This timeline of science and engineering in the Muslim world covers the time period from the eighth century AD to the introduction of
European science to the Muslim world in the nineteenth century. All year dates are given according to the
Gregorian calendar except where noted.
d 777 CEIbrāhīm al-FazārīIbrahim ibn Habib ibn Sulayman ibn
Samura ibn Jundabal-Fazari (
Arabic: إبراهيم بن حبيب بن سليمان بن سمرة بن جندب الفزاري) (died 777 CE) was an 8th-century Muslim mathematician and astronomer at the
Abbasid court of the Caliph
Al-Mansur (r. 754–775). He should not be confused with his son
Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Fazārī, also an astronomer. He composed various astronomical writings ("on the
astrolabe", "on the armillary spheres", "on the calendar").
d 796Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Habib ibn Sulayman ibn
Samra ibn Jundabal-Fazari (
Arabic: إبراهيم بن حبيب بن سليمان بن سمرة بن جندب الفزاري) (died 796 or 806) was a
Muslimphilosopher,
mathematician and
astronomer. He is not to be confused with his father
Ibrāhīm al-Fazārī, also an astronomer and mathematician. Some sources refer to him as an
Arab, other sources state that he was a
Persian. Al-Fazārī translated many scientific books into
Arabic and
Persian. He is credited to have built the first
astrolabe in the
Islamic world. Along with
Yaʿqūb ibn Ṭāriq and his father he helped translate the Indian astronomical text by
Brahmagupta (fl. 7th century), the Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta, into Arabic as Az-Zīj ‛alā Sinī al-‛Arab., or the Sindhind. This translation was possibly the vehicle by means of which the
Hindu numerals were transmitted from
India to Islam.
(654–728)Ibn SirinMuhammad Ibn Sirin (
Arabic: محمد بن سيرين) (born in
Basra) was a
Muslim mystic and interpreter of dreams who lived in the 8th century. He was a contemporary of
Anas ibn Malik. Once regarded as the same person as
Achmet son of Seirim, this is no longer believed to be true, as shown by
Maria Mavroudi.
780 – 850:al-Khwarizmi Developed the "calculus of resolution and juxtaposition" (hisab al-jabr w'al-muqabala), more briefly referred to as al-jabr, or
algebra.
Ninth Century
Chemistry
801 – 873:al-Kindi writes on the
distillation of wine as that of
rose water and gives 107 recipes for perfumes, in his book Kitab Kimia al-'otoor wa al-tas`eedat (book of the chemistry of perfumes and distillations.)[citation needed]
865 – 925:al-Razi wrote on Naft (naphta or petroleum) and its distillates in his book "
Kitab sirr al-asrar" (book of the secret of secrets.) When choosing a site to build Baghdad's hospital, he hung pieces of fresh meat in different parts of the city. The location where the meat took the longest to
rot was the one he chose for building the hospital. Advocated that patients not be told their real condition so that
fear or
despair do not affect the
healing process. Wrote on
alkali,
caustic soda, soap and
glycerine. Gave descriptions of equipment processes and methods in his book Kitab al-Asrar (book of secrets).
Mathematics
826 – 901:Thabit ibn Qurra (Latinized, Thebit.) Studied at Baghdad's House of Wisdom under the
Banu Musa brothers. Discovered a theorem that enables pairs of
amicable numbers to be found.[citation needed] Later,
al-Baghdadi (b. 980) developed a variant of the theorem.
810 – 887:Abbas ibn Firnas.
Planetarium, artificial crystals. According to one account that was written seven centuries after his death, Ibn Firnas was injured during an elevated winged trial flight.
Tenth Century
By this century, three
systems of counting are used in the Arab world. Finger-reckoning arithmetic, with numerals written entirely in words, used by the business community; the
sexagesimal system, a remnant originating with the
Babylonians, with numerals denoted by letters of the
arabic alphabet and used by Arab mathematicians in astronomical work; and the
Indian numeral system, which was used with various sets of symbols. Its arithmetic at first required the use of a dust board (a sort of handheld
blackboard) because "the methods required moving the numbers around in the calculation and rubbing some out as the calculation proceeded."
Chemistry
957: Abul Hasan Ali
Al-Masudi, wrote on the reaction of alkali water with zaj (
vitriol) water giving
sulfuric acid.
Mathematics
920:al-Uqlidisi. Modified arithmetic methods for the Indian numeral system to make it possible for pen and paper use. Hitherto, doing calculations with the Indian numerals necessitated the use of a dust board as noted earlier.
940: Born
Abu'l-Wafa al-Buzjani. Wrote several
treatises using the finger-counting system of arithmetic and was also an expert on the Indian numerals system. About the Indian system, he wrote: "[It] did not find application in business circles and among the population of the Eastern
Caliphate for a long time."[1] Using the Indian numeral system, abu'l Wafa was able to extract
roots.
980:al-Baghdadi Studied a slight variant of
Thabit ibn Qurra's theorem on
amicable numbers.[1] Al-Baghdadi also wrote about and compared the three systems of counting and arithmetic used in the region during this period.
Eleventh Century
Mathematics
1048 – 1131:Omar Khayyam. Persian mathematician and poet. "Gave a complete classification of
cubic equations with geometric solutions found by means of intersecting
conic sections.".[1] Extracted
roots using the decimal system (the Indian numeral system).
Twelfth Century
Cartography
1100–1165:Muhammad al-Idrisi, aka Idris al-Saqalli aka al-sharif al-idrissi of
Andalusia and
Sicily. Known for having drawn some of the most advanced ancient world maps.
Mathematics
1130–1180:Al-Samawal. An important member of al-Karaji's school of algebra. Gave this definition of algebra: "[it is concerned] with operating on unknowns using all the arithmetical tools, in the same way as the arithmetician operates on the known."[1]
1135:Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi. Follows al-Khayyam's application of algebra of geometry, rather than follow the general development that came through al-Karaji's school of algebra. Wrote a treatise on
cubic equations which [2][page needed] describes thus: "[the treatise] represents an essential contribution to another
algebra which aimed to study
curves by means of
equations, thus inaugurating the beginning of
algebraic geometry." (quoted in [1] ).
Thirteenth Century
Chemistry
Al-Jawbari describes the preparation of
rose water in the work "Book of Selected Disclosure of Secrets" (Kitab kashf al-Asrar).
Materials; glassmaking: Arabic manuscript on the manufacture of false
gemstones and diamonds. Also describes spirits of
alum, spirits of
saltpetre and spirits of salts (
hydrochloric acid).
Jaghmini completed the al-Mulakhkhas fi al-Hay’ah ("Epitome of plain theoretical astronomy"), an astronomical textbook which spawned many commentaries and whose educational use lasted until the 18th century.[4]
Miscellaneous
Mechanical engineering:
Ismail al-Jazari described 100 mechanical devices, some 80 of which are trick vessels of various kinds, along with instructions on how to construct them.
Medicine; Scientific method:
Ibn Al-Nafis (1213–1288)
Damascene physician and anatomist. Discovered the lesser
circulatory system (the cycle involving the
ventricles of the
heart and the
lungs) and described the mechanism of
breathing and its relation to the blood and how it nourishes on air in the lungs. Followed a "constructivist" path of the smaller circulatory system: "blood is purified in the lungs for the continuance of life and providing the body with the ability to work". During his time, the common view was that blood originates in the liver then travels to the right ventricle, then on to the organs of the body; another contemporary view was that blood is filtered through the diaphragm where it mixes with the air coming from the lungs. Ibn al-Nafis discredited all these views including ones by
Galen and
Avicenna (ibn Sina). At least an illustration of his manuscript is still extant.
William Harvey explained the circulatory system without reference to ibn al-Nafis in 1628. Ibn al-Nafis extolled the study of comparative anatomy in his "Explaining the dissection of [Avicenna's]
Al-Qanoon" which includes a preface, and citations of sources. Emphasized the rigours of verification by measurement, observation and experiment. Subjected conventional wisdom of his time to a critical review and verified it with experiment and observation, discarding errors.[citation needed]
1380–1429:al-Kashi. According to,[1] "contributed to the development of
decimal fractions not only for approximating
algebraic numbers, but also for
real numbers such as
pi. His contribution to decimal fractions is so major that for many years he was considered as their inventor. Although not the first to do so, al-Kashi gave an algorithm for calculating
nth roots which is a special case of the methods given many centuries later by
Ruffini and
Horner."
Fifteenth Century
Mathematics
Ibn al-Banna and
al-Qalasadi used symbols for mathematics "and, although we do not know exactly when their use began, we know that symbols were used at least a century before this."[1]
A 17th century celestial globe was made by
Diya’ ad-din Muhammad in
Lahore, 1663 (now in
Pakistan).[5] It is now housed at the
National Museum of Scotland. It is encircled by a meridian ring and a horizon ring.[6] The latitude angle of 32° indicates that the globe was made in the Lahore workshop.[7] This specific 'workshop claims 21 signed globes—the largest number from a single shop’ making this globe a good example of Celestial Globe production at its peak.[8]
^Rashed, R (1994). The development of Arabic mathematics: between arithmetic and algebra. London, England.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)
Qatar Digital Library - an online portal providing access to previously undigitised British Library archive materials relating to Gulf history and Arabic science