What allowed Muslims to create such an advanced scientific culture was derived from the faculties of the Islamic understanding. One of them was, as we have noted, the motive to learn about the universe and nature according to the Qur'anic principles. Another one was open-mindedness. Both the Qur'anic wisdom and the Prophetic teaching gave Muslims a global outlook to the world, trespassing all cultural barriers. In the Qur'an, God states:

Mankind! We created you from a male and female, and made you into peoples and tribes so that you might come to know each other..." (Qur'an, 49:13)

This verse clearly encourages cultural relationships between different nations and communities. In another verse of the Qur'an is it stated that "Both East and West belong to Allah" (2:115), thus Muslims should see the world in a universalistic and cosmopolitan vision.

The Hadith, or sayings, of the Prophet also encourage this vision. In a popular Hadith, the Prophet tells Muslims that "wisdom is the lost property of the Muslims; he takes it from wherever he finds". This means that Muslims should be very pragmatic and broadminded in adapting and using the cultural and scientific achievements of non-Muslims; those non-Muslims are also creatures and servants of God, even they might not recognize so. The "People of The Book",
i.e. Christians and Jews, are even much more compatible, since they believe in God and stick to moral code He revealed to man.

In the rise of Islamic science, the role of this open-mindedness is very clear to see. John Esposito of the Georgetown University, one of the most prominent Western experts on Islam, makes the following comment:

Muslim scholars in Baghdad, the world's
scientific capital of the time.

According to one of the great Muslim scholars of our time, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islamic science was "the first science of a truly international nature in human history".

Following are some of the numerous examples of Muslim discoveries, inventions and contributions to humanity as a whole

Muslims Discover America
~The Piri Reis Map~

In 1929, a group of historians found an amazing map drawn on a gazelle skin. Research showed that it was a genuine document drawn in 1513 by Piri Reis, a famous admiral of the Turkish fleet in the sixteenth century. 
His passion was cartography. His high rank within the Turkish navy allowed him to have a privileged access to the Imperial Library of Constantinople. The Turkish admiral admits in a series of notes on the map that he compiled and copied the data from a large number of source maps, some of which dated back to the fourth century BC or earlier.

The Piri Reis map shows the western coast of Africa, the eastern coast of South America, and the northern coast of Antarctica. The northern coastline of Antarctica is perfectly detailed. The most puzzling however is not so much how Piri Reis managed to draw such an accurate map of the Antarctic region 300 years before it was discovered, but that the map shows the coastline under the ice. Geological evidence confirms that the latest date Queen Maud Land could have been charted in an ice-free state is 4000 BC

The map  was re-verified as being authentic on 6th July 1960 by the U. S. Air Force which responded to Prof. Charles H. Hapgood of Keene College, specifically to his request for an evaluation of the ancient Piri Reis Map.

Sources: Steven Dutch, Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay: http://weba.uwgb.edu/

Electricity Used by Early Muslims?

In 1936, while excavating ruins of an  old village near Baghdad, workers discovered mysterious small vase. A 6-inch-high pot of bright yellow clay dating back nearly two millennia contained a cylinder of sheet-copper 5 inches by 1.5 inches. The edge of the copper cylinder was soldered with a 60-40 lead-tin alloy comparable to today's solder. The bottom of the cylinder was capped with a crimped-in copper disk and sealed with bitumen or asphalt. Another insulating layer of asphalt sealed the top and also held in place an iron rod suspended into the center of the copper cylinder. The rod showed evidence of having been corroded with an acidic agent. German archaeologist , Wilhelm Konig, examined the object and came to a surprising conclusion that the clay pot was nothing less than an ancient electric battery. The ancient battery in the Baghdad Museum, as well as those others which were unearthed in Iraq, are an astonishing find. However, Dr. Konig also found copper vases plated with silver in the Baghdad Museum, excavated from Sumerian sites in southern Iraq, dating back to at least 2500 BCE. When the vases were lightly tapped, a blue patina or film separated from the surface, which is characteristic of silver electroplated onto copper base. It would appear then that the Parthians inherited their batteries from one of the earliest known civilizations.

Source: The Baghdad Batteries http://www.smith.edu/hsc/museum/ancient_inventions/hsclist.htm
 

Modeling the Stars

From the beginnings of human awakening people have pondered at the amazing canopy of stars and at the movement of everything in the sky. Clearly there was order in the heavens. Many attempts were made to identify the patterns in this order. This had great significance to life, since through these observations and derivations of rules we have the beginnings of predictive science. We can predict the position of the Sun in the sky, the Moon, the timing of eclipses, the changing position of the planets and the stars. In an attempt to make these predictions easier, people from many great Civilizations have built different kinds of models reflecting in a physical form what they have seen. These models were built based on the perspective of the earth with a sphere of stars surrounding the earth. There were several kinds of models:
Celestial Globes
Astrolabes
Armillary Spheres

Muslim Astronomers took much from Greek astronomical calculations and models and improved on them in several ways making the measurements and predictions more and more accurate.

Islamic Astronomy

These 2 diagrams from Ibn ash-Shatir's Nihayat al-sul illustrate the first successful representation of the motions of Planet Mercury exclusively in terms of uniform circular rotations.

The figure of Ibn Shâtir planetary motion

The Turks come definitely to the foreground in the observatory building activity of Islam. This is of course partly because, beginning with the Seljuks, Turks gained political supremacy and predominance in Islam. But as we have seen, in earlier periods too, regions where Turks lived had given rise to astronomers of great renown. It should be appropriate therefore to add here a few words on the astronomical activity of the Turkish Amajur Family who, as a group, made extensive observations between 885 and 933. The early date of their observations may be brought into prominence by noting that, among the royal observatories, they were preceded only by those of Al-Ma'mûn and among major personal undertakings of the kind by individual astronomers, there was only that done by the Banû Mûsâ Brothers, who were young contemporaries of Al-Ma'mûni and closely associated with him.

The diagrams of eclipses of moon and sun from an Ottoman manuscript	Diagram by Al-Bîrûnî showing eclipses of the moon

Ordinarily, the major task of an Islamic observatory and its traditional program of work was the construction of astronomical tables. In Al-Ma'mûn's observatories, only solar and lunar tables were prepared. But there is also a star catalogue made by Al-Ma'mûn's astronomers, and sources contain references to planetary observations made in his observatories. These planetary observations were apparently of a sporadic nature.

Habash al-Hâsib supplies us with valuable information concerning the nature of work in these observatories, indicating that the observation activity was quite intense. He speaks of regular daily observations of the sun and the moon. This means a regular pursuance of these bodies' across the sky. Such was the practice of Tycho Brahe for planets also, and the data collected by him on the trajectory of Mars enabled Kepler to discover his laws of planetary motion. Apparently, this procedure was not exceptional in Islam. We really know very little about it, but examples of a similar nature are found through the centuries. Al-Beyrûnî, from the first half of the eleventh century, is seen not only to speak of daily observations but also of a method of determining the solar parameters from data based on such observations. Jâbir ibn Aflah of the twelfth century too speaks of daily observations of the sun, and Al-Birjandî, from the fourteenth century, says that longitudes and latitudes of the planets should be observed every day but that, as this is very difficult, measurements at intervals such as two weeks are recommended

Biology (dated 17th century)

Arabic medicine was in advance in Europe throughout the middle ages, and from the first medical school of Salerno down to Vesalius, Western doctors learned from their Muslim counterparts

Islamic scientific manuscripts of the Medieval Age. Meticulous studies on human anatomy and zoology.

Optics (dated 1083) Ibn al-Haytham's Optics, written in Egypt in the first half of the 11th Century, represented a theory of vision that went beyond Galen, Euclid and Ptolemy. This diagram of the two eyes seen from above, shows the principal tunics and humorous and the optic nerves connecting the eyeballs to the brain

Al-Dinawari advances botany

 Abu Hanifa al-Dinawari (d.895 A.D) lived in Andalusia, Muslim Spain. His work has been made known by the German scholar: Silberberg in a thesis in Breslau in 1908, which contains the descriptions of about 400 plants. However, what is described by Silberberg is just a little part of what has survived; just two volumes out of the six.

In his expose on the earth, Al-Dinawari describes a variety of soils, explaining which is good for planting, its properties and qualities. Al-Dinawari also describes plant evolution from its birth to its death, including the phases of growth and production of flower and fruit. He then covers various crops including: cereals, vineyards and date palms. Relying on his predecessors, he also explains trees, mountains, plains, deserts, aromatic plants, woods, plants used in dyes, honey, bees, etc.

The Beginning of the Paper Industry

Paper, originally, was brought by the Muslims from China.

It followed the battle of Tallas (751) fought between Chinese and Muslims, when the Chinese prisoners revealed the secret of paper making to the Muslims. From an art, the Muslims developed it into a major industry.

The Muslims employed linen as a substitute to the bark of the mulberry, which the Chinese used. Linen rags were disintegrated, saturated with water, and made to ferment.

The boiled rags were then cleared of alkaline residue and much of the dirt, and then , the rags were beaten to a pulp by a trip hammer was put to use; an improved method of maceration invented by the Muslims.

In Baghdad were built many paper mills, and from there, the industry spread to various parts of the world. The paper mills constructed in Damascus were the major sources of supply to Europe, which as production increased, became cheaper and more available, and better quality.

Paper mills which first flourished in Iraq, Syria and Palestine, made their way West. Africa saw its first paper mill built in Egypt around 850. A paper mill was built in Morocco, from there, of course, it was to reach Spain in 950. The centre of fabrication was Xatiba. From Spain and Sicily paper making spread to the Christians in Spain and Italy. The first written reference to paper in the Christian West seems to be in the pseudonymous Theophilus Presbyter's "The Art of the Painter" (first half of the 12th century). In 1293 was set up the first paper mill in Bologna. In 1309 was the first use of paper in England. Then Germany in the late stages of the 14th; though down the close of the Middle Ages the most important paper making centers were in North Italy.

Of course, paper seems so ordinary today, but its use is fundamental to modern civilization. By making use of this new material, paper, and manufacturing it on a large scale, devising new methods for its production, in the words of Pedersen: the Muslims: `accomplished a feat of crucial significance not only to the history of the Islamic book but also to the whole world of books.'

The decisive impact of Muslim manufacture of paper was, obviously, and directly to bring about a revolution in prepare the way for the invention of printing.

 

A review of Early Muslim Control Engineering During the period of Islamic-Arabic extraordinary activity in Science and Technology (9th-13th century) there are some recorded contributions to the area of Automatic Control mainly in the development of water clocks using float valve regulators, different level controls using float valves or combination of siphons and the development of On-Off control.

Muslim Rocket Technology

In the 13th century a Syrian scholar, Hassan Al-Rammah wrote a remarkable book on military technology, which became very famous in the west.

The first documented rocket is included in the book, a model of which is exhibited at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. The author visited Washington in September 2000 where he obtained more information not only on the rocket but also on its fuel.

Later, he acquired an edited copy of the book from the editor Ahmad Al-Hassan.

Gunpowder

The Chinese knew gunpowder in 11th century but did not know the right proportions to get explosions and did not achieve the necessary purification of potassium nitrate. The first Chinese book, which details the explosive proportions, was in 1412 by Huo Lung Ching.

Al-Rammah's book is the first to explain the purification procedure for potassium nitrate and described many recipes for making gunpowder with the correct proportions to achieve explosion. This is necessary for the development of canons. Partington says "the collection of recipes was probably taken from various sources at different times in the author's family and handed down. Such recipes are described as tested."

 

Also reported by Partington "Hassan Al-Rammah describes various kinds of incendiary arrows and lances and describes and illustrates what has been supposed to be a torpedo. This is called 'the egg, which moves itself and burns' and the illustration and text suggest at least that it was intended to move on the surface of water. Two sheet iron pans were fastened together and made tight by felt; the flattened pear-shaped vessel was filled with "naphtha, metal filings, and good mixtures (probably containing saltpetre), and the apparatus was provided with two rods (as a rudder?) and propelled by a large rocket". "But Hassan Al-Rammah adds one unsuspected novelty: a rocket-propelled torpedo consisting of two flat pans, fastened together and filled with powder or an incendiary mixture, equipped with a kind of tail to insure movement in a straight line, and propelled by two large rockets. The whole was called the 'self-moving and combusting egg' but no instances of its use are related"

The Cannon of Mehmed II

There is a huge bronze cannon in the Fort Nelson Museum. It is cast in two pieces, chase and breech, the two parts screwed jointly. It is reported that the Ottomans cast such split cannons in 15th and 16th century for ease of transportation. No such split guns existed in Europe before then. This gun had devastated ships attempting to breach the Ottoman seas.

Why was it so unique?
This novel cannon was cast in 1464 by the order of the Sultan Mehmed II. He was very interested in firearms, especially in cannons. During his siege of Constantinople, he ordered his cannon master to cast large cannons which were never seen before. His artillery group was populated with skilful designers and engineers, including such names as Saruca Usta and architect Muslihiddin Usta. It also included non-Muslims, like Urban, who were dissatisfied with the poor treatment they received from the Byzantine. The split cannon can be assembled in-situ after transportation in separate parts. It weighs 18 tons and has an overall length of 5.23m and a diameter of 0.635m. The length of the barrel is 3.15m and the gunpowder reservoir is 0.248m in diameter.

Model Aero planes

This object (shown in sketch) was found in 1898 in a tomb at Saqquara, Egypt. As airplanes were unknown in the days when it was found, it was thrown into a box marked "wooden bird model" and then stored in the basement of the Cairo museum It was rediscovered by Dr. Khalil Messiha, who studied models made by ancients. The "discovery" was considered so important by the Egyptian government that a special committee of leading scientists was established to study the object. As a result of their findings, a special exhibit was set up in the center hall of the Cairo museum, with the little model as its centerpiece. It was even labeled as a model airplaneTo elucidate the reasons for the decision of the committee, almost unprecedented in the field of archeology, let's consider some aspects of the model. The model has the exact proportions of a very advanced form of "pusher-glider" that is still having "some bugs ironed out". This type of glider will stay in the air almost by itself—even a very small engine will keep it going at low speeds, as low as 45 to 65 mph., while it can carry an enormous payload. This ability is dependent on the curious shape of wings and their proportions. The tipping of wings downward, a reversedihedral wing as it is called, is the feature behind this capability. A similar type of curving wings are implemented on the Concorde airplane, giving the plane a maximum lift without detracting from its speed
Source: 1996 Lumir G. Janku All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.

This was just a FEW of the contributions done by Muslims and Islam for humanity. To read more comprehensive articles on the above mentioned discoveries, inventions and contributions and also to find out about more please visit this excellent site oh Muslim Heritage:
Muslim Heritage