Muslim invention that helped the morden world.
Coffee
The story goes that an Arab named Khalid was tending his goats in the Kaffa region of southern Ethiopia, when he noticed his animals became livelier after eating a certain berry. He boiled the berries to make the first coffee. Certainly the first record of the drink is of beans exported from Ethiopia to Yemen where Sufis drank it to stay awake all night to pray on special occasions. By the late 15th century it had arrived in Mecca and Turkey from where it made its way to Venice in 1645. It was brought to England in 1650 by a Turk named Pasqua Rosee who opened the first coffee house in Lombard Street in the City of London.
Shampoo
Washing and bathing are religious requirements for Muslims, which is perhaps why they perfected the recipe for soap which we still use today. The ancient Egyptians had soap of a kind, as did the Romans who used it more as a pomade. But it was the Arabs who combined vegetable oils with sodium hydroxide and aromatics such as thyme oil. One of the Crusaders' most striking characteristics, to Arab nostrils, was that they did not wash. Shampoo was introduced to England by a Muslim who opened Mahomed's Indian Vapour Baths on Brighton seafront in 1759 and was appointed Shampooing Surgeon to Kings George IV and William IV
Fountain pen
The earliest historical record of a a reservoir fountain pen dates back to the 10th century. In 953, Ma'ād al-Mu'izz, the caliph of Egypt, demanded a pen which would not stain his hands or clothes, and was provided with a pen which held ink in a reservoir and delivered it to the nib via gravity and capillary action
Soup
Ali ibn Nafi, known by his nickname of Ziryab (Blackbird) came from Iraq to Cordoba in the 9th century and brought with him the concept of the three-course meal - soup, followed by fish or meat, then fruit and nuts. He also introduced crystal glasses (which had been invented after experiments with rock crystal by Abbas ibn Firnas
Pay Cheques
The modern cheque comes from the Arabic saqq, a written vow to pay for goods when they were delivered, to avoid money having to be transported across dangerous terrain. In the 9th century, a Muslim businessman could cash a cheque in China drawn on his bank in Baghdad.
Parachute
In 9th century Islamic Spain, Abbas Ibn Firnas (Armen Firnas) invented a primitive version of the parachute.[26][27][28][29] John H. Lienhard described it in The Engines of Our Ingenuity as follows:
"In 852, a new Caliph and a bizarre experiment: A daredevil named Armen Firman decided to fly off a tower in Cordova. He glided back to earth, using a huge winglike cloak to break his fall. He survived with minor injuries, and the young Ibn Firnas was there to see it."
Hang glider
Shortly afterwards, Abbas Ibn Firnas built the first hang glider, which may have also been the first manned glider. Knowledge of Firman and Firnas' flying machines spread to other parts of Europe from Arabic references.
According to Philip Hitti in History of the Arabs:
In ancient times, Euclid and Ptolemy believed that the eyes emitted rays which enabled us to see. The first person to realise that rays of light enters the eye, rather than leaving it, was the 10th century Muslim mathematician, astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), who is regarded as the "father of optics".[34] He is also credited with being the first man to shift physics from a philosophical activity to an experimental one, with his development of the scientific method. The word "camera" comes from the Arabic word qamara for a dark or private room.
Pinhole camera
Ibn al-Haytham first described pinhole camera after noticing the way light came through a hole in window shutters.[35]
Camera obscura
Ibn al-Haytham worked out that the smaller the hole, the better the picture, and set up the first camera obscura,[35] a precursor to the modern camera.
Hygiene industries
True soap, made of vegetable oils (such as olive oil) with sodium hydroxide and aromatics (such as thyme oil), invented by al-Razi (Rhazes)
Perfume usage recorded in 7th century Arabian Peninsula.
Watch
According to Will Durant, Abbas Ibn Firnas invented a watch-like device in the 9th century which kept accurate time
Al-Jazari invented water clocks which employed automata to mark the passage of time, including mechanical birds which discharge pellets from their beaks onto cymbals, doors which opened to reveal humanoid robots, rotating Zodiac circles, humanoid robot musicians who strike drums or play trumpets, etc. He introduced pulley systems and tripping mechanisms as means of transmitting power from the prime movers to the automata.
Artificial weather simulation
Abbas Ibn Firnas invented an artificial weather simulation room, in which spectators saw stars and clouds, and were astonished by artificial thunder and lightning. These were due to mechanisms hidden in the basement
Crankshaft and connecting rod
Al-Jazari's invention of the crankshaft (and the crank mechanism) is considered the most important single mechanical invention after the wheel, as it transforms continuous rotary motion into a linear reciprocating motion, which is central to much of the machinery in the modern world, including the internal combustion engine and steam engine.
Medical treatments
Plaster by Abu al-Qasim (Abucasis) in 1000
Tracheotomy by Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) in the 12th century
The medical procedure of inoculation in the medieval Muslim world, later followed by the first smallpox vaccine in the form of cowpox, invented in Turkey in the early 18th century.
At least 2,000 medicinal substances
Injection syringe by the Iraqi surgeon, Ammar ibn Ali al-Mawsili, in the 9th century, using a hollow glass tube and suction to extract and remove cataracts from patients' eyes.
Over 200 surgical instruments were listed by Abu al-Qasim (Abulcasis) in the Al-Tasrif
Use of catgut for internal stitching, by Abu al-Qasim.
Compass rose
The Arabs invented the 32-point compass rose during the Middle Ages.
Kamal
Muslim navigators invented a rudimentary sextant known as a kamal, used for celestial navigation and for measuring the altitudes and latitudes of the stars.
Architecture
The pointed arch, used in Cathedrals throughout Europe, is a Muslim invention. It is much stronger than the round Roman arch. Pretty much all the features of Medieval European castles were invented by Muslims, and copied by the Crusaders when they returned home to Europe. The window pane was a Muslim invention apparently.
Chemistry
Modern chemistry got it’s start in the Muslim world, Jabir ibn Hayyan is considered the father of modern chemistry and is credited with transforming alchemy into chemistry. He also invented sulfuric acid, nitric acid, distilled alcohol and many of the basic chemistry processes that are still used today. Kerosene is also a Muslim invention.
Coffee
The story goes that an Arab named Khalid was tending his goats in the Kaffa region of southern Ethiopia, when he noticed his animals became livelier after eating a certain berry. He boiled the berries to make the first coffee. Certainly the first record of the drink is of beans exported from Ethiopia to Yemen where Sufis drank it to stay awake all night to pray on special occasions. By the late 15th century it had arrived in Mecca and Turkey from where it made its way to Venice in 1645. It was brought to England in 1650 by a Turk named Pasqua Rosee who opened the first coffee house in Lombard Street in the City of London.
Shampoo
Washing and bathing are religious requirements for Muslims, which is perhaps why they perfected the recipe for soap which we still use today. The ancient Egyptians had soap of a kind, as did the Romans who used it more as a pomade. But it was the Arabs who combined vegetable oils with sodium hydroxide and aromatics such as thyme oil. One of the Crusaders' most striking characteristics, to Arab nostrils, was that they did not wash. Shampoo was introduced to England by a Muslim who opened Mahomed's Indian Vapour Baths on Brighton seafront in 1759 and was appointed Shampooing Surgeon to Kings George IV and William IV
Fountain pen
The earliest historical record of a a reservoir fountain pen dates back to the 10th century. In 953, Ma'ād al-Mu'izz, the caliph of Egypt, demanded a pen which would not stain his hands or clothes, and was provided with a pen which held ink in a reservoir and delivered it to the nib via gravity and capillary action
Soup
Ali ibn Nafi, known by his nickname of Ziryab (Blackbird) came from Iraq to Cordoba in the 9th century and brought with him the concept of the three-course meal - soup, followed by fish or meat, then fruit and nuts. He also introduced crystal glasses (which had been invented after experiments with rock crystal by Abbas ibn Firnas
Pay Cheques
The modern cheque comes from the Arabic saqq, a written vow to pay for goods when they were delivered, to avoid money having to be transported across dangerous terrain. In the 9th century, a Muslim businessman could cash a cheque in China drawn on his bank in Baghdad.
Parachute
In 9th century Islamic Spain, Abbas Ibn Firnas (Armen Firnas) invented a primitive version of the parachute.[26][27][28][29] John H. Lienhard described it in The Engines of Our Ingenuity as follows:
"In 852, a new Caliph and a bizarre experiment: A daredevil named Armen Firman decided to fly off a tower in Cordova. He glided back to earth, using a huge winglike cloak to break his fall. He survived with minor injuries, and the young Ibn Firnas was there to see it."
Hang glider
Shortly afterwards, Abbas Ibn Firnas built the first hang glider, which may have also been the first manned glider. Knowledge of Firman and Firnas' flying machines spread to other parts of Europe from Arabic references.
According to Philip Hitti in History of the Arabs:
"Ibn Firnas was the first man in history to make a scientific attempt at flying."
Artificially-powered manned rocket
According to Evliya Çelebi in the 17th century, Lagari Hasan Çelebi launched himself in the air in a seven-winged rocket, which was composed of a large cage with a conical top filled with gunpowder. The flight was accomplished as a part of celebrations performed for the birth of Ottoman Emperor Murad IV's daughter in 1633. Evliya reported that Lagari made a soft landing in the Bosporus by using the wings attached to his body as a parachute after the gunpowder was consumed, foreshadowing the sea-landing methods of astronauts with parachutes after their voyages into outer space. Lagari's flight was estimated to have lasted about twenty seconds and the maximum height reached was around 300 metres. This was the first known example of a manned rocket and an artificially-powered aircraft
Camera technologyArtificially-powered manned rocket
According to Evliya Çelebi in the 17th century, Lagari Hasan Çelebi launched himself in the air in a seven-winged rocket, which was composed of a large cage with a conical top filled with gunpowder. The flight was accomplished as a part of celebrations performed for the birth of Ottoman Emperor Murad IV's daughter in 1633. Evliya reported that Lagari made a soft landing in the Bosporus by using the wings attached to his body as a parachute after the gunpowder was consumed, foreshadowing the sea-landing methods of astronauts with parachutes after their voyages into outer space. Lagari's flight was estimated to have lasted about twenty seconds and the maximum height reached was around 300 metres. This was the first known example of a manned rocket and an artificially-powered aircraft
In ancient times, Euclid and Ptolemy believed that the eyes emitted rays which enabled us to see. The first person to realise that rays of light enters the eye, rather than leaving it, was the 10th century Muslim mathematician, astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), who is regarded as the "father of optics".[34] He is also credited with being the first man to shift physics from a philosophical activity to an experimental one, with his development of the scientific method. The word "camera" comes from the Arabic word qamara for a dark or private room.
Pinhole camera
Ibn al-Haytham first described pinhole camera after noticing the way light came through a hole in window shutters.[35]
Camera obscura
Ibn al-Haytham worked out that the smaller the hole, the better the picture, and set up the first camera obscura,[35] a precursor to the modern camera.
Hygiene industries
True soap, made of vegetable oils (such as olive oil) with sodium hydroxide and aromatics (such as thyme oil), invented by al-Razi (Rhazes)
Perfume usage recorded in 7th century Arabian Peninsula.
Watch
According to Will Durant, Abbas Ibn Firnas invented a watch-like device in the 9th century which kept accurate time
Al-Jazari invented water clocks which employed automata to mark the passage of time, including mechanical birds which discharge pellets from their beaks onto cymbals, doors which opened to reveal humanoid robots, rotating Zodiac circles, humanoid robot musicians who strike drums or play trumpets, etc. He introduced pulley systems and tripping mechanisms as means of transmitting power from the prime movers to the automata.
Artificial weather simulation
Abbas Ibn Firnas invented an artificial weather simulation room, in which spectators saw stars and clouds, and were astonished by artificial thunder and lightning. These were due to mechanisms hidden in the basement
Crankshaft and connecting rod
Al-Jazari's invention of the crankshaft (and the crank mechanism) is considered the most important single mechanical invention after the wheel, as it transforms continuous rotary motion into a linear reciprocating motion, which is central to much of the machinery in the modern world, including the internal combustion engine and steam engine.
Medical treatments
Plaster by Abu al-Qasim (Abucasis) in 1000
Tracheotomy by Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) in the 12th century
The medical procedure of inoculation in the medieval Muslim world, later followed by the first smallpox vaccine in the form of cowpox, invented in Turkey in the early 18th century.
At least 2,000 medicinal substances
- Modern oral and inhalant anesthesia by Muslim anesthesiologists.
- Surgeries under inhalant anesthesia with the use of narcotic-soaked sponges which were placed over the face, by Abu al-Qasim and Ibn Zuhr in Islamic Spain.
Injection syringe by the Iraqi surgeon, Ammar ibn Ali al-Mawsili, in the 9th century, using a hollow glass tube and suction to extract and remove cataracts from patients' eyes.
Over 200 surgical instruments were listed by Abu al-Qasim (Abulcasis) in the Al-Tasrif
Use of catgut for internal stitching, by Abu al-Qasim.
Compass rose
The Arabs invented the 32-point compass rose during the Middle Ages.
Kamal
Muslim navigators invented a rudimentary sextant known as a kamal, used for celestial navigation and for measuring the altitudes and latitudes of the stars.
Architecture
The pointed arch, used in Cathedrals throughout Europe, is a Muslim invention. It is much stronger than the round Roman arch. Pretty much all the features of Medieval European castles were invented by Muslims, and copied by the Crusaders when they returned home to Europe. The window pane was a Muslim invention apparently.
Chemistry
Modern chemistry got it’s start in the Muslim world, Jabir ibn Hayyan is considered the father of modern chemistry and is credited with transforming alchemy into chemistry. He also invented sulfuric acid, nitric acid, distilled alcohol and many of the basic chemistry processes that are still used today. Kerosene is also a Muslim invention.