Author: rima88

Hello,

In my last post, I am going to talk about a Muslim scientist, philosopher, psychologist and musician named Abu Naser Al Farabi ( 872 – 951.) No one mentioned him in class so I thought it would be a good idea to highlight some of his work. I am going to focus on his contribution to music.

Al Farabi was known in the west as Alpharabius. He was an expert in the art and science of music and contributed to what we now know as music notes. He wrote a music book called “kitab al Musiqa” (The Book of Music) which heavily studies Arabic and Persian music at his time. The book discusses major topics as the science of sound, intervals, tetrachords, octave species, musical instruments, compositions, and the influence of music. He also invented several musical instruments.  He was also a sociologist, so he wrote another book called “ Meanings of the Intellect’ which dealt with music as a therapy believing that music affects one’s soul. It was mentioned that he could play music to the point where listeners either laugh or weep; depending on the music piece.

Rima

I just randomly found this GREAT video which concludes that ‘the dark ages’ should be named and spread as  the “golden ages.”

The short movie talks about a group of students who are on a school fieldtrip to some museum. The teacher assigns groups of students a part of history to research the  impact of each era on the modern world. These eras are the ancient Greeks, the Romans and the dark ages. So,  a group of three students, assigned the dark ages era, go to some room and talk to a historian. This person remains uninterested until one of the students says ‘ it does not matter anyway because probably the Romans and Greeks invited everything.’ The statement gets the historian’s attention as he invites  the students to meet some Islamic scientists. IT IS VERY COOL.

watch it please.

Rima

Hello classmates,

First of all I am going to define art. According to www.dictionary.com, art is defined as “the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.” Nowadays, its very hard for anyone to imagine his or her life without art. Well in the Islamic Era, art flourished and was treated as any other field. It embraced art forms such as architecture, decoration, ceramic art, faience mosaics, lustre-ware, relief sculpture, wood and ivory carving, friezes, drawing, painting, calligraphy, book-gilding, manuscript illumination, lacquer-painted bookbinding, textile design, metalworking, and  gemstone carving. Islamic art was influenced by Arabic, Turkish, Persian and other  non-Islamic cultures.

As the other fields, Islamic artists were influenced by their religion. Because they wanted to come closer to God and God’s knowledge, writing the Quran’s script and decorating mosques were essentials to this matter.

In the renaissance, roman and Greek artists succeeded in using art, in particular drawing, painting, and sculpture, to depict stories of the  bible. Some of the paintings were extremely significant to religion. Art became a field in which nobles, and effluents proved this social status through patronage of  religious paintings. However, art in Islam has its limitation. Visual depictions are prohibited in Islam. Although the Quran does not explicitly forbid images of figures, some hadith prohibited Muslims form creating visual depictions of figures. The reason for that is any sort of visual depiction encourages idolatry; where the images or sculptures would be more important than what they represent.

Rima

Hi all,

Okay! I think some of you would disagree already by reading the title. Although this might be the case, I definitely enjoyed it. It seems to me that the only reason  we went there was to see Ibn Sina’s name mentioned only once and in-between the lines. De Vinci’s work is great, but I think Ibn Sina should been accredited more. In my opinion there should have been at least a small paragraph about him and his influence. As a class, It would have been very cool-for lack of a better word-  to write a letter to the Exhibition  explaining to them our views and backing them with academic evidence. Although we might not get anywhere, I am sure it is worth trying. (We could make it part of our project! and Yasmin will hate me for ever!)

Anyway what have you guys learned form our visit? what sort of questions popped in your heads as you all viewed the rest of the gallery? Did anyone thing where does art fit in Islam? how does Islam view and define art? I am going to challenge myself and answer those questions in my next post!

Rima

Hello class,

Couple of weeks ago, Dr. Sajoo came and shared with us interesting thoughts about ethics and Islamic ethics. Ironically, I think  the most important lesson I learned this day was the importance of arriving to class on time. I loved his ability to come up with examples on the spot that fit exactly in the context of his speech! Although, he did not say much about us being late, he made it clear to us that it was unprofessional.

I have never taken any courses about ethics. So, I found what he presented very interesting. He distinguished between law and ethics. He also, differentiated between Islamic ethics and medical ethics. He referred to  ethics as a principle which addresses  questions about morality and highlights concepts of bad and good. On the other hand, he referred to Law as the set of rules to achieve a ‘moral society.’  This summer, I am going to take a course about Medical Ethics. In Islam, Medical ethics should be contained within the various aspects of Islamic ethics. In this course, I would like to see how both work together/against each other.

Rima

Hello,

I have completed the wiki assignment. I have added two new sections to the “history of medicine page” in the Arabic and Persian Medicine section. Here is the link to it

History of medicine. (2010, March 8). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 00:05, March 9, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_medicine&oldid=348635794

and post the whole thing here along with my references

Prophetic Medicine “Tibb al Nabawi”

Muslim scientists have been always influenced by the words and practices of the Prophet. Not only did the prophet of Islam Muhammad (PBUH) deal with the religious aspect of the religion, but also he dealt with various topics and aspects of the Muslim-everyday life. Prophetic Medicine refers to the actions and words of the prophet in regards to diseases, treatment of diseases, and caring of patients. He recommended many  supplication for the sick. In the medical Islamic science, an effort has been put to save the exact words of the Prophet’s advice regarding the practice of medicine. His sayings dealt with sickness, health, hygiene, and some references to specific diseases such as ophthalmia, pleurisy, and leprosy. His recommendations included the use of honey, milks of camels, and other natural substances. Not only these recommendations were often practiced by physicians, but also they are currently subject of contemporary research topics. After the prophet’s death, it is not very surprising that many scholars have been influenced and decided to take medicine as a path of life. One of the most important works is “Al Tibb al Nabawi” of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya. In his book, he points out to specific remedies recommended by the Prophet. Jawziyya also deals with pharmacological studies on the use of various herbs and natural substances. Jawziyya also elaborates on the relation between medicine and religion. Finally, it is worth to mention that some of these practices are being adopted by modern medicine and are being tested out in many researches centers around the world.

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. and Iqbal, Muzaffar,  Islam, science, Muslims and technology / Seyyed Hossein Nasr in conversation with Muzaffar Iqbal Al-Qalam Pub., Sherwood Park, Alta. :  2007 p 54.

The Father of Surgery

Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi –known to Europeans as Albucasis- is the father of surgery in the Islamic Middle East during the middle ages. He lived form 936 to 1013AD. Along with Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya’ al-Razi (Rhazes), Ali ibn al-‘Abbas al-Majus”i (Haly Abbas), and Ibn Sina (Avicenna), al-Zahrawi devoted his entire life to the advancement of medicine as a whole and surgery in particular. (1) He wrote to Cordoba an encyclopaedia called Kitab al Tasrif composed of thirty books discussing different medical topics and procedures including childish, dentistry, and patient-doctor relationship. This 1000 year old encyclopaedia also includes anatomical descriptions and classifications of diseases.(1) The last chapter in the treatise was entirely devoted to surgery. He introduced the history of surgical literature and illustrated a collection of various instruments. The illustrations were circulated in both Arabic language, Hebrew, Turkish, and Latin translation as manuscripts separated form the rest of the encyclopaedia.(2) His work described to what is known nowadays as neurosurgical diagnosis, surgical treatment of head injuries, skull fractures, headaches, spinal injuries and many other medical processes. In his life, he also contributed to ophthalmology, pharmacology and nutrition. Cautery (Kayi in Arabic) was a technique often used by Zahrawi.(3) In facts, he preferred it over the use of knife. Zahrawi was on of the first to discover and expand on this procedure which is used wildly in our world till nowadays.

(1)Emilie Savage-Smith, “The Practice of Surgery in Islamic Lands: Myth and Reality.”  Social History of Medicine 2000 13(2):307-321. . http://www.jstor.org.

(2) Emilie Savage-Smith.  “Albucasis on Surgery and Instruments.”  M. S. Spink, G. L. Lewis. Isis, Vol. 68, No. 2. Jun., 1977. p. 319-321. The University of Chicago Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/230098

(3) Surg Neurol. “Al-Zahrawi and Arabian neurosurgery, 936-1013 AD.” 1986 Jul;26(1):92-5.

Al-Rodhan NR, Fox JL. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3520907