Hi people,

For those of you who don’t already know about it. I have found this BBC documentary on YouTube called Science & Islam. It is hosted by a physicist, Jim Al-Khalili, who travels through Syria, Iran, Tunisia and Spain to tell the story of the great leap in scientific knowledge that took place in the Islamic world between the 8th and 14th centuries.

His interest basically stemmed from the fact that he is a child of Iraqi (father) and British (mother) parents. His early education took place in Iraq, but eventually he moved on to study in England when his family moved. What he noticed was a major difference in the names of scientists during his studies, in particular, the absence of all Muslim/Arab contribution to the scientific sphere. In adulthood he decides to go back to his routes in Iraq and other Islamic countries to uncover and learn more about these Muslim scientists who have been completely obscured from Western education and Science.

I found it to be a very interesting documentary. It is rather long. It consists of three parts but each part is broken down into six sections because of copyrighting or distribution laws or whatever it is.

Part 1: The Language of Science goes over how the Islamic world increased scientific knowledge between the 8th and 14th centuries. Examples of how many words we hear today in science like algebra, algorithm and more come from Arabic origin.

Part 1 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxepxIPPaBw&feature=related
Part 2 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrEAhsZusqk&feature=related
Part 3 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADSae9lwfdA&feature=related
Part 4 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3nR2P-q31A&feature=related
Part 5 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZOxLwbUCJs&feature=related
Part 6 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODyU6Tkc7i4&feature=related

Part 2: The Empire of Reason looks at how Egyptian physicist Ibn al-Haytham helped establish the science of optics.

Part 1 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnQ7-GIAO_U&feature=related
Part 2 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyWqx4qWr1s&feature=related
Part 3 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMXks8eib7s&feature=related
Part 4 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqZ3CzIt4x4&feature=related
Part 5 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2we-6K2x3U&feature=related
Part 6 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHV3EyKaOTg&feature=related

Part 3: The Power of Doubt shows how Islamic scientific ideas permeated into the West in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Part 1 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG0gOMq4ihE&feature=related
Part 2 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2bVMkwjmAw&feature=related
Part 3 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9iTQg5iyx4&feature=related
Part 4 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWgwULmmZjA&feature=related
Part 5 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI187ih5z0I&feature=related
Part 6 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHuPCiC5jHM&feature=related

I really recommend it if you have the time. Maybe it will give you some creative ideas about your projects.

Hilary

Posted: 03|1|10 at 12:53 pm. Filed under: Uncategorized.
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