Status: Two letters were mailed to Lord Nazir. He has not bothered to acknowledge and did not have the courtsey to respond. Please pirnt and mail him this letter.
The purpose of this letter is to destroy Orientalist myths, and refute Occidentalist Urban Legands
The Right Honorable Lord Nazir Ahmed Esquire of Rotherham,
Lord SpeakerHouse of Lords Westminster London London SW1A 0PW, England, UK
020 7219 3000.
cc: Queen Elizabeth, Queen of the United Kingdom of Wales, Scotland, England and Great Britain,
Lord Speaker, House of Lords, UK.
SUBJECT: We implore you to withdraw your comments that supported the false urban myth “While West was building universities while ‘we’ were building Taj Mahals.”.
FALSE URBAN MYTH: “While West was building universities while ‘we’were building Taj Mahals/Mahallats.”
REFUTING THIS FALSE URBAN MYTH: We provide 14 pages of proof that the myth is false. We request you not to repeat this false urban myth.
SUMMARY OF THIS LETTER:
We offer 27 well researched logical arguments and referenced articles on why the urban myth is incorrect— “While West was building Universities, ‘we’ were building ‘mahallats’/Taj Mahal
MUSLIMS COULD NOT BUILD CITIES, CANALS, FORTS, BUILDINGS & DUPLICATE THEM WITHOUT CONTINUOUS KNOWLEDGE IMPARTATION THROUGH MUSLIM “UNIVERSITIES”
Oxford was modeled on Al-Azhar University by returning Crusaders,. Ancient Indian and Pakistan (2500 BC 9000 BC) had universities. The word “colligiate” comes from the Arabic “kulliat”. Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd in Muslim Spain (711-1492) translated and enhanced Greek knowledge that was taken by the Europeans.
The Magna Carta was imported from Muslim Spain (See published research by John Maksudi of Univ. of N.Carolina. Ref. provided).
The American constitution and Jefferson used Islamic principles (Huq al Insaan, Huq Qol etc.) to develop the Bill of Rights. (Dr. Robert Crane Ref. provided.) The Muslims of Spain, Ottomans of Turkey, and Mughals built forts, cities, buildings, houses, roads, mosques, hospitals, a postal system, fountains-all impossible without knowledge, research and centers of learning (See Ornament of World by Maria Rosa Menocal, Dr. Richard Bulliet Islamo-Christian Civilization)
Using Malleus Maleficarum women were tortured for 250 years leading to 9 million deaths of women in Europe
Kindly withdraw your comments and to maintain your credibility please do not repeat it again.
Dear Lord Nazir Ahmed:
As Salam Alaikum!
You are a voice of reason and sanity. You are our shining star. As American Muslims we all cherish our adopted homeland like you do. We are proud of your accomplishments, and like to listen to you defending Islam and Muslims in the UK. You are an asset to the community. I was however astonished by your comment on ARY TV Network that “while the West was making universities, ‘we’ were building the Taj Mahal and “mahalaat”. This statement based on a bad urban myth derides the accomplishments of Muslims, and re-enforces the myths that Muslims have never amounted to anything and will never amount to anything. Creating building requires knowledge, courses, skills, and transfer of this knowledge on a continuous basis. The sad truth is that even Lords do not read Islamic history. Perhaps a lesson in Islamic and Subcontinental history may be in order. Here is a list of about 20 points that refute your comments and destroy the urban myth about the Subcontinent and the Muslims.
- THE FIRST WORD OF THE QURAN IS “IQRA”-”Read/Recite“. Our prophet set up an example of reading and writing. Captured soldiers could win their freedom if they imparted their knowledge to a Muslim. Our prophet also said “Go to China if you have to learn“. Muslim societies in general and South Asian Muslim societies placed a high premium on education and learning.
- ORIGINS OF THE WORD COLLEGIATE: The world “Collegiate” comes from the Arabic word “kulliat“. The same word of “completeness is translated as “university“. The Crusades returning from the holy land saw Muslim universities and colleges (kulliat) and set up Oxford.
- Averroes’ great medical work, “Culliyyat” (of which the Latin title “Colliget” is a corruption) was published as the tenth volume in the Latin edition of Aristotle’s works, Venice, 1527. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02150c.htm
- ”The famous Arab philosopher from Andalusia, Ibn Rushd (AD1128 – 1198), who is known as Averroes in the West, succinctly stated in his book Kulliyat (General Medicine): “The brain is the master and the heart serves the brain with nourishment” (6).”
( http://www.hmc.org.qa/heartviews/
vol1No10/HISTORY_MEDICINE.htm).
Mohammed Waleed Ibn Rushd. Kulliyat Fi Tib (General Medicine). Al Hia’ Al Masria Al A’imah Lilkitab; p.72.
- AL AZHAR WAS SHINING CITY ON HILL WHEN LONDON WAS A SHANTY TOWN & OXFORD STILL A MUD HUT: It was built by the Fatimid Caliphate (909-1171) who established Cairo as their capital. Al-Azhar university was a shining model on the hill when. London and Paris were shanty-towns in the 15th century, whereas Cordoba, Cairo, Lahore, Delhi and Agra were huge cosmopolitan centers of excellence where art, music, literature, libraries flourished. Returning monks from the Middle Easters crusades, works of Ibn Sina, Ibn Haitum, Ibn Tufail, and Ibn Rushd from Muslim Spain, as well as Arabic translations of Greek works were beginning to permeate Europe.
- BUILDING MAGNIFICENT MUGHAL CITIES, CANALS, FORTS, BUILDING REQUIRED TRAINED ENGINEERS, PRODUCTION PLANNING, ARCHITECTS, & A SYSTEM OF REVENUE GENERATION AND TRANSPORTATION, AND MANAGEMENT EXCELLENCE: Building the Taj requires architects, construction engineers, skilled laborers, architects, landscapers, material engineers, designers, artists. Where does the Lord think they came from? Certainly they did not arrive from the sky. They learned their skills somewhere, and someone trained them. All this knowledge existed in the Mughal empire and it was replicated all over the empire.
For centuries there were centers of knowledge and training all over the Subcontinent which impacted the following areas of knowledge:
I. Architects (who drew the vision of the Rest House ‘sarais’, Roads, houses, Taj, mosques, bridges, mosques etc.)
II. Designers and sketchers who created the vision of the houses, Taj, mosques, bridges, mosques etc.)
III. Financial Planners who managed the cost of the projects
IV. Taxation Experts who received taxes into the treasury
V. Land Acquisitions experts and Surveyors
VI. Risk Mitigation Experts (who design the minarets so that they would not fall on the dome etc. etc.)
VII. Quality Control Experts
VIII. Painters & Artists
IX. Landscaping Experts
X. Hydraulic Experts
XI. Physicists
XII. Musical Experts
XII. Art experts
XIV. Construction experts
XVI. Road building
XVII. Postal Service
XVIII. Patwari and Taxation System
XIX. Construction of Military Forts
XX. Military Sciences
XXI. Religious Sciences
XXII. Medical Sciences
XXIII. Silk production experts
XXIV. Marble and Material Engineers
XXV. Transportation experts
XXVI. Warehousing experts
XXVII. Cement experts
XXVIII. Simulation experts
XXIX. Prototype builders.
XXX. Poetry
XXXI. Literature
XXXII. Agri-business experts
XXXIII. Canal designers, and architects and diggers.
XXXIV. Dam builders
These professionals were tutored, trained organized and taught in universities and institutions. The professionals did not arrive in the Subcontinent with Lord Clive. They were there way before.
5) COLONIALISM DESTROYED THE CENTERS OF LEARNING IN SPAIN, BENGAL, SOUTH ASIA & AFRICA. The Spanish Inquisition in 1492 eliminated all Muslim Universities in Muslim Spain. Of course all Muslims and Jews were either deported or killed. Ancient Indian universities were shut down by the British in India. Timbuktu in Africa was a ancient center of learning. It was shut down by the British.
6) INDIA: IMPOSITION OF DEVANAGRI SCRIPT MADE MUSLIMS ILLITERATE: From being 100% litereate Muslims ended up being 0% literate and were thus fired from all government jobs. In 1940 the Devanagri script was imposed on the entire subcontinent. It rendered all the Muslims illiterate in one stroke and in one day. They never recovered from this. The Muslim landowners were agriculture experts and knew about rain, land, seeds and food storage. These were our universities, some of them “under a peepal tree“..
7) INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION-ANCIENT PAKISTAN WAS ADVANCED: was the most advanced Civilization on earth and existed 5000 to 9000 years ago. It existed on the banks of the Indus, or modern Pakistan (See Indus Saga by Aitizaz Ahsan)
8) IN YEARS BEFORE CHRIST, THE GREEKS FOUND ANCIENT PAKISTAN AS AN ADVANCED SOCIETY: When Alexander came to Pakistan/India he was shocked to see huge cosmopolitan cities.
a. Taxila (Urdu: ??????, Sanskrit: ???????? Tak?a?il?, Pali:Takkasil?) is an important archaeological site in Pakistan containing the ruins of the Gandh?ran city of Takshashila (also Takkasila or Taxila) an important Vedic/Hindu[1] and Buddhist[2] centre of learning from the 6th century BCE[3] to the 5th century CE.[4] [5] In 1980, Taxila was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site with multiple locations.[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxila
9) MULTAN WAS ONLY ONE OF THE HUNDREDS OF CENTERS OF LEARNING DURING THE MUGHAL ERA: Multan which was a great center of learning during Mughal relm. Pottery, design and ceramics were produced by learning these skills and traits.
10) FARANGI MAHAL WAS A CENTER OF LEARNING FOR SIX HUNDRED YEARS I LUCKNOW INDIA: Farangi Mahal imparted knowledge in logic, medicine, philosophy, literature, and religious sciences. See “Farangi Mahlis of Lucknow” by Dr. Francis Robinson.
11) VARNASI WAS A CENTER OF LEARNING FOR 2000 YEARS: Varanasi has been a center of pilgrimage and learning for over 2000 years and
b. Legend has it that centuries ago, to the south of Raj Ghat, there was a forest at the confluence of five streams with the Ganga. There were ashrams in the forest that were centres of learning, presided over by learned sages or rishis, who encouraged the development of new schools of thought. . The tradition of scholarship has continued into the present times. In 1916, the rationalist leader and educationist Madan Mohan Malviya laid the foundation of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), aiming for a synthesis of ancient Indian culture and modern science.
c. A few years later, in 1921, the Kashi Vidyapeeth was established in the city with the encouragement of Mahatma Gandhi. Earlier, in 1791, the British colonial rulers set up the prestigious Sanskrit College here
d. The Cholas’ rival of the Western Chalukya Empire also rose to power by the end of the century. In this century the Turkish Seljuk dynasty comes to power in the Middle East over the now fragmented Abbasid realm, while the first of the Crusades were waged towards the close of the century.
12) AL-AZHAR UNIVERSITY PRE-DATED OXFORD: It was built by the Shi’a e. “The University of Oxford is first mentioned in 12th century records. Oxford’s earliest colleges were University College (1249), Balliol (1263) and Merton (1264). These colleges were established at a time when Europeans were starting to translate the writings of Greek philosophers. These writings challenged European ideology – inspiring scientific discoveries and advancements in the arts – as society began seeing itself in a new way. These colleges at Oxford were supported by the Church in hopes to reconcile Greek Philosophy and Christian Theology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford)”
f. Fatimid Caliphate (909-1171) who established Cairo as their capital. It is connected to Al-Azhar mosque in Old Cairo, Al-Azhar ( in Arabic: the most flourished and shining) was so called either because it was surrounded by great glittering places, or as a hopeful disposition, or after the name of Sayeda Fatima Al-Zahra’, daughter of Muhammad. The mosque was built in two years from 969 AD, the year in which its foundation was laid. The school of theology (Madrasah) connected with it was founded in 988 AD. Studies began in Al-Azhar in Ramadan by October 975 AD, when Chief Justice Abul Hasan Ali ibn Al-No’man started teaching the book “Al-Ikhtisar”, on the Shiite Jurisprudence. It became a Sunni school towards the end of the Middle Ages, an orientation it retains to this day. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
13) MUSLIMS PROVIDED THE SEEDS OF THE RENAISSANCE:
g. It is commonly believed that the Renaissance, the rediscovery of the treasures of classical antiquity, took place in the fifteenth century AD…this conception is misleading. The `renaissance began in the Dark Ages with the translation of Greek works into Syrian and Arabic…the original works were known to but a few, and since then many of them have been lost. The part played by the Syrians in the east may be compared to that the Arabs and the Jews played in western Europe. 12 David Diringer, The Book Before Printing : Ancient, Medieval and Oriental (NY: Dover, 1982), 302.
h. Early Islamic philosophy is considered influential in the rise of modern philosophy Aquinas knew of at least some of the Mutazilite work, and the Renaissance and the use of empirical methods were inspired at least in part by Arabic works translated into Latin during the Renaissance of the 12th century, and taken during the Reconquista in 1492 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Muslim_philosophy
14) CORDOBA WAS A MODERN CITY WHEN PARIS & LONDON WERE RUBBLE HEAPS:
i. Among European cities, Córdoba under the Caliphate, with a population of perhaps 500,000, eventually overtook Constantinople as the largest and most prosperous city in Europe.[13] Within the Islamic world, Córdoba was one of the leading cultural centres. The work of its most important philosophers and scientists (notably Abulcasis and Averroes) had a major influence on the intellectual life of medieval Europe. Muslims and non-Muslims often came from abroad to study in the famous libraries and universities of al-Andalus. The most noted of these was Michael Scot, who took the works of Ibn Rushd (“Averroes”) and Ibn Sina (“Avicenna”) to Italy. This transmission was to have a significant impact on the formation of the European Renaissance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Andalus
15) IQBAL WRITES ABOUT ANDULUSIA IN 1932: In 1932, after attending the Third Round Table Conference held in London to discuss a future constitution for British India, the Urdu poet Sir Muhammad Iqbal visited Madrid, Toledo, Granada, Cordoba, and Seville. This visit inspired six poems including his ode Masjid-e-Qurtuba in praise of the Mosque of Cordoba. Iqbal exclaimed¹
“Ka‘ba of the friends of art! Majesty of the revealed faiths! through whom the Andalusian land is revered as a shrine”
Many modern Muslim writers-Iqbal himself as well as Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan, the Chairman of the Muslim delegation to the Third Round Table Conference and later President of the League of Nations-were deeply nostalgic about al-Andalus and mourned its loss to the Christian Reconquista. But in these stanzas Iqbal seems to look beyond. Not only is he swept away by the artistic beauty of the physical elements of the mosque, but he peers behind its walls into the social, spiritual, intellectual, literary, aesthetic, and indeed political fabric of the peoples of this land. It is their aspirations and ideals which make this Mosque a symbol of the majesty of all the revealed faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. What were these ideals and aspirations? The answer, of course lies in the spirit of tolerance and open-mindedness of the peoples of this land. Iqbal and his contemporaries wrote amidst the gathering winds of discord and hate against neighbours of different colours, ethnicities, or faiths. In Andalusia they saw an example to be studied and emulated.² Today, this example is even more relevant as the monotheistic faiths, gripped by extremists, are caught in a downward spiral of suspicion and mutual recrimination. http://easynash.blogspot.com/2007/06/191andalusia-harmony-of-three.html
16) TODAY: PAKISTAN‘S MODERN NUCLEAR AND MISSILE PROGRAM WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE WITHOUT THE PAKISTANI UNIVERSITIES. We don’t have say much about this. This is modern knowledge.
17) PAKISTANI MUSIC IS SECOND TO NONE: Pakistani musicians have always setup centers of learning and expanded the horizons. Music has been transferred from generation to generation in informal universities.
18) PAKISTANI CALLIGRAPHY & PAINTING: The centers of learning in Pakistan have carried on for centuries. How could they be developed without universities, centers of learning and colleges.
19) MUSLIM ARCHITECTURE WAS COPIED IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SYNAGOGUES, OUR CAPITOL BUILDING GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. From the mountains of Alhambra California [{Califh-ornia} ("Caliph Haroonia") ] to the plains of Alabama (Allah-bumya); From the hiding places of lovers in Palestine, Virginia to the corn fields of Medina, Ohio; from the airport of Philadelphia (Amman) to the traffic lights of Seville (Al Sebilia), Ohio; From the towers of Mecca, California to the town halls of Fatima New York; from the beaches of Islamadora, Florida to the steeples of Khalifia Haroonia (California); From the streets of Cordoba (Qartaba) CA, to the valleys of San Joaqin; from coffee houses of Lebanon, New Jersey to the Crepe places in Lahore, New York, we seem Islam everywhere.
20) From the Moorish designs of Ringlin brothers home, the Caad Zaan palace in Sarasota Florida, to the Tiffany’s home in New York; from the Alhambra arches in California, to the Gothic architecture of our capitol domes, we see Islam everywhere in America.
21) The list is long. Want to see the impact of Islam on America. Walk down Main street USA. From the halls of justice that allow jury trials, to the domes of our capitol buildings, we see the impact on the numbers on our homes and offices.
22) Muslims sailed to America before Columbus with Chinese Muslim Admiral Zeng He, with Columbus (Panzone Brothes who captained two of his ships), and after Columbus. For references, you please read “1421“, and “They Came before Columbus”. 25% of African American slaves were Muslims and today about 30% of African Americans are Muslim.
23) EMPEROR JEHANGIR WAS THE RICHEST MAN ON THIS EARTH. As the richest man in the world, his government wanted to show off the prowess of the state. He built forts, cities, houses, canals, hospitals and mosques.
24) THOMAS JEFFERSON AND JOHN LOCKE WERE IMPACTED BY ISLAM: It is a matter of historical evidence that Thomas Jefferson owned a copy of the Quran. When he lost it, he purchased another one. Jefferson was not one who kept books for decoration purposes. Huq e Qol (Freedom of speech), Huq e insaan (Right to humanity), Huq e hurriat (Right of Freedom) were clearly enunciated by Ibn Haytaum, Ibn Tufail and narrated by Ibn Rushd. These are right out of the Quran. Greek writings were unavailable to the Europeans. They would have been lost if they had not been translated into Arabic. Thomas Aqauinas and John Locke were heavily influenced by Greek writings which had been translated by Ibn Rushd. Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison were heavily influenced by John Locke. As you know Plato’s opinions about women and Socrates opinions about democracy cannot be repeated in this article. So where did the ideas about equality for women and freedom come from? My answer is that the works of Ibn Rushd who talked about Reason and revelation are important building blocks for these ideas.
25) If you want to find further evidence of Muslim influences on Locke or Sir Isaac Newton, please read the religious writings of Sir Isaac Newton, more specifically on the errors of the scriptures. What further evidence do I have about Muslim influences on Jefferson? Thomas Jefferson wrote a Bible. It is given to every member of Congress. It is freely downloadable from the internet. The Jefferson Bible is exactly what Islam teaches about Jesus. Any Muslim would not have any problem accepting Jefferson’s Bible as enunciation of the Quranic belief system.
26) MAGNA CARTA WAS IMPORTED FROM MUSLIM SPAIN:. Please read the extensive research in the subject by John Maksudi. I can provide you his report, published by the University of North Carolina. if you don’t have it. Nullus liber homo capiatur vel imprisonetur aut disseisietur de libero tenemento suo, vel libertatibus, vel liberis consuetudinibus suis, aut utlagetur, aut exuletur, aut aliquo modo destruatur, nec super eum ibimus, nec super eum mittemus, nisi per legale judicium parium suorum, vel per legem terræJust because the Magna Carta words were written in Latin cannot hide it’s Islamic origins.
“”No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or be disseised of his freehold, or liberties, or free customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any otherwise destroyed; nor will we not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land.” All these concepts were imported from Muslim Spain. At the time Muslim Spain was the Ornament of the World. (See “The Islamic Origins of the Common Law,” 77 North Carolina by John Maksdisi).
27) ‘Malleus Maleficarum’ (http://www.malleusmaleficarum.org/)
COMPARE 1631 MUGHALS TO 1631 ENGLAND:
In 1631 in Mughal India, while Muslim Emperors like Shah Jehan were building wonders of the world as a monument for the love of his life, General Mathew was planning different ways of creating a rapport with women. Around the same time, innovative ideas were being drawn up on torture witch burning. And this was happening in post renaissance and the ENLIGHTENED WORLD. In a provocative article “Chapter 39, Order 39 Torture and Neo-Liberalism with Sycorax” in Iraq Peter Linebaugh compares the sexual abuse and depravity of Abu Ghraib with what went on in the West in the 17th century….By 1484, the persecution of witches had become so widespread that Pope Innocent XIII issued a declaration – Summis Desiderantes – that granted two Dominican monk Inquisitors authorization to publish a manual on the proper methods of identifying and prosecuting witches. Three years later Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger unveiled ‘Malleus Maleficarum’ – Hammer of Witches. For the next two hundred and fifty years, this book would instigate the deaths of thousands of innocent people and make belief in the devil mandatory for Christians. Anyone, by denying the existence of Satan, also denied God. This order would effectively stifle the words of any would-be defender of an accused witch.
http://il.essortment.com/witchhuntingg_rckm.htm Both men wrote prolifically, and by 1485 Krammer had drafted a comprehensive manuscript on witchcraft that would be absorbed into the Malleus Maleficarum. The basis of the book is centered on the biblical pronouncement “Thou shall not suffer a witch to live.” (Exodus 22:18). It also draws on the works of Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas as well as other scriptures.A basic tenet is that not to believe in the existence of witchcraft is a heresy since God acknowledged witches. The sexism of the Malleus Maleficarum is unmistakable: Although the work states both men and women can become witches, women are more susceptible. Several reasons for this are given: “Because the female sex is more concerned with things of the flesh than men”; being formed from a man’s rib they are “only imperfect animals” and “crooked” whereas man belongs to a privileged sex from whose midst Christ emerged. The authors’ main reason for the increase in witchcraft among women laid in the “vile contention between married and unmarried women.” And, “They warned against the ‘spitefulness of womankind.
“http://www.themystica.com/mystica/
articles/m/malleus_maleficarum.htm
During the influence of the Malleus Maleficarum, estimates of the death toll range from six hundred thousand to over nine million.
29) WHATEVER THE MUSLIMS WERE DOING, THEY WERE NOT ENSLAVING 40 MILLION SLAVES
“The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the Transatlantic slave trade, was the trade of African slaves by Europeans that occurred in and around the Atlantic Ocean. It lasted from the 15th century to the 19th century. Most slaves were shipped from West Africa and Central Africa and taken to the New World. Some slaves were captured through raids and kidnapping, although most were obtained through coastal trading by the Europeans.[1] Most contemporary historians estimate that between 9.4 and 12 million[2] Africans arrived in the New World, although the number of people taken from their homestead is considerably higher.[3][4] Some estimates cited numbers as high as 25 to 40 million.[5] The slave-trade is sometimes called the Maafa by African and African-American scholars, meaning “holocaust” or “great disaster” in Kiswahili” http://www.parliament.uk/what_s_on/exhibitions/slavetrade.cfm I am shocked you made the statement, and want it retracted. Please do not make it again. Here is an article that you may want to read.
Best Regards & Was Salaam Moin Ansari
Attachments: Article on Muslim Spain and
Article on 1001 inventions by Muslims
Ref. List of Books proving my point
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/
science_technology/article350594.ece
How Islamic inventors changed the world
From coffee to cheques and the three-course meal, the Muslim world has given us many innovations that we take for granted in daily life. As a new exhibition opens, Paul Vallely nominates 20 of the most influential- and identifies the men of genius behind them
Published: 11 March 2006
1 The story goes that an Arab named Khalid was tending his goats in the Kaffa region of southern Ethiopia, when he noticed his animals became livelier after eating a certain berry. He boiled the berries to make the first coffee. Certainly the first record of the drink is of beans exported from Ethiopia to Yemen where Sufis drank it to stay awake all night to pray on special occasions. By the late 15th century it had arrived in Mecca and Turkey from where it made its way to Venice in 1645. It was brought to England in 1650 by a Turk named Pasqua Rosee who opened the first coffee house in Lombard Street in the City of London. The Arabic qahwa became the Turkish kahve then the Italian caffé and then English coffee.
2 The ancient Greeks thought our eyes emitted rays, like a laser, which enabled us to see. The first person to realise that light enters the eye, rather than leaving it, was the 10th-century Muslim mathematician, astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haitham. He invented the first pin-hole camera after noticing the way light came through a hole in window shutters. The smaller the hole, the better the picture, he worked out, and set up the first Camera Obscura (from the Arab word qamara for a dark or private room). He is also credited with being the first man to shift physics from a philosophical activity to an experimental one.
3 A form of chess was played in ancient India but the game was developed into the form we know it today in Persia. From there it spread westward to Europe – where it was introduced by the Moors in Spain in the 10th century – and eastward as far as Japan. The word rook comes from the Persian rukh, which means chariot.
4 A thousand years before the Wright brothers a Muslim poet, astronomer, musician and engineer named Abbas ibn Firnas made several attempts to construct a flying machine. In 852 he jumped from the minaret of the Grand Mosque in Cordoba using a loose cloak stiffened with wooden struts. He hoped to glide like a bird. He didn’t. But the cloak slowed his fall, creating what is thought to be the first parachute, and leaving him with only minor injuries. In 875, aged 70, having perfected a machine of silk and eagles’ feathers he tried again, jumping from a mountain. He flew to a significant height and stayed aloft for ten minutes but crashed on landing – concluding, correctly, that it was because he had not given his device a tail so it would stall on landing. Baghdad international airport and a crater on the Moon are named after him.
5 Washing and bathing are religious requirements for Muslims, which is perhaps why they perfected the recipe for soap which we still use today. The ancient Egyptians had soap of a kind, as did the Romans who used it more as a pomade. But it was the Arabs who combined vegetable oils with sodium hydroxide and aromatics such as thyme oil. One of the Crusaders’ most striking characteristics, to Arab nostrils, was that they did not wash. Shampoo was introduced to England by a Muslim who opened Mahomed’s Indian Vapour Baths on Brighton seafront in 1759 and was appointed Shampooing Surgeon to Kings George IV and William IV.
6 Distillation, the means of separating liquids through differences in their boiling points, was invented around the year 800 by Islam’s foremost scientist, Jabir ibn Hayyan, who transformed alchemy into chemistry, inventing many of the basic processes and apparatus still in use today – liquefaction, crystallisation, distillation, purification, oxidisation, evaporation and filtration. As well as discovering sulphuric and nitric acid, he invented the alembic still, giving the world intense rosewater and other perfumes and alcoholic spirits (although drinking them is haram, or forbidden, in Islam). Ibn Hayyan emphasised systematic experimentation and was the founder of modern chemistry.
7 The crank-shaft is a device which translates rotary into linear motion and is central to much of the machinery in the modern world, not least the internal combustion engine. One of the most important mechanical inventions in the history of humankind, it was created by an ingenious Muslim engineer called al-Jazari to raise water for irrigation. His 1206 Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices shows he also invented or refined the use of valves and pistons, devised some of the first mechanical clocks driven by water and weights, and was the father of robotics. Among his 50 other inventions was the combination lock.
8 Quilting is a method of sewing or tying two layers of cloth with a layer of insulating material in between. It is not clear whether it was invented in the Muslim world or whether it was imported there from India or China. But it certainly came to the West via the Crusaders. They saw it used by Saracen warriors, who wore straw-filled quilted canvas shirts instead of armour. As well as a form of protection, it proved an effective guard against the chafing of the Crusaders’ metal armour and was an effective form of insulation – so much so that it became a cottage industry back home in colder climates such as Britain and Holland.
9 The pointed arch so characteristic of Europe’s Gothic cathedrals was an invention borrowed from Islamic architecture. It was much stronger than the rounded arch used by the Romans and Normans, thus allowing the building of bigger, higher, more complex and grander buildings. Other borrowings from Muslim genius included ribbed vaulting, rose windows and dome-building techniques. Europe’s castles were also adapted to copy the Islamic world’s – with arrow slits, battlements, a barbican and parapets. Square towers and keeps gave way to more easily defended round ones. Henry V’s castle architect was a Muslim.
10 Many modern surgical instruments are of exactly the same design as those devised in the 10th century by a Muslim surgeon called al-Zahrawi. His scalpels, bone saws, forceps, fine scissors for eye surgery and many of the 200 instruments he devised are recognisable to a modern surgeon. It was he who discovered that catgut used for internal stitches dissolves away naturally (a discovery he made when his monkey ate his lute strings) and that it can be also used to make medicine capsules. In the 13th century, another Muslim medic named Ibn Nafis described the circulation of the blood, 300 years before William Harvey discovered it. Muslims doctors also invented anaesthetics of opium and alcohol mixes and developed hollow needles to suck cataracts from eyes in a technique still used today.
11 The windmill was invented in 634 for a Persian caliph and was used to grind corn and draw up water for irrigation. In the vast deserts of Arabia, when the seasonal streams ran dry, the only source of power was the wind which blew steadily from one direction for months. Mills had six or 12 sails covered in fabric or palm leaves. It was 500 years before the first windmill was seen in Europe.
12 The technique of inoculation was not invented by Jenner and Pasteur but was devised in the Muslim world and brought to Europe from Turkey by the wife of the English ambassador to Istanbul in 1724. Children in Turkey were vaccinated with cowpox to fight the deadly smallpox at least 50 years before the West discovered it.
13 The fountain pen was invented for the Sultan of Egypt in 953 after he demanded a pen which would not stain his hands or clothes. It held ink in a reservoir and, as with modern pens, fed ink to the nib by a combination of gravity and capillary action.
14 The system of numbering in use all round the world is probably Indian in origin but the style of the numerals is Arabic and first appears in print in the work of the Muslim mathematicians al-Khwarizmi and al-Kindi around 825. Algebra was named after al-Khwarizmi’s book, Al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah, much of whose contents are still in use. The work of Muslim maths scholars was imported into Europe 300 years later by the Italian mathematician Fibonacci. Algorithms and much of the theory of trigonometry came from the Muslim world. And Al-Kindi’s discovery of frequency analysis rendered all the codes of the ancient world soluble and created the basis of modern cryptology.
15 Ali ibn Nafi, known by his nickname of Ziryab (Blackbird) came from Iraq to Cordoba in the 9th century and brought with him the concept of the three-course meal – soup, followed by fish or meat, then fruit and nuts. He also introduced crystal glasses (which had been invented after experiments with rock crystal by Abbas ibn Firnas – see No 4).
16 Carpets were regarded as part of Paradise by medieval Muslims, thanks to their advanced weaving techniques, new tinctures from Islamic chemistry and highly developed sense of pattern and arabesque which were the basis of Islam’s non-representational art. In contrast, Europe’s floors were distinctly earthly, not to say earthy, until Arabian and Persian carpets were introduced. In England, as Erasmus recorded, floors were “covered in rushes, occasionally renewed, but so imperfectly that the bottom layer is left undisturbed, sometimes for 20 years, harbouring expectoration, vomiting, the leakage of dogs and men, ale droppings, scraps of fish, and other abominations not fit to be mentioned”. Carpets, unsurprisingly, caught on quickly.
17 The modern cheque comes from the Arabic saqq, a written vow to pay for goods when they were delivered, to avoid money having to be transported across dangerous terrain. In the 9th century, a Muslim businessman could cash a cheque in China drawn on his bank in Baghdad.
18 By the 9th century, many Muslim scholars took it for granted that the Earth was a sphere. The proof, said astronomer Ibn Hazm, “is that the Sun is always vertical to a particular spot on Earth“. It was 500 years before that realisation dawned on Galileo. The calculations of Muslim astronomers were so accurate that in the 9th century they reckoned the Earth’s circumference to be 40,253.4km – less than 200km out. The scholar al-Idrisi took a globe depicting the world to the court of King Roger of Sicily in 1139.
19 Though the Chinese invented saltpetre gunpowder, and used it in their fireworks, it was the Arabs who worked out that it could be purified using potassium nitrate for military use. Muslim incendiary devices terrified the Crusaders. By the 15th century they had invented both a rocket, which they called a “self-moving and combusting egg”, and a torpedo – a self-propelled pear-shaped bomb with a spear at the front which impaled itself in enemy ships and then blew up.
20 Medieval Europe had kitchen and herb gardens, but it was the Arabs who developed the idea of the garden as a place of beauty and meditation. The first royal pleasure gardens in Europe were opened in 11th-century Muslim Spain. Flowers which originated in Muslim gardens include the carnation and the tulip.
“1001 Inventions: Discover the Muslim Heritage in Our World” is a new exhibition which began a nationwide tour this week. It is currently at the Science Museum in Manchester. For more information, go to http://www.1001inventions.com/.
Muslim Spain and European Culture
©1995-2000 Dean Derhak
When you think of European culture, one of the first things that may come to your mind is the renaissance. Many of the roots of European culture can be traced back to that glorious time of art, science, commerce and architecture. But did you know that long before the renaissance there was a place of humanistic beauty in Muslim Spain? Not only was it artistic, scientific and commercial, but it also exhibited incredible tolerance, imagination and poetry. Moors, as the Spaniards call the Muslims, populated Spain for nearly 700 years. As you’ll see, it was their civilization that enlightened Europe and brought it out of the dark ages to usher in the renaissance. Many of their cultural and intellectual influences still live with us today.
Way back during the eighth century, Europe was still knee-deep in the Medieval period. That’s not the only thing they were knee-deep in. In his book, “The Day The Universe Changed,” the historian James Burke describes how the typical European townspeople lived:
“The inhabitants threw all their refuse into the drains in the center of the narrow streets. The stench must have been overwhelming, though it appears to have gone virtually unnoticed. Mixed with excrement and urine would be the soiled reeds and straw used to cover the dirt floors. (p. 32)
This squalid society was organized under a feudal system and had little that would resemble a commercial economy. Along with other restrictions, the Catholic Church forbade the lending of money – which didn’t help get things booming much. “Anti-Semitism, previously rare, began to increase. Money lending, which was forbidden by the Church, was permitted under Jewish law.” (Burke, 1985, p. 32) Jews worked to develop a currency although they were heavily persecuted for it. Medieval Europe was a miserable lot, which ran high in illiteracy, superstition, barbarism and filth. During this same time, Arabs entered Europe from the South. ABD AL-RAHMAN I, a survivor of a family of caliphs of the Arab empire, reached Spain in the mid-700′s. He became the first Caliph of Al-Andalus, the Moorish part of Spain, which occupied most of the Iberian Peninsula. He also set up the UMAYYAD Dynasty that ruled Al-Andalus for over three-hundred years. (Grolier, History of Spain). Al Andalus means, “the land of the vandals,” from which comes the modern name Andalusia.
At first, the land resembled the rest of Europe in all its squalor. But within two-hundred years the Moors had turned Al-Andalus into a bastion of culture, commerce and beauty. “Irrigation systems imported from Syria and Arabia turned the dry plains… into an agricultural cornucopia. Olives and wheat had always grown there. The Arabs added pomegranates, oranges, lemons, aubergines, artichokes, cumin, coriander, bananas, almonds, pams, henna, woad, madder, saffron, sugar-cane, cotton, rice, figs, grapes, peaches, apricots and rice.” (Burke, 1985, p. 37) By the beginning of the ninth century, Moorish Spain was the gem of Europe with its capital city, Cordova. With the establishment of Abdurrahman III – “the great caliphate of Cordova” – came the golden age of Al-Andalus. Cordova, in southern Spain, was the intellectual center of Europe. At a time when London was a tiny mud-hut village that “could not boast of a single streetlamp” (Digest, 1973, p. 622), in Cordova “there were half a million inhabitants, living in 113,000 houses. There were 700 mosques and 300 public baths spread throughout the city and its twenty-one suburbs. The streets were paved and lit.” (Burke, 1985, p. 38) The houses had marble balconies for summer and hot-air ducts under the mosaic floors for the winter. They were adorned with gardens with artificial fountains and orchards”. (Digest, 1973, p. 622) “Paper, a material still unknown to the west, was everywhere. There were bookshops and more than seventy libraries.” (Burke, 1985, p. 38).
In his book titled, “Spain In The Modern World,” James Cleuge explains the significance of Cordova in Medieval Europe:”For there was nothing like it, at that epoch, in the rest of Europe. The best minds in that continent looked to Spain for everything which most clearly differentiates a human being from a tiger.” (Cleugh, 1953, p. 70) During the end of the first millennium, Cordova was the intellectual well from which European humanity came to drink. Students from France and England traveled there to sit at the feet of Muslim, Christian and Jewish scholars, to learn philosophy, science and medicine (Digest, 1973, p. 622). In the great library of Cordova alone, there were some 600,000 manuscripts (Burke, 1978, p. 122). This rich and sophisticated society took a tolerant view towards other faiths. Tolerance was unheard of in the rest of Europe. But in Moorish Spain, “thousands of Jews and Christians lived in peace and harmony with their Muslim overlords.” (Burke, 1985, p. 38) The society had a literary rather than religious base. Economically their prosperity was unparalleled for centuries. The aristocracy promoted private land ownership and encouraged Jews in banking. There was little or no Muslim prostelyting. Instead, non-believers simply paid an extra tax! “Their society had become too sophisticated to be fanatical. Christians and Moslems, with Jews as their intermediaries and interpreters, lived side by side and fought, not each other, but other mixed communities.” (Cleugh, 1953, p. 71)http://www.xmission.com/~dderhak/index/moors.htm
References
- Bailey, Michael David. Battling Demons: Witchcraft, Heresy, and Reform in the Late Middle Ages. Pennsylvania State University Press. University Park, PA. 2003
- Boredel, Hans Peter. The Malleus Maleficarum: and the construction of Witchcraft, Theology and Popular Belief. Manchester University Press. New York, NY. 2003
- Flint, Valerie. The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe. Princeton University Press. Princeton, NJ. 1991
- Hamilton, Alastair (May 2007). “Review of Malleus Maleficarum edited and translated by Christopher S. Mackay and two other books“. Heythrop Journal 48 (3): 477-479.
(payment required) - Henningsen, Gustav. The Witches’ Advocate: Basque Witchcraft and the Spanish Inquisition. University of Nevada Press. Reno, NV. 1980
- Institoris, Heinrich; Jakob Sprenger (1520). Malleus maleficarum, maleficas, & earum haeresim, ut phramea potentissima conterens. Coloniae: Excudebat Ioannes Gymnicus.
This is the edition held by the University of Sydney Library. [4]
- Jolly, Karen Louise. Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The Middle Ages. University of Pennsylvania Press. Philadelphia, PA. 2002
- Kieckhefer, Richard. Magic in the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, England. 2000
- Mackay, Christopher S. (2006). Malleus Maleficarum (2 volumes). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521859778. (Latin) (English) (bibrec) (editor’s home page)
Volume 1 is the Latin text of the first edition of 1486-7 with annotations and an introduction. Volume 2 is an English translation with explanatory notes.
- Russell, Jeffrey Burton (1972 repr. 1984). Witchcraft in the Middle Ages. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0801492890. (bibrec)
- Summers, Montague (1948 repr. 1971). The Malleus Maleficarum of Kramer and Sprenger, ed. and trans. by Summers, Dover Publications. ISBN 0486228029.
- Thurston, Robert W. (Nov 2006). “The world, the flesh and the devil“. History Today 56 (11): 51-57. (payment required for full text)
Criticism of Benazir Bhutto’s 5E Campaign program
Criticism of Benazir Bhutto. Pre-Assassination
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Rebutting Cohen
Pakistanis are immune to another prophecy of doom
Pakistanis want to hear “Thank You” from the ingrate Americans. Nothing is good enough!
Pakistanis to USA: We want “Friends Not Masters”
Say Thank You
Pakistan US Relations should be normal not transactional
Response to Congressman Hoyer on Pakistan”
On inadequate US Aid to Pakistan
Where is Osama Bin Laden
Where are the Pakistani nukes?
Open Letter to Mr. 10% Asif Zardari. Show some leadership
Open Letter to Mr. Bilawal Bhutto
The CIA connection—Benazir Bhutto assassination was pre-planned, the Zia model with a twist
The 4th Bhutto assassination is a message to the USA. Hands Off Pakistan
Here we go again! Another Indian prophecy of doom. The first one was in 1947
We would like to refer our readers to the an article on “Toppling the US military” that is worth its weight in gold. Search for it on this site.
See: “Kissinger threatened Zulifiqar Ali Bhutto”
