The notion that religion is not compatible with scientifi c development is alien to Islam. History shows that most of the scientifi c developments by the Muslims were carried out when Islam prevailed. One has to only look at the Arabic origins of many words used in the West, like alkali, algebra, cipher, algorithm. Many scientists were branded heretics, infi dels and satanic by the Church. For example, in 1633 CE Galileo was forced to renounce his beliefs and writings that supported the Copernican theory, that the sun was the centre of the universe and not the earth, as informed by the Church.

Islam is a system of life which originated from the Creator. Allah is the One who created the universe, man and life and subjected man to the physical laws that He imposed on the universe. The Quran, as revealed to the Blessed Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), directs man to study the physical world in order to understand the reality and to appreciate more the greatness of the Creator. Many verses in the Quran point to the physical world and explain natural phenomena to man, as a confi rmation for mankind that this revelation is from the Creator, the Supreme.

Astronomy

God (Allah) says in the Quran (21: 33):

“It is He Who created the night, the day, the sun and the moon. Each one is travelling in an orbit with its own course.”

The science of determining the direction of the Ka’bah (direction of Makkah) was highly developed from the 9th century onwards, as a result of which many other breakthroughs were made. The direction of the Kabah is signifi cant because Muslims are commanded to perform prayers facing towards Makkah, irrespective of where they are. As Islam expanded beyond the Arabian peninsular the problem of its direction surfaced, and to solve this problem scientists started the study of astronomy. The other stimulus for the study of astronomy, was the need of navigation for the people who travelled from far away lands towards Makkah for pilgrimage.

1) Masha’Allah is a plain in the 13th section of the moon. Masha’Allah (d.815CE) was a Jew of Egypt who embraced Islam during the time of the Abbasid Khalifah,

Al-Mansun Two of his books on astronomy, De Scientia Motus olbis and De Composition et

Utilitat Astrolotic, were translated into Latin in the 16th century.

2) A1-Mamun is crater in the ninth section. Abd-Allah Al-Mamun was the son of Haroon Al-Rashid. In 829 CE he built an observatory in Baghdad. In his academy, Bayt-al-Hikmat, the greatest scientists and philosophers of his age carried out their research.

3) A1-Farghani is a crater in the second section. Abu-al-Abbas Ahmad

ibn Kathir Al-Farghani was one of Al-Mamun’s researchers into astronomy.

His most famous book kitab fi Harakat A1-Samawiyah wa Jamawi ilm al Nujum was the main

infl uence for the Italian Dante.

4) Al-Battani is a plain in the fi rst section. Abu Abd-Allah Muhammad ibn Jabir Ibn Sinan Al-Battani was born in 858 CE. He determined many astronomical measurements with great accuracy.

5) Thabit is a prominent circular plain in the eighth section. Thabit ibn Qurrah ibn Marwan Al-Harrani was born in 826 CE. He translated into Arabic a large number of Greek and Syrian works on science. He also made major contributions to pure Mathematics.

6) Al-Sufi is a mountainous ring in the ninth section. Abd-al-Rahman Al-Sufi , born in 903 CE, was one of the most outstanding practical astronomers of the Middles Ages. Al-Sufi ’s book Surwar al-Kawakib al-Thabit was a masterpiece on stellar astronomy.

7) Al-Hassan Al-Haytham is a ring shaped plain in the 12th section. Abu Ali ibn Al-Hasan Al-Haytham, born in 987 CE, was one of the foremost investigators of optics in the world. It was he who discovered that light travels in straight lines.

Records show that even during the rule of al-Mansur (754-775 CE) many professional observatories existed, especially in Jundishpur and Baghdad. The scientists at the time of al-Ma’mun (813-833 CE) were so advanced that they even calculated the diameter of the earth. They went to the plain of Sinjar to determine the length of a degree of latitude by walking north and south until the polar star rose or sank a degree, thus they took the mean distance for one degree. However, this method did not produce very accurate results but it does show they were well aware of the fact that the earth was round. This was during a time when European scientists thought the earth was on a flat line.

Thabit ibn Qurra determined the altitude of the sun and computed the length of the solar year. Al-Biruni at Ghaznah in Afghanistan worked out the latitude and longitude of every major city in the Middle East. Notwithstanding this, Nasir al-Din developed the most accurate instruments of that time and compiled Ilkhanian Tables, which were regarded as the most exact astronomical tables.

The Arabic names of stars and constellations and the Arabic origins of the words ‘azimuth’, ‘nadir’ and ‘zenith’ all point to the great contribution of the Muslims towards this field. The West recognised this brilliance and continued to use the works of the Muslims for a very long time.

The Moon

Long before Neil Armstrong made his first step on the moon. A number of great Muslims scientists had a close association with the Earth’s closest astronomical neighbour. When viewed with the naked eye, the surface of the moon appears unevenly bright, with dark and light patches. These features are called ‘lunar formations’ and their names were finally decided upon at a conference of the International Astronomical Union in 1935. Of the 672 lunar formations, 609 were named after distinguished persons and the rest were borrowed from terrestrial designations. 13 formations were given the names of major Muslim astronomers. A brief account of Muslim astronomers and Scientists contributions to science and culture is as follows.

8) Al-Zarqali is a plain in the eighth section. Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Al-Zarqali, born in 1028 CE, was a Spanish Muslim. In collaboration with other Muslim and Jewish astronomers he prepared the famous Toledan Tables. His work infl uenced that of Copernicus.

9) Jabir ibn Afl ah is a circular, fl at plain in the 9th section. Jabir Ibn Afl ah, who died in 1145 CE, was also a Spanish Muslim. He was the fi rst to design a portable celestial sphere to measure and explain the movements of celestial objects.

10) Nasir Al-Din is a crater 30 miles in diameter. Nasir Al-Din Tusi, born in 1201 CE, was a minister of the Tartar Hulagu II Khan of Persia. Nasir Al-Din was put in charge of the observatory installed at Maraghah by Hulagu. He prepared the II-Khani Tables and the catalogue of fi xed stars which remained in use for several centuries throughout the world, from China to Western Europe.

11) Al-Bitruji is a crater in the eighth section. Nur Al-Din Ibn Ishaq Al-Bitruji was born in Morocco, lived in Ishbiliah (Seville) and died around 1204 CE. He worked hard, unsuccessfully, at modifying Ptolemy’s system of planetary motions. Al-Bituji’s book ‘Kitab-al-Hay’ah’ was popular in thirteenth century Europe.

12) Abu Al-Fida is a circular plain in the ninth section. Ismail Ibn Al-Fida, born in 1273 CE, was the last Muslim geographer and astronomer trained and nurtured on the traditions established by Al-Mamun. He was also a great historian, the most famous of his works being Mukhtasar Tarik Al-Bashar.

13) Ulugh Beg is a prominent elliptical ring in the 18th section. Ulugh Beg, born in 1394 CE, constructed a magnifi cent observatory in Samarkand equipped with astronomical instruments of excellent make and accuracy such as the Astrolabe, which was the world’s fi rst analogue computer.

Mathematics

Great achievements were made in Mathematics by Muslim scientist. The use of zero enabled the Muslims to denote units of tens, hundreds and so on.

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This transformed the whole science of mathematics, and this numerical system forms the most fundamental part of modern mathematics. The use of zero made it possible to take square and cube roots of numbers with great ease. The word ‘cipher’, meaning zero, is taken directly from the Arabic word sifr, which means empty or nothing.

Building on the Greek and Indian works, al-Khwarizmi developed ways of solving quadratic equations in the 9th century CE. The word ‘algorithm’ is taken directly from his name and the word ‘algebra’ is taken from the Arabic word al-Jabr (integration) which was used in the title of his book Hisab al-Jabr wal Muqabalah.

The 10th century CE saw further great developments in mathematics. Al-Battani was the first to present ideas on trigonometry ratios, and Abu al-Wafa of Baghdad established the formula in trigonometry to add angles. Al-Karaji was able to determine the sum of successive numbers raised to the third power. In the 11th century CE, Abu Sa’id al-Sijzi studied conic sections and trisected an angle by means of the intersection of a circle and hyperbola.

Thus, Muslim mathematicians were able to make very significant original contributions to mathematics, as well as developing many areas that were taken from the Greek and Indian works, under the rule of Islam. Through Muslim Spain and Sicily, most of the mathematical achievements was passed into the Western world, where they formed the backbone of the scientific advancement of Europe.

Scientific achievements under Islam

Astronomy& Mathematics

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