List of inventions in the medieval Islamic world

The following is a list of inventions made in the medieval Islamic world, especially during the Islamic Golden Age, as well as in later Islamic Gunpowder Empires such as the Ottoman and Mughal empires.

The Islamic Golden Age was a period of cultural, economic and scientific flourishing in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 14th century, with several contemporary scholars dating the end of the era to the 15th or 16th century. This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign of the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (786 to 809) with the inauguration of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, where scholars from various parts of the world with different cultural backgrounds were mandated to gather and translate all of the world's classical knowledge into the Arabic language and subsequently development in various fields of sciences began. Science and technology in the Islamic world adopted and preserved knowledge and technologies from contemporary and earlier civilizations, including Persia, Egypt, India, China, and Greco-Roman antiquity, while making numerous improvements, innovations and inventions.

List of inventions

Early Caliphates

7th century

An illustrated headpiece from a mid-18th century collection of ghazals and rubāʻīyāt, from the University of Pennsylvania library's Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (UPenn LJS 44).

• Ghazal: A form of Islamic poetry that originated from the Arabian Peninsula in the late 7th century.
• International humanitarian law: Early Islamic law's principles concerning military conduct and the treatment of prisoners of war under the early Caliphate are considered to be the earliest principles of international humanitarian law. The many requirements on how prisoners of war should be treated included, for example, providing shelter, food and clothing, respecting their cultures, and preventing any acts of execution, rape or revenge. Some of these principles were not codified in Western international law until modern times. Islamic law under the early Caliphate institutionalised humanitarian limitations on military conduct, including attempts to limit the severity of war, guidelines for ceasing hostilities, distinguishing between civilians and combatants, preventing unnecessary destruction, and caring for the sick and wounded.
• Pension and welfare state: The concepts of welfare and pension were introduced in early Islamic law as forms of Zakat (charity), one of the Five Pillars of Islam, under the Rashidun Caliphate in the 7th century. This practice continued well into the Abbasid Caliphate. The taxes collected in the treasury of an Islamic government were used to provide income for the needy, including the poor, elderly, orphans, widows, and the disabled. According to the Islamic jurist Al-Ghazali (1058–1111), the government was also expected to stockpile food supplies in every region in case a disaster or famine occurred. The early Caliphate can thus be considered the world's first major welfare state.
• Trench warfare: The use of a trench in warfare was introduced by Salman the Persian at the Battle of the Trench in 627.
• Waqf and charitable trust: The waqf, or charitable trust, was developed in Islamic law during the 7th–9th centuries, and bears a resemblance to 13th-century English trust law.

The Persian horizontal windmill.

• Windmill and panemone windmill: The earliest recorded windmill design found was Persian in origin, and was invented in Islamic Persia between the 7th–9th centuries.

8th century

• Arabesque: The distinctive Arabesque style was developed by the 11th century, having begun in the 8th or 9th century in works like the Mshatta Facade.
• Astrolabe with angular scale and navigational astrolabe: Astrolabes were further developed in the medieval Islamic world, where Muslim astronomers introduced angular scales to the design, adding circles indicating azimuths on the horizon. It was widely used throughout the Muslim world, chiefly as an aid to navigation and as a way of finding the Qibla, the direction of Mecca. 8th-century mathematician Muhammad al-Fazari is the first person credited with building the astrolabe in the Islamic world.

Rebab player

Three-string rebabs.

Rebabs.

The Cantigas de Santa Maria, c. 1260, illustrated some of the musical instruments introduced from Muslim dominated Andalusia to Southern Europe. The plucked and bowed versions of the rebab existed alongside each other.

• Bowed string instrument, fiddle, rabāb: The Arabic rabāb, also known as the spiked fiddle, is the earliest known bowed instrument and the parent of the medieval European rebec.
• Checkmate: In early Sanskrit chaturanga (c. 500–700), the king could be captured and this ended the game. In shatranj/chess, the Persians (c. 700–800) introduced the idea of warning that the king was under attack (announcing check in modern terminology). This was done to avoid the early and accidental end of a game. Later the Persians added the additional rule that a king could not be moved into check or left in check. As a result, the king could not be captured, and checkmate was the only decisive way of ending a game.
• Check reading: The medieval Muslim world developed a method of reproducing reliable copies of a book in large quantities known as check reading, in contrast to the traditional method of a single scribe producing only a single copy of a single manuscript. In the check reading method, only "authors could authorize copies, and this was done in public sessions in which the copyist read the copy aloud in the presence of the author, who then certified it as accurate." With this check-reading system, "an author might produce a dozen or more copies from a single reading," and with two or more readings, "more than one hundred copies of a single book could easily be produced."
• Chemical element classification: The work of Jabir ibn Hayyan gave the seeds of the modern classification of elements into metals and non-metals as could be seen in his chemical nomenclature.
• Chemical equivalents: The origins of the idea of chemical equivalents might be traced back to Jabir ibn Hayyan, in whose time it was recognized that "a certain quantity of acid is necessary in order to neutralize a given amount of base."
• Cryptology: David Kahn notes in The Codebreakers that the field of cryptology originates from the Muslim Arabs, the first people to systematically document cryptanalytic methods. Al-Khalil (717–786) wrote the Book of Cryptographic Messages.
• Damascus steel: The Arabs introduced the wootz steel to Damascus, where a weapons industry thrived. Damascus steel blades were first manufactured in Syria from ingots of wootz steel that were imported from India.
• Geared gristmill: Geared gristmills were built in the medieval Near East and North Africa, which were used for grinding grain and other seeds to produce meals.
• Hawala and agency: The Hawala, an early informal value transfer system, has its origins in classical Islamic law, and is mentioned in texts of Islamic jurisprudence as early as the 8th century. Hawala itself later influenced the development of the agency in common law and in civil laws such as the aval in French law and the avallo in Italian law. The words aval and avallo were themselves derived from Hawala. The agency was also an institution unknown to Roman law as no individual could conclude a binding contract on behalf of another as his agent. On the other hand, Islamic law and the later common law "had no difficulty in accepting agency as one of its institutions in the field of contracts and of obligations in general."

Hospital building ("darüşşifa") of Divriği Great Mosque, Seljuq period, 13th century, Turkey.

• Hospital: The United States National Library of Medicine credits the hospital as being a product of medieval Islamic civilization. Compared to contemporaneous Christian institutions, which were poor and sick relief facilities offered by some monasteries, the Islamic hospital was a more elaborate institution with a wider range of functions. In Islam, there was a moral imperative to treat the ill regardless of financial status. Islamic hospitals tended to be large, urban structures, and were largely secular institutions, many open to all, whether male or female, civilian or military, child or adult, rich or poor, Muslim or non-Muslim. The Islamic hospital served several purposes, as a center of medical treatment, a home for patients recovering from illness or accidents, an insane asylum, and a retirement home with basic maintenance needs for the aged and infirm.
• Hospital pharmacy and pharmacy school: Muslim physicians established the first specialized pharmacy unit in hospitals, as well as a pharmacy school.
• Jury: An early example of a jury trial system was the Lafif in the Maliki school of classical Islamic law and jurisprudence, which was developed between the 8th and 11th centuries in the medieval Islamic world, specifically in North Africa, Islamic Spain and the Emirate of Sicily. The Islamic Lafif was a body of twelve members drawn from the neighbourhood and sworn to tell the truth, who were bound to give a unanimous verdict, about matters "which they had personally seen or heard, binding on the judge, to settle the truth concerning facts in a case, between ordinary people, and obtained as of right by the plaintiff."
• Lusterware: Some scholars see this as a purely Islamic invention originating in Fustat.
• Mobile hospital: The mobile hospital, which moved from one place to another place, was developed in the Abbasid Caliphate.
• Oud and lute: The Arabic oud in Islamic music was the direct ancestor of the European lute.
• Paper mill: Scholars have identified paper mills in Abbasid-era Baghdad during 794–795.
• Paper bookbinding: In the 8th century Arabs learned the arts of papermaking from the Chinese and were then the first to bind paper into books at the start of the Islamic Golden Age.
• Paper cheque: Paper cheques first appeared in the Islamic world, by the 8th century. The word "cheque" is derived from the Arabic sakk.
• Papermaking with trip hammers: The Muslims introduced the use of trip hammers in the production of paper, replacing the traditional Chinese mortar and pestle method. In turn, the trip hammer method was later employed by the Chinese.
• Permutations and combinations: The Book of Cryptographic Messages written by Al-Khalil (717–786) contains the first use of permutations and combinations to list all possible Arabic words with and without vowels.
• Pointed arch: The pointed arch as an architectonic principle was first clearly established in Islamic architecture. As an architectonic principle, the pointed arch was entirely alien to the pre-Islamic world.
• Preventive healthcare: A unique feature of the bimaristan hospitals in Islamic medicine was that, in addition to curative medicine, they also emphasized preventive measures, for individuals to maintain their health.
• Probability and statistics: Forms of probability and statistics were developed by Arab mathematicians studying cryptology between the 8th and 13th centuries, dating back to the Book of Cryptographic Messages written by Al-Khalil (717–786). The earliest writing on statistics was found in the 9th-century book Manuscript on Deciphering Cryptographic Messages by Al-Kindi. In his book, Al-Kindi gave a detailed description of how to use statistics and frequency analysis to decipher encrypted messages. This text laid the foundations for statistics and cryptanalysis.
• Proto-capitalism and free-market economy: Early forms of proto-capitalism and free markets were present in the Caliphate. An early market economy and early form of merchant capitalism developed between the 8th and 12th centuries.

A giraffe from Kitāb al-Hayawān (Book of the Animals) by Al-Jāḥiẓ.

• Proto-evolution theory and natural selection theory: The Kitab al-Hayawan is an encyclopedia of seven volume of anecdotes, poetic descriptions and proverbs describing over 350 varieties of animals. Al-Jahiz in his famous book Kitab al-Hayawan (Book of the Animals) described a proto-evolution theory on natural selection and the struggle for existence: "The rat goes out for its food, and is clever in getting it, for it eats all animals inferior to it in strength", and in turn, it "has to avoid snakes and birds and serpents of prey, who look for it in order to devour it" and are stronger than the rat. Mosquitos "know instinctively that blood is the thing which makes them live" and when they see an animal, "they know that the skin has been fashioned to serve them as food". In turn, flies hunt the mosquito "which is the food that they like best", and predators eat the flies. "All animals, in short, can not exist without food, neither can the hunting animal escape being hunted in his turn. Every weak animal devours those weaker than itself. Strong animals cannot escape being devoured by other animals stronger than they. And in this respect, men do not differ from animals, some with respect to others, although they do not arrive at the same extremes. In short, God has disposed some human beings as a cause of life for others, and likewise, he has disposed the latter as a cause of the death of the former."
• Food chain theory: First introduced by the scientist and philosopher Al-Jahiz in the 9th century, and later popularized in a book published in 1927 by Charles Elton.
• Pulp mill: The use of water-powered pulp mills, for preparing the pulp material used in papermaking, dates back to Samarkand in the 8th century.
• Retort: The alchemist Jābir ibn Hayyān developed the process of distillation into what it is today by inventing several basic laboratory equipment, one of which was the retort.
• Rib vault: Its introduction dates back to Islamic architecture in the eight century.
• Sal ammoniac: Substance discovered by Arab chemists.

An illustration of various experiments and instruments by Jabir Ibn Hayyan.

• Scientific method and experimental method: There was greater emphasis on combining theory with practice in the Islamic world than there had been in ancient times, and it was common for those studying the sciences to be artisans as well, something that had been "considered an aberration in the ancient world." Islamic experts in the sciences were often expert instrument makers who enhanced their powers of observation and calculation with them. Muslim scientists used experiment and quantification to distinguish between competing scientific theories, set within a generically empirical orientation, as can be seen in the works of Jābir ibn Hayyān (721–815) and Alkindus (801–873) as early examples. Ibn al-Haytham (965–1039), also known as Alhazen, was an Iraqi polymath who is considered by some to be the father of modern scientific methodology, due to his emphasis on experimental data and reproducibility of its results. The earliest methodical approach to experiments in the modern sense is visible in the works of Ibn al-Haytham, who introduced an inductive-experimental method for achieving results. The Persian scientist Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī introduced early scientific methods for several different fields of inquiry during the 1020s and 1030s. He also developed an early experimental method for mechanics. Al-Biruni's methods resembled the modern scientific method, particularly in his emphasis on repeated experimentation.
• Sharbat and soft drink: The origins of soft drinks lie in the development of fruit-flavored drinks. In the medieval Middle East, a variety of fruit-flavoured soft drinks were widely drunk, such as sharbat, and were often sweetened with ingredients such as sugar, syrup and honey. Other common ingredients included lemon, apple, pomegranate, tamarind, jujube, sumac, musk, mint and ice. Middle Eastern drinks later became popular in medieval Europe, where the word "syrup" was derived from Arabic.
• Synthetic life: Also called Takwin, this was first independently mentioned in the Kitāb Al-Tajmi as a hypothesis.
• Tin-glazed pottery: The earliest tin-glazed pottery appears to have been made in Abbasid Iraq/Mesopotamia in the 8th century, fragments having been excavated during the First World War from the palace of Samarra about fifty miles north of Baghdad.
• Tin-glazing: The tin-glazing of ceramics was invented by potters in 8th-century Basra, Iraq. The oldest fragments found to-date were excavated from the palace of Samarra about 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Baghdad.
• Wind-powered automata: In the mid-8th century, the first wind powered automata were built, "statues that turned with the wind over the domes of the four gates and the palace complex of the Round City of Baghdad". The "public spectacle of wind-powered statues had its private counterpart in the 'Abbasid palaces where automata of various types were predominantly displayed."

9th century

A page from Al-Khwārizmī's al-Kitāb al-muḫtaṣar fī ḥisāb al-ğabr wa-l-muqābala.

• Alcohol distillation: The medieval Arabs used the distillation process extensively, including the distillation of alcohol (which comes from the Arabic word al-kohl). Al-Kindi gave the first unambiguous description of the true distillation of wine in the 9th century.
• Algebra: Al-Khwarizmi is considered the father of algebra. Algebra comes from the Arabic الجبر (al-jabr) in the title of his book Ilm al-jabr wa'l-muḳābala. While algebraic equations had existed before, he was the first to treat algebra as an independent discipline in its own right. His treatise The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing (c. 813–833) popularised algebra, and presented the first systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations. Static equation-solving algebra, where the objective is to find numbers satisfying certain relationships, was first decisively established by Al-Khwarizmi, with his introduction of generalized algorithmic processes for solving algebraic problems.
• Algebraic reduction and balancing, cancellation, and like terms: Al-Khwarizmi introduced reduction and balancing in algebra. It refers to the transposition of subtracted terms to the other side of an equation, that is, the cancellation of like terms on opposite sides of the equation, which the term al-jabr (algebra) originally referred to.
• Algorism: The algorism system of rules was developed by Al-Khwarizmi, with the words "algorism" and "algorithm" derived from his name.
• Ammonium carbonate: Knowledge of the ammonium carbonate date back to Arabic texts circa 875.
• Aromatics and aromatherapy: The psychological impact of aromatics was well understood in the Islamic world over a thousand years before the fashion for aromatherapy in Europe and North America. Al-Kindi discussed the psychological effects of various perfumes in the 9th century. Distilled essential oils have been employed as medicine in the Islamic world since the 11th century, when Avicenna isolated essential oils using steam distillation.
• Anasthetic compound: Islamic physicians introduced the use of preoperative anasthetic compounds.
• Antiseptic alcohol: Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi discovered the use of alcohol as an antiseptic.
• Bar soap and scented soap: Hard toilet soap with a pleasant smell was produced in the Middle East during the Islamic Golden Age, when soap-making became an established industry. Recipes for soap-making are described by Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (854–925), who also gave a recipe for producing glycerine from olive oil. In the Middle East, soap was produced from the interaction of fatty oils and fats with alkali. In Syria, soap was produced using olive oil together with alkali and lime. Soap was exported from Syria to other parts of the Muslim world and to Europe. Two key Islamic innovations in soapmaking was the invention of bar soap, described by al-Razi, and the addition of scents using perfume technology perfected in the Islamic world.

Drawing of Self trimming lamp in Ahmad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir's treatise on mechanical devices. The manuscript was written in Arabic.

• Automatic controls: The Banu Musa's preoccupation with automatic controls distinguishes them from their Greek predecessors, including the Banu Musa's "use of self-operating valves, timing devices, delay systems and other concepts of great ingenuity."

A Seljuq-era shatranj (chess) set, glazed fritware, 12th century.

• Chess manual: The oldest known chess manual was in Arabic and dates to 840–850, written by Al-Adli ar-Rumi (800–870), a renowned Arab chess player, titled Kitab ash-shatranj (Book of Chess). During the Islamic Golden Age, many works on shatranj were written, recording for the first time the analysis of opening moves, game problems, the knight's tour, and many more subjects common in modern chess books.
• Completing the square: One of Al-Khwarizmi's principal achievements in algebra was his demonstration of how to solve quadratic equations by completing the square, for which he provided geometric justifications.
• Automatic crank: The non-manual crank appears in several of the hydraulic devices described by the Banū Mūsā brothers in their Book of Ingenious Devices. These automatically operated cranks appear in several devices, two of which contain an action which approximates to that of a crankshaft, anticipating Al-Jazari's invention by several centuries and its first appearance in Europe by over five centuries. However, the automatic crank described by the Banu Musa would not have allowed a full rotation, but only a small modification was required to convert it to a crankshaft.
• Conical valve: A mechanism developed by the Banu Musa, of particular importance for future developments, was the conical valve, which was used in a variety of different applications.
• Control valve: The Banu Musa brothers are credited with the first known use of conical valves as automatic controllers.

The first page of Al-Kindi's manuscript On Deciphering Cryptographic Messages, containing the oldest known description of cryptanalysis by frequency analysis.

• Cryptanalysis and frequency analysis: In cryptology, the first known recorded explanation of cryptanalysis was given by Al-Kindi (also known as "Alkindus" in Europe), in A Manuscript on Deciphering Cryptographic Messages. This treatise includes the first description of the method of frequency analysis. It was the most significant cryptanalytic advance until World War II.
• Double-seat valve: It was invented by the Banu Musa, and has a modern appearance in their Book of Ingenious Devices.
• Ethanol: The Persian physician, alchemist, polymath and philosopher Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (854–925) is credited with the discovery of ethanol.
• Fritware: It refers to a type of pottery which was first developed in the Near East, beginning in the late 1st millennium, for which frit was a significant ingredient. A recipe for "fritware" dating to c. 1300 AD written by Abu’l Qasim reports that the ratio of quartz to "frit-glass" to white clay is 10:1:1. This type of pottery has also been referred to as "stonepaste" and "faience" among other names. A 9th-century corpus of "proto-stonepaste" from Baghdad has "relict glass fragments" in its fabric.
• Gas mask: An early type of rudimentary gas mask was invented in the 9th century by the Persian Banu Musa brothers in Baghdad, Iraq. They described it in their Book of Ingenious Devices, mainly for protecting workers in polluted wells.
• General hospital: The earliest general hospital was built in 805 in Baghdad by Harun Al-Rashid.
• Grab and clamshell grab: The mechanical grab, specifically the clamshell grab, was invented by the Persian Banu Musa brothers and described in their Book of Ingenious Devices in the 9th century. It was an original innovation by the Banu Musa that does not appear in any earlier Greek works. The grab described by the Banu Musa was used to extract objects from underwater, and recover objects from the beds of streams.
• Hurricane lamp, self-trimming lamp, self-feeding lamp: Some of the other devices the Banu Musa invented include a hurricane lamp, self-trimming lamp (by Ahmad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir), and self-feeding lamp.
• Ijazah, academic degree, doctorate: The ijazah, issued in Islamic madrasahs since the 9th century, is considered an early form of academic degree or doctorate. Historians such as George Makdisi, Devin J. Stewart, Josef W. Meri and Shawkat Toorawa have stated that the ijazah was an early type of academic degree or doctorate issued in early medieval madrasahs, similar to that which later appeared in European medieval universities.
• Kerosene: The process of distilling crude oil/petroleum into kerosene, as well as other hydrocarbon compounds, was first written about in the 9th century by the Persian scholar Rāzi (or Rhazes). In his Kitab al-Asrar (Book of Secrets), the physician and chemist Razi described two methods for the production of kerosene, termed naft abyad ("white naphtha"), using an apparatus called an alembic.
• Kerosene lamp: The first description of a simple lamp using crude mineral oil was provided by Persian alchemist al-Razi (Rhazes) in 9th century Baghdad, who referred to it as the "naffatah" in his Kitab al-Asrar (Book of Secrets).
• Lusterware: Lustre glazes were applied to pottery in Mesopotamia in the 9th century; the technique soon became popular in Persia and Syria. Earlier uses of lustre are known.
• Lyra, rebec, violin: The Arabic rabāb is the ancestor of all European bowed instruments, including the rebec, the Byzantine lyra, and the violin.
• Madrasah and college: The college institution has origins in the madrasah college, which was developed by the 9th century.
• Mental institute: In 872, Ahmad ibn Tulun built a hospital in Cairo that provided care to the insane, which included music therapy.
• Merchant capitalism: Early forms of merchant capitalism developed in the medieval Islamic world from the 9th century, predating medieval Europe where forms of merchant capitalism began to appear from the 12th century.
• Minaret: The first known minarets appeared in the early 9th century under Abbasid rule.
• Music sequencer and programmable automated music technology: The origin of automatic musical instruments dates back to the 9th century, when Persian inventors Banū Mūsā brothers invented a programmable hydropowered organ using exchangeable cylinders with pins, and an automatic flute playing machine using steam power. These were the earliest mechanical musical instruments. The Banu Musa brothers' programmable automatic flute player was also the first music sequencer device, and the first example of repetitive music technology.
• Nitric acid and aqua regia: First mentioned in the works of Arabic alchemists such as Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi.

Painting of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi and his colleagues working on the Zij-i Ilkhani at the Maragheh observatory.

• Observatory and research institute: The oldest true observatory, in the sense of a specialized research institute, was built in 825, the Al-Shammisiyyah observatory, in Baghdad, Iraq.
• Occasionalism: The theory of occasionalism originates from early Islamic theology, associated with the Ashʿari school dating back to Al-Ash'ari (873–935). Al-Ghazali (1055-1111) later presented the most significant and influential arguments for occasionalism. In 1993, Professor Karen Harding compared Al-Ghazali's arguments for occasionalism and against causality to that of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics.
• Pediatrics book: Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi wrote the first pediatrics book.
• Peer review and clinical peer review: The first documented description of a peer review process is found in the Ethics of the Physician written by Ishāq ibn ʻAlī al-Ruhāwī (854–931) of Al-Raha, Syria. His work, as well as later Arabic medical manuals, states that a visiting physician must always make duplicate notes of a patient's condition on every visit. When the patient was cured or had died, the notes of the physician were examined by a local medical council of other physicians, who would review the practicing physician's notes to decide whether his or her performance met the required standards of medical care. If their reviews were negative, the practicing physician could face a lawsuit from a maltreated patient.
• Petroleum distillation: Crude oil was often distilled by Arabic chemists, with clear descriptions given in Arabic handbooks such as those of Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi (Rhazes).
• Pharmacologist profession: For the first time in history, the medical and pharmacologist professions were separated, each with its own professional qualifications and responsibilities.
• Polyalphabetic cipher: Al-Kindi (801–873) described the first cryptanalytic techniques, including some for polyalphabetic ciphers, cipher classification, and Arabic phonetics and syntax. Al-Qalqashandi (1355–1418), based on the earlier work of Ibn al-Durayhim (1312–1359), gave the first clear description of a polyalphabetic cipher, in which each plaintext letter is assigned more than one substitute.
• Programmable automatic flute player: The Banū Mūsā brothers invented a programmable automatic flute player and which they described in their Book of Ingenious Devices.
• 'Rabel and gittern: The plucked and bowed versions of the rebab existed alongside each other. The bowed instruments became the rebec or rabel and the plucked instruments became the gittern. Curt Sachs linked this instrument with the mandola, the kopuz and the gambus, and named the bowed version rabâb.
• Rose oil and perfume recipies: In the Kitab al-Taraffuq fi al-‘itr (The Book of the chemistry of perfume and distillations), Al-Kindi describes the distillation process for extracting rose oils, and provides the recipes for 107 different kinds of perfumes.
• Samosa: The samosa originated in the Middle East and Central Asia. A praise of samosa can be found in a 9th-century poem by the Persian poet Ishaq al-Mawsili. Recipes for the dish are found in 10th–13th-century Arab cookery books.
• Scimitar: The curved sword or "scimitar" was widespread throughout the Middle East from at least the Ottoman period, with early examples dating to Abbasid era (9th century) Khurasan.
• Shamsir: Shamshirs began to appear in Persia in the 9th century, when these weapons were used by soldiers in the Khurasan region of Central Asia.
• Sine quadrant: A type of quadrant used by medieval Arabic astronomers for trigonometric calculations, it was described by Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī in 9th century Baghdad.
• Smallpox and measles distinction: Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi's book Al-Judari wa al-Hasbah (On Smallpox and Measles) was the first book describing smallpox and measles as distinct diseases.
• Spherical astrolabe: The spherical astrolabe, a variation of both the astrolabe and the armillary sphere, was invented in the Islamic Middle East.
• Spherical trigonometry: Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī was a pioneer in spherical trigonometry. While earlier mathematicians had dealt with spherical triangles, Al-Battani and Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī are credited with developing spherical trigonometry into its present form.
• Statistical inference: Al-Kindi made the earliest known use of statistical inference in his work on cryptanalysis and frequency analysis.
• Sulfuric acid: Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (854–925) is credited with being the first to produce sulfuric acid.
• Sugar mill: Sugar mills first appeared in the medieval Islamic world. They were first driven by watermills, and then windmills from the 9th and 10th centuries in what are today Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.
• Syringe: The Iraqi/Egyptian surgeon Ammar al-Mawsili invented a syringe in the 9th century using a hollow glass tube, providing suction to remove cataracts from patients' eyes.
• Throttling valve: It appears for the first time in the Banu Musa's Book of Ingenious Devices.
• Trigonometric functions: All six trigonometric functions appeared together for the first time in Islamic mathematics. While the sine and cosine functions were earlier known in Indian mathematics, the other four trigonometric functions were discovered by Islamic mathematicians. Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī produced accurate sine and cosine tables, and the first table of tangents. In 830, Habash al-Hasib al-Marwazi produced the first table of cotangents. Muhammad ibn Jābir al-Harrānī al-Battānī (Albatenius) (853–929 AD) discovered the reciprocal functions of secant and cosecant, and produced the first table of cosecants for each degree from 1° to 90°.
• Trigonometry: Previous trigonometric works were translated and expanded in the medieval Islamic world by Muslim mathematicians of mostly Persian and Arab descent, who enunciated a large number of theorems which freed the subject of trigonometry from dependence upon the complete quadrilateral, as was the case in Hellenistic mathematics due to the application of Menelaus' theorem. According to E. S. Kennedy, it was after this development in Islamic mathematics that "the first real trigonometry emerged, in the sense that only then did the object of study become the spherical or plane triangle, its sides and angles." The Persian polymath Nasir al-Din al-Tusi has been described as the creator of trigonometry as a mathematical discipline in its own right. Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī was also the first to treat trigonometry as a mathematical discipline independent from astronomy.

Courtyard of the University of Al Quaraouiyine.

• University: Fatima bint Muhammad Al-Fihriya Al-Qurashiya was an Arab Muslim woman who is credited for founding the oldest existing, continually operating and first degree-awarding educational institution in the world, The University of Al Quaraouiyine in Fes, Morocco, in 859. The University of Al Quaraouiyine is considered to be the oldest degree-granting university.
• Variable structure control: Two-step level controls for fluids, a form of discontinuous variable structure controls, was developed by the Banu Musa brothers.
• Wind-powered gristmill: The first wind-powered gristmills were built in the 9th and 10th centuries in what are now Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.
• Windpump: Windpumps were used to pump water since at least the 9th century in what is now Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.

10th century

The first Arabic numerals in Europe appeared in the Codex Vigilanus in the year 976.

• Arabic numerals: While the Indo-Arabic numeral system originates from the Indian subcontinent, the modern Arabic numeral symbols (0-9) originate from Islamic North Africa in the 10th century. A distinctive Western Arabic variant of the Eastern Arabic numerals began to emerge around the 10th century in the Maghreb and Al-Andalus (sometimes called ghubar numerals, though the term is not always accepted), which are the direct ancestor of the modern Arabic numerals used throughout the world.
• Binomial theorem: The first formulation of the binomial theorem and the table of binomial coefficient can be found in a work by Al-Karaji, quoted by Al-Samaw'al in his "al-Bahir".

Arabic manuscript of The Thousand and One Nights dating back to the 14th century.

• Crime fiction and courtroom drama: The One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights) contains the earliest known examples of crime fiction, including "The Three Apples" and "The Hunchback's Tale", the latter the earliest known courtroom drama, presented as a suspenseful comedy.
• Decimal fractions: Decimal fractions were first used by Abu'l-Hasan al-Uqlidisi in the 10th century.
• Detective story, reverse chronology, fictional detective: The One Thousand and One Nights contains several of the earliest detective stories, anticipating modern detective fiction, including "The Three Apples", "The Merchant and the Thief" and "Ali Khwaja". The first of these, "The Three Apples", anticipates the use of inverse chronology in modern detective fiction, where the story begins with a crime before presenting a gradual reconstruction of the past. "The Merchant and the Thief" and "Ali Khwaja" contain two of the earliest fictional detectives, who uncover clues and present evidence to catch or convict a criminal known to the audience, in normal chronology, with the latter involving the protagonist Ali Khwaja presenting evidence from expert witnesses in a court.
• Formal medical education system and medical certification: A major innovation of Islamic medicine was the formal training and licensing of medical practitioners, with a formal education system for physicians established in Baghdad in 931. Under this system, graduate physicians were required to pass written and practical examinations, after which a hospital chief would certify their competence in writing, and then a government public health official would monitor their performance.
• Fountain pen: An early historical mention of what appears to be a reservoir pen dates back to the 10th century. According to Ali Abuzar Mari (d. 974) in his Kitab al-Majalis wa 'l-musayarat, the Fatimid caliph Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah demanded a pen that would not stain his hands or clothes, and was provided with a pen that held ink in a reservoir, allowing it to be held upside-down without leaking.
• Free trade: Classical Islam promulgated capitalist economic policies such as free trade and banking by the 10th century.
• Girih: The earliest form of girih on a book is seen in the frontispiece of a Koran manuscript from the year 1000, found in Baghdad.
• Kebab: Originated in the medieval kitchens of Persia and Turkey. In Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq's 10th-century Baghdadi cookbook Kitab al-Tabikh, there are descriptions of kabāb as cut-up meat, either fried in a pan or grilled over a fire.
• Law of sines: The spherical law of sines was discovered by Abu al-Wafa' Buzjani in the 10th century. Ibn Muʿādh al-Jayyānī's The book of unknown arcs of a sphere in the 11th century contains the general law of sines.
• Medical diploma: Islamic hospitals were the first to require medical diplomas to license doctors.
• Medical school: An innovation of Islamic medicine, medical schools emerged from around the 9th century.
• Muqarnas: The origin of the muqarnas can be traced back to the mid-tenth century in northeastern Iran and central North Africa, as well as the Mesopotamian region.
• Murder mystery: "The Three Apples" story in the Arabian Nights is the earliest murder mystery story.
• Pascal's triangle: The Persian mathematician Al-Karaji (953–1029) wrote a now lost book which contained the first description of Pascal's triangle. It was later repeated by the Persian poet-astronomer-mathematician Omar Khayyám (1048–1131); thus the triangle is also referred to as the "Khayyam triangle" in Iran.
• Planisphere: Invented by Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī.
• Psychosomatic medicine: Persian psychologist-physicians Ahmed ibn Sahl al-Balkhi (d. 934) and Haly Abbas (d. 994) developed an early model of illness that emphasized the interaction of the mind and the body. They proposed that a patient's physiology and psychology can influence one another.
• Sextant and mural instrument: The first known mural sextant was constructed in Ray, Iran, by Abu-Mahmud al-Khujandi in 994.
• Snell's law: The law was first accurately described by the Persian scientist Ibn Sahl at the Baghdad court in 984. In the manuscript On Burning Mirrors and Lenses, Sahl used the law to derive lens shapes that focus light with no geometric aberrations.
• Speed of light: Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī (973-1048) believed that light has a finite speed, and he was the first to discover that the speed of light is much faster than the speed of sound.
• Tin block printing: Block printing, called tarsh in Arabic, was used in 10th-century Arabic Egypt, mostly used for prayers and amulets. Block printing may have been invented in Egypt independently from China. An original innovation in Egypt appears to have been the casting of printblocks from tin.
• Twist ending: The earliest use of a twist ending in a murder mystery was in "The Three Apples", a medieval Arabian Nights tale.
• University hospital and internship: Under the Baghdad medical education system established in 931, innovations included Islamic doctors being trained in universities with attached teaching hospitals, and a medical internship system almost identical to the modern internship system. Islamic physicians were the first to establish medical training and teaching within a modern university-hospital setting.
• Vertical-axle windmill: A small wind wheel operating an organ is described as early as the 1st century AD by Hero of Alexandria. The first vertical-axle windmills were eventually built in Sistan, Persia as described by Muslim geographers. These windmills had long vertical driveshafts with rectangle shaped blades. They may have been constructed as early as the time of the second Rashidun caliph Umar (634–644 AD), though some argue that this account may have been a 10th-century amendment. Made of six to twelve sails covered in reed matting or cloth material, these windmills were used to grind grains and draw up water, and used in the gristmilling and sugarcane industries. Horizontal axle windmills of the type generally used today were later developed in Northwestern Europe in the 1180s.

11th century

Hevelius's Selenographia (1647), showing Alhasen (Ibn al-Haytham) representing reason, and Galileo representing the senses.

• Camera obscura box: While the pinhole camera effect was known earlier, starting with Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) the effect was used in dark rooms. He described a 'dark chamber' and did a number of trials and experiments with small pinholes and light passing through them. One such experiment consisted of three candles in a row and seeing the effects on the wall after placing a cutout between the candles and the wall. He also analyzed the rays of sunlight and concluded that they make a conic shape where they meet at the hole, forming another conic shape reverse to the first one from the hole to the opposite wall in the dark room. Al-Haytam's writings on optics became very influential in Europe through Latin translations since circa 1200. Among those he inspired were Witelo, John Peckham, Roger Bacon, Leonardo Da Vinci, René Descartes and Johannes Kepler.
• Clinical trial and clinical pharmacology: As in the majority of early sciences, the Islamic world contributed significantly to early biological advancements as well as alchemical advancements, especially with the introduction of clinical trials and clinical pharmacology presented in Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine.
• Contagion theory: A basic form of contagion theory dates back to 11th-century Persian physician Ibn Sina's Canon of Medicine, which was the most authoritative medical textbook in Europe up until the 16th century. In Book IV of the Canon, Ibn Sina discussed epidemics and proposed an early contagion theory. He mentioned that people can transmit disease to others by breath, noted contagion with tuberculosis, and discussed the transmission of disease through water and dirt. When the Black Death bubonic plague reached Al-Andalus in the 14th century, the Arab physicians Ibn Khatima and Ibn al-Khatib proposed a more sophisticated theory of contagion, hypothesising that infectious diseases were caused by "minute bodies" and describing how they can be transmitted through garments, vessels and earrings.
• Disinfectant: Chemical disinfectants first began to be used by Arab physicians in the Middle Ages.
• Drug trial: Persian physician Avicenna, in The Canon of Medicine (1025), first described use of clinical trials for determining the efficacy of medical drugs and substances.
• Double-entry bookkeeping system: Double-entry bookkeeping was pioneered in the Jewish community of the medieval Middle East.
• Earth's circumference calculation with trigonometry: An accurate estimate was provided in Al-Biruni's Codex Masudicus (1037). In contrast to his predecessors, who measured the Earth's circumference by sighting the Sun simultaneously from two different locations, Al-Biruni developed a new method of using trigonometric calculations, based on the angle between a plain and mountain top, which yielded more accurate measurements of the Earth's circumference, and made it possible for it to be measured by a single person from a single location.
• General cubic equation theory: Omar Khayyám (born 1048) seems to have been the first to conceive a general theory of cubic equations.
• Hydraulic paper mill: Donald Hill has identified a reference to a water-powered paper mill in Samarkand, in the 11th-century work of the Persian scholar Abu Rayhan Biruni. This is seen by Leor Halevi as evidence of Samarkand first harnessing waterpower in the production of paper. The first hydraulic paper mill in Europe was operated by Muslim Mudéjar in the Moorish quarter of Xàtiva in 1282.
• Hyperbolic geometry and Ibn al-Haytham–Lambert quadrilateral: The theorems of Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen), Omar Khayyám and Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī on quadrilaterals, including the Ibn al-Haytham–Lambert quadrilateral and Khayyam–Saccheri quadrilateral, were the first theorems on hyperbolic geometry.
• Integration function: In the Middle East, Hasan Ibn al-Haytham, Latinized as Alhazen (c. 965 – c. 1040 CE) derived a formula for the sum of fourth powers. He used the results to carry out what would now be called an integration of this function, where the formulae for the sums of integral squares and fourth powers allowed him to calculate the volume of a paraboloid. This is a precursor to integral calculus.
• Intromission theory: Ibn al-Haytham (965–1040) was the first person to explain that vision occurs when light bounces on an object and then is directed to one's eyes.
• Magnifying glass and convex lens: A convex lens used for forming a magnified image was described in the Book of Optics by Ibn al-Haytham in 1021.
• Mercuric chloride and corrosive sublimate: First used by Arab physicians in the Middle Ages to disinfect wounds.
• Methods of agreement, difference and concomitant variation: In The Canon of Medicine (1025), Avicenna was also the first to describe what is essentially methods of agreement, difference and concomitant variation which are critical to inductive logic and the scientific method.
• Pharmacopoeia and medical drugs: A number of early pharmacopoeia books were written by Persian and Arab physicians. These included The Canon of Medicine of Avicenna in 1025, and works by Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) in the 12th century (and printed in 1491). During the 14th century, a physician from Malaga, Ibn Baytar, wrote a pharmacopoeia (book of medicine) naming over 1400 different drugs and their uses in medicine. He systematically recorded the additions made by Islamic physicians in the Middle Ages, which added between 300 and 400 types of medicine to the one thousand previously known since antiquity. This book was written 200 years before the first European pharmacopoeia was written by German scholar Valerius Cordus in 1542.
• Momentum theory: Ibn Sina's theory of mayl attempted to relate the velocity and weight of a moving object. This idea closely resembled the concept of momentum.
• Non-Euclidean geometry and elliptic geometry: The theorems of Ibn al-Haytham, Khayyam and al-Tusi on quadrilaterals, including the Lambert quadrilateral and Saccheri quadrilateral, were "the first few theorems of the hyperbolic and the elliptic geometries." These theorems along with their alternative postulates, such as Playfair's axiom, played an important role in the later development of non-Euclidean geometry. These early attempts at challenging the fifth postulate had a considerable influence on its development among later European geometers, including Witelo, Levi ben Gerson, Alfonso, John Wallis and Giovanni Gerolamo Saccheri.

The structure of the human eye according to Ibn al-Haytham. Note the depiction of the optic chiasm. —Manuscript copy of his Kitāb al-Manāẓir (MS Fatih 3212, vol. 1, fol. 81b, Süleymaniye Mosque Library, Istanbul)

• Optic chiasm: The crossing of nerve fibres, and the impact on vision that this had, was first clearly identified by Persian physician "Esmail Jorjani", who appears to be Zayn al-Din Gorgani (1042–1137). The optic chiasm was earlier theorized by Ibn al-Haytham in the early 11th century.
• Paper packaging: The earliest recorded use of paper for packaging dates back to 1035, when a Persian traveler visiting markets in Cairo noted that vegetables, spices and hardware were wrapped in paper for the customers after they were sold.
• Pilaf and pilau: The earliest documented recipe for the pilaf/pilau rice dish comes from the tenth-century Persian scholar Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā), who in his books on medical sciences dedicated a whole section to preparing various dishes, including several types of pilaf.
• Proof by contradiction: Ibn al-Haytham (965–1039) developed the method of proof by contradiction.
• Rose water distillation: The process of creating rose water through steam distillation was developed by Persian and Arab chemists in the medieval Islamic world which led to more efficient and economic uses for perfumery industries.
• Steel mill: By the 11th century, much of the Islamic world had industrial steel watermills in operation, from Al-Andalus and North Africa to the Middle East and Central Asia.
• Saccheri quadrilateral: Saccheri quadrilaterals were first considered by Omar Khayyam (1048-1131) in the late 11th century in Book I of Explanations of the Difficulties in the Postulates of Euclid.The first known consideration of the Saccheri quadrilateral was by Omar Khayyam in the late 11th century, and it may occasionally be referred to as the Khayyam-Saccheri quadrilateral.
• Schizophrenia diagnosis: Medieval Islamic physicians are believed to have diagnosed and treated many cases of schizophrenia. Psychotic beliefs and behaviors similar to the symptoms of schizophrenia were reported in Arabic medical and psychological literature during the Middle Ages. In The Canon of Medicine, for example, Avicenna described a condition resembling the symptoms of schizophrenia which he called Junun Mufrit (severe madness). He distinguished from other forms of madness (Junun) such as mania, rabies and manic depressive psychosis.

Scene from Al-Maqamat, painted by al-Wasiti in 1237. The spinning wheel is believed to have been invented in the medieval Greater Middle East, and is considered an important device that contributed greatly to the Industrial Revolution.

• Spinning wheel: The spinning wheel is believed to have been invented in the Islamic world. The earliest clear illustration of the spinning wheel comes from Baghdad, drawn in 1237. There is evidence that spinning wheels had already come into use in the Islamic world during the early eleventh century, as the earliest implicit reference to the device is dated to 1030 in the Islamic world. This predates the earliest implicit reference in China (c. 1090), the earliest clear illustrations in China (c. 1270) and Europe (1280), and the earliest unambiguous reference in India (1350). The spinning wheel was a precursor to the spinning jenny, which later played a key role during the Industrial Revolution. The spinning jenny was essentially an adaptation of the spinning wheel.
• Steam distillation: Ibn Sīnā developed steam distillation to produce essential oils such as rose essence, which he used as aromatherapeutic treatments for heart conditions.
• Syndrome: Avicenna, in The Canon of Medicine (published 1025), pioneered the idea of a syndrome in the diagnosis of specific diseases.
• Theory of impetus and inertia theory: Ibn Sīnā published a theory of motion in The Book of Healing in 1020. He argued that an impetus is imparted to a projectile by the thrower. He viewed it as persistent, requiring external forces such as air resistance to dissipate it. Ibn Sina made distinction between 'force' and 'inclination' (called "mayl"), and argued that an object gained mayl when the object is in opposition to its natural motion. So he concluded that continuation of motion is attributed to the inclination that is transferred to the object, and that object will be in motion until the mayl is spent. He also claimed that projectile in a vacuum would not stop unless it is acted upon. This conception of motion is consistent with Newton's first law of motion, inertia, which states that an object in motion will stay in motion unless it is acted on by an external force. This idea which dissented from the Aristotelian view was later described as "impetus" by John Buridan, who was influenced by Ibn Sina's Book of Healing.

12th century

• Algebraic geometry: Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi's Treatise on Equations has been described as "inaugurating the beginning of algebraic geometry".
• Classical mechanics and acceleration theory: Hibat Allah Abu'l-Barakat al-Baghdaadi adopted and modified Avicenna's theory on projectile motion. In his Kitab al-Mu'tabar, Abu'l-Barakat stated that the mover imparts a violent inclination (mayl qasri) on the moved and that this diminishes as the moving object distances itself from the mover. According to Shlomo Pines, al-Baghdaadi's theory of motion was "the oldest negation of Aristotle's fundamental dynamic law [namely, that a constant force produces a uniform motion], [and is thus an] anticipation in a vague fashion of the fundamental law of classical mechanics [namely, that a force applied continuously produces acceleration]."
• Function: The idea of a function in mathematics first began emerging with Sharaf al-Dīn al-Tūsī.
• Local analysis, maxima, derivative function: Sharaf al-Dīn al-Tūsī introduced local analysis, the study of maxima, and the notion of a derivative function, a precursor to differential calculus.
• Ruffini-Horner method: Sharaf al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī used what would later be known as the "Ruffini-Horner method" to numerically approximate the root of a cubic equation. While known to earlier Arabic mathematicians, he was the first to apply the method to solve general equations of this type.
• Viète's method: The essence of Viète's method can be found in the work of the Persian mathematician Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi.

13th century

• Girih tiles: By the 13th century, Islamic architects discovered a new way to construct tile mosaic due to the development of arithmetic calculation and geometry—the girih tiles.
• Halva and halwa: First mentioned in the 13th-century Arabic text Kitab al-Tabikh (The Book of Dishes).
• Naker and timpani: Arabic nakers were the direct ancestors of most timpani, brought to 13th-century Continental Europe by Crusaders and Saracens.
• Ogee: Ogee windows and arches were introduced to European cities from the Middle East, probably via Venetian Gothic architecture. Ogee arches became a feature of English Gothic architecture by the late thirteenth century.
• Penrose tiling: The physicists Peter J. Lu and Paul Steinhardt have presented evidence that a Penrose tiling underlies some examples of medieval Islamic geometric patterns, such as the girih (strapwork) tilings at the Darb-e Imam shrine in Isfahan.
• Quasicrystal: Quasiperiodical structures were first observed in some decorative tilings devised by medieval Islamic architects. For example, Girih tiles in a medieval Islamic mosque in Isfahan, Iran, are arranged in a two-dimensional quasicrystalline pattern.
• Sample size: An important contribution of Ibn Adlan (1187–1268) was the concept of sample size for use of frequency analysis. He believed that the cryptogram "should be at least 90 letters long and that each of the 28 letters of Arabic should be represented at least three times".
• Symbolic algebra: Symbolic algebra is where full symbolism is used. Early steps toward this can be seen in the work of several Islamic mathematicians such as Ibn al-Banna (13th–14th centuries) and al-Qalasadi (15th century).

Al-Andalus

9th century

• Metronome: Invented by Abbas ibn Firnas.
• Glider: Abbas ibn Firnas is credited with the first description, design and attempt at a manned glider flight.
• Parachute: The world's first documented parachute was developed by Armen Firman at Cordoba in 852.
• Quartz glass: Abbas ibn Firnas was the first to make glass from stones (quartz).
• Watch: According to historian Will Durant, a watch-like device was invented by Ibn Firnas.

10th century

• Inheritance of traits: First proposed by Al-Zahrawi (936–1013) more than 800 years before Austrian monk, Mendel. Al-Zahrawi was first to record and suggest that hemophilia was an inherited disease.

Physicians employing a surgical method. From Şerafeddin Sabuncuoğlu's Imperial Surgery (1465).

• Kocher's method and Walter position: Al-Zahrawi's Kitab al-Tasrif described both what would later become known as "Kocher's method" for treating a dislocated shoulder and the "Walcher position" in obstetrics.
• Ligature for migraine and migraine surgery: Described in the work of Al-Zahrawi (936–1013), Kitab al-Tasrif, one of the most influential books in early modern medicine. It describes the process of performing a ligature on blood vessels. He was the first to describe a surgical procedure for ligating the temporal artery for migraine, also almost 600 years before Ambroise Paré.
• Lithotrite: In urology, al-Zahrawi wrote about taking stones out of the bladder. By inventing a new instrument, an early form of the lithotrite which he called "Michaab", he was able to crush the stone inside the bladder without the need for a surgical incision.
• Mercuric oxide: First synthesized by Abu al-Qasim al-Qurtubi al-Majriti.
• Modern surgery: Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (936–1013), better known in the west as Albucasis, is regarded as the father of modern surgery. His Al-Tasrif is one of the most quoted surgical textbooks of all time.
• Dental extraction and replantation: Al-Zahrawi has been credited as the first to use extraction and replantation in the history of dentistry.
• Speed of sound: Was proposed by the Cordoba scholar Ibn Hazm (994–1064). Ibn Hazm argued and calculated the speed of sound by echoes in the Mosque of Cordoba. He is also credited as being the first to propose that thunder was a production of lightning.

Page from a 1531 Latin translation by Peter Argellata of Al-Zahrawi's treatise on surgical and medical instruments.

• Surgical instruments: Al-Zahrawi introduced over 200 surgical instruments, many still in use today.
• Surgical needle: Invented by Al-Zahrawi in 1000.
• Inhalational anaesthetic: Invented by Al-Zahrawi and Ibn Zuhr. They used a sponge soaked with narcotic drugs and placed it on a patient's face. These Muslim physicians were the first to use an anaesthetic sponge. Islamic physicians also made use of hemp fumes as inhaled anasthetics.
• Pathology: Various Muslim physicians in Spain were crucial in the development of modern medicine. Pathology was an important development in medicine. The first correct proposal of the nature of disease was described by Al-Zahrawi and Ibn Zuhr.

11th century

• Equatorium: The inventor of the equatorium, Al-Zarqali, was an Arab Muslim instrument maker, mathematician, and leading astronomer at the time. Al-Zarqali based the equatorium on the universal astrolabe, but made it more accurate and specialized.
• Geared clock: The first geared clock was invented in the 11th century by the Arab engineer Ibn Khalaf al-Muradi in Islamic Iberia; it was a water clock that employed a complex gear train mechanism, including both segmental and epicyclic gearing, capable of transmitting high torque. The clock was unrivalled in its use of sophisticated complex gearing, until the mechanical clocks of the mid-14th century.
• Mechanical flywheel: The mechanical flywheel, used to smooth out the delivery of power from a driving device to a driven machine and, essentially, to allow lifting water from far greater depths (up to 200 metres), was first employed by Ibn Bassal (fl. 1038–1075), of Al-Andalus.

A copy of Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm al-Zarqālī's azafea (universal astrolabe) as featured in the Calahorra Tower.

• Universal astrolabe and azafea: Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm al-Zarqālī invented the first universal astrolable, also called the azafea or saphea, which proved very popular and was widely used by navigators until the 16th century.
• Weight-driven clock: Arabic engineers in Al-Andalus invented water clocks driven by gears and weights in the 11th century.

12th century

• Bildungsroman: Hayy ibn Yaqdhan by Ibn Tufail was a precursor to the European bildungsroman genre.
• Bridge mill: The bridge mill was a unique type of watermill that was built as part of the superstructure of a bridge. The earliest record of a bridge mill is from Córdoba, Spain in the 12th century.
• Guitar: The guitar has roots in the four-string oud, brought to Iberia by the Moors in the 8th century. A direct ancestor of the modern guitar is the guitarra morisca (Moorish guitar), which was in use in Spain by 1200. By the 14th century, it was simply referred to as a guitar.
• Philosophical novel: Ibn Tufail's Hayy ibn Yaqdhan is considered an early example of a philosophical novel.
• Reaction theory: Ibn Bajjah proposed that for every force there is always a reaction force. While he did not specify that these forces be equal, it is considered an early version of Newton's third law of motion which states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
• Torquetum: Invented by Jabir ibn Aflah.

13th century

• Botany: Spanish botanists, like Ibn al-Baitar, created hundreds of works/catalogs on the various plants in not only Europe but the Middle East, Africa and Asia. In these works many processes for extracting essential oils, drugs as well as their uses can be found.
• Brass type movable printer press/first printing device in Europe: First invented in Muslim Spain 100 years prior to the invention of printing press, by Johannes Gutenburg of Germany, in 1454.
• Essential oil: The earliest recorded mention of the techniques and methods used to produce essential oils is believed to be that of Ibn al-Baitar (1188–1248), an Al-Andalusian (Muslim-controlled Spain) physician, pharmacist and chemist.
• Mercury clock: A detailed account of technology in Islamic Spain was compiled under Alfonso X of Castile between 1276 and 1279, which included a compartmented mercury clock, which was influential up until the 17th century. It was described in the Libros del saber de Astronomia, a Spanish work from 1277 consisting of translations and paraphrases of Arabic works.
• Mariotte's bottle: The Libros del saber de Astronomia describes a water clock which employs the principle of Mariotte's bottle.
• Qawwali: Amir Khusrow is regarded as the "father of qawwali" (a devotional music form of the Sufis in the Indian subcontinent), and introduced the ghazal style of song into India, both of which still exist widely in India and Pakistan.

14th century

• Astrolabic clock: Invented by Ibn al-Shatir in the early 14th century.
• Hispano-Moresque ware: This was a style of Islamic pottery created in Arab Spain, after the Moors had introduced two ceramic techniques to Europe: glazing with an opaque white tin-glaze, and painting in metallic lusters. Hispano-Moresque ware was distinguished from the pottery of Christendom by the Islamic character of its decoration.
• Polar-axis sundial: Early sundials were nodus-based with straight hour-lines, indicating unequal hours (also called temporary hours) that varied with the seasons, since every day was divided into twelve equal segments; thus, hours were shorter in winter and longer in summer. The idea of using hours of equal time length throughout the year was the innovation of Abu'l-Hasan Ibn al-Shatir in 1371, based on earlier developments in trigonometry by Muhammad ibn Jābir al-Harrānī al-Battānī (Albategni). Ibn al-Shatir was aware that "using a gnomon that is parallel to the Earth's axis will produce sundials whose hour lines indicate equal hours on any day of the year." His sundial is the oldest polar-axis sundial still in existence. The concept later appeared in Western sundials from at least 1446.
• Substitution cipher and transposition cipher: The work of Al-Qalqashandi (1355–1418), based on the earlier work of Ibn al-Durayhim (1312–1359), contained the first published discussion of the substitution and transposition of ciphers.

Sultanates

12th century

File:The earliest known depiction of a counterweight trebuchet, by Mardi ibn Ali al-Tarsusi, c. 1187.jpg

The earliest known depiction of a counterweight trebuchet, by Mardi ibn Ali al-Tarsusi, c. 1187

• Counterweight trebuchet: The earliest known description and illustration of a counterweight trebuchet comes from a commentary on the conquests of Saladin by Mardi ibn Ali al-Tarsusi in 1187.
• Hybrid trebuchet: The term Al-Ghadban (The Furious One) was applied to the hybrid trebuchet, though the usage of the term was not consistent and may have taken on a broader meaning. The first record of a counterweight trebuchet was in the 12th century from Mardi ibn Ali al-Tarsusi while talking of the conquests of Saladin.
• Tadelakt: The history of the material dates back to the 12th century, in the Almoravid and Almohad dynasties.

13th century

• Automated moving peacocks: Invented by Al-Jazari in 2016.
• Bayonet mount: The first documented use of this type of fitting (without the name "bayonet") may be by Al-Jazari in the 13th century, who used it to mount candles into his candle-clocks.
• Camshaft: The camshaft was described by Al-Jazari in 1206. He employed it as part of his automata, water-raising machines, and water clocks such as the castle clock.
• Candle clock with dial and fastening mechanism: The most sophisticated candle clocks known were those of Al-Jazari in 1206. It included a dial to display the time.
• Circulatory physiology: Ibn al-Nafis discovered the pulmonary circulation, and gave an early insight of the coronary and capillary circulations, for which he is described as "the father of circulatory physiology".

Al-Jazari's water-powered saqiya chain pump. It utilised a crankshaft, which is central to modern machinery such as the steam engine and internal combustion engine.

• Crankshaft: Al-Jazari (1136–1206) is credited with the invention of the crankshaft. The crankshaft appears in two of his water-raising machines, a chain pump and his twin-cylinder pump, including both the crank and shaft mechanisms. The crankshaft later played an important role in the Industrial Revolution, and is central to modern machinery such as the steam engine, internal combustion engine and automatic controls.
• Crank-slider: Ismail al-Jazari's water pump employed the first known crank-slider mechanism.
• Conservation theory: An early theory on the conservation of matter was stated by Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī. He wrote that "A body of matter cannot disappear completely. It only changes its form, condition, composition, color and other properties and turns into a different complex or elementary matter."
• Cotton gin with worm gear: The worm gear roller gin was invented in the Delhi Sultanate during the 13th to 14th centuries.
• Design and construction methods: English technology historian Donald Hill wrote, "We see for the first time in al-Jazari's work several concepts important for both design and construction: the lamination of timber to minimize warping, the static balancing of wheels, the use of wooden templates (a kind of pattern), the use of paper models to establish designs, the calibration of orifices, the grinding of the seats and plugs of valves together with emery powder to obtain a watertight fit, and the casting of metals in closed mold boxes with sand."
• DIY manual: The style of Al-Jazari's Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices resembles that of a modern DIY manual.
• Two-cylinder reciprocating piston pump and double-action piston mechanism: Al-Jazari's invention of the two-cylinder reciprocating piston pump featured the first known example of a double-action piston mechanism. It was the basis of the steam engine.
• Draw bar: The draw bar was applied to sugar-milling, with evidence of its use at Delhi in the Mughal Empire by 1540, but possibly dating back several centuries earlier to the Delhi Sultanate.
• Earth's rotation evidence: Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (d. 1274) was the first astronomer to present empirical evidence for the Earth's rotation. He used the phenomena of comets to refute Ptolemy's claim that a stationary Earth can be determined through observation. Ali Qushji (d. 1474) also observed comets and elaborated on al-Tusi's argument to present empirical evidence supporting the theory of a moving Earth.
• Griot: The griot musical tradition originates from the Islamic Mali Empire, where the first professional griot was Balla Fasséké.
• Hand cannon: According to Arabic military treatises of the 13th and 14th centuries, hand cannon were used by the Mamluk-Egyptian side at the 1260 Battle of Ain Jalut to frighten the Mongol armies, making this the earliest known battle where hand cannon were used. The compositions of the gunpowder used in these cannon were also given in these manuals.
• Elephant clock: Invented by Al-Jazari (1136–1206).
• Hand washing automaton: In 1206, Al-Jazari invented a hand-washing automaton.
• Minimising intermittence: The concept of minimising the intermittence is first implied in one of Al-Jazari's saqiya devices, which was to maximise the efficiency of the saqiya.
• Programmable analog computer: The castle clock, a hydropowered mechanical astronomical clock invented by Ismail al-Jazari in 1206, was the first programmable analog computer.

Al-Jazari's musical robot band, consisting of programmable humanoid automata.

• Programmable humanoid robot and musical robot band: In 1206, Al-Jazari invented a programmable humanoid automata band. According to Charles B. Fowler, the automata were a "robot band" which performed "more than fifty facial and body actions during each musical selection."
• Science fiction novel: Theologus Autodidactus by Ibn al-Nafis was the first example of a science fiction novel.
• Segmental gear: A segmental gear is "a piece for receiving or communicating reciprocating motion from or to a cogwheel, consisting of a sector of a circular gear, or ring, having cogs on the periphery, or face." Professor Lynn Townsend White, Jr. wrote, "Segmental gears first clearly appear in al-Jazari".
• Sitar: According to various sources, the sitar was invented by Amir Khusrow, a famous Sufi inventor, poet, and pioneer of Khyal, Tarana and Qawwali, in the Delhi Sultanate. Others say that the instrument was brought from Iran and modified for the tastes of the rulers of the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire.
• Talwar: The talwar originated alongside other curved swords such as the Persian shamshir, the Turkish kilij and the Afghan pulwar, all such swords being originally derived from earlier curved swords developed in Turkic Central Asia.
• Torpedo: The concept of a torpedo existed many centuries before it was later successfully developed. In 1275, Hasan al-Rammah described "...an egg which moves itself and burns".

The ellipses (green, cyan, red) are hypotrochoids of the Tusi couple.

• Tusi couple: The couple was first proposed by Nasir al-Din al-Tusi in his 1247 Tahrir al-Majisti (Commentary on the Almagest) as a solution for the latitudinal motion of the inferior planets. The Tusi couple is explicitly two circles of radii x and 2x in which the circle with the smaller radii rotates inside the Bigger circle. The oscillatory motion be produced by the combined uniform circular motions of two identical circles, one riding on the circumference of the other.

14th century

• Cotton gin with crank handle: The incorporation of the crank handle in the cotton gin, first appeared in either the late Delhi Sultanate or the early Mughal Empire.
• Laffer curve: Arthur Laffer said he learnt the concept from Ibn Khaldun.
• Social cohesion theory and social conflict theory: Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah is considered the first work to advance social-scientific reasoning on social cohesion and social conflict.
• Sociology: There is evidence of early sociology in medieval Arab writings. Ibn Khaldun is considered to have been the first sociologist and father of sociology.

15th century

• Iterative method: In algebra and numerical analysis, he developed an iterative method for solving cubic equations, which was not discovered in Europe until centuries later.
• Law of cosines: In French, the law of cosines is named Théorème d'Al-Kashi (Theorem of Al-Kashi), as al-Kashi was the first to provide an explicit statement of the law of cosines in a form suitable for triangulation.
• Newton's method and Newton–Raphson method: A method algebraically equivalent to Newton's method was known to Sharaf al-Dīn al-Tūsī. Jamshīd al-Kāshī improved on this by using a form of Newton's method to solve $x^{P}-N=0$ to find roots of N.

17th century

• Banjo: Gerhard Kubik notes that ancestors of the banjo were brought to America by Muslim African slaves from Islamic regions of West Africa.

18th century

• Blues and field holler: The historian Sylviane Diouf and ethnomusicologist Gerhard Kubik trace the origins of the blues to Islamic music. Diouf notes a striking resemblance between the Islamic call to prayer (originating from Bilal ibn Rabah, a famous Abyssinian African Muslim in the early 7th century) and 19th-century field holler music, noting that both have similar lyrics praising God, melody, note changes, "words that seem to quiver and shake" in the vocal chords, dramatic changes in musical scales, and nasal intonation. She attributes the origins of field holler music to African Muslim slaves who accounted for an estimated 30% of African slaves in America. The vocal style of many blues singers, including the use of melisma and wavy intonation, is a heritage of the predominantly Islamic Sahel region of West Africa that had been in contact with the Arabic-Islamic Maghreb region since the 7th and 8th centuries."

A painting showing the Mysorean army fighting the British forces with Mysorean rockets.

• Iron-cased rockets: The Mysorean rockets of this period (from the Mysore Sultanate) were much more advanced than what the British had seen, chiefly because of the use of iron tubes for holding the propellant; this enabled higher thrust and longer range for the missile (up to 2 km range). In contrast, rockets in Europe were not iron-cased and their range was far less than their Mysorian counterparts. The Congreve rocket was later based on Mysorean rockets.
• Missile: Some of the Mysorean rockets used by Tipu Sultan could be considered the first missiles, distinguished from rockets.

Ottoman Empire

14th century

• Arquebus: The arquebus first appeared in the Ottoman Empire at some point between 1394 and the early 15th century. The arquebus was later used in substantial numbers by the Janissaries of the Ottoman army by the mid-15th century.
• Modern standing army: The first modern standing armies were the Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire, formed in the fourteenth century.

15th century

A 1652 handbill advertising coffee for sale in St. Michael's Alley, London.

• Coffee: Stories exist of coffee originating in Ethiopia, but the earliest credible evidence of either coffee drinking or knowledge of the coffee tree appears in the middle of the 15th century, in the Sufi monasteries of the Yemen in southern Arabia. It was in Yemen that coffee beans were first roasted and brewed as they are today. From Mocha, coffee spread to Egypt and North Africa, and by the 16th century, it had reached the rest of the Middle East, Persia and Turkey. From the Muslim world, coffee drinking spread to Italy, then to the rest of Europe, and coffee plants were transported by the Dutch to the East Indies and to the Americas.
• Dardanelles Gun: The Dardanelles Gun was designed and cast in bronze in 1434 by Munir Ali. The Dardanelles Gun was still present for duty more than 340 years later in 1807, when a Royal Navy force appeared and commenced the Dardanelles Operation. Turkish forces loaded the ancient relics with propellant and projectiles, then fired them at the British ships. The British squadron suffered 28 casualties from this bombardment.
• Iznik pottery: Produced in Ottoman Turkey as early as the 15th century AD. It consists of a body, slip, and glaze, where the body and glaze are "quartz-frit." The "frits" in both cases "are unusual in that they contain lead oxide as well as soda"; the lead oxide would help reduce the thermal expansion coefficient of the ceramic. Microscopic analysis reveals that the material that has been labeled "frit" is "interstitial glass" which serves to connect the quartz particles.
• Matchlock: The matchlock arquebus was first used by the Janissary corps of the Ottoman army in the first half of the 15th century, possibly as early as 1394 but certainly by the 1440s.

Gun-wielding Ottoman Janissaries in combat against the Knights of Saint John at the Siege of Rhodes in 1522.

• Musket: Appeared in the Ottoman Empire by 1465. In 1598, Chinese writer Zhao Shizhen described Turkish muskets as being superior to European muskets.
• Standing army with firearms: The Ottoman military's regularized use of firearms proceeded ahead of the pace of their European counterparts. The Janissaries had been an infantry bodyguard using bows and arrows. During the rule of Sultan Mehmed II they were drilled with firearms and became "the first standing infantry force equipped with firearms in the world."

16th century

• Damascus steel firearms: In Turkey, damascus steel was being used in the production of firearms such as the musket from the 16th century.
• Firearm kneeling position: At the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the Janissaries equipped with 2000 tüfenks (usually translated as musket) "formed nine consecutive rows and they fired their weapons row by row," in a "kneeling or standing position without the need for additional support or rest." The Chinese later adopted the Ottoman kneeling position for firing.
• Impulse steam turbine: An early steam turbine was invented in 1551 by Taqi al-Din, a philosopher, astronomer and engineer in 16th century Ottoman Egypt, who described a method for rotating a spit by means of a jet of steam playing on rotary vanes around the periphery of a wheel. Al-Din's device was the first impulse steam turbine, predating the later impulse steam turbine of Giovanni Branca (1629), who may have been inspired by al-Din.
• Marching band and military band: The marching band and military band both have their origins in the Ottoman military band, performed by the Janissary since the 16th century.
• Matchlock volley fire: Volley fire with matchlocks was first implemented in 1526 when the Ottoman Janissaries utilized it during the Battle of Mohács.
• Parallel rulers: Invented by Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf and used at the Constantinople Observatory of Taqi ad-Din (1577-1580).
• Rag-and-chain pump: In 1551, Taqi al-Dīn anticipated Georgius Agricola's description of the rag-and-chain pump, which was published in 1556.
• Six-cylinder pump: Invented by Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf. It was the basis of the steam engine, along with Al-Jazari's earlier two-cylinder pump.
• Steam jack and practical steam turbine: A steam-powered roasting jack was first described by the Ottoman polymath and engineer Taqi al-Din in his Al-Turuq al-samiyya fi al-alat al-ruhaniyya (The Sublime Methods of Spiritual Machines), in 1551 CE (959 AH). It was a steam turbine with practical applications as a prime mover for rotating a spit. A similar device for rotating a spit later described by John Wilkins in 1648.
• Turnspit steam engine and practical steam jet: Taqi al-Din described the first turnspit driven by a steam engine. He was the first to use a steam jet impinging on the blades of a wheel to drive a spit, and it was the first practical steam jet device, predating John Wilkins in 1648.

17th century

• Cağ kebab: In the Ottoman Empire at least as far back as the 17th century, stacks of seasoned sliced meat were cooked on a horizontal rotisserie, similar to the cağ kebab.
• Rack-and-pinion: The Chinese military book Wu Pei Chih (1621) describes a Turkish musket that, rather than using a matchlock mechanism, instead uses a rack-and-pinion mechanism. On release of the trigger, the two racks return automatically to their original positions. This was the first time a rack-and-pinion mechanism is known to have been used in a firearm, with no evidence of its use in any European or East-Asian firearms at the time.
• Rocket flight: Lagâri Hasan Çelebi is the first aviator reported to have made a successful manned rocket flight.

19th century

• Vertical rotisserie, doner kebab, shawarma: The vertical rotisserie was invented in the 19th-century Ottoman Empire, and doner kebab inspired similar dishes such as the Arab shawarma, Greek gyros, and Mexican al pastor.

Safavid dynasty

The Rothschild Small Silk Medallion Carpet, mid-16th century, Museum of Islamic Art, Doha

15th century

• Classical Oriental carpet: By the late fifteenth century, the design of Persian carpets changed considerably. Large-format medallions appeared, ornaments began to show elaborate curvilinear designs. Large spirals and tendrils, floral ornaments, depictions of flowers and animals, were often mirrored along the long or short axis of the carpet to obtain harmony and rhythm. The earlier "kufic" border design was replaced by tendrils and arabesques. All these patterns required a more elaborate system of weaving, as compared to weaving straight, rectilinear lines. Likewise, they require artists to create the design, weavers to execute them on the loom, and an efficient way to communicate the artist's ideas to the weaver. Today this is achieved by a template, termed cartoon (Ford, 1981, p. 170). How Safavid manufacturers achieved this, technically, is currently unknown. The result of their work, however, was what Kurt Erdmann termed the "carpet design revolution". Apparently, the new designs were developed first by miniature painters, as they started to appear in book illuminations and on book covers as early as in the fifteenth century. This marks the first time when the "classical" design of Islamic rugs was established.

17th century

• Existentialism and existence precedes essence: A concept that lies at the heart of Mulla Sadra's philosophy is the idea of existence precedes essence, a key foundational concept of existentialism. This was also the opposite of the idea of "essence precedes existence" previously supported by Avicenna and his school of Avicennism.
• Transcendent theosophy: A doctrine and philosophy developed by Persian philosopher Mulla Sadra, one of two main disciplines of Islamic philosophy that is currently active.

Mughal Empire

A portrait of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir holding a globe probably made by Muhammad Saleh Thattvi.

16th century

• Biryani: The dish originates from the Mughal Empire, as a mixture of the native spicy rice dishes of India and the Persian pilaf.
• Hookah or water pipe: According to Cyril Elgood (PP.41, 110), the physician Irfan Shaikh, at the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar I (1542–1605) invented the Hookah or water pipe used most commonly for smoking tobacco.
• Kulfi: The dessert originated from the Mughal Empire in the 16th century. Ain-i-Akbari, a detailed record of the Mughal emperor Akbar's administration, mentions use of saltpeter for refrigeration as well as transportation of Himalayan ice to warmer areas.
• Metal cylinder rocket: In the 16th century, Akbar was the first to initiate and use metal cylinder rockets known as bans, particularly against war elephants, during the Battle of Sanbal.
• Korma: Korma has its roots in Mughlai cuisine. A characteristic Mughal dish, it can be traced back to the 16th century. Kormas were often prepared in the Mughal court kitchens, such as the famous white korma, perhaps garnished with vark, said to have been served to Shah Jahan and his guests at the inauguration of the Taj Mahal.
• Multi-barrel matchlock volley gun: Fathullah Shirazi (c. 1582), a Persian polymath and mechanical engineer who worked for Akbar, developed an early multi-shot gun. Shirazi's rapid-firing gun had multiple gun barrels that fired hand cannons loaded with gunpowder. It may be considered a version of a volley gun. One such gun he developed was a seventeen-barrelled cannon fired with a matchlock.
• Pehlwani: A style of wrestling developed in the Mughal Empire by combining Indian malla-yuddha with influences from Persian varzesh-e bastani.
• Seamless celestial globe: It was invented in Kashmir by Ali Kashmiri ibn Luqman in 998 AH (1589–1590), and twenty other such globes were later produced in Lahore and Kashmir during the Mughal Empire. Before they were rediscovered in the 1980s, it was believed by modern metallurgists to be technically impossible to produce metal globes without any seams.
• Tikka and chicken tikka: Introduced to India by the Mughal dynasty.

17th century

• Flush deck: The flushed deck design was introduced with rice ships built in Bengal Subah, Mughal India (modern Bangladesh), resulting in hulls that were stronger and less prone to leak than the structurally weak hulls of traditional European ships built with a stepped deck design. This was a key innovation in shipbuilding at the time. The British East India Company later duplicated the flushed deck design of Bengal rice ships in the 1760s, leading to significant improvements in seaworthiness and navigation for European ships during the Industrial Revolution.
• Roller mill: Sugar rolling mills first appeared in the Mughal Empire, using the principle of rollers as well as worm gearing, by the 17th century.

See also

• Islamic Golden Age
• Timeline of science and engineering in the Islamic world
• Science in medieval Islam
• Science in the medieval Islamic world
• Islamic attitudes towards science
• Medicine in the medieval Islamic world
• Islamic arts
• Islamic economics
• Islamic literature
• Islamic philosophy
• Islamic technology
  • Islamic pottery
  • Arab Agricultural Revolution
• Gunpowder Empires
  • Mughal Empire
  • Science and technology in the Ottoman Empire
  • Safavid dynasty

External links

• Qatar Digital Library – an online portal providing access to previously digitised British Library archive materials relating to Gulf history and Arabic science
• 1001 Inventions: Discover The Muslim Heritage In Our World
• "How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs" by De Lacy O'Leary