A World Without Islam

If Islam never existed, what would the world be like? To understand the answer to this question, the history of Islam and its influence on both the past and the present is necessary. The aim of this blog is to provide a bit of insight on this rich history that has so often been neglected to help combat negative stereotypes too often conveyed by the media and others.

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Day 14 - The House of Wisdom (8th-14th century)

"This immense scientific academy was the brainchild of four generations of caliphs who drew together the cream of Muslim scholars.  It was an unrivaled center for the study of humanities and for sciences, where the greatest collection of worldly knowledge was accumulated and developed."

Many books to this day only exist in the Arabic translation, books that kept our history alive, kept us from going backwards.  Our knowledge would have been even more advanced if the Crusaders did not destroy so many texts.  Nonetheless, what remains is remarkable and truly humbles you.  We always feel like we are so much smarter than our ancestors, but really, we aren't, we just started off with more: with the knowledge of the past, or at least some of it.

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Day 13 - Shampoo

"Shampooing was introduced to Britain at Brighton by Sake Dean Mohamed (18th century), from Patna, India, who became the "Shampooing Surgeon" to King George IV and King William IV."

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Day 12 - Coffee

More than 1.5 billion cups of coffee are drunk worldwide ever day.  Coffee is a global industry and the second largest commodity-based product; only oil beats it.  More than 1,200 years ago hardworkign people fought to stay awake without this stimulant until, as the story goes, an Arab named Khalid discovered that when his goats grazed on the Ethiopian slopes, they became lively and excited after eating a particular berry.  It was introduced to Europe through England in 1650 by a Turkish merchant named Pasqua Rosee.

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Day 11 - Castles (12th century)

The invincible designs of the castles of Syria and Jerusalem were imitated in Western lands with key features like round towers, arrow slits, barbicans, machicolations, parapets, and battlements. Imagine a Europe without castles, or, in other words, without Islam.

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Day 10 - The Health Care we Know Today

Al-Zahrawi (936-1013) was responsible for setting the foundation of modern surgery, the creation of 200+ surgical instruments (many of which are still used today), the discovery of ectopic pregnancies (which can often be fatal to the mother), redefining the doctor-patient relationship for the better, discovering methods for the ligaturing of blood vessels, describing the nature of Haemophilia (uncontrolled bleading), and inventing medicinal sublimation and distillation.  This man revolutionized science, especially when it came to health care!  

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Day 9 - Negative Numbers

Abu Al-Wafa (940-998) established several trigonometric identities such as tan, sin, sec, and cosec. He made important innovations in spherical trigonometry, and his work on arithmetics for businessmen contains the first instance of using negative numbers in a medieval Islamic text.  Doesn't sound impressive, but without negative numbers and these trigonometric functions, higher level math is non-existent, and without higher level math, there would not be computers, smart phones, and many of the luxuries we take for granted.

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Day 8 - Oppression of Women?

Every Muslim has been confronted with a bigoted question along the lines of "why do you oppress your women?"  That could not be further from the truth, today and in the past.  In the 13th century, there were more women teaching in Muslim Universities per capita than there are today in the West. What was that about oppression?

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Day 7 - Music

Muslims were essential in the discovery, development, and or creation of the guitar (derived from the Arabic word Qitara), the lute (derived from the Arabic word Al'ud), the violin (a descendant of the Arabic Rebab), and the drums (derived from the Arabic Nakir).  

Next time you listen to your Coldplay, Killers, One Republic, or pretty much any other band/musician, remember that their music would not have been possible had it not been for the Golden Age of Islam.

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Day 6 - Fruits, Vegetables, and Other Foods

Apricots, oranges, bananas, lemons, limes, pomegranate, dates, artichoke, and spinach were cultivated by Muslims and introduced to Europe through Islamic Spain. Imagine if you were trying to eat healthy and did not have any of these foods!  No wonder Europe was in its "dark ages!"

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Day 5 - Earliest Fashion Industry

To take a break from science and to show that Muslims were diverse both in who they are and what they accomplished, I decided to talk about Abu l-Hasan ‘Ali Ibn Nafi‘, commonly nicknamed as Ziryab (789-857). Ziryab had a lasting influence on fashion. He created sophisticated styles of clothing based on the season and the time of day. The winter costumes designed by Ziryab were of dark colors, made from warm cotton, wool, and he also introduced velvet. His summer garments were made of cool and light materials, such as cotton, silk and flax, in light and bright colors. The brilliant colors for these clothes were produced in the advanced tanneries and dye works of the Muslim world. Ziryab started a vogue by changing clothes according to the weather and season. He suggested different clothing for mornings, afternoons and evenings.  He created a new type of deodorant and also promoted morning and evening baths and emphasized the maintenance of personal hygiene. Ziryab is thought to have invented an early toothpaste and introduced the use of salt and fragrant oils to improve the hair’s condition.

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Day 4 - Compounds in Chemistry

Jabir ibn Hayyan (721-815) discovered alkali, alcohols, hydrochloric acid, citric acid, nitric acid, acetic acid, tartaric acid, and many other compounds that every chemistry lab uses. Anyone who has taken any type of chemistry lab is very familiar with at least one of these compounds because they are essential to our understanding of the universe and everything in it.

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Day 3-Theory of Gravitational Attraction

Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham (965-1040) discovered that the heavenly bodies (aka the planets) "were accountable to the laws of physics". He discussed the theory of attraction between masses, and it seems that he was also aware of the magnitude of acceleration due to gravity at a distance. He formulated the theory that the heaviness of bodies varies with their distance from the center of the Earth. According to wikipedia "Modern work on gravitational theory began with the work of Galileo Galilei in the late 16th and early 17th centuries." Why does ibn al-Haytham not receive any credit at all when he was clearly crucial in this theory? He was the founder after all! He formulated this theory over 600 years before Galileo or Newton were even in existence.

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Day 2- The Father of Experimental Surgery

Abu Marwan Abdal Malik Ibn Zuhr (1091-1161) is considered the father of experimental surgery, for introducing the experimental method into surgery, introducing the methods of human dissection and autopsy, inventing the surgical procedure of tracheotomy, performing the first parenteral nutrition of humans with a silver needle, discovering the cause of scabies and inflammation, discovering the existence of parasites, and refuting the theory of four humours. Imagine what the health care field would be like without him! Before him, people still thought that bleeding patients out would cure them of their "imbalances!"

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Day 1- The Math we Take for Granted

Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (780-850) was crucial in the discovery, development, and/or creation of algebra, quadratic equation, algorithms, spherical trigonometry, and the number zero. Virtually all of modern math and related subjects have their foundations in and rely upon these concepts.