Your Help is Needed, Please write to the Newspaper!

[IbnAlAawam]

:salam2:

Please see below and let's all write to the Independent newspaper, it is a disgrace!

News Desk - newseditor@ independent.co.uk
and
Customer Service - customerservices@ independent.co.uk
also
Letters for publication in the print edition. Note: If you wish to submit a letter for publication in the newspaper, it must include the sender's name, postal address and daytime telephone number - letters@ independent.co.uk

Urgent: Failure to acknowledge Islamic inventions

The Independent has published the article below. Could you kindly write to The Independent expressing dismay at how they managed to avoid any Muslim inventions, refer them to the www.100inventions.com , but more importantly to their own article written by Paul Valley, PDF attached which show 20 selected from the enormous number of such inventions that still influence our present society (originally published during the launch of 1001 Inventions, March 2007).

Their very selective process of the items mentioned in the list and the fact that they would use 101 like 1001 makes one wonder about a hidden agenda. Besides quite a few ones selected were wrongly attributed.

Best regards,

MuslimHeritage.com

http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article3119141.ece
or click here

101 gadgets that changed the world undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined
Compiled by Simon Usborne
Published: 03 November 2007 The Independent

undefined undefined undefined undefined1. Abacus, AD190

undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefinedUse of the abacus, with its beads in a rack, was first documented in Han Dynasty China in about AD190, but the word dates to much earlier calculating devices. "Abacus" derives from the Hebrew ibeq, meaning to " wipe the dust" or from the Greek abax, meaning "board covered with dust", which describes the first devices used by the Babylonians. The Chinese version was the speediest way to do sums for centuries and, in the right hands, can still outpace electronic calculators.

2. Archimedes Screw, c.700BC

Purportedly devised by the ancient Greek physicist Archimedes of Syracuse in the 3rd century BC to expel bilge water from creaking ships, the screw that bears his name in fact predates Archimedes by about 400 years. Recent digs have established that earlier screws, which are capable of shifting water " uphill", were used in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in the 7th century BC. So effective was the device, it is still used today in several sewage plants and irrigation ditches.

3. Aspirin, 1899

Little tablets of acetylsalicylic acid have probably cured more minor ills than any other medicine. Hippocrates was the first to realise the healing power of the substance - his related ancient Greek treatment was a tea made from willow bark, and was effective against fevers and gout. Much later, in turn-of-the-century Germany, chemist Felix Hoffman perfected the remedy on his arthritic father, marketing it under the trade name Aspirin.

4. Atari 2600, 1977

The gaming industry today is worth $30bn (£15bn) and new titles are released to more fanfare (and fervour among legions of gaming nuts) than the biggest Hollywood blockbusters (see Big Game Hunters, p37). Not so in the 1970s, when consoles were hard-wired to play one or two crude games such as Pong. Atari changed that with the 2600, the first console to take an unlimited number of games cartridges. The 1978 release of Space Invaders sent sluggish early sales skywards, heralding the age of the Wii, the PS3 and the Xbox 360.

5. Barbed wire, 1873

Symbol of oppression or a revolution in farming? It depends on which side of the fence you sit. Certainly, the world's most divisive invention was conceived not to keep people in or out, but cows. Joseph Gidden, a 60-year-old New Hampshire rancher was the first to invent a method for mass manufacturing of barbed wire and he made a fortune as miles of his wire criss-crossed American farms. Its low cost means it remains first choice for farmers and border guards.

6. Barcode, 1973

Barcodes were conceived as a kind of visual Morse code by a Philadelphia student in 1952, but retailers were slow to take up the technology, which could be unreliable. That changed in the early 1970s when the same student, Norman Woodland, then employed by IBM, devised the Universal Product Code. Since then, black stripes have appeared on almost everything we buy, a ubiquity fuelled by their price - it costs about a tenth of a penny to slap on a barcode.

7. Battery, 1800

For the battery we must thank the frog. In the 1780s, the Italian physicist Luigi Galvani discovered that a dead frog's leg would twitch when he touched it with two pieces of metal. Galvani had created a crude circuit and the phenomenon was taken up by his friend, the aristocratic Professor Alessandro Volta, whose voltaic cells stacked in a Voltaic pile amazed Napoleon. The pile was also the first battery, whose successors power more than a third of the gadgets on this list.

8. Bicycle, 1861

The renowned 19th-century US feminist Susan B Anthony said in an interview in 1896: "I think [the bicycle] has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world." First devised as a gentleman's play thing in the 1820s, the push-powered hobby-horse quickly evolved to become the most classless form of transport, trundling by the millions along highways and byways all over the world. The French vélocipède, invented in 1861 by Pierre Marchaux, is widely considered to be the first true bicycle.

9. Biro, 1938

Had the Hungarian journalist Laszlo José Biró kept the patent for the world's first ballpoint pen, his estate (he died in 1985) would be worth billions. As it happened, Biró sold the patent to one Baron Bich of France in 1950. Biró's breakthrough had been to devise a ball-bearing nib capable of delivering to paper the smudge-resistant ink already used in printing. Today around 14 million Bic "Biros" are sold every day, perhaps making the pen the world's most successful gadget.

...
...

100. Wheel, 3500BC

The wheel surely deserves a place near the top of any "greatest inventions" list; a post-industrial world without it is inconceivable. Its invention was perhaps inevitable, but it came later than it might have done; several civilisations, including the Incas and the Aztecs did pretty well without wheels. The earliest evidence of a wheel - a pictograph from Sumeria (modern day Iraq) - dates from 3500BC; the device rolled West soon after that.

101. Zip, 1913
Look at your flies or your handbag and, chances are, the zip that keeps your valuables in place started life in a factory in the Qiaotou, a dusty town in Zhejiang Province, China. Qiaotou's zip plants manufacture an astonishing 80 per cent of the world's zips, churning out 124,000 miles of zip each year (enough to stretch five times round the globe or half way to the moon). Credit for the device's invention goes to Gideon Sundback. In 1913, the Swedish engineer made the first modern zip to fasten high boots.

 

[IbnAlAawam]

Visit

http://www.1001inventions.com

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventions_in_the_Muslim_world

Extracs:



Muslim astronomers developed a number of astronomical instruments, including several variations of the astrolabe, originally invented by Hipparchus in the 2nd century BCE, but with considerable improvements made to the device in the Muslim world. These instruments were used by Muslims for a variety of purposes related to astronomy, astrology, horoscopes, navigation, surveying, timekeeping, Qibla, Salah, etc.

[edit] Astrolabes

* Brass astrolabe by Muhammad al-Fazari in the 8th century.[1]
* Earliest surviving astrolabe in 315 AH (927-928 CE).
* Mechanical geared astrolabe by Ibn Samh (c. 1020).[2]
* Navigational astrolabe was invented in the Islamic world. It employed the use of a polar projection system.[3]
* In the 10th century, al-Sufi first described over 1000 different uses of an astrolabe, including uses in astronomy, astrology, horoscopes, navigation, surveying, timekeeping, Qibla, Salah, etc.[4]
* Orthographical astrolabe by Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī in the 11th century.[5]
* Saphaea, a universal astrolabe for all latitudes, by Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm al-Zarqālī (Arzachel) in 11th century Islamic Spain.
* Zuraqi, a heliocentric astrolabe where the Earth is in motion rather than the sky, by al-Sijzi in the 11th century.[6]
* Linear astrolabe ("staff of al-Tusi") by Sharaf al-Dīn al-Tūsī in the 12th century.[7]

[edit] Analog computers

* Equatorium by Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm al-Zarqālī (Arzachel) in Islamic Spain circa 1015.[8]
* Planisphere by Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī in the 11th century.[5]
* Mechanical lunisolar calendar computer with gear train and gear-wheels by Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī.[9]
* Fixed-wired knowledge processing machine by Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī.[10]
* Mechanical astrolabe with calendar computer and gear-wheels by Abi Bakr of Isfahan in 1235.[11]
* Oldest surviving complete mechanical geared machine by Abi Bakr of Isfahan in 1235.[12][13]
* The Plate of Conjunctions, a computing instrument used to determine the time of day at which planetary conjunctions will occur,[14] and for performing linear interpolation,[15] invented by al-Kashi in the 15th century.
* A mechanical planetary computer called the Plate of Zones, which could graphically solve a number of planetary problems, invented by al-Kashi in the 15th century. It could predict the true positions in longitude of the Sun and Moon,[15] and the planets in terms of elliptical orbits;[16] the latitudes of the Sun, Moon, and planets; and the ecliptic of the Sun. The instrument also incorporated an alhidade and ruler.[17]

[edit] Armillary spheres

* Several different types of armillary spheres.
* Celestial globes which could calculate the altitude of the Sun and the right ascension and declination of the stars in the 11th century.
* The spherical astrolabe was first produced in the Islamic world by the 14th century.[18]

[edit] Mural instruments

* The first quadrants and mural instruments by al-Khwarizmi in 9th century Baghdad, Iraq.[19]
* Sine quadrant for astronomical calculations by al-Khwarizmi in 9th century Baghdad.[19]
* Horary quadrant for specific latitudes by al-Khwarizmi in 9th century Baghdad.[19]
* The Quadrans Vetus, a universal horary quadrant which could be used for any latitude and at any time of the year to determine the time, as well as the times of Salah, invented by al-Khwarizmi in 9th century Baghdad. This was the second most widely used astronomical instrument during the Middle Ages after the astrolabe.[20]
* The Quadrans Novus, an astrolabic quadrant invented in Egypt in the 11th century or 12th century, and later known in Europe as the "Quadrans Vetus" (New Quadrant).[21]
* Almucantar quadrant, invented in the medieval Islamic world. It emplyed the use of trigonometry. The term "almucantar" is itself derived from Arabic.[22]
* Sextant by Abu-Mahmud al-Khujandi in Ray, Iran in 994.[23]

[edit] Other instruments

* Alhidade (the term "alhidade" is itself derived from Arabic).
* Shadow square, an instrument used to determine the linear height of an object, in conjunction with the alidade for angular observations, invented by Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī in 9th century Baghdad.[24]
* Highly accurate astronomical clocks.[25]
* Astrometric device in Islamic Spain around 1015.
* Star chart by Abu Rayhan al-Biruni in the 11th century.[5]

[edit] Aviation technology

[edit] 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."[30]

[edit] 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.[26][27]

According to Philip Hitti in History of the Arabs:

"Ibn Firnas was the first man in history to make a scientific attempt at flying."

[edit] Flight controls

Abbas Ibn Firnas was the first to make an attempt at controlled flight. He manuipulated the flight controls of his hang glider using two sets of artificial wings to adjust his altitude and to change his direction. He successfully returned to where he had lifted off from, but his landing was unsuccessful.[31][32]

[edit] Artificial wings

Ibn Firnas' hang glider was the first to have artificial wings, though the flight was eventually unsuccessful. According to Evliya Çelebi in the 17th century, Hezarfen Ahmet Celebi was the first aviator to have made a successful flight with artificial wings between 1630-1632.[33]

[edit] 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.[33]

[edit] Camera technology
Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), the "father of optics" and pioneer of the modern scientific method, invented the camera obscura and pinhole camera.
Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), the "father of optics" and pioneer of the modern scientific method, invented the camera obscura and pinhole camera.

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.[35]

[edit] Pinhole camera

Ibn al-Haytham first described pinhole camera after noticing the way light came through a hole in window shutters.[35]

[edit] 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.

[edit] Chemical technology

Main article: Alchemy (Islam)

Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber), the father of chemistry, invented the alembic still and many chemicals, including distilled alcohol, and established the perfume industry.
Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber), the father of chemistry, invented the alembic still and many chemicals, including distilled alcohol, and established the perfume industry.

Early forms of distillation were known to the Babylonians, Greeks and Egyptians since ancient times, but it was Muslim chemists who first invented pure distillation processes which could fully purify chemical substances. They also developed several different variations of distillation (such as dry distillation, destructive distillation and steam distillation) and introduced new distillation aparatus (such as the alembic, still, and retort), and invented a variety of new chemical processes and over 2,000 chemical substances.[36]

[edit] Chemical processes

Geber first invented the following chemical processes in the 8th century:

* Pure distillation (al-taqtir) which could fully purify chemical substances with the alembic.
* Filtration (al-tarshih).[37]
* Liquefaction, crystallization (al-tabalwur), purification, oxidisation, and evaporation (tabkhir).[35]

Al-Razi invented the following chemical processes in the 9th century:

* Dry distillation
* Calcination (al-tashwiya).[38][8]
* Solution (al-tahlil), sublimation (al-tas'id), amalgamation (al-talghim), ceration (al-tashmi), and a method of converting a substance into a thick paste or fusible solid.[38]

Other chemical processes introduced by Muslim chemists include:

* Assation (or roasting), cocotion (or digestion), amalgamation, ceration, lavage, solution, mixture, and fixation.[39]
* Destructive distillation was invented by Muslim chemists in the 8th century to produce tar from petroleum.[40]
* Steam distillation was invented by Avicenna in the early 11th century for the purpose of producing essential oils.[41]
* Water purification

Ahmad Y Hassan wrote:

"The distillation of wine and the properties of alcohol were known to Islamic chemists from the eighth century. The prohibition of wine in Islam did not mean that wine was not produced or consumed or that Arab alchemists did not subject it to their distillation processes. Jabir ibn Hayyan described a cooling technique which can be applied to the distillation of alcohol."[42]

[edit] Laboratory apparatus

* Alembic and still by Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber) in the 9th century.[43]
* Retort by Jabir ibn Hayyan.[44]
* Thermometer and air thermometer by Abū Alī ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) in the 11th century.[45]
* Conical measure by Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī in the 11th century.[46][47]
* Laboratory flask and pycnometer by Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī.[48]
* Hydrostatic balance and steelyard by al-Khazini in 1121.[48]
* Muslim chemists and engineers invented the cucurbit and aludel, and the equipment needed for melting metals such as furnaces and crucibles.[8]
* Al-Razi (Rhazes), in his Secretum secretorum (Latinized title), first described the following tools for melting substances (li-tadhwib): hearth (kur), bellows (minfakh aw ziqq), crucible (bawtaqa), the but bar but (in Arabic) or botus barbatus (in Latin), tongs (masik aq kalbatan), scissors (miqta), hammer (mukassir), file (mibrad).[38]
* Al-Razi also first described the following tools for the preparation of drugs (li-tadbir al-aqaqir): cucurbit and still with evacuation tube (qar aq anbiq dhu-khatm), receiving matras (qabila), blind still (without evacuation tube) (al-anbiq al-ama), aludel (al-uthal), goblets (qadah), flasks (qarura or quwarir), rosewater flasks (ma wariyya), cauldron (marjal aw tanjir), earthenware pots varnished on the inside with their lids (qudur aq tanjir), water bath or sand bath (qadr), oven (al-tannur in Arabic, athanor in Latin), small cylindirical oven for heating aludel (mustawqid), funnels, sieves, filters, etc.[38]

[edit] Chemical industries

Chemical substances invented for use in the chemical industries include:

* Sulfuric acid, originally coined as oil of vitriol when it was discovered by Jabir ibn Hayyan.[49]
* The mineral acids: nitric acid, sulfuric acid, and hydrochloric acid, by Geber.[8]
* Pure distilled alcohol (ethanol) by Jabir ibn Hayyan in the 8th century.[50]
* Uric acid and nitric acid by Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber) in the 8th century.[35]
* Lustreware, by Geber in the 8th century.[51]
* Artificial pearl, purified pearl, dyed pearl, dyed gemstones, cheese glue, and plated mail, by Geber.[52]
* Kerosene and kerosene lamp by al-Razi in the 9th century.[53]
* Petrol by Muslim chemists.[54]
* Tar in the 8th century, and Naphtha in the 9th century.[40]
* Medicinal alcohol in the 10th century.[40]
* Essential oil by Abū Alī ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) in the 11th century.[41]
* Hygienic cosmetics by Muslim chemists.[55]
* Dyestuff by Muslim chemists.[56]
* Arsenic, alkali, alkali salt, rice vinegar, boraxes, potassium nitrate, sulfur and purified sal ammoniac by Geber.[8]
* Sal nitrum and vitriol by al-Razi.[8]
* Ethanol, sulfuric acid, ammonia, mercury, camphor, pomades, and syrups.[57]
* Lead carbonatic, arsenic, and antimony.[58]
* Nitric and sulfuric acids, alkali, the salts of mercury, antimony, and bismuth.[37]
* Aqua regia, alum, sal ammoniac, stones, sulfur, salts, and spirits of mercury.[8]
* At least 2,000 medicinal substances.[36]
* The classification of all seven classical metals: gold, silver, tin, lead, mercury, iron, and copper, by Geber.[8]

Will Durant wrote in The Story of Civilization IV: The Age of Faith:

"Chemistry as a science was almost created by the Moslems; for in this field, where the Greeks (so far as we know) were confined to industrial experience and vague hypothesis, the Saracens introduced precise observation, controlled experiment, and careful records. They invented and named the alembic (al-anbiq), chemically analyzed innumerable substances, composed lapidaries, distinguished alkalis and acids, investigated their affinities, studied and manufactured hundreds of drugs. Alchemy, which the Moslems inherited from Egypt, contributed to chemistry by a thousand incidental discoveries, and by its method, which was the most scientific of all medieval operations."[43]

Robert Briffault wrote in The Making of Humanity:

"Chemistry, the rudiments of which arose in the processes employed by Egyptian metallurgists and jewellers combining metals into various alloys and 'tinting' them to resemble gold processes long preserved as a secret monopoly of the priestly colleges, and clad in the usual mystic formulas, developed in the hands of the Arabs into a widespread, organized passion for research which led them to the invention of distillation, sublimation, filtration, to the discovery of alcohol, of nitric and sulphuric acids (the only acid known to the ancients was vinegar), of the alkalis, of the salts of mercury, of antimony and bismuth, and laid the basis of all subsequent chemistry and physical research."[59]

[edit] Drinking industry

* Coffee by Khalid in Kaffa, Ethiopia.[35]
* Distilled water and purified water by Muslim chemists.[57]
* Purified distilled alcohol by Jabir ibn Hayyan in the 8th century.[50]
* Sherbet and sharab, the first juiced carbonated soft drinks.[60]
* Recipes for drink syrups that can be kept outside the refrigerator for weeks or months.[60]

[edit] Glass industry

* Artificial gemstone produced from high quality coloured glass, by Geber (d. 815).[61]
* Stained glass, by Muslim architects in Southwest Asia.
* Silica glass and Quartz glass, and the production of glass from stone and sand, by Abbas Ibn Firnas in the 9th century.[62]
* Clear, colourless, high-purity glass, by Muslims in the 9th century.[61]
* Refracting parabolic mirror, by Ibn Sahl in the 10th century.[63]

[edit] 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).[35]
* Soap bar by al-Razi (Rhazes).[35][8]
* Sodium Lye (Al-Soda Al-Kawia), perfumed and colored soaps, and liquid and solid soaps by Muslim chemists.[55]
* Recipes for soaps, such as ones made from sesame oil, potash, alkali, lime, and molds, leaving hard soap (soap bar).[55]
* Shampoo by the Bengali Muslim Sake Dean Mahomet in 1759.[35]

[edit] Perfumery industry
Al-Kindi invented a wide variety of scent and perfume products, and is considered the father of the perfume industry.
Al-Kindi invented a wide variety of scent and perfume products, and is considered the father of the perfume industry.

* Perfume usage recorded in 7th century Arabian Peninsula.
* Perfume industry established by Geber (Jabir) (b. 722, Iraq) and al-Kindi (b. 801, Iraq).[64]
* Jabir developed many techniques, including distillation, evaporation and filtration, which enabled the collection of the odour of plants into a vapour that could be collected in the form of water or oil.[64]
* Al-Kindi carried out extensive research and experiments in combining various plants and other sources to produce a variety of scent products.
* Al-Kindi elaborated a vast number of recipes for a wide range of perfumes, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
* The preparation of a perfume called ghaliya, which contained musk, amber and other ingredients, and the use of various drugs and apparatus, by al-Kindi.
* Extraction of fragrances through steam distillation by Abū Alī ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) in the 11th century.
* Introduction of new raw ingredients in perfumery.
* Perfumery produced from different spices, herbals, and other fragrance materials.
* Introduction of jasmine from South and Southeast Asia, and citrus fruits from East Asia in modern perfumery.
* Cheap mass production of incenses.
* Musk and floral perfumes in the 11th-12th century Arabian Peninsula.[56]

[edit] Civil engineering

[edit] Bridge dam

The bridge dam was used to power a water wheel working a water-raising mechanism. The first was built in Dezful, Iran, which could raise 50 cubits of water for the water supply to all houses in the town. Similar bridge dams later appeared in other parts of the Islamic world.[65]

[edit] Cobwork

Cobwork (tabya) first appeared in the Maghreb and al-Andalus in the 11th century and was first described in detail by Ibn Khaldun in the 14th century, who regarded it as a characteristically Muslim practice. Cobwork later spread to other parts of Europe from the 12th century onwards.[66]

[edit] Diversion dam

The first diversion dam was built by medieval Muslim engineers over the River Uzaym in Jabal Hamrin, Iraq. Many of these were later built in other parts of the Islamic world.[65]

[edit] Surveying instruments

Muslim engineers invented a variety of surveying instruments for accurate levelling, including a wooden board with a plumb line and two hooks, an equilateral triangle with a plumb line and two hooks, and a "reed level". They also invented a rotating alhidade used for accurate alignment, and a surveying astrolabe used for alignment, measuring angles, triangulation, finding the width of a river, and the distance between two points separated by an impassable obstruction.[67]

[edit] Clock technology

[edit] Astronomical clocks

Muslim astronomers and engineers constructed a variety of highly accurate astronomical clocks for use in their observatories.[40]

* In the 10th century, al-Sufi first described over 1000 different uses of an astrolabe, including timekeeping and Salah.[4]
* Mechanical lunisolar calendar computer with gear train and gear-wheels by Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī.[9]
* Mechanical astrolabe with calendar computer and gear-wheels by Abi Bakr of Isfahan in 1235.[11]
* The Quadrans Vetus, a universal horary quadrant which could be used for any latitude and at any time of the year to determine the time, as well as the times of Salah, invented by al-Khwarizmi in 9th century Baghdad. This was the second most widely used astronomical instrument during the Middle Ages after the astrolabe.[20]
* Al-Jazari invented monumental water-powered astronomical clocks which displayed moving models of the Sun, Moon, and stars. His largest astronomical clock displayed the zodiac and the solar and lunar orbits. Another innovative feature of the clock was a pointer which travelled across the top of a gateway and caused automatic doors to open every hour.[68]