List of inventions in the medieval Islamic world

A number of inventions were developed in the medieval Islamic world, a geopolitical region that has at various times extended from Spain and Africa in the west to the Indian subcontinent in the east. The inventions listed here were developed during the medieval Islamic world, which covers the period from the early Caliphate to the later Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires. In particular, the majority of inventions here date back to the Islamic Golden Age, which is traditionally dated from the 8th to the 13th centuries.

Chemical industries

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

Muhammad ibn Zakariya ar-Razi (Rhazes) isolated many chemical substances, produced many medications, and described many laboratory apparatus.

Aqua regia was first isolated by Jābir ibn Hayyān.

Hydrochloric acid, a mineral acid, was first isolated by Jābir ibn Hayyān.

Nitric acid, a mineral acid, was first isolated by Jābir ibn Hayyān.

Sulfuric acid, a mineral acid, was first isolated by Jābir ibn Hayyān.

Arsenic, a chemical element, was first isolated by Jābir ibn Hayyān in the 8th century.

Coloured stained glass windows in the Nasir al-Mulk mosque in Shiraz, Iran.

See also: Alchemy and chemistry in Islam

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

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

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

Robert Briffault wrote in The Making of Humanity:

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

Chemical processes

The following chemical processes were invented by Muslim chemists:

• Cocotion (or digestion), ceration, lavage, and mixture.
• Dry distillation
• Purification and oxidisation: Invented by Jābir ibn Hayyān.
• Steam distillation: Invented by Avicenna in the early 11th century for the purpose of producing essential oils.
• Water purification: See Food and drink section below.

Chemical substances

• Ethanol: Isolated by Arabic chemists.
• Lead carbonatic: Isolated by Jābir ibn Hayyān.
• Medicinal substances: Muslim chemists discovered 2,000 medicinal substances.

Acids

• Carboxylic acids: Jābir ibn Hayyān isolated Acetic acid from vinegar. He is also credited with the discovery and isolation of Citric acid, the sour component of lemons and other unripe fruits.
• Mineral acids: The mineral acids—nitric acid, sulfuric acid, and hydrochloric acid—were first isolated by Jābir ibn Hayyān. He originally referred to sulfuric acid as the oil of vitriol.
• Organic acids: Jābir ibn Hayyān isolated Tartaric acid from wine-making residues.

Elements

• Arsenic: Isolated by Jābir ibn Hayyān in the 8th century.
• Antimony: Isolated by Jābir ibn Hayyān.

Food and drink

• Coffee: 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.
• Confectionery: Due to advances in sugar production and the invention of sugar refineries, this led to the production of early confectioneries by the Arabs.
• Pure distilled alcohol and ethanol: First isolated by Al-Kindi (Alkindus) in the 9th century.
• Restaurant and three-course meal: The earliest restaurants came into existence throughout the Islamic world from the 10th century, shortly before restaurants appeared in China in the 11th century. The Islamic world had "restaurants where one could purchase all sorts of prepared dishes." These restaurants were mentioned by Al-Muqaddasi (born 945) in the late 10th century. Restaurants in medieval Islamic Spain served three-course meals, which was earlier introduced in the 9th century by Ziryab, who insisted that meals should be served in three separate courses consisting of soup, the main course, and dessert.
• Sugar refinery: See Industrial milling below.

Glass industry

• 'Silica glass: The production of silica glass was pioneered by Abbas Ibn Firnas in the 9th century.

Oil industry

• Essential oil: Invented by Abū Alī ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) in the 11th century.
• Kerosene: Invented by Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi in the 9th century.
• Oil field, petroleum industry, naphtha, and tar: An early petroleum industry was established in the 8th century, when the streets of Baghdad were paved with tar, derived from petroleum through destructive distillation. In the 9th century, oil fields were first exploited in the area around modern Baku, Azerbaijan, to produce naphtha. These fields were described by al-Masudi in the 10th century, and by Marco Polo in the 13th century, who described the output of its oil wells as hundreds of shiploads.
• Petrol: Muslim chemists were the first to produce petrol from crude oil.

Pottery

Main article: Islamic pottery

Tin-glazed Hispano-Moresque ware with lusterware decoration, from Spain circa 1475.

• Albarello: An albarello is a type of maiolica earthenware jar originally designed to hold apothecaries' ointments and dry drugs. The development of this type of pharmacy jar had its roots in the Islamic Middle East. Brought to Italy by Hispano-Moresque traders, the earliest Italian examples were produced in Florence in the 15th century.
• Fritware: It refers to a type of pottery which was first developed in the Near East, where production is dated to the late 1st millennium AD through the second millennium AD 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.
• Hispano-Moresque ware: This was a style of Islamic pottery created in Islamic 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 it decoration.
• 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.
• Lusterware: Lustre glazes were applied to pottery in Mesopotamia in the 9th century; the technique soon became popular in Persia and Syria. Lusterware was later produced in Egypt during the Fatimid caliphate in the 10th-12th centuries. While the production of lusterware continued in the Middle East, it spread to Europe—first to Al-Andalus, notably at Málaga, and then to Italy, where it was used to enhance maiolica.
• Stonepaste ceramic: Invented in 9th-century Iraq, it was a vitreous or semivitreous ceramic ware of fine texture, made primarily from non-refactory fire clay.
• Tin-glazing: The tin-glazing of ceramics was invented by Muslim potters in 8th-century Basra, Iraq. Tin-opacified glazing was one of the earliest new technologies developed by the Islamic potters. The first examples of this technique can be found as blue-painted ware in 8th-century Basra.
• Tin-glazed pottery: The earliest tin-glazed pottery appears to have been made in Iraq in the 9th century, the oldest fragments having been excavated during the First World War from the palace of Samarra about fifty miles north of Baghdad. From there, it spread to Egypt, Persia and Spain, before reaching Italy in the Renaissance, Holland in the 16th century, and England, France and other European countries shortly after.

Civil engineering

The interiors of the Alhambra in Spain are decorated with arabesque designs.

The minaret is a distinct feature of Islamic architecture. The spiralling minaret located at the Great Mosque of Samarra, Iraq built in 852, is one of the oldest.

At 72.5 meters, the Qutab Minar was the tallest minaret until the 20th century, and remains the tallest brick and stone minaret in the world.

An illustration of patterned Girih tiles, found in Islamic architecture dating back over five centuries ago. These featured the first quasicrystal patterns and self-similar fractal quasicrystalline tilings.

During the Muslim Agricultural Revolution, the early Muslim Arab Empire was ahead of its time regarding domestic water systems such as water cleaning systems and advanced water transportation systems resulting in better agriculture, something that helped in issues related to Islamic hygienical jurisprudence. Al-Jazari invented a variety of machines for raising water in 1206, as well as water mills and water wheels with cams on their axle used to operate automata in the late 12th century.

• Kerosene lamp: The first kerosene lamp was invented by Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi in the 9th century.
• Litter collection facilities: Córdoba had the first facilities and waste containers for litter collection.
• Surveying instruments: Muslim engineers invented a variety of surveying instruments for accurate levelling, including a wooden board with a plumb line and two hooks, an equilateral triangle with a plumb line and two hooks, and a "reed level". They also invented a rotating alidade used for accurate alignment, and a surveying astrolabe used for alignment, measuring angles, triangulation, finding the width of a river, and the distance between two points separated by an impassable obstruction.

Architecture

• Arabesque: An elaborative application of repeating geometric forms often found decorating the walls of mosques. Geometric artwork in the form of the Arabesque was not used in the Middle East or Mediterranean Basin until the Islamic Golden Age. Euclidean geometry as expounded on by Al-Abbās ibn Said al-Jawharī (ca. 800-860) in his Commentary on Euclid's Elements, the trigonometry of Aryabhata and Brahmagupta as elaborated on by Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī (ca. 780-850), and the development of spherical geometry by Abū al-Wafā' al-Būzjānī (940–998) and spherical trigonometry by Al-Jayyani (989-1079) for determining the Qibla (direction to Mecca) and times of Salah prayers and Ramadan, all served as an impetus for the art form that was to become the Arabesque.
• Central heating through underfloor pipes: The hypocaust heating system used by the Romans continued to be in use around the Mediterranean region during late Antiquity and by the Umayyad caliphate. By the 12th century, Muslim engineers in Syria introduced an improved central heating system, where heat travelled through underfloor pipes from the furnace room, rather than through a hypocaust. This central heating system was widely used in bath-houses throughout the medieval Islamic world.
• Geared and hydropowered water supply system: Al-Jazari developed the earliest water supply system to be driven by gears and hydropower, which was built in 13th century Damascus to supply water to its mosques and Bimaristan hospitals. The system had water from a lake turn a scoop-wheel and a system of gears which transported jars of water up to a water channel that led to mosques and hospitals in the city.
• Girih tiles, quasicrystal pattern, and self-similar fractal quasicrystalline tiling: Geometrical quasicrystal patterns were first employed in the girih tiles found in medieval Islamic architecture dating back over five centuries ago. In 2007, Professor Peter Lu of Harvard University and Professor Paul Steinhardt of Princeton University published a paper in the journal Science suggesting that girih tilings possessed properties consistent with self-similar fractal quasicrystalline tilings such as the Penrose tilings, predating them by five centuries.
• High-rise roof garden: The medieval Egyptian city of Fustat had a number of high-rise buildings that Nasir Khusraw in the early 11th century described as rising up to 14 stories, with roof gardens on the top story complete with ox-drawn water wheels for irrigating them.
• Minaret: The minaret is a distinctive architectural feature of Islamic architecture, especially mosques, dating back to the early centuries of Islam. Minarets are generally tall spires with onion-shaped crowns, usually either free standing or much taller than any surrounding support structure. The tallest minaret in pre-modern times was the Qutub Minar, which was 72.5 meters (237.9 ft) tall and was built in the 12th century, and it remains the tallest brick and stone minaret in the world.
• Prefabricated home and movable structure: The first prefabricated homes and movable structures were invented in 16th century Mughal India by Akbar the Great. These structures were reported by Arif Qandahari in 1579.

Industrial milling

See also: Muslim Agricultural Revolution

A variety of industrial mills were active in the medieval Islamic world, including fulling mills, gristmills, hullers, paper mills, sawmills, stamp mills, steel mills, sugar mills, some of which were driven by watermills and others by early windmills. By the 11th century, every province throughout the Islamic world had these industrial mills in operation, from Al-Andalus and North Africa to the Middle East and Central Asia. These advances made it possible for many industrial operations that were previously driven by manual labour in ancient times to be driven by machinery instead in the Islamic world. The transfer of these technologies to medieval Europe later laid the foundations for the Industrial Revolution in 18th century Europe.

• 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.
• Flywheel-driven noria: See Pumps below.
• Geared and wind-powered gristmills with trip hammers: The first geared gristmills were invented by Muslim engineers in the Islamic world, and were used for grinding corn and other seeds to produce meals, and many other industrial uses such as fulling cloth, husking rice, papermaking, pulping sugarcane, and crushing metallic ores before extraction. Gristmills in the Islamic world were often made from both watermills and windmills. In order to adapt water wheels for gristmilling purposes, cams were used for raising and releasing trip hammers to fall on a material. The first wind-powered gristmills driven by windmills were built in what are now Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran in the 9th and 10th centuries.
• Hulling mill: Early Islamic societies made early use of watermills for hulling rice.
• Hydropowered forge and finery forge: The first forge to be driven by a hydropowered water mill rather than manual labour, also known as a finery forge, was invented in 12th century Islamic Spain.
• Mechanical fulling mill: The first clear references to fulling mills are reported in Persia from the 10th century. By the time of the Crusades in the 11th century, fulling mills were active throughout the Islamic world, from Islamic Spain and North Africa to Central Asia. They appear to have originated in 9th or 10th century in the Islamic world, either in the Middle East or North Africa. Mechanical fulling was subsequently disseminated into Western Europe through Islamic Spain and Italy in the 11th and 12th centuries.
• Spiral scoop-wheel: The earliest known appearance of the spiral scoop-wheel dates back to the Islamic world, at some time no later than the 12th century.
• Sugar refinery: The first sugar refineries were built by Muslim engineers. They were first driven by water mills, and then windmills from the 9th and 10th centuries in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran.
• Underground watermill: Another innovation that was unique to the Islamic world includes the situation of watermills in the underground irrigation tunnels of a qanat and on the main canals of valley-floor irrigation systems.
• Vertical-axle windmill: A small wind wheel operating an organ is described as early as the 1st century AD by Hero of Alexandria. Similarly, small wind wheels were used in Tibet and China since the 4th century in the form of prayer wheels. The first windmills were eventually built in Sistan, Afghanistan, sometime between the 7th and 9th centuries, as described by Muslim geographers. These were vertical-axle windmills, which had long vertical driveshafts with rectangle shaped blades. The first windmill 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 corn and draw up water, and used in the gristmilling and sugarcane industries. The first horizontal windmills were built in what are now Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran in the 9th and 10th centuries. They had a variety of uses, such as grinding grain, pumping water, and crushing sugar-cane. Horizontal axle windmills of the type generally used in Europe today were developed in Northwestern Europe in the 1180s.

Cosmetics

A number of hygienic cosmetics were invented by Muslim chemists, cosmetologists and physicians.

• Beauty parlour and cosmetology school: In the 9th century, Ziryab opened the first beauty parlour and "cosmetology school" for women near Alcázar, Al-Andalus."
• Chemical depilatory for hair removal: In the 9th century, Ziryab taught women in Al-Andalus "the shaping of eyebrows and the use of depilatories for removing body hair".
• Pomade: Produced by Arabs.

Hygiene

• Modern soap: The soap now used in modern times is made of vegetable oils (such as olive oil) with sodium hydroxide and aromatics (such as thyme oil). This formula was invented by Muslim scientists, and differed from the earlier soap-like detergents used in ancient times. Sodium lye (al-soda al-kawia), perfumed and colored soaps, and liquid and solid soaps, were also produced by Muslim chemists.
• Soap bar: The first hard soap bars were produced by Muslim chemists. They gave recipes for soaps made from sesame oil, potash, alkali, lime, and molds, leaving hard soap.
• Toothpaste, functional and pleasant: In the 9th century, the Persian musician and fashion designer Ziryab is known to have invented a type of toothpaste, which he popularized throughout Islamic Spain. The exact ingredients of this toothpaste are not currently known, but unlike the earlier Egyptian and Roman toothpastes, Ziryab's toothpaste was reported to have been both "functional and pleasant to taste."

Perfumery

Perfume usage was recorded in the Arabian Peninsula since the 7th century, and Muslims made many advances in perfumery in the proceeding centuries. This included the extraction of numerous fragrances, as well as the cheap mass-production of incenses. Muslim scientists such as Al-Kindi elaborated a vast number of recipes for a wide range of perfumes, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

• Perfume industry: Established by Jābir ibn Hayyān (b. 722, Iraq) and Al-Kindi (b. 801, Iraq). 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 carried out extensive research and experiments in combining various plants and other sources to produce a variety of scent products.
• Deodorants, under-arm and roll-on: In the 9th century, Ziryab invented under-arm deodorants in Al-Andalus. In circa 1000, another under-arm deodorant was described in Al-Andalus by Abulcasis, who also invented perfumed stocks, rolled and pressed in special moulds, similar to modern roll-on deodorants.
• Extraction of fragrances through steam distillation: Introduced by Abū Alī ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) in the 11th century.
• Ghaliya: The preparation of a perfume called ghaliya, which contained musk, amber and other ingredients, and the use of various drugs and apparatus], was produced by al-Kindi.
• Musk and floral perfumes: Produced in the 11th-12th centuries in the Arabian Peninsula.
• Jasmine and citrus perfumes: Muslims introduced new raw ingredients in perfumery, which were produced from different spices, herbals, and other fragrance materials, which are still used in modern perfumery. These included jasmine from South and Southeast Asia, and citrus fruits from East Asia.

Institutions

A number of important economic, educational, legal and scientific institutions previously unknown in the ancient world have their origins in the medieval Christian world.

• Agency and Aval: The first agencies were the Hawala, 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 transfer of debt, which was "not permissible under Roman law but became widely practiced in medieval Europe, especially in commercial transactions", was due to the large extent of the "trade conducted by the Italian cities with the Muslim world in the Middle Ages." 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." In Roman law, the "contractor himself was considered the party to the contract and it took a second contract between the person who acted on behalf of a principal and the latter in order to transfer the rights and the obligations deriving from the contract to him." 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."
• College: The origins of the college lie in the medieval Islamic world. The madrasah was a medieval Islamic college of law and theology, usually affiliated with a mosque, and was funded by early charitable trusts known as Waqf, the origins of the trust law.
• The first University in the world and Ijazah-granting Madrasah: The earliest mosque schools were the Madrasa of Al-Karaouine in Fez, Morocco, (founded 859) and the Al-Azhar in Cairo, Egypt ((founded around 970).

The first observatories to serve as research institutes were built by Muslim astronomers. The most famous was the Maragheh observatory, the current status of which is pictured here.

• Observatory as a research institute: As opposed to a private observation post as was the case in ancient times, the astronomical observatories in the Islamic world were the first true observatories, in the sense that they functioned as early research institutes, like modern observatories. The Islamic observatory was the first specialized astronomical institution with its own scientific staff, director, astronomical program, large astronomical instruments, and building where astronomical research and observations are carried out. Islamic observatories were also the first to employ enormously large astronomical instruments in order to improve the accuracy of their observations. Famous examples include the observatories at Baghdad and Ray, Iran, the Maragheh observatory, Ulugh Beg's observatory at Samarqand, and the Istanbul observatory of Taqi al-Din.
• Restaurant: See Food and drink above.
• charitable trust: The Waqf in Islamic law, which developed in the Islamic world from the 7th to 9th centuries, were the first charitable trust. Every waqf was required to have a waqif (founder), mutawillis (trustee), qadi (judge) and beneficiaries. Under both a waqf and a trust, "property is reserved, and its usufruct appropriated, for the benefit of specific individuals, or for a general charitable purpose; the corpus becomes inalienable; estates for life in favor of successive beneficiaries can be created" and "without regard to the law of inheritance or the rights of the heirs; and continuity is secured by the successive appointment of trustees or mutawillis."

Medical institutions

See also: Bimaristan, Islamic medicine, and Islamic psychology

• Apothecary, Drugstore, and Pharmacy: The first drugstores and pharmacies were opened by Christian pharmacists in Paris in 754, while the first apothecary shops were also founded by Muslim practitioners at the time.
• Medical school: The Islamic Bimaristans were not only hospitals, but also medical schools to issue diplomas. The first of these institutions was opened in Baghdad during the time of Harun al-Rashid. They then appeared in Egypt from 872 and then in Islamic Spain, Persia and the Maghreb thereafter. Physicians and surgeons at Islamic hospital-universities gave lectures to medical students and diplomas were issued to students who completed their education and were qualified to be doctors of medicine.
• Public hospital: The Islamic Bimaristans were the first free public hospitals, and replaced the healing temples and sleep temples found in ancient times. They were hospital in the modern sense, an establishment where the ill were welcomed and cared for by qualified staff. In this way, Muslim physicians were the first to make a distinction between a hospital and other different forms of sleep and healing temples, hospices, and leper-houses, all of which in ancient times were more concerned with isolating the sick and the mad from society "rather than to offer them any way to a true cure." The medieval Bimaristan hospitals are thus considered "the first hospitals" in the modern sense of the word.

Mechanical technology

Purpose of mechanical inventions

File:Al-Jazari portrait.jpg

Al-Jazari (1136-1206)

Questions have arisen about the place, purpose and motivations of these inventions in their societal context. Certain scholars point out that many inventions created during the medieval period by Muslim inventors, such as the Banu Musa or Al-Jazari were in a sense "toys" and were only created for purposes of amusement. This view states that as impressive and complex that these machines were they did not contribute any real function to their society. Various hydraulic machines, clocks and automata invented by inventors may only have had a superficial purpose, related to amusement or luxury. The extravagance of certain machines is seen to be evidence of inventors not being motivated to make practical machines. The "usefulness" of certain inventions poses questions about the role they played in society, if they did play any significant role beyond entertaining wealthy patrons.

However, such a view may be limited in scope, and may not properly assess the context in which the inventors work. In many cases, wealthy patrons supported inventors to create machines, such as clocks and water-raising devices, that would benefit society as a whole. These devices, such as those invented by Al-Jazari, may have been aesthetically appealing at the same time as they were useful. Also the fact that certain automata and other entertaining technologies were described or created illustrates the strong economic situation of certain Medieval Islamic societies. George Saliba notes, in the minds of many scientists the art of mechanics did not make a strong distinction between technology that was "useful" and that which was "toy-like." Further study will serve to situate the role of mechanical technology in the economic and social context of Islamic society.

Automata

The programmable humanoid robot band of Al-Jazari.

An artist rendition based on a description of a programmable humanoid robot band described to be designed by Al-Jazari in 1206.

Mark E. Rosheim summarizes the advances in robotics made by Arab engineers as follows:

"Unlike the Greek designs, these Arab examples reveal an interest, not only in dramatic illusion, but in manipulating the environment for human comfort. Thus, the greatest contribution the Arabs made, besides preserving, disseminating and building on the work of the Greeks, was the concept of practical application. This was the key element that was missing in Greek robotic science."

"The Arabs, on the other hand, displayed an interest in creating human-like machines for practical purposes but lacked, like other preindustrial societies, any real impetus to pursue their robotic science."

• Wind-powered fountain: In the 9th century, the Banū Mūsā brothers designed the earliest known wind-powered fountains. Their Book of Ingenious Devices described the construction of several wind-powered fountains, one of which incorporated a worm-and-pinion gear.
• Mercury-powered automata: One of the clocks invented by Ibn Khalaf al-Muradi in 11th-century Spain incporated a "complicated and ingenious system which, at the top of each hour, puts into motion a series of mechanical automata, including mechanical snakes, women and men which function through a system based on water, mercury and pulleys." This was the earliest known use of mercury in hydraulic linkages to power automata.

• Programmable analog computer: See Castle clock. See also Analog computers below.
• Programmable humanoid robot band: Al-Jazari (1136–1206) created the first recorded designs of a programmable humanoid robot in 1206, as opposed to the non-programmable automata in ancient times. Al-Jazari's robot was originally a boat with four automatic musicians that floated on a lake to entertain guests at royal drinking parties. His mechanism had a programmable drum machine with pegs (cams) that bump into little levers that operate the percussion. The drummer could be made to play different rhythms and different drum patterns if the pegs were moved around. According to Charles B. Fowler, the automata were a "robot band" which performed "more than fifty facial and body actions during each musical selection."
• Peacock fountain with automated humanoid servants: Al-Jazari's "peacock fountain" was a sophisticated hand washing device featuring humanoid automata as servants which offer soap and towels. Mark E. Rosheim describes it as follows: "Pulling a plug on the peacock's tail releases water out of the beak; as the dirty water from the basin fills the hollow base a float rises and actuates a linkage which makes a servant figure appear from behind a door under the peacock and offer soap. When more water is used, a second float at a higher level trips and causes the appearance of a second servant figure — with a towel!"

Pumps

• Crankshaft-driven and hydropowered saqiya chain pumps: The first known use of a crankshaft in a chain pump was in one of Al-Jazari's saqiya machines described in 1206. Al-Jazari also constructed a water-raising saqiya chain pump which was run by hydropower rather than manual labour, though the Chinese were also using hydropower for other chain pumps prior to him. Saqiya machines like the ones he described have been supplying water in Damascus since the 13th century up until modern times, and were in use throughout the medieval Islamic world.

• Crankshaft-driven screw and screwpump: In ancient times, the screw and screwpump were driven by a treadwheel, but from the 12th and 13th centuries, Muslim engineers operated them using the crankshaft.
• Double-action piston suction pump with reciprocating motion: In 1206, al-Jazari demonstrates the first suction pipes and suction piston pump, the first use of double-action, and one of the earliest valve operations, when he invented a twin-cylinder double-action reciprocating suction piston pump, which seems to have had a direct significance in the development of modern engineering. This pump is driven by a water wheel, which drives, through a system of gears, an oscillating slot-rod to which the rods of two pistons are attached. The pistons work in horizontally opposed cylinders, each provided with valve-operated suction and delivery pipes. The delivery pipes are joined above the centre of the machine to form a single outlet into the irrigation system. This pump is remarkable for being the earliest known use of a true suction pipe in a pump.
• Six-cylinder 'Monobloc' pump: In 1559, Taqi al-Din invented a six-cylinder 'Monobloc' pump. It was a hydropowered water-raising machine incorporating valves, suction and delivery pipes, piston rods with lead weights, trip levers with pin joints, and cams on the axle of a water-driven scoop wheel.
• Weight-driven pump: Most ancient and medieval pumps were either driven by manual labour or hydraulics. The first weight-driven pump was described as part of a perpetual motion water-raising machine in a medieval Arabic manuscript written some time after Al-Jazari. It featured a mercury-powered clockwork escapement mechanism and had two out gear-wheels driven by lead weights which mesh with a large central gear-wheel.
• Wind-powered pump: Windmills were used to pump water since at least the 9th century in what is now Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.

Other mechanical devices

Al-Jazari's candle clock employed a bayonet fitting for the first time in 1206.

Drawing of the self-trimming lamp in Ahmad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir's 9th century Arabic treatise on mechanical devices, the Book of Ingenious Devices.

Diagram of a hydropowered water-raising machine from The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices by Al-Jazari in 1206.

• Artificial thunder, lightning and weather simulation: Abbas Ibn Firnas invented an artificial weather simulation room, in which spectators saw stars and clouds, and were astonished by artificial thunder and lightning, which were produced by mechanisms hidden in his basement laboratory.
• Bayonet fitting: Al-Jazari's candle clock in 1206 employed, for the first time, a bayonet fitting, a fastener mechanism still used in modern times.
• Boiler with tap: The Banu Musa brothers' Book of Ingenious Devices describes a boiler with a tap to access hot water. The water is heated through cold water being poured into a pipe which leads to a tank at the bottom of the boiler, where the water is heated with fire. A person can then access hot water from the boiler through a tap.
• Bolted lock and mechanical controls: According to Donald Routledge Hill, Al-Jazari first described several early mechanical controls, including "a large metal door...and a lock with four bolts."
• Complex segmental and epicyclic gearing: Segmental gears ("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.") and epicyclic gears were both first invented by the 11th century Arab engineer Ibn Khalaf al-Muradi from Islamic Spain. He employed both these types of gears in the gear trains of his mechanical clocks and automata. Simple gears have been known before him, but this was the first known case of complex gears used to transmit high torque. His mechanisms were the most sophisticated geared devices until the mechanical clocks of the mid-14th century. Segmental gears were also later employed by Al-Jazari in 1206. Professor Lynn Townsend White, Jr. wrote: "Segmental gears first clearly appear in Al-Jazari, in the West they emerge in Giovanni de Dondi's astronomical clock finished in 1364, and only with the great Sienese engineer Francesco di Giorgio (1501) did they enter the general vocabulary of European machine design." Al-Muradi's work was known to scholars working under Alfonso X of Castile.
• Conical valve: This was a mechanism developed by the Banu Musa and of particular importance for future developments. It was used in a variety of different applications, including its use as "in-line" components in flow systems, the first known use of conical valves as automatic controllers.
• Control engineering: The work of the Banu Musa brothers, which included innovations involving subtle combinations of pneumatics and aerostatics, closely parallels the modern fields of control engineering and pneumatic instrumentation.
• Crank-slider mechanism: A crank-driven water pump by Al-Jazari employed the first known crank-slider mechanism.
• Design and construction methods: According to Donald Routledge Hill, "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 [[template (disambiguation)#Manufacturing|]]s (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."
• Elevated battering ram: In 1000, the Book of Secrets by the Arab engineer Ibn Khalaf al-Muradi in Islamic Spain described the use of an elevator-like lifting device, in order to raise a large battering ram to destroy a fortress.
• pedal-operated loom: The foot pedal was originally invented for the purpose of operating a loom, for use in weaving. The first such devices appeared in Syria, Iran and Islamic parts of East Africa, where "the operator sat with his feet in a pit below a fairly low-slung loom." By 1177, it was further developed in Islamic Spain, where having the mechanism was "raised higher above the ground on a more substantial frame." This type of loom spread to the Christian parts of Spain and soon became popular all over medieval Europe.
• Fountain pen: The earliest historical record of a reservoir pen dates back to the 10th century. In 953, Al-Muizz Lideenillah, the caliph of Egypt, demanded a pen which would not stain his hands or clothes, and was provided with a pen which held ink in a reservoir and delivered it to the nib, though the method of operation is unknown and no examples survive. As recorded by Qadi al-Nu'man al-Tamimi (d. 974) in his Kitdb al-Majalis wa 'l-musayardt, al-Mu’izz instructed and commissioned the construction of a fountain reservoir pen.
• Gas mask: The Banu Musa brothers in the 9th century invented an early gas mask, for protecting workers in polluted wells. They also described bellows that remove foul air from wells. They explained that these instruments allow a worker to "descend into any well he wishes for a while and he will not fear it, nor will it harm him, if God wills may he be exalted."
• Gate operator: The first automatic doors were created by Hero of Alexandria and Chinese engineers under Emperor Yang of Sui prior to Islam. This was followed by the first hydraulics-powered automatic gate operators, invented by Al-Jazari in 1206. Al-Jazari also created automatic doors as part of one of his elaborate water clocks.
• Grab: The mechanical grab, specifically a clamshell grab, is an original invention by the Banu Musa brothers that does not appear in any earlier Greek works. The grab they described was used to extract objects from underwater, and recover objects from the beds of streams.
• Intermittent working: The concept of minimizing intermittent working is first implied in one of al-Jazari's saqiya chain pumps, which was for the purpose of maximising the efficiency of the saqiya chain pump.
• Spinning wheel: The earliest clear illustrations of the spinning wheel come from Baghdad (drawn in 1237), and then from China (c. 1270) and Europe (c. 1280). There is evidence that spinning wheels had already come into use in the Islamic world long before that, as can be seen in an Islamic description of the spinning wheel dating from before 1030, while the earliest Chinese description dates from around 1090.
• Trip hammer in papermaking: Muslim engineers introduced the use of trip hammers in the production of paper, replacing the traditional Chinese mortar and pestle method of papermaking. In turn, the trip hammer method was later employed by the Chinese in papermaking.
• Two-step level discontinuous variable structure controls: Two-step level controls for fluids, an early form of discontinuous variable structure controls, was developed by the Banu Musa brothers.

In the 9th century, the Banū Mūsā brothers invented a number of automata (automatic machines) and mechanical devices, and they described a hundred such devices in their Book of Ingenious Devices. Some of the devices that make their earliest known appearance in the Book of Ingenious Devices include:

• Differential pressure
• Double-concentric siphon
• Fail-safe system
• Float chamber
• Float valve
• Hurricane lamp
• Self-feeding lamp and self-trimming lamp: Invented by the eldest brother Ahmad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir.
• Trick drinking vessels
• Plug valve.
• Self-operating valve

In 1206, Al-Jazari also described over fifty mechanical devices in six different categories in The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices, most of which he invented himself, along with construction drawings. Along with his other mechanical inventions described above, some of the other mechanical devices he first described include: phlebotomy measures, linkage, water level, and devices able to elevate water from shallow wells or flowing rivers.

Medical products

See also: Islamic medicine

Drugs and medications

Muslim physicians pioneered a number of drugs and medications for use in medicine, including:

• Alcohol as an antiseptic: The application of pure alcohol to wounds as an antiseptic agent, and the use of alcohol as a solvent and antiseptic, was introduced by Muslim physicians and surgeons in the 10th century.
• Clinical pharmacology, clinical trial, randomized controlled trial, and efficacy test: The origins of clinical pharmacology date back to Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine in 1025. His emphasis on tested medicines laid the foundations for an experimental approach to pharmacology. The Canon laid out the rules and principles for testing the effectiveness of new drugs and medications, which still form the basis of clinical pharmacology and modern clinical trials, randomized controlled trials and efficacy tests.
• Cough medicine and syrup: The use of syrups for treating coughs originates from medieval Arabic physicians.
• Drugs, foods, herbs, plants and chemical substances: In antiquity, Dioscorides listed about 500 plants in the 1st century. Muslim botanists, chemists and pharmacists discovered many more during the Middle Ages. For example, Al-Dinawari described more than 637 plant drugs in the 9th century, and Ibn al-Baitar described at least 1,400 different plants, foods and drugs, 300 of which were his own original discoveries, in the 13th century. In total, at least 2,000 medicinal substances were discovered by Muslim botanists, chemists and pharmacists.
• Medicinal-grade alcohol: Produced through distillation. These distillation devices for use in chemistry and medicine were manufactured on a large scale in the 10th century.
• Parasitology: Parasites were first discovered by Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar), when he discovered the cause of scabies. He recommended specific substances to destroy microbes, and the application of sulfur topically specifically to kill the scabies mite.
• Phytotherapy, Taxus baccata, and calcium channel blocker: Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine introduced the medicinal use of Taxus baccata L. He named this herbal drug "Zarnab" and used it as a cardiac remedy. This was the first known use of a calcium channel blocker drug, which were not used in the Western world until the 1960s.

• Sexual dysfunction and erectile dysfunction drugs: Muslim physicians identified the issue of sexual and erectile dysfunction, and they were the first to prescribe medication for the treatment of the problem. They developed several methods of therapy for this issue, including the single drug method where a drug is prescribed, and a "combination method of either a drug or food." These drugs were also occasionally used for recreational drug use to improve male sexuality in general by those who did not suffer from sexual dysfunctions. Most of these drugs were oral medication, though a few patients were also treated through topical and transurethral means. Sexual dysfunctions were being treated with tested drugs in the Islamic world since the 9th century until the 16th century by a number of Muslim physicians and pharmacists, including al-Razi, Thabit bin Qurra, Ibn Al-Jazzar, Avicenna (The Canon of Medicine), Averroes, Ibn al-Baitar, and Ibn al-Nafis (The Comprehensive Book on Medicine).

Surgical instruments

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

A wide variety of surgical instruments and techniques were invented in the Muslim world, as well as the refinement of earlier instruments and techniques. In particular, over 200 surgical instruments were listed by Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Abulcasis) in the Al-Tasrif (1000), many of which were never used before by any previous surgeons. Hamidan, for example, listed at least twenty six innovative surgical instruments that Abulcasis introduced.

• Adhesive bandage and plaster: Introduced by Abulcasis.
• Bone saw: Invented by Abulcasis.
• Cancer surgery: Another method for treating cancer first described by Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine was a surgical treatment. He stated that the excision should be radical and that all diseased tissue should be removed, which included the use of amputation or the removal of veins running in the direction of the tumor. He also recommended the use of cauterization for the area being treated if necessary.
• Cataract extraction, hypodermic needle, injection syringe, and suction: In circa 1000, the Muslim ophthalmologist Ammar ibn Ali of Mosul was the first to successfully extract cataracts. He invented a hollow metallic syringe hypodermic needle, which he applied through the sclerotic and successfully extracted the cataracts through suction.
• Catgut suture: The use of catgut for internal stitching was introduced by Abulcasis. It is still used today in modern surgery. The catgut appears to be the only natural substance capable of dissolving and is acceptable by the body. Salim Al-Hassani considers it to be one of the most important Muslim medical contributions.
• Cotton dressing and bandage: The earliest known use of cotton (derived from the Arabic word qutn) as a dressing for controlling hemorrhage, was described by Abulcasis.
• Fetus extraction: Abulcasis, in his Al-Tasrif (1000), first described the surgical procedure of extractiing a dead fetus using forceps.
• General anaesthesia, general anaesthetic, oral anesthesia, inhalational anaesthetic, and narcotic-soaked sponge: Surgeries under inhalant anesthesia with the use of narcotic-soaked sponges which were placed over the face, were introduced by the Muslim anesthesiologists, Abu al-Qasim (Abulcasis) and Ibn Zuhr, in Islamic Spain. Sigrid Hunke wrote: "The science of medicine has gained a great and extremely important discovery and that is the use of general anaesthetics for surgical operations, and how unique, efficient, and merciful for those who tried it the Muslim anaesthetic was. It was quite different from the drinks the Indians, Romans and Greeks were forcing their patients to have for relief of pain. There had been some allegations to credit this discovery to an Italian or to an Alexandrian, but the truth is and history proves that, the art of using the anaesthetic sponge is a pure Muslim technique, which was not known before. The sponge used to be dipped and left in a mixture prepared from cannabis, opium, hyoscyamus and a plant called Zoan."
• Ligature: Introduced by Abulcasis in the Al-Tasrif, for the blood control of arteries in lieu of cauterization.
• Surgical suture: Abulcasis in his Al-Tasrif.
• Tracheotomy, correct description of: While tracheostomy may have possibly been portrayed on ancient Egyptian tablets, the first clear and correct description of the tracheotomy operation for suffocating patients was described by Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) in the 12th century.

Military

See also: Alchemy and chemistry in medieval Islam: Military products

• 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.
• Horseman's axe: An early type of war hammer that was of Islamic origin. The Tirant lo Blanch in the 15th century maintained that it was "the deadliest weapon when fighting in full armour, when it was hung from a cavalryman's saddle-bow."

Defense

• Adarga: A hard leather shield used originally by the Moors of Islamic Spain. The adarga was a traditional defense employed by the Moorish light horseman who used it along with the lance. Throughout the 14th and 15th centuries the adarga was also used by Spanish Christian soldiers including their own light cavalry (la jineta) some of whom adopted Moorish fighting patterns. The adarga was in widespread use until the 16th century and the progress of firearms.
• Camail: It was used as part of the mighfar, an Islamic helmet. It was in use from the 8th to the 14th century.
• Fireproof clothing: In 1260, Egyptian Mamluk soldiers at the Battle of Ain Jalut wore fireproof clothing to protect themselves from gunpowder fires as well as chemicals in gunpowder warfare. Their clothing consisted of a silk tunic (still worn by Formula One drivers underneath their Nomex fire suits), aketon (from the Arabic al-qutn "the cotton"), and mainly a woolen overtunic that protects against fires and chemical weapons, similar to the clothing worn by modern soldiers for protection against biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. Due to the effectiveness of their fireproof clothing, the Egyptian soldiers were able to attach gunpowder cartridges and incendiary devices to their clothing.
• Short-hemmed and short-sleeved hauberk: The short-hemmed, short-sleeved hauberk is thought to be of Islamic origin. It was usually worn with a mail.

Gunpowder technology

A picture of a 15th century Granadian siege cannon from the book Al-izz wal rifa'a.

• Abus gun: The Abus gun was an early form of howitzer created by the Ottoman Empire. Abus guns were a significant part of the Ottoman Empire's artillery, and could perhaps even be referred to as the signature piece of artillery during the height of their power, in the 16th and 17th centuries.
• Iron-cased and metal-cylinder rocket artillery: The first iron-cased and metal-cylinder rocket artillery were developed by Tipu Sultan, a Muslim ruler of the South Indian Kingdom of Mysore, and his father Hyder Ali, in the 1780s. He successfully used these metal-cylinder rockets against the larger forces of the British East India Company during the Anglo-Mysore Wars. The Mysore rockets of this period 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). After Tipu's eventual defeat in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War and the capture of the Mysore iron rockets, they were influential in British rocket development, inspiring the Congreve rocket, which was soon put into use in the Napoleonic Wars. According to Stephen Oliver Fought and John F. Guilmartin, Jr. in Encyclopædia Britannica (2008): "Hyder Ali, prince of Mysore, developed war rockets with an important change: the use of metal cylinders to contain the combustion powder. Although the hammered soft iron he used was crude, the bursting strength of the container of black powder was much higher than the earlier paper construction. Thus a greater internal pressure was possible, with a resultant greater thrust of the propulsive jet. The rocket body was lashed with leather thongs to a long bamboo stick. Range was perhaps up to three-quarters of a mile (more than a kilometre). Although individually these rockets were not accurate, dispersion error became less important when large numbers were fired rapidly in mass attacks. They were particularly effective against cavalry and were hurled into the air, after lighting, or skimmed along the hard dry ground. Hyder Ali's son, Tippu Sultan, continued to develop and expand the use of rocket weapons, reportedly increasing the number of rocket troops from 1,200 to a corps of 5,000. In battles at Seringapatam in 1792 and 1799 these rockets were used with considerable effect against the British." Tippu Sultan wrote a military manual on his rocket artillery, the Fathul Mujahidin.
• Purified potassium nitrate: Muslim chemists were the first to purify potassium nitrate (saltpetre; natrun or barud in Arabic) to the weapons-grade purity for use in gunpowder, as potassium nitrate needs to be purified to be used effectively. This purification process was first described by Ibn Bakhtawayh in his al-Muqaddimat in 1029. The first complete purification process for potassium nitrate is described in 1270 by the Arab chemist and engineer Hasan al-Rammah of Syria in his book al-Furusiyya wa al-Manasib al-Harbiyya ('The Book of Military Horsemanship and Ingenious War Devices', a.k.a. the Treatise on Horsemanship and Stratagems of War). He first described the use of potassium carbonate (in the form of wood ashes) to remove calcium and magnesium salts from the potassium nitrate. Hasan al-Rammah also describes the purifying of saltpetre using the chemical processes of solution and crystallization, and this was the first clear method for the purification of saltpetre. Bert S. Hall, however, disputes the efficacy of al-Rammah's formula for the purification of potassium nitrate.

Swordmaking

• Damascus steel: One of the most famous steels produced in the medieval Near East was Damascus steel used for swordmaking, and mostly produced in Damascus, Syria, in the period from 900 to 1750. This was produced using the crucible steel method, based on the earlier Indian wootz steel. This process was further refined in the Middle East using locally produced steels. The process allowed carbides to precipitate out as micro particles arranged in sheets or bands within the body of a blade. The carbides are far harder than the surrounding low carbon steel, allowing the swordsmith to make an edge which would cut hard materials with the precipitated carbides, while the bands of softer steel allowed the sword as a whole to remain tough and flexible. A team of researchers based at the Technical University of Dresden that uses x-rays and electron microscopy to examine Damascus steel discovered the presence of cementite nanowires and carbon nanotubes. Peter Paufler, a member of the Dresden team, says that these nanostructures give Damascus steel its distinctive properties and are a result of the forging process.
• Flyssa and Kaskara: The swords developed in early Islamic Morocco and the Baguirmi Sultanate, respectively.
• Grip: In the late 12th century, the figure of a Turkish cavalryman was depicted holding a sabre which was carried using what would later be known in Europe as the 'Italian Grip'.
• Kilij: A sabre developed by the Turks in Central Asia, it came into widespread use by the 15th century. Polish sabres of the 17th century (known as pallash or palache) were derived from this weapon.
• Nimcha: An Arab short sabre with a knuckle guard developed in Morocco.
• Pulwar, Qama, and Quaddara: The pulwar is a form of talwar that was developed in Islamic India. The qama was a sword developed in Islamic Georgia, and is probably the origin of the Cossack kindjal. The quaddara was a Persian broadsword, like a long kindjal, used in the Caucasus.
• Sabre and Saif: The sabre and the Arab saif were developed in the early Islamic world.
• Scimitar and Shamshir: The earliest evidence of the scimitar, or curved sword, is from the 9th century, when it was used among soldiers in the Khurasan region of Persia. The Persian shamshir in its current form dates to the 15th century.
• Shashka and Shotel: Developed in the Caucasus and Abyssinia, respectively.
• Takouba, Talwar, and Yatagan: The takouba was developed by the Taureg people of the Sahara. The talwar is an Indian sword based on the Persian shamshir. The yatagan was developed in Turkey.

Navigational technology

See also: Geography and cartography in medieval Islam, Astronomy in medieval Islam, and Physics in medieval Islam

Instruments

• Cartographic Qibla indicators: These were brass instruments with Mecca-centred world maps and cartographic grids engraved on them. They were invented in 17th-century Safavid Iran.
• Cartographic Qibla indicator with sundial and compass: This was a Qibla instrument with a sundial and compass attached to it, and was invented by Muhammad Husayn in 17th century Safavid Iran.

Transport

• Kamal: Arab navigators invented a rudimentary sextant known as a kamal, used for celestial navigation and for measuring the altitudes and latitudes of the stars, in the late 9th century. They employed in the Indian Ocean from the 10th century, and it was adopted by Indian navigators soon after, followed by Chinese navigators some time before the 16th century. The invention of the kamal allowed for the earliest known latitude sailing, and was thus the earliest step towards the use of quantitative methods in navigation.
• Qarib: The origins of the caravel ship, used for long distance travel by the Spanish and Portuguese since the 15th century, date back to the qarib.
• Rudder with tackle, permanent sternpost-mounted: The Arabs used a sternpost-mounted rudder which differed technically from both its European and Chinese counterparts. On their ships "the rudder is controlled by two lines, each attached to a crosspiece mounted on the rudder head perpendicular to the plane of the rudder blade." The earliest evidence comes from the Ahsan al-Taqasim fi Marifat al-Aqalim ('The Best Divisions for the Classification of Regions') written by al-Muqaddasi in 985. According to Lawrence V. Mott, the "idea of attaching the rudder to the sternpost in a relatively permanent fashion, therefore, must have been an Arab invention independent of the Chinese."

Sail plan for a polacca-xebec, first built by the Barbary pirates around the 16th century.

• Xebec and Polacca: The xebec and polacre sailing ships used around the Mediterranean from the 16th to the 19th centuries originated from the Barbary pirates, who successfully used them for naval warfare against European ships at the time. A combination of the fore and aft sails and aerodynamics, along with the improved square sail on the Polacca, allowed these ships to sail much closer to the wind than European and American ships. An expert on the Barbary pirates said that their ships had guns at the bow and stern. "They would approach, pounding away, and it took too long for our square riggers to bring the broadside guns around. The Arabs had oars and a sail arrangement that meant they were able to turn more quickly and could flee closer to the wind than we could chase them."

Aviation

• Attempt at gliding: According to the 17th century historian Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari, Abbas Ibn Firnas of Islamic Spain made in 875 the first − unsuccessful − attempt at a heavier-than-air glider flight in aviation history. It may have inspired the attempt by Eilmer of Malmesbury between 1000 and 1010 in England, recorded by the medieval historian William of Malmesbury in about 1125, although there is no evidence that the earlier recorded event in Anglo-Saxon England took place with foreign stimulus.

Scientific instruments

See also: Astronomy in medieval Islam, Physics in medieval Islam, and Alchemy and chemistry in medieval Islam

Muslim astronomers developed a number of astronomical instruments, including several variations of the astrolabe, originally invented by Hipparchus in the 2nd century BCE, but with considerable improvements made to the device in the Muslim world.

Analogue computers

The astrolabe was invented by Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm al-Zarqālī (Arzachel) in Islamic Spain circa 1015. The one shown here is from Persia in the 18th century.

The spherical astrolabe was invented by Muslim astronomers. This is the earliest surviving example from the 14th century.

• Equatorium: Invented by Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm al-Zarqālī (Arzachel) in Islamic Spain circa 1015, it was a mechanical analog computer device for finding the longitudes and positions of the moon, sun, and planet's, without calculation using a geometrical model to represent the celestial body's mean and anomalistic position.
• Saphaea: An astrolabe, invented by Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm al-Zarqālī (Arzachel) in 11th century Islamic Spain.
• Zuraqi: A heliocentric astrolabe where the Earth is in motion rather than the sky, by al-Sijzi in the 11th century.
• Fixed-wired knowledge processing machine: Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī's hodometer was an early example of a fixed-wired knowledge processing machine in the early 11th century.
• Mechanical lunisolar calendar computer: Featured a gear train and gear-wheels, and was invented by Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī.
• Mechanical geared astrolabe: Invented by Ibn Samh (c. 1020).
• Linear astrolabe ("staff of al-Tusi"): Invented by Sharaf al-Dīn al-Tūsī in the 12th century.
• Programmable analog computer: The castle clock, an astronomical clock invented by Al-Jazari in 1206, is considered to be the earliest programmable analog computer. It displayed the zodiac, the solar and lunar orbits, a crescent moon-shaped pointer travelling across a gateway causing automatic doors to open every hour, and five robotic musicians who play music when moved by levers operated by a camshaft attached to a water wheel. The length of day and night could be re-programmed every day in order to account for the changing lengths of day and night throughout the year.
• Mechanical geared astrolabe with calendar computer: Invented by Abi Bakr of Isfahan in 1235.
• Plate of Conjunctions: A computing instrument used to determine the time of day at which planetary conjunctions will occur, and for performing linear interpolation, invented by al-Kashi in the 15th century.
• Planetary computer: The Plate of Zones, a mechanical planetary computer which could graphically solve a number of planetary problems, was invented by al-Kashi in the 15th century. It could predict the true positions in longitude of the sun and moon, and the planets in terms of elliptical orbits; the latitudes of the Sun, Moon, and planets; and the ecliptic of the Sun. The instrument also incorporated an alidade and ruler.

Laboratory apparatus

• Aerometer: Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī in the 11th century.
• Conical measure: Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī in the 11th century.
• Laboratory flask and pycnometer: Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī.
• Refrigerated coil and refrigerated tubing: In the 11th century, Avicenna invented the refrigerated coil, which condenses aromatic vapours. This was a breakthrough in distillation technology and he made use of it in his steam distillation process, which requires refrigerated tubing, to produce essential oils.

Mural instruments

The first sextant was built in Ray, Iran by Abu-Mahmud al-Khujandi in 994. The earliest surviving sextant is Ulugh Beg's mural "Fakhri Sextant" constructed in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, during the 15th century, pictured above.

• Mural instrument: Invented by Al-Khwarizmi in 9th century Baghdad, Iraq.
• Horary quadrant: For specific latitudes, by al-Khwarizmi in 9th century Baghdad.
• Sine quadrant: - also known as the "Sinecal Quadrant", the Arabic term for it is "Rubul Mujayyab" – used for solving trigonometric problems and for astronomical calculations, by al-Khwarizmi in 9th century Baghdad.
• Almucantar quadrant: Invented in the medieval Islamic world. It employed the use of trigonometry. The term "almucantar" is itself derived from Arabic.
• Quadrans Vetus: Meaning "Old Quadrant", this was a universal horary quadrant which could be used for any latitude and at any time of the year to determine the time, as well as the times of Salah, invented by al-Khwarizmi in 9th century Baghdad. This was the second most widely used astronomical instrument during the Middle Ages after the astrolabe. One of its main purposes in the Islamic world was to determine the times of Salah prayers.
• Quadrans Novus: An astrolabic quadrant invented in Egypt in the 11th century or 12th century, and later known in Europe as the "Quadrans Novus" (New Quadrant).
• Sextant: The first sextant was constructed in Ray, Iran, by Abu-Mahmud al-Khujandi in 994. It was a very large sextant that achieved a high level of accuracy for astronomical measurements, which he described his in his treatise, On the obliquity of the ecliptic and the latitudes of the cities. In the 15th century, Ulugh Beg constructed the mural "Fakhri Sextant", which had a radius of approximately 36 meters. Constructed in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, the arc was finely constructed with a staircase on either side to provide access for the assistants who performed the measurements.

Optical instruments

• Observation tube: The "observation tube" (without lens) was invented by al-Battani (Albatenius) (853-929) and first described by al-Biruni (973-1048). These observation tubes were later adopted in Europe, where they influenced the development of the telescope.
• Intromission theory of vision: Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), with his Book of Optics (1021), refuted the emission theory of vision, and correctly explained and proved the modern intromission theory of vision, through extensive experimentation. and visual perception,.
• Camera obscura: Ibn al-Haytham worked out that the smaller the hole, the better the picture, and set up the first camera obscura, a precursor to the modern camera.
• Pinhole camera: Ibn al-Haytham first described pinhole camera after noticing the way light came through a hole in window shutters.
• Magnifying glass: The earliest evidence of "a magnifying device, a convex lens forming a magnified image", dates back the Book of Optics published by Ibn al-Haytham in 1021. The Latin translation of his work was instrumental to the later inventions of eyeglasses, the telescope, and the microscope.

Other instruments

• Compendium instrument: A multi-purpose astronomical instrument, first constructed by the Muslim astronomer Ibn al-Shatir in the 13th century. His compendium featured an alidade and polar sundial among other things. Al-Wafa'i developed another compendium in the 15th century which he called the "equatorial circle", which also featured a horizontal sundial. These compendia later became popular in Renaissance Europe.

framed sextant similar to what Tycho Brahe later used as shown in the picture.

• Framed sextant: At the Istanbul observatory of Taqi al-Din between 1577 and 1580, Taqi al-Din invented the mushabbaha bi'l manattiq, a framed sextant with cords for the determination of the equinoxes similar to what Tycho Brahe later used.
• Seamless globe and celestial globe: Considered one of the most remarkable feats in metallurgy, they were invented in Kashmir by Ali Kashmiri ibn Luqman in 998 AH (1589-90 CE), 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, even with modern technology. These Mughal metallurgists pioneered the method of lost-wax casting while producing these seamless globes.
• Shadow square: An instrument used to determine the linear height of an object, in conjunction with the alidade for angular observations, invented by Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī in 9th-century Baghdad.

Timekeeping devices

The elephant clock from Al-Jazari's manuscript in 1206. This was the earliest clock to employ a flow regulator, a closed-loop system, and an automaton like a cuckoo clock].

Astronomical clocks

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

• Astronomical alarm clock: See Mechanical clocks below.
• Geared mechanical lunisolar calendar computer: See Analog computers above.
• Geared mechanical astrolabe: Featured a calendar computer and gear-wheels, and was invented by Abi Bakr of Isfahan in 1235.
• Monumental water-powered astronomical clocks: Al-Jazari invented monumental water powered astronomical clocks which displayed moving models of the sun, moon, and stars. His largest astronomical clock displayed the zodiac and the solar and lunar orbits. Another innovative feature of the clock was a pointer which travelled across the top of a gateway and caused automatic doors to open every hour.
• Observational clock measured in seconds: See Mechanical clocks below.
• Programmable castle clock: See Analog computers above.
• Quadrans Vetus: See Mural instruments above.

Clocks with gears and escapements

• Weight-driven mercury clock: A mercury clock, employing a mercury escapement mechanism and a clock face similar to an astrolabe dial, was described in a Spanish language work for Alfonso X in 1277, compiled from earlier Arabic sources that likely date back to the 11th century. The Jewish author of the relevant section, Rabbi Isaac, constructed the mercury clock using principles described by a philosopher named "Iran", identified with Heron of Alexandria (fl. 1st century AD), on how heavy objects may be lifted. Knowledge of the mercury clock was later transmitted to other parts of Europe through translations.
• Weight-driven water-powered scribe clock: In 1206, Al-Jazari invented some of the earliest weight-driven water clocks, including the water-powered scribe clock. This water-powered portable clock was a meter high and half a meter 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. Al-Jazari's famous water-powered scribe clock was reconstructed successfully at the Science Museum (London) in 1976.

Dials

• Navicula de Venetiis: A universal horary dial used for accurate timekeeping by the sun and stars, and could be observed from any latitude, invented in 9th century Baghdad. This was later considered the most sophisticated timekeeping instrument of the Renaissance.
• "jewel box" device: In the early 14th century, Ibn al-Shatir invented a timekeeping device incorporating both a universal sundial and a magnetic compass to find the times of Salah prayers.

Mechanical clocks

• Observational clock, measured in seconds: Taqi al-Din invented the "observational clock", which he described as "a mechanical clock with three dials which show the hours, the minutes, and the seconds." This was the first clock to measure time in seconds, and was used for astronomical purposes, specifically for measuring the right ascension of the stars. This is considered one of the most important innovations in 16th century practical astronomy, as previous clocks were not accurate enough to be used for astronomical purposes.

Automatic castle clock of Al-Jazari, 12th century.

Water clocks

• Geared water clock: See Clocks with gears and escapements above.
• Elephant clock: The elephant clock described by al-Jazari in 1206 is notable for several innovations. The float regulator employed in the clock later had an important influence during the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century, when it was employed in the boiler of a steam engine and in domestic water systems.
• Programmable castle clock: See Analog computers above.
• Weight-driven water clock: See Clocks with gears and escapements above.
• Weight-driven water-powered scribe clock: See Clocks with gears and escapements above.
• Monumental water-powered alarm clock: In 1235, an early monumental water-powered alarm clock that "announced the appointed hours of prayer and the time both by day and by night" was completed in the entrance hall of the Mustansiriya Madrasah in Baghdad.

New water clocks have recently been discovered in Ibn Khalaf al-Muradi's Book of Secrets (1000), as shown in the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar.

Other inventions

Al-Kindi's 9th century Manuscript on Deciphering Cryptographic Messages was the first book on cryptanalysis and frequency analysis.

Geomantic instrument, Egypt or Syria, 1241-1242 CE, made by Muhammad ibn Khutlukh al Mawsuli. British Museum.

The lute was adopted from the Arab world. 1568 print.

File:Oud.jpg

The Arabic four-stringed oud was the ancestor of the lute and guitar.

The Arabic rebab was the ancestor of the rebec and the violin.

Other inventions from the Islamic world include:

• Airmail system utilizing homing pigeons by the Fatimid Caliph Aziz, and advances in music theory (see Arabic music) and irrigation techniques (see Muslim Agricultural Revolution).
• Algebra: While the roots of algebra can be traced back to earlier civilizations, where mathematicians solved linear and quadratic equations using arithmetic and geometric methods, it was Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī's al-Kitāb al-muḫtaṣar fī ḥisāb al-jabr wa-l-muqābala (The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing) which established algebra as an independent mathematical discipline in its own right. Al-Khwarizmi was the first to clearly establish algebra as a discipline that is independent of geometry and arithmetic. The name he coined for the discipline, al-jabr, referred to the underlying method of "reduction" and "balancing" he introduced, meaning 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.
• Biographical dictionary: In the medieval Islamic civilization, biographies began being produced on a large scale with the advent of paper. This led to the introduction of a new literary genre: the biographical dictionary. The first biographical dictionaries were written in the Muslim world from the 9th century onwards. They contain more social data for a large segment of the population than that found in any other pre-industrial society. The earliest biographical dictionaries initially focused on the lives of the prophets of Islam and the their companions, with one of the earliest examples being The Book of The Major Classes by Ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi, and then began documenting the lives of many other historical figures (from rulers to scholars) who lived in the medieval Islamic world.
• Check reading: The medieval Islamic world also developed a unique 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, as was the case in other societies at the time. In the Islamic 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."
• Cryptanalysis and frequency analysis: In cryptology, the first known recorded explanation of cryptanalysis was given by 9th-century Arabian polymath, 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 has been suggested that close textual study of the Qur'an first brought to light that Arabic has a characteristic letter frequency. Its use spread, and similar systems were widely used in European states by the time of the Renaissance.
• Diary: In the medieval Near East, Arabic diaries were written from before the 10th century. The earliest surviving diary which most resembles the modern diary was that of Ibn Banna in the 11th century. His diary is the earliest known to be arranged in order of date (ta'rikh in Arabic), very much like modern diaries.
• Experimental psychology: Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) is considered to be the founder of experimental psychology, for his experimental approach to the psychology of visual perception and optical illusions.
• Geomancy: The most widely accepted origin for this practice is in the medieval Arabic world.
• Persian carpet
• Scientific method, experimental science, and experimental physics: The scientific method was pioneered by the Muslim scientist and physicist, Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), who emphasized the role of experimentation and mathematics in obtaining the results in his Book of Optics (1021). Due to his formulation of a modern quantitative, empirical and experimental approach to physics and science, he is also considered the pioneer of experimental science and experimental physics, and some have described him as the "first scientist" for these reasons.

Equipment

• Fireproof paper, glow-in-the-dark ink, rust-free iron, and waterproof textile: According to Ismail al-Faruqi and Lois Lamya al-Faruqi, "In response to Jafar al-Sadik's wishes, [Jabir ibn Hayyan] invented a kind of paper that resisted fire, and an ink that could be read at night. He invented an additive which, when applied to an iron surface, inhibited rust and when applied to a textile, would make it water repellent."
• Fustian: The original medieval fustian was a stout but respectable cloth with a cotton weft and a linen warp, derived from El-Fustat, the name of a suburb of Cairo where this cloth was originally manufactured.
• Jinete: A short-stirrup riding style that was adopted by Spanish riders from the Moors during Islamic rule in Spain. American cowboys in turn adopted the jinete riding style from the Spanish tradition.
• Graph paper and orthogonal and regular grids: The first known use of graph paper dates back to the medieval Islamic world, where weavers often carefully drew and encoded their patterns onto graph paper prior to weaving. Islamic quadrants used for various astronomical and timekeeping purposes from the 10th century also introduced markings with orthogonal and regular grids that are still identical to modern graph paper.

Musical instruments

See also: Arabic music, Islamic music, and Andalusian classical music

• Albogue, alboka, hornpipe, clarinets, and single-reed instrument: The earliest known hornpipes, clarinets and single-reed instruments were the albogue and alboka, both derived from the "al-bûq" (البوق) (literally "the trumpet" or "the horn") used in medieval Arabic music and Islamic music. The instrument was brought into Iberia by the Arab conquest.
• Guitar, lute, and oud: The modern guitar (qitar in Arabic) is descended from the four-string oud brought by the Moors after the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in the 8th century, and which evolved into the modern lute. The four-string guitar introduced by the Moors had eventually evolved into two types in Spain: the guitarra morisca (Moorish guitar) which had a rounded back, wide fingerboard and several soundholes, and then by 1200, the guitarra latina (Latin guitar) which resembled the modern guitar with one soundhole and a narrower neck.
• Hurdy gurdy and stringed keyboard instrument: The earliest stringed instrument with a musical keyboard, an ancestor of the piano, was the hurdy gurdy, but its origins are uncertain. According to a theory proposed by Marianne Bröcker, an instrument similar to the hurdy gurdy is first mentioned in an Arabic musical compendium written by Al Zirikli in the 10th century.
• Mechanical musical instrument and automatic hydraulic organ: In the 9th century, the Banū Mūsā brothers invented "the earliest known mechanical musical instrument", in this case a hydropowered organ which played interchangeable cylinders automatically. According to Charles B. Fowler, this "cylinder with raised pins on the surface remained the basic device to produce and reproduce music mechanically until the second half of the nineteenth century."
• Programmable automatic flute player: In the 9th century, the Banū Mūsā brothers invented an automatic flute player which appears to have been the first programmable machine, and which they described in their Book of Ingenious Devices. The flute sounds were produced through hot steam and the user could adjust the device to various patterns so that they could get various sounds from it.
• Timpani, naker, and naqareh: The modern timpani (kettle drum) evolved from the naker, the direct ancestor of most timpani, were derived from the Arabic naqareh and brought to 13th century Continental Europe by Saracens and Crusaders.
• Rebec and rebab: The rebec was in use since the 10th century, and was derived from the rebab which originated in medieval Arabic music and Islamic music.

See also

• Islamic contributions to Medieval Europe
• Islamic Golden Age
• Arab Agricultural Revolution
• Science in medieval Islam
• Timeline of science and engineering in the Islamic world
  • Kingdom of Mysore: Military technology
  • Mughal Empire: Science and technology
  • Science and technology in the Ottoman Empire
  • Shibam
• Timeline of historic inventions

References

• Boyer, Carl B. (1991), A History of Mathematics (Second ed.), John Wiley & Sons, Inc., ISBN 0471543977
• Gaudiosi, Monica M. (April 1988), "The Influence of the Islamic Law of Waqf on the Development of the Trust in England: The Case of Merton College", University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 136 (4): 1231–1261, doi:10.2307/3312162
• Hudson, A. (2003), Equity and Trusts (3rd ed.), London: Cavendish Publishing, ISBN 1-85941-729-9
• Kennedy, Edward S. (1962), "Review: The Observatory in Islam and Its Place in the General History of the Observatory by Aydin Sayili", Isis, 53 (2): 237–239, doi:10.1086/349558
• Khaleefa, Omar (1999), "Who Is the Founder of Psychophysics and Experimental Psychology?", American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, 16 (2)
• McGrail, Sean (2004), Boats of the World, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0199271860
• Mott, Lawrence V. (May 1991), The Development of the Rudder, A.D. 100-1337: A Technological Tale, Thesis, Texas A&M University
• Omar, Saleh Beshara (1977), Ibn al-Haytham's Optics: A Study of the Origins of Experimental Science, Minneapolis: Bibliotheca Islamica, ISBN 0-88297-015-1
• Rashed, Roshdi; Morelon, Régis (1996), Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science, Routledge, ISBN 0415124107
• Steffens, Bradley (2006), Ibn al-Haytham: First Scientist, Morgan Reynolds Publishing, ISBN 1599350246

External links

• "How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs" by De Lacy O'Leary