Author: Hilary

Hey guys,

I already did my 5 posts but I just found this cool “series” uploaded on YouTube and I think it will help us with our final posters. Basically someone went to an exhibition called “Sultans of Science”  in the Ontario Space Center and filmed all the posters/displays (and original manuscripts!) covering Muslim scientists/Islamic contributions to science etc. I think this will really help with the organization of the posters there are 15 parts below. Some designated by subject and some highlighting some scientists. Each of the one’s entitled “a few scientists” outlines…well, a few scientists. Be sure to watch these too because it may help you when you choose which ones you want to feature. There is also a website for the exhibition and based on the fact that it is part of the Ontario Space Center I think this is material we can site for our posters (http://www.sultans-of-science.com/). PDF Info (http://www.raheelraza.com/allimages/Sultans.pdf) The exhibition was from Feb. 5th-May 10, 2009.

Part 1 (A Few Scientists 1) = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXetWYBqMBg&feature=related

Part 2 (A Few Scientists 2) = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5whOqPNjPc&feature=related

Part 3 (Medicine 1) = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gbKm1VwajA&feature=related

Part 4 (Medicine 2) = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9yPCgZQrtY&feature=related

Part 5 (Astronomy) = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyTzMgI39wM&feature=related

Part 6 (The House of Wisdom) = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59zODaqYzfo&feature=related

Part 7 (Math 1) = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8tKJxMJYps&feature=related

Part 8 (Math 2) = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioAIYuCpWuM&feature=related

Part 9 (Architecture, City Life and Trade) = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPHDhuAKzgw&feature=related

Part 10 (Water Management) = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImPXYEZ-9TQ&feature=related

Part 11 (Al-Jazari’s Machines) = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AUBaROXKZg&feature=related

Part 12 (House of Wisdom Video) = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21gb42b3DTk&feature=related

Part 13 (Medical Inventions Video) = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWdieqNQ7do&feature=related

Part 14 (Al-Jazari’s Machines Video) = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx72gk1PUPo&feature=related

Part 15 (Al-Jazari’s Elephant Lock) = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2zMhxuJN2I&feature=related

Hope you guys find this useful.

Hilary

I’m sure most of you know about the King Abdullah University for Science and Technology. But why is this important, besides the fact that it may make huge advances in science and technology? Well first, according to them, the Institute is important because it is based on the notion to:

• Create an international community of scholars dedicated to advanced science.
• Welcome leaders in science, technology, commerce, business, and education through appointments and partnerships.
• Provide researchers the freedom to be creative and experiment.
• Embody the highest international standards of scholarship, research, education, and learning.
• Provide unfettered access to information and share knowledge, skills, and expertise to achieve economic growth and prosperity.
• Nurture and protect freedom of research, thought, and discourse relating to scholarly work

But why do I think it’s most important? Saudi Arabia is the stereotype of rigid and backwards “Islamists” as percieved by the West. I really think that this move on the part of the Kingdom will help to encourage non-Muslims and non-Muslim countries to acknowledge the contributions of Muslims and Islamic empires throughout history. It is a great way to get our foot back in the door of science, I guess you could say. It seems that this university is really grounded on similiar principles as that of the Islamic empire during the golden age in which scholars and scientists of all religions, nationalities and now genders are welcomed to contribute to the modern scientific enterprise.

Hilary

Website:

http://www.kaust.edu.sa/about/about.html

Last summer (I think around then) I went to see the IMAX film at Science World called Journey to Mecca. It is basically a short film depicting the life of Ibn Battuta during his travels to hajj. I happened to go on a special fundraiser night (I think we were raising money to help a few Palestinian refugee families). Anyways, to my surprise the night/film was actually sponsored by the “Muhammad Institute for Space Science” which I had never heard of before. The Muhammad Institute for Space Science is a Vancouver-based space science institute dedicated to the development in the Islamic World of advanced astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology, and space exploration. It works in collaboration with other scientific institutions around the globe and employs the expertise of scientists from all cultural backgrounds and religious persuasions. Their goal is to establish a mutually beneficial collaboration between the Islamic World and Canada in the space sciences, fostering the return of the Islamic community as a significant contributor to astronomy and related space technologies, and reinforcing Canada as a major player in aerospace on the international stage. I encourage every one to check out this organization (http://www.muhammadinstitute.org/index.php). I totally forgot about it until now but it is something that would have been interesting to look into in our studies. It is as if they are picking up where Islamic scientists left off after the Islamic golden age. Really cool!

Hilary

So for those of you who haven’t heard of him, I stumbled across the website of Harun Yahya, a prominent Turkish author who has attracted the attention of Muslim intellectuals. His real name is actually Adnan Oktar (if anyone plans to look him up a bit) and he is an advocate for Islamic creationism – ie. the belief that the universe was created by Allah (swt) as explained in the Qur’an. He currently runs two organizations: (1) Foundation to Protect National Values which focuses on moral issues and (2) Bilim Araştırma Vakfı Science Research Foundation which promotes Islamic creationism.  The latter he was actually sentenced to 3 years in prison (in Turkey) for organizing. According to reports he had created the organization for personal gain. I decided to look him up on wikipedia and found some disturbing and odd information about him (BUT WE ALL KNOW THAT ANYONE CAN POST INFO ON WIKIPEDIA :p). According to his wiki page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adnan_Oktar) he is a paranoid schizophrenic (a diagnosis which has been concluded 7 times between 1983-93) and his organizations are cult-like as he does have a group of followers and he published a book called “The Holocaust Lie” in which he basically says that “what is presented as Holocaust is the death of some Jews due to the typhus plague during the war and the famine towards the end of the war caused by the defeat of the Germans.” So yeah…dunno about this guy. Anyways, I didn’t want to waste my research and not do a blog post but perhaps you can go take a look at his website (http://www.harunyahya.com/index.php). Like I previously mentioned, he is an advocate of Islamic creationism so his website totally refutes Darwin’s theory of evolution amongst many other things.

Hilary

Hi Guys,

I just found this video on YouTube which basically summarizes the purpose and content of our entire class. It’s only 7ish minutes long so check it out. I think it is a really great guide when doing the introduction portions of our posters. It is very true to fact and emphasizes that Islamic scientific success was not due to influence from the Greeks but rather scientific observations of Muslim scientists. They also discuss the idea behind science and Islam is that scientific observation introduces man to the mysteries of creation, and ultimately, to God’s eternal knowledge, wisdom and power and ultimately, the Qur’an leads to scientific inquiry. I also noticed a pretty cool quote of Albert Einstein’s in the video description: “science without religion is lame” which ultimately says that religion guides science. I think this is something cool to think about for anyone who ever thought there was a clash between Islam and science.

Hope you guys find this informative. Just a quick watch so check  it out!
Hilary

Hi Guys, here is my wiki assignment on Islamic Bioethics. I created a new page so there is no before and after.

Hilary

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Bioethics

Oops I forgot to put my topics up – if we still have to. I’m doing Translation Movement – editing the page that has only one sentence on it :s and I’ll be doing Bioethics in Islam.

Hilary

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