These are just a few of the 100's of great Muslim inventors:
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*By the 9th century, many Muslim scholars took it for granted that the Earth was a sphere. The proof, said astronomer
Ibn Hazm, “is that the Sun is always vertical to a particular spot on Earth”. It was
500 years before that realisation dawned on Galileo. The calculations of Muslim astronomers were so accurate that in the 9th century they reckoned the Earth’s circumference to be 40, 253.4km — less than 200km out. Al-Idrisi took a globe depicting the world to the court of King Roger of Sicily in 1139.
*Algebra was named after
al-Khwarizmi’s book, Al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah, much of whose contents are still in use. The work of Muslim maths scholars was imported into Europe 300 years later by the Italian mathematician Fibonacci.
*Many modern surgical instruments are of exactly the same design as those devised in the 10th century by a Muslim surgeon called
al-Zahrawi. His scalpels, bone saws, forceps, fine scissors for eye surgery and many of the 200 instruments he devised are recognisable to a modern surgeon.
*In the 13th century, another Muslim medic named
Ibn Nafis described the circulation of the blood,
300 years before William Harvey discovered it. Muslim doctors also invented anesthetics of opium and alcohol mixes and developed hollow needles to suck cataracts from eyes in a technique still used today.
*One of the most important mechanical inventions in the history of humankind, it was created by an ingenious Muslim engineer called
al-Jazari to raise water for irrigation. His Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices (1206) shows he also invented or refined the use of valves and pistons, devised some of the first mechanical clocks driven by water and weights, and was the father of robotics. Among his 50 other inventions was the combination lock.
*A thousand years before the Wright brothers, a Muslim poet, astronomer, musician and engineer named
Abbas ibn Firnas made several attempts to construct a flying machine. In 852 he jumped from the minaret of the Grand Mosque in Cordoba using a loose cloak stiffened with wooden struts. He hoped to glide like a bird. He didn’t. But the cloak slowed his fall, creating what is thought to be the first parachute, and leaving him with only minor injuries.
In 875, aged 70, having perfected a machine of silk and eagles’ feathers he tried again, jumping from a mountain. He flew to a significant height and stayed aloft for ten minutes but crashed on landing — concluding, correctly, that it was because he had not given his device a tail so it would stall on landing. Baghdad international airport and a crater on the Moon are named after him.
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