|
Introduction
During the 7th century the Islamic empire began to grow and eventually her territories encompassed Northern Africa, Middle East and parts of Spain. The capital of this powerful empire was Baghdad, Iraq, which became a major cultural centre due to its location at the crossroads of the Eastern and Western worlds.
Scientific research was encouraged by the Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad and they established the House of Wisdom, an academy of science where they gathered important Sanskrit and Greek manuscripts for scholars to study and translate. Some of these manuscripts were thus saved for humanity through the Islamic quest for knowledge.
The important contributions made by Arab scholars can be seen in many words still in use today such as alkali, algebra, alchemy, alcohol, Aldebaran, Altair, Algol, alembic, algorithm, almanac, Almagest, zenith and zero.
Invention 1 – Public Hospitals
Caliph Walid Ibn-e-Abdul-Malik in Damascus, Syria, built one of the world’s oldest hospitals in 707. Two centuries after the death of Prophet Muhammad, Mecca, Medina and other Arab cities all had hospitals, while the Abbasid governors and their ministers competed to have the best hospitals in their respective regions. Baghdad alone had four important hospitals.
The layout of these hospitals was such that separate wards were allotted for patients with specific diseases. ‘Teaching hospitals,’ also existed where the students learned theory and observed the senior doctors in practice. In addition, there were travelling hospitals where doctors used camels or mules to reach faraway places. Sultan Mahmoud the Seljuk travelled with a hospital which required 40 camels for its transportation.
Invention 2 – Number of days in a year
Abu Abdullah Al-Batani (862-929) was one of the greatest astronomers of his time. He was the first to accurately determine the duration of the terrestrial year to be exactly 365 days, 5 hours, 46 minutes and 24 seconds. He determined the eccentricity of the earth’s orbit and the mean and true orbit of the earth. His work could be hailed as the stepping-stone for the works of famous astronomers such as Johannes Kepler, Tyco Brahe and Copernicus. Al-Batani’s astronomical tables were published in the 12th century under the name De Sceinta Stellarum De Numeris Stelelrum et Motibus.– Number of days in a year.
Invention 3 – Astrolabe
The astrolabe (‘asturlab’) was an important astronomical instrument in the Arab world. Originally a Greek invention, it was improved upon by Muslim astronomers. The astrolabe is like an analogue computer that enables one to arrive at solutions to astronomical problems. Astrolabes were used for time-keeping to determine the time for the five daily prayers and also for surveying. When the device entered Europe through Spain and Italy, it was the latest in high technology. In the ‘Storyteller’ episode of the Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote instructions for its use.
|
