception of one disease: old age."

Early Muslim medicine drew on traditional practices from the region, some dating back to ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Babylon in the third millennium B.C. Traditional natural remedies, such as the use of honey or olive oil, and the use of suction cups ( hijama) are still used today in many Islamic countries and around the world to treat ailments.

An indicator of health in this early Muslim society was one's dreams. Muhammad ibn Sirin, working in what is today Iraq, composed a great Arabic work, Tabir al-Anam, on dream interpretation in the eighth century. Its main source was Oneirocritica-The Interpretation of Dreams -written by the Greek author Artemidorus Daldianus some 500 years earlier. In addition to this early form of psychological therapy, rituals and talismans appeared in medical treatises. Islam did not reject these practices outright and "benign" magic was lawful, provided certain rules were followed.

In 622 the Prophet Muhammad departed from Mecca for Medina, and that year marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. Just two centuries later, his successors, the caliphs, had extended their domains eastward toward Iran and India, and westward along the coast of North Africa and Europe. Although Arabian medicine spread with Islam, its rulers were also keen to absorb the wisdom of other cultures, especially the Greco-Roman culture preserved in Egypt and the Near East. They sought to lay claim to the knowledge of philosophy, technology, and medicine, sometimes referred to as the "science of the ancients."

The Old Wisdom

As Islam expanded, the cities where Greek science had flourished came under Muslim control. These included Alexandria in Egypt and Edessa in modern-day Turkey. On the eastern bounds of Islam, Gondeshapur in Persia had become a center for Greek medicine and learning after scholars migrated there in A.D. 529, following the decision of the emperor Justinian to close the Academy in Athens. The new Muslim elites who occupied Gondeshapur were determined to revive, absorb, and spread what they saw as this lost learning. They also wanted to build on it.

Greek science became the basis for the development of Arabic medicine. The early theoretical basis of Islamic medicine drew on the Greek and Roman theory of humors, attributed to Hippocrates, writing in the fourth century B.C. The system of humors divides human fluids into four basic types: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. The balance between each one determines whether an individual is sick or well. Patients became depressed, for example, because of a surfeit of black bile. The combination, in Greek, of the words for "black," melanin, and "bile," khole, is the root of the word "melancholy." Sanguine, phlegmatic, or choleric temperaments likewise suffered from an imbalance in the other humors. Health could be restored by rebalancing them with diets and purges, and explains the importance that Islamic medicine placed on hygiene and diet.

Gifted translators gave the Muslims access to these Greek and Latin texts. Scholars such as Yahya ibn Masawayh (known in the West as Ioannis Mesue) and his student, Hunayn ibn Ishaq (known as Johannitius in Latin) produced over 50 translations alone. Both men were Syrian Nestorians, a denomination of Christianity considered heretical in the eastern Roman Empire, and had been forced to flee to Persia.

Their ability to speak several languages-including Greek and Syriac (a Semitic language close to Arabic)-was in high demand. In other cities across the new Islamic world, Muslim patrons hired these men. The caliph Al-Ma'mun of the Abbasid dynasty in Baghdad put Hunayn ibn Ishaq in charge of the translators at the city's famous Bayt al-Hikma, or House of Wisdom.

By the 900s, drawing from a growing body of Greek, Persian, and Sanskrit works translated into Arabic, Islamic medicine quickly became the most sophisticated in the world. Christians, Jews, Hindus, and scholars from many other traditions, looked to Arabic as a language of science. Doctors of different faiths worked together, debating and studying with Arabic as the common tongue.

The Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad enjoyed a long period of intellectual experimentation that lasted throughout the 10th and 11th centuries. Among its many glittering figures was Al-Razi, known in Latin as Rhazes, a Persian pharmacologist and physician who ran the hospital in Baghdad. But the brightest star in the Baghdad firmament was undoubtedly the extraordinary Ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna. Already a doctor at age 18, his great volume Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb-Canon of Medicine-became one of the most famous medical works of all time, and an extraordinary exercise in the bringing together of different disciplines and cultures. Avicenna's attempt to harmonize the medical practices of the Greek thinker Galen with the philosophy of Aristotle reveals the multiple nature of the debt owed to Muslim scholarship, which did not merely revive Greek authors, but stimulated new patterns of thought for the centuries ahead. The reconciling of practical science, thought, and religion ensured Canon was studied by European medics until the 18th century.

Scholarly Works in Spain

At the westernmost limits of the Islamic world, Muslim Spain was also undergoing a period of scholarly development. By the 10th century, Córdoba was the biggest, most cultured city in Europe, described by some as "the Ornament of the World." The city was also a great center of study and exploration.

Essential volumes in any scientist's library were preserved in Córdoba. For instance, De materia medica-On Medical Material -the classic treatise of Dioscorides, written at the time of the emperor Nero in the first century A.D., was translated into Arabic in Córdoba, on the orders of Caliph 'Abd al-Rahman III. This practical study of the medicinal qualities of plants and herbs, including a study of cannabis and peppermint, was now accessible to more scholars than ever before.

One of the caliph's brilliant courtiers, the surgeon Al-Zahrawi, also known as Abulcasis, compiled the Al-Tasrif-The Method of Medicine-a 30-volume encyclopedia that documented accounts of his and his colleagues' experiences in treating the sick and injured: surgical instruments, operating techniques, pharmacological methods to prepare tablets and drugs to protect the heart, surgical procedures used in midwifery, cauterizing and healing wounds, and the treatment of headaches. It also drew upon the work of previous scholars, such as seventh-century Byzantine medic Paul of Aegina. Translated into Latin in the 12th century, Method was a foundational medical text in Europe well into the Renaissance.

The 12th century saw the emergence of the work of the outstanding Ibn Rushd-known in Christendom as Averroës-and the Jewish physician and thinker Moses Maimonides. Both men reflect the strong ties between philosophy and medicine during the Islamic golden age. Averroës, author of some of the greatest commentaries of the Middle Ages on Aristotle and Plato, was also personal physician to the caliphs. Moses Maimonides became the personal doctor of Saladin, the Muslim champion against the Crusaders. Among Maimonides's many works was his Moreh Nevukhim, or Guide for the Perplexed, a masterwork attempting to reconcile religious belief with philosophical inquiry.

Under the Knife

While writing about medicine predominated in Islamic culture, the practice of medicine made great progress as well. New treatments were developed for specific ailments, including a revolutionary treatment to treat cataracts. The 10th-century physician Al-Mawsili developed a hollow syringe to remove cataracts via suction; the technique has improved with time, but the basic premise of the procedure remains sound to this day. Ibn Isa, a 10th-century scholar from Iraq, wrote perhaps what was the most complete book of eye diseases, the Notebook of the Oculist, detailing 130 conditions. The book was translated into Latin in 1497 followed by several more languages, allowing it to serve as an authoritative work for centuries.

The greatest advances in surgery of the era were detailed by Al-Zahrawi who invented a wide range of instruments: forceps, pincers, scalpels, catheters, cauteries, lancets, and specula, all carefully illustrated in his writings. His recommendations on pain-reduction techniques, such as the use of very cold sponges, were followed by Western medics for centuries. One of his greatest innovations was the use of catgut for stitching up patients after an operation, a practice that is still in use today.

Healing and Teaching

One of the most lasting contributions of Islam was the hospital. Funded by donations called waqf, public hospitals treated the sick, provided a place to convalesce and recover, housed the mentally ill, and provided shelter to the aged and infirm. Jewish and Christian doctors, in addition to Muslim physicians, worked in these institutions. Hospitals allowed the poorest to benefit from the knowledge of outstanding doctors: Beggars in Baghdad might be operated on by Rhazes, the great surgeon of the city hospital.

As was increasingly the case in Christian Europe, great cities in the Muslim world competed to house such institutions, hoping to attract the best teachers and books. The Ahmad ibn Tulun Hospital, one of the first of its kind, was built in Cairo between 872 and 874. Perhaps the best known hospital of the Islamic world, Al-Mansuri Hospital, was also built in Cairo, by the sultan Qalawun in 1285. Four wards, each one specializing in different pathologies, were reputed to house thousands of patients. The buildings surrounded a courtyard cooled by fountains.

Study and education were also important components of Muslim medical culture, and hospitals affiliated with universities educated the next generation of physicians. Founded in the 12th century, the Syrian Al-Nuri Hospital in Damascus was one of the leading medical schools of its time, complete with an impressive library donated by the ruler Nur al-Din ibn Zangi. Much like medical students of today, scholars learned from mentoring by experienced doctors. Hospitals featured large lecture halls where talks and readings of classic manuscripts would be held.

The teachings at these universities provided the foundation for the great medical advances to come, which all stand on the shoulders of the extraordinary discoveries and practices from Islam's golden age.

A specialist in Islamic History, Víctor Pallejà de Bustinza is an Associate Professor of Humanities at the Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain.

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How Early Islamic Science Advanced Medicine

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This story appears in the November/December 2016 issue of National Geographic History magazine. Sancho I, ruler of the kingdom of Léon in the north of modern-day Spain, was overthrown by rebel nobles in A.D. 958.

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1001 Inventions reveals 7 marvellous mechanical and water-powered clocks from early Muslim Civilisation. These sophisticated Let the countdown begin! devices defied the Middle Ages.
Clocks and timekeeping were one of the most significant developments of Muslim civilisation. Scholars, inventors and craftsmen made innovative automata, carried out detailed mathematical analysis, constructed intricate clocks and attempted to master automatic control as they created and expanded upon inventions to mark and measure time. Here are seven key examples.

The first machine described by Al-Jazari in his famous treatise of mechanics Al-Jami' bayn al-'ilm wa 'l-'amal al-nafi' fi sina'at al-hiyal ('A Compendium on the Theory and Useful Practice of the Mechanical Arts') is a monumental water clock known as the Castle Clock.

The castle water clock is one of the grandest clocks mentioned in Al-Jazari's book. Details of its construction and operation are described in ten sections of the first chapter of Category I of the treatise.
Read More: https://muslimheritage.com/al-jazaris-castle-water-clock/
The clock, with its series of mechanical routines that ran throughout the day, would have been very pleasing to watch and listen to. During daylight hours, an observer would have seen the Sun's disc on the eastern horizon about to rise, the Moon would not be seen at all and six zodiac signs would be visible, while the first point of the constellation Libra was about to set.

The crescent Moon would travel steadily from left to right on the frieze. When between two doors, the upper door would open to reveal a figure of a man, while the lower door flipped round to reveal a different colour. This occured as each solar hour of sunlight has passed. Soon after this happens, the two falcons would tilt forward and spread their wings, and a ball would drop out of their beaks and into the vase. The observer would hear a cymbal-like sound, and both falcons would lean back to their original position and close their wings...

Originally built in the famous Umayyad mosque in Damacus more than 800 years ago, this clock was re-constructed by Ridhwan al-Sa'ati. This impressive mechanical clock displayed the time numerically, and included two falcons that would automatically throw a copper ball into a vase to mark the passing of an hour. At night, a lamp would be lit to indicate the hour by shining through a turning disc.
Read More: https://muslimheritage.com/recent-models-umayyad-clock/
According to descriptions by Ibn Jubayr, the clock had both an upper level and a lower section.

The lower section housed the engine that generated the movements and transmitted them by ropes and pulleys to the upper part. The engine worked by means of a float in a water tank ( bankan). Upon draining the water from the tank, through an orifice at the bottom, the float moved down under the force of gravity, pulling a rope over a pulley which caused the movement of all the other parts. The float movement was controlled by the speed with which the water surface moved down in itself regulated by a control valve attached to the orifice.

In his book 'The Brightest Stars for the Construction of Mechanical Clocks' (Al-Kawakib al-durriyya fi wadh' al-bankamat al-dawriyya), Taqi al-Din Ibn Ma'ruf analyses the four main types of time keeping devices known in the 16th century: watches, domestic clocks, astronomical clocks and tower clocks. Such machines represent the earliest mechanical computers.

Before the 16th century, clocks were considered too inaccurate for measuring celestial movements. Where Ptolemy failed to succeed in, Taqī al-Dīn planned to build an astronomical clock that would measure time with great regularity in fulfillment of the wish of the Sultan at the time.
Read More: https://muslimheritage.com/astronomical-clock-taqi-al-din/
Using mathematics, he designed three dials which showed the hours, degrees and minutes. In his clock, he incorporated the use of several escapements, an alarm, the striking trains that sounded at every hour, the visual relationship between the sun and the moon, the different phases of the moon, the devices that indicated the time for prayers and the dials that showed the first day of the Gregorian months.

Taqī al-Dīn's work on mechanical clocks is of important significance in light of transmission of knowledge between cultures and advancement of technology within the Middle East in the middle of the 16th century. Many of the devices mentioned in his clock are present in today's clocks from all around the world.

Some of the earliest descriptions in Arabic of water clocks are available in Al-Muradi's 'The Book of Secrets', there has been found some of the earliest descriptions in Arabic of water clocks. This book deals with water clocks and other devices that use automata. The treatise consists of 31 models of which five are essentially very large toys similar to clocks, in that automata are caused to move at intervals, but without precise timing.
Read More: https://muslimheritage.com/a-review-of-early-muslim-control-engineering/
There are nineteen clocks all of which record the passage of the temporal hours by the movements of automata. The power came from flowing water, and it was transmitted to automata by very sophisticated mechanisms, which included gears and the use of mercury. These are highly significant features; they provide the first known examples of complex gearing used to transmit high torque, while the adoption of mercury reappears in European clocks from the thirteenth century onwards.

Unfortunately, the only known manuscript of this work is badly defaced and it is not possible to understand exactly how the clocks worked. A weight-driven clock with a mercury escapement appears in "Libros del Saber", a work written in Spanish at the court of Alfonso of Castille in about 1277 and consisting of translations and paraphrases of Arabic works. A novel feature in this treatise is the use of mercury in balances. Al-Zarquali built two large water clocks on the banks of the river Tagus at Toledo in 11th century.
Read More: https://muslimheritage.com/hist-cult-sci-moroc-11-14-c/
Amongst the most remarkable historical objects in the Maghrib are the clocks in Fez in Morocco. One of these, a water clock operated by levers and strings and without any complicated gear mechanisms, was located in a room in the minaret of the Qarawiyyin Mosque. It was made in 1286/87 by Ibn al-Habbak al-Tilimsani, and when it was restored in 1346-48 by Abu Abdallah al-'Arabi it was fitted with an astrolabic rete to help track the stars. Alas, the driving mechanism behind the clock is lost without trace, and it is not clear what changes have been made to the front of the clock. But fortunately the astrolabic part survives to this day. It is housed in a cabinet 2.4 metres high and 1.2 metres square; the rete is about 40 cm in diameter, and would have rotated once every 24 hours. It thus could imitate the apparent daily rotation of the heavens about the horizon of Fez, a kind of model of the universe in two dimensions. In addition, metal balls would fall through the doors above the clock every hour .

The muwaqqit was the officer charged with the regulation and maintenance of the clocks and with communicating the correct times of prayer to the muezzin who would lead the call to prayer. The most important object of the Dar al-Muwaqqit is the water clock of Al-Lija'i made at the order of the Marinid Sultan Abu Salim Ali II (r. 1359-1361) by Abu Zaid Abdurrahman Ibn Suleyman al-Lija'i (d. 1370). Notice the 12 doors under and above the disk; the red wooden structure is the top part of the clock. Source: La clepsydre Al-Lijai.

Better known for his ground-breaking discoveries in optics, Ibn al-Haytham's work on the water clock (Maqala fi 'amal al-binkam) is also very significant.
Read More: https://muslimheritage.com/the-mechanical-water-clock-of-ibn-al-haytham/
In his writings, Ibn al-Haytham gives details of the water clock. He describes it as a new invention in that it gives hours and minutes, which no other clockhad previously shown. He refers to making and manufacturing the clock, as well as testing it by trial and error.

The time-measuring mechanism he used was a cylinder with a small hole at its base as the prime mover for telling the time. As the cylinder sank downwards into another tank, which contained sufficient amount of water, it resembleed an inflow clepsydra, measuring time by the amount of water that had flowed in. This was unlike the clepsydras used in antiquity, which were later adapted by Muslim engineers Al-Muradi, Ibn Ridhwan al-Sa'ati and Al-Jazari. These were all outflow clepsydras, measuring time by the amount of water that had flown out. It is interesting that Ibn al-Haytham should use inflow technology for the control of his clock instead of the outflow clepsydra, which should have been well known in Cairo at the time when he was in Egypt.

More on Ibn Al-Haytham: www.IbnAlhaytham.com

Al-Jazari's 800-year-old automatic Elephant Clock is probably the most famous of clocks from Muslim civilisation.
Read More: https://muslimheritage.com/overview-on-al-jazari-and-his-mechanical-devices/
The large clock uses Greek water-raising technology, an Indian elephant, an Egyptian phoenix, Arabian figures and Chinese dragons, to celebrate the diversity of the world.

Watch a short film on Al-Jazari's Elephant Clock below:

Further Reading

"In the second passage from Rev. Kenner Davenport's The Reasonable Horologist, he reflects on man's early attempts to capture time more precisely. Clepsydra refers to a water clock (its Greek translation is "water thief") which measures time by regulating the flow of liquid from one vessel to another.

In 807, Emperor Charlemagne was sent a brass clock by the Abbasid caliph, Harun al-Rashid in Baghdad. According to the Emperor's biographer, it was a "marvellous mechanical contraption, in which the course of the twelve hours moved according to a water clock, with as many brazen little balls, which fell down on the hour and through their fall made a cymbal ring underneath. On this clock there were also twelve horsemen who at the end of each hour stepped out of twelve windows, closing the previously open windows by their movements." HistoryToday "Charlemagne's Elephant", Richard Hodges, November 2000.

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Top 7 ingenious Clocks from Muslim Civilisation that defied the Middle Ages - 1001 Inventions

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1001 Inventions reveals 7 marvellous mechanical and water-powered clocks from early Muslim Civilisation. These sophisticated Let the countdown begin! devices defied the Middle Ages. Clocks and timekeeping were one of the most significant developments of Muslim civilisation.