Prof. Dr. Omar bin YaakobUniversiti Teknologi Malaysia

Once we were great, can we be great again?

A

610M 634M 661M 132H/749M 656H/1258M 1924M

2014B

C

D

E

F

G

HI

J

K

756H/1517M632M

Era Nabawi

Khulafa’ Arrashidin

Ummayyads

Abbassids

Era Uthmani

Present

Abbassids I ( 750 AD-1258 AD)

Abbassids II (1261AD-1517AD

Ottomans (1326-1924 A.D.)

Muslim Naval Power Muslim Naval Power

At one point, the Ottomans were controlling the whole of the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, The Black Sea, and some portions of the Indian Ocean, keeping check over the Portuguese exploits.

Forward Naval bases in Suez, Basra and on the Danube in Hungary.

Sultanate of Acheh in North Sumatra regarded itself as a vassal of the Ottoman Empire and to underscore this link, Sultan Suleyman and Selim II sent cannons and gun-making expertise to Acheh to help them in their fights against the Portuguese.

Used to attack the Portuguese colony in Malacca in 1568 and again in 1570 and 1573.

Omar Bin Yaakob, Mohamad Pauzi Abdul Ghani, Faizul Amri Adnan , A Review of Muslim Maritime Tradition, Perintis , Volume 3, No. 2, 1-15.

Muslim Naval Power Muslim Naval Power

Zheng He (Cheng Ho) from 1405 to 1433.

“His armada of giant junks was several times bigger than any of the fleets Columbus commanded nearly a century later. And his ships were five times longer than those of the celebrated Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama. With more than 300 ocean-going vessels and a crew of nearly 30,000 men, Zheng He helped transform China into the region's, and perhaps the world's, 15th century superpower”.

Zheng He’s Voyages (1405-1433) Zheng He’s Voyages (1405-1433)

Records and Maps Records and Maps

Don’t forget.. Once we were rulers of the world!Don’t forget.. Once we were rulers of the world!

Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (981 – 1037) Persian

Medicine, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy

Ibn Sina (contd.)

• Books– Al Qanun fi al- Tibb– Kitab al Shifa

(philosophical)……and many more

Ibn Sina… most influential in the field of medicine for about

600 yrs…

Zakariya Razi (Rhazes)(864 – 930), Persian

Medicine, ophthalmology, chemistry, astronomy

Zakariya Razi (contd.)

• Author of more than 200 books– Al-Hawi (20 volumes) - the most extensive

ever written by a medical man▫a collection of Greek-Syrian-Islamic medical

knowledge, ▫Used extensively in the West until 16th

century– Kitab al-Mansoori– Al-Judari wal Hasabah [smallpox and measles]…

Al Razi’s Medicine expertise is only comparable to Ibn Sina… &

His expertise in Chemistry is only comparable to Jabir Ibn Haiyyan

Ibn al-Nafis Dimashqi (1213-1288)

Anatomy, expert on Shafi'i School of Jurisprudence

Ibn al-Nafis (contd.)• Discovered the Pulmonary

circulation nearly 350 years before Sir William Harvey (yr 1616) of England

• first to describe the constitution of lungs, Bronchi, and the coronary arteries

• Purification of blood in the lungs where it was refined in contact with the air inhaled from the outer atmosphere

Abu-Raihan Biruni(973 – 1048), Persian

Medicine, Astronomy, Mathematics, Physics

Biruni (contd.)

• More than 146 Books of 20 different subjects– al-Qanun al-Masudi (astronomical

encyclopedia)– al-Tafhim-li-Awail Sina'at at-Tanjim

(Astrology)– Kitab-al-Hind – Kitab al-Jamahir (Geology)

“One of the very greatest scientists of Islam, and, all considered, one of the greatest of all times”

– George Sarton 1/707.

Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen)(965-1040), Basra, Iraq

Physics, optics, mathematics

al-Haytham (contd.)

• Father of modern optics • Discovered the laws of refraction… 600

years before W. Snell (Snell’s Law of Refraction)

• Introduced atmospheric refraction• First record of using glass lens for

magnification

Ibn al Haytham - The First Scientist - Alhazen Biography

• Known in the West as Alhazen, Alhacen, or Alhazeni, Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham was the first person to test hypotheses with verifiable experiments, developing the scientific method more than 200 years before European scholars learned of it—by reading his books.

A devout Muslim, Ibn al-Haitham believed that human beings are flawed and only God is perfect. To discover the truth about nature, Ibn a-Haitham reasoned, one had to eliminate human opinion and allow the universe to speak for itself through physical experiments.

Ibn al Haytham - The First Scientist - Alhazen Biography

Where are we now?

Current Capability Current Capability

Country

Submarine

Carriers

Destroyers

Frigates

Corvettes

Fast Attack Craft

Mines Warfare Ship

Patrol Craft

Amphibious

Support

Turkey 20 - - 18 6 33 23 - - 4

Pakistan 8 - 11 42 - 44 15 34 - -

Indonesia 2 - - 16 16 17 11 10 6 15

Malaysia 2 - - 3 6 13 4 11 - 5

Israel 25 - - - 15 97 - 201 22 2

Greece 2 - 3 13 5 25 18 2 2 2

India 89 7 37 47 88 91 89 64 88 100

Singapore 4 - - - 6 12 4 6 4 3

Muslim Shipping Power Muslim Shipping Power

Rank Country No. of vessels Total thousands dwt tonnage (DWT)

1 Greece 3084 170181

2 Japan 3330 147507

3 Germany 2964 85043

4 China 3184 70390

5 Norway 1810 48697

6 United States 1766 48261

7 Hong Kong 689 45053

8 Rep of Korea 1041 32287

9 United Kingdom 855 26757

10 Singapore 794 25723

11 Taiwan 574 24858

12 Denmark 781 21878

13 Russia 2203 18106

14 Italy 739 15962

15 India 456 14817

16 Switzerland 370 12501

17 Belgium 226 12490

Rank Country No. of vesselsTotal thousands dwt tonnage (DWT)

18 Saudi Arabia 150 11861

19 Turkey 874 10927

20 Iran 184 9994

21 Netherlands 739 8745

22 United Arab Emirates 366 6919

23 Indonesia 793 6684

24 Malaysia 739 6657

25 Sweden 346 6418

26 Cyprus 222 6153

27 France 309 5965

28 Canada 340 5945

29 Brazil 151 4875

30 Kuwait 68 4783

World total 34822 978557

Muslim Shipping Power Muslim Shipping Power

Where we are in 2012[December 2012 Statistics]

57 OIC States

• 22.5% of the total world population or 1.613 billion

South Korea

• 51 million

• GDP is USD 1.5 Trillion

• 5.4% of GDP

• GDP is USD 9980 Billion

• GERD - 0.81% for 57 OIC countries

• Top 5 most developed • 22 are OIC member states are among the 50 least developed

R & D Intensity (%)

R & D Intensity of OIC States vs the World

"during the heyday of islam, the muslims were not only a dominant political and military force but were also leaders in learning and research…..the world was totally under its sway and superiority of muslim thought, philosophy and culture was universally acknowledged…. the wheel has since turned a full circle and today the muslims themselves have come to believe that all knowledge and culture belongs to the west and that the rest of mankind can live only on the crumbs of western philosophy and science and can progress only if it follows in the footsteps of the west”

Inaugural address of Abul A’la Maududi entitled “The Nature of Islamic Research” at the Islamic Research Academy, Karachi on September 23 1963.

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The Benchmark – Where we should be

Jazakumullahu khair..