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Abu Ali al-Hussain Ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina (980-1037)
Abu Ali al-Hussain Ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina, or known simply as Ibn Sina or Avicenna in the West was born in the year 980 at Afshana near Bukhara (south of Russia). He has made great contributions to the world of medicine.
His major contribution was his famous book called al-Qanun, known as the Canon in the West. This immense encyclopaedia of medicine surveyed the entire medical knowledge available from ancient and contemporary Muslim sources. Ibn Sina’s contribution to this encyclopaedia includes such advances as recognition of the contagious nature of phthisis and tuberculosis, distribution of diseases by water and soil, and interaction between psychology and health. The Canon also points out the importance of dietetics, the influence of climate and environment on health and the surgical use of oral anaesthetics.
Ibn Sina advised surgeons to treat cancer in its earliest stages, ensuring the removal of all the diseased tissue. In addition to describing pharmacological methods, the book describes over 760 drugs and became the most valuable medical material of the era. Ibn Sina was also the first to describe meningitis and made rich contributions to anatomy, gynaecology and child health.
The Arabic text of the Canon was published in Rome in 1593 and was one of the earliest Arabic books to see print. It was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona in the 12th century. This Canon, with its encyclopaedic content, systematic arrangement and philosophical plan, soon worked its way into a position of pre-eminence in the medical literature of the age, displacing the works of Galen, al-Razi and al-Majusi, and becoming the text book for medical education in the schools of Europe. In the last 30 years of the 15th century, it passed through 15 Latin editions and one Hebrew. In recent years, a partial translation into English was made. From the 12th-17th century, the Canon served as the chief guide to medical science in the West and is said to have influenced Leonardo da Vinci. In the words of Dr. William Osler, the Canon has remained "a medical bible for a longer time than any other work".
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (780-850 AD)
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, or al-Khwarizmi for short, was a mathematician and astronomer whose major works included the introduction of Hindu-Arabic numerals and the concept of algebra into mathematics. The Latinised version of his name and his most famous book title live on in the terms ‘algorithm’ and ‘algebra’.
Al-Khwarizmi lived in Baghdad, Iraq and worked at The House of Wisdom (Dar al Hikma) under the caliphate of al-Ma’mun. His work, aside from publishing original research, involved the acquiring and translating of scientific and philosophic treatises, particularly of Greek origin. Al-Kharizmi’s work on elementary algebra, The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing (al-Kitab al-mukhtasar fi hisab al-jabr wa’l-muqabala), was translated into Latin in the 12th century, from which the title and term Algebra derives.
In the 12th century, a second work by al-Khwarizmi introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals and their arithmetic to the West. It is preserved only in a Latin translation, Al-Khwarizmi Concerning the Hindu Art of Reckoning (Algoritmi de numero Indorum). His third major book was his The Image of the Earth (Kitab surat al-ard) which presented the coordinates of localities in the known world. He also assisted in the construction of a world map for al-Ma’mun and participated in a project to determine the circumference of the Earth by measuring the length of a degree of a meridian through the plain of Sinjar in Iraq.
Al-Khwarizmi also compiled a set of astronomical tables (‘Zij’), based on a variety of Hindu and Greek sources. This work included a table of sines, evidently for a circle of radius of 150 units. Similar to his other treatises, this one was also translated into Latin.
Koca Mimar Sinan Agha (1489-1588 AD)
Koca Mimar Sinan Agha was the chief architect for the Ottoman sultans Selim 1, Selim II and Murad III. His masterpiece is the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, although his most famous work is the Suleiman Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey.
Sinan was born a Christian in Asia Minor, of either Greek or Armenian origin. He was conscripted into Ottoman service and went to Istanbul as a recruit where he converted to Islam under the devshirme system. He served the Vizier Ibrahim Pasa as a novice of the Palace School and was given the Muslim name Sinan. He was a skilled architect and engineer and later took part in Selim's military campaigns into the east as part of the engineering corps. When the Ottoman army captured Cairo in Egypt, Sinan was promoted to chief architect and was given the privilege of tearing down any buildings that were not built according to the city plan. He was also appointed commander of an infantry division, but was, at his own request, transferred to the command of the artillery instead.
Sinan's first work was the Sehzade Mosque, which he built in 1548. He started building the Süleymaniye Mosque in 1550, with construction completed in 1557. Before Süleymaniye, no mosques had been built with half cubic roofs. He also built many mosques and other buildings in and around Istanbul, and designed the Taqiyya al- Süleymaniye khan mosque in Damascus, as well as the Banya Bashi Mosque in Sofia, Bulgaria, currently the only functioning mosque in the city.
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