List of inventions in the medieval Islamic world

This is a sub-article to Islamic science and Inventions

A number of inventions were produced in the Islamic world, many of them with direct implications for Fiqh related issues.

Agriculture

The early Islamic empire was ahead of its time regarding water cleaning systems and also had advanced water transportation systems resulting in better agriculture, something that helped in issues related to Islamic hygienical jurisprudence .

Astrolabes

Brass astrolabes were developed in much of the Islamic world, chiefly as an aid to finding the qibla. The earliest known example is dated 315 (in the Islamic calendar, corresponding to 927-8CE). The first person credited for building the Astrolabe in the Islamic world is reportedly Fazari. The instruments were used to read the rise of the time of rise of the Sun and fixed stars. al-Zarqall of Andalusia constructed one such instrument in which, unlike its predecessors, did not depend on the latitude of the observer, and could be used anywhere. This instrument became known in Europe as the Saphaea. There also existed mechanical astrolabes perfected by Ibn Samh.

Drinks

Coffee

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 Makkah 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. The Arabic qahwa became the Turkish kahve, then the Italian caffè, and then English coffee.

Soft drink

Sherbet, a juiced soft drink of crushed fruit, herbs, or flowers has long existed as one of the most popular beverages from and of the Muslim world, winning over Western figures such as Lord Byron. Muslims developed a variety of juices to make their Sharab, an Arabic word from which the Italian sorbetto, French sorbet and English sherbet were derived. Today, this juice is known by a multitude of names, is associated with numerous cultural traditions, and is produced by countries ranging from India to the United States of America. The medieval Muslim sources also contain a lot of recipes for drink syrups that can be kept outside the refrigerator for weeks or months.

Flight

In 9th century Islamic Spain, Armen Firman invented the parachute, followed by Abbas Ibn Firnas who built one of the earliest gliders. Knowledge of their 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.

Glass mirror

Glass mirrors were being used in Islamic Spain from the 11th century, although Romans were known to use them a millennium earlier.

Mechanical devices

Al-Jazari

Al-Jazari described fifty mechanical devices in six different categories, including water clocks (one of his famous clocks were reconstructed successfully at the london Science Museum in 1976), combination locks, hand washing device, machines for raising water, double acting pumps with suction pipes and the use of a crank shaft in a machine, accurate calibration of orifices, lamination of timber to reduce warping, static balancing of wheels, use of paper models to establish a design, casting of metals in closed mould boxes with green sand, and more.

Clocks

Weight-driven mechanical clocks were produced by Muslim engineers in Spain, and this knowledge was transmitted to other parts of Europe through Latin translations of Islamic texts on mechanics. Accurate astronomical clocks were also constructed by Muslims for use in observatories. Al-Jazari invented some of the first mechanical clocks, driven by water and weights, including a water-powered scribe clock. This water powered portable clock was a metre high and half a metre wide. The scribe with his pen was synonymous to the hour hand of a modern clock. This is an example of an ingenious water system by al-Jazari.

Watch

According to Will Durant, Abbas Ibn Firnas invented a watch-like device in the 9th century which kept accurate time.

Perfumery

Islamic cultures contributed significantly in the development of perfumery in both perfecting the extraction of fragrances through steam distillation and introducing new, raw ingredients. Both of the raw ingredients and distillation technology significantly influenced western perfumery and scientific developments, particularly chemistry.

As traders, Islamic cultures such as the Arabs and Persians had wider access to different spices, herbals, and other fragrance material. In addition to trading them, many of these exotic materials were cultivated by the Muslims such that they can be successfully grown outside of their native climates. Two examples of this include jasmine, which is native to South and Southeast Asia, and various citrus, which are native to East Asia. Both of these ingredients are still highly important in modern perfumery.

In Islamic culture, perfume usage has been documented as far back as the 6th century and its usage is considered a religious duty. The Prophet Muhammad said:

The taking of a bath on Friday is compulsory for every male Muslim who has attained the age of puberty and (also) the cleaning of his teeth with Miswaak (type of twig used as a toothbrush), and the using of perfume if it is available. (Recorded in Sahih Bukhari).

Such rituals gave incentives to scholars to search and develop a cheaper way to produce incenses and in mass production. Thanks to the hard work of two talented chemists: Jabir ibn Hayyan (born 722, Iraq), and al-Kindi (born 801, Iraq) who established the perfume industry. 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.

Al-Kindi, however, was the real founder of perfume industry as he carried out extensive research and experiments in combining various plants and other sources to produce a variety of scent products. He elaborated a vast number of ‘recipes’ for a wide range of perfumes, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. His work in the laboratory is reported by a witness who said:

I received the following description, or recipe, from Abu Yusuf Ya'qub b. Ishaq al-Kindi, and I saw him making it and giving it an addition in my presence.

The writer goes on in the same section to speak of the preparation of a perfume called ghaliya, which contained musk, amber and other ingredients; too long to quote here, but which reveals a long list of technical names of drugs and apparatus.

Musk and floral perfumes were brought to Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries from Arabia, through trade with the Islamic world and with the returning Crusaders. Those who traded for these were most often also involved in trade for spices and dyestuffs. There are records of the Pepperers Guild of London, going back to 1179; which show them trading with Muslims in spices, perfume ingredients and dyes.

Pinhole camera

The ancient Greeks thought that eyes emitted rays, like a laser, which enabled us to see. The first person to realise that light enters the eye, rather than leaving it, was the 10th century Muslim mathematician, astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haitham (Alhazen). He invented the first pinhole camera after noticing the way light came through a hole in window shutters. The smaller the hole, the better the picture, he worked out, and set up the first Camera Obscura (from the Arabic word qamara for a dark or private room). He is also credited with being the first man to shift physics from a philosophical activity to an experimental one.

External links

1001 Muslim Inventions